2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Mathman]

Here is an example. As I've written before, my job is "public procurement specialist": In most countries if a public subject (state, city, state organization etc.) if a public subject wants to sign a contract (like to build a road, buy the office equipment etc. etc.), the subject has to chose the contractor through the public competition. The tenderer aspiring to gain the contract have to fulfill some requirements and submit the best offer according to the criteria you set (the easiest is the lowest price but there can be many more). This system is pretty harsh, anyone involved, who feels his rights were violated can object etc., so there are many things you have to be careful about.

Now, usually the rightists present enterpreteurs as highly rational people (esp. in comparison with the public sector) who don't bother with useless things, emotions, animostities etc. It's astoundingly far from the truth. E.g. you receive five offers, review them by how they fulfill the requirements, exclude those that don't and choose the best (or in many cases the lesser evil ). Now I can guarantee you that among those who didn't suceed you will mostly find at least one subject that will start to complain, that you discriminated him somehow, that the conditions violated the law or whatever. Most of such complaints are completely unjustified and the one who makes them knows it that he wouldn't win even if his complaints would be accepted (it can be even the one with the worst offer). He doesn't do that for the reason to change the result and gicve ghimself another chance to win, he just thinks "if I don't win, let no other wins as well. That's the common practise, I'm not saying everyone acts like that but there are more of such people, who act irrationally and the way that doesn't bring them any advance, than you would expect.

Sorry for little topic:

To continue the analogy, I would say that the Russian Ferderation is You, and the angry whiners are the individual coaches, skaters, etc., who don't get the contract.

I would think that the job of the Federation is to make thee best choices that they can and ignore the noisy wuz-robbing.

 

[Scott512]

You are right regarding Adelina's issues during the 1st half of the Olympic season. She had barely overcome puberty and struggled a lot. However, the last 2 competitions before the Olympics - Russian Nationals and Europeans - she actually won the SP over Yulia both times... She was 2.2 points better than Yulia in the SP at Nationals, and she also won overall, becoming the Russian national champion for the 4th time, going into the Olympics. At Europeans, again, she won the SP over Yulia, 70.73 vs. 69.97, although she did lose overall.

Was it "guaranteed" that Adelina would have skated a clean short program in the team event and won ? No, it wasn't, because nothing is ever "guaranteed" at the Olympics. Ice is slippery, you know... However, there was a REASON to believe that Adelina was ALSO capable of skating a decent SP, not ONLY Yulia was capable of doing that - because Adelina had DONE that the last 2 times when it mattered, therefore she could reasonably expect to be considered for competing in this segment of the Olympic team event.

Furthermore, it was not sooo extremely important whether Adelina won the SP or not, because Russia knew they had some safety cushion. The whole point of the initial plan, to let both girls skate one program each in the team event, was completely different. The culmination of the figure skating event at Sochi was supposed to be the ladies singles event, where Russia expected for both girls to land on the podium, with Yulia taking the gold. Therefore, the federation wanted to prepare BOTH of these 2 young skaters as much as possible - give some Olympic experience before the individual event - get out the jitters, but do NOT BURN OUT either one of them, by making one girl skate 2 programs. See what happened when they were forced to scratch this plan...

I never said Yulia wouldn't have gotten the love and international attention unless she skated in the team event... In fact, I pointed out exactly the opposite - Yulia already was the poster girl for the Olympics BEFORE the Sochi games had even begun ! She was on the cover of "Time" magazine before the Olympics. But again, that's beside the point... The point is - what does all the love, international attention etc. etc. for Yulia actually matter for Tutberidze...? For Tutberidze, it's Tutberidze who matters ! That's ALL that matters ! Why not become the ONLY golden girl's coach when you have such an opportunity ?! Look what's going on now... She's never wrong. She basically never shares credit with anyone else, such as previous coaches of the girls who arrive at Tutberidze's camp with all of the triples ready, otherwise she doesn't accept them. Nothing is ever her fault. It's always the fault of the girls - who miraculously turn into spoiled brats in one second, the moment they decide to change coaches...

(BTW, do you even know that years ago Anna Scherbakova was kicked out of Tutberidze's camp for some time, until she learned all of the triples ON HER OWN...? Tutberidze had no interest in wasting time and teaching her. Anna was left without a rink. If she hadn't been extremely lucky - her parents could afford to pay for private lessons and ice time - she would have had no choice but retire ! No she's the leading senior star in Tutberidze's camp (other than Zagitova whose future is unclear). So much for Tutberidze's ability to recognize talent...)

As soon as someone dares to cross Tutberidze's path, the girl gets thrown under the bus. Over and over again. Lipnitskaya, Medvedeva, Tsurskaya, Panenkova, [I probably forgot some more], now Trusova and Kostornaia. In the latest post about Kostornaia leaving, there was NO REASON for Tutberidze to go back all those years and write that scornful remark about Lipnitskaya. Lipnitskaya has a 1-month old baby at the moment. She hasn't given a single interview in several years. She has basically NEVER said anything bad about Tutberidze at all. How about some basic HUMAN DECENCY on the part of Tutberidze and leaving Lipnitskaya alone...? Nope.

Fair points all the way around and we agree on everything Adelina and the team event in Sochi. Adelina was picked for the short program in the team event and then got screwed out of it. I wonder if she ever found out what really happened. Fortunately Adelina went on to have a gigantic moment herself.

And we agree on EG and how she handles herself so emotionally when her pupils leave who have achieved a lot with her. Eteri gets too deeply involved with these girls and it cuts her so deeply when they leave unexpectedly after achieving so much in particular Evgenia Sasha and Aliona. Maybe to her kids it's a business it's their career it's their lives it may be to Eteri it's like she's a second mother for them making them great and them not appreciating her like she's thinks they should. Is she so emotional and upset when the boys leave her? I don't think so. But there's an extra connection from her to these girl she teaches especially the super successful ones. I wish this coach would check herself and not react emotionally when one of her Superstars leaves unexpectedly. But it has to hurt her deeply and she doesn't know how to control it or isn't mature enough to control her emotions.

I did not expect Aliona after almost having an unbeaten debut senior season to leave EG especially not to plushenko who just recently said aliona did not deserve the best newcomer award that Sasha did. But Sports is a business and Sasha is making out quite well so far in her new surroundings with multiple endorsements and Aliona needs and deserves the same. These two Bright Young Stars also won't have to skate on the same ice with three other fantastic skaters everyday in Anna Alina and Kamila. It can't be easy for these girls to have so much talent and I mean five six or seven girls training together on the same ice every single day. That probably played a role in their decisions to depart TT. I've never seen it before in figure skating what's so much talent in one discipline for one coach and we'll probably never see it again. Unless EG does it again.

 

[brakes]

Anya is "happy to return to her native ice rink":
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDbMeA_pnyF/

Notice the timing and the emphasis. She is so intelligent and tactful. :clapper:

 

[flanker]

To continue the analogy, I would say that the Russian Ferderation is You, and the angry whiners are the individual coaches, skaters, etc., who don't get the contract.

I would think that the job of the Federation is to make thee best choices that they can and ignore the noisy wuz-robbing.

In this case the FFKKR consists of those "angry whiners" (or the friends of angry whiners ), as you call them.

 

[flanker]

Anya is "happy to return to her native ice rink":
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDbMeA_pnyF/

Notice the timing and the emphasis. She is so intelligent and tactful. :clapper:

Be careful, if you say "Anna is tactful", someone could blame you that you're hinting "others are not tactful"

 

[Fried]

Anya is "happy to return to her native ice rink":
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDbMeA_pnyF/

How long will the large poster stay, that hangs in the background?

the timing and the emphasis. She is so intelligent and tactful. :clapper:

Above all, she is humorous!

 

[brakes]

Be careful, if you say "Anna is tactful", someone could blame you that you're hinting "others are not tactful"

I used "so" though. And we're talking "aristocrat of figure skating" after all. :agree:

 

[Fried]

Be careful, if you say "Anna is tactful", someone could blame you that you're hinting "others are not tactful"

There is a HUGE difference between "someone is tactful, smart, pretty (or whatever)" and "xy can't stand having the most tactful, most smartest, most prettiest (or whatever)" next to her!

 

[Decoder]

Originally Posted by nussnacker : and it's not some dirty evil secret to be hidden: if the core team is busy with top senior and junior athletes, it wouldn't make sense to spend that time to work on novices on their doubles and triples. There are other coaches who generally take care of younger talent. Perhaps at that stage they didn't have someone like Sergej Rozanov, who would've done that job for them and didn't have time themselves.
Those basic things are taught by coaches of other levels. You don't go to university professor and ask him to explain you basic math of 4th grade, right?
Shouldn't be a secret that Tutberidze probably doesn't spend any time with novices right now as well and only makes checks throughout the year, they would be trained by other coaches.

Well said! I thought this is common sense but obviously people have different take.

 

[Scott512]

Be careful, if you say "Anna is tactful", someone could blame you that you're hinting "others are not tactful"

Lollllllllllll!

 

[AshWagsFan]

Another new question: if the former Eteri students beat the current Eteri students next season with Plushenko, are the Eteri fans going to support Plushenko and Rozanov, or will they remain undoubtedly Eteri’s fans?

 

[eliana]

How long will the large poster stay, that hangs in the background?

Above all, she is humorous!

I like you! You are insightful. :Bravo:

 

[brakes]

Rumours about Kamila Valieva are spreading hard - she was not in any of the group pictures from Novogorsk and Sofia Akatieva posted trio of Daria Usacheva, Maya Khromykh and herself only. She also didn't like any of the latest posts of Eteri or Tutberidze group and she's been always active in that regard. Elena Rodina says she's going to leave. :think:

 

[fabienne1996]

Rumours about Kamila Valieva are spreading hard - she was not in any of the group pictures from Novogorsk and Sofia Akatieva posted trio of Daria Usacheva, Maya Khromykh and herself only. She also didn't like any of the latest posts of Eteri or Tutberidze group and she's been always active in that regard. Elena Rodina says she's going to leave. :think:

If that happens it would be more shocking than alyona or sasha and than something is just really really wrong in the team, because that would mean that eteri looses the one that many see as a good canditate for gold (baring injuries and things like that and that the olympics are even held in 2022). Question who taught her the quads? Dudakov or hot sergei?

Gesendet von meinem SM-T813 mit Tapatalk

 

[karina17]

Rumours about Kamila Valieva are spreading hard - she was not in any of the group pictures from Novogorsk

She's right here

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDURzYTpJEg/?igshid=1mx0rqwqcdibj

 

[Fried]

Rumours about Kamila Valieva are spreading hard - she was not in any of the group pictures from Novogorsk and Sofia Akatieva posted trio of Daria Usacheva, Maya Khromykh and herself only. She also didn't like any of the latest posts of Eteri or Tutberidze group and she's been always active in that regard. Elena Rodina says she's going to leave. :think:

I can see it clearly. This off-season will result in some deaths. I only say heart attack.

 

[flanker]

Another new question: if the former Eteri students beat the current Eteri students next season with Plushenko, are the Eteri fans going to support Plushenko and Rozanov, or will they remain undoubtedly Eteri’s fans?

Are you a fan of someone only when he/she's winning?

 

[mdl]

I may be wrong, but I get the feeling that it was less about supporting Eteri and more about the fact that Julia was looking all ready to become the next skating superstar, maybe on a Yuna/Plushy level. She had the skating, the buzz, the iconic program, the everything. The Federation would have been blind not to see that and want to capitalise on it. Poor Adelina turned into an afterthought to, well.... expected marketing riches.

It fell apart, but no one was to know that beforehand.

That season Adelina was consistent with the SP, she had problem with LP. Yulia also had issues with technique. The PC scoring of Adelina was better. To me the issue was not so straightforward. Considering how indeed important was the whole event to Russia, one would think that the Team members should have been all thought out and selected in advance. And Adelina was selected. The last minute change, with Adelina being already in Sochi speaks for nothing but for some behind-the-scenes moves.

Nobody knows the future, but I thinк that most probably all would agree that Eteri always aims top high. Had Yulia been clear at the individual, she would have been with medal (in my opinion gold) and that would have been really а Аbsolute success for Eteri. I do believe Eteri looked for that in Sochi, the total success.

 

[flanker]

Rumours about Kamila Valieva are spreading hard - she was not in any of the group pictures from Novogorsk and Sofia Akatieva posted trio of Daria Usacheva, Maya Khromykh and herself only. She also didn't like any of the latest posts of Eteri or Tutberidze group and she's been always active in that regard. Elena Rodina says she's going to leave. :think:

She is here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDURzYTpJEg/

Though of course nothing can be excluded now, if anything this is the valuable experience of this summer.

 

[lopsilceci]

This is one, but not the only reason. If the girls were completely satisfied in Eteri's team, they wouldn't have left for promises of contracts.

I'm starting to think that the main reason they left is because Plushenko represents a plan B or some kind of financial security for the uncertain future...
No one knows yet if the 2021 Worlds or the Olympics will be cancelled or postponed. For Sasha and Aliona, this was their moment to shine, while they're at a peak in their careers.
There are other promises: more individual attention, more independence and control over their own training, the best choreographers in the world (Rozanov, apparently )...

All these IG posts about how Sasha is getting a new sponsor every week and how great the training and the new team are seem almost strategic. They're like: "look kids, this is what we're doing for Sasha, this is what we can do for you if you join us."