2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[SnowWhite]

We might aswell start the discussion of GP assignments for next year.

This year, it will be a bit different as the Top 12 from Worlds are guaranteed two spots. We don't have that now!. So the procedures will be different I guess.

The Top 24 in the Seasons Best List that are eligible and guaranteed at least ONE assignment:
1. Alena Kostornaia
2. Alexandra Trusova
3. Anna Shcherbakova
6. Evgenia Medvedeva
9. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva
10. Alina Zagitova
11. Ksenia Sinitsyna
23. Viktoria Vasilieva

And the Top 24 in the World Standings List (as of now) that are eligible and guaranteed at least ONE assignment:
13. Sofia Samodurova
18. Stanislava Konstantinova

Russia has max 3 spots per event, which makes 2 spots for 9 skaters.
But there are 10 skaters eligible. What will RusFed do? (Remember this season they just cut Gubanova and Tarusina off although they were "guaranteed" one spot!)

I think all above skaters will get 2 spots except for Konstantinova and Vasilieva that might just get one each. OR Vasilieva might get none (and Konstantinova two).

I have a feeling though that RusFed will give the Host Pick to Anastasia Guliakova. After all she was the RCF champion and the 2nd alternate for Worlds (and Mishin is very powerful).
That would complicate matters. But it looks to me, I'm afraid, that Vasilieva might get completely snubbed (like Gubanova and Tarusina) and Guliakova and Konstantinova get one spot.

Skaters like Sakhanovich, Nugumanova, Talalaykina, Tsibinova, Shulskaya and Tarakanova have no chance of a GP assignment at all.

What do you guys think?

Footnote: The World Standings List is not adjusted for next season yet. My estimation is that Konstantinova will drop 4-5 places but she will still be in the Top 24.

By my calculations, Konstantinova will be 25th, so no spots guaranteed.

Preliminary GP spots ranking order: age as of test skates

2 spots
Alena Kostornaia, 17, Eteri
Anna Shcherbakova, 16, Eteri
Alexandra Trusova, 15, Eteri
Evgenia Medvedeva, 20, Orser
Ksenia Sinitsyna, 16, Panova
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, 22, Mishin
Alina Zagitova, 18, Eteri (most likely will not participate)
Anastasia Guliakova, 18, Mishin

Guliakova is not on the SB list, I believe, and not top 24 in WS, so the only spot she's eligible is a host pick at CoR. So she can't get two spots.

 

[Edwin]

Konstantinova is off the national reserve team. I doubt FFKKR will give any GP to a skater not on their list, wether being listed by ISU or not.

Many young skaters need a chance to prove themselves, even over the other, older ones, perhaps even by coaching council's decision.

Open Test Skates is going to be very interesting, that's probably when FFKKR will decide over who gets what.

 

[brakes]

Watched that Trankov's film from the show and must admit Alina Zagitova is a perfect human being. Most likeable and authentic athlete I've ever seen.

 

[zytolda]

Watched that Trankov's film from the show and must admit Alina Zagitova is a perfect human being. Most likeable and authentic athlete I've ever seen.

Where is that film?

 

[brakes]

Where is that film?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SltTTDoWFx4

 

[zytolda]

Thanks

 

[flanker]

I like Tatyana's comments about Alina's throw jumps attempts, that she is fast learner because of her perfect jumping technique :agree:

This is full Trankov's footage about the Art on Ice, BTW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6P960_Bmp0

 

[brakes]

Greetings from Crystal Mordor! :dev3:

 

[Good Vibes Only]

Konstantinova is off the national reserve team. I doubt FFKKR will give any GP to a skater not on their list, wether being listed by ISU or not.

Many young skaters need a chance to prove themselves, even over the other, older ones, perhaps even by coaching council's decision.

Open Test Skates is going to be very interesting, that's probably when FFKKR will decide over who gets what.

Well, the GP series spots will already be selected by that time. The only spot up for grabs would be the host spot and challengers.

 

[flanker]

Greetings from Crystal Mordor! :dev3:

This is optimism I needed in this moment. Right now I feel like I'm able to jump a quadruple sheepskin coat

 

[Bluediamonds09]

??? Ksenia Sinitsyna? Lower ranked? As if she isn't the second highest scoring junior this season and fifth place at Senior RusNats?

The reason I put Sinitsina in the “lower-ranked” list is because she still isn’t a federation favorite getting 70+ or so in PCS, she didn’t medal at JW last year and wasn’t invited to JW this year. It has nothing to do with her talent; I LOVE her. It just seemed to me that she was a tier lower in the eyes of the federation. Maybe because her coach isn’t political enough?

 

[KOBOT37]

Kamila Got 66PCS at worlds, Darya got 63 and Maiia got 59

Anna last year also got 66.

Even Alena-the PCS queen got 67 at JGPF.

 

[Arbitrary]

Interesting...

Post-Corona world may see completely new girls. Who will be a new trixel-girl? A Quadster? A PCS queen?

 

[brakes]

Interesting...

Post-Corona world may see completely new girls. Who will be a new trixel-girl? A Quadster? A PCS queen?

Define "post-corona", because JGP starts in August...


Anyway, assuming we're lucky - I'm looking forward to seeing Samodelkina, Petrosyan and most of all, Chinese champion, Nini on junior level.
Can't recall any exciting name entering seniors apart from Sinitsyna, whom I personally don't see playing a big role next season.

 

[Happy Skates]

Since there's nothing else going on, I think I'll put in my thoughts on who will get GP spots too.

So first we have the 7 who I think are pretty much guaranteed two spots. Trusova, Shcherbakova, Kostornaia, Zagitova, Tuktamysheva, Medvedeva, and Sinitsyna. Most of these are obvious, and although Sinitsyna might not be as obvious, her SB of 215 which is 11th highest of the season pretty much guarantees her 2 GPs (plus she was 5th at senior nationals putting her on the national team so there's really no excuse for her not to get spots). Zagitova is of course a question mark whether she will come back, but I believe in her, and she did say she wanted to come back. So if she wants to come back, I believe she will (and there's no reason to think she won't because she said she missed competing). Medvedeva already has programs so she isn't stopping and I don't think Liza is either.

Then we get to the other girls who are technically guaranteed spots. As we've seen in the past, being "guaranteed" a spot doesn't always necessarily mean you get one (Gubanova/Tarusina style), but this year is actually less crowded than last year in terms of who is in the SB and WS list. The only other guaranteed girls we have are Vasilieva at 23 on the SB list and Samodurova on the WS list. I know Konstantinova is on the WS list now, but she will be off of it by next season according to others' calculations. So if you add in Vasilieva and Samodurova getting 2 each, that adds up to 18 which is the maximum number of spots that the Russian ladies can get. To me, this is the most likely scenario. I know some have said things about Guliakova getting a host spot or something, but I highly doubt this will happen. She doesn't have a spot on the SB or WS top 24, in fact she's not even on the SB list at all, and I can't think of a time recently when a Russian girl not on the SB or WS list got a spot. I know that people say that because she is on the reserve list she will get one, but think back to last year when Gubanova was on the reserve list and was on the top 24 SB list and still didn't get any spots.

Now, this is assuming that Zagitova (and Tuktamysheva, and everyone else) all come back. If Zagitova (or anyone else for that matter) decides not to comeback, then two spots are opened up for someone not on the SB or WS top 24 (kind of crazy to think about for Russian ladies, because usually there is a surplus on the SB/WS lists). I am actually hopeful that one or both of these spots could go to Tarakanova, since she is after all 25th on the SB list, which in any other country would almost always basically guarantee two spots (I'm still salty that her bad luck got her one spot away from being guaranteed, especially since there are juniors above her that shouldn't even count in the GP calculation but do for some reason). Of course, Konstantinova would still be on the WS list, somewhere below 24th but still there, so she would also be in the running for one or both of these spots. If the federation still favors her (and disfavors Tarakanova), then she would probably get it. However, I'm wondering if her recent sudden removal from the reserve list means something about her standing with the federation? I don't know. But I think the spots would most likely be between those two. Maybe they could even get one each. I can't think of anyone else on the SB list or WS list.

 

[bytheriver]

Define "post-corona", because JGP starts in August...


Anyway, assuming we're lucky - I'm looking forward to seeing Samodelkina, Petrosyan and most of all, Chinese champion, Nini on junior level.
Can't recall any exciting name entering seniors apart from Sinitsyna, whom I personally don't see playing a big role next season.

I’m assuming they were referring to the fact that some of the skaters (especially in juniors) might actually be more or less relevant in the sport depending on how long they stay off the ice. I know in gymnastics puberty can actually set in full force after a couple of weeks of no training. And in the US at least, it doesn’t look like we are going to have the restrictions on businesses and rinks being open until May at the earliest.

 

[Edwin]

The Russian Dolls: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...e-transformed-figure-skating-but-at-what-cost

More 'koncerned Korpi' blah, which of course finds a welcome ear ...

 

[flanker]

The Russian Dolls: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...e-transformed-figure-skating-but-at-what-cost

More 'koncerned Korpi' blah, which of course finds a welcome ear ...

Typical Guardian (which is just a softer version of the czech press ). Someone with just superficial knowledge of the topic at best makes conclusions through interviewing the alleged expert (Kiira I-know-everything-about-russian-abusing-of-the-poor-children-without-even-asking-for-their-own-opinion Korpi) who's having an opinion convenient to the journal point of view. But something to talk about for the bored figure skating fans

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

Typical Guardian (which is just a softer version of the czech press ). Someone with just superficial knowledge of the topic at best makes conclusions through interviewing the alleged expert (Kiira I-know-everything-about-russian-abusing-of-the-poor-children-without-even-asking-for-their-own-opinion Korpi) who's having an opinion convenient to the journal point of view. But something to talk about for the bored figure skating fans

now I will have to respectfully disagree here. You are entitled to your opinion but so am I, so I think that what Kiira is trying to get through is not that the Russians are bad and abusive and she is jealous that she could never reach that level of success in her long career but that there is a systematic problem in sports like figure skating and gymnastics. Now I understand that her comments and those of many others will come across as jealous and anti-Russian, but that isn't their intent at all. There are problems in other countries too, like Japan and the Hamada situation, whatever was going on with Raf, etc. It's just that this is happening and Russia is the most powerful right now and there are allegations so the attention goes to them but Korpi and the other people aren't trying to target Russians. Because like it or not, doing 5 quads in a program (Trusova, Shcherbakova...) at 15 has a different effect on the human body than doing triple-triple combinations and maybe working a triple axel, like per say, Mana Kawabe. If the Japanese or Korean girls start doing things at the same numbers and we hear the same things about the number of repetitions that they are being forced to do, then the attention will turn to them as well.

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

In other news, some ultra c skills from Russians lately, there's so many it's hard to keep up! These videos are all from the Boss T channel on Youtube

Varvara Kisel, JGP eligible 2020-21: 3A and 4S+3T: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNCI9vHm8Bc

Veronika Zhilina, JGP eligible 2022-23: 3A and 4T (also has shown 4S): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOrFDv0Pq18

Anastasia Guliakova: GP host spot candidate (who got host spot this season?): 3A+3T: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTp8C3s-cVA

So now feel free to add but the full list of Russian ladies that have triple axel or quad:

Alexandra Trusova: 3A, 4S, 4F, 4Lz, 4T
Anna Shcherbakova: 4Lz, 4F
Alena Kostornaia: 3A
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva: 3A, 4T
Kamila Valieva: 4T
Maya Khromykh: 4S
Sofia Akatieva: 3A, 4T
Elizaveta Berestovskaia: 4T
Sofia Samodelkina: 3A
Veronika Zhilina: 4T, 4S, 3A
Varvara Kisel: 3A, 4S