2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[laybackrelaxspinfast]

As a fun game to start the thread how about we all say who we are excited for next season. My list is as follows.

Evgenia Medvedeva (Fan girl obviously, look at my profile picture! )

Alena Kostornaia (So excited to see what programs she will skate to, I hope for nothing but top 2 placements for this precious little cherub.)

Anastasia Gubanova (She did not come to play this season.)

Honorary mention - Alina Zagitova (Someone give this poor girl some good content, she deserves a strong and powerful program. Give her something like a strong firebird or a fierce tango, her program content is literally shouting out for it!)

 

[j00mla]

Honorary mention - Alina Zagitova (Someone give this poor girl some good content, she deserves a strong and powerful program. Give her something like a strong firebird or a fierce tango, her program content is literally shouting out for it!)

she has excellent content, created by Daniil and Eteri with deep understanding of her person and with great love

 

[flanker]

Tango is probably most overused dance rhythm in figure skating. This season it was even stronger because tango was a compulsory dance in RD, but even without it there were like 5 or 6 tango programs in worlds among ladies and to be honest it is starting to be repetitive. Also Lilbet had a tango this season (and Zhenya and I already hear some voices about imitating in my head) so I sincerely and personally hope no tango for any Sambo 70 girl in the upcoming season.

 

[laybackrelaxspinfast]

she has excellent content, created by Daniil and Eteri with deep understanding of her person and with great love

Sorry if I offended you, it is simply my opinion. It was not my intention to cause an argument. You are of course entitled to your own opinion. Maybe share who you are excited for this season?

 

[laybackrelaxspinfast]

Tango is probably most overused dance rhythm in figure skating. This season it was even stronger because tango was a compulsory dance in RD, but even without it there were like 5 or six tango programs in worlds among ladies and to be honest it is starting to be repetitive. Also Lilbet had tango this season (and Zhenya and I already hear some voices as her FP so I sincerely and personally hope no tango for any Sambo 70 girl in the upcoming season.

Doesn’t have to be a tango of course (I just used the music as an example), but something with more power. It could be completely out of the box. Her exhibition really highlighted for me what suits her and what she is capable of.

 

[Fluture]

she has excellent content, created by Daniil and Eteri with deep understanding of her person and with great love

I‘m not a fan of either firebird or tango, so that‘s not a direction I would go into either. But let‘s be honest, even though our opinions are all subjective... Alina‘s programs this season (last season now, I guess) were just not... on the same league as some of the others Daniil has made. They looked hectic and the transitions were all over the place. I know that Eteri and her team use this style with lots of transitions and usually, I don‘t object to it because they have created some masterpieces with it.

However, Alena, Anna and even Sasha all had those transitions but they never looked laboured while doing them this season. In their attempt to create these ridiculously difficult programs for Alina they ignored flow and extension in the process. This wasn‘t as present in the Olympic season because she wasn‘t growing, she didn‘t have problems, she was faster in general. But this year it was really noticable and most of the time - it just didn‘t look good. And before someone tells me that it “paid off in the end“. No, it did not. She won Worlds but not specifically because of those transitions, not specifically because of her busy programs. She managed to win Worlds DESPITE of them and this is just impressive. But it would not have been necessary, and I would have preferred for them to be easier in the transitions but more aesthetically pleasing. She would still have got the high technical content and the PCS. And with better flow, more focus put on choreography and presentation, it would be more than deserved.

This doesn‘t mean Alina isn‘t a good skater because she is. She is fully capable of holding positions and her flow and speed are usually much better when her programs aren’t as busy. And her music choices for the Olympic season were the best they could have made because they highlighted her strengths.

I hope Alina gets something that fits her personally next season. She has won everything, she should skate for now only to enjoy it and for herself. I hope she chooses something a bit more modern, she has been great in her Survivor exhibition this season! Probably one of my favorite programs of hers because we‘ve seen her free and happy and confident. Something like this would be great. But please no more warhorses... something fresh! (And no tango, that’s even worse, we have like 1000 tangos every year) Daniil has said something along the lines of choosing a totally unusual image for Alina. That both scares me and gives me hope.

 

[Fluture]

As a fun game to start the thread how about we all say who we are excited for next season. My list is as follows.

Evgenia Medvedeva (Fan girl obviously, look at my profile picture! )

Alena Kostornaia (So excited to see what programs she will skate to, I hope for nothing but top 2 placements for this precious little cherub.)

Anastasia Gubanova (She did not come to play this season.)

Honorary mention - Alina Zagitova (Someone give this poor girl some good content, she deserves a strong and powerful program. Give her something like a strong firebird or a fierce tango, her program content is literally shouting out for it!)

I like this idea! Who I‘m excited for:

Evgenia Medvedeva, of course! She seems to have settled in with her team, she ended the season on a high note, so let‘s see what they can do. I hope we‘ll finally see it all come together, see more of the many improvements she has made. I really like how her lutz looks at the moment but of course I hope she can further improve the edge. Her 2A is spectacular in practice but she seems to go back to the old technique in competition. Her skating skills also look better, she has more flow and deeper edges. With more muscle memory, I hope that we will finally see this all in competition.

Alena Kostornaya: She makes me both excited and anxious. I really hope she is fine now and has recovered! She is, in my opinion, the biggest talent of the 3A moving up, the total package. She may not have quads or 3A (yet?) but she is on a different level on everything else. Skating skills, musicality, technique in jumps and elegance. She is just so refined for her age. She probably won‘t win everything if she doesn‘t upgrade her technical content. Which is a shame because I would give her all the points if I was a judge. But anyway, I do have high expectations and I hope she gets programs on the level of her SP this year.

Alina: Another one who I have expectations for but maybe in a different sense. Now that she has won everything, I expect to see a happy, proud and confident Alina who skates for herself primarily and everything else secondarily. And because the 3A are moving up, the hype and pressure will not be solely on her shoulders. I want to see her happy next season! Fingers crossed for some good programs.

Well, Sasha probably deserves a mention too. How much quads will she have, how many records will she break? I may not like her skating but the girl has guts. I expect to see a full sweep next season by her.

I‘m also intrigued by Alena Kanysheva. Since I have seen her live in Linz, I‘ve loved her! What can she do under Eteri?

Will Anastasia Tarakanova finally make it to Junior Worlds? She would deserve it but there are just so many juniors ...

 

[Alex65]

I feel a little sorry for Daniel. He needs to do a lot of work in the next couple of months. And in any case there will be a lot of criticism in his address, :disapp: :eeking: :disagree::gaah: I think.

 

[Edwin]

I feel a little sorry for Daniel. He needs to do a lot of work in the next couple of months. And in any case there will be a lot of criticism in his address, I think.

Yeah, no matter the effort he puts in creating a program for the Khrustalniy skaters, there always will be people that want to destroy his work.
Appreciation of choreo is a matter of taste and preference, and no choreo will please everybody.

I am confident he will try his very best to have the Khrustalniy skaters shine.

 

[Scott512]

As a fun game to start the thread how about we all say who we are excited for next season. My list is as follows.

Evgenia Medvedeva (Fan girl obviously, look at my profile picture! )

Alena Kostornaia (So excited to see what programs she will skate to, I hope for nothing but top 2 placements for this precious little cherub.)

Anastasia Gubanova (She did not come to play this season.)

Honorary mention - Alina Zagitova (Someone give this poor girl some good content, she deserves a strong and powerful program. Give her something like a strong firebird or a fierce tango, her program content is literally shouting out for it!)

I do not understand what you mean about Nastya G. She was slowed at the beginning of the season with boot issues caused by growth issues and it was an uphill battle after that although she showed flashes of wonderful skating like Russian cup SP. Hopefully she can bottle that for next season whether she's a senior or junior or both.

Ailnas programs worked for her this year and she will have better programs next year which will make her even better which no one wants to hear except Zagatova fans. Muaaaaaaaah!

 

[flanker]

I‘m not a fan of either firebird or tango, so that‘s not a direction I would go into either. But let‘s be honest, even though our opinions are all subjective... Alina‘s programs this season (last season now, I guess) were just not... on the same league as some of the others Daniil has made. They looked hectic and the transitions were all over the place. I know that Eteri and her team use this style with lots of transitions and usually, I don‘t object to it because they have created some masterpieces with it.

However, Alena, Anna and even Sasha all had those transitions but they never looked laboured while doing them this season. In their attempt to create these ridiculously difficult programs for Alina they ignored flow and extension in the process. This wasn‘t as present in the Olympic season because she wasn‘t growing, she didn‘t have problems, she was faster in general. But this year it was really noticable and most of the time - it just didn‘t look good. And before someone tells me that it “paid off in the end“. No, it did not. She won Worlds but not specifically because of those transitions, not specifically because of her busy programs. She managed to win Worlds DESPITE of them and this is just impressive. But it would not have been necessary, and I would have preferred for them to be easier in the transitions but more aesthetically pleasing. She would still have got the high technical content and the PCS. And with better flow, more focus put on choreography and presentation, it would be more than deserved.

This doesn‘t mean Alina isn‘t a good skater because she is. She is fully capable of holding positions and her flow and speed are usually much better when her programs aren’t as busy. And her music choices for the Olympic season were the best they could have made because they highlighted her strengths.

I hope Alina gets something that fits her personally next season. She has won everything, she should skate for now only to enjoy it and for herself. I hope she chooses something a bit more modern, she has been great in her Survivor exhibition this season! Probably one of my favorite programs of hers because we‘ve seen her free and happy and confident. Something like this would be great. But please no more warhorses... something fresh! (And no tango, that’s even worse, we have like 1000 tangos every year) Daniil has said something along the lines of choosing a totally unusual image for Alina. That both scares me and gives me hope.

I really don't want to start another war about POTO and Carmen just because someone's personal and subjective discomfort with those programs, I considered it closed case forever. But it is obviously not in the head of some users who will take it back again and again.

So, yes, those programs were good and succesful if only due to points they brought to Alina, and not only on Worlds, but also on Nebelhorn and Japan Open. The fact that Alina is still a record holder for a total score and for a free program after this season (and just a half point behind Rika's record for a short program containing 3A) tells us how well those programs were thought out by Daniil and Eteri. It is not something going against Alina. No, it says that those programs were crafted exactly around Alina's abilities to support them and bring them out. Sometimes I hear statements like "with another skater this would be a mess" (you can hear it e.g. also with Alyona's JUliet). And, that's the point, ladies and gentlemen. If you would read rules carefully, you would see that "individuality" is one of the key points in pcs scores. There is no point for creating "universal" programs that anybody could skate (or with some minimal changes), the point here is to make programs fitting to skaters as much as possible. Alina's programs were definitely demanding, but that's what makes the champion.

The fact that it doesn't fulfill someone's personal preferences is completely minor here, as personal taste is always different, someone likes wizard of Oz, while the other one can prefer the legend of Ethelda. The only relevant thing is if it fits and works. And it did in a hellish way for Alina and we now know that if there were problems, the cause was elsewhere than in not "aesthetically pleasing" programs. Yes, they were very hard, but they provided Alina the chance to challenge Rika's advantage with three 3As (the fact that it wasn't even necessary at the end is just one funny anecdote, nobody could know it that at the WC Alina will win by a such huge margin, the idea was it will be in tenths of points.

Well, I think this gonna be the real kickoff for the new thread and the new season

 

[Grin]

Veronika - I want to become an olympic champion!
Journalist - do you have a favourite figure skater?
Veronika - yes I do
Journalist - and who is it?
Veroknia - It's me

https://youtu.be/x-0zErpbN6o

 

[SkateSkates]

The most ridiculous and sad thing about it all is the fact that if all ladies with guaranteed GP spots get one (12 ladies) and juniors repeat the success of previous years on JGP earning 5 spots in the final (and they are very much capable of doing that), only 1 or 2 spots (out of 18) will be left free for Russian nationals to get via Russian cup events. That is absolutely not enough. The chances of skaters not on GP/in JGP final to get to Russian nationals are practically nonexistent.
My biggest wish for next season is that a miracle happens and RusFed increases the number of entries in ladies to 24 (and in Pairs to 16).
Well, one can dream

Not all of the Juniors will be eligible for senior nats next season because they will only be 13 - I.e. Kamila, Maya and Daria (if they all qualify for JGPF) so that will free up a couple more spots.

 

[siela]

My post will not be so much about who I am most excited about, but more about my dreams and hopes for the next season (my prayers to Skating Gods).

1. Polina Tsurskaya. Love her since her novice days and sincerely hope she does not give up just yet. Her jumps are gorgeous and everything else is pretty good, too. If only she could get rid of those underotations and be more stable, she would be a threat to anybody in and out of Russia. For me she is the skater with most unfulfilled potential and I would hate for her 'journey' in sport to end as it is right now.

2. I am really in love with Kamila Valieva and hope for a grand international debut for her next season. Hope she would be able to keep her jumps against all the odds and naysayers. She has some unique qualities for someone so young and could become an absolutely special skater.

3. Anastasia Tarakanova is another skater I adore. Probably the one I get most emotionally engaged with. I hope nest year is hers to shine on JGP and at junior worlds. There is so much power in her skating and her personality on ice, I hope she learns to control it and rule it.

Generally, I hate to 'lose' skaters so I hope everyone who wants and can continues in the sport.

P.S. I hope skaters do not keep us in suspense for very long and their is at least one new music announcement for a program every day

 

[zounger]

In their attempt to create these ridiculously difficult programs for Alina they ignored flow and extension in the process.

I don't agree with this. For me Alina's SP step sequence is the embodiment of flow in it's more advanced form. Constant movement with maintaining the speed through out the ice rink in a spiral trajectory, light/airy and easy looking flow/skating that embraces the music cut at that point. Parts with extension of her body illusion to twizzles, weave arm movements among with spread eagle, the little jump with turn ... And all this by doing twice than the required elements to hit level 4.

 

[LenaRadiFan]

As a fun game to start the thread how about we all say who we are excited for next season. My list is as follows.

Evgenia Medvedeva (Fan girl obviously, look at my profile picture! [emoji23])

Alena Kostornaia (So excited to see what programs she will skate to, I hope for nothing but top 2 placements for this precious little cherub.)

Anastasia Gubanova (She did not come to play this season.)

Honorary mention - Alina Zagitova (Someone give this poor girl some good content, she deserves a strong and powerful program. Give her something like a strong firebird or a fierce tango, her program content is literally shouting out for it!)

I'm also quite excited for Evgenia next season(first time I've ever been tbh) she is def growing on me!

I am definitely excited for the 3A and how they will perform and do on the senior circuit

I hope Elizaveta actually comes back with three 3a next season(how exciting if one was in combination)

I just hope they give Alina something a bit more exciting to skate to and she can shine a lil more

And, more of a wish dream(ovviously) but I sincerely hope that Elena comes back with a fire up her ass and sorted out jumps. I just would love to see her compete a little bit more and even more exciting if she gets a 3a or a quad

 

[[email protected]]

I don't think that any of previous seasons had so many uncertainties and questions as the coming one.

The biggest of them all is who will be Russian team in the Euros and Worlds.

At this point, I shall outline "group A" out of which the team will be picked as follows:

1. Alina Zagitova. She is the top skater in the world right now, the reigning Olympic and world champion. She has the thickest cushion for potential meltdowns and collapses during the season because she has proven that when it truly counts she goes there and wins. The biggest question with her is whether she is willing to go on. There were multiple rumors/information about her injuries. Eteri admitted they were thinking of giving up before the WC. Now that she won it all and there is the new generation entering the scene the thing to understand is how grave her injuries are to keep her going on. My understanding is that in addition to her general love of skating and commercial aspects her principal motivator could be the dream to win the second Olympics.

2. Sasha Trusova. Like Elena Radionova she won 2 junior world titles. Unlike Elena Radionova she enters the senior world as a "revolutionary". A couple of early strong performances and her pcs will rise to the comfort zone. And then her tech will dominate the world. The bigggest question, of course, is puberty, if it is going to affect her jumps or not. After that the question is her jump content. Will she add back 4Lz and/or 4S to her 4T and 4T+3T? Is she going to bring 3A to safeguard her SP scores? Anyway, for me Trusova is the biggest intrigue and the biggest excitement of the coming season.

3-6 Alena Kostornaya. She is arguably the strongest skater in pcs department right now. She will likely win short programs with no successful 3A atttempts by others. She may even win events if quad/3A girls do not deliver like it happened at JGPF. But she will be even stronger if she manages to upgrade her jump content. We were waiting for her triple axel this season - we only got her injury. She is also the "oldest" of the "magical trio" being 16 this summer so that puberty question may be even more relevant here than with Trusova.

3-6 Anna Scherbakova. She is wonderful but she is "stuck in the middle" between the previous 2. She lacks Trusova's jumps and Kostornaya's pcs. This did not prevent her from winning Rusnats, though. But to be a serious team contender who does not need others to falter she has to upgrade or/and to improve. Looking at Anna I think that she is the last one to be affected by puberty. She will also be 16 only in March 2020.

3-6 Evgenya Medvedeva. What a fighter she is! Her worlds podium was close to a miracle...but next season she will not have the "luxury" of Russian Cup to get a team spot. The rules of the game will be on-going delivery. Once again, I believe that the only skater to have the luxury of continuous underperformances with getting the spot in the end is Alina, because she is the icon now. Not Zhenya. And here we are talking about 2 things: to prove that the consistency she showed towards the end of the season is here to stay and to beef up her tech content. Consistency alone will not be enough if coming of age juniors jump their quads. In her latest interviews she sounded quite determined. Good for her!

3-6 Liza Tuktamysheva. It proved to be the right decision in the end to send Zhenya to Saitama. We shall see quite soon if it was the right decision not to send Liza. To refute it she has to "just" do a clean "Rika's content": a triple axel in the short program and 2 triple axels in the free program. This and only this will keep Liza relevant as a contender in next year "hunger games". And no misfortunes like she had this season.

As we have 6 solid contenders for 3 spots I think that chances of anyone else to sneak in are minuscule. Including those of the reigning European champion Sofia Samodurova. But they still exist!

Sofia is the leader of Group B - the skaters who can get 1 or even 2 GP spots but who are highly unlikely to get into the Russian team. In addition to her we have 4 more skaters there: Stasya Konstantinova, Nastya Gubanova, Anna Tarusina, and arguably Serafima Sakhanovich.

Finally, Group C are those who may keep skating just for fun or may quit competitive careers: Alena Leonova, Maria Sotskova, Polina Tsurskaya, Daria Panenkova, Liza Nugumanova, Elena Radionova (her status is unclear for me).

Juniors are another interesting topic.

 

[Orlov]

Veronika - I want to become an olympic champion!
Journalist - do you have a favourite figure skater?
Veronika - yes I do
Journalist - and who is it?
Veroknia - It's me

https://youtu.be/x-0zErpbN6o

:cool2:

 

[Fluture]

I really don't want to start another war about POTO and Carmen just because someone's personal and subjective discomfort with those programs, I considered it closed case forever. But it is obviously not in the head of some users who will take it back again and again.

So, yes, those programs were good and succesful if only due to points they brought to Alina, and not only on Worlds, but also on Nebelhorn and Japan Open. The fact that Alina is still a record holder for a total score and for a free program after this season (and just a half point behind Rika's record for a short program containing 3A) tells us how well those programs were thought out by Daniil and Eteri. It is not something going against Alina. No, it says that those programs were crafted exactly around Alina's abilities to support them and bring them out. Sometimes I hear statements like "with another skater this would be a mess" (you can hear it e.g. also with Alyona's JUliet). And, that's the point, ladies and gentlemen. If you would read rules carefully, you would see that "individuality" is one of the key points in pcs scores. There is no point for creating "universal" programs that anybody could skate (or with some minimal changes), the point here is to make programs fitting to skaters as much as possible. Alina's programs were definitely demanding, but that's what makes the champion.

The fact that it doesn't fulfill someone's personal preferences is completely minor here, as personal taste is always different, someone likes wizard of Oz, while the other one can prefer the legend of Ethelda. The only relevant thing is if it fits and works. And it did in a hellish way for Alina and we now know that if there were problems, the cause was elsewhere than in not "aesthetically pleasing" programs. Yes, they were very hard, but they provided Alina the chance to challenge Rika's advantage with three 3As (the fact that it wasn't even necessary at the end is just one funny anecdote, nobody could know it that at the WC Alina will win by a such huge margin, the idea was it will be in tenths of points.

Well, I think this gonna be the real kickoff for the new thread and the new season

Well, there‘s no need to become all defensive. Most people in here aren‘t harping on skaters and their programs just for the fun of it and it‘s tiresome that it‘s always presented that way just because a selected few. Especially since it prevents from having real discussions which could potentially be very interesting. I enjoy talking about programs and stuff like that, especially in the off-season where we don‘t have much to do anyway. And there‘s nothing malicious in people saying they wish for Alina to have better/different programs next season. I wish the same for Evgenia btw. While I liked her SP, her FS this season just wasn’t a good program, it wasn‘t even a tango. I also hope she adds a bit more transitions next season. And I‘m most definitely not hating on her or her team. But okay. No discussions about programs, I get it.

Veronika - I want to become an olympic champion!
Journalist - do you have a favourite figure skater?
Veronika - yes I do
Journalist - and who is it?
Veroknia - It's me

https://youtu.be/x-0zErpbN6o

Well, she certainly is confident. Good for her. I have not seen much of her but it seems like she has the right mindset. Isn‘t she skating in this Russian kids figure skating casting show? I really like the girl who won last year, Berestovskaya, I think? And I think it was Akatieva who had this beautiful program - something about a bird.

 

[sweetice]

Good for her. I have not seen much of her but it seems like she has the right mindset. Isn‘t she skating in this Russian kids figure skating casting show? I really like the girl who won last year, Berestovskaya, I think? And I think it was Akatieva who had this beautiful program - something about a bird.

Yup. You remember well :agree2:

If you are interested, see Zhilina's SP at the Younger Age: https://youtu.be/MXnhF8W1ZFU

The free was a bit messy but she won anyway.

She is a potential quadster with great flexibility :thumbsup: