2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[flanker]

When you watch figure skating, ask yourself. How would I like 4 minutes to define my life. The pressure is enormous.

It is impossible in four minutes, but in four seasons you can see enthusiasm, first victories, falls, rising again and regaining will and confidence etc.

 

[Scott512]

That’s insane. Why were people so upset when Medvedeva left then- considering Eteri and family were bashing her before she even left? And poor Alina. It’s lose/lose for her no matter what she decides. If she stays with Eteri she’s at least the #4 skater in her club. (After the juniors????). If she switches coaches to someone outside of Russia she will be the new traitor, and get all the hatred.
People need to remember these are young girls that are making the best choice for themselves. This seems to get more ridiculous by the moment. Alina is already, according to some, having mental issues. Imagine how she’ll feel with her coaches family making comments.

Alina is not go into leave the country of Russia the train with anybody. I doubt she wants to be away from her family especially her little sister as she grows up . She may or may not change coaches next year. But make no mistake about it Alina calls the shots now. I think everyone appreciates that all the skaters and her Sambo 70 Club are treated equally no matter how great they are no matter everybody gets treated the same. That is to be respected. But I am sure Alina hates gossip about her. She's not that type of person at all so any gossip or speculation or hype on the internet is going to piss her off no doubt about it.

If Alina parts ways with her coach I guarantee it will be on good terms. EG will not want to face the storm she did when Zhenya left.

 

[katymay]

When you watch figure skating, ask yourself. How would I like 4 minutes to define my life. The pressure is enormous.

I think most people don't realize, that even skating out to take the ice when they announce your name takes huge courage. Not so much when you are juvenile or intermediate level, but as you move up the ranks. I can't think of another sport with this sort of pressure. (except perhaps balance beam in gymnastics? Platform diving?). Maybe this is why I am in such awe of Trusova-she must know that some of those jumps are not going to work...and yet she goes out there and does what she can. This is true of all of Eteri's girls, but Trusova is on another level.

 

[Resa]

I think most people don't realize, that even skating out to take the ice when they announce your name takes huge courage. Not so much when you are juvenile or intermediate level, but as you move up the ranks. I can't think of another sport with this sort of pressure. (except perhaps balance beam in gymnastics? Platform diving?). Maybe this is why I am in such awe of Trusova-she must know that some of those jumps are not going to work...and yet she goes out there and does what she can. This is true of all of Eteri's girls, but Trusova is on another level.

I agree with that

 

[composer]

If Alina parts ways with her coach I guarantee it will be on good terms. EG will not want to face the storm she did when Zhenya left.

Publicly yes. In private it will be hard to say. How many of her endorsements and shows are through Eteri? Does Alina have her own private agent? Does Sabina still want to join Eteri’s group someday? What does Eteri think is in her own best interests to do with the backup skaters on her own team?

Alina could still come out guns blazing at Russian nationals. So all this bellyaching may not matter in the end anyway.

If Eteri really did say Alina needs to think about whether she wants to retire or continue, she does have a point. Alina could retire on a relatively high note. She could continue and hope that puberty is cruel to the new seniors/upcoming juniors. She could continue and risk a slow fade away like Leonova. She could retire and then make a comeback. There are many options open to her, and retirement is one of those options, but not the only one. If she does retire it will be better for her to retire on her own terms in a planned way than to be forced to retire out of irrelevance.

Basically Alina is at a crossroads that comes to every skater, but her situation is uniquely complicated because of the sudden senior depth in her country, and that she is training in a camp that is constantly pushing the envelope as far as training methods, and trains skaters almost in bulk, but hasn’t figured out a graduation pipeline yet. Alina may turn out to
be the test case of successfully graduating (whatever that may look like).

 

[NaVi]

The ladies short program and free skate were the 8th and 10th highest rated shows of the week in Moscow while the free dance was 13th and the exhibition was 34th. The live free dance(9:30PM start) was shown right before the recorded short program(10:30 start) which was shown right before the live free skate(11-12:05). The all of Russia rating can be a little higher or lower and I'm not completely confident I'm doing the calculation right, but the 3.8 rating for Moscow points to around 5.2 million viewers for all of Russia. This is about the equivalent of 11.5-12 million viewers in the US. In the US, afternoon coverage of figure skating gets around 850k viewers, the world championships have been only getting around 1.8 million viewers, the US championships around 3 million viewers in non-Olympic years and 4.5 million on Olympic years. The last Olympic ladies free skate in the US received 15 million viewers which was down from the 20 million viewers in 2014 which was down from the 22 million viewers in 2010 whcih was down from 26 million in 2006.

https://mediascope.net/data/?FILTER_TYPE=tv

I have no idea if these ratings are catching those streaming on the website which it seems many people are doing going by Instagram stories.

I really wish more broadcasters would show a select portion of the short programs right before the free skate. It gives the competition more of a plot and it can be good PR for a skater who does well in the SP but falters in the FS.

 

[KOBOT37]

Okay, lets assume Alina needs to go, question is where?

Orser is out of question for obvious reasons (also he isn't known for giving 'full attention' to his skaters), She can't go to Japan or Korea (she doesn't know Japanese/Korean and they don't know Russian), Raf is probably only logical choice but 'Emotional support' from Him? I don't know... Alina won't be first priority for Mishin either (There is Liza for that) and CSKAs results last couple of years are far from great.

Pretty much every coach with some success is too busy to spend days and nights with Alina and most of them already have star students, it's not like Eteri is only one with big team.

If she wants that 'motherly attention and love' thing, she probably needs to take huge risk and hire... Tarasova (she many times said is open to suggestions and ready to start coaching again) but that is huge gamble.

I highly doubt that Alina wants to run away from competition. Frankly, it may sound as an old school,but if your mental health gets damaged because somebody is beating you on training, then your place isn't in competitive sports, Hottest fire makes the finest steel,the better your competition is while training, the more you improve. Taking it easy never leads to improvements. Considering that Alina is a fighter, this whole 'she is getting psychological trauma seeing 15 years old jumping quads' is a bit disrespectful IMO.

P.S it makes no sesne at all for Eteri to intentionally harm/not give enough attention to Zagitova (same was true to Med), she had a historic achievement as a coach and it was still overshadowed by one bad Performance from Alina and I don't even want imagine what will happen if Alina fails at nationals. Her reputation as a coach, entirely depends on how well Alina does (it's unfair but... that is how it is) and nothing short of Moris jumping a quint ( ) will overshadow Alina's bad skates

 

[Edwin]

Inna Goncharenko should open a new school for all those soon-to-be orphan athletes that still have some mileage left in them ....

She seems to be the only high ranked and qualified trainer still free on the market, plus she seems like a wise woman and might have some proper plans ready to implement ...

 

[flanker]

Does Sabina still want to join Eteri’s group someday?

We actually don't know whether she wants or ever wanted. Sabina didn't say anything about that matter. There was an instagram account that was allegedly hers, where this was stated, but it turned out to be fake.

 

[vesperalvioletta]

Has Dasha Panenkova officially moved to coaching full-time? I just saw a photo of her with a young student at the boards.

 

[nussnacker]

Has Dasha Panenkova officially moved to coaching full-time? I just saw a photo of her with a young student at the boards.

She says she hasn’t, but she’s not been training for 1 full year it looks like, and has been coaching ever since her injury.

 

[Edwin]

We actually don't know whether she wants or ever wanted. Sabina didn't say anything about that matter. There an instagram account that was allegedly hers, where this was stated, but it turned out to be fake.

I watched the recent stages of Kazan's Axel Cup and the protocols for any sign of a Sabina Zagitova, but there was none. So I suppose she isn't a competitive figure skater.

 

[flanker]

I watched the recent stages of Kazan's Axel Cup and the protocols for any sign of a Sabina Zagitova, but there was none. So I suppose she isn't a competitive figure skater.

If she intends to become highly competitive skater, then she probably needs to move to a top team, but we even don't know how much Sabina wants to follow her sister's path.

 

[flanker]

Eteri's sister is trying to take her words back, so I hope this storm in the glass of water will end soon:
https://www.sports.ru/figure-skating/1081149201.html

 

[KOBOT37]

Inna Goncharenko should open a new school for all those soon-to-be orphan athletes that still have some mileage left in them ....

She seems to be the only high ranked and qualified trainer still free on the market, plus she seems like a wise woman and might have some proper plans ready to implement ...

in the last interview Goncharenko said that coaches outside of Team Tutberidze doesn't have great conditions and salary in CSKA was 9K rubles per month (take it with truckload grain of salt ). Her comments didn't give impression that she has any plans yet.

 

[Edwin]

in the last interview Goncharenko said that coaches outside of Team Tutberidze doesn't have great conditions and salary in CSKA was 9K rubles per month (take it with truckload grain of salt ). Her comments didn't give impression that she has any plans yet.

I know, I follow her media outings closely for she is a very interesting and knowledgeable person on all matters of figure skating. Apparently the offer from China (?) wasn't good enough either, plus she said she wants to stay with her family after all the years of long hours at the rinks.

 

[KOBOT37]

IMO, sister's comments need some clear up from Eteri or at least, from Daniil, it's one thing having haters bashing you, but when even most of your supporters start questioning you, you need to say something.

 

[ruga]

in the last interview Goncharenko said that coaches outside of Team Tutberidze doesn't have great conditions and salary in CSKA was 9K rubles per month (take it with truckload grain of salt ). Her comments didn't give impression that she has any plans yet.

Most of coaches' salary seems to come from their athletes' prize money. Liza Tuktamysheva has said that 30% goes to her coach. Maybe their salary rises after they produce some high level athletes. I'm pretty sure that someone of Eteri's level has above average income, but those who coach kids probably get way less.

 

[Vilord]

So some days ago ther was disscussions on GP assignments for next year and who will be "Guaranteed" spots out of the russians. As we know the top placements at worlds is guaranteed in (highest priority) my guess it that it will be the 3A going for russia unless something where to happen to either of them and I cant see any of them placing lower than 6th if they go so they should be a lock for 2spots each for next year.

Then there is the SB top24 and WS top24. I cant find anywhere in the rules that one is supposed to trump the other one but last season WS seemed to count higher than SB (which I dont think it should) so therefor Im going to start with the WS list. I did the calculations on how many points they will carry over to next season based on what they have now. Of course a lot will change with the championchips and also seemingly irrelevant but verry useful WS wise international competitions like Metror Tourn cup (next up I think).

1. Kihira 3081p
2. Zagitova 2666p
3. Tenell 2484p
4. Miyhara 2414p
5. Samodurova 2373p
6. Tuktamysheva 2342p
7. Sakamoto 2218p
8. Lim 2135p
9. Bell 2127p
10. Trusova 2094p
11. Sherbakova 2085p
12. Medvedeva 2009p
13. Kostornaia 1920p
14. You 1612p
15. Tursynbaeva 1483p
16. Ryabova 1474p
17. Y Kim 1469
18. Konstantinova 1347
19. Andrews 1313p
20. Paganini 1218p
21. Yamashita 1181p
22. Yokoi 1167p
23. Leung 1130p
24. Schott 1126p
--
25. Mihara 1121p
26. Feigin 1108p
27. Honda 1071p
28. Higuchi 1062p
29. Sakhanovich 1059p
30. Gutmann 950p

Konstantinova who is ranked the lowest will probably be overtaken by some skaters who go to the championchips but I find it unlikely she will slip out of top24. This means another 5 skaters are guaranteed i spot Zagitova, Medvedeva, Samodurova, Tuktamysheva and Konstantinova.

The top 24sb which has been posted here before inculde
1. Kostornaia
2. Trusova
3. Sherbakova
5. Medvedeva
(6. Valieva)
7. Zagitova
10. Sinitsyna
11. Tuktamysheva
(18. Usacheva)
19. Vasilieva
21. Tarakanova

I would imagine that Zagitova, Medvedeva and Tuktamysheva who is in both lists will get 2spots (along with 3A), taking up 12 of 18spots.

That means ther are 6spots for Samodurova, Konstantinova, Sinitsyna, Vasilieva and Tarakanova. Personaly I would like to give 2 spots to Sinitsyna, Vaslieva and Tarakanova but I think Samodurova and Konstantinova will ge at least one and possibly two meaning Vasilieva and Tarakanova can only have one (or possibly none).

Sotskova and Sakhanovich who we saw this year is deffinity out for next season as they currently arent on either list and is unlikely to get any more international assignments this season.

So less of a mess than for this season because I think everynoe who is "guaranteed a spot" (apart from maybe one) will actualy get one at least. Unless Vasilieva or Tarakanova is held back in juniors but since they are both senior eligeble this year i dont see the point of them continuing to skate in juniors for another season.

 

[Giltedge]

Sofiya Moroz has strong programmes and has been acquitting herself well in domestic competitions this season.


She is leading after today's SP (29 entries).


Top ten after SP
Sofiya Moroz 68+
Arina Kshetskaya 65+
Nikol Vaitkus 65+
Polina Sviridenko
Mariya Novikova
Eva Kobzar
Ulyana Kostenko
Diana Adigezalova
Evgeniya Tumanova
Mariya Dmitrieva 54+

FS tomorrow

Forgot to mention: this is the First St Petersburg winter competition