2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[chasingneverland]

Maybe so but to pretend they didn't think Maiia was on a lower level l makes me want to roll my eyes out of my head.

I saw a post where it was suggested Sofia Samodurova should have been invited over Maiia. I love Sofia and would of have been super excited if that had happened, but knowing the general opinion of her abilities here I'd say that's the biggest insult against Maiia you could possibly give.

Also the fact of the matter is Maiia DID outscore them at RusNats. Besides even with falls, Maiia DID score 211. That's higher than most of the others have gotten. I LOVE Sofia but she's not a guarantee to even hit 200 - in fact she hasn't for awhile.

Also in many cases people are saying it negatively against Maiia not positively for any of the others. Regardless, inviting anyone else besides Maiia wasn't going to make a difference unless that was a peak Aliona with 3 3As and even she's not gotten anywhere close to 270. Her highest domestically is 260 and without 3As she's at around 220-230.

More balanced teams might have been Kamila, Liza, and Maiia vs Anna, Sasha, and Daria. But even still I don't think anyone thought Kamila would land 2 3As and 2 4Ts. That's why the seeds were how they were. Because previous tech content had Anna and Sasha as higher. (And if they can get back to form it's MUCH closer. In fact Sasha's tech completely outscores hers and Anna with 3 quads and a 3Lo makes it MUCH closer.) Besides, both Anna and Sasha can land their quads better and Anna had an uncharacteristic pop.

 

[chasingneverland]

Ok so Maiia was weak link. But she can’t get better if she doesn’t skate in advanced events like this.

Just because Kamila was able to move up to seniors with ease, doesn’t mean everyone will.

This stuff is not easy for the experienced skaters, let alone the juniors.

Also Maiia ISN'T a senior internationally yet. At this stage and age, Anna was falling ALL THE TIME on her 4Lz too. And Sasha fell quite a bit too. The difference there is the perception. There it was understood they were juniors and they were first to land quads so there wasn't a "standard" to hold them too. And there were junior competitions for Anna and Sasha to go to where they were compared against other juniors. Here there are no international competitions so it's hard to remember most 14 year olds aren't even attempting quads. And those that aren't being attacked when they can't land an element only a very very few international seniors can - really only Anna, Sasha, Elizabet, and Rika and only Anna and Sasha have attempted two different quads in competition. For the record neither of them were clean on two different quads here either and it's their second year competing them. (Remember Anna's meltdown at JPGF? She was the same age as Maiia when that happened. She's fine now haha.)

 

[Jontor]

Seriously speaking, none of us has any idea what is going on with her. It is all just wild speculation, that's all. I think Alyona is a perfectionist and she will not show up until she is sure she can thrill us. She has this "be #1 or don't bother" mentality, for good or for bad, which might haunt her a llittle now. Still I am just with her, on this as well. Whatever she decides, she's been just unforgettable, amazing, wonderful, beautiful and graceful and gave us all so much. All I have for her is good wishes and hoping for the best outcome of this messy year, whatever that means to the little devilish angel of ice rinks.

You said it. This "be #1 or don't bother" mentality is exactly what I think as well. And unfortunately, I think that means that we might never see Kostornaia competing again. I hope I'm wrong though. But as you said, none of us have any clue at all what is going on with her. Only she knows that.

 

[kan01]

Sasha has improved her artistry in leaps and bounds this season

I agree. She has grown and she has such a superstar quality to her. I didn't care for her last season, but I'm a fan now. She seems very resilient and determined to get that axel, quads, artistry and whatever it takes.

 

[Scott512]

What can you say, really? You have an exhibition event and these girls still go 120%. The ones nursing injuries were careful to not exceed 110%. Relentless.

I can’t imagine how rabid they will be come worlds and, gasp, the Olympics. The cage doors will open, they will be let loose, and all I can say is good luck world, hope you can withstand the onslaught.

The rest of the world may need to be spotted a few points to make it more competitive.

Also, forget international competitions, they should just start airing the competitions that go on inside the training grounds.

Amazing post. But you make it sound like these beautiful girls and women sound like they're savage tigeress or something.

 

[rollerblade]

Something to lighten up the mood...

Is this a sneak peak of Toddlers & Tiaras on Ice? That girl is pink is totally rigging something up to trip "Ariel".

 

[Scott512]

Can someone tell me why Anna was upset? I read reports about her being upset or something at the team event. Please tell me she's not already feeling the pressure of you know who.

 

[Jontor]

I'm not saying whether Aliona is or isn't motivated, I obviously have no idea what's in her head. But I get why people are confused with the lack of clear information. Idk what the protocol is in Russia. If she tested positive for the virus in the beginning of December, would she have automatically been in quarantine for 2 weeks regardless of how she was feeling? If so, she couldn't have been back in the rink for more than a few days before Nationals. So, it would make sense that she wasn't ready to compete in time. Plushenko's message indicated that she was back in the rink training and had wanted to try. But once she was pulled from Nationals, she was reportedly not in the rink at all for a month. Why? If she had gone back to training before Nationals, the expectation would be that she would continue to train after Nationals. Was her stamina so bad in those few days that she needed another month with zero skating to recover? It's possible. But I understand getting the impression that once Plushenko pulled her from Nationals, she felt she had plenty of time to chill before the cup final. Even the cup final might not have seemed very important with Worlds looking so unlikely before the ISU council announcement from the end of January. I don't remember when the team event was announced.

When you put it like that I am even more convinced that Kostornaia lacks motivation compared to others.
Supposedly she and Tuktamysheva got COVID at Rostelecom, Liza was at RusNats, Alëna wasn't. Alëna might have been hit harder, we don't know that, but compared to Liza it looks like she wasn't even trying.
I don't believe Plushenko pulled her from Nationals, she herself did. We all know you can't tell Alëna what to do.
I didn't know that she wasn't skating at all through January, and hearing that I can only say that is motivation lacking. Not even skating! Doesn't sound ambitious at all.
I know some people think that e.g. Shcherbakova who was in bad shape and couldn't even do runthroughs, pushed herself too much to get to Nationals. Well, she sure showed a lot of motivation and drive to do that. The comparison with Kostornaia here is very clear to me. Anna seems more motivated, Alëna not so much. Should Alëna push herself as much as Anna does? No I don't think she has to go through that. But not skating at all through January? That sounds like a non existing motivation to me.

 

[Scott512]

I just watched the conference that the journalists held with the team captains after the competition. Wow. For me personally, a lot has become clearer and more unambiguous

23.54 Evgenia: "As captain, I will speak on behalf of my entire team - we will not admit defeat. And we are proud to have won the audience Award, because people know who they choose" (it's means - "you can't fool people")

To smooth the impression, the press secretary of the federation Olga Yermolina says a conciliatory speech. She says that it was a holiday that gave people a lot of positive emotions "in this time of troubles", and that in this sense it can be considered that "today there are no winners or losers", just win-win situation.

25.00 Alina smiles, doesn't say anything, but shakes her head in denial Yermolina sees it, smiles herself, but continues: "I'm talking about... like, friendship... I can see that Alina doesn't agree with me... But we are still one team, one national team"

Some journalist asks to give the floor to Alina and Yermolina self-contradictingly ends her speech with the words "Alina, of course the red team got ahead and today there is a winner. This is not in doubt.."

25.20 Alina: "Yes, today there is still a winner and this is.."
Evgenia: "Winners in both camps"
Alina: "..Red Maсhine"

Alina makes a rather long pause, her eyebrows begin to take on an independent life, but still her famous good manners take over and we only hear:
25.31 "But we still have the cup"
Evgenia: We congratulate you (the temperature of the words approximate -15 degrees Celsius, or 5 degrees Fahrenheit )
Alina: Thanks
Zhenya rolls her eyes and takes a deep breath

Oh maaaaaan! Come on, you guys! It's been almost three years since that day, just let it go

I think these ladies were frustrated tired and worn out and they didn't even skate much. With the fan wars and pressure on each side to win I would say it was an outstanding competition with great camaraderie. It was nice to see the to icon ladies hug at the end.

I think there was too much pressure on Maya. She needs to put this behind here and get ready for next season.

If Zhenya was upset with the draw so be it. Both teams were loaded with great talent in my opinion.

12 teams or outstanding and it turned out to be an exciting competition that the skaters seemed to enjoy for the most part.

I would hope that most of the fans of the Russians would take this team competition as a celebration of the great Russian skaters.

 

[alexocfp]

Amazing post. But you make it sound like these beautiful girls and women sound like they're savage tigeress or something.

Competitively speaking, they are tigresses. And I use that as the nicest possible compliment. These girls keep upping one another.

This group is definitely in the discussion for best female team in the world, counting all sports.

Plus, a little hyperbole never hurt anyone. Haha

 

[Jontor]

Can someone tell me why Anna was upset? I read reports about her being upset or something at the team event. Please tell me she's not already feeling the pressure of you know who.

My take on it was that she was upset with herself. She has very high standards and thought she failed. She had a hand down on the 4F and missed the 3Lo combo. That's all. But Anna was not happy, she herself is the hardest judge...

 

[chasingneverland]

My take on it was that she was upset with herself. She has very high standards and thought she failed. She had a hand down on the 4F and missed the 3Lo combo. That's all. But Anna was not happy, she herself is the hardest judge...

That's how I saw it too. I think she was particularly upset with herself for the 3Lo - she hasn't had a mistake like that in forever. Sasha also seemed rather upset. They're competitive athletes - you don't get to where they are by being pleased by mistakes. And they're their own worst competitor.

 

[Scott512]

My take on it was that she was upset with herself. She has very high standards and thought she failed. She had a hand down on the 4F and missed the 3Lo combo. That's all. But Anna was not happy, she herself is the hardest judge...

Thanks. She is her own toughest critic.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Why are you making up this narrative about Alina?

I'm not making it up, she deleted if from her stories now, but some hours ago she had a post that suggested shortly before the Audience Award vote closed Team Red Machine was in the lead. In other words they really won it too and TV1 just gave it to Med and her team out of pity.

I just don't appreciate her acting like she was the underdog here, she had Anna and Kamila the best skaters in the entire world and all the other segment were basically evenly matched.

She actually claimed she wasn't sure her Team would win until the last minute? Seriously? They were behind by 125 points! Even a novice Russian girl could have got that.

The only way Team of Firsts could win was for Sasha to do all four of her quads. She didn't/couldn't, that's all Plushenko's fault as well of course. He really is the root of all evil in the figure skating world.

 

[Pale]

Her "not accepting defeat" is essentially "we aren't losers and are proud of winning the audience award" and not saying "you didn't win". There were two awards at this competition and Evgenia was proud her team won one of the awards. The one who did not want to achknowledge that were winners on both sides is someone else.

I just watched the press conference. You are missing the most important part of the speech. Her "people know better" and winking. There is no other way to put it. She implied that Alina's team victory was fake

 

[readernick]

I just watched the press conference. You are missing the most important part of the speech. Her "people know better" and winking. There is no other way to put it. She implied that Alina's team victory was fake

She was being a bit cheeky, injecting some humor, and standing up for her team whose performances really moved her. Alina did the same. Some people look for any opportunity to attribute bad motives to others. Grow up people!

 

[lesnar001]

That wasn't about the audience award that ultimately went to Team of Firsts. It was the voting from the Russian Olympic Comittee's poll (on vk, I think) on which team people were rooting for, which Red Machine won.
Team Zagitova posted that story thanking people for voting and Alina re-posted that to her stories.

Oops!
Those pesky facts just got in the way of a good narrative.

 

[starlight97]

As for the third Worlds spot - I'd say if Alyona's 3A is back, I'd let her go. If not, I'd let Liza go. But the RusFed will probably send Alyona regardless...

That's because even without a 3A Alena is better than Liza. Sad but true.

 

[Finley]

Just unnecessary drama. RF is playing it up for ratings. Both nice girls who were undoubtedly just tired after a long competition, and perhaps slightly annoyed at each other. Evgenia because Alina got automatic first pick in the higher scoring disciplines. And, Alina because Evgenia's team won the popularity prize. Anyway, why bother with this nonsense? They are both great athletes.

I don't think Alina was annoyed because the other team won the popularity contest. She was annoyed because she got interrupted twice in the middle of trying to finish a sentence. If you watch the video you can see the exact moment when she got annoyed. I thought she handled it well. It's annoying af to be interrupted when you are trying to make a point. I only wish she had said: "I'm talking right now."

She watched every second of her team skating their hearts out for two days. Anna and Dmitri weren't even 100% healthy. You could see this was a battle for them to get through their free programs.

This tournament was promoted as this big deal - "Can Medvedeva get revenge?" And there was an entire article about the trophy being made of silver on a marble base with some gemstones mined from the Urals. Like it was meant to be taken 'very seriously'.

If this was going to be a glorified exhibition in a team format where the scores don't matter and there are no winners because everybody wins a prize; then make it like that. No need for the skaters to put themselves through all that. Skate your show numbers and let everyone enjoy the ice cream.

 

[Finley]

Everything they said was ok. What Alina said was ok. What said Evgenia was ok. They were both tired/ sick and a little less polite than usual. This is fake drama.

It's February. Tis the season for manufactured drama from people who don't care for unpleasant outcomes.