2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Anni234]

What a disgrace and so stupid since they have so many girls who are so good. it's really an overflow of talent like never before seen in figure skating in any one discipline. They should make every effort to max out their maximum selections every year to give girls a chance to improve and make their mark in this sport.

I'm simply guessing RusFed does not have an endless flow of money to fill all of the 30 Challenger spots. I'm of course not sure what the fed pays for when sending skaters to Challengers, but the flight tickets and hotels themselves can be quite expensive. My guess is they have to decide how to use their funds in a most optimal way. Then again... no idea how exactly this works and whether skaters have to pay for some stuff themselves.

 

[Edwin]

Is it just me or this old guy is creepy? Alena looks very uncomfortable.
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183713213281656832?s=19

This creepy incident has already been reported in the Kostornaya thread. Rodina has a field day over it in her live streams.

Stalking unfortunately is a very nasty side effect of being famous. Alyona, Anna and Aleksandra have probably never experienced this before, hopefully Alina also never. They will get instructed to be weary of overbearing adult males and they will need to be guarded, their trainers should not let them out of sight. Psychopathic stalkers can be very dangerous. Now this person has been identified, so when he shows up in another event, can be reported and removed from the premises.

 

[readernick]

This creepy incident has already been reported in the Kostornaya thread. Rodina has a field day over it in her live streams.

Stalking unfortunately is a very nasty side effect of being famous. Alyona, Anna and Aleksandra have probably never experienced this before, hopefully Alina also never. They will get instructed to be weary of overbearing adult males and they will need to be guarded, their trainers should not let them out of sight. Psychopathic stalkers can be very dangerous. Now this person has been identified, so when he shows up in another event, can be reported and removed from the premises.

I believe that this is not the first incident with this particular fan and based on comments on their videos, there are some really terrible creeps who were showing the wrong type of interest even when these girls were 12/13. ( not just the Russian girls, there is a creepy poster who is always showing inappropriate images of Japanese skaters on YouTube, too) They need to be trained that being polite has its limits and you have a right to say no. It is a real issue, not just for famous skaters, but for all girls and women. I have personally been the recipient of unpleasant attention from older men and because I try to be polite to everyone, I did not know how to respond. These girls need to be taught to speak up. In addition, fans like this should be banned from all events.

 

[pearly]

Is it just me or this old guy is creepy? Alena looks very uncomfortable.
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183713213281656832?s=19

This is a huge problem these days. Girls need to be taught that in situations like this they do not need to remain polite and smile, they need to take stand and say no. Adults need to interfere as well and not leave all responsibility to the minors. Fans and "fans" behaving this way need to be told by others that this is unacceptable and parents need to start raising their kids to know that just because you know someone's name and like them/their skating/their success does not give you the right to touch them.

I am sure some of you are aware there is a skating fan out there, very vocal on his Instagram and a huge fan of all Russian skaters - but Stanislava Konstantinova and Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva in particular. Elizaveta has just turned 17. This person has been following her since at least last season, delivering presents and birthday gifts, taking pictures hugging the skater, posting what he would be ready to do for her and how much he loves her. I don't know where the adults are.

 

[thatbeatingheart]

I humbly propose a thought experiment:

What would Liza's scores look like if she returned to last year's FP and modified the layout to add technical difficulty? There's room enough for more than one 3A in that FP, and it conveys high energy in a way that (IMHO) her current FP doesn't. YMMV, but she was winning a lot of free skates last year, and adding a 3A in combination would be one way to raise the bar technically in her free. Returning to the music and general vibe of last year's FP would be a way for Liza to reengage the audience through sassy and confident energy even as she hones more difficult elements.

A girl can dream, right?

So far I also prefer last season’s FS, while choreographically it wasn’t the greatest either, she did a much better job performing it imo. I’m not one to complain about few transitions etc but even I noticed how empty it is at Finlandia. No idea how it would affect her scores if she went back to her previous FS, I thought her PCS were reasonable in comparison to Alenas for example, if not generous. She lost a lot of points in the tech department so it might make sense to do a program she’s more comfortable with and focus on the tech? (Especially while having a SP that’s unusual for her.) I’m not seeing that happen though, but as you said, a girl can dream.

 

[BabySloth]

To be completely honest, and this may sound harsh, but it seems to me that Liza could do pretty much anything – even jump a quad – and she still wouldn’t beat Eteri’s girls.
She’s just not the type of skater that judges prefer nowadays, and they made it clear in both Italy and Finland. And this must be pretty disappointing for Liza after ending last season on such a high note at WTT.
I believe she is often the victim of underscoring in the technical department but she and her team really should have focused more on improving her skating skills, transitions and spins. It might be too late now. I hope ske keeps on skating for a long time though. And as I’ve mentioned before she has a pretty decent chance of making GPF this year so not everything is lost.

 

[nussnacker]

Is it just me or this old guy is creepy? Alena looks very uncomfortable.
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183713213281656832?s=19

Oh god, this is beyond gross. Those are kids and teens, what the hell???
In the link you sent it says, apparently in his social media this guy posts pictures of him kissing Aliona’s photos with captions “I’m you husband, you’re my wife”... Jesus, excuse me while I vomit...

 

[Scott512]

I'm simply guessing RusFed does not have an endless flow of money to fill all of the 30 Challenger spots. I'm of course not sure what the fed pays for when sending skaters to Challengers, but the flight tickets and hotels themselves can be quite expensive. My guess is they have to decide how to use their funds in a most optimal way. Then again... no idea how exactly this works and whether skaters have to pay for some stuff themselves.

your guess is probably correct. But that's where private funding her students should be able to help them travel. There is such a huge talent and success gap between Moscow girls in St Petersburg girls in figure skating another St Petersburg girl could have used the experience of going to Finlandia. They're only going to get better by having greater experiences with better talent around them. Russian sports at somebody and they better start spending it for their ladies on private security and protection after what Alyiona went through in that video I just watched. the Russian girls for the most part are unbelievably warm and friendly to the public and we don't want them to lose that and be taken advantage of it anyway.

This creepy incident has already been reported in the Kostornaya thread. Rodina has a field day over it in her live streams.

Stalking unfortunately is a very nasty side effect of being famous. Alyona, Anna and Aleksandra have probably never experienced this before, hopefully Alina also never. They will get instructed to be weary of overbearing adult males and they will need to be guarded, their trainers should not let them out of sight. Psychopathic stalkers can be very dangerous. Now this person has been identified, so when he shows up in another event, can be reported and removed from the premises.

That was uncomfortable. AK1 seems like the nicest girl in sports and we don't want that niceness from her ruined tainted or taken advantage of and making her feel uncomfortable in the public like it appeared happened in this video.

Where was Alyiona's father? If her father or an uncle or family friend is not traveling with her then her parents should demand from the Russian Federation that she and the other girls have bodyguards or adult males to watch and protect them and perhaps most importantly keep adult males a good distance from them even if they genuinely just want an autograph or to say hello you're fantastic blah blah blah. It is cute to see all the girls milling around her getting autographs but not so cute to see that older fellow swarming Alena just a couple inches from Alena. Where is Sasha when we need her to kick everyone's *ss that gets out of line?

 

[Scott512]

Oh god, this is beyond gross. Those are kids and teens, what the hell???
In the link you sent it says, apparently in his social media this guy posts pictures of him kissing Aliona’s photos with captions “I’m you husband, you’re my wife”... Jesus, excuse me while I vomit...

I'm glad I have not eaten breakfast yet before reading this. Hoping Alena does not even know about this and is just focusing on her next event and enjoying the beginning of her senior career which is off to a sensational start.

 

[Grin]

I'm glad I have not eaten breakfast yet before reading this. Hoping Alena does not even know about this and is just focusing on her next event and enjoying the beginning of her senior career which is off to a sensational start.

I heard she blocked him on social media...

 

[macy]

Oh god, this is beyond gross. Those are kids and teens, what the hell???
In the link you sent it says, apparently in his social media this guy posts pictures of him kissing Aliona’s photos with captions “I’m you husband, you’re my wife”... Jesus, excuse me while I vomit...

i read on that twitter post under the video there was a fan who commented on YT that Aliona reported him to the Finnish skating fed as a stalker. i hope that's true! that is just so scary and terrifying. nobody, famous or not should have to deal with that.

 

[Scott512]

To be completely honest, and this may sound harsh, but it seems to me that Liza could do pretty much anything – even jump a quad – and she still wouldn’t beat Eteri’s girls.
She’s just not the type of skater that judges prefer nowadays, and they made it clear in both Italy and Finland. And this must be pretty disappointing for Liza after ending last season on such a high note at WTT.
I believe she is often the victim of underscoring in the technical department but she and her team really should have focused more on improving her skating skills, transitions and spins. It might be too late now. I hope ske keeps on skating for a long time though. And as I’ve mentioned before she has a pretty decent chance of making GPF this year so not everything is lost.

You are not harsh you are being a realist. Liza I'm pretty sure sees things the same way you do. it must frustrate the heck out of her to not get treated with the respect that 15 and 16 year old girls dono matter how brilliant they are and they are. Especially since Liza was a world champion at 17 or 18. I think most of us here think 4A is probably better than her. But she's right there with them. Or should be.

 

[flanker]

i read on that twitter post under the video there was a fan who commented on YT that Aliona reported him to the Finnish skating fed as a stalker. i hope that's true! that is just so scary and terrifying. nobody, famous or not should have to deal with that.

I hope she did too.

 

[Vlad Karigov]

the odd one out, when a B list skater like Konstantinova is included in A Class.

A Class

Zagitova
Kostornaia
Trusova
Scheherbakova
Medvedeva
Tuktamysheva
Valieva
Sinitsyna

B List
Usacheva
Vasilieva
Tarakanova
Samodurova
Konstantinova

C rate
Sakhanovich
Sotskova
Gubanova
Nugumanova
Gulyakova
Leonova

Almost as strange as seeing a lost Medvedeva in the same video as 4A, Tuktamysheva and the rest of the Tutberidze Team, including juniors and children. The differences of TES are abysmal. Medvedeva is group B.

 

[thatbeatingheart]

[...]

That was uncomfortable. AK1 seems like the nicest girl in sports and we don't want that niceness from her ruined tainted or taken advantage of and making her feel uncomfortable in the public like it appeared happened in this video.

Where was Alyiona's father? If her father or an uncle or family friend is not traveling with her then her parents should demand from the Russian Federation that she and the other girls have bodyguards or adult males to watch and protect them and perhaps most importantly keep adult males a good distance from them even if they genuinely just want an autograph or to say hello you're fantastic blah blah blah. It is cute to see all the girls milling around her getting autographs but not so cute to see that older fellow swarming Alena just a couple inches from Alena. Where is Sasha when we need her to kick everyone's *ss that gets out of line?

That would go a little too far I guess, we don’t want to discriminate the whole male species because of a few individuals, do we? I don’t know what this particular man does in his free time (if it’s true that Alena already noticed some of his behavior online I do hope that she indeed reported him to the organizers) but what he did in this video is inappropriate, it didn’t look like he asked her for that hug, that’s really the least you should do in general, no matter your age and gender, and accept a no. Reminds me of when a guy tried to kiss Evgenia on the cheek during a signing, some people found it cute, probably because he looked around the same age as her and she handled it gracefully, but it freaked me out. Just don't touch anyone without their consent. :roll5:

 

[Anni234]

Almost as strange as seeing a lost Medvedeva in the same video as 4A, Tuktamysheva and the rest of the Tutberidze Team, including juniors and children. The differences of TES are abysmal. Medvedeva is group B.

While I don't really see a huge point in trying to put skaters into A-B-C tier groups (and then trying to push out people based on one's own standards), let's not forget that Medvedeva scored higher in her challenger than Liza did at either of hers.

 

[moriel]

While I don't really see a huge point in trying to put skaters into A-B-C tier groups (and then trying to push out people based on one's own standards), let's not forget that Medvedeva scored higher in her challenger than Liza did at either of hers.

oh yeah the 49 TES, right?
I mean, we all know Medvedeva is overscored, but so is Konstantinova domestically. And while rusfed obviously has to report on the project, I am not at all confident in their abilities of pushing another russian cup final this year.

 

[Mishaminion]

While I don't really see a huge point in trying to put skaters into A-B-C tier groups (and then trying to push out people based on one's own standards), let's not forget that Medvedeva scored higher in her challenger than Liza did at either of hers.

Or the fact that no matter what happens in her future career, she is a two time World Champion and Olympic silver medalist. That hardly constitutes "B list"

 

[Mishaminion]

oh yeah the 49 TES, right?
I mean, we all know Medvedeva is overscored, but so is Konstantinova domestically. And while rusfed obviously has to report on the project, I am not at all confident in their abilities of pushing another russian cup final this year.

That tech score wasn't at her challenger, it was at Shangai, and she was sick.

 

[LiamForeman]

I'm glad I have not eaten breakfast yet before reading this. Hoping Alena does not even know about this and is just focusing on her next event and enjoying the beginning of her senior career which is off to a sensational start.

How awkward. Seriously, no adults should be down at the boards giving flowers or getting selfies. I'm heading out to Las Vegas tomorrow and I am dying to see Anna Shcherbakova en live. But seriously, I'm a middle aged guy and I'd never consider getting a selfie with her. I feel weird enough being a fan of all these underage girls. I'm also gay, so the creepy factor isn't as much, I just appreciate great skating, but still I feel a bit awkward that I follow all these young skaters. But if you are not a teen, do not hug a teen. Leave them be. How awkward for Alyona. I think security should only let the kids go down to give flowers and get pics. I can't believe they don't already. That video was disturbing. That should not be happening.