Well why else would the federation treat the boys more favorably than the girls? You must admit, that there are simply way more girls than there are boys out there. So even if not all will want to come to pairs by themselves, many will if the opportunity to skate with a high level guy comes. And if a guy wants to eliminate or minimize the risks you are talking about, then pick a 17+ girl, make sure she has good jumps, have a long tryout before getting into the partnership. Of course there are still risks, but pairs skating is full of risks. And yes, I am well aware that the national team lists are made in May/June. But Kostiukovich/Ialin split up in March, and she had a new partner pretty quickly too. I know she tried with Bushlanov, and a few others probably but once she got with Briukhanov, they did 3Tw in a week. So could their coach not send something to the federation to show? And I did not say that Volodin was put on the reserve senior team despite 11th at nationals being his best result this past season. I said that Mishina/Galliamov were put on the novice team despite having a lot more progress than nonexistent/Mirzoev, or in the case you mentioned, Bakhats being put on the team without a partner. This is the most unreasonable part to me. How can you put someone on the national team without a partner? Not all pairs are like Vislobokova/Ialin who could get triple throws, twist, level 4 lift, and death spiral in a month. Between national team lists and start of the season, there isno t so much time, if the skater still has not announced a partner. If Kostiukovich called the federation in May and said that she had no partner, she would have no shot even at the reserve team, junior or senior.
The point is, a federation is not too afraid to lose a good girl. But they are doing anything they can to keep the good guys in it. The simple truth is that there are far more girls than boys.
Well, your advice about picking up a girl who is 17+ to minimise the risks doesn’t seem to fully work either. I can name several single ladies (with full set of triples) who switched to pairs, lasted a year or two and then disappeared, or have been moving from one partnership to another and not getting anywhere.
Valentine Chernyshova - switched to pairs, never got into the national team, did a few smaller competitions and the disappeared. And it wasn’t because of bad coaching - they did have Velikov!
Sofia Biriukova - switched to pairs successfully. With Filonov they placed seventh at the nationals. After the successful season, she decided that it wasn’t what she wanted and she retired.
Anastasia Yugai - a single skater, she was paired with Miroshkin, who had been twice bronze medallist at junior worlds and has all three colours of medals from junior grand prix final. But his partner (with whom he got all these medals) did not have triples, so their coach (Mozer) decided that he should dump her. If you think you have never heard of Yugai, it is because Yugai-Miroshkin did only one competition and scored very, very low. It didn’t go anywhere.
Alexandra Shevchenko - was picked up from singles to be a partner for Ivan Bich, who was a pretty decent junior pair male, (with a previous partner Gainedtinova they were in top three or four Russian junior pairs, competing twice at junior worlds). Shevchenko/Bich tried for several seasons. Their best achievement is to qualify to the senior nationals and placed 11th (second from the bottom). I believe they are now together off ice, so the time wasn’t completely wasted.
Augusta Yevseeva - a single skater, switched to pairs, tried several partners, Viktor Kudriavtsev, Roman Zaporozhets, maybe some others (not sure), but didn’t manage to qualify for the nationals with either of them.
My point is, finding a decent single skater who is willing to switch to pairs doesn’t guarantee a successful partnership. Even by minimising the risks and finding the girl of post puberty age, one cannot foresee whether she will like doing pairs, whether she may have problems with height, and whether she is technically able to make the partnership work. In single skating you learn jumps with your own timing. In pairs, one need to be able to stick to the timing that is compatible with the other person’s timing. That can mess up not only side by side jumps, but it can be a problem with many elements (twists, throws, lifts) it the girl has a problem with keeping the timing constant. If you are a single skater and change the timing, you can afford to slightly change timing on your elements every time you do them. If you are a pair skater, your timing needs to be always the same otherwise the other one doesn’t know what to expect.
It is not enough having a decent pair male, so if you match him with a girl with jump, it will work out. It may, but also may not. You need a good pair male, but you also need a female with some natural talent for pairs. Hard work is not enough without having the natural predisposition and talent, the same way as talent is not enoug without he hard work. Balchenko, who is now doing pretty well with Kadyrova, has gone through five other partners (Mitina, Solovieva, Dmitrienko, Khabibulina, Rusakova), and he has been doing pairs only six seasons. Russian Bobrov managed to get through 7-8 partners and never found the right one. There are skaters who never fulfil their potential because they never find the right partner. If Savchenko decided to retire at the same time like Szolkovy, Massot’s best achievement would be 15th at worlds!
