2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Scott512]

I think the only reason she’s there, is that 3 time win (if it happens) will be a massive reputation boost for Anna. It didn’t happen for a long time for ladies, and National title is a serious business in Russia. It would solidify her claim for an Olympic spot once and for all, even if she struggles afterwards to some degree, Russia won’t leave 3x national champion at home. She’ll have a much better sense of calm going into next season, if she wins or even medals here.

Exactly.

This rusnats his is probably the biggest competition of the year if there is no world championships and with the Russian ladies it's kind of a mini worlds you have been chipped in.

Competition in Russia among the ladies is brutal at the top and that's one of the reason she's there fighting for her zpot and Anna should not have the fight for her spot.

I know others in Russia have won 3 ladies national titles in a row but the competition is probably 3 or 4 times stronger now than when the ladies did it then.

No question the top 3 skaters can all win tomorrow and no one knows what's going to happen. The excitement and trepidation at the same time is real.

 

[Scott512]

I agree they should pull her. She had nothing really to prove anyway. And already proved, even while clearly still sick/recovering that she can beat essentially everyone. She's already won a "small gold" in the SP. A 3 peat isn't worth her health, especially with Alena already missing and everyone else having struggles here and there. Especially since they've already said that it won't be the defining competition for World's and she was already penciled in on the team. Especially as with her difficult programs she risks damaging her recovery (and jeopardizing her attendance at future competitions) as well as risking her health, if she were to fall and get injured as well as mentally, if she were to have an implosion.

Her health isn't worth it for any competition. But she's never been to world's (due to COVID) and the Olympics are still a year away. They need to protect her if she's not recovered enough.

(She was stunning today though.)

For that matter, I wouldn't be upset at Liza T withdrawing as well. She needs it more (as her position is much more precarious) but she also looked tired.

If positioning for a world championship competition does not matter what is Anya doing in Siberia so soon after pneumonia?

She won't let them take this opportunity of a 3 peat from her unless she's really feeling badly tomorrow.

 

[kolyadafan2002]

Examples of unfair judging:
Sasha got an edge call on her 3F (!).
Sherbakova, Daria, Kamila all have a questionable or sometimes completely inside edge. None of them even got a ! call.
Liza (and one other skater I think Miya but can't remember exactly) had major stumbles in their programs / step sequences which were ignored.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

Again, it's great that Anya likes to challenge herself but in this case the adults should really use their heads and think logically. If she has to skate the FS, I really hope they don't try to force her to do a quad and then 2 triple-triples in the second half. I really don't want her to risk her health just for one competition that honestly doesn't even matter. RusFed isn't stupid, they won't not send Anna to Worlds (if it happens) even if she does WD from this event.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

Okay, but can we just acknowledge how great Maiia was today? This program suits her so much! (Who cares about lyrics!)

 

[Novalis]

Examples of unfair judging:
Sasha got an edge call on her 3F (!).
Sherbakova, Daria, Kamila all have a questionable or sometimes completely inside edge. None of them even got a ! call.
Liza (and one other skater I think Miya but can't remember exactly) had major stumbles in their programs / step sequences which were ignored.

Kamila?!? Stop you're completely nonsensical bashing of her!

 

[Scott512]

Yes, they aren't sports. Sport requires judging/competing by definition to be a sport (at least going by the Oxford definition) :" an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment." In order for there to be a competition, there has to be a measurement of success. In swimming or running this is times / positions. In figure skating, this is judging. If figure skating had no judging, it'd be a performing art not a sport.

Anything non competitive is either a performing art, a professional activity, or a recreational activity.

"Fair" in figure skating is where everybody has equal opportunity and is marked according to what they produce, rather than their previous reputation or who they are. In this case the judging was unfair, as they marked Valieva based on reputation rather than what she produced.

Creating excuses for a dodgy federation because a favourite is winning doesn't help push figure skating forwards as a sport. It makes it into a laughing stock.

No matter who has won and the last few years Zhenya Alina Anna sasha Alyona and now KV one thing is for sure and that's this the Russian ladies are pushing ladies figure skating forward around the world and they're dragging everybody else with them. All other countries just cannot keep up with them with the ladies certainly not with depth of talent.

 

[kolyadafan2002]

Again, it's great that Anya likes to challenge herself but in this case the adults should really use their heads and think logically. If she has to skate the FS, I really hope they don't try to force her to do a quad and then 2 triple-triples in the second half. I really don't want her to risk her health just for one competition that honestly doesn't even matter. RusFed isn't stupid, they won't not send Anna to Worlds (if it happens) even if she does WD from this event.

I don't think she could make it through a free program. She was totally done after a short program with 3 jumps. Even if it were a program with all doubles I'd still question her ability to perform it without mistakes. Its better to withdraw her imo.

 

[[email protected]]

Completely disagree. I do see improvement in Sasha in that she is not rushing as much, but there is no way she isn’t 3+ points below Anna in PCS, even accounting for her better SS. Watching their skates side by side, there couldn’t be a clearer difference between who is performing their choreography and expressing and moving to the music and who is just doing the choreography they were taught. And it’s not just the difference in artistry but also the quality of the movements; soft arms, movement in the body, extensions, posture.

National biases aside people still have different views on what is good and what is bad talking about the second mark. What is more and what is less important looks like an open question. I adored Yulia (I still adore her watching her 2014 programs), I was mesmerized by old style Zhenya's skating. I saw major degrading after her move to Canada. But a lot of people here made a big noize about "improvements". May be because for me important things are emotions, telling the stories, beautiful arms, fluidity which includes the upper body, lightness on ice. Those for me are elements of skating which pull the strings with me. These are things that I do not see by far and large in most of the leading Japanese skaters who are praised by the very same people who keep analyzing issues here at RLT. So other people find other things to focus to support their stories. Like speed and other elusive "skating skills". Take Nastya Gulyakova 33.56 vs. Liza Nugumanova's 33.66. That's a joke to me not Sasha's 35.5 vs. Kamila's 37.5

Of todays skaters two of them stood out for me: Kamila and Anna. Daria was quite impressive as well before she started to stumble. That's why I think that Kamila's and Anna's pcs lead (other things being equal) is absolutely legitimate. Yes, Sasha made a good step forward because before she could care less about anything but jumps. Good for her. But she is still not there. And she never was with Eteri.

Continuing the discussion of the second mark I would think that another skater who made a very good improvement is Liza Tuktamysheva. Too bad she could not land properly her 3A and reverted to 3T-3T. With her maximum layout if she skated like she did today she could have stormed 80. Such a fighter. She has so much experience. What a silly loss of a point for the late start.

 

[kolyadafan2002]

Kamila?!? Stop you're completely nonsensical bashing of her!

She has an edge issue. look at this link at 4:56 - https://youtu.be/IyK0r4GLtI8

I'd call this a flip if I didn't know her program layout.

 

[Novalis]

She has an edge issue. look at this link at 4:56 - https://youtu.be/IyK0r4GLtI8

I'd call this a flip if I didn't know her program layout.

Wow! Really?!?

 

[brakes]

I don't think she could make it through a free program. She was totally done after a short program with 3 jumps. Even if it were a program with all doubles I'd still question her ability to perform it without mistakes. Its better to withdraw her imo.

This girl made a habit of exceeding my expectations over and over again, but I don't see it as well.
She was extremely exhausted after short program, it was painful to watch her fighting for every single breath.

 

[kolyadafan2002]

No matter who has won and the last few years Zhenya Alina Anna sasha Alyona and now KV one thing is for sure and that's this the Russian ladies are pushing ladies figure skating forward around the world and they're dragging everybody else with them. All other countries just cannot keep up with them with the ladies certainly not with depth of talent.

Yes they are. I don't disagree with that statement. They are pushing the technical boundaries further than anybody. That doesnt mean they (rusfed) should push up skaters (that they like) scores riddicuously to beat skaters the federation doesn't like. They're mocking the sport when they abandon fair scoring and lose their judgment to politics.

 

[chasingneverland]

If positioning for a world championship competition does not matter what is Anya doing in Siberia so soon after pneumonia?

She won't let them take this opportunity of a 3 peat from her unless she's really feeling badly tomorrow.

Because these girls like to compete. However, they've already said that the competition is purely motivational.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

Liza Nugumanova had the best SP for me, then Maiia, then Sasha and Anya. Daria did great up until the stumble though... I like Kamila but I think this wasn't the best showing of her SP (stage 5 and stage 2 were better IMO).

 

[kolyadafan2002]

This girl made a habit of exceeding my expectations over and over again, but I don't see it as well.
She was extremely exhausted after short program, it was painful to watch her fighting for every single breath.

Yet pushing through difficult skates after having covid can lead to permanent lung complications (at least that's what the doctors told kostornaia and Plushenko).

Honestly, I don't want to see Anna have a terrible skate. Id rather she stayed healthy - she has nothing to prove.

 

[Amei]

I like that Shcherbakova is next to last and after the other quadsters, based on practice it seems like she's planning a solo quad flip and a quad flip triple toe combination, as she's skating after everyone except Usacheva they can assess if she can drop to 1 quad for the win or try both. I don't know if her breathing hard is result only of the fact she's still recovering or a combination of recovering, being immersed in her performance (that girl feels her performance on another level and I think that takes something out of you based on some others I've seen perform in dance) and a bit of panic after she botched that spin and nearly fell. But it would likely be best if she didnt go for 2 quads.

 

[chasingneverland]

Again, it's great that Anya likes to challenge herself but in this case the adults should really use their heads and think logically. If she has to skate the FS, I really hope they don't try to force her to do a quad and then 2 triple-triples in the second half. I really don't want her to risk her health just for one competition that honestly doesn't even matter. RusFed isn't stupid, they won't not send Anna to Worlds (if it happens) even if she does WD from this event.

Agreed. It's a "motivational" competition that Alena has already WD from. Anna has already won the SP (even when obviously not healthy yet). They're pretty much guaranteed to be already sending her to Worlds, or as close as can be with Russia.

 

[chasingneverland]

Yet pushing through difficult skates after having covid can lead to permanent lung complications (at least that's what the doctors told kostornaia and Plushenko).

Honestly, I don't want to see Anna have a terrible skate. Id rather she stayed healthy - she has nothing to prove.

Yeah exactly. She has nothing to prove. And Alena has already withdrawn although like Anna she didn't want to. But Anna has looked even better than Alena this year, before injuries, so also doesn't need to prove anything. Barring catastrophe, which they risk by having Anna compete, the World's team is probably still Anna, Alena, and Sasha.

 

[chasingneverland]

Examples of unfair judging:
Sasha got an edge call on her 3F (!).
Sherbakova, Daria, Kamila all have a questionable or sometimes completely inside edge. None of them even got a ! call.
Liza (and one other skater I think Miya but can't remember exactly) had major stumbles in their programs / step sequences which were ignored.

Daria stumbled in her step sequence.

I don't think Anna or Kamila would get !'s - they don't internationally. Daria should have gotten an e.