2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[chasingneverland]

With the speed thing I guess she's gotten a bit slower now (she used to just fly across the ice), but in 2018 she still had excellent speed. Sometimes I guess it would be less obvious since she has soooo few crossovers in her programs, but I definitely don't think she got slower from 2016/17 to 2017/18.

Her jumps have never looked effortless though. I guess her 3Lo and 3S and maybe 2A are okay in terms of effortlessness but the 3Lz+3T combo, oh man. I'm surprised she can still do those because like that technique was objectively not good. I'd say her 3Lo and 3S and 2A are still pretty good. The 3Lz+3T is not very good but again, it's never been.

Her spins, honestly, have gotten worse. That's the only part where I'd say she's gotten worse. Jumps are just as odd as always, skating is beautiful, she's more mature now but she's always been amazing. But with the growing level of figure skating, inconsistent jumps and wonky combos is hurting her a lot. So I wouldn't say Nastya herself has gotten worse (she's gotten better in some ways too), I'd say the level of figure skating was rising at a meteoric rate, one which many of the ladies couldn't exactly keep up with. And sadly, I think Gubanova was one of those that couldn't keep up with the rate (also the politics certainly did not help her).

Maybe not in terms of actual speed but I thought even in 2017/2018 her skating looked less effortless. Still beautiful, don't get me wrong but not like she was just dancing across the ice anymore.

While her jumps have never looked exactly effortless, they didn't look like she was struggling in 2016/2017. Like I at least wasn't worried about them I guess.

Sadly, I think that it was already a fear that she couldn't keep up in 2017/2018. By that Junior RusNats Sasha had already attempted her first quad in competition and she landed her first two (4S and 4T) in the FS that year at Junior World's. And even before the season even started both Anna and Sasha had been recorded landing quads (including in combo) in practice. I think they already knew that the level of figure skating was already rising then...

And then that combined with a 160 at the one event they did give her.. She fell twice in BOTH the SP and the FS......I just don't think they thought she could keep up at all...She just didn't have the jumps (they were at best inconsistent)...

I do hope she comes back and gets some senior "B"'s at least this year...

 

[chasingneverland]

Well said and explained in I forgot a lot of that. It will be better next season with the judging because the Russian judges know the focus is on them.

LOL. How do you suppose that?

 

[katymay]

I have a funny feeling that Elizaveta Tuktamysheva can win world this year ! That's not what I expect, but my mind say that it's possible that she created the surprise !

I think-you just never know. I think any one of Kaori, Rika, Sasha, Anna or Elizaveta could win.

 

[katymay]

Article about how Young You is the "Aloina Kostornaia' of Korea; https://www.sportmk.ru/sports/2021/...=desktop&utm_referrer=https://yandex.ru/sport

Interesting part about how, at Junior Worlds, she and her mother and coach were backstage watching Trusova and how shocked they were when Trusova threw the quads. And they knew she had to go somewhere to learn...quads. (My Google translate is probably horrible, but that was the jist). I hope Young You finds her mojo and is back next year.

 

[Dawn825]

“I am very hard on myself. I don't like anything about my skating, jumping and spinning, so I want to fix my skating and pushing skills. I feel weaker [compared to] other skaters. Like jumping, I don't like my style. I don’t know, I don’t like anything about my style of skating, I want to fix everything, and it seems to me that I am always worse than other skaters, so I want to be perfect. " Yikes. That kind of mindset will either drive her to the top or cripple her before she gets there.

 

[Scott512]

LOL. How do you suppose that?

Because plushy is going to be on their case!
Russian judges must be fair and at home competitions. Nobody gets a bounce nobody gets reputation points.

 

[chasingneverland]

Because plushy is going to be on their case!
Russian judges must be fair and at home competitions. Nobody gets a bounce nobody gets reputation points.

Hahahahahahaha. Absolutely no evidence of that happening..hahaha


Besides Plushy's skaters do benefit from a bonus.

 

[Scott512]

“I am very hard on myself. I don't like anything about my skating, jumping and spinning, so I want to fix my skating and pushing skills. I feel weaker [compared to] other skaters. Like jumping, I don't like my style. I don’t know, I don’t like anything about my style of skating, I want to fix everything, and it seems to me that I am always worse than other skaters, so I want to be perfect. " Yikes. That kind of mindset will either drive her to the top or cripple her before she gets there.

Who?

 

[Scott512]

Hahahahahahaha. Absolutely no evidence of that happening..hahaha


Besides Plushy's skaters do benefit from a bonus.

Well I'm glad the plushy skater's get a bounce. At least we know it's not just one coach.

 

[Amei]

I have a funny feeling that Elizaveta Tuktamysheva can win world this year ! That's not what I expect, but my mind say that it's possible that she created the surprise !

Without multiple skaters having meltdowns Tuktamysheva is going to need to have the performance of her life and whip out a SP with a clean triple axel and a clean FS with significantly upgraded technical content, and she's been struggling to be clean in the program content she has been doing

So Tuktamysheva's most difficult FS this season at GP Russia where she did 2 triple axels - her BV was 67.07 - her TES after GOE was 77.17 points.

Look only at her Russian competition at Worlds both Shcherbakova and Trusova's most difficult FS program content (done cleanly) was at Nationals. And we know that both of these skaters have competed higher difficulty from what they did at Nationals.

• Shcherbakova's BV was 81.88 points her TES after GOE was 106.70, now Shcherbakova internationally does get good GOEs but let's say we knock down her TES after GOE by 10 points to account for domestic inflation - her TES is still 96.70, more than 19.5 points above Tuktamysheva's domestically scored FS.
• Trusova's BV was 79.38, TES after GOE was 97.75, similar to Shcherbakova Trusova internationally does get good GOEs but let's say we knock down her TES after GOE by 10 points to account for domestic inflation - her TES is still 87.75, more than 10.5 points above Tutkamysheva.

 

[MaggieLin]

Wow, surprised to see the Gubanova discussion still going on Anyway, I’m glad people still remember her, with the few highlights she had in her international career.

Side talk, I know Rika is not a Russian Lady but I wonder what people think. She just announced that she’s gonna do 4s, 3a2t in the first half, add another 3a in the second half, and switch the last 2a to a 3lz - which gives her about +4 points in base value. I’m guessing she’d be able to afford more mistakes with this content - and LizaT’s chance of bronze looks slimmer to me...

 

[MaggieLin]

“I am very hard on myself. I don't like anything about my skating, jumping and spinning, so I want to fix my skating and pushing skills. I feel weaker [compared to] other skaters. Like jumping, I don't like my style. I don’t know, I don’t like anything about my style of skating, I want to fix everything, and it seems to me that I am always worse than other skaters, so I want to be perfect. " Yikes. That kind of mindset will either drive her to the top or cripple her before she gets there.

Who?

I think that quote was from Young You’s interview. Which makes total sense to me. Ever since the first time I see her skating (she was about 12?), I thought, “Geez, this girl is fast and intricate, but she has zero passion...”. And to some extend I still feel the same way. I wouldn’t describe her as a “poor performer” - she does have relatively good programs and her expressions aren’t bad...but it just feels cold to me. An extreme comparison would be Sasha. I know her moves aren’t as refined as others, but every time I see her skate, I see soooo much passion and love for the sport bursting out from her like a little fireball...!

 

[Amei]

Wow, surprised to see the Gubanova discussion still going on Anyway, I’m glad people still remember her, with the few highlights she had in her international career.

Side talk, I know Rika is not a Russian Lady but I wonder what people think. She just announced that she’s gonna do 4s, 3a2t in the first half, add another 3a in the second half, and switch the last 2a to a 3lz - which gives her about +4 points in base value. I’m guessing she’d be able to afford more mistakes with this content - and LizaT’s chance of bronze looks slimmer to me...

Well she really needs that second triple axel to be back-loaded to be comparable to the quads that we'll see from Shcherbakova and Trusova. But I don't think it necessarily takes Tuktamysheva out, from my recollection Rika has only landed her quad salchow (BV 9.7 points) once in competition so it's not like she has a large competition history landing quads, and similar to Tuktamysheva, she's not the most consistent on her triple axel where she gets a big benefit from them and this will be her first time (based on my recollection) of her back-loading that triple axel.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

Well she really needs that second triple axel to be back-loaded to be comparable to the quads that we'll see from Shcherbakova and Trusova. But I don't think it necessarily takes Tuktamysheva out, from my recollection Rika has only landed her quad salchow (BV 9.7 points) once in competition so it's not like she has a large competition history landing quads, and similar to Tuktamysheva, she's not the most consistent on her triple axel where she gets a big benefit from them and this will be her first time (based on my recollection) of her back-loading that triple axel.

Well, I'd say Rika is pretty consistent with her 3A. She only had 5 3As with negative GOE and none of those were falls, they were just URs or very slight negative GOEs. And she attempted around 21. So she had a 76% success rate. That's pretty good. And she did have a great Japanese Nats FS so I wouldn't count her out of the discussion.

Now that we know Rika's layout, I am really wondering what Sasha, Anya and Liza will do. Will Anya do 3 quads? Will Sasha do 5? Will Sasha do 3A? Will Liza do a quad? If Rika goes clean, these three will also need to be at least close to clean to challenge her. Liza will need to be pristine clean - and she probably needs Rika to have a mistake even if, I think Sasha could still win if she fell on a quad - but that's only if she really goes for four or five and she has no URs or pops, Anya could probably still win with a step-out or UR but I'm not sure about a fall or a downgrade.

 

[MaggieLin]

Well, I'd say Rika is pretty consistent with her 3A. She only had 5 3As with negative GOE and none of those were falls, they were just URs or very slight negative GOEs. And she attempted around 21. So she had a 76% success rate. That's pretty good. And she did have a great Japanese Nats FS so I wouldn't count her out of the discussion.

Now that we know Rika's layout, I am really wondering what Sasha, Anya and Liza will do. Will Anya do 3 quads? Will Sasha do 5? Will Sasha do 3A? Will Liza do a quad? If Rika goes clean, these three will also need to be at least close to clean to challenge her. Liza will need to be pristine clean - and she probably needs Rika to have a mistake even if, I think Sasha could still win if she fell on a quad - but that's only if she really goes for four or five and she has no URs or pops, Anya could probably still win with a step-out or UR but I'm not sure about a fall or a downgrade.

My guess would be -

Anya would go for 3 quads (but for some reason I feel like the one in the second half will be UR...)

Sasha will go for 3 quads and 3a in short (depending on 3a she may add a fourth quad?) I don’t think she can do 5 right now... 4f will most likely get an edge call. Haven’t seen her 4s in a while and historically it’s been her weakest quad. So if she go with 4 quads it’s gonna be 2 4lzes and 2 4ts? ...I hope she just go with 3 quads and skate clean though.

Liza said she will not upgrade, if I remembered correctly.

 

[Scott512]

I think that quote was from Young You’s interview. Which makes total sense to me. Ever since the first time I see her skating (she was about 12?), I thought, “Geez, this girl is fast and intricate, but she has zero passion...”. And to some extend I still feel the same way. I wouldn’t describe her as a “poor performer” - she does have relatively good programs and her expressions aren’t bad...but it just feels cold to me. An extreme comparison would be Sasha. I know her moves aren’t as refined as others, but every time I see her skate, I see soooo much passion and love for the sport bursting out from her like a little fireball...!

I think Young is an excellent up and coming skater. I don't know that she lacks passion because she's quiet and low-key.

Sasha's passion is more evident but her passion is almost more evident than anyone's.

 

[MaggieLin]

I think Young is an excellent up and coming skater. I don't know that she lacks passion because she's quiet and low-key.

Sasha's passion is more evident but her passion is almost more evident than anyone's.

Oh I guess passion would be the wrong word. I’m sure she enjoys skating (or at least used to, otherwise her and her mom wouldn’t move all the way back to Korea from Singapore and train 10h a day giving up school...). I just hope the girl skates with more confidence, because gosh, confidence makes a skater shine bright...and that quote from her worries me (I actually wish it’s media exaggeration but it looks more like a direct quote). She should totally be proud of herself!

Anyway, back to the Russian ladies

 

[colormyworld240]

Definitely Anastasia Gubanova for me. One of the first skater I followed since novice and what a talent...

Gubanova was definitely one of the first skaters in the jumping boom. I remember watching her doing 3Lz-3Lo when she was 11 or 12, which was quite unheard of at the time. I can't help but compare her to Alina in the same age group (maybe a year younger per ISU rules?), who was still jumping doubles at 11.

Unfortunately, she lost her -3Lo combos and had consistency issues by the time she was in her second junior season. Still, she definitely had grace, musicality, and skating skills, though I'd argue that Tarakanova's skating stills were even better, and she was a better jumper minus the wonky 3F. They're definitely different; Gubanova has the classic ice princess style, but Tarakanova has so much fire and passion, especially in her asylum SP which is still one of my favourites.

 

[chasingneverland]

My guess would be -

Anya would go for 3 quads (but for some reason I feel like the one in the second half will be UR...)

Sasha will go for 3 quads and 3a in short (depending on 3a she may add a fourth quad?) I don’t think she can do 5 right now... 4f will most likely get an edge call. Haven’t seen her 4s in a while and historically it’s been her weakest quad. So if she go with 4 quads it’s gonna be 2 4lzes and 2 4ts? ...I hope she just go with 3 quads and skate clean though.

Liza said she will not upgrade, if I remembered correctly.

Anna has never done a backloaded quad before. I don't think she'll start now and to be honest she doesn't need to.

Sasha actually can't do two 4Lzs and two 4Ts. She'll Zayak if she does that. You can only repeat one quad and one triple (or two triples). That's why multiple quads and 3As are so good. To do 4 quads she'll have to do either her 4S or her 4F, but she hasn't done her 4F at all this year and her 4S isn't very stable. Also due to injury she had to stop training her 4T (though it's back), her 4S, and her 3A. I don't think Sasha goes for more than 3 quads here and a 3A in the SP - unless practice is going really really well. She'll need to be clean here.

 

[chasingneverland]

Gubanova was definitely one of the first skaters in the jumping boom. I remember watching her doing 3Lz-3Lo when she was 11 or 12, which was quite unheard of at the time. I can't help but compare her to Alina in the same age group (maybe a year younger per ISU rules?), who was still jumping doubles at 11.

Unfortunately, she lost her -3Lo combos and had consistency issues by the time she was in her second junior season. Still, she definitely had grace, musicality, and skating skills, though I'd argue that Tarakanova's skating stills were even better, and she was a better jumper minus the wonky 3F. They're definitely different; Gubanova has the classic ice princess style, but Tarakanova has so much fire and passion, especially in her asylum SP which is still one of my favourites.

Alina, due to ISU rules, was an age group ahead of Anastasia G. Alina also only spent one year as an international junior. So Anastasia's second junior season was Alina's OGM year.

But she was definitely beautiful...

Anastasia T remains a sentimental fav of mine. Her passion and fire and just pure energy were captivating. (Plus it was more than that, she was actually incredibly talented all around.)