2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[chasingneverland]

That's not a good comparison. 3A-less Aliona didn't qualify there in the first place and nothing she delivered this season would make her a champion here. She also didn't skate at the conditions the ladies in Stockholm did and making comparisons between competitions at nearly ideal conditions and this doesn't give much sense. It could turn out for her like for Rika for instance. Claiming she could have beaten that can be also easily defeated by other hypothetical scenario where Anna was skating like at nationals, but that is all irrelevant.

It actually is. And it's actually less likely that current Aliona falters because she doesn't have the difficult elements of Anna, Sasha, Liza, and Rika.

Besides it was a comment on how you didn't need a 3A or a quad to win here.

 

[chasingneverland]

She lost to Liza buy some 3 points. If she had done her Russian nationals layout, and done it cleanly as she is capable of, she would have won silver. Her sloppy program with 5 attempted cost her one step higher on the podium.

I'm surprised she didn't perform better in the free. Considering she was in 12th place, with virtually no chance at gold, I thought it would relax her nerves and help her to just go for it and therefore be cleaner. Instead she performed pretty much no different then when she is in gold contention. It was weird that even in distant 12th place she couldn't let it go and perform with any sense of freedom. But I guess she isn't wired that way

In all fairness to Sasha, she didn't know the meltdowns that were coming. She didn't know that she only needed a clean 2 quad skate to win. She was thinking she had to go all out even just to get on the podium. In fact she probably thought she needed to go all out just to get into the top 5/6. She got a 217 here and she would have assumed Bradie, Kaori, Liza, Rika, and Anna would all outscore that.

 

[chasingneverland]

Still this competition would surely be a different competition in 2019/2020...

Yeah. At least Anna and Sasha finally got their medals..

 

[chasingneverland]

Maybe. But it's not like she missed the last 2 or 3. She nailed the first, fell on the second, nailed the third, fell on the fourth, and stayed on her feet on the fifth. If there were only some way she could do the odd-numbered quads.

She wouldn't have done the layout she did if she went for 2 or 3. She never would have tried the 4S for instance. And she wouldn't have tried to backload 2 of them.

 

[colormyworld240]

In the press conference, they were asked if they think quads are needed for the Olympics.

Anna said yes you need them. And she was upset and disappointed she couldn't do 3 here because there were troubles in preparation, but she needed to adjust and tried her best.

Sasha said that she always has them, it's not whether it's needed. And regardless of the competition, she plans to do 5.

Liza said yes you need quads, "without it you can only have bronze like me... oh actually I have silver this time." I'm dead .

 

[mrrice]

In the press conference, they were asked if they think quads are needed for the Olympics.

Anna said yes you need them. And she was upset and disappointed she couldn't do 3 here because there were troubles in preparation, but she needed to adjust and tried her best.

Sasha said that she always has them, it's not whether it's needed. And regardless of the competition, she plans to do 5.

Liza said yes you need quads, "without it you can only have bronze like me... oh actually I have silver this time." I'm dead .

I just saw Tuk's LP on FB. She is truly one of most gorgeous skaters. She looks like a movie star. She needs to be on Magazine Covers.

 

[lurkerghost1]

Liza the most inspiring and the funniest athlete I’ve seen in any sport. This might sound bad but if she made the Olympics team I honestly couldn’t care less who else made it.

 

[lopsilceci]

I won't let go of the idea that 3 is the magic number of quads Sasha needs to win.
I thought the judges would never increase her PCS with a messy 5 quad program but I guess they might.

 

[esteticlove]

Anna
Deserved winner, again thanks to her mental strength when everyone else faltered. Overcoming that she's clearly not at her peak physically.
If I was Eteri I would be drilling her spins. It's been two big competitions now that she has made spin mistakes that shouldn't happen at her level, points lost unnecessarily.

I actually found Anna's spins in the SP very good, or at least in a lot better shape in comparison to earlier this season. Only here I could realize how well her spins were matched with the music, and her I-spin was finally well centered. Now, the mistake in the FS after the 3Lz-3Lo... I think she loses so much energy into the jumps that she doesn't have power to control her body, going directly into the spin. She has been doing the very same mistake on couple of competitions now. This probably shows how much it takes to perform a jump and a spin sequentially. Or she is in the middle of her growth spurt and her back flexibility is starting to reduce. Honestly, I don't know. I hope that they will find an alternative if this element is not comfortable for her in its current variation anymore.

As for Sasha, I think one of the posters formulated it queite well - she seems to want it so bad, that she can't let go of the thought to win. So, she kind of always struggles to get there. It's really painful to watch, especially when we have seen what she can do in practice. I have also been wondering if it was the right choice to come here with Pluschenko. I have the impression that she feels way more relaxed with her other head coach (Mikhailov is his name, I think?). Plushy seems like to share some character traits with Sasha, including his impatience to win. I don't know how good it is for her mental preparion in competition..He is still her manager and tech coach, but maybe he could let the other guy to take the lead.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

i think this likely makes Anna a lock for the team next year, but i'm not sure about the rest.

It's impressive to win a world title, but next season she'll have to skate a lot more like she did at Russian nationals to secure her spot. What she showed here wouldn't get her on the team if that was her level next year.

 

[Flying Feijoa]

I just saw Tuk's LP on FB. She is truly one of most gorgeous skaters. She looks like a movie star. She needs to be on Magazine Covers.

Heard of a Russian magazine named Maxim by any chance?

 

[Flying Feijoa]

As for Sasha, I think one of the posters formulated it queite well - she seems to want it so bad, that she can't let go of the thought to win. So, she kind of always struggles to get there. It's really painful to watch, especially when we have seen what she can do in practice. I have also been wondering if it was the right choice to come here with Pluschenko. I have the impression that she feels way more relaxed with her other head coach (Mikhailov is his name, I think?). Plushy seems like to share some character traits with Sasha, including his impatience to win. I don't know how good it is for her mental preparion in competition..He is still her manager and tech coach, but maybe he could let the other guy to take the lead.

Problem is she could only take one coach there, and as Plushenko is the head coach he couldn't really not accompany her to Worlds. Also, having no family members allowed probably didn't help her either. Anna and Liza didn't have family, but they seem calmer by nature.

I agree, Mikhailov's so green but he worked unexpectedly well with Sasha this season. Another assistant coach, Alexeev, sometimes comes to competitions too. Both look quite chill. Maybe being young enough to be her brothers makes it easier to convince her to relax?

 

[Vandevska]

Well, thay'll be touring in Russia doing shows all of April.

Yes but shows are muuuuuch much easier than competitions or preparing for them.

I don't care. There is nothing wrong with her as a person. I don't like her skating and I hope she doesn't get them back. It's about time for that awful technique to start failing her anyway.

Woooow how nice of you to wish negativity on a skater. Even Nadya wasn't this straightforward.

The thing is if she had gone for 2 or 3 quads she actually would probably have done better.

We definitely don't know this for sure. With Sasha it doesn't seem to mean that less quads equals less falls. I mean she OVERrotated the 4S here. And as others have said, she probably thought that she had to do 5 after the SP.

Obviously it's not the most reliable thing and of course she wants to win, but Sasha want to make history.
And well, let her have a go. If she wants any chance of Olympic gold she kind of has to. 5 quads (and maaaybe one 3A) vs. Kamila's two or three 3A, and two or three quads at least.

 

[Kittosuni]

So apparently Dudakov and Daniil are not on the Rusfed team but are listed with the Georgian team.

Some coaches like Orser have multiple federations under their name so some feds are able to bring extra officials or trainers and still able to meet the quota if they want to.

 

[Greengemmonster]

Huh??? Why are some people talking like Anna has lost her quads???

Omg!!! Do we have to go back to being ridiculous again!?

She's probably not in great shape after pneumonia/illness, can't get her quads working in this setting. How does that lead to her suddenly being quadless!?

 

[mrrice]

Heard of a Russian magazine named Maxim by any chance?

I have not. Was she on it? Well deserved.

 

[Kittosuni]

Hopefully Trusova got the message from the judges loud and clear.

With how great she was scored PCS wise even with flawed skates in SP and FS, keep that planned content even with just a clean-ish skate, she will rack up gold medals.

 

[YuBluByMe]

I have not. Was she on it? Well deserved.

Oh yeah. She was on it all right!

A very hardy congratulations to Tuktamysheva! I got a lump in my throat and watery eyes at her reaction to her scores. (But the tears didn’t actually fall until about 7 minutes later.) She fought tooth and nail to get there and got absolutely no favors from her Fed. That was just hard work and determination.

I know some of y’all think she has no chances to make the Olympic team, but y’all thought the same about her making the World team too and look what happened. Sure, her chances are slim and the stars were definitely aligned in a certain way, but she still had to walk through the open door. She didn’t just walk through it, though. She kicked the damn thing open and strutted right on in!

 

[Arbitrary]

Best all-around world-wide female FS is more or less equal to Alexandra Trusova minus 3 major elements.

 

[Azikin]

Liza the most inspiring and the funniest athlete I’ve seen in any sport.

You probably didn't see her bullying Kostornaia. Then she showed her true face.