Of course calling Alena's 3A< and Alena's and Anna's 3Lz! or 3Lze would change a lot. Shame it never gets called though, doesn't reward those who have legitimate lutzes like Sasha and Liza
If they try to call that - they will be compelled to call nonRussian ladies URs and edges with the same severity to avoid new accusations in
inconsistent calling. And they won't be willing to do it - since majority of nonRussian ladies in WC are gonna have
more URs than young Russian trio - from often Rika's 3A< to almost unavoidable +3T< or Eu+3S< combos of each and every lady skater. And that will result in quite humiliating scores gap between Russians and everybody else which won't be good for promoting sport.
I am not saying it because I am such ardent fan of Russia of course
It's just one of my pastimes is checking jumps for URs which I am so used to do that often I can notice them even in real time unconsciously. And after some time I began to notice peculiar regularities:
1) more than half of all URs or edge calls are ignored by tech panels. The rate of ignoring is smaller for less famous competitions or for junior competitions. Also it drastically differs depending on skater's reputations or federation. For example, typical Chinese or Armenian lady skater with competitive 3+3 layout is gonna be destroyed by multiple calls while typical Canadian lady skater despite having poor jumping ability is gonna have clean or almost clean protocol. But even with strong federation some reputable skaters are not without oddities though - for example, for Medvedeva they apply much more lenient calling than for Tuktamysheva. Probably when federation have too many strong skaters - there are only limited amount of skaters which can use that federation's "protection"
2) young 15y.o. skaters with less weight tends to rotate jumps better. My observations compels me to say that for 18+ y.o. lady skaters it's practically impossible to rotate all jumps - especially last jumps in combinations or in last part of a program. It's just a given and physiology trait of woman body - clean protocols of such skaters means poor work of TP first and foremost.
3) among young skaters there are many underrotators too. To have clean jumps you need to satisfy two conditions - low weight i.e. be young enough and have decent amount of ice time and jump repetitions. Majority of nonRussian young lady skaters can't satisfy second condition - either due to financial reasons or nation/coaches policy of "careful approach" to kids. Therefore Russian kids tends to have more clean jumps on average due to stronger state-funded training regime. It's not surprising that Eteri's young pupils who practice infinite jumping drills from early age and have quite brutal training regime - having much less issues with jump rotations than girls from other coaches even in Russia.
Considering the above it's quite logical to assume that with the same strict standart of calling applied to all skaters in WC - young Eteri trio is gonna have podium sweep even with edge calls. Because others is gonna have nightmarish protocols in that case :sarcasm: Of course it's not gonna to happen - so we can expect at least Alena be gold favorite. Anna unfortunately was getting Tuktamysheva's treatment the whole season - so I won't be surprised to see her even out of podium this time. Even if they want to avoid consistency accusations - inconsistent calling/double standarts of strictness occurs every time nevertheless
