2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Vandevska]

I think I might not be completely following since I don't have a season's pass and don't know what's the conversation like in the competition thread, but here I don't think it's particularly Eteri related. But still, just like the others I don't get why is this portrayed as the end of the world. I also agree that all the media coverage at such a young age is not a particularly good idea too.

 

[karina17]

People are freaking out about Kamila falling but probably didn't even look at the standings. Kamila missed her whole combo and is only five points from first place because practically everyone who skated today screwed up. Even Maya who's in first place messed up on her loop.

Barely anyone managed to land their combo - many fell on the first jump, popped the second jump, or fell on the second jump, or some other stumble (I'm not just talking about the little fed girls here, I'm talking about the girls from RUS, JPN, USA, KOR who usually could've scored 60-70ish - basically everyone screwed up). It was possibly the altitude messing with everyone.

Point is, Kamila's fall was one of MANY flops at that competition. Out of the top 10, you can count on one hand how many girls were clean. And thus Kamila's fall didn't hurt her podium chances too much, and people need to stop losing their minds over the idea that a thirteen-year-old on her first outing can fall over.

Please remember Alina and the 3A's first junior seasons: Alina had something like 3 falls at one of her JGP stages and then won everything later, Sasha didn't land any clean quads at any of her JGP stages including JGPF and now she's the quad queen, Alyona couldn't even beat Sofia at one of her JGP stages and then later beat her by four places at the JGPF, Anna flopped her combo in the SP at her second JGP stage and flopped again at JGPF and then won Russian Nationals. So really, in the grand scheme of things...Kamila falling on one Lutz...does not matter. At all.

 

[LRK]

I hesitate to join this because I'm not even watching the JGP but really…

If something really gets up my nose, it's people writing off skaters because of one bad performance. And this might just take the biscuit.

Are people really declaring a young skater to be a washed-out has-been after one bad short program?! At her first JGP, no less?

 

[vesperalvioletta]

I think people should also take into consideration the kind of expectations that are on Kamila's shoulders.

She's been hailed as the new top Russian junior now that the 3A have moved up to seniors, except that this is her first international junior competition. People have been hyping her up since she was on Ice Age Kids, and now that the day has finally come for her to "prove herself," she seems nervous beyond belief, and I don't blame her.

How would you feel if at 13, thousands of people were talking about and scrutinizing your every move, waiting for you to show even the slightest weakness. Not to mention your coaches and your federation looking to you to uphold this tradition of unbeatable junior ladies.

Give the poor girl a break.

 

[LiamForeman]

Eek, maybe that came out too harshly!! It's not about today, and I am sure she will win this competition. But it just seems that Eteri knows how to mentally train her students, and this is the second time out of two that Valieva has been visibly nervous and 'off'. That doesn't bode well, and Eteri needs to do better obviously training these girls on the mental aspect. Champions are mentally tough. Witt, Lipinski, Yamaguchi. They might not have been the 'best' but their mindset was champion quality. I thought that was a given with the Eteri students. That's all I was saying. Kamila needs to fix this problem with nerves NOW. Sorry for coming off so harshly.

 

[Edwin]

Eek, maybe that came out too harshly!! It's not about today, and I am sure she will win this competition. But it just seems that Eteri knows how to mentally train her students, and this is the second time out of two that Valieva has been visibly nervous and 'off'. That doesn't bode well, and Eteri needs to do better obviously training these girls on the mental aspect. Champions are mentally tough. Witt, Lipinski, Yamaguchi. They might not have been the 'best' but their mindset was champion quality. I thought that was a given with the Eteri students. That's all I was saying. Kamila needs to fix this problem with nerves NOW.

NOW sounds like a command. It doesn't work this way. Some skaters might indeed be more 'fragile' at the start of their career and need a more gentle hand to fine tune them.
Yelling at them in training or wherever won't work. I have full confidence in Gleikhengauz capacity as the coach present with his skaters in Courchevel to put her right for tomorrow's free skate, if Kamila feels very disappointed with herself. And he probably kept any Russian media well away from his skaters before they are done. After tomorrow, there will be time for an interview on national TV.
She will probably be analysing for herself what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again, for each of #TeamTutberidzeForProgress' skaters strive for perfection, one of the qualities that has been ingrained in them.

Give Valiyeva some time, and she will learn how to deal with those 'big competition nerves'. Even if she misses this JGP season, which is unlikely to happen, there always will be a next chance.

 

[colormyworld240]

I still thought Kamila was very beautiful even with the huge mistake. The judges also love her as I think that's the highest PCS of any Russian lady JGP debut. The end of the world comments are probably because everyone is used to promising Russian junior debutants giving a perfect performance. Evgenia, Alina, Sasha, Alena, and Anna all nailed their first competitions and set the tone for what's to come. It's just a shock that Kamila didn't do that, when many have caught the narrative that she's the most talented of them all. And I do believe she has the most raw talent, but it was just a bad skate and happens to everyone, it just so happens that it was her first international performance.

However, it will be a problem if she makes more mistakes in the FP, and loses the title. We all know how stacked the Russian junior ladies are and it could be that she won't even be sent to a second JGP if she doesn't win, regardless of her talent.

Maya has very soft and beautiful arms. But for some reason I don't love her. She's elegant and graceful, but I don't think she has the qualities to stand out and the charm that the others have. There's no wow factor that there is with Kamila. She reminds me a lot of Sotskova, actually. A beautiful skater with great qualities but "boring". And I don't know why. I haven't seen many performances from her, so may that'll change.

 

[Artemisa]

Eek, maybe that came out too harshly!! It's not about today, and I am sure she will win this competition. But it just seems that Eteri knows how to mentally train her students, and this is the second time out of two that Valieva has been visibly nervous and 'off'. That doesn't bode well, and Eteri needs to do better obviously training these girls on the mental aspect. Champions are mentally tough. Witt, Lipinski, Yamaguchi. They might not have been the 'best' but their mindset was champion quality. I thought that was a given with the Eteri students. That's all I was saying. Kamila needs to fix this problem with nerves NOW. Sorry for coming off so harshly.

She's 13 years old in her first internatinal competition!! So poor girls who are behind her ...
I think you can't compare a 13 years old nowadays to 20 or 30 years ago ... In a time .... for example an athlete didn't have to deal with negative comments at all times in the internet ... or considering that they didn't begin to being criticize at the age of 13 ...

If remember Kostornaya fell last year in her first assigment ( and survive) ...

Well... zagitova, kostornaya, medvedeva, trusova ( I don't think they are mentally weak)

 

[dante]

I remember people having the same reaction after Alena Kostornaya popped her Axel in Ostrava last year, where she was also quite emotional and slightly sick and look what happened afterwards. She won Ostrava, she won the JGPF

Gogolev fell 4 times in JGP Canada and also won the JGPF.

 

[Tolstoj]

Maya has very soft and beautiful arms. But for some reason I don't love her. She's elegant and graceful, but I don't think she has the qualities to stand out and the charm that the others have. There's no wow factor that there is with Kamila. She reminds me a lot of Sotskova, actually. A beautiful skater with great qualities but "boring". And I don't know why. I haven't seen many performances from her, so may that'll change.

With juniors you learn that not always the prettiest skater turns out to be the most successful, it is perhaps more important to deliver when it counts.

Even in Eteri's group Alina Zagitova and Medvedeva weren't the most talented russian skaters, until they started to win Junior events consistently.

 

[Alex65]

....

However, it will be a problem if she makes more mistakes in the FP, and loses the title. We all know how stacked the Russian junior ladies are and it could be that she won't even be sent to a second JGP if she doesn't win, regardless of her talent.

Maya has very soft and beautiful arms. But for some reason I don't love her. She's elegant and graceful, but I don't think she has the qualities to stand out and the charm that the others have. There's no wow factor that there is with Kamila. She reminds me a lot of Sotskova, actually. A beautiful skater with great qualities but "boring". And I don't know why. I haven't seen many performances from her, so may that'll change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHF_XDzsOsc

Take a look here. In the second half of the program, she completely captured the audience. I don’t know how to explain it, she does nothing outstanding, but the whole room exhaled when the music ended. There is some kind of special magic in it.
For Maya, today was also not the best day, I hope that tomorrow she and Camila will be able to make their best performance.

 

[fabienne1996]

I just realized that Kamila indeed reminds me of Lipnitskaya - very flexible, fast spinner, not many facial expressions, but manages to convey emotions.

Maiia has a nice chance to win. Let's see how it goes tomorrow. Free skates reflect more of skaters' nerves and ability IMO.

Lets just hope she won't be a repeat of yulia, yes yulia now seems to be very healthy and happy but how her career ended and how she got there is just incredible sad.

 

[sailormoon]

Julia recently participated in a Japanese ice show with Daisuke Takahashi and Stephane Lambiel. Hyoen 2019 was only the second ice show she has ever done so far. It's my only regret that I have not seen her live performance yet.

Backstage of Hyoen 2019

https://twitter.com/TarorezYo/status/1163105063750926336

 

[Baron Vladimir]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHF_XDzsOsc
For Maya, today was also not the best day, I hope that tomorrow she and Camila will be able to make their best performance.

I think people are expecting too much from junior skaters tho. Not just Maya and Camila, but also Wi, who skated clean, didn't perform and emote toward the audience the best she can, i'm sure. To explain my point, on the live stream of the competition they let us watch junior's past performances from Zhenya, Alina and Nathan, and you can see there is a clear difference in their performance abilities between junior days and what they are today. They are just too young for now, they will all develop in that department with more expirience (to be ready to perform their best for the public when it's needed).

 

[Scott512]

Lets just hope she won't be a repeat of yulia, yes yulia now seems to be very healthy and happy but how her career ended and how she got there is just incredible sad.

If she's like Yulia she will become very big in Russia because Yulia with all her ups and downs is a legend. I seriously doubt any figure skater whether they make it big or not leave the sports scar free. It's a beautiful sport without a doubt Fabi but it's a brutal sport too. Yulia is a perfect example of that.

 

[nussnacker]

It took just 1 fall for a 13 year old at her first international competition and ...

Valieva is definitely not close to a Trusova
she is a more fragile Lipnitskaya

btw her 3lz-3t is one of the worst technique I have seen, she stops and sort of like rotates a little and does a Zhang mule kick so high going for the toe combination.
Ill give it 2 years max, she may end up like Lipnitskaya by the time growing starts she can only jump 3T-3T but I'm more optimistic of 4T because its high enough.

Lets just hope she won't be a repeat of yulia, yes yulia now seems to be very healthy and happy but how her career ended and how she got there is just incredible sad.

Let's wait what will happen when she'll be going through puberty at 15-16, people will be predicting her retirement on the daily, I swear! God forbid if she'll dare to have unfortunate performances during her puberty!

 

[thatbeatingheart]

This thread never fails to amaze me. First, Kamila is the only lock for JGPF, JWC, etc. and now her career is over before it even started.
I think she did very well today apart from that one (unfortunately very costly) mistake and I'm sure she'll do well tomorrow. I don't wanna jinx her though so I just wish her good luck. Maiia too of course!

 

[fabienne1996]

It took just 1 fall for a 13 year old at her first international competition and ...







Let's wait what will happen when she'll be going through puberty at 15-16, people will be predicting her retirement on the daily, I swear! God forbid if she'll dare to have unfortunate performances during her puberty!

Why are you even qouting me? I haven't said a bad word against her. I loved and still love yulia, and yes I see many things that remind me of yulia in this girl, and I just said that I hope that kamilas won't go out of the sport the way yulia did, what yulia and what many other athletes go through is no laughing matter. Is it so bad that I do not want to see a repeat of that?

 

[katymay]

This thread never fails to amaze me. First, Kamila is the only lock for JGPF, JWC, etc. and now her career is over before it even started.
I think she did very well today apart from that one (unfortunately very costly) mistake and I'm sure she'll do well tomorrow. I don't wanna jinx her though so I just wish her good luck. Maiia too of course!

She seemed very nervous today or, and, she looked as if she didn't get a good nights sleep, or not feeling well. Before her program even started, I thought, Ut Oh. Or maybe the altitude hit her. Everyone is allowed to have off days, Trusova has had plenty of them. Scherbakova has had plenty of them. Alina has had plenty of them...and so on.

 

[Amei]

She seemed very nervous today or, and, she looked as if she didn't get a good nights sleep, or not feeling well. Before her program even started, I thought, Ut Oh. Or maybe the altitude hit her. Everyone is allowed to have off days, Trusova has had plenty of them. Scherbakova has had plenty of them. Alina has had plenty of them...and so on.

Yes, let's no one announce Kamila's career being over as quickly as she was anointed last year as being the next Olympic champion, and that was before she ever stepped foot on international competitive ice. I think people put too much stock in how she performs in exhibitions and felt that she would be instantly phenomenal on a competitive circuit. She's 13 we can give her a break on the nerves, because we know the competitive field of Russia certainly won't be forgiving if she doesn't get over the nerves.

And her programs aren't anything spectacular choreographically speaking either, they remind me of Lipnitskaia during her Junior years and first senior year that were choreographed by Nikolai Morozov....she's flexible = put a ton of leg kicks in her programs.