This is just my opinion and pure speculation but I wouldn’t exactly call their statements “lies” but maybe more of “half truths”. You need a certain % or successful attempts to own a jump, and an even higher % to land it consistently in competition. Maybe they don’t consider having a 3A until they are landing more than 50% of attempts? Or more than 80%? In Aliona’s 1tv interview that was filmed over the summer, she said her goal for the season was to land a 3A in competition. Why did she state this was her goal if she had no intention of training it? The video wasn’t released until after she did it.
I can believe Aliona’s 3A wasn’t working out consistently in her programs until 2 weeks before Finlandia. It explains why she didn’t do it at test skates. But her not wanting to try it again until after test skates? I find it hard to believe. I do think she was telling the truth that she was scared to try it again due to injury, I just think the timeline has been altered a bit.
Well, at the end of last season, Daniil did say that all of 3A would be trying to learn 3A's over the off season. My guess is that they ALL trained it, at least in a harness. Nord Stream 2 said he saw Aliona working the 3A when he visited Novogorsk. Perhaps during the summer she couldn't land it when she tried it off harness.
Aliona also said in one of her early interviews (around test skates) that they had to work on her other jumps because she had grown over the summer. She also had her knees all taped up when they performed the SP at test skates, so maybe there were some minor injuries along the way too. Perhaps they set aside the idea of the triple axel for the early part of the season, but after the test skates, when Aliona was told she might have to go to Junior Worlds, she decided she needed a high-difficulty jump ASAP.
If they had laid the groundwork over the summer, I think it's entirely possible that Aliona picked up the 3A again in a few weeks. On the NBC broadcasts, Tara had mentioned that when they talked to Eteri at Skate America, Eteri said that of the 3 girls, Aliona was the most fearful of the difficult jumps, so they have to move slowly with her. Maybe all Aliona really needed was the psychological motivation to conquer her fear, and the feedback from the test skates accomplished that.
To be fair, Aliona's 3A is still really not that consistent. Maybe 50-50%? But it does seem like it's getting better--at least it looked better at the first practice at NHK Trophy.
What I'm
now wondering though, is if her sudden success with the 3A was really a surprise for Eteri & team, or whether it was part of their plan all along.
I remember that before 2019 Worlds, there was something like Alina was saying "no" to whatever they said, so they kind of tricked her into wanting to go to Worlds by saying she didn't have to go...? Something like that?
So I'm wondering if they knew that Aliona could do a 3A (and that she'd need it to succeed), but because she was somewhat hesitant to try it, they needed to motivate her to do it somehow--hence the talk about having to go to Junior Worlds. I don't know; it's just a thought... I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case! :yes:
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Thanks!
