2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Vandevska]

Sasha has a new SP costume

While I'm not happy with the change, it can do wonders from a psychological stand point. For example how Eteri proposed that Zhenya get a new Anna Karenina dress after the hardships with the injury.

 

[chasingneverland]

Rostelecom was not a psychological problem. No way. You could already see in training that something was wrong.
And remove 3A, 4T and 4S is supposed to eliminate "mental problems" for Sasha?
Absurd! But as I said. Everyone can think what he wants.

I think it's quite possible it was both. She went into it injured and tried to do her hardest technical content yet. She was hesitant going into the 3A in the short, possibly due to nerves which was only worsened by hesitancy due to an underlying injury. She hurt herself more attempting the 3A. This only snowballed in the free where she was starting from a deficient and didn't have the mental strength/resolve to save the program when it started to unravel which was only worsened by skating injured and the pain and lack of confidence in her abilities that comes from that.

 

[silveruskate]

Sasha's dress in the SP run-through looks divine!

 

[Bluediamonds09]

I like sasha's new sp dress, just not the gloves... oh well. Good luck, girl.

 

[Scott512]

Incredible amount of beautiful young females in one place. Geez!

And they don't even have Nastya Alina Zhenya and princess Aliona at rusnats!
More than Beauty I would be much happier if all four of them were competing at Russian Nationals.

The most shocking thing about the video is to see many people actually wearing masks!

 

[Scott512]

I would take the information about the injury with a grain of salt. After the skate, when Sasha was asked what happened, she said she had no idea. She didn’t mention any injury. And I doubt she would go for four quads if injured. To me it sounds as if Plushchenko is doing damage control.

I thought the same thing you did. But I do think Sasha would never make an injury excuse even if she was injured.

Sasha was good in her first two events this season and then she bombed the GP event in Moscow to the shock of millions. I have to think something was bothering her physically because there was no reason for her to bomb that event which was a very beatable field without Anna and KV and she should have won with an average performance by her standards.

 

[Fried]

LOL! I have election deja-vu's here.

Of course this will not be a ridiculous event. The only thing that is ridiculous is people who don't accept the results.

Proof that this event is indeed ridiculous was provided right from the start. 80 points for a short program with a fall. What a farce.

 

[neusw]

Jesus Anna looked so gassed after the short program I am seriously worried for her getting through a free skate. Even her breathing sounds are rough. Good on her for getting through today, but she really doesn’t need to be at this competition if she’s struggling that much to breath.

 

[Vilord]

Jesus Anna looked so gassed after the short program I am seriously worried for her getting through a free skate. Even her breathing sounds are rough. Good on her for getting through today, but she really doesn’t need to be at this competition if she’s struggling that much to breath.

That worried me a bit too. She has probably not recovered completely from the pneumonia yet (unsurprising really) because I cant remember her ever sounding that winded even after a free skate.

 

[Fried]

Either everyone involved is acting completely irresponsible or the pneumonia was not pneumonia.

I think it's already clear after the SP that I wasn't wrong.

 

[Fried]

Well, so we don't have judges, we have remote-controlled clowns.

 

[karina17]

Alright! Not ready for this thread, the live chat, or any kind of commentary on social media. I pretend I do not see it. Both hands over my eyes. I am blind, I suddenly don't know what anyone scored. Going to bed. Goodnight!

 

[Skatesocs]

I'll be watching the ~discourse~ from afar

 

[kan01]

Proof that this event is indeed ridiculous was provided right from the start. 80 points for a short program with a fall. What a farce.

It's scary.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

The amount of fluke mistakes in the SP was odd. I've never seen so many at a RusNats. Understandable though, a lot of the new competitors are probably nervous and Liza and Anna are still recovering.

 

[neusw]

Ok I’m convinced Sasha needs to start putting her flip in that blind corner Eteri dumps all her flutzers just to even the playing field. No more of this jumping right out in the wide open plains of the rink BS

 

[Magill]

Favouritism was appalling. Still reeaally worried for Anna. The smelling salts and that heavy breathing..., OMG!

 

[Novalis]

https://www.instagram.com/fsrussia2021/live/

 

[AshWagsFan]

Proof that this event is indeed ridiculous was provided right from the start. 80 points for a short program with a fall. What a farce.

And everyone thought I was crazy for years saying the judging was biased!

However I still think Sasha has a shot at winning the title in the free skate.

I’m worried for Anna, Daria looked strong, and I was really happy for Nugumanova!

Liza looked very nervous, but now that she’s still somewhat in contention I think she can rally in the free.

 

[neusw]

In the past, I have avoided calling out judging favoritism towards the Eteri camp because most skaters who have left have taken a step back in the subsequent season, either technically to due to having less complex/complete programs. To my eye Sasha is the first skater that has obviously and definitively improved her programs/skating skills while maintaining her tech (Rostelecom injury train wreck aside), and yet what we are seeing in scoring is that suddenly she is getting new edge calls, lower GOE, less generous PCS, and downgraded levels on borderline cases that would’ve been overlooked before. It’s pretty clear that any skater who leaves Eteri should expect a ~5% drop in score off the bat, and they need to perform all their elements technically perfectly to get the same credit they got before with minor imperfections.