2021-22 Russian Women's Figure Skating

[AshWagsFan]

I'm not sure I completely agree with this. In some cases, the subject of the program is obvious just by the music choice and in others it can be more abstract. I think if a skater gives an explanation of what they are portraying and I watch the performance and see can it being interpreted then yes, that's fine, you've done a good job.

I do agree I would rather be able to interpret the program for myself and skaters who can convey whole stories without any explanation are amazing. But I also think Kamila portrays grief and nostalgia very well in her SP, so even before knowing the full story I was moved. The music choice already made it clear that it was going to be about coming to terms with loss, so no real explanation needed.

Can't say the same for the FS, no idea what the hell is happening there.

I agree - if Anna and Liza go 2-3 at GPF, I think that is the Olympic team. Trusova has never been consistent with the quads and is injured. If Maiia or Aliona spoil that podium at GPF, then it’s a different story

 

[silveruskate]

After this week, I think the Olympic team is most likely going to be Valieva, Shcherbakova, and Tuktamysheva. Valieva for obvious reasons being she is winning everything with world records. Shcherbakova is the world champion and has restored her quads.
The battle between Liza Aliona and Sasha currently has Liza winning. She has had the best season so far, is healthy, and, because Sasha is injured, has the best body of work (she did beat Sasha at worlds last year and now made it to GPF whigh Sasha didn’t because she is hurt). Trusova and Aliona could kill it at nationals, but since both have been rather inconsistent, Liza is probably the best most reliable option to guarantee a Russian sweep.

At the moment it's about who will get the consolation bronze (or maybe silver if lucky), why not Liza because she can easily secure it. But I do believe Liza will have to be 3rd at Nationals to get the spot. RusFed may help her with the judging yet Sasha at her best has the overall quality to displace her easily. Aliona too if squeaky clean with 3A but she is nowhere close and RusFed can q and UR her out of it.

 

[prorussian fan]

At this point I feel bad for the girls who will not go to the Olympics. As many think, I do not think that the games are the competition that should define your career, anyone who does not go from Aliona, Sasha or Anna will continue to be remembered for everything they did this cycle, however, we know that the dream of any athlete of elite is to attend the Olympic Games, so, from now on I feel devastated by whoever does not achieve that dream

 

[Thrashergurl]

I don’t feel bad for the girls that don’t make it. They know how this works- it was them winning it all just a few years ago.
Who would’ve thought the strongest of the 3A would have ended up being Anna?

That said- Kamila is better than any of them ever were. She’s better than Alina and better than Anna.

 

[LiamV426]

After this week, I think the Olympic team is most likely going to be Valieva, Shcherbakova, and Tuktamysheva. Valieva for obvious reasons being she is winning everything with world records. Shcherbakova is the world champion and has restored her quads.
The battle between Liza Aliona and Sasha currently has Liza winning. She has had the best season so far, is healthy, and, because Sasha is injured, has the best body of work (she did beat Sasha at worlds last year and now made it to GPF whigh Sasha didn’t because she is hurt). Trusova and Aliona could kill it at nationals, but since both have been rather inconsistent, Liza is probably the best most reliable option to guarantee a Russian sweep.

I think Liza making the team really depends on how Sasha and Aliona do in December. We should keep in mind that Aliona scored 145 in the FS last week with only 1*3A that she fell on. That's only 4 points lower than what Liza scored today with 2*3As and an almost clean skate.

Liza has put herself in an amazing position to make the team, but I do not believe her place is secure. If Aliona can have that breakthrough moment with the 3A like she did right before the 2019-20 season then she will be contention. But she needs to have that moment by the GPF, by RusNats it might be too late.

And of course Sasha is a ? right now but even then she can probably outscore Liza with just 2 quads (this is assuming she is healthy of course). But like you said, RusFed may not want to take a chance on her cause they know she'll be going for 5 quads by the time of the Olympics and that hasn't exactly gone well for her in the past. I can definitely see them using Europeans as a skate off for that 3rd spot if it's not clear who it should go to after Nationals.

 

[patee]

Good points.

Lets see Valieva polis her programs and mature as a skater. But I'm not sure she looks more physically mature than AZ did at 15. They look to be about the same size.

The pressure did not bother Alina let's see if the pressure and unbeaten streak Kamila has puts a lot of pressure on her.

By physical appearance I didn't mean her height and muscles, I meant that she looks older to her age, more feminine and more like a young woman in her late teens. And it was more obvious and apparent today with her Bolero make-up.

 

[prorussian fan]

Well take your own advice, because YOU don't need to be bringing up Aliona's personality out of nowhere.

I don't hate Aliona, but it's not new to anyone that she felt the best in 3A (remember the 2019-2020 nationals where Anna won). I am glad that she had the humility to return with Eteri, now I see her more focused and realistic with her skating.

 

[sclloyd]

Well take your own advice, because YOU don't need to be bringing up Aliona's personality out of nowhere.

Also bringing it up to me, when I’ve commented multiple times on how Aliona’s personality has had to evolve— that she has had to really let go of her pride to return to TT— and that I think it holds her back to think she knows best.

 

[Scott512]

Yes, but if Anna and KV have equal skates do you really believe they will not favor KV given the scoring we've seen this season? Anna and KV have roughly similar quality of spins. I dislike that Anna's spins are underlooked just because she is not double jointed. Especially this season. 2019 KV spins were the best hands down, but they've definitely degraded in favor of other elements practice. They are very good. But they are also overscored. As was Anna's sit spin at RusNats to be fair.

It's always important to be fair.

Anna spins are very good.

If both girls skate equally well KV gets the edge. But it's also possible she will make a mistake or 2 and Anna won't.

 

[silveruskate]

I don't hate Aliona, but it's not new to anyone that she felt the best in 3A (remember the 2019-2020 nationals where Anna won). I am glad that she had the humility to return with Eteri, now I see her more focused and realistic with her skating.

New to me cuz she didn't.

 

[McBibus]

I don't hate Aliona, but it's not new to anyone that she felt the best in 3A (remember the 2019-2020 nationals where Anna won). I am glad that she had the humility to return with Eteri, now I see her more focused and realistic with her skating.

Do you really think that an elite Athlete feels ok to lose by judgment on a marginal difference?
Do you think Anna was happy at EU?
Aliona is emotional and, to a point, naive in letting her emotions transparent, but at the medal ceremony everything was ok

 

[icybear]

Yes, but if Anna and KV have equal skates do you really believe they will not favor KV given the scoring we've seen this season? Anna and KV have roughly similar quality of spins.

You serious. Anna has the worst spins out of all the Eteri girls. Her foot is always crooked and they look laboured and slow

 

[silveruskate]

It's always important to be fair.

Anna spins are very good.

If both girls skate equally well KV gets the edge. But it's also possible she will make a mistake or 2 and Anna won't.

I have to disagree. Anna has flexibility, same as Daria and to an extent Maiia. Her spins are not good. I don't think I could say it for any of her IdF FS ones for example, out of 3. Kamila is 3/3 always. Daria I actually find underrated in spins.

 

[prorussian fan]

Do you really think that an elite Athlete feels ok to lose by judgment on a marginal difference?
Do you think Anna was happy at EU?
Aliona is emotional and, to a point, naive in letting her emotions transparent, but at the medal ceremony everything was ok

Anna has always been very graceful in accepting defeat and admitting her mistakes or weaknesses.
You can't excuse Aliona's attitudes just because she's emotional, do you forget that she left TT because she thought Anna was the team's favorite and she wanted all the attention and ice to herself? Do you forget that when he left he said the programs they had given him were garbage? I never really understood why Eteri accepted her back, but I'm glad that it has helped her to be more humble and mature.

 

[sclloyd]

Anna has always been very graceful in accepting defeat and admitting her mistakes or weaknesses.
You can't excuse Aliona's attitudes just because she's emotional, do you forget that she left TT because she thought Anna was the team's favorite and she wanted all the attention and ice to herself? Do you forget that when he left he said the programs they had given him were garbage? I never really understood why Eteri accepted her back, but I'm glad that it has helped her to be more humble and mature.

Well Plushy said that’s what she said and he has a mouth on him, so who knows if it’s true or not. She seems to like lovely a lot, enough to even mark herself permanently with the title, so either she has grown a lot or Plush was just talking trash to cause drama or maybe a little bit of both.

 

[prorussian fan]

Aliona even said “world records don’t matter to me as much as skating the best I can” and she was very gracious to her teammates. Her issue is with authority and the coaches, not with being kind to her training mates and fellow competitors.

Yesterday I watched a video of Maia somewhat excitedly saying something to Kamila right before getting on ice and Kamila looked just looked the exact opposite way. I immediately thought of Italy, where Anna was chatting up Maia, how happy the two looked right before skating. Or Skate America with Daria and Sasha hanging out. Kamila seems so removed from her teammates. Even at the 1tv cup, she mostly stuck by Alina.

I really don't understand what your point is with Kamila, she's a hard-working girl, the best in the field, she doesn't have to be friends with her colleagues who are her main competitors. All this garbage of her being arrogant is just your imagination, I repeat, your hatred of her blinds you.

 

[sclloyd]

It's always important to be fair.

Anna spins are very good.

If both girls skate equally well KV gets the edge. But it's also possible she will make a mistake or 2 and Anna won't.

But see there’s the problem— if they skate equally well neither should get the edge. The mistakes alone should then be the decider, not who the fed has decided should win.

 

[Minz]

I read online that the Russian olympic ladies team is Valieva, Tuktamysheva, and Shcherbakova from Sports.Ru. Is that set in stone? I'm happy for Tuktamysheva, but I know Aliona, Maiia, and Sasha (pre injury) have been looking pretty good.

No. AFAIK, that’s just some dude talking his mouth off. He’s apparently said a bunch of random stuff.

 

[silveruskate]

Anna has always been very graceful in accepting defeat and admitting her mistakes or weaknesses.
You can't excuse Aliona's attitudes just because she's emotional, do you forget that she left TT because she thought Anna was the team's favorite and she wanted all the attention and ice to herself? Do you forget that when he left he said the programs they had given him were garbage? I never really understood why Eteri accepted her back, but I'm glad that it has helped her to be more humble and mature.

There is no helping you. The lack of introspection is alarming for what you say to defend Kamila and how you treat Aliona. And number of lies in this is too much, but c'est la vie.

 

[dhjh811]

She is a hard working girl who is unfairly scored, doesn’t have good interactions with her teammates, and appears to think she deserves even more than she’s already received in terms of favorites. Friends? No. But I would expect she could at least interact with Maia in a way that isn’t crushingly rude. I would also expect that judges would not be giving her positive element scores for falls while her compatriots get negative scores for elements that are URed. There are many problems— her skating is the least of them.

whether you think she's unfairly scored or not, it's entirely out of her control. Blame the judges for that if you want to blame somebody.

There are tons of videos out there of Kamila interacting just fine with her teammates, and she gets along with them on social media. But you choose to fixate on this one particular interaction to sum her up as a girl who "doesn't have good interactions with her teammates". Maybe she was tired? Maybe she was just feeling under the weather? She is 15, please stop microanalyzing her actions to justify your twisted views on her. You really are exaggerating ("crushingly rude" lol) over something that is not a big deal.

"appears to think she deserves even more than she’s already received". The only time she's looked disastified in the kiss and cry this season was at the Finlandia Trophy after her sp. And that was when she fell and downgraded her 3A, so she already looked upset even before her score came out. I have no idea why you are saying she feels she deserves to be scored higher, so please give some examples where she makes such faces if you can.