My dream team would be Lipnitskaya, Sakhanovich, Radionova, but I think in reality (based on the last season) the biggest chance has Medvedeva, Tsurskaya, Radionova. Saying that, there may be injuries, puberty, one bad season due to unexplained factors etc, so the spots are still pretty much open. Based on two or three seasons prior to the last Olympics we would never know that it will be Tuktamysheva who would stay at home. Sotnikova and Tuktamysheva was in everyone's mind, and Lipnitskaya was a year behind, therefore somewhat behind. Then the Olympic season came and Lipnitskaya was winning everything while Tuktamysheva was unreliable...
Let's guess the Russian ladies Oly team?
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I actually don't think Yulia's issues were sooooo serious as people describe actually.
Coming into Sochi Oly's, she was good, but not a head above the rest of the field, and not a head above some of her teammates.
After Sochi, she suddenly turned into THE girl, and there was way too much pressure on her, + the post olympic seasons seem to be very harsh on most top contenders anyway. And also puberty changes.
Meanwhile, some of her teammates came back (Tuktamysheva) and others turned senior (like Radionova and Medvedeva).
If there was no such depth in the russian field... But she basically was in a situation where you take a tiny step backwards and there is suddenly a crowd of skaters ahead of you.
My guess: Tuk, Elena, Pogo
Tuk will be climbing up, Elena will remain the prerennial runner up, Med will have problems that all Russian girls have sooner or later, Julia will miss it by a hair and Pogo will hang on there somehow, like she has so far.
But in truth the only one I'd bet on is Elena. She won't be the leader of the pack, but she'll be there.
Tuk will be climbing up, Elena will remain the prerennial runner up, Med will have problems that all Russian girls have sooner or later, Julia will miss it by a hair and Pogo will hang on there somehow, like she has so far.
But in truth the only one I'd bet on is Elena. She won't be the leader of the pack, but she'll be there.
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I'm just curious, was there anyone predicting that Alena Leonova would be on the Olympic podium after her world silver in 2012? Just saying, she won her world medal at the halfway point to Sochi. How did everyone feel about her at that point? I personally wasn't paying much attention to skating back then, so I wouldn't know.
No because most people probably knew she wouldn't be on the team when the time came because other . The only reason she went to Worlds was because the 1st and 2nd place finishers at Nationals - Sotnikova and Lipnitsaya, were not age-eligible.
Which is one of the things I dislike about Nationals, to me the age limits need to be adjusted for 2 things
1) Make it one set age when a skater is eligible for ISU competitions, skaters can compete on the Grand Prix but not Euros/4cc/Worlds is ridiculous
2) ISU restricts nationals to senior-eligible skaters, maybe have it be that skaters can compete at their nationals if they will be Senior eligible the next season. But it was a little sad that Russia was sending skaters that didn't podium at Worlds because the medalists were not age-eligible.
The halfway point to Sochi was a rather weird time for the Ladies. Yuna seemed to be retired Mao was struggling Miki took the year off and Kostner of all people was the best skater in the world. Of course the next season was when the youngsters like Adelina,Tuk and Gracie made their debut at Worlds. Yuna of course came back and after her performance at Worlds seemed to be unbeatable again heading into Sochi. Little did we know.
