2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

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Hello, everyone! As a yearlong FS fan and general cheerer-on of the Russian ladies' teams...

I would not go into details explaining where you were wrong in your assumptions which frankly speaking are somewhat odd for a "yearlong FS fan and general cheerer of the Russian ladies' teams". Other people did this job already.

My personal take to Eteri's success based on what I heard and read:

1. She is truly dedicated to coaching. Unlike some other famous coaches who are sometimes too busy with shows, who like to go to all the competitions, etc. Eteri by her own words is at the rink almost every day. She is at K&C only with selected few skaters at key events. When you are dedicated you can easily impose the same rule on your pupils. No compromises, up or out, etc.

2. She knows how to develop "winner mentality". That was an excellent case with Alina who was close to emotional meltdown before the worlds. I don't know what words Eteri found then but these were the right words.

3. She is a good manager. She said before something about "conveyor" and "factory". That was such a good pretext for her bashers. The reality is that she has built and supports the full HR system: scouting, recruiting, developing, motivating, firing. And she has a true team not a bunch of individuals. Her team members are dedicated to Khrustalny and herself personally.

I could go on. But whatever it is the oversimplification in those assumptions was very close to the banned here word. Anyone can impose the diets on their skaters - in the West it can be done nicely: "look as long as you pay me I am happy to coach you but if you and your family have competition goals realistically your weight has to be not more than ... because..." Anyone can do multiple runthroughs. As for having a lot of strong skaters at one rink, Eteri did not always have many top skaters. She started from scratch. 15 years ago she worked in circus. She came to Khrustalny in 2008 without a single top skater and any reputation at all.

 

[ruga]

If I understood correctly, Gubanova also mentioned that only those who have been skating for a long time should be sent to Olympics in contrast to Alina, who just came and hopped in there.

 

[nussnacker]

I think it's not about being politically correct, but having an athlete etiquette and having sportsman like behavior.
She's probably easily manipulated, the interview although was about Nastya, seemed to be "What Nastya thinks about others" for a big chunk of it as well.
you kind of always expect athletes to say: I will work harder, I lost due to my own faults, this wasn't accomplished because I wasn't preparing correctly.
She doesn't seem to think this way...
She is focused on that other girls have reputation, hence Evgenia, Alina and Liza get bigger scores, although Nastya isn't any worse compared to them
In general, it all seemed to focus that all her competition just was more lucky, Evgenia and Liza just happened to get higher scores than her on FCR (although Nastya thinks she should've won the short), Alina got lucky because she was born before July 1st, Trusova and Shcherbakova just have it easier, because they are pre-pubescent...

I just think it's not the right approach, no need to downplay anyone's success to age, timing, whatever, she should focus on her own career.

I don't know.. it's fine when fans say "Nastya totally should've won the short there", but when she herself says that she isn't any worse and others just get generous GOEs due to their ratings, it's a bit...strange.

 

[Fluture]

So, I just watched Daniil‘s announcement video again (this time with sound) and here are a few impressions:

I absolutely love Kanysheva‘s music choice! Really, really excited for this program and can’t wait to see her on the JGP and test skates soon.

I couldn‘t hear much of Anna‘s music but the beginning makes it look like this will be a very mysterious and dark program and I think she is a skater who could portray this well. We haven‘t really seen her in such an image yet but she’s artistic and musical and even though it was only a small snippet, I liked the way she moved here already.

I don‘t mind the voice overs in Sasha‘s program at the beginning, they belong to the song and the character. As long as Daniil doesn‘t decide to throw in another dozen of them, I‘m fine. I liked the beginning, even though I felt it lacked the emotions Anna‘s had. With Anna‘s few moves, I could already see her innate attention to detail. Again, it‘s only a small part of the program, so I‘m just judging on whether I’m immediately fascinated and want to see more. I still think Daenerys will be a good character for Sasha to portray, though and am looking forward to her in this image. Let‘s see how the program looks at test skates.

Kostornaya’s music confuses me greatly. I mean, I liked the beginning, it was lyrical, beautiful. The song choice is also nice. But when is this program supposed to change to the other music she announced? (Eyes on fire, supermassive blackhole) Right in the middle? I think this could be a pretty abrupt music cut and it worries me a bit. So, yeah, on its own, beautiful. But thinking that there are two other, very different pieces that are supposed to appear in the very same program... hm.

Kamila‘s choice... Unexpected. I‘ll have to wait. Can’t say much from the small snippet yet, whether the song will suit her or not.

If I understood correctly, Gubanova also mentioned that only those who have been skating for a long time should be sent to Olympics in contrast to Alina, who just came and hopped in there.

Oh no, that statement isn‘t going to end well for her, poor girl. That wasn‘t too clever. Fans are going to tear her apart...

 

[Scott512]

If I understood correctly, Gubanova also mentioned that only those who have been skating for a long time should be sent to Olympics in contrast to Alina, who just came and hopped in there.

Nastya as much as I like her is wrong. I'm sure this comment is driven by Nastya and not being Olympic eligible in 2018. Not that she would have made the Olympic team with only three spots available. I get her point but most people will disagree with it. Alina went to the Olympics at 15 and made history. Now its time for Nastya to make her own history whatever it is and fulfill her potential and be happy with her career and not worry about who got into the Olympics at age 15 because they were born at the right time of the year or who's doing quads while she's not.

 

[P44]

I understand that Anastasia thinks this way but it was not correct to say it in interview. Are there people who find it totally unnatural that she might be jealous of skaters like Alina, Evgenia or Elizaveta ? I think she has dedicated her whole life to figure skating and she may have been less fortunate than others at times. She may be lacking of objectivity about herself and her performances, but she is only 16 years old and a lot of people seem to feel that she's done. It was not a good time to answer these questions.
I think other girls like Alina or Evgenia would never say that in interview because they are trained for this kind of things.
It pains me to see that because I feel like she's just trying to be honest about her feelings. It could hurt her in the future unfortunately.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

So, I just watched Daniil‘s announcement video again (this time with sound) and here are a few impressions:

I couldn‘t hear much of Anna‘s music but the beginning makes it look like this will be a very mysterious and dark program and I think she is a skater who could portray this well. We haven‘t really seen her in such an image yet but she’s artistic and musical and even though it was only a small snippet, I liked the way she moved here already.

Anna's music from the beginning is the track "The Girl with the Plums" from The Perfume. As I had imagined she will probably portray the girl with the plums in her program.

 

[Scott512]

So, I just watched Daniil‘s announcement video again (this time with sound) and here are a few impressions:

I absolutely love Kanysheva‘s music choice! Really, really excited for this program and can’t wait to see her on the JGP and test skates soon.

I couldn‘t hear much of Anna‘s music but the beginning makes it look like this will be a very mysterious and dark program and I think she is a skater who could portray this well. We haven‘t really seen her in such an image yet but she’s artistic and musical and even though it was only a small snippet, I liked the way she moved here already.

I don‘t mind the voice overs in Sasha‘s program at the beginning, they belong to the song and the character. As long as Daniil doesn‘t decide to throw in another dozen of them, I‘m fine. I liked the beginning, even though I felt it lacked the emotions Anna‘s had. With Anna‘s few moves, I could already see her innate attention to detail. Again, it‘s only a small part of the program, so I‘m just judging on whether I’m immediately fascinated and want to see more. I still think Daenerys will be a good character for Sasha to portray, though and am looking forward to her in this image. Let‘s see how the program looks at test skates.

Kostornaya’s music confuses me greatly. I mean, I liked the beginning, it was lyrical, beautiful. The song choice is also nice. But when is this program supposed to change to the other music she announced? (Eyes on fire, supermassive blackhole) Right in the middle? I think this could be a pretty abrupt music cut and it worries me a bit. So, yeah, on its own, beautiful. But thinking that there are two other, very different pieces that are supposed to appear in the very same program... hm.

Kamila‘s choice... Unexpected. I‘ll have to wait. Can’t say much from the small snippet yet, whether the song will suit her or not.



Oh no, that statement isn‘t going to end well for her, poor girl. That wasn‘t too clever. Fans are going to tear her apart...

Im a big Alina fan and I forgive Anastasia for her comments about Alina 3A and anyone else she may have offended in this interview. Nastya is not used to one-on-one interviews fot a half hour. I have no doubt that teen girl envy has been going on since the caveman days with cavegirls. So Nastya must have learned a lot from this interview and some of the negative reaction that is coming from it. She is only 16 years old and will learn from it. Russians usually speak frankly and I don't think Anastasia knows how to be politically correct. I also don't think she meant to hurt anybody with her comments. This is all the process of growing up Fluture but I do find it interesting that you never hear any comments like these coming from EG girls.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

but I do find it interesting that you never hear any comments like these coming from EG girls.

Probably because they win everything so they have nothing to be envious or angry about lol

 

[nussnacker]

Probably because they win everything so they have nothing to be envious or angry about lol

Even when they lose, they always say "This and this wasn't done right (my spins were horrible etc) I need to work and practice more so that it won't happen in the future again".
Alina lost gold twice this season, not once did she attempt to say that others have it easier. Alyona, Alexandra and Anna lost to each other multiple times, they never blame anyone else but themselves for losing.

 

[Fluture]

Probably because they win everything so they have nothing to be envious about lol

Well, yeah. That‘s it basically.

@Scott: I haven‘t read a translation of the interview so I cannot judge whether Nastya‘s comments came across as dismissive or not. I think from what I’ve heard generally (again, very vague comments, so reading the whole thing not out of context might easily change my mind) she does make some points. Like, we don‘t know whether the quad girls will injure themselves or not, no one knows, but facts are, quads are dangerous and they are young and their bodies aren‘t developed yet. It‘s just not too clever to say this as an active competitor to these girls as it will come across as envious and jealous. But Nastya is young and she will learn to say what is expected of her. I don‘t agree with the comments I have heard she made but... I feel for her. You can call me a bad person all you want but if I were in Nastya‘s position, I would be jealous as hell of girls like Alina and Evgenia. And yes, thoughts like: “I work hard like they do, why do they have to be so lucky to get better scores/less problems with puberty/whatever?“ etc. would most definitely cross my mind. I wouldn‘t voice them in a public interview, though but as I said, such thoughts are, imo, very, very human. Doesn‘t mean they are right at all, feelings are after all a very subjective thing. But to go after Nastya and call her someone with no sportsmanship whatsoever, is uncalled for in my opinion. I said it in the PC thread about their OG 2018 already, like it or not, we are all humans and our feelings aren‘t always eternally grateful and nice and pretty. It’s more how we act what truly matters. Everybody feels jealous once in a while, the important thing is to find the right attitude again and focus on improving for our own sake instead of on what others have that we don’t. Nastya, however, is inexperienced and young and was tricked into voicing the thoughts you better keep a secret as an active competitor. I don‘t blame her. I just hope she learns from this and manages to be more gracious towards her competitors in the future. Because as it looks right now, she‘s ruining her own career. And given that figure skating is a sport that takes a lot from everybody involved, it‘s very sad.

Note: I have only expressed my thoughts about the quotes that I heard from other people. So, I don‘t know how the exact tone was and what exactly she said. It could very well be that what she said was worse/not as bad as what I heard, so it‘s very difficult for me to judge.

 

[Happy Skates]

As someone else said in the thread, I'm beginning to get worried that the 3A are each keeping one program. I really wish they would all get two new programs, especially because Anna's would be her fs. But I don't have a good feeling about it.

 

[Scott512]

Probably because they win everything so they have nothing to be envious or angry about lol

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLS! Probably true. But again you never hear a peep from an EG girl and they could peep about alot.

 

[zounger]

Well, yeah. That‘s it basically.

I don't think so. The motto in Sambo is, if someone is winning is because he worked harder than you. Expressed by Eteri in interviews and implied by the skaters in their own interviews.

 

[ruga]

They could peep about each other lol. But it's true, they rarely talk about competitors and concentrate on their own skating and mistakes. Probably you learn to analyze yourself better when you're training in a competitive environment.

 

[Scott512]

Well, yeah. That‘s it basically.

@Scott: I haven‘t read a translation of the interview so I cannot judge whether Nastya‘s comments came across as dismissive or not. I think from what I’ve heard generally, she does make some points. Like, we don‘t know whether the quad girls will injure themselves or not, no one knows, but facts are, quads are dangerous and they are young and their bodies aren‘t developed yet. It‘s just not too clever to say this as an active competitor to these girls as it will come across as envious and jealous. But Nastya is young and she will learn to say ”what is expected of her“. I don‘t agree with all of the comments I have heard she made but... I feel for her. You can call me a bad person all you want but if I were in Nastya‘s position, I would be jealous as hell of girls like Alina and Evgenia. And yes, thoughts like: “I work hard like they do, why do they have to be so lucky to get better scores/less problems with puberty/whatever?“ etc. would most definitely cross my mind. I probably wouldn‘t voice them in a public interview, though but as I said, such thoughts are, imo, very, very human. Doesn‘t mean they are right at all, feelings are after all a very subjective thing. But to go after Nastya and call her someone with no sportsmanship whatsoever, is uncalled for in my opinion. I said it in the PC thread about their OG 2018 already, like it or not, we are all humans and our feelings aren‘t always eternally grateful and nice and pretty. It’s more how we act what truly matters. Nastya, however, is inexperienced and young and was tricked into voicing the thoughts you better keep a secret as an active competitor. I don‘t blame her. I just hope she learns from this and manages to be more gracious towards her competitors in the future.

Note: I have only expressed my thoughts about the quotes that I heard from other people. So, I don‘t know how the exact tone was and what exactly she said.

Nastya for sure meant no harm. I doubt she has a PR rep to advise her on how to say things. She was asked ?s and she answered honestly. Katymay who likes Nastya was not happy with the interview. Someone ironically named Anastasia went into Nastyas FF and wrote a somewhat critical message of the interview. And youtube is giving it alot of thums don. At first I thought that was because of Rodina but maybe it's the interview too and how Nastya said things and what she said. She is 16 and very inexperienced with the media. Having a shark like Rodina leading Nastya into muddy waters was to be expected. Nastya needs to move on and find her best form with her new coach. I hope this interview was a lesson learned for Nastya.

 

[Imagine]

If I understood correctly, Gubanova also mentioned that only those who have been skating for a long time should be sent to Olympics in contrast to Alina, who just came and hopped in there.

So, Medvedeva, Tuktamysheva, and Zagitova for the 2022 team? Got it! I can get onboard with that.

 

[Payako]

I think it's not about being politically correct, but having an athlete etiquette and having sportsman like behavior.
She's probably easily manipulated, the interview although was about Nastya, seemed to be "What Nastya thinks about others" for a big chunk of it as well.
you kind of always expect athletes to say: I will work harder, I lost due to my own faults, this wasn't accomplished because I wasn't preparing correctly.
She doesn't seem to think this way...
She is focused on that other girls have reputation, hence Evgenia, Alina and Liza get bigger scores, although Nastya isn't any worse compared to them
In general, it all seemed to focus that all her competition just was more lucky, Evgenia and Liza just happened to get higher scores than her on FCR (although Nastya thinks she should've won the short), Alina got lucky because she was born before July 1st, Trusova and Shcherbakova just have it easier, because they are pre-pubescent...

I just think it's not the right approach, no need to downplay anyone's success to age, timing, whatever, she should focus on her own career.

I don't know.. it's fine when fans say "Nastya totally should've won the short there", but when she herself says that she isn't any worse and others just get generous GOEs due to their ratings, it's a bit...strange.

If you expect Nastya to say I will work harder, I lost due to my own faults, this wasn't accomplished because I wasn't preparing correctly
You totally didn’t understand her situation at all.
Even when she was the only one who made clean performance she was underscored badly.She is the real jnr national champion in 2018 since Kostornaia made a huge fall in her SP and Trusova made a huge fall in FS.Talking about Konstantinova? She was 12th but she was 2nd in her FP.Judges even didn’t call her two footed jumps and gave her highest pcs.who will remember this?����

In this situation do you really expect her to say that you mentioned?

Cup final sp?She should have been first imo but at least should have been 2nd.
Konstantinova all her underotations got generous goe.Tuktamysheva?It’s so funny her fans saying she was underscored.Pcs 35 for her even she made a huge fall?Her poor skating doesn’t deserve high pcs.
At gpf she got 32 66 at Rcf she got 35 72.She definitely was overscored at cupfinal.
And I am sure most of her fans didn’t watch her performance in reality.In video she looks like she has charisma.In reality you only can see the poor skating the arms shaking.That's all.
Let me get this straight.She was overscored not underscored. Medevedeva was also overscored but she should ahead of Tuktamysheva.Rusfed was wise to send Medvedeva.


Honestly I like Nastya interviewed this way.She knew many people will curse her.People don’t know about her talent since people always judge skaters with their career.Then she was never able to get career as rusfed always has underscored her.She was brave and confident.

Since test skate is coming I would like to know if she will participate or not.I’m not sure as I remember someone said she said she will stay junior and explain why in that interview.This is why I had waited this interview long time.
She wasn’t listed as a substitute because she is senior reserve.Others are junior main or junior reserve.
If she goes to test skate she will go to jgp.

 

[vesperalvioletta]

I understand very little Russian, so I'm not able to comment on exactly what Gubanova said in her interview, but based on her body language with the interviewer, it seems very possible that she could have been lured into a sense of false security. She seemed really comfortable and friendly with the interviewer, and I think that maybe that allowed her to let her guard down and be more honest about things than she should have. I work in PR, I rehearse people for interviews with the press all the time, and sometimes no amount of coaching can keep someone from saying something detrimental to their personal brand if they're caught off guard to get too comfortable. I'm not sure if Nastya has an agent, but I really doubt that she had a team of people behind her helping her practice responses to difficult questions, or instructing her on how to be as diplomatic as possible.

 

[Scott512]

So, Medvedeva, Tuktamysheva, and Zagitova for the 2022 team? Got it! I can get onboard with that.

Interesting. Finally for Liza and the Olympics!