RusFed basically issues an ultimatum to the 'newbie coach':
The Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKR) appraised the FS performances of Alexandra Trusova and Alyona Kostornaya at the Russian Grand Prix.
“At the Grand Prix in Moscow, like at the National Cup in Kazan, Kostornaya skated the programme without ultra-с elements, jumping a 2A with a margin, which allows us to hope for the return of the triple axel.
The free skate at Megasport turned out to be cleaner than at the first tournament of the athlete, but it was not engaging enough, as in previous seasons. It is clear that the programme needs some work, but there is not much time left before the Russian championship.
And one would just want to forget about the FS of Alexandra Trusova. The figure skater took third place after the short programme and hoped to correct the situation in the free, as it had already happened at previous starts. But the quads did not go that evening - neither salchow, nor lutz, nor toe loop ... There were a lot of mistakes in her skating - the final protocol contains 6 deductions.
However, it is worth noting that Trusova announced the most difficult content in the free programme, among all of the participants of the Moscow stage. Nobody dared to skate four quads, including the leaders of men's competitions. But to declare is one thing, and to make a competent decision, based on the readiness of the athlete, how many and what jumps are needed, is another story,” the FFKR said in a statement.
I will take that from two opposite point of view.
1st in the merit.
On one side we have Kostornaia that won't put an unstable ultra-c element and on the other Trusova that make unstable ultra-c raining.
Thath's not consistent if we look at it from a coaching point of view, but we also have the skater's attitute (that can't be any more different) into consideration.
The is no doubt tha Aliona and Sasha are skaters of interest for the federation and that, at the moment, their result are under expectations.
Si it's right for the fed to state they want more.
It should be conceded that Sasha's trend is not new, but that was her worst senior perfomance in an important event.
Aliona's problem seems more accountable to her body more than her coach imo but his an inexperienced coach the best to help in such a moment?
(not that her past coach proved to be good at that: Julya, Zenya and Alina moved or stopped competing when it was time but she surely dealt with lot of situations. Maybe Mishin is the one that proved the most in that aspect)
In the end the fed don't care about who trains who, but expect their best prospect to skate at the top of their potential, so (rightly so I may add) the current coach of a non performing skater goes under scrutiny
On the other side (remember I think fed feds have just the merit to finance skating but I consider them a cancer for the sport with their grip on ISU to keep skating built around federations and not around skaters so take my position lightly and with a critical eye).
Anna and Sasha have the right to do what they want. The fed could select them or not for the team but that's it.
If the russian (or any other fed) loose some medal because some of his best skater make bad choices about their career I don't care at all.
I care if Sasha and Aliona as individuals end up losing opportunities because of their choices but what is really important is that it's an individual sport and their choices are theirs and theirs alone.
We as fans, the press, the fed, etc. have the right to an opinion but not to interfere.
This is where the bias come: the federation is only interested in the medal count, the skater are a mere mean to max it but there is no care for the skaters well being. If the two thing align (very possible since skaters want medals too) it's purely incidental.
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