2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Shayuki]

Why shouldn't it have been counted as a combo? She didn't even put her other foot down or fall out of it, she did a 3 turn into the 2T.

To me that's turning more than 1 full revolution, her direction on landing was some 180 degrees from the direction towards which she ended up performing the "combo" jump. And well, having 2 seconds between the two jumps of a combo is a little excessive to me.

 

[Lechat]

You mean the same Tutberidze who gave Diana, Alina and Daria the same dress this season?
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She has good taste

 

[NaVi]

Some might hate me for saying it here, but Rika's the "favorite" to win worlds. And by favorite I mean about ~37% chance vs Shcherbakova's ~33% chance and Trusova's ~27% chance of winning. At this point the tech and politics are behind her setting it up for Kamila vs Rika for the Olympics.

 

[chasingneverland]

You mean the same Tutberidze who gave Diana, Alina and Daria the same dress this season?
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I mean it's not the exact same dress but they must have gotten a discount on that material and that black aplique.

 

[brakes]

You mean the same Tutberidze who gave Diana, Alina and Daria the same dress this season?
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These skaters don't compete next to each other at all.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

Unrelated but does anyone know when that picture of Alina was taken? I don't recall having seen her anywhere near Kulikova or Paramonova this season.

The photo is from November

 

[chasingneverland]

Some might hate me for saying it here, but Rika's the "favorite" to win worlds. And by favorite I mean about ~37% chance vs Shcherbakova's ~33% chance and Trusova's ~27% chance of winning. At this point the tech and politics are behind her setting it up for Kamila vs Rika for the Olympics.

How did you get these percentages? haha

 

[brakes]

Some might hate me for saying it here, but Rika's the "favorite" to win worlds. And by favorite I mean about ~37% chance vs Shcherbakova's ~33% chance and Trusova's ~27% chance of winning. At this point the tech and politics are behind her setting it up for Kamila vs Rika for the Olympics.

As Anna's fan, I love you for saying this.

 

[Skatesocs]

I haven't read this thread, and so I'm sure Kostornaia is being criticised for her choice. But honestly, whatever the reason behind her decision to switch, I respect it. To me it's clear that she's a very intelligent person and quite the individual. Maybe she shouldn't have gone to Plushy, maybe she should have waited to get a better deal with him than being stuck with Rozanov, whatever. Life is too short to make decisions based off public opinion. I don't really care for her skating (function of her programs more than anything), but she's been quite an impressive person.

 

[Fluture]

Some might hate me for saying it here, but Rika's the "favorite" to win worlds. And by favorite I mean about ~37% chance vs Shcherbakova's ~33% chance and Trusova's ~27% chance of winning. At this point the tech and politics are behind her setting it up for Kamila vs Rika for the Olympics.

I‘m not hating you, I‘d genuinely love for Rika to win. Just baffled why you‘d think this when Rika‘s always been considerably underscored compared to Russian skaters. Shcherbakova‘s the favorite and by far. She is Russian #1, has two quads and political backing. I just don‘t see anyone catching her unless she makes mistakes and/or Trusova lands like 5 quads and Kihira 3 3As + the 4S. Which...isn‘t all that likely.

 

[Shayuki]

I‘m not hating you, I‘d genuinely love for Rika to win. Just baffled why you‘d think this when Rika‘s always been considerably underscored compared to Russian skaters. Shcherbakova‘s the favorite and by far. She is Russian #1, has two quads and political backing. I just don‘t see anyone catching her unless she makes mistakes and/or Trusova lands like 5 quads and Kihira 3 3As + the 4S. Which...isn‘t all that likely.

Agreed with you, doesn't make much sense. One could certainly say that Rika can win and it wouldn't be that massive a shock, but to call her the favorite is a bit curious to me.

 

[rollerblade]

You mean the same Tutberidze who gave Diana, Alina and Daria the same dress this season?
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Aw man, Daria drew the short straw again. Not only is she stuck with elbow-length gloves, she doesn't get 2 younger skaters to pose with her.

 

[karina17]

Speaking of Daria drawing the short straw, I'm shocked that she's not skating last tomorrow.

 

[Shayuki]

Krivonosova 53.66 points in the SP in the sports 2 category, which has now got to be the record. Although the jumps clearly aren't her best, she still landed everything more or less clean again. The finger pointing from 2:05 is very decisive, that's my favorite part of this one I'd say. The step sequence has one mistake on a counter on the second combo at the very least and so it's just a level 3, but strong otherwise.

Sarimsakova also skated in the same competition, scoring 51.12. Alena Zhilina 43.65. The fact that Sarimsakova got within 0.25 of Krivonosova in terms of skating skills is some classic CSKA scoring.

 

[colormyworld240]

Who did Alena's new SP? Her Billie Eilish one was much better. Maybe the Fed made her change it when Lakernik went to visit?

Choreographically, it's very bland and there's very little choreography. But even more, the music doesn't suit Alena. She's not feeling it at all even before the mistake. Alena does better with pop music or a character and she understands, and she performed her Billie program much better. I'm not talking about the jumps - everyone has falls and off days, but even with mistakes she was much more into it from beginning to the end. She's lost in this new music, and didn't she say in interviews before that she doesn't like classical pieces? Or was that slow music, I forget. For his first piece of choreography as a new coach, Rozanov actually did well with her first SP and chose movements that brought out Alena's performance, especially in the steps.

As for the coaches' reaction, I wouldn't read too much into it. Plushenko, Mishin, and Eteri are often stone-faced but they know their skaters best. Many people don't like to be coddled or fussed over when they make mistakes. Personally, whenever I made mistakes the last thing I wanted was for teachers to reassure me over and over; I just needed to process and move on. Perhaps Alena and other skaters are like this as well.

 

[lopsilceci]

Well, it was really sad to see Aliona break down like that.

My take on this is that she probably benefitted the most from the high-pressure, competitive and demanding environment at Team Tutberidze or whatever it is they do to make their skaters super consistent and mentally strong to not get affected by mistakes. If she had skated clean, without 3A, she would have been 2nd or 3rd going by those very generous PCS.

Rozanov is clearly very inexperienced and not ready to be the main coach of a top skater. He's basically experimenting with her and she's paying for his incompetence and bad decisions.

I really don't know what she could do to overcome this situation. I would say, go back to TT but that's very unlikely, especially if she insists on wanting to be coached by Rozanov and I don't think Eteri would want to take her back anyway.

 

[Skatesocs]

Choreographically, it's very bland and there's very little choreography.

Baroque is very hard to interpret as dance IMO. IDK why they keep using it for skating either.

 

[brakes]

Krivonosova 53.66 points in the SP in the sports 2 category, which has now got to be the record. Although the jumps clearly aren't her best, she still landed everything more or less clean again. The finger pointing from 2:05 is very decisive, that's my favorite part of this one I'd say. The step sequence has one mistake on a counter on the second combo at the very least and so it's just a level 3, but strong otherwise.

She's using bullets instead of arrows - judges had no chance.

 

[Jontor]

I hope Alëna didn't mean anything with that comment "there is no tomorrow". It sounds like she wants to withdraw, and I would be very disappointed if she did.

Well, she is skating first in the 2nd group tomorrow, and maybe that is a good thing. She can totally focus on herself and won't be affected by the scoring drama of the others.

 

[MaggieLin]

Who did Alena's new SP? Her Billie Eilish one was much better. Maybe the Fed made her change it when Lakernik went to visit?

Choreographically, it's very bland and there's very little choreography. But even more, the music doesn't suit Alena. She's not feeling it at all even before the mistake. Alena does better with pop music or a character and she understands, and she performed her Billie program much better. I'm not talking about the jumps - everyone has falls and off days, but even with mistakes she was much more into it from beginning to the end. She's lost in this new music, and didn't she say in interviews before that she doesn't like classical pieces? Or was that slow music, I forget. For his first piece of choreography as a new coach, Rozanov actually did well with her first SP and chose movements that brought out Alena's performance, especially in the steps.

I also recall her saying she doesn't like classical music. To me, the most fitting program for her thus far was her first junior season SP - Adiós Nonino.