2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Albus]

The population of Japan is about 125 million people. The number of post-Soviet countries (where Russian is understood) is about 300 million people. And this is not counting the fact that there are many Russian coaches and athletes outside the post-Soviet countries - Stepa Gogolev, Lesha Krasnozhon, Andrey Torgashov, Iliya Kovler, Maxim Naumov, Ilia Malinin, Vadim Kolesnik, all, without exception, the Israeli national team - they all understand and speak Russian.

But this is only a remark. In general, I agree with you. I don't know why Albus is pushing his trolling with the insistence of a rhinoceros. It is obvious that English is a common language of international communication. It is also relatively simple. For me it would be very difficult if everyone suddenly switched to complex Japanese, for example (I suppose Russian is not easy for you either).

There are 6 languages of international communication which is indeed obvious. For everyone who is able to look at the United Nations official page. This is rude and unacceptable to mark only English due to real international laws

 

[Jontor]

Graz has a rink, it‘s just used for some hockey competition. Don‘t ask me why they didn‘t know this earlier, though, because I have no idea. Not a good look for the Austrian fed at all.

But it‘s not like Graz is some kind of village only consisting of potato fields either...

Yes, I know Graz very well (my brother-in-law is from Steiermark!), it's a nice city. It just that I am a bit confused over the situation.

It triggers the question that ISU might have problems to get a host and is just happy if someone wants to do it?

We are having the World Championships here in Stockholm next year. And as far as I know, the arena is already booked.
The Graz situation just seems a bit odd to me.

 

[LenaRadiFan]

That nobody uses English here. It is totally bad manner.

Oooh I should tell my russian friend that she is very bad-mannered for texting to me in english then [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Fluture]

Yes, I know Graz very well (my brother-in-law is from Steiermark!), it's a nice city. It just that I am a bit confused over the situation.

It triggers the question that ISU might have problems to get a host and is just happy if someone wants to do it?

We are having the World Championships here in Stockholm next year. And as far as I know, the arena is already booked.
The Graz situation just seems a bit odd to me.

Don‘t worry, it seems totally odd to me too. There’s really no reasonable explanation as to why they couldn‘t have known in advance that the arena they had in mind wouldn‘t be available. That‘s poor organization, for sure and I‘m not trying to defend it.

I just feel some users here (not you) are being unnecessarily rude and I don‘t think I have to put up with that either.

 

[Jontor]

Don‘t worry, it seems totally odd to me too. There’s really no reasonable explanation as to why they couldn‘t have known in advance that the arena they had in mind wouldn‘t be available. That‘s poor organization, for sure and I‘m not trying to defend it.

I just feel some users here (not you) are being unnecessarily rude and I don‘t think I have to put up with that either.

Well, I'm sure it is going to be a great Championship despite the oddness of it all.

Go Anna!

 

[Fluture]

Well, I'm sure it is going to be a great Championship despite the oddness of it all.

Go Anna!

I sure am excited. Yes, the rink‘s next to potato fields from the looks of it but the skating should make up for that. I definitely wish all the girls good luck and I know already I‘ll be nervous for all of them but:

Go Aliona!

 

[BabySloth]

So are the girls in Graz already or still in Moscow?

 

[flanker]

Yeah, well, I‘ll just hope being this aggressive makes you feel good. Whatever grudges you hold, hopefully raging about a figure skating event will help. Otherwise, I really don‘t see the point of it. But you do you. :agree:

Of course, we made a mistake but it is not exactly necessary to remind us, that would be considered aggressive.

Like it or not, this is organizational disaster.

 

[Fluture]

So are the girls in Graz already or still in Moscow?

They‘ll arrive tomorrow.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7lSgdvp0yq/?igshid=oxdlqq66stly

 

[Fluture]

Of course, we made a mistake but it is not exactly necessary to remind us, that would be considered aggressive.

Like it or not, this is organizational disaster.

I‘ve said more than once that I‘m confused by the bad organization as well and I‘m not trying to defend it. But you‘re nothing short of rude and disrespectful and thus I see no reason to further discuss with you. Whatever your reasons may be, I don‘t know them and don‘t want to know either. Have a good day.

 

[Mathman]

But neither French nor German is the main language of isu. Why? It's pretty clear that they should avoid politics and set the biggest language of the sport to be the main one. For wider auditory and pool of athletes. If I were the head of rusfed everybody would have already switched to Russian. It is a shame that we still have this conversation about obvious things.

There you go! It's obvious. :yes: I love facts that are obvious. It's those pesky opinions that can lean one way or another that are the bane of civilized conversation.

 

[flanker]

I‘ve said more than once that I‘m confused by the bad organization as well and I‘m not trying to defend it. But you‘re nothing short of rude and disrespectful and thus I see no reason to further discuss with you. Whatever your reasons may be, I don‘t know them and don‘t want to know either. Have a good day.

So, while you are allowed to say you are confused I should probably ask you for a permission to say something about it as well and for the best to use only words you approve.

 

[Mathman]

Trying five quads and landing two is not very interesting. Why not just do the two quads--an impressive feat in itself--and improve the other elements and PCS?

Oh no. Trying 5 quads is better than trying 2. The only thing better than trying 5 quads is trying 6. Throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. If you leave out a couple of quads, those that you leave out might be the very ones that you were destined to land. No guts, no glory!

 

[JazzUp]

Anyway, the deal is done, the ice is frozen, and training is already underway (without complaints AFAIK).

Well, one can forget about organizing the biggest continental fs event in a barn, with no public transportation to that particular potato field where it's located - figure skaters are a tough bunch, but some folks have already written that the ice doesn't look good - and that could indeed be a problem.

 

[Alex65]

... to that particular potato field where it's located ...

Well, the 2020 European champions will be called "King of the potato fields" by rights

 

[McBibus]

Trying five quads and landing two is not very interesting. Why not just do the two quads--an impressive feat in itself--and improve the other elements and PCS?

Because that won't be Sasha.
Sasha is daring and I love that a lot.

 

[flanker]

Well, one can forget about organizing the biggest continental fs event in a barn, with no public transportation to that particular potato field where it's located - figure skaters are a tough bunch, but some folks have already written that the ice doesn't look good - and that could indeed be a problem.

I would expect bad ice on such place. Those are not some problems like when you don't get a room with a view to the beach in a hotel, this can cause truly serious problems. Chilly skaters with insufficient preparation before skate entering bad ice (full of puddles probably), what can be the result? Falls, injuries, cold.

That's not being disrespectful, that's being realistic.

 

[nussnacker]

Because that won't be Sasha.
Sasha is daring and I love that a lot.

Agree! Sasha is so gutsy and daring, so brave, athletic, muscular and strong, she embodies the words “power” and “athlete” to me personally.
I just love her gutsy character. A girl so young, but has such enormous amount of strength and bravery.
She’s very special.

 

[Batsuchan]

Another new podcast/vlog channel riding the high waves of Russian (female) figure skating Sports on Air from sports.ru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGyfGRvcqoA , you can switch on the auto generated subtitles.

So I have no idea who these commentators are, but I switched on the auto-generated subtitles and had them translated to English, and I was amused to hear about Shcherbakova, "Castor" [oil?], and "Coward."

It's just that Trusova gets translated as "coward"--that couldn't be farther from the truth!

I also sometimes see Kostornaia translated as something like "bonfire," but that somehow seems appropriate. "Eyes on fire" and all that.

Speaking of the 3 A's...so last year Aliona won JGPF, Anna won Russian Nationals, and Sasha won their next competition together--Russian Junior Nationals. Since the pattern has remained the same so far, I guess this means it's Sasha's turn to win Euros..?

At Russian Jr Nationals last year, Sasha fell in the SP but skated a perfectly clean FS to win it all, Aliona skated perfectly but it wasn't enough, and Anna fell on the quad that she had managed to land at Russian Sr Nationals.

All of that seems quite possible at Euros...

BUT, now that I'm hearing about these less-than-ideal conditions for Euros, I just hope our super trio stays healthy and injury-free!

 

[Amei]

Trying five quads and landing two is not very interesting. Why not just do the two quads--an impressive feat in itself--and improve the other elements and PCS?

Well I'm going to assume that Trusova is able to do the 5 quad program in practice. I've said for a long time on this board, my impression is that Trusova cares more about the records of being the first to do this and that, etc. vs. winning. I'm not saying she doesn't want to win but that she wants the records more and when she does win to do it her way doing the multiple quads.

And while this divides people, quads are a ton of points as long as they are landed. I'll use my example of Shcherbakova at Cup of China, her 2 quad passes had edge calls and 1 had an under-rotation, both of those jumps still got higher points than all other skaters jumps at that competition and most all of the jumps done at the GPF excluding Shcherbakova's own jumps, Trusova's quads and Kostornaia's back-loaded 3-3 jumping passes.


Hopefully the Fed laid down the ground rules that she can go for broke with the quads and triple axel at Europeans because there's not really anyone that can challenge her for third should she falter like she did at the GPF, but that if she falls a lot again on the triple axel and the quads that for Worlds she backs it down. Rika with a quad and her triple axels could overtake Kostornaia/Shcherbakova/Trusova if they are messy, and given that it's likely those 3 will go into Worlds sweeping all major gold medals that they can go to (excluding 4ccs) and the entire podium for GPF and Europeans; I bet Rika semi-clean gets a good PCS boost to prevent a total sweep by Kostornaia/Shcherbakova/Trusova