2023-24 Russian Women's Figure Skating

[DougDorsey]

Yes this competition is for very young skaters.

Thanks for explaining all this, @AlexBreeze! So for this current competition in St. Petersburg, does St. Petersburg not have a similar competition for the 1st Sports Category? Either at some point earlier in the season, right now, or perhaps in the next few weeks.

 

[AlexBreeze]

Thanks for explaining all this, @AlexBreeze! So for this current competition in St. Petersburg, does St. Petersburg not have a similar competition for the 1st Sports Category? Either at some point earlier in the season, right now, or perhaps in the next few weeks.

So far there's no such competition.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Veronika Zhilina is fully back to jumping after her long break due to injury

3Lz+3Lo (and a bonus side-by-side 3Lz+3Lo with her sister):


Hopefully, her recovery keeps on progressing well during the off-season and we'll be able to see her return to competition next season.

 

[Mathematician]

Hopefully, her recovery keeps on progressing well during the off-season and we'll be able to see her return to competition next season.

If shes already doing a 3-3Lo I cant imagine how we wouldnt see her compete next season

And I'm so happy to see someone jumping the 3Lo combo we need to see it more often again. I'm surprised how rarely we've seen it since since 2022.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

If shes already doing a 3-3Lo I cant imagine how we wouldnt see her compete next season.

Jumps are not the only thing needed for competing. With her injury having been a shoulder injury, spins where you have to use the right arm for difficult variations to achieve level features are a potential concern to me (particularly layback and camel spins, as well as combination spins).

In addition to that, recovery is not necessarily linear. If she's going to train more difficult jumps in preparation for next season, chances are that she'll have to take a few tumbles, which could irritate her still-healing shoulder and aggravate her injury again.

 

[Mathematician]

Jumps are not the only thing needed for competing. With her injury having been a shoulder injury, spins where you have to use the right arm for difficult variations to achieve level features are a potential concern to me (particularly layback and camel spins, as well as combination spins).

In addition to that, recovery is not necessarily linear. If she's going to train more difficult jumps in preparation for next season, chances are that she'll have to take a few tumbles, which could irritate her still-healing shoulder and aggravate her injury again.

Hm fair point about the spins but I've seen her do them at Plushenko shows recently and she was using her right arm fine, holding her leg to a full 180deg upright spin for example. Even if she cant use it for some super advanced things (cant imagine what those would be) I dont see why she would drop the whole season over it; wouldnt make sense at all.

Re-injury is always possible in any case so I wasnt really considering it. I think Plushenko is careful about those things since he banned Zinina from the club just for training through injury when she wasnt supposed to.

I dont know what kind of injury she had exactly. Upper body injuries should very much be healed after that long for the next season, but shoulder injuries specifically can be very complex.

But if shes healthy for a 3-3Lo and at the very least mid level spins she wont miss the season. There's no point. She could still podium at Nats.

 

[RatedPG]

If shes already doing a 3-3Lo I cant imagine how we wouldnt see her compete next season

And I'm so happy to see someone jumping the 3Lo combo we need to see it more often again. I'm surprised how rarely we've seen it since since 2022.

Me too!! I love this combo. I’m hoping with them reducing the jump combos from three to two, that this jump combo will be seen more often.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

holding her leg to a full 180deg upright spin for example.

I- and Y-spins don't require much shoulder rotation, so they should be fine, but I'm thinking more of donut spins for example. With level features probably changing anyway, not using shoulder flexibility might not be an issue either (and spin levels will be a bit all over the place for many skaters initially).

 

[Mathematician]

Samodelkina has been released by the Rus Fed. She may compete for Kazakhstan in the upcoming season.

 

[JeanA]

Samodelkina has been released by the Rus Fed. She may compete for Kazakhstan in the upcoming season.

That's great news! Future World and Olympic champion from Kazakhstan. Or not, since she'll probably be hosed on PCS like Gubanova.

 

[Mathematician]

That's great news! Future World and Olympic champion from Kazakhstan. Or not, since she'll probably be hosed on PCS like Gubanova.

She has a stable 3A and 4T, I think she might have some other ultra-c as well. I think world title is likely in any case.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

She has a stable 3A and 4T, I think she might have some other ultra-c as well. I think world title is likely in any case.

*an unstable 3A and 4S

Even as a Junior, her quads (4T, 4S and 4Lz) were not particularly stable, and while she lands Ultra-Cs in training, most (if not all) attempts look somewhat short of rotation.

Not to say that I don't want her to succeed, but Davydov technique is not the most sustainable in all honesty, and I'd rather not be too optimistic and end up disappointed at the end.

 

[Jeanie19]

*an unstable 3A and 4S

Even as a Junior, her quads (4T, 4S and 4Lz) were not particularly stable, and while she lands Ultra-Cs in training, most (if not all) attempts look somewhat short of rotation.

Not to say that I don't want her to succeed, but Davydov technique is not the most sustainable in all honesty, and I'd rather not be too optimistic and end up disappointed at the end.

She is with Plushenko now, and training with Trusova. I am hopeful her jumps will be good.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

She is with Plushenko now, and training with Trusova. I am hopeful her jumps will be good.

A skater's base technique is not going to change in a few months of training under a new coach, not at this or a later age. Just think of how long Zhenya was with Orser and by which degree her technique changed, or for how long some skaters have tried to fix edge issues.

Even in children, changing the base technique sustainably takes time and effort, and often involves consciously taking a step back in terms of difficulty.

I'm not saying they aren't working on it, but it's going to take some time to see any significant effects, if there are any to be seen.

 

[Mathematician]

*an unstable 3A and 4S

Even as a Junior, her quads (4T, 4S and 4Lz) were not particularly stable, and while she lands Ultra-Cs in training, most (if not all) attempts look somewhat short of rotation.

Not to say that I don't want her to succeed, but Davydov technique is not the most sustainable in all honesty, and I'd rather not be too optimistic and end up disappointed at the end.

Dont know about the 4T for sure but her 3A looks pretty good she lands it multiple times in a row and with combo. I dont think its under rotated either. It looks light and totally unlabored. Plushenko is doing a good job and all that in off season and she wasnt even sure if she would compete. I think therefore its looking really good for her.

 

[RatedPG]

Dont know about the 4T for sure but her 3A looks pretty good she lands it multiple times in a row and with combo. I dont think its under rotated either. It looks light and totally unlabored. Plushenko is doing a good job and all that in off season and she wasnt even sure if she would compete. I think therefore its looking really good for her.

I disagree about the jumps. She was one of my favourite Junior girls. Her best moment was when she qualified for Junior Worlds but covid stopped that. Her last year competing domestically was all over the place. Good at the GP events. But, horrible at Nationals and Russian Cup due to inconsistency on the jumping elements. This is the reason why Russia is okay with this release. I think she is one to watch out for though…maybe, she saw her bad results as an opportunity to get off National team so she can switch nationality.

In exhibitions, she will land the 3A, but, then struggle with regular triple jumps. So, she has to train hard.

She has the potential though. My favourite program was her free skate that season with all backloaded combos. The judges were hard with her quads though. Lots of ur’s.

Im excited she gets to compete next season and will be rooting for her. The year after Olympics, she was on National Team for Russia. Go Sofia!!

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Dont know about the 4T for sure but her 3A looks pretty good she lands it multiple times in a row and with combo. I dont think its under rotated either. It looks light and totally unlabored. Plushenko is doing a good job and all that in off season and she wasnt even sure if she would compete. I think therefore its looking really good for her.

Sofia is very good at "concealing" under rotations and has been since for a while. I'm pretty sure I previously commented about how she (and some others, nationally and internationally) are dependent on the strictness of the technical panel, because their scores could end up varying significantly depending on tech calls. Obviously, she is not doing this consciously, it's just the result of her previous coaching.

A solid percentage of the videos I've seen have had missing rotation, though they definitely do look better (more effortless and more rotated) than they looked in 2022-23. Not necessarily due to technique, but due to strength - She looks so much stronger and more in shape now. Caveat - We have not really seen an equivalent of a competition situation, not even really a "normal" full training run-through with Ultra-Cs that are embedded in a full program. Essentially, it's one thing to jump things in isolation and another to jump them in programs, and then on top of that jump them in competition. Though Sofia is no Anna Shcherbakova with nerves of steel, she's also not like her dear friend Sasha Trusova who never ended up being able to land a 3A in competition (though that was partially a technique and a mental issue ), so we'll have to wait and see how she deals with the situation next season.

Obviously, as we also all know, tech panels are willing to overlook missing rotation (especially in Seniors, and that goes for domestic and international competitions ), so as long as she lands it and it isn't clearly a downgrade, she has more than enough chances to not get calls. (Might actually be a good idea after all to not do the JGP, because they've been more strict on the technical side in recent years, and once you have the reputation of UR your jumps, it can stick around like a curse. )