2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Amei]

All the drama going on in Russian ladies figure skating and we are re-hashing programs that happened 2 seasons ago?

 

[Scott512]

If Mishin decided to be publicly disrespectful to a 17 year old girl as way to 'get to' Eteri then he is a piece of garbage.

I don't think he meant anything bad or slanderous toward Alina it's just not the little leprechauns style. As far as I know he's only ever been very complimentary toward Alina.

 

[Finley]

Maybe I’m missing something culturally, and it meant something else, but otherwise it’s a weird, creepy comment to a 17 year old about being a mom and grandmother. But it begins to make more sense if he’s alluding to Eteri telling her retired skaters to go have babies. Like, “You’re coach thinks you can no longer skate and is encouraging you to make babies....good luck with that motherhood thing. And grandmother thing because apparently that’s all your coach thinks you can do now is procreate.” Or something. Again I don’t speak Russian so may very well be misinterpreting things.

My point being - if he wants to shade Eteri at the expense of a 17 year old he is trash. It was a misogynistic, creepy, disrespectful comment to make even if he didn't have some ulterior motive to send a veiled message to Eteri. But if his intention in making that statement about Alina was just to take a dig at her coach then it is somehow even worse. Not only is he a creepy, disrespectful misogynist, he is also really cruel.

As soon as she announced her break some people felt like it was open season. The masks came off and the knives came out. The funny thing is none of it really has anything to do with Alina.

 

[Finley]

I don't think he meant anything bad or slanderous toward Alina it's just not the little leprechauns style. As far as I know he's only ever been very complimentary toward Alina.

I hope so. It was just such a ridiculous comment.

 

[KOBOT37]

So from cynical advices and accusations we got down to verbal attacks and open insults in a few days.

At this rate, Russian Nationals is going to turn into "Malice at the palace"

 

[Sugar Coated]

My point being - if he wants to shade Eteri at the expense of a 17 year old he is trash. It was a misogynistic, creepy, disrespectful comment to make even if he didn't have some ulterior motive to send a veiled message to Eteri. But if his intention in making that statement about Alina was just to take a dig at her coach then it is somehow even worse. Not only is he a creepy, disrespectful misogynist, he is also really cruel.

As soon as she announced her break some people felt like it was open season. The masks came off and the knives came out. The funny thing is none of it really has anything to do with Alina.

Wasn't defending the comment at all. Just pointing out that the only logical - although not acceptable - rationale is that it was a dig at Eteri.

 

[KOBOT37]

Eteri's behaviour after Medvedeva's departure was less than perfect but... All Medvedeva's mother (okay, Evgenia herself was 18 years old,but her mother was old enough to pull that off) had to do to avoid all that drama was meeting Eteri once after they decided to leave and telling her something like "Thanks for everything you did for my daughter, we will forever be grateful for that but we think it is better for us to continue career with different coach,wish you all the best" and we would have avoided all that drama.

Eteri did more (much more) than enough for Medvedeva to deserve being told that in Person and definitely didn't deserve to get ignored by her family and most definitely doesn't deserve all that comments from Medvedeva which sound like her moving to Canada was like Andy Dufresne escaping from Shawshank Prison.

Sure, Eteri should have stayed classy and shouldn't have gone to media with all that behind the scenes information, but she was angry and it's understandable.

P.S I get why Medvedeva and her family think Eteri played games and 'did everything to make sure Alina won' and I don't blame them, summit fever unfortunately isn't limited to Alpinism, but if anybody who doesn't have emotional interests in the game, thinks that Eteri and her team didn't do everything they could to prepare Medvedeva for Olympics, than there is not much left to discuss.

 

[KOBOT37]

I haven't watched Urgant's show myself but reading few reviews, I think Eteri might have a point when she said that Alina will get Bored and come back to sports.

 

[DSQ]

If Mishin decided to be publicly disrespectful to a 17 year old girl as way to 'get to' Eteri then he is a piece of garbage.

Mishin is a pretty straight forward old fashioned guy so I think he was being sincere.

Perhaps as modern women we might be a little put off by such a statement but if we remember what generation he’s from I think we can be a little forgiving. Plus there’s nothing wrong with becoming a mother, it’s not for everyone but for many it’s such a gift.

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

Nothing wrong except towards a 17-year-old athlete likely to be back at the top for next Olympics, when she will be only 19, and implying she doesn't have to go there but rather have children.
Furthermore, he is from an "old school" but the Soviet one, where girls used to go to university and would rarely have children before their twenties or even mid-twenties.

 

[Edwin]

If anybody does want to feel the level of TAT's hate to Eteri, just take a look at how she downvoted 10 y. o. Akatyeva's beatiful performance at Ice Age TV show: https://youtu.be/c7-i7-HN10Q?t=118

TAT not understanding the ending, of one the best performances that season?

I do hope next season of 'Ice Age, Kids' there will be less CSKA (and affiliated) judges on the panel, and no aloof professors please. Their bias was very obvious this year as well.

Plus a younger panel, who actually work with young skaters. Kovtun I found refreshing, he trains children and appreciates their efforts the appropriate way.

 

[Edwin]

Once upon a time, in a kingdom where figure skating is the main center attention, Queen Tarasova rose to power by creating good skaters that would produce many medals. However, Queen TAT abused her power by playing favorites and using her power to help those who she favored. While this was all occurring a small group of rebels was forming within her kingdom. These rebels were called the Tutberidze Quad Squad and they were led by Eteri Tutberidze. The rebels were tired of her playing favorites and insulting those who she didn’t like. On December 16th, the rebels were fed up with her games and took matters into their own hands by posting a letter for all of the kingdom to see. The letter exposed the Queen for who she really is. The citizens of the kingdom realized Queen TAT’s flaws and started to question her authority. Queen TAT sensed this and is now desperately trying to save her thrown, however the rebels, are not done. At the end of December, they will go war against the Queen and try to defeat her...it will be known as the 2019 Civil War...

Aren't you forgetting the Queen's favourite lackey, and the royal courts most dependable fool? Or has Queen TAT cursed these all to hell too ;-)

 

[nussnacker]

I'm not villifying, but i don't like this idea of "she's always right, the others are always wrong", it's not all black or white. Some of the criticism from Tarasova is valid.

No, but you keep pushing the idea that it was an intentional holding back. Hearing that, is like hearing that Kostornaia was also held back to me, you know, she also can only do 2t-2t, and doesn’t do loop combos, although we’ve seen her train them too.
And now she’s winning everyone despite that.
If it was that easy for Aliona to do these things, they would’ve put it in her programs, like they did for Anna and Sasha, perhaps it’s just not the case.
Same thing about Evgenia, if she could land those consistently enough, they would’ve tried to use it, but a) the point gain was not worth the risk b) her Nepela layout probably wasn’t possible to do given the injury.

 

[JazzUp]

Current Russian FS drama in a nutshell

 

[Autumn Leaves]

Mishin explained himself in the next statement (the one with the ping pong with choclate jam balls). He was baffled that the media takes his words out of context, both for Alina and the alternative Olympics. He claimed he only wished her success in the next stages of her life. That‘s why he refused to make more comments, but he still talked about war alliences and chocolate balls. He is truly one of a kind. I also don‘t think he was malicious.

 

[Edwin]

Current Russian FS drama in a nutshell

Great stuff !!! Shrek is an iconic movie in its subtle sarcasm after all, even if you ignore some of the best voice acting ever, the pictures speak words.

Donkey though ....

Now, where to put Yagudin? Puss in Boots?

 

[KOBOT37]

Oh, no, anything but not this.

https://www.sports.ru/figure-skating/1081441189.html

Utkin(famous russian football expert, tv commentator and trash talk master) indirectly blamed Team Tutberidze for Elena Vaytsekhovskaya. Also he claimed that Eteri may be playing same game to get Tarasova Fired.

I guess we will soon have Tina Kandelaki (Match TV CEO and Utkin's sworn enemy ) defending her fellow countrywoman

 

[anonymoose_au]

Look Mishin was simply wishing Alina good luck in her future life, was it the most PC statement ever? Heck no. Was it done maliciously, also heck no. Why people are trashing him I don't know. Team Tubteridze's post on the other hand was directly insulting and was made in bad faith, so if you want to trash anyone for being malicious then trash them.

 

[Mishaminion]

Look Mishin was simply wishing Alina good luck in her future life, was it the most PC statement ever? Heck no. Was it done maliciously, also heck no. Why people are trashing him I don't know. Team Tubteridze's post on the other hand was directly insulting and was made in bad faith, so if you want to trash anyone for being malicious then trash them.

I'm not trashing him.

Just responding to someone else's logic.

I don't think Mishin was being deliberately malicious either.

His statement may have offended some people but he obviously meant no harm with it.

 

[[email protected]]

This wouldn't have made a difference in the olympics. If Evgenia did a -3Lo combo, she wouldn't have gotten more points. Because she'd still only be repeating 3F; her BV would've remained more or less the same; she could have repeated 3Lo but the BV difference would is not enough. I believe this has been discussed many times before. The value of doing a -3Lo combo is that you can maximize your BV by repeating 3Lz and 3F (before ladies started doing quads). But Evgenia wouldn't have repeated the 3Lz due to the possibility of the edge being called. The same goes if she would've done -Eu-3S. Yes she wouldn't be repeating the -3T, but she'd lose the BV of a -2T to the -Eu-.

To maximize a non-quad non-3A program, these things are required:
- clear outside edge lutz and clear inside edge flip so the skater can repeat both jumps and score the highest GOE
- ability to do -3T combos and -3Lo combo
- ability to do a -2T-2Lo instead of -2T-2T

If you don't have all these things, whichever you do doesn't really make a difference; BV is evaluated on the entire layout, not single jumping passes. That's what gave Alina the technical advantage, along with backloading. And I believe Evgenia tried backloading her program in the beginning of the season, but it didn't work out at Ondrej Nepala and probably some practices so they decided to change it. If Evgenia had repeated her performance at Ondrej Nepala where she did the 1/6 layout at the olympics, I believe her score would have had her below Katelyn Osmond. Yes, there was a chance she could've nailed it, but there was also a chance that Alina could've bombed her short like she did earlier the season and it wouldn't have made the difference. I think they made the right choice with the ability/condition of the athletes.

A very good analysis. I just think it is much simpler than that.

It is so tiring to hear over and over again how Medvedeva could have won if Eteri had beefed up her content. I see it differently: it would be a complete disaster, a big time meltdown, no medal whatsover, and possibly the blow after which it would be very difficult to recover.

I saw Evgenya at test skates that season. The short program was marvelous. "Leftovers" were, well, leftovers. I never saw her skate that poorly. Then the injury. She had the same free program layout for 3 seasons. She won numerous competitions with that layout. She failed a new layout - not a single clean performance. You want her do it after the injury? All or nothing? 99% would be nothing. No way it was the decision against her will. And had Alina not made a feat of saving the combo Zhenya would have been the OGM winner.

Why are we running in circles?