- Joined
- Apr 14, 2018
I know if I was SLB I’d be sympathetic but sympathy doesn’t pay my rent. I’d have to be close to someone to do that kind of favour.
SLB did her job so this whole saga doesn’t involve her.
2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating
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SLB did her job so this whole saga doesn’t involve her.
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2020
Look, I do really like Alyona, and I think she is a tremendoulsy talented skater, and I can even give her a doubt on this of being an impulsive teenager not knowing how to handle things in a right way, panicking and going wild. And I do hope she'll come out alright from all this hot mess. But it is true some people here have been arguing along the lines that her parents fell into a financial trap set up by Plushenko etc. Just go through the posts.
People like this:
Making it sound as though Alena was forced by the fed back into Eteri hands.
I have, but them arguing that doesn't mean that they think things are one-sidedly unfair to her... If anything, every one of her fans here realize that her decisions were not well thought out and rather impulsive, which is why this craziness is going on. Whether people think her family being screwed over financially was a trap or not(I literally have no opinion on this, but I don't think either she, her parents, or Plushenko knew it would end like this) doesn't indicate that they'd think Kostornaia is free of all wrongdoing in in this situation.
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2019
Absolutely reckless in decision-making. The credibility of why she left Eteri, and the severity of the issues there completely go out the window now, and I defended her at the time, and as recently as just after the Cup Finals.
sorry, but it doesn't seem like they're saying that the fed forced her to return to Eteri. They're saying that it's sad that Aliona feels like returning to Eteri is the only good option and that the Fed would agree that returning is good as well maybe bcs uhh, Eteri skaters get the best results?
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2019
No I disagree. Some of the people that have mentioned the trap e.g. Nussnacker are even more fans of other skaters than Aliona. Why is it wrong to say she fell into a trap with the contract? It happens all the time, and we should ALL be careful. But it isn't like she isn't being blamed for it. You should never trust any "verbal contract" or words said in public. Plushenko talks a lot, and makes big claims about not having to worry about the money, and even today saying he'll take none. Is it wrong to criticise his behaviour and words?
She either has to stay at Plushenko's school, retire (though depending on the contract retirement might not get her out of the contract without a financial penalty), or pay whatever the separation amount is to be released from her contract with Plushenko and go be trained by someone else. At this point Sambo has confirmed they will not be paying whatever the separation fee is.
My speculation:
Whoever she is coached by next (if she goes to someone else) will probably want some type of agreement in place with her that at the very least guarantees that she is not violation of any other contractual agreement by being trained by at their facility and/or by their coaches and that she is liable for any legal expenses that arise from any litigation should she be in violation of another contractual agreement.
Questions: is it confirmed that she has actually violated her contract or is it simply that she cannot leave Plushenko without violating the contract?
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2020
Maybe not. I don;t know what anyone thinks. I had a feeling it was implied
You know what it is like with forums. We lack non-verbal communication here so everything which is written is very much open to interpretation and extremely subjective perceptions. We just say a few short words without elaborating on all the picture because then each post would be a novel and that would be truly unbearable. So maybe you're right, I had a feeling at some point this dicussion went very one-sided and biased.- Joined
- Mar 20, 2019
It's the fact that any sympathy given to Aliona is too much for some reason. She's being roundly criticised everywhere. Even if there are a very very very small number of isolated voices in her favour, it's almost nothing. And none of these voices I've seen so far are one-sided, and absolving her of blame. So it seems disingenuous.
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
At this point Alena better apologize and stay with Plushenko. However, his chances of making the Olympic team are slim.
It is sad that after being with the best coach in Russia who led her to success, she is now involved in this situation.
Eteri shouldn't have even considered accepting her after she left, no matter how much time they'd invested in her.
Honestly, she deserves what is happening.
It is sad that after being with the best coach in Russia who led her to success, she is now involved in this situation.
Eteri shouldn't have even considered accepting her after she left, no matter how much time they'd invested in her.
Honestly, she deserves what is happening.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2014
I'm guilty of feeling very sorry for Aliona while at the same time recognizing these are consequences of her choices and her parent's choices.
I also cannot deny that Plush probably did everything in his power to help her succeed. And she didn't listen to him.
I just feel bad for her. I've been 17 and made my own life-alteringly bad decisions.
I also cannot deny that Plush probably did everything in his power to help her succeed. And she didn't listen to him.
I just feel bad for her. I've been 17 and made my own life-alteringly bad decisions.
Not sure it really takes a lawyer to state the obvious - she (or her representatives on her behalf) signed a contract, if they violate that contract then there are remedies to the other party in the contract and there is likely a buyout to said contract that someone must pay.
Has Plushenko and his wife handled this the best with the PR aspect - no, they could have issued a simple statement that If Kostornaia or any skater wished to leave their school that they were more than capable of doing once they satisfied the terms of their contract's separation agreement and that they cannot comment further. But I don't think they are in the wrong for making someone abide by the contractual agreement they signed when that person breaks or wants to break that contract.
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2021
I am afraid I am not 100% with you on this one.
Yes, if this happened in US, I would have said the same. But this won't happen here because the two systems are very different. Here if I need to rent a place, I first read the contract, by myself, because it is not very complicated, and not a lot of money is involved. For a bigger transaction that involves a lot of money, like buying or selling a house, I hire an agent and a lawyer. I guess you are doing the same. Everyone around is doing the same. We are used to it.
However, Aliona and her mom might have a different mindset, because they live in a different society. They probably didn't know much about contract or didn't pay much attention to all the clauses, they were not used to this kind of thing. Maybe they just trust people and didn't look at the details at all. Do we know the other party had explained everything clearly? They should, but who knows. The other party is running a business and they know all the deals and tricks. So you see, there is an imbalance here.
I am not saying Aliona was not guilty. She's emotional and behaved recklessly. However, if I consider the other party as a service provider, they provided bad service and they are ruining her career (I am not going to argue about that for now). I would want a clause in the contract saying I am allowed to leave if I am not satisfied with the service. We really don't know anything about the contract, unfortunately.
In my eyes, she is still a child, and my sympathy goes to her, the more vulnerable party. I doubt the contract is fair. But a contract is a contract, and Aliona will have to deal with it.
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2018
Random interesting tidbit on Anna's SS. I really do think she's improved massively. I was looking at her RusNats SP step sequence and her edges are really quite clean, better than Kamila's (or maybe it's just the shape of the Edea Pianos). Obviously Kamila's is better overall, as she has better speed through the steps (in her first cluster she manages to maintain most of her speed, while in Anna's she dramatically slows down) and I do think her steps look far more effortless. Just interesting that Anna's edges are really quite impressive. In the RusNats SP the only turn that looked kind of meh in terms of edge quality was first rocker (the left counterclockwise one), where it looked like she mostly relied on the position of her leg to push onto an outside edge.
Also is it just me or does it look like the back half of Anna's blade comes off the ice in her right clockwise bracket turn towards the end of the step sequence? Would this count as "hopping" or "cheating"?
Also is it just me or does it look like the back half of Anna's blade comes off the ice in her right clockwise bracket turn towards the end of the step sequence? Would this count as "hopping" or "cheating"?
You could look at online videos for how turns are executed in order to learn how turns are cheated.
Personally, I wouldn't differentiate between the notion of "cheated" and "hopped". Hopped is a type of cheated to me. But I haven't looked at this turn. Usually, a "hopped" turn is when the skater, well, hops at the cusp of the turn.
Oh Fran. She is as hopeless as TSL are...
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2019
Well she also could be doing it out of precedent. Could they afford it this once? Of course. But it sets precedent that you can leave Plushy (or any coach) still owing money and without fulfilling your legal obligations. That's a dangerous slope and even worse for coaches that have less income than he does. And those are the ones it actually will effect. Especially as they won't have the army of lawyers Plushy does. I understand it from a legal point of view - precedent is incredibly powerful and it will actively hurt other private figure skating academies who don't have the legal or financial resources that Plushy can command. (Not to mention his other skaters.)Magill might just like Plushenko a smidge bit more than Aliona
all things aside, Yana a multimillionaire certainly isn’t going broke if she lets Aliona off the hook. She’s doing so purely out of cruelty.
I happened to be on the side of about-to-be-broke talented girl rather than multimillionaire couple, who are about to take all her pennies, sorry for being one-sided. Hard to feel sorry for these extremely rich people, wearing Dior head-to-toe and their gang of lawyers, when they’re demanding money from an average family! So guilty of that bias!
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