2017-18 State of Russian Ladies skating

[Shayuki]

Why has Gubanova been receiving such low PCS in her programs? Talinn Trophy made me cringe when I saw her scores.

Presentation / interpretation is not good this season in my opinion. It's significantly behind even what she displayed... 3 whole years ago.

 

[Ares]

How many Juniors have won Nationals? I know Cynthia Phaneuf was a junior when she won her first title. Was Mirai a Junior when she won in 2008?

Young You was still 11 years old when she won South Korean senior Nationals. So not even eligible for juniors, internationally only was competing in Novice category.

 

[moriel]

If i remember correctly Polina was considering quad lutz in the past, but now with all these injuries, i don't think she will ever attempt.

Maybe after the Olympics.
Right now, her goal is to make the Oly team, and she has the goods to make the team without quad.
Now, after the Olympics, specially if she doesnt make the team, she will have a lot to prove, and soon enough, the current juniors will turn senior, so she may actually need it

 

[Ares]

If i remember correctly Polina was considering quad lutz in the past, but now with all these injuries, i don't think she will ever attempt.

:eeking:

Her triple lutz is her best jump but it is so insane. I think there was a talk about Evgenia's possible 4S last year too.

 

[russianfan]

:eeking:

Her triple lutz is her best jump but it is so insane. I think there was a talk about Evgenia's possible 4S last year too.

well, those are just talks... we can talk for example about Trusova's 4S because she almost done it in competition and has real chances to land it in competition at some point(fully rotated), but Polina's or Evgenia's quad... we haven't even seen any training videos where they might've been close to landing that...

 

[atsumiri]

but Polina's or Evgenia's quad... we haven't even seen any training videos where they might've been close to landing that...

and i don't think we will ever see. It's too late for them imo.
And Polina is too tall and her rotation speed is too slow.

 

[Sam L]

I can’t see a reason why they couldn’t do quads post puberty. Tuktamysheva managed 3A post puberty. True, it was never that consistent, but Tuktamysheva has a very unfortunate figure for figure skating. No matter how slim she would get, having bigger boobs and hips is not helping with jumps. It slows down her rotation and her centre of gravity has changed significantly from what she did pre puberty. But Mirai Nagasu is not stick thin and has triple axel, Mao had triple Axel... it is doable if someone is fortunate with their figure. E.g. Medvedeva and Zagitova’s figures would do quite well for those harder jumps although it is very likely too late to start now. Mishin was working with Tuktamysheva on her 3A before her puberty. So Medvedeva and Zagitova will have to accept what they have. It will be the next years who will start bringing it on. There are japanese ladies wo are working on them, and some Russian ladies. Not all of them will have it post puberty, but those who will will have the advantage.

You make good points particularly about when they start, I guess we will see. Another thing is under the current system for a quad to be effective you need to start throwing down a few like the men and is that worth the risk? What’s the BV for a 3lz-3lo compared to say a 4t or 4s.

If i remember correctly Polina was considering quad lutz in the past, but now with all these injuries, i don't think she will ever attempt.

No I’d rather she keeps herself healthy.

and i don't think we will ever see. It's too late for them imo.
And Polina is too tall and her rotation speed is too slow.

It’s beautiful though, the height, the ice coverage and the slow rotation hanging in the air. Give me that any day over a quad.

 

[Skater Boy]

With Evgenia injured, Alina struggling in the short, Anna injured, Polina really just trying to come back, Maria being so blah, Rad and Tut not really able to recover to their past glory is the door open for Carolina, Ashley, Mai, Wakababy or Kaetlyn to steal the gold? Evgenia and Alina are fighters still. S I won't write them off. But it is no guaranteed Russia will win OGM.

 

[madison]

Even for Trusova that 4S is really hard and she's really thin and small and can rotate fast.
It will become even more difficult for her when she'll grow

 

[gmyers]

With Evgenia injured, Alina struggling in the short, Anna injured, Polina really just trying to come back, Maria being so blah, Rad and Tut not really able to recover to their past glory is the door open for Carolina, Ashley, Mai, Wakababy or Kaetlyn to steal the gold? Evgenia and Alina are fighters still. S I won't write them off. But it is no guaranteed Russia will win OGM.

Maria may be blah but sometimes blah works!!! She meant Russia has three spots as of right now! She is a player! She is a contender!

 

[moriel]

With Evgenia injured, Alina struggling in the short, Anna injured, Polina really just trying to come back, Maria being so blah, Rad and Tut not really able to recover to their past glory is the door open for Carolina, Ashley, Mai, Wakababy or Kaetlyn to steal the gold? Evgenia and Alina are fighters still. S I won't write them off. But it is no guaranteed Russia will win OGM.

Hehe
Evgenia is already out of the cast and back on ice
Alina struggling in the short - considering what she can put out in her FS, i´m sure they will fix the short until Olympics.
Polina is really just trying to come back, with a 210 score on her senior debut after a year of absence (see her PCs grow as she wins SA and goes to GPF).
Maria is so blah that she hypnotizes the judges to give her the necessary scores.

So:
Carolina - no chance for gold. She just does not have the tech, and struggles way more than the russian ladies. The judges may prop her madly in PCs, but she is not the only one. If the russians falter, she will lose to Osmond.
Ashley - she is too much into planting carrots, and has no home advantage.
Mai - lacks star power imho. the judges will prop someone else (osmond) if russians falter.
Wakaba - lacks star power according to judges.
Osmond - struggles with free

Out of those 5, i would say only Osmond has a chance to snatch the gold, if she surprises us all with 2 clean programs.

But there is no guarantee OGM for Russia, and never was. Ice is slippery, and IOC may just ban Russia (please no). Someone may get injured (please no). North Korea may go ballistic, requiring the games to be cancelled for safety reasons (please no). And so on.

 

[ejnsofi]

With Evgenia injured, Alina struggling in the short, Anna injured, Polina really just trying to come back, Maria being so blah, Rad and Tut not really able to recover to their past glory is the door open for Carolina, Ashley, Mai, Wakababy or Kaetlyn to steal the gold? Evgenia and Alina are fighters still. S I won't write them off. But it is no guaranteed Russia will win OGM.

Injured Evgenia won NHK Trophy, Alina has powerful FS with really high BV and she skates it clean, Polina won bronze on her senior debut with score above 210, for you Maria is blah but for judges she works things out.

Carolina is lovely skater and artistically she is above everybody but her technical content is not so great, Ashley struggles with URs and in the last 2 years she only produced medal worth results in North America, Wakababy is a strong medal contender but she already lost to Zagitova and Medvedeva in this season, Mai struggles to medal in this season and Osmond won in Canada just to lost to both Zagitova and Sotskova in France (and her FS in the worst in her competitive history).

 

[Resa]

Sotskova got a lot of UR calls at Shanghai trophy

 

[Bluediamonds09]

Uh-oh, this is interesting: radionova beat sotskova in Shanghai. And Sotskova was also beaten by Tursynbaeva! It’s worth noting that Sotskova has the higher PCS (68 to Radionova’s 65). Does anyone have a link to the protocols?? I’m guessing that R probably received better GOEs on the spins and sotskova’s spins weren’t given much love (some positions were slow)? And then there’s the underrotations.
This is going to make Russian nationals even better, I can’t wait!

 

[silverfoxes]

I am not a fan of either Elena or Maria but Maria wuzrobbed there, big time.

 

[QuadSal]

Here are the protocols for the Shanghai Trophy:http://www.isuresults.com/results/season1718/sht17/sht17_Ladies_FS_Scores.pdf

Maria got dinged with a lot of under rotations

 

[madison]

I am not a fan of either Elena or Maria but Maria wuzrobbed there, big time.

But some of her landings were really shaky :eeking:

 

[madison]

Radio was with her mother in the K&C and she skated really good. She's in better shape than at the beginning of the season.

 

[silverfoxes]

But some of her landings were really shaky :eeking:

Elena's landings looked worse to me.

 

[Shayuki]

I think that Trusova has stepped up her presentation in certain aspects. The combo was a bit off but if it was clean I imagine she'd have had 40+ TES(got 39.17 here).