2021-2022 Russian Men's Figure Skating

[Dreamer57]

Aww, Mozalev got only 1 GP spot so far. well, I will root for the guy to do well!

And Gumennik only 1 too Rooting for him and Kondratiuk (who didn't get any!)

 

[lariko]

And Gumennik only 1 too Rooting for him and Kondratiuk (who didn't get any!)

I didn’t spot Gumennik at all, so I am glad he got one. Honestly, all three has higher level of accomplishment than Samsonov. So either Samsonov has made a miraculous recovery and strides toward stability, or Mozalev and Gumennik are both still injured (and I am praying they are not) and Kondartyuk just can’t confirm his break out results? I mean, RusFed is as savvy as it gets in selecting. But still, Samsonov over Mozalev, let alone Boyang? Pretty much everywhere Samsonov did well, Mozalev did better. I am seriously curious now to see where Samsonov is at to get this ticket.

 

[flanker]

I'm truly surprised Daniil Samsonov got two senior spots. I expected to see him in at least the one or two more junior seasons, esp. when he's still recovering from the Osgood-Schlatter. Only one spot for Mozalev and Petr Gumennik as well. I guess they will have to fight for the TBA spot at Rostelecom.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Only one spot for Mozalev and Petr Gumennik as well. I guess they will have to fight for the TBA spot at Rostelecom.

And Mark Kondratiuk will want to throw his name in the mix as well...

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

On the other hand, Samsonov really did have a higher season's best in 2019/20 than both Mozalev and Gumennik.

 

[flanker]

On the other hand, Samsonov really did have a higher season's best in 2019/20 than both Mozalev and Gumennik.

He was really good at the start of the season, even defeated Kagiyama and at the Denis Ten Memorial he achieved the highest junior man's score ever (unofficial as it was not an ISU event at that time), but I would still keep him in juniors to give him time. But if it's not the case, I wish him luck and no more health troubles.

 

[elektra blue]

i like Mozalev but i'm disappointed for my not so little boy Petya, i know even others deserve the TBA spot, but i can't help but hoping Petya gets it. still don't understand how Samsonov got two

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Now I really wish we could get some preliminary JGP assignments as well. Samsonov obviously won't compete at JGP, so this should open up two spots.

 

[nussnacker]

Petr must have personal beef with Gorshkov or something. Frankly, he’s often very underscored domestically.
aside from that, if Rusfed was betting who‘s their „russian Nathan/Yuzuru“, I‘d have higher bets on Gumennik than a lot of other men (including Mozalev)

 

[lariko]

My only guess is that Samsonov is recovering better/faster than Mozalev and Gumennik, so, yup, that last spot is a tie at least between the 3 of them, unless they do something even more unexpected and slot someone like Kovalev/Yerohin/Rukhin in…so many options.

I don’t see Chen/Hanyu potential in Gumennik… ? He’s getting older/growing too and not improving on stability? Like, he is dramatic, but not really a technical maverick.

 

[IndiaP12]

My only guess is that Samsonov is recovering better/faster than Mozalev and Gumennik, so, yup, that last spot is a tie at least between the 3 of them, unless they do something even more unexpected and slot someone like Kovalev/Yerohin/Rukhin in…so many options.

I don’t see Chen/Hanyu potential in Gumennik… ? He’s getting older/growing too and not improving on stability? Like, he is dramatic, but not really a technical maverick.

well, that's because he is not Chen or Hanyu. They are them and he is him. He certainly doesn't have the textbook technique they have, no Russian men does except for Kolyada, but he has three types of quads (4S, 4T, 4Lz) can do some crazy combos with them (4S+3Lo, 4LZ+3T+3Lo in practice) and has a 3Lz+3Lo and 3F+3Lo. His jumps always used to be a bit sloppy and underrotated when he was younger, but since he grew A LOT in the past year (11+ cm?) he actually improved them greatly, now they are much bigger and much less URed. And I think his stability was not bad last season considering his growth. Plus he has interesting programs, actual artistry, and is improving his skating skills rapidly. He has a disadvantage compared to most of the other guys because he developed later so he had to go through all the growing stuff at 17-18 whereas they did at like 14-15

 

[nussnacker]

My only guess is that Samsonov is recovering better/faster than Mozalev and Gumennik, so, yup, that last spot is a tie at least between the 3 of them, unless they do something even more unexpected and slot someone like Kovalev/Yerohin/Rukhin in…so many options.

I don’t see Chen/Hanyu potential in Gumennik… ? He’s getting older/growing too and not improving on stability? Like, he is dramatic, but not really a technical maverick.

I don’t mean in a sense of being like them in every sense of the word, I meant that Gumennik has a potential to be a top (perhaps even #1) Russian make skater and a potential to get medals and high placements. I don’t see the same potential in some other skaters.
Yes, he’s not super consistent, but that’s a given if we’re talking about Russian men, isn’t it. my hope is that it’ll get better for him.

 

[lariko]

Oh, okay. I guess, I always think stability+technical arsenal when I think chen-hanyu master class. Definitely will be interesting season to watch for Gumennik, particularly if he starts settling into his new biomechanic frame without adding more and more height. His height promises bigger jumps.

 

[Artemisa]

To be honest ... the russian are so wild cards that they i won't even try to guess the future... but I don't understand Samsonov. Something change in the summer?
why kondratiuk doesn't have a spot? Is he injured?

 

[JustSomeGuy]

why kondratiuk doesn't have a spot? Is he injured?

Kondratiuk isn't 'qualified' for anything more than a host nation spot. GP assignments are based on previous worlds placements, season's bests and world standings. Kondratiuk didn't compete at worlds last season so he didn't qualify a guaranteed spot that way, and he isn't on the World Standing or Season's Best list, so he won't get a spot that way, and I would expect Russia to save their last remaining host nation spot for a guy who might do well enough at his first assignment to be in with a chance of qualifying for a second assignment, so unless both Mozalev and Gummenik do so badly at their first competition that it becomes mathematically impossible to qualify for the final I doubt they'll give it to Kondratiuk.

Now, with regards to Samsonov, I'm about to state the obvious here, but RusFed have been trying to make Samsonov happen since before he was junior eligible. No, seriously, wind back a couple of years - people we actually acting like Bejing was going to be an epic face-off between Samsonov and Gogolev with Chen/Hanyu as barely a footnote. And there's something pretty notable about some of the ways in which RusFed like to politic that is pretty notable here. See, politicking in FS is not all 'Quid-Pro-Quo' and judges Morse-coding one-another. Oh, that happens, sure, but it's really once in a Blue moon, not even 10% of the actual politicking. Be warned, because this is going to be long. Seriously, long ramblings about cognitive psychology are to follow.

Here's the thing: human perception is about the least reliable thing on this planet. Eyewitness testimony is starting to be seen as the least reliable form of evidence that there is in courts, and for a good reason. I'm not going to bore you all with an bibliography for the post, because I really can't be bothered with digging out my old psychology textbooks and pawing through academic journals, but the gist of it is this: when you look as an scene, even a completely still scene, your eyes don't actually focus on everything at once; they move from one part of the scene to the next, so rapidly it cannot be observed by the naked eye, and never look at the whole scene, only parts, and then your brain fills in the blanks with what it expects to be there, meaning that people often completely fail to 'see' something that isn't there. Furthermore, human memories are malleable, and they update your memory to match what it 'knows', which is how researchers have often been able to plant false memories into test subjects. In one of the earliest studies (and I forget the names of the psychologists involved, so apologies there) they had participants estimate the speed of a car involved in a collision after watching a video, but used different language when questioning the participants, and the more violent the language the researchers used the faster the participants estimated the car was going - this is why police officers are supposed to avoid leading questions when interviewing a witness. And this doesn't just happen with memories, either; if you already 'know' something to true, your brain will actually adjust what you 'see' to fit what it knows. For example, if you believe that individuals of African/Caribbean decent are inherently violent, your brain will actually adjust what you 'see' to make those individual's body language seem more aggressive (hence why implicit bias tests are a thing), if you 'know' people who drive Audi's are jerks with no regard for whoever else is on the road, your brain will adjust what you 'see' so that every Audi on the road is driving worse than it is, and Audi's that are driving responsibly won't register, and more importantly for this forum, if you 'know' that a particular skater has no transitions in their programs evarhhh, then your brain will actually remove or 'gloss-over' transitions when you watch their program.

And this, kiddies, is how 'reputational scoring' happens. A lot of the politicking that happens isn't about getting a judge to score against what they see, it's about getting them to see something else entirely. If you want the best possible example of how this works, just look at how this 'fandom' as a whole speaks about Samarin this year compared to last year. A whole lot of vultures people suddenly 'became fans' this year, are declaring huge changes in his 'artistry', but here is the thing - his skating is no different this year than it was last year, other than the fact that he's struggling with jumps. No, seriously, watch his programs from last season and his programs from this season. HIS SKATING HAS NOT CHANGED. What has changed is the fact that, because he's competed in so few competitions, and because he doesn't currently pose a direct threat to anybody's favourites, the online hatedom has been quite - which means, without anyone to tell you how slow and laboured his skating is (yes, that was an extremely common complaint about him at one time, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to find that exact post on one of the previous Russian Mens threads; I've been lurking here a while), how terrible his footwork is, how every jump should be -4GOE, etc. etc., your brain no longer feels it 'knows' these things, and isn't adjusting what you see because of it. Don't believe me? Go back and watch his 2018-2019 programs, tell me if you're really watching the same programs as two year ago.

So, how does the above tie in with Samsonov/Mozalev/Gummenik? Like a said, there is a funny quirk with how RusFed like to politic - they like to pit their own skaters against one-another. Historically, that usually meant X-vs-Y, hero-vs-villain esqu storylines that they'd push; Grishuk/Platov-vs-Usova/Zhulin, Plushenko-vs-Yagudin, ect. This certainly helped keep those skaters in the public's (and the judge's) consciousness; how many people even remember that Torvill/Dean medalled the same year that Grishuk/Platov beat Usova/Zhulin? Or even remember Timothy Goebel?
In more recent years, however, they've started doing pushing three-way rivalries, with one skater labelled 'the artist', one 'the jumper/technician' and one 'the complete skater'. RusFed is NOT the first to do this, by the way - USA were doing this with their ladies back in the 6.0 era. In 1992, Kerrigan was the artist, Harding the jumper and Yamaguchi the complete skater. In 1998, it was Lipinski who was the jumper, Bobek who was the artist and Kwan who was the complete skater. Don't believe me? Have a Campbell's soup advert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oygY7Nc-j18 'Graceful, Powerful, Beautiful'; that choice of words is not a coincidence, any more than the fact that 'powerful' perfectly coincided with Lipinski's jump - the only jump shown in the advert - and 'beautiful' with Kwan's spiral, which just leaves Bobek as the 'graceful' one. THIS is politicking, and most don't even realise it. But for the most recent edition, just look at the so-called 3A - Trusova as the jumper, Kostornaia as the artist and Scherbakova as the complete skater. How much was Scherbakova being pushed as 'the best of Trusova and Kostornaia combined' in their final junior season?

Now look at last season, look at Samsonov, Gummenik and Mozalev, look at how the media (and social media, because if you think that fed's don't have people 'undercover' on twitter and the like, you're giving them either too much or not enough credit) portrayed them - Mozalev was just a jumper, Gummenik was just and artist, even though Gummenik was attempting the same number of quads as Mozalev for most of the season and Mozalev's components are hardly that far behind Gummenik's. There is this weird narrative that came about towards the end of the 2019-2020 season that RusFed were somehow trying to prop up Mozalev, but Samsonov was they one they were pushing; Mozalev was perfectly lined up to be the human sacrifice upon whose remains Samsonov was going to build his career. Gummenik should probably just be grateful that the fed didn't pay all that much attention to him that season. The problem facing Mozalev right now is that RusFed don't need him to fill that jumper-artist-complete skater trio anymore, because now they have Semenenko to fill that niche, so I suspect as long as Semenenko keeps it together Mozalev will get discarded pretty quickly; same with Gummenik, since the fed still has Kolyada to fill the 'artist' niche for this year and a few younger skaters who can fill it for the next quadrennial (Vetlugin? Kutovoi?). And THAT is why Mozalev and Gummenik only have one spot each so far.

 

[Artemisa]

Kondratiuk isn't 'qualified' for anything more than a host nation spot. GP assignments are based on previous worlds placements, season's bests and world standings. Kondratiuk didn't compete at worlds last season so he didn't qualify a guaranteed spot that way, and he isn't on the World Standing or Season's Best list, so he won't get a spot that way, and I would expect Russia to save their last remaining host nation spot for a guy who might do well enough at his first assignment to be in with a chance of qualifying for a second assignment, so unless both Mozalev and Gummenik do so badly at their first competition that it becomes mathematically impossible to qualify for the final I doubt they'll give it to Kondratiuk.

Now, with regards to Samsonov, I'm about to state the obvious here, but RusFed have been trying to make Samsonov happen since before he was junior eligible. No, seriously, wind back a couple of years - people we actually acting like Bejing was going to be an epic face-off between Samsonov and Gogolev with Chen/Hanyu as barely a footnote. And there's something pretty notable about some of the ways in which RusFed like to politic that is pretty notable here. See, politicking in FS is not all 'Quid-Pro-Quo' and judges Morse-coding one-another. Oh, that happens, sure, but it's really once in a Blue moon, not even 10% of the actual politicking. Be warned, because this is going to be long. Seriously, long ramblings about cognitive psychology are to follow.


Here's the thing: human perception is about the least reliable thing on this planet. Eyewitness testimony is starting to be seen as the least reliable form of evidence that there is in courts, and for a good reason. I'm not going to bore you all with an bibliography for the post, because I really can't be bothered with digging out my old psychology textbooks and pawing through academic journals, but the gist of it is this: when you look as an scene, even a completely still scene, your eyes don't actually focus on everything at once; they move from one part of the scene to the next, so rapidly it cannot be observed by the naked eye, and never look at the whole scene, only parts, and then your brain fills in the blanks with what it expects to be there, meaning that people often completely fail to 'see' something that isn't there. Furthermore, human memories are malleable, and they update your memory to match what it 'knows', which is how researchers have often been able to plant false memories into test subjects. In one of the earliest studies (and I forget the names of the psychologists involved, so apologies there) they had participants estimate the speed of a car involved in a collision after watching a video, but used different language when questioning the participants, and the more violent the language the researchers used the faster the participants estimated the car was going - this is why police officers are supposed to avoid leading questions when interviewing a witness. And this doesn't just happen with memories, either; if you already 'know' something to true, your brain will actually adjust what you 'see' to fit what it knows. For example, if you believe that individuals of African/Caribbean decent are inherently violent, your brain will actually adjust what you 'see' to make those individual's body language seem more aggressive (hence why implicit bias tests are a thing), if you 'know' people who drive Audi's are jerks with no regard for whoever else is on the road, your brain will adjust what you 'see' so that every Audi on the road is driving worse than it is, and Audi's that are driving responsibly won't register, and more importantly for this forum, if you 'know' that a particular skater has no transitions in their programs evarhhh, then your brain will actually remove or 'gloss-over' transitions when you watch their program.

And this, kiddies, is how 'reputational scoring' happens. A lot of the politicking that happens isn't about getting a judge to score against what they see, it's about getting them to see something else entirely. If you want the best possible example of how this works, just look at how this 'fandom' as a whole speaks about Samarin this year compared to last year. A whole lot of vultures people suddenly 'became fans' this year, are declaring huge changes in his 'artistry', but here is the thing - his skating is no different this year than it was last year, other than the fact that he's struggling with jumps. No, seriously, watch his programs from last season and his programs from this season. HIS SKATING HAS NOT CHANGED. What has changed is the fact that, because he's competed in so few competitions, and because he doesn't currently pose a direct threat to anybody's favourites, the online hatedom has been quite - which means, without anyone to tell you how slow and laboured his skating is (yes, that was an extremely common complaint about him at one time, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to find that exact post on one of the previous Russian Mens threads; I've been lurking here a while), how terrible his footwork is, how every jump should be -4GOE, etc. etc., your brain no longer feels it 'knows' these things, and isn't adjusting what you see because of it. Don't believe me? Go back and watch his 2018-2019 programs, tell me if you're really watching the same programs as two year ago.

So, how does the above tie in with Samsonov/Mozalev/Gummenik? Like a said, there is a funny quirk with how RusFed like to politic - they like to pit their own skaters against one-another. Historically, that usually meant X-vs-Y, hero-vs-villain esqu storylines that they'd push; Grishuk/Platov-vs-Usova/Zhulin, Plushenko-vs-Yagudin, ect. This certainly helped keep those skaters in the public's (and the judge's) consciousness; how many people even remember that Torvill/Dean medalled the same year that Grishuk/Platov beat Usova/Zhulin? Or even remember Timothy Goebel?
In more recent years, however, they've started doing pushing three-way rivalries, with one skater labelled 'the artist', one 'the jumper/technician' and one 'the complete skater'. RusFed is NOT the first to do this, by the way - USA were doing this with their ladies back in the 6.0 era. In 1992, Kerrigan was the artist, Harding the jumper and Yamaguchi the complete skater. In 1998, it was Lipinski who was the jumper, Bobek who was the artist and Kwan who was the complete skater. Don't believe me? Have a Campbell's soup advert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oygY7Nc-j18 'Graceful, Powerful, Beautiful'; that choice of words is not a coincidence, any more than the fact that 'powerful' perfectly coincided with Lipinski's jump - the only jump shown in the advert - and 'beautiful' with Kwan's spiral, which just leaves Bobek as the 'graceful' one. THIS is politicking, and most don't even realise it. But for the most recent edition, just look at the so-called 3A - Trusova as the jumper, Kostornaia as the artist and Scherbakova as the complete skater. How much was Scherbakova being pushed as 'the best of Trusova and Kostornaia combined' in their final junior season?

Now look at last season, look at Samsonov, Gummenik and Mozalev, look at how the media (and social media, because if you think that fed's don't have people 'undercover' on twitter and the like, you're giving them either too much or not enough credit) portrayed them - Mozalev was just a jumper, Gummenik was just and artist, even though Gummenik was attempting the same number of quads as Mozalev for most of the season and Mozalev's components are hardly that far behind Gummenik's. There is this weird narrative that came about towards the end of the 2019-2020 season that RusFed were somehow trying to prop up Mozalev, but Samsonov was they one they were pushing; Mozalev was perfectly lined up to be the human sacrifice upon whose remains Samsonov was going to build his career. Gummenik should probably just be grateful that the fed didn't pay all that much attention to him that season. The problem facing Mozalev right now is that RusFed don't need him to fill that jumper-artist-complete skater trio anymore, because now they have Semenenko to fill that niche, so I suspect as long as Semenenko keeps it together Mozalev will get discarded pretty quickly; same with Gummenik, since the fed still has Kolyada to fill the 'artist' niche for this year and a few younger skaters who can fill it for the next quadrennial (Vetlugin? Kutovoi?). And THAT is why Mozalev and Gummenik only have one spot each so far.

I agree with a lot of what you said .. but I think even russfed knows that they can't built a star from nothing .. and Samsonov didn't prove anything yet ( i'm not saying that he isn't a good skater)... but he isn't kamila or the 3A who were stars in juniors with 4 and 3A .. and eteri is smart enough for not putting him if isn't ready because in men have a long longevity

 

[lariko]

Kondratiuk isn't 'qualified' for anything more than a host nation spot. GP assignments are based on previous worlds placements, season's bests and world standings. Kondratiuk didn't compete at worlds last season so he didn't qualify a guaranteed spot that way, and he isn't on the World Standing or Season's Best list, so he won't get a spot that way, and I would expect Russia to save their last remaining host nation spot for a guy who might do well enough at his first assignment to be in with a chance of qualifying for a second assignment, so unless both Mozalev and Gummenik do so badly at their first competition that it becomes mathematically impossible to qualify for the final I doubt they'll give it to Kondratiuk.

Now, with regards to Samsonov, I'm about to state the obvious here, but RusFed have been trying to make Samsonov happen since before he was junior eligible. No, seriously, wind back a couple of years - people we actually acting like Bejing was going to be an epic face-off between Samsonov and Gogolev with Chen/Hanyu as barely a footnote. And there's something pretty notable about some of the ways in which RusFed like to politic that is pretty notable here. See, politicking in FS is not all 'Quid-Pro-Quo' and judges Morse-coding one-another. Oh, that happens, sure, but it's really once in a Blue moon, not even 10% of the actual politicking. Be warned, because this is going to be long. Seriously, long ramblings about cognitive psychology are to follow.


Here's the thing: human perception is about the least reliable thing on this planet. Eyewitness testimony is starting to be seen as the least reliable form of evidence that there is in courts, and for a good reason. I'm not going to bore you all with an bibliography for the post, because I really can't be bothered with digging out my old psychology textbooks and pawing through academic journals, but the gist of it is this: when you look as an scene, even a completely still scene, your eyes don't actually focus on everything at once; they move from one part of the scene to the next, so rapidly it cannot be observed by the naked eye, and never look at the whole scene, only parts, and then your brain fills in the blanks with what it expects to be there, meaning that people often completely fail to 'see' something that isn't there. Furthermore, human memories are malleable, and they update your memory to match what it 'knows', which is how researchers have often been able to plant false memories into test subjects. In one of the earliest studies (and I forget the names of the psychologists involved, so apologies there) they had participants estimate the speed of a car involved in a collision after watching a video, but used different language when questioning the participants, and the more violent the language the researchers used the faster the participants estimated the car was going - this is why police officers are supposed to avoid leading questions when interviewing a witness. And this doesn't just happen with memories, either; if you already 'know' something to true, your brain will actually adjust what you 'see' to fit what it knows. For example, if you believe that individuals of African/Caribbean decent are inherently violent, your brain will actually adjust what you 'see' to make those individual's body language seem more aggressive (hence why implicit bias tests are a thing), if you 'know' people who drive Audi's are jerks with no regard for whoever else is on the road, your brain will adjust what you 'see' so that every Audi on the road is driving worse than it is, and Audi's that are driving responsibly won't register, and more importantly for this forum, if you 'know' that a particular skater has no transitions in their programs evarhhh, then your brain will actually remove or 'gloss-over' transitions when you watch their program.

And this, kiddies, is how 'reputational scoring' happens. A lot of the politicking that happens isn't about getting a judge to score against what they see, it's about getting them to see something else entirely. If you want the best possible example of how this works, just look at how this 'fandom' as a whole speaks about Samarin this year compared to last year. A whole lot of vultures people suddenly 'became fans' this year, are declaring huge changes in his 'artistry', but here is the thing - his skating is no different this year than it was last year, other than the fact that he's struggling with jumps. No, seriously, watch his programs from last season and his programs from this season. HIS SKATING HAS NOT CHANGED. What has changed is the fact that, because he's competed in so few competitions, and because he doesn't currently pose a direct threat to anybody's favourites, the online hatedom has been quite - which means, without anyone to tell you how slow and laboured his skating is (yes, that was an extremely common complaint about him at one time, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to find that exact post on one of the previous Russian Mens threads; I've been lurking here a while), how terrible his footwork is, how every jump should be -4GOE, etc. etc., your brain no longer feels it 'knows' these things, and isn't adjusting what you see because of it. Don't believe me? Go back and watch his 2018-2019 programs, tell me if you're really watching the same programs as two year ago.

So, how does the above tie in with Samsonov/Mozalev/Gummenik? Like a said, there is a funny quirk with how RusFed like to politic - they like to pit their own skaters against one-another. Historically, that usually meant X-vs-Y, hero-vs-villain esqu storylines that they'd push; Grishuk/Platov-vs-Usova/Zhulin, Plushenko-vs-Yagudin, ect. This certainly helped keep those skaters in the public's (and the judge's) consciousness; how many people even remember that Torvill/Dean medalled the same year that Grishuk/Platov beat Usova/Zhulin? Or even remember Timothy Goebel?
In more recent years, however, they've started doing pushing three-way rivalries, with one skater labelled 'the artist', one 'the jumper/technician' and one 'the complete skater'. RusFed is NOT the first to do this, by the way - USA were doing this with their ladies back in the 6.0 era. In 1992, Kerrigan was the artist, Harding the jumper and Yamaguchi the complete skater. In 1998, it was Lipinski who was the jumper, Bobek who was the artist and Kwan who was the complete skater. Don't believe me? Have a Campbell's soup advert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oygY7Nc-j18 'Graceful, Powerful, Beautiful'; that choice of words is not a coincidence, any more than the fact that 'powerful' perfectly coincided with Lipinski's jump - the only jump shown in the advert - and 'beautiful' with Kwan's spiral, which just leaves Bobek as the 'graceful' one. THIS is politicking, and most don't even realise it. But for the most recent edition, just look at the so-called 3A - Trusova as the jumper, Kostornaia as the artist and Scherbakova as the complete skater. How much was Scherbakova being pushed as 'the best of Trusova and Kostornaia combined' in their final junior season?

Now look at last season, look at Samsonov, Gummenik and Mozalev, look at how the media (and social media, because if you think that fed's don't have people 'undercover' on twitter and the like, you're giving them either too much or not enough credit) portrayed them - Mozalev was just a jumper, Gummenik was just and artist, even though Gummenik was attempting the same number of quads as Mozalev for most of the season and Mozalev's components are hardly that far behind Gummenik's. There is this weird narrative that came about towards the end of the 2019-2020 season that RusFed were somehow trying to prop up Mozalev, but Samsonov was they one they were pushing; Mozalev was perfectly lined up to be the human sacrifice upon whose remains Samsonov was going to build his career. Gummenik should probably just be grateful that the fed didn't pay all that much attention to him that season. The problem facing Mozalev right now is that RusFed don't need him to fill that jumper-artist-complete skater trio anymore, because now they have Semenenko to fill that niche, so I suspect as long as Semenenko keeps it together Mozalev will get discarded pretty quickly; same with Gummenik, since the fed still has Kolyada to fill the 'artist' niche for this year and a few younger skaters who can fill it for the next quadrennial (Vetlugin? Kutovoi?). And THAT is why Mozalev and Gummenik only have one spot each so far.

So far, to me Samsonov appears to be artistically blank however. Mozalev, if he picked up anything this season significantly aside from the second quad that was such a struggle, picked up in artistic quality and comfort showing it. But I do not disagree with anything else you are saying, since Trusova-Scherbakova-Kostornaya/Valieva is female trio

 

[JustSomeGuy]

but I think even russfed knows that they can't built a star from nothing .. and Samsonov didn't prove anything yet ( i'm not saying that he isn't a good skater)...

Never underestimate the depths of human stupidity...

But in all seriousness, I think Samsonov is something of a sunk cost right now for RusFed. All those previous newspaper articles about the shiny new prodigy and the manufactured social-media storm and all the other politicking that happened for him doesn't happen for free, and just like with gamblers who often double down when their loosing in an attempt to 'win back' what they've lost, RusFed seem to be doubling down on Samsonov in an attempt to see some returns on their investment.

I can see this blowing up in their faces, tbh.

So far, to me Samsonov appears to be artistically blank however. Mozalev, if he picked up anything this season significantly aside from the second quad that was such a struggle, picked up in artistic quality and comfort showing it. But I do not disagree with anything else you are saying, since Trusova-Scherbakova-Kostornaya/Valieva is female trio

Oh, I don't disagree about Samsonov not being nearly as artistic as was once claimed or about Mozalev being far more artistic than he's given credit for (albiet, with the usual disclaimer that 'artistry' is subjective, and we could argue until the cows come home, my crops ripen and my father finally comes home from buying cigarettes about what is and isn't 'art'), but I doubt that's going to do much to change who gets pushed by the fed.

 

[IndiaP12]

Samsonov has good skating skills, lines and musicality. He is Mr. Spinny and has exceptional centring and speed in his spins. But he is expressionless (which usually makes me absolutely uninterested in a skater, but for some reason I still see something in him). He needs to unleash himself a bit more on the ice. Yeah, I know his technique doesn't seem sustainable at all, and he's got a leg wrap and head throw too. But I'm really hoping that the fact he has two Grand Prix assignments means that they are confident he will be in good enough form by then, cause getting 2 GP assignments when you're 16 is no joke

 

[Flying Feijoa]

So far, to me Samsonov appears to be artistically blank however. Mozalev, if he picked up anything this season significantly aside from the second quad that was such a struggle, picked up in artistic quality and comfort showing it. But I do not disagree with anything else you are saying, since Trusova-Scherbakova-Kostornaya/Valieva is female trio

I love Mozalev's programmes, they're somehow avant garde and retro at the same time

Also he's quite good at the non-jump technical elements, especially step sequences. I don't think of him primarily as a jumper (as in monstrous base value-type jumper), putting aside this season's results he is more of a consistent all-rounder. On the artist-jumper spectrum, I would put him somewhere closer to the middle, especially compared with e.g. Semenenko.

Honestly for the Russian men there are too many candidates with similar strengths and weaknesses to talk about a 'Samsonov-Mozalev-Gumennik/Semenenko trio' (e.g. Danielian is around the same age and definitely ought to fit in the picture). Humans like to think in threes. I might be a bit naive but I don't think politicking is as significant for the men as it is for e.g. ladies or ice dance - given their inconsistency, whether they land their jumps or not usually outweighs the impact of being given a PCS boost. In terms of opportunity for international assignments, it can be a nuisance, but at least this doesn't affect Nationals (and by extension, has less effect on Worlds/Euros).