- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
As for the 3A, you see them in the situation Alina was before the olympics - winning everything, seemingly unbeatable. The stress, the expectations to repeat their successes, the impact of some some not exactly frinedly "fans of figure skating", the impact of growth, all that still lies before them. As I am a fan of 3A, I think I can say the true challenge lies still before them. It looks easy when you are at the summit, but the true strength of the character shows rather in the situation when the things are not so good. It's not in the "winning everything", it's about how you can accept the failure and ability to rise again. So, for the comparisons of the strong mind between Alina and her younger challengers, or for the spread between good and bad skates, is still too soon.
This was also discussed in Sport Express live stream with Natal'ya Bestemyanova. Tutberidze's Terrific Trio of Awesomely Amazing Aces has won everything so far 'relatively easily', only competing between themselves, wiping the floor with any and all of their competitors for like two years now. They sort of expect winning comes easy, even with small or sometimes bigger mistakes, like in last European Championships.
All of Aleksandra, Alyona and Anna said they weren't in top shape and mental strength after the stressful Russian Championships and some relaxation and show performances over the New Year. Obviously, relaxing and stepping back from high training intensity benefits their souls, spirits and emotional wellbeing, but they also noticed there was something 'missing', and they grew in length and weight due to the abundance of festive food.
The coming World Championships will be their toughest test of character yet, for the game in Montreal is of a different level compared to Europeans and the expectations from the nation are huge. Plus there might be forces at work that oppose this domination of one single rink and their wonder girls, influencing the calling and judging. So they know they must skate squeaky clean and give the judiciary no reason at all for deductions.
Their proven skating level will still keep them relatively safe, because there are only one or maybe two fellow contestants for the medals in command over ultra-si. But for the girls to be completely happy and satisfied over their skating and to be able to look back in the knowledge they were at their best, gave it their best and reaped the best rewards possible, a different order of competitive mindset will be necessary. And obviously no errors.
They won't win Worlds by skating in 'sitting back' mentality. And it is now up to Team Tutberidze to 'fire' them up again and raise them to this finely tuned psychological state required, where each is ready for combat.
There is a certain disadvantage, time difference 8 hours, the typical narrow NA rink, which means skating patterns will have to be altered, elements redistributed. Hopefully they anticipate on this by using short track cushions to narrow the rink in Khrustalniy to NA size.
