Actually no! I‘m a big fan and supporter of her and I am wondering also if she will continue. She won it all and one could say after all these struggles her WC title was the cherry on top. Every athlete, who wants to retire, would want to leave on a high note. With all the technical advanced seniors next season, it would be harder than ever to compete and on top of that struggling with a chronic disease. As she said herself, she’s at a phase in her life where she struggles with her mindset and has this rebellious phase also with her coaching team. And with all the opportunities she has right now, it will be hard to focus on training.
I would love to see her at the next Olympics because she is one of a kind and also egoistically so I can see her live in Beijing.
I hope she continues on to the next Olympics also.
I think she has so much more to give to the competitive skating world.
It would be quite awesome if you got to see her live too!
This doesn't mean that I expect her to dominate every competition in the next 4 years leading up to the Olympics.
With all the huge talent already out there and her own teammates becoming seniors, it will be nearly impossible for any one skater to dominate.
But she won Worlds this year by a significant margin. And she was competing against triple axels and a quad.
So I believe she is the non-quad/3A skater that is the most competitive against the quads/3A.
I remember last season the "doom and gloomers" were giving her the last rites because the backloading bonus was gone.
But basically the only thing that kept her from winning all her competitions this past season was her own inconsistency.
I also remember some were saying Eteri was pushing her too hard last season. As "evidenced" by the infamous practice at Europeans.
And when some report came out that between Europeans and Worlds she wasn't doing full run-throughs, it was seen as a good thing.
Now we see her Ice Shows, family vacation, and TV appearences and commercials as her undoing.
She's not practicing enough!!!!
In all the years I have followed skating, I have never seen a skater with this much God given talent, work ethic, and competitive spirt "marginalized" the way Alina is.
Others never come close to delivering the goods when it counts, but still the chant goes up "wait until next year".
Alina is extremely successful for the past 3 seasons, and yet....
Oh, if only so and so had been at this competition.
Oh, if only this one wasn't injured.
Alina can't compete without backloading.
She will be steamrolled by the upcoming onslaught of quads and triple axels.
Well....
I'm not naive. I know that if someone with much higher technical content skates cleanly they will beat Alina.
However, if they want to beat Alina, they pretty much know they need to execute all those high risk elements.
Much easier said than done. And any falls will probably mar other parts of the program too.
Yes, I know Alina needs to be clean too.
But her elements are not as high risk.
In conclusion,
Some of the wondering whether Alina will retire is legitimate. She has won Russian Nationals, The Olympics, and Worlds.
So it depends a lot on her motivation to continue training at intense levels and her love for the sport.
But stuff like "she looks panic stricken when she competes" and "she had such a rough time last season" - I see this once again as attempts to marginalize her. Like she is some fragile doll that can't handle adveristy and pressure.