Team Russia - Promising Young Skaters | Page 25 | Golden Skate

Team Russia - Promising Young Skaters

starlight97

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Jun 14, 2014
Wasn't it that Russia poured a TON of money and political backing into figure skating because 1) the results in Vancouver were dissatisfactory, and 2) 2014 Winter O's were to be in Sochi?

Yes the state invested a lot. They let Sotnikova work with several specialists prior to Sochi. Her coach later thanked the federation for that.
Also- I don't know if this is a factor but- Putin ia a real sportsman/ fan, he values achievements in any sport... while for example in my country, Angela Merkel (the equivalent to Putin) or better said our whole country - Is only interested in football, football and nothing but football. :rolleye:
 

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Wasn't it that Russia poured a TON of money and political backing into figure skating because 1) the results in Vancouver were dissatisfactory, and 2) 2014 Winter O's were to be in Sochi?

Russia did invest a lot into winter sports after the Vancouver disaster. In some sports the measures included the outright luring of retiring foreign stars who in the end of the day brought 5 OGMs (Victor An and Vic Wild). In biathlon a lot of money was given to the leading athletes by the federation sponsor - one of the richest men in Russia Prokhorov - we know without a payback. Figure skating is one of the cleanest examples of the right approach when the emphasis was put on the early development through a nation-wide network of kid's sport sections. It was a soviet tradition - I went to some of these schools as a kid - but this tradition needed a boost. Luckily the result is there. And having a superstar role model like Yulia helps this boost enormously.

Money and political backing are just a small portion of the necessary ingredients. Otherwise we would not have fiasco in hockey and biathlon where they were the biggest (and recently in footbal with the highest paid coach in the world).
 

Skater Boy

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Feb 24, 2012
I am not sure Yulia will make it through puberty though. Her jumps are small and eventually she will grow up so who knows if artistically she will grow - they certainly worked their magic with her innocence this year.
 

Ophelia

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Dec 6, 2013
Yes the state invested a lot. They let Sotnikova work with several specialists prior to Sochi. Her coach later thanked the federation for that.
Also- I don't know if this is a factor but- Putin ia a real sportsman/ fan, he values achievements in any sport... while for example in my country, Angela Merkel (the equivalent to Putin) or better said our whole country - Is only interested in football, football and nothing but football. :rolleye:

Well, you guys have a damn good football team and scored the World Cup!
 

starlight97

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Jun 14, 2014
Well, you guys have a damn good football team and scored the World Cup!

Yeah we sure have! But do you think the German genes are just better? Definitely not. We are so good at football because the people love it and the state does everything for the sport. We had like 3 massage people for every player, every player who was selected went through a huge selection process, there are mor than 90 football clubs in some cities, they advertise it, they spent millions to train the players with specialists and whatever you can imagine. And of course our national coach is a genius.
Amazing! But the thing is that football is basically the only sport that gets such support here. No one really invests in figure skating- it's unpopular and expensive.
So that's the reason why Russia is ahead of Germany at least :D
 
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Jul 30, 2012
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Yes the state invested a lot. They let Sotnikova work with several specialists prior to Sochi. Her coach later thanked the federation for that.
Also- I don't know if this is a factor but- Putin ia a real sportsman/ fan, he values achievements in any sport... while for example in my country, Angela Merkel (the equivalent to Putin) or better said our whole country - Is only interested in football, football and nothing but football. :rolleye:
They invested a lot in baby skating at 2000 and later. So Russia had many thousands 4-years old children who started skating, ant it is possible to select most talented.
Nothing strange that Russian top Ladies are 1996 and younger (and Men 1995 and younger) - they are selected of very many babies who started at 2000 being 4-5 years old.
It (training of thousands babies) is much more expensive that training leaders at highest level.

It is not the only thing that gives success, but most expensive one.

All Russian top skaters work with team of specialists - but, I believe, all best skaters of the world do so.
 

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It (training of thousands babies) is much more expensive that training leaders at highest level.

I would not necessarily agree. Parents have to pay for their kids. Yulia's mother herself bet financially big time, although Yulia was already a local star in Chelyabinsk. I think when we speak about the FS children's network it's more about the availability than day to day investment. I remember it was always like that - in the early 70s my parents paid about 6 rubles per month for my training (about 2% of our household's income).
 
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I would not necessarily agree. Parents have to pay for their kids. Yulia's mother herself bet financially big time, although Yulia was already a local star in Chelyabinsk. I think when we speak about the FS children's network it's more about the availability than day to day investment. I remember it was always like that - in the early 70s my parents paid about 6 rubles per month for my training (about 2% of our household's income).
Yes, parents also pay, but not so much at earyly stage. State gives ice for free, coaches for (almost) free.
Real money from parents is for young high level skares, when parents understand for what they pay - national-level results and future of their children.
 

hanca

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Sep 23, 2008
I am not sure Yulia will make it through puberty though. Her jumps are small and eventually she will grow up so who knows if artistically she will grow - they certainly worked their magic with her innocence this year.

That's not the point though. It is not only Julia. the country has a whole line of stars from the past, so some children may have started skating because they saw Pluschenko doing so well, and now they saw Adelina and Julia, but even if neither of them managed to shine again, there will be plenty of others and the youngsters will get inspired by those stars. Maybe Radionova, maybe one of those four very talented current juniors...as long as there is someone on top, it doesn't really matter who it is. The same way like in America a lot of people were inspired by Cohen and Kwan.
 

gravy

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Mar 28, 2014
That's not the point though. It is not only Julia. the country has a whole line of stars from the past, so some children may have started skating because they saw Pluschenko doing so well, and now they saw Adelina and Julia, but even if neither of them managed to shine again, there will be plenty of others and the youngsters will get inspired by those stars. Maybe Radionova, maybe one of those four very talented current juniors...as long as there is someone on top, it doesn't really matter who it is. The same way like in America a lot of people were inspired by Cohen and Kwan.

They sure inspired the army of medal-winning Americans we see today. :sarcasm:

Mostly kidding though. I think Kwan actually inspired more international skaters who rose to prominence than American ones, though. Carolina said Michelle was her idol growing up and Yuna said she watched Michelle's LP at the 1998 Olympics so many times that she actually memorized it.

I do see what you're saying though. It's important to have a star to inspire younger generations to figure skater anywhere really.
 

hanca

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Sep 23, 2008
I do see what you're saying though. It's important to have a star to inspire younger generations to figure skater anywhere really.

It is not only about inspiring the children. It is also about inspiring their parents, to show them that it can be their child in a few years time...
 
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It is not only about inspiring the children. It is also about inspiring their parents, to show them that it can be their child in a few years time...
Yes. Children are too young, parents solve.
And now, after Sochi, Lipnitskaia is most PRed skater, she has 18 thousands "likes" at Instagram photos (for comparison - Radionova about 3000 or less, Sotnikova at most 500 or less).
She is the only skater known by people not interested in figure skating, like Pluschenko years ago.
People know about her prize for olympic gold - hundreds of thousands dollars.

Lipnitskaia inspires now in Russia.
 

MalAssada

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Jun 28, 2014
Yeah we sure have! But do you think the German genes are just better? Definitely not. We are so good at football because the people love it and the state does everything for the sport. We had like 3 massage people for every player, every player who was selected went through a huge selection process, there are mor than 90 football clubs in some cities, they advertise it, they spent millions to train the players with specialists and whatever you can imagine. And of course our national coach is a genius.
Amazing! But the thing is that football is basically the only sport that gets such support here. No one really invests in figure skating- it's unpopular and expensive.
So that's the reason why Russia is ahead of Germany at least :D

The same happens in Brazil (football lovers), only there is no kind of support until the players have their "debuts". Also something I notice here, at least with football, is that there are bigger opportunities abroad. The amount of Brazilians playing in European teams is huge...

But back to FS: I visited the Brazilian website about Winter Sports and it said that they are visiting potential skaters for the next Olympics. If I'm not mistaken, 5 females and 1 male, all training in the US (that's another point, how's a skater supposed to skate when there isn't a single good ice rink in the country?). There was ONE potential girl, IMO, who won US Novice Nationals in 2013, but she is already 14...

That's the thing, you have to seek athletes and when you find those who can be good in the future, you gotta make them be good. I doubt the Br Federation is paying for those girls' training, they are just not interested. Same with every other sport, except, maybe, volleyball. :bang:
 

YLFan

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Apr 3, 2014
I think there will be a resurgence in Russian football too. I watch all the Russian Premier league games on the Internet. Probably sacrilegious that I am a fan of Zenit, Dynamo and Spartak. And within 4 years Rus will have 15 new football stadiums with all the ones recently completed and being built.

---

Do you think here in the US the way young athletes are more coddled and the 'everyone gets a trophy' type mentality is hurting development as the sport trends younger.
 

Amei

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Nov 11, 2013
I think there will be a resurgence in Russian football too. I watch all the Russian Premier league games on the Internet. Probably sacrilegious that I am a fan of Zenit, Dynamo and Spartak. And within 4 years Rus will have 15 new football stadiums with all the ones recently completed and being built.

I think that has something to do with the World Cup being in Russia in 2018. No host country of any sporting event wants to be out of it quickly.

Do you think here in the US the way young athletes are more coddled and the 'everyone gets a trophy' type mentality is hurting development as the sport trends younger.

I think figure skating growth in the U.S. is hurt more by 2 things; 1) that it's not a widely popular sport like a football (U.S. version) or basketball, its something that nowadays in the U.S. is only popular for the few months surrounding the Olympics 2) figure skating is not something that is a school sponsored event or something (at least to my knowledge) that a kid can get a college scholarship for, most parents will push their kids into something that have that opportunity.

I think that football/soccer is getting a huge boost in the US because of the affects of concussions have become more widely known and that is affecting parents letting their children play American football. But for that to get really popular in the US it will take a) big name stars coming to the MLS in the prime of their careers - not like D. Beckham did when he was past his prime and it was clearly something more about the money then 'growing the sport' b) the national team winning huge matches... I remember after the US got booted from the World Cup earlier this year; I was listening to a popular sports radio program and the host was reading tweets about it and 1 of them was 'this was a lot of fun soccer, see you in 4 years'.
 

humbaba

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Jan 12, 2004
The old USSR was certainly very committed to producing elite athletes in Olympic sports. Why were they not able to regularly produce strong singles skaters, especially ladies, during the Soviet era? I always thought it might be a cultural thing and their best athletes were more attracted to pairs.

I honestly am curious. The USSR would have had the benefit of a larger pool of potential talent, as they could draw on athletes not just from Russia, but also from the other republics. And they certainly had the benefit of a huge well-funded sports machine. So why couldn't they produce ladies who were internationally competitive then, but Russia alone can now?
 

Pippuripihvi

Final Flight
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Jan 18, 2014
I think new generation of coaches has a lot to do with the success of the young Russian ladies. And for the same reason there's decline in men's figure skating: there are almost no new coaches that work with boys. Probably, just Eteri.
 

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Mar 26, 2014
I honestly am curious. So why couldn't they produce ladies who were internationally competitive then, but Russia alone can now?

My theory is that we had little emphasis on figures. Yulia's coach Vodorezova is a good example - could not do them despite being a powerful skater. As they were gone so improved the russian ladies' results. I remember that our audience was not happy about the whole compulsory figures situation. There were discussions about the unfairness of, say, Schuba's winning everything only because of her figures without being able to do anything special in the free program.
 

starlight97

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 14, 2014
That's just my personal opinion and it may be wrong but-
I think the Russian kids also have a different mentality, different attitude when it comes to achieving something.
When I listen to interview's with some 13 year olds and they say "Until I was 10 I also wanted to go out with friends and have fun, but now I understand that I have to work more and I don't have a desire to do these 'fun' things anymore"
I mean like WOW ! And they all seem to think like this!
In Germany it is AT MOST considered a hobby and as soonas it could become serious most children actually pull out! Cause they can't see a career in skating, it's so unusual here! While in football or f.ex. skiing children are actually sent there with the intention to make a career of it.

It's a bit hard to explain. .. also many little Russians say things like "My mum sent me to skate to correct my posture or to strengthen my weak legs. .." NO ONE would do that here:D
The kids are just send to occupational therapists and some medical massages then...

(((But I also know that the medical system in Russia is a bit different. Like Adelina' sister is disabled and they had to reconstruct her facial bones and operate on her ears- and the like health insurance didn't pay for it?? Can that actually be true?? And Tarasova(is that her name?) Helped to pay for the expensive operations. ..
I remember this because she was operated in Germany, that's why I came across it in the first place... )))

So maybe sport is considered some kind of natural medicine in Russia as well? Like to correct little things, strengthen the immune system and such..
 
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