I still say this comes down to problems in skater development and coaching. The whole program seems to be in need of some re-thinking. Why can't juniors transition properly into the senior ranks? Why are there constant, constant problems with TES and with program construction that suits COP? Kustarova hasn't so far managed to transition skaters successfully from junior to senior level. Svinin/Zhuk have had limited success at the Worlds stage, even though they've been in business for a long time. Zhulin is hella inconsistent (IMO the programs B/S have this year...once again don't do them justice). Gorshkov petered out. At this point I think it's an easy excuse to point to the split of I/K and pretend that everything would have been fine otherwise (and to pretend that the likeliest outcome wouldn't have been even more disasters and missed podiums LOL, I mean they had four years of trainwrecking under their belt at that point...), when in fact Russian ice dance has had systemic problems for a long time.
But nah, more twinkly flowy stuff certainly isn't the answer. They don't need to copy Montreal or anything, they need to find a way to make the strengths and traditions of Russian ice dance work in the context of the new system. And I feel that this is something that needs to come from within the Russian ice dance community, it needs to be an organic development.
But nah, more twinkly flowy stuff certainly isn't the answer. They don't need to copy Montreal or anything, they need to find a way to make the strengths and traditions of Russian ice dance work in the context of the new system. And I feel that this is something that needs to come from within the Russian ice dance community, it needs to be an organic development.