2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[chasingneverland]

You mean feeling only/most comfortable with Dudakov on the harness? Maybe.

Either way, smart of Alena to recognize that she has already accumulated enough injuries and not wanting to risk another one. I think that's one of the many things that comes with maturity, she's almost 18 now after all. The older you get, the smarter you have to be in training as well, cause your body can't take anymore what it could at 14.
I feel like that's a kind of wisdom juniors and for example Sasha still lack, that's why they need to be reigned in by the coach.

Yeah.

Well she's also gotten hurt trying the 3A before. If I recall, she got hurt trying to get her 3A back last season. I think she tried to jump it without a harness.

We don't know that the juniors aren't being safe and wise though. Daria was saying they had to update Eteri on their progress so she's still overseeing it. It could just be that what is safe for the juniors isn't safe for Aliona. Or Aliona doesn't feel it is.

Remember she's coming back from injury whereas they haven't really been injured. They're closer to being in peak form.

 

[Jeanie19]

Good for her! Maiia is my Olympic dark horse.

She's mine too.

 

[Dawn825]

I included him with the subs. He is, same as Daria and Maiia. (I included him with the when we have room group not in the star billing group - I have them ranked roughly in order of billing. He's at the bottom in case you didn't notice.

Also if you don't think the RusFed is interested in Daniil's progress...lol)

I'm a , I thought you were talking about Danny G Ignore me

 

[silveruskate]

Wait. Aliona said according to the subtitles "Sergei is away and I decided not to try it without the harness." Does it mean she's not trying it at all, or that she's only trying it with a harness because she's not confident enough to jump without a harness when Sergei isn't supervising her? Why would she have micro-traumas from training it with a harness?

As everyone else is saying, there are a lot of people there to hold a harness when we look at all the girls skating at Sambo.

 

[Minz]

Wait. Aliona said according to the subtitles "Sergei is away and I decided not to try it without the harness." Does it mean she's not trying it at all, or that she's only trying it with a harness because she's not confident enough to jump without a harness when Sergei isn't supervising her? Why would she have micro-traumas from training it with a harness?

As everyone else is saying, there are a lot of people there to hold a harness when we look at all the girls skating at Sambo.

From this and other interviews recently, I believe what she is trying to say is that she tried it without a harness and had some minor injuries, so she decided not to try it on her own/without a harness to prevent further injury. But since Sergei D is away she can’t train the 3A because she doesn’t want to risk trying it without a harness and she needs Sergei to help.

Perhaps even if someone else could hold the harness she would want him there for technique purposes or something smilar. I‘m not 100% sure

 

[silveruskate]

In my opinion the skaters are always training new jumps throughout the season. We had Trusova/Shcherbakova doing the 4Fs, Trusova's 3A with Eteri, and also Valieva's 4S recently. I remember a couple seasons ago Daria was saying she wanted the 3A down by February.

Daria is sounding so confident now. I think she's landed some kind of 3A but it's not consistent yet. They don't just post the first successful attempts of these jumps (except maybe the quads when Trusova/Shcherbakova first landed them). Most likely she already sometimes trains the 4S too.

 

[flanker]

Maiia and Daria giving autographs and so:



Reminds me the part of the recent Daria's great interview, where she talked about starting to hear "Look Dasha Usacheva" from kids at the stadium. Even if she said it is hard to get used to it,the truthe is those young ladies are starting to become the role models for the little skaters at the age of just 14.

 

[flanker]

Though I think this is the candidate for the cutest figure skating smile

 

[starlight97]

Maiia is my Olympic dark horse.

Does that mean that you find her more probable than Darya and Liza or that those two are not even in the dark horse category for you?

 

[flanker]

Maiia did 4T and duo Kamila/Sofia landed third SBS 4T+3T in a row...

 

[chasingneverland]

I'm a , I thought you were talking about Danny G Ignore me

LOL noooo haha.

 

[chasingneverland]

Maiia and Daria giving autographs and so:



Reminds me the part of the recent Daria's great interview, where she talked about starting to hear "Look Dasha Usacheva" from kids at the stadium. Even if she said it is hard to get used to it,the truthe is those young ladies are starting to become the role models for the little skaters at the age of just 14.

Right?? Even little Sofia A is role model and she's not even junior eligible. I was like but..Anna and Sasha are babies.

 

[chasingneverland]

From this and other interviews recently, I believe what she is trying to say is that she tried it without a harness and had some minor injuries, so she decided not to try it on her own/without a harness to prevent further injury. But since Sergei D is away she can’t train the 3A because she doesn’t want to risk trying it without a harness and she needs Sergei to help.

Perhaps even if someone else could hold the harness she would want him there for technique purposes or something smilar. I‘m not 100% sure

That's how I understand it too.

 

[Amei]

I think her scoring potential without a quad, with 3*3A is still something that not many Russian ladies can match.

I think it’s good that they’re taking it slow, she doesn’t need to rush right now. She’s been building up her stamina, and I think we can already see that she’s looking stronger.

Besides, Aliona has demonstrated consistency with her 3a like no one else. If she gets it back, I think she’ll be doing 3 of them again. She probably won’t need the same timeframe as Daria will probably need, to start landing it in her programs.

She doesn't need a quad. She's been injured trying the 3A before so I'm glad she's staying safe.

Kostornaia if she is able to get her triple axel back and get it back to the consistency she had in 2019-2020 season is certainly a good threat but if she's shooting for gold, I don't know as if a triple axel is the only thing she'll need. She won all competitions that season, except for Nationals, but it was off the strength of her being able to do the triple axel in the SP and her PCS marks, Shcherbakova and Trusova both needed to be absolutely clean to overcome the SP deficit - Shcherbakova still beat her in every FS. Valieva also has the triple axel and multiple quads and Shcherbakova has multiple quads (yes, I'm aware Worlds didn't go so well for the quads but it was her only miss on a quad all season in a very strange year) and her PCS is going to have certainly grown as she won't be a first year senior and she'll have reigning World champion on her side - and the PCS gap between Kostornaia and Shcherbakova wasn't that significant by the time Europeans rolled around.

 

[JazzUp]

I think they weren’t planning to have all skaters at all shows

they weren't; and before making a mountain out of a mole hill re Maya folks could've just checked TeamTut media - it was known to everyone who follows them that Maya would participate in Perm, Krasnodar and Sochi shows only, before the tour started.

 

[nussnacker]

Kostornaia if she is able to get her triple axel back and get it back to the consistency she had in 2019-2020 season is certainly a good threat but if she's shooting for gold, I don't know as if a triple axel is the only thing she'll need. She won all competitions that season, except for Nationals, but it was off the strength of her being able to do the triple axel in the SP and her PCS marks, Shcherbakova and Trusova both needed to be absolutely clean to overcome the SP deficit - Shcherbakova still beat her in every FS. Valieva also has the triple axel and multiple quads and Shcherbakova has multiple quads (yes, I'm aware Worlds didn't go so well for the quads but it was her only miss on a quad all season in a very strange year) and her PCS is going to have certainly grown as she won't be a first year senior and she'll have reigning World champion on her side - and the PCS gap between Kostornaia and Shcherbakova wasn't that significant by the time Europeans rolled around.

Yes, fighting for gold at Olys would be hard with „only“ 3*3A.
Kamila will go for at least 2*3A and 2*4T in 2 programs, likely she’ll do 2*3A, 2*4T and a 4S.
But I think her goal right now might be making Olympic team rather than winning gold. I‘d say in the Olympic year Rusfed would value consistency over anything else, and here’s where Aliona can have an advantage. If she’s in 19-20 shape, where she landed her 3A pretty much every single time, and got +5 goe on everything, winning her GPs and medaling at GPF, I can’t see how Rusfed would say no. Though, at this point it is still wishful thinking.

 

[starlight97]

I'm very surprised everyone is so convinced Alena would make the team with 3 3A. Even supposing she would get back to 2020 consistency and GOE, wich I doubt, her momentum from that season is long gone.
She can't touch Kamila at all, period. If Darya gets the 3A it will be head to head cause Darya does have all of Alena's strong points as well, in terms of GOE and PCS, while if Darya gets a 4 on top, she can't touch her either. Anna with her usual content of 3 4s will most likely go ahead of her as well, especially now that Alena has no more momentum or favorite status while Anna is the most established senior with her three national and one world titles. If Sasha lands her 3A in the Short and 3 4s in the Free or 4 4s in the Free only, that shall also pull ahead of Alena, no matter how inferior Sasha is in all other aspects.
That's 5 girls, her included, competing for 3 spots. And that's leaving Maya out of the mix.
And tbh, I can't see Kamila, Darya or Sasha regress "Eteri style" next season, unless they get injured. Kamila and Darya are perfect peaking age. And Sasha has a very special build, another coach now and has only improved her 4s height and power this season, a quiet impressive feat under the circumstances. If she could finally get her mind trained as well and stop constantly failing at the actual competition, beware everyone.
The one I can see regress in typical fashion next season is Anna, she turned 17 now and the last time we saw her she was struggling on the quads. But that remains to be seen and she can, once again, surprise everyone and come through.

So, I'd be much more surprised to actually see Alena on the team than I would be not seeing her. And I say that with her being my absolute favorite skater.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Does that mean that you find her more probable than Darya and Liza or that those two are not even in the dark horse category for you?

That is just my purely subjective gut feeling that Maiia could surprise us all next season. Liza is the current world vice champion and even though the domestic competition is insane and her Olympic spot is by no means a given, I wouldn't call her a dark horse. She has the international experience and reputation. I can't say much about Darya, tbh. Of course I've seen her a lot this season in the Russian events, but her skating just doesn't do anything for me. I get that objectively she is a very promising young skater with the ideal age in the Olympic season, but she doesn't factor into my subjective Olympic team considerations at all. No slight meant to Darya, she is a lovely young lady and already an excellent competitor, I just don't connect with her skating style.

 

[nussnacker]

I'm very surprised everyone is so convinced Alena would make the team with 3 3A. Even supposing she would get back to 2020 consistency and GOE, wich I doubt, her momentum from that season is long gone.
She can't touch Kamila at all, period. If Darya gets the 3A it will be head to head cause Darya does have all of Alena's strong points as well, in terms of GOE and PCS, while if Darya gets a 4 on top, she can't touch her either. Anna with her usual content of 3 4s will most likely go ahead of her as well, especially now that Alena has no more momentum or favorite status while Anna is the most established senior with her three national and one world titles. If Sasha lands her 3A in the Short and 3 4s in the Free or 4 4s in the Free only, that shall also pull ahead of Alena, no matter how inferior Sasha is in all other aspects.
That's 5 girls, her included, competing for 3 spots. And that's leaving Maya out of the mix.
And tbh, I can't see Kamila, Darya or Sasha regress "Eteri style" next season, unless they get injured. Kamila and Darya are perfect peaking age. And Sasha has a very special build, another coach now and has only improved her 4s height and power this season, a quiet impressive feat under the circumstances. If she could finally get her mind trained as well and stop constantly failing at the actual competition, beware everyone.
The one I can see regress in typical fashion next season is Anna, she turned 17 now and the last time we saw her she was struggling on the quads. But that remains to be seen and she can, once again, surprise everyone and come through.

So, I'd be much more surprised to actually see Alena on the team than I would be not seeing her. And I say that with her being my absolute favorite skater.

Daria will be a new senior, without the same international reputation as Aliona, GPF and European Champion. Whether or not Daria lands 3*3A consistently remains to be seen, while with Aliona it has already been demonstrated.

Anna and Aliona are similar in that, when they increase their TES, add a new jump, even if they fall on that new jump, they manage to land everything else. While for others, it is a question mark.

Aliona has been incredibly consistent since her first international season. Even this season, despite some URs and doubled jumps, she still didn’t fall even a single time. Daria, on the other hand, has improved her consistency only this season. IMO, we don’t know how things will turn out, but people put too much hope in others, and disregard what Aliona is capable of, and what she’s already demonstrated.

 

[nussnacker]

That is just my purely subjective gut feeling that Maiia could surprise us all next season.

I also have a feeling that Maiia will surprise everyone next season.