2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Thrashergurl]

I don’t think the OP meant soul mates as in lovers. I interpreted it as the perfect skater/coach combination. At least I hope that was the meaning .

I agree that Trusova should focus more on other areas of her skating and hope this change will facilitate that. Time will tell. I’m also impressed with the way Eteri is handling this so far. I hope they can both keep it classy.

 

[wherearetheavocados]

you can now add to the original post that trusova, zhilina, and rozanov have left the tutberidze group to go to plushenko.

 

[Scott512]

She has been stratospherically overhyped but i'm not sure if that was the reason.

I respect Eteri's team work on her a lot but i think they are to blame for Trusova's shortcomings since GPF, and i think Sasha's call was right: a change was needed whether is on TeamTutberidze or elsewhere.

If you look back up until Rostelecom she was doing great in spite of the hype. Things have started to go wrong since she started to include 3A and 4F in her programs.

There was no need to increase the technical difficulty of her programs even more, she just needed to skate two clean programs back to back, i don't understand why they wanted to prove she could add those elements mid-season and still skate clean, unless they were hoping judges would have still kept her in first no matter what.

To me they should have sticked with the layout she had at the Test Skates with 4ltz, 4t-3t and 4t. Stop, no 4s and no 4f cause she didn't need those.

I think they made the same mistake with Samsonov and the 4f which was not ready, to be honest.

You blame Eteri and her team I blame Sasha and Mother Nature. Up until the Grand Prix final five months ago so she was the greatest Junior figure skater ever in any discipline and she won her first two grand prix events in glorious fashion. Eteri gets credit for that but unfortunately Sasha grew at least a few inches this season then Mother Nature played a role in her less than stellar performances by her standards at Grand Prix final Nationals and Europeans. She has to give herself time to physically mature but she did not. This coaching change is unnecessary and a panic move. She's going to a team where the coaches aren't nearly as good as the ones she left. Like most of us talked about when she kept winning bronze medals Sasha needs to scale back the quads and do 3 in the free skate and do them cleanly and then go to 4. I of course wish this Supergirl well but I have great doubts about the team she is going to. They have never produced anyone other than Plushenkos six-year-old son. hoping she's up for the major challenge of this big move and all the controversy that comes with it. To me it looks like Sasha handled the success perfectly but when she had three bronze erformances in a row she could not handle it. That is concerning and you can't fix that.

On a side note this dubious coaching change really opens the door for the Olympic and World Champion Alina to make another Olympic team. That is if she really wants it and has the heart and guts for it again the door is ajar. Alina needs to kick that door in with her foot or skate or whatever. this is a very important season for the reigning and defending Olympic and World Champion!

I can see Sasha on the Olympic team or I can see Alina on the Olympic team or I can see Kamila on the Olympic team in addition to Aliona and Anna.

 

[Sugar Coated]

I don't buy this. It's been an unending roulette here of guessing who is the "fave" in Camp Tutberidze. First people were saying that Trusova is Camp Eteri's favorite and complaining that Kostornaia was being ignored and left behind, then it was Scherb is the unfavored one, and now it's Trusova because she failed to live up to the hype and left. I believe Camp Eteri actually splits time as evenly as possible between all of her skaters and doesn't play obvious favorites.

Trusova has been stratospherically overhyped (in no small part owing to Tutberidze) and both Trusova and her parents bought into that hype. People treated her like she was the second coming of the Messiah in skating and heralded that she was going to lay the field to waste from here to Beijing 2022. Certain posters here were churning out a bajillion posts about her ensuing "dominance" and "invincibility", and that she was Daenerys Targaryen incarnate (barf). You all know who you are.

Well when a bang ends up being a whimper, of course you're going to be aggrieved and think your coaching team failed you. I maintain that the biggest issue was Trusova's overhype. She should've never gotten hyped to that degree.

I think that certain girls inspire daniil artistically, but I don’t see him not giving Sasha attention. As soon as the game of thrones music aired he announced this for Sasha to reserve it. They made her khalesisi - queen of dragons. Maybe it wasn’t working artistically for her but it was really supposed to just display her quads more than anything. But he has always talked so favorably about sasha and her jumping ability. And look at the bond they had during juniors.

I also don’t think it was coincidence that Sasha was given assignments directly competing with Zhenya. I think Eteri assumed her to be the biggest threat and made sure to pair her gp assignments with Zhenya. Just my thoughts.

She was the presumed favorite going into this season. What I think happened is that for 2 years she was used to being the prodigy who would dominate and secure herself as Olympic favorite. And when this didn’t happen I think it shook her. I do think Eteri tends to shift focus on the front runner of the team and when Sasha wasn’t the expected winner she felt slighted. Eteri is known to be hard on people to motivate them. In some ways I think Anna and alyona were more resilient because they have had experienced difficulties in the past so they know not to be defeated when things don’t go their way. But Sasha never had this, she was always built up and seen as the dominant force.

In sashas defense I also don’t think it’s easy to train with Eteri emotionally and physically. She’s not one to compromise either or coddle someone who his struggling. I think all the girls must question working with her at times and I can understand Sasha looking for other opportunities.

The person who benefits most from this is probably Medvedeva. Takes away from some of the current negativity she was receiving in the press. Also, I think Eteri will be less focused on her and possibly even forgiving of her in the future given this new slight.

 

[Jeanie19]

you can now add to the original post that trusova, zhilina, and rozanov have left the tutberidze group to go to plushenko.

Great user name. Welcome and post often.

 

[NadezhdaNadya]

You blame Eteri and her team I blame Sasha and Mother Nature. Up until the Grand Prix final five months ago so she was the greatest Junior figure skater ever in any discipline and she won her first two grand prix events in glorious fashion. Eteri gets credit for that but unfortunately Sasha grew at least a few inches this season then Mother Nature played a role in her less than stellar performances by her standards at Grand Prix final Nationals and Europeans. She has to give herself time to physically mature but she did not. This coaching change is unnecessary and a panic move. She's going to a team where the coaches aren't nearly as good as the ones she left. Like most of us talked about when she kept winning bronze medals Sasha needs to scale back the quads and do 3 in the free skate and do them cleanly and then go to 4. I of course wish this Supergirl well but I have great doubts about the team she is going to. They have never produced anyone other than Plushenkos six-year-old son. hoping she's up for the major challenge of this big move and all the controversy that comes with it. To me it looks like Sasha handled the success perfectly but when she had three bronze erformances in a row she could not handle it. That is concerning and you can't fix that.

On a side note this dubious coaching change really opens the door for the Olympic and World Champion Alina to make another Olympic team. That is if she really wants it and has the heart and guts for it again the door is ajar. Alina needs to kick that door in with her foot or skate or whatever. this is a very important season for the reigning and defending Olympic and World Champion!

I can see Sasha on the Olympic team or I can see Alina on the Olympic team or I can see Kamila on the Olympic team in addition to Aliona and Anna.

Maybe Alina will return now. I said the same. By the way, I am quite sure that she will be happy with any World medal right now.
So the Olympic team can be Alyona, Alina and Kamila.
Hope Kseniya will not join Eteri, she may end like Kanysheva.

 

[Scott512]

I think that certain girls inspire daniil artistically, but I don’t see him not giving Sasha attention. As soon as the game of thrones music aired he announced this for Sasha to reserve it. They made her khalesisi - queen of dragons. Maybe it wasn’t working artistically for her but it was really supposed to just display her quads more than anything. But he has always talked so favorably about sasha and her jumping ability. And look at the bond they had during juniors.

I also don’t think it was coincidence that Sasha was given assignments directly competing with Zhenya. I think Eteri assumed her to be the biggest threat and made sure to pair her gp assignments with Zhenya. Just my thoughts.

She was the presumed favorite going into this season. What I think happened is that for 2 years she was used to being the prodigy who would dominate and secure herself as Olympic favorite. And when this didn’t happen I think it shook her. I do think Eteri tends to shift focus on the front runner of the team and when Sasha wasn’t the expected winner she felt slighted. Eteri is known to be hard on people to motivate them. In some ways I think Anna and alyona were more resilient because they have had experienced difficulties in the past so they know not to be defeated when things don’t go their way. But Sasha never had this, she was always built up and seen as the dominant force.

In sashas defense I also don’t think it’s easy to train with Eteri emotionally and physically. She’s not one to compromise either or coddle someone who his struggling. I think all the girls must question working with her at times and I can understand Sasha looking for other opportunities.

The person who benefits most from this is probably Medvedeva. Takes away from some of the current negativity she was receiving in the press. Also, I think Eteri will be less focused on her and possibly even forgiving of her in the future given this new slight.

Interesting post. Good points.

I just think this is a step-down coaching wise for Sasha. But her parents wanted her to leave the great coach and grow to an all-time great skaters academy. It's a dubious decision and her parents decision making is not the best. such as traveling to Egypt in a worldwide pandemic was a pretty bad decision.

I hope the best for Sasha because it hurt to see her crying so hard at Russian Nationals. but she does the most difficult free skate in the history of ladies figure skating and that's asking a lot of a fifteen-year-old even a fantastic 15 year old like Sasha. and then you add puberty on the girl grew a few inches during the season and that's not going to help anybody doing multiple quads.

 

[Alex65]

Can we please stop with the coach-athlete romances? Lol. But It’s very weird, maybe a bad translation but I don’t think Dudakov and Trusova are in love or soul kayes

I'm sorry. English is not my language at all.

I don’t think the OP meant soul mates as in lovers. I interpreted it as the perfect skater/coach combination. At least I hope that was the meaning .

I agree that Trusova should focus more on other areas of her skating and hope this change will facilitate that. Time will tell. I’m also impressed with the way Eteri is handling this so far. I hope they can both keep it classy.

I think that that was just a translation error. I am sure that Alex65 did not mean that they are dating, but that they have a good coach-student relationship and got along well together.

You're right.

 

[TallyT]

I'm sorry. English is not my language at all.

No need to be, I think it was just a case of the earlier story with that link to the 'Wrong But Wromantic' nonsense made your post get inadvertently coloured the wrong way. And you are right in that some collaborators do just click amazingly, even at an emotionally deep level, while still being totally platonic/business.

 

[LRK]

I think the expression would be "kindred spirits" - meaning an unromantic connection, an understanding.

 

[Happy Skates]

I think that certain girls inspire daniil artistically, but I don’t see him not giving Sasha attention. As soon as the game of thrones music aired he announced this for Sasha to reserve it. They made her khalesisi - queen of dragons. Maybe it wasn’t working artistically for her but it was really supposed to just display her quads more than anything. But he has always talked so favorably about sasha and her jumping ability. And look at the bond they had during juniors.

I also don’t think it was coincidence that Sasha was given assignments directly competing with Zhenya. I think Eteri assumed her to be the biggest threat and made sure to pair her gp assignments with Zhenya. Just my thoughts. .

Just look at which GPs and JGPs Daniil has been to in the past two years. He's been to every one of Anna's assignments (iirc, maybe there's one he didn't get to that I'm forgetting but you get the point). I'm not sayiing he disliked Sasha, but its clear that his bond with Anya and Alina is just stronger than anyone else. And beyond what is shown in public, no one can say what was happening in the rink. I'm just saying that if he shows favoritism online (and yes he posts about Sasha too but its not about disliking her its about liking Anna more), then I think there's a good shot he would give Anna more attention in the rink, even if it was inadvertently. Again NOT hating on Daniil, just trying to say that I don't think we can call Sasha's claims of non-attention false when a) none of us have been in the rink b) there have already been signs of favoritism that many noticed way before this all ever happened and b) there are a million star skaters in one rink and some are bound to get less attention than they would want.

 

[Amei]

Just look at which GPs and JGPs Daniil has been to in the past two years. He's been to every one of Anna's assignments (iirc, maybe there's one he didn't get to that I'm forgetting but you get the point). I'm not sayiing he disliked Sasha, but its clear that his bond with Anya and Alina is just stronger than anyone else. And beyond what is shown in public, no one can say what was happening in the rink. I'm just saying that if he shows favoritism online (and yes he posts about Sasha too but its not about disliking her its about liking Anna more), then I think there's a good shot he would give Anna more attention in the rink, even if it was inadvertently. Again NOT hating on Daniil, just trying to say that I don't think we can call Sasha's claims of non-attention false when a) none of us have been in the rink b) there have already been signs of favoritism that many noticed way before this all ever happened and b) there are a million star skaters in one rink and some are bound to get less attention than they would want.

Well Dudakov was always at a lot of Trusova's competitions, I don't think it has to do with 'favoritism' but kindred spirits and better relationships. Anna if you remember had a couple of injuries, breaking her leg and her arm that probably put her behind in terms of her jumps but she probably spent more time with choreography than with jump instructors. Plus it's been said in interviews that Trusova loves to jump, and it's clear that's what she focuses on, well choreographers don't have much to do with jumps. As you said we aren't at the rink so no one knows, we do know that Trusova does need to work on her between the jumps content because her competition who she won't see everyday anymore are far more well-rounded skaters in that respect. Hopefully her new coaching team pays attention to that, but based on Plushenko's career and who coached him (Mishin) that seems unlikely

 

[Sugar Coated]

Just look at which GPs and JGPs Daniil has been to in the past two years. He's been to every one of Anna's assignments (iirc, maybe there's one he didn't get to that I'm forgetting but you get the point). I'm not sayiing he disliked Sasha, but its clear that his bond with Anya and Alina is just stronger than anyone else. And beyond what is shown in public, no one can say what was happening in the rink. I'm just saying that if he shows favoritism online (and yes he posts about Sasha too but its not about disliking her its about liking Anna more), then I think there's a good shot he would give Anna more attention in the rink, even if it was inadvertently. Again NOT hating on Daniil, just trying to say that I don't think we can call Sasha's claims of non-attention false when a) none of us have been in the rink b) there have already been signs of favoritism that many noticed way before this all ever happened and b) there are a million star skaters in one rink and some are bound to get less attention than they would want.

He was at every one of Alena's competitions this year if I remember correctly. I think Eteri made a point to be at all of Sasha's competitions? If anything that shows Eteri prioritizing Sasha since Eteri is the primary coach and Daniil appeared equally invested in Alena and Anna.

 

[SkateSkates]

He was at every one of Alena's competitions this year if I remember correctly. I think Eteri made a point to be at all of Sasha's competitions? If anything that shows Eteri prioritizing Sasha since Eteri is the primary coach and Daniil appeared equally invested in Alena and Anna.

Eteri split her time evenly for all of the Grand Prix events - she went to 1 event for each of her skaters (Skate America, Rostelecom and NHK). Sergei went with Sasha alone to Canada and Daniil alone to COC with Anna, but both of them went to IDF with Alina/Aliona which is understandable because there were 2 of them. Daniil went to Lombardia, Japan Open and Finlandia and Sergei went to Nepala and the Denis Ten Memorial. This is just talking about the seniors - of course the coaches also went to various Jr and Novice international and national competitions. So the travel to competitions was pretty equal for all skaters, with the whole team only being there for the main events (GPF, Nats/Jr Nats, Euros, Jr Worlds). It’s understandable that not all coaches can go to every event when there are 25 other skaters at home to train.

 

[Sugar Coated]

Eteri split her time evenly for all of the Grand Prix events - she went to 1 event for each of her skaters (Skate America, Rostelecom and NHK). Sergei went with Sasha alone to Canada and Daniil alone to COC with Anna, but both of them went to IDF with Alina/Aliona which is understandable because there were 2 of them. Daniil went to Lombardia, Japan Open and Finlandia and Sergei went to Nepala and the Denis Ten Memorial. This is just talking about the seniors - of course the coaches also went to various Jr and Novice international and national competitions. So the travel to competitions was pretty equal for all skaters, with the whole team only being there for the main events (GPF, Nats/Jr Nats, Euros, Jr Worlds). It’s understandable that not all coaches can go to every event when there are 25 other skaters at home to train.

My main point was that Daniil was at every one of both Anna and Alena's competitions, correct? So hard to keep track. I do see how the girls may have felt Eteri was not as present this year, the travel schedule made it difficult but it does appear she did not travel to many of the international competitions before GPF? Which ones was Eteri at?

 

[AshWagsFan]

I'm sorry. English is not my language at all.




You're right.

It’s ok, I was certain it was a translation error. I know English is one of the difficult languages, and I completely understand that you weren’t meaning anything like that!

 

[Vlad Karigov]

Well, gentlemen, I want to be wrong but it seems that we are seeing the end of another race, sad to say, but this is a new version of what happened with Tarakanova is in sight. Many expect wonders as Trusova is the absolute center of attention of Plushenko, but they forget that Plushenko is not Eteri, he is not a coach, she is just an businessman; he will leave everything to Rozanov and Volkov who without a head will seek to impose their ideas; To top it off, we must not forget that Trusova is not interested in the artistic, he is only interested in jumping and jumping; that is why with Tutberidze she was successful, because they created programs according to his low level of interpretation and skating skills; but with new coaches she will not have balanced programs.

We all know the great stubbornness that Trusova has, all last season he threw it in the trash for his obsession of making 5 quads, but the worst is when he gets frustrated and nothing comes out as happened in Europeans, she only had to jump 4 quads but the pressure overcame him. Now that she has no competition, she will no longer try harder on the track seeing what Shcherbakova and Kostornaia do. Now who will put pressure on him, Zhilina who is even more immature, who jumps better in shows of tv than in competition.

Let's stop being fans and be objective. Trusova has made the worst possible mistake, if she went with a real coach, with real planning and established goals for her, she could have some hope, but no, she went with a businessman to pass more time with Zhilina brothers in photo shows than on the ice training.

 

[Scott512]

Maybe Alina will return now. I said the same. By the way, I am quite sure that she will be happy with any World medal right now.
So the Olympic team can be Alyona, Alina and Kamila.
Hope Kseniya will not join Eteri, she may end like Kanysheva.

Yes Alina will return for sure.

 

[KOBOT37]

I don't get the point of this discussion to be frank.

It's obvious by now that this wasn't "partnership ended with a mutual agreement" case, so most likely both sides think the other one is guilty. We are never going to find out the "truth" and everybody has already made up their opinions about the events.

I, as a supporter of, first and foremost, Khrustalny, don't blame Alexandra or Rozanov for leaving, although I don't think it is a good decision for them but it's their call, making matters uglier from my point of view is where they went, without going into social/political topics and discussing my feeling about that family, all I can say is that Plushenko, as a Figure skating manager/coach is a rival of TT and switching teams to joing your rivals is... not pretty, at least from my POV (I am mostly team sports follower, so probably individual sport fans judge it differently).

Obviously, I am not going to "attack" her or start saying that she is nobody,she is great athlete,who has very real chance to end Khrustalny reign, but If I said that my opinion of Trusova didn't change to worse because of her decision, I would be lying (obviously, nobody cares about my opinions ).

That is obviously a big loss for Khrustalny and can have very bad consequences, but TT couldn't have done anything about it. Anna, Alena and Alina+ Lil-Bet are still formidable team and capable of sweeping podiums at every competition, so lets see how it goes.

P.S regarding to Zhilina leaving the team, I don't feel much of anything, she is too young and god knows how her career develops and I haven't really watched much of her skating.

P.P.S Rumors... Russian social networks are full of Rumors, from Eteri staying in the USA to Putin being dead, so I wouldn't believe anything without some sort of proof.

 

[JazzUp]

And when you're a champion at that level, its not ridiculous to want/need a certain amount of individual attention from your coach. In fact, I think its normal to want that attention when you're the quad revolution leader, two-time world champion, freeskate score record-holder, the list goes on.

That's not how TeamTut works; Eteri has spoken about that several times. "As soon as you're off the podium, you're just another athlete again", remember?

Combine that with the fact that it was clear as the light of day who Daniil's favorites were, I'm not surprised that Sasha/parents felt she wasn't getting enough attention from him. I mean, if its obvious to us, spectators on the other side of the world who see limited footage of these people at competitions/social media, that Daniil favors Anya (and Alina),

Exactly. You need to watch their everyday training to have an idea about how much attention was given to everyone in the group.