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- Aug 8, 2023
2023-24 Russian Women's Figure Skating
- Thread starter AlexBreeze
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Gorbacheva, Shcherbakova, Trusova and Zagitova yesterday at the Magic on Ice show debuted new programs.
Liked the programs by Trusova and Shcherbakova, Trusova's elements were sharper but Shcherbakova more musical. Zagitova's program doesn't really seem 'new' to me though and I'm not overly crazy about it, it looks like they tweaked a couple parts of 'Can't help falling in love', changed the music and added the sleeve portion at the top of the program. Also came across my IG feed a full clip of Shcherbakova's abridged Master & Margarita program, her jumps look good. Both Shcherbakova and Trusova have spoken of being undecided on continuing their competitive careers and while I doubt we see them compete they both look like if they buckled down for a couple weeks of hardcore competition training they could put up a very good fight for top 5 at Nationals and could sneak on the podium without quads should others falter, which is likely the 'new' generation isn't as consistent as they were at the same age.
*I've seen the performance sheet and Trusova did Cruella and Zagitova did 'Inner light', however I've only seen small fragments, like 30 seconds of them
Liked the programs by Trusova and Shcherbakova, Trusova's elements were sharper but Shcherbakova more musical. Zagitova's program doesn't really seem 'new' to me though and I'm not overly crazy about it, it looks like they tweaked a couple parts of 'Can't help falling in love', changed the music and added the sleeve portion at the top of the program. Also came across my IG feed a full clip of Shcherbakova's abridged Master & Margarita program, her jumps look good. Both Shcherbakova and Trusova have spoken of being undecided on continuing their competitive careers and while I doubt we see them compete they both look like if they buckled down for a couple weeks of hardcore competition training they could put up a very good fight for top 5 at Nationals and could sneak on the podium without quads should others falter, which is likely the 'new' generation isn't as consistent as they were at the same age.
*I've seen the performance sheet and Trusova did Cruella and Zagitova did 'Inner light', however I've only seen small fragments, like 30 seconds of them
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- Nov 28, 2020
Anna Frolova is going from strength to strength. I wouldn’t want to be facing her in competition right now because she is the in form skater currently.
I would have said to look out for her as a potential top 5 contender at Nationals but I promised to stay out of the prediction game since I jinxed my dark horse pick last year. Haha
I would have said to look out for her as a potential top 5 contender at Nationals but I promised to stay out of the prediction game since I jinxed my dark horse pick last year. Haha
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- Jan 12, 2018
It will be difficult without ultra-c but she's sure in top of her game, absolute delight to watch!
Top 5. I wish!
Frolova, along with Yametova and Sinitsniia are three of my five faves from Russia.
However, in Russia, they protect the ultra-c girls and National Team ladies. A rough landing by Adeliya on an under rotated quad gets +GOE and their PCS scores are already almost at 80 for unimpressive programs, which doesn’t allow women like Frolova with elegance and beauty in skating skills, a chance to beat these athletes unless they fall. Elizaveta - gets PCS given to her like candy and scores 240+ domestically with PCS scores close to 80, which, would never happen with an international panel, as she barely tops 230, with three clean 3A’s and a reasonable PCS score.
With that said, I’m really rooting for these three non-ultra-c girls to finish top 9 at Russian Nationals and will be rooting for them to do so.
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- Aug 8, 2023
Gosh, there's literally zero merited artistic basis for this trend of contrarianism in the Russian scene. I literally love Sinitsina and Frolova, I've watched all their programs and even interviews probably investing much more effort in understanding who they are as artists and athletes than any of these contrarian band wagoners. Adeliia, Valieva, Muravieva are easily AT LEAST as artistic, expressive, refined, etc... as Frolova or Sinitsina. Its true that Eteri girls get inflated scores in Russia but that has little to do with them ultimately outscoring Frolova or Sinitsina regardless and also is not an argument against their artistic merits.
Its so unbelievably frustrating seeing this opinion completely rooted in sentimental trivial rebellion against the fashion now become a bandwagon to make yourself different, and involving zero actual artistic analysis. Adeliia, Mura and Valieva have been first class artists on the ice for a long time, so just because Frolova and Sinitsina arent on the same caliber of athleticism doesnt mean you have to cope by dumbing down the favourites for no reason. The underdogs are not better artists or more elegant by any metric, they're artists first and athletes second, while the favourites are first class in both. Thats life - some people have it all while others just get their niche. Support who you wish, but please can we stop acting like it makes us more sophisticated to paint the popular girls as ultra-c reliant robots, as if they havent been learning nearly every form of dance and choreography since childhood even at a higher level than Frolova or Sinitsina?
Sofia Muravieva and Kamila Valieva are the other two of my faves in my top 5 and they deserve the high skating scores. My faves are a combination of difficult jumps with good skating skills, like those two.
What I criticize is when I watch Trusova with no quads and doubled jumps and pops with lower technical content, beat out skaters like Yametova and Kseniia, who skate the triples cleaner with higher difficulty in jumps and more flow and better skating skills, but, lose due to PCS, because Trusova is more known. The same thing happens with Elizaveta, who beat Muravieva, who clearly skates faster with better skating skills and edges her out, due to inflated PCS scores. You will see Elizaveta with 75 PCS scores and Frolova, Ksenia, Veronika stuck in the 60s… making it really hard for them to move up the standings. They need an extra two triples added to their score just to catch up.
The results in last year Nationals are fine from 6th to 18th. The scores are under 220. But, then you get to the top five and the scores just get so inflated. Elizaveta is at 240 with 75 PCS score. She can fall on all her triple axels and still place higher than these girls. Let’s be honest, Elizaveta, with no triple axel, isn’t better than any of these girls. That is all!! Maybe, my issue is just with inflation for 2-3 of the ladies and not, all of them
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- Aug 8, 2023
When did Trusova beat Sinitsina without any quads?
I agree about Liza of course, as does basically every one. Her only super supporters left are clueless young Russian fan girls or the another site echochamber that cant accept the young Russians, so latch on to Liza just because shes a counter to them.
I just particularly also didnt like how you dismissed Adeliia, implying she isnt artistic, while her test skates FS was very sentimental and shes always been sophisticated, charming and unique. Yes, I have noticed her somewhat shaky technique and classic Eteri favouritism but she still easily was the most powerful skater at the end of last season and has massive potential to dominate this season as well. She earned her accolades.
Furthermore, I'll throw in Akateva as also being a princess Eteri girl who gets hate despite being very intellectually and sophisticatedly artistic if not conventionally expressive (I know you didnt mention her, just saying).
I think Trusova just beat only Yametova in that one event. But, her standing was higher than Kseniia.. I just remember being triggered that she was higher than these two skaters in the Russian Cup Standings.
Adeliya… I loved her quirky programs. I liked Voila SP last year. Did not like her free skate from last year. I prefer Muravieva and the international panel agreed that no ultra-c Sofia M, in juniors, was better than Adeliya with quads. Which, the PCS was different than what they were scoring domestically and I was so happy that the international panel agreed with me, that year.
It would have been interesting to see how these skaters would have matched up in front of an international panel. Lately, I find the judging in the international circuit to be quite accurate.
Sofia A… I enjoy!! I love the height and distance of her 3A!! I appreciate big and large jumps!!
I agree with everything you posted.
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- May 27, 2021
Anastasia Guliakova, EX in Beijing
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- Jan 12, 2018
Oh my.. that's someone I haven't seen in a while...
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- Aug 8, 2023
Random question - is there a Telegram channel anyone knows of that intently covers the Russian women’s skating? For instance, upcoming events, results, general updates and information etc…
It can be Russian or English. @Mariott maybe you know? You seem to know everything about the Russian ladies.
Because I find it kind of hard to stay in the loop, information is kind of all over the place here and threads get flooded fast. If I’m off the forum for even a day I get lost. I’ve been on vacation the past couple weeks and hence with my minimal forum presence I am utterly clueless with the scene right now despite still trying to keep up.
It can be Russian or English. @Mariott maybe you know? You seem to know everything about the Russian ladies.
Because I find it kind of hard to stay in the loop, information is kind of all over the place here and threads get flooded fast. If I’m off the forum for even a day I get lost. I’ve been on vacation the past couple weeks and hence with my minimal forum presence I am utterly clueless with the scene right now despite still trying to keep up.
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2020
I got a few, the fed’s official channel, channel 1’s figure skating channel, match tv’s, and sport.ru‘s figure skating feed. Hope these are good.
https://t.me/ruskating
https://t.me/figurka_match
https://t.me/figureskating_1tv
https://t.me/figureskatingfan
For the non Russian speakers, the telegram app has a premium pay version that translates the posts automatically.
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- May 27, 2021
The injury that Ksenia Sinitsyna got at test skates is a foot fracture. She's planning to return to training soon.
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- Aug 8, 2023
Wow and she skated it through that quite cleanly and expressively at the test skates. Thats impressive.
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