2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[silveruskate]

Well it's objectively true that she didn't actually qualify for RusNats in 2017 and was a substitute. And it is objectively true that Aliona's climb was meteoritic once she got to Eteri. She wasn't a star as a child. This isn't a Sofia A situation. It's closer to Alina.

I also mentioned I disagree with the posters overall conclusions.

It's true, but no bearing on anything about anything.

But Alina is praised! (As she should be.) She worked hard, she surpassed the people ahead of her. Her mentality at the Olympics was crazy special. Aliona instead is a product and absolutely nothing special at all. All skaters have worked amazingly hard to be where they are. I just like giving the credit to them, they really deserve it.

 

[chasingneverland]

If I'm not wrong, Aliona fell once the whole season. That's some Evgenia level consistency, and she never once fell on the triple axel. If you wanna say she didn't dominate bec Anna won Nationals, fine. But saying she didn't dominate because everyone else fell and she didn't doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I'm saying she didn't dominate because there were always three contenders for the medals. Evgenia on the other hand did dominate in the years leading up to the Olympics - it was a forgone conclusion that she would win. That's domination. That was never the case with Aliona (or any of the 3A).

 

[Dawn825]

I'm saying she didn't dominate because there were always three contenders for the medals. Evgenia on the other hand did dominate in the years leading up to the Olympics - it was a forgone conclusion that she would win. That's domination. That was never the case with Aliona (or any of the 3A).

Fair enough

 

[chasingneverland]

It's true, but no bearing on anything about anything.

But Alina is praised! (As she should be.) She worked hard, she surpassed the people ahead of her. Her mentality at the Olympics was crazy special. Aliona instead is a product and absolutely nothing special at all. All skaters have worked amazingly hard to be where they are. I just like giving the credit to them, they really deserve it.

Alina is praised yes! But she's also come under intense criticism.

The narrative following her OGM wasn't what she accomplished but rather what Evgenia failed to do.

But regardless that has nothing to do with the current discussion.

Also some people think Alina IS a product of the code which allowed her to backload all her jumps and resulted in a rules change.

 

[lopsilceci]

I guess karma exists after all. First Plush takes Aliona, makes fun of the previous team and thinks he can probably only gain from Aliona's presence at his rink, she's ready made so he barely has to coach her at all and she will bring him glory. Then, this season happens, they lose Aliona in the exact same way they got her and now they're the ones who are angry and in a bad light.
Rozanov seems like the most unlucky coach in the world right now. Who's going to want to train with him after this season?

Anyway, don't worry Kostofans, everything will work out and Aliona will be back with Eteri soon. I'm 90% sure.

 

[Lechat]

It's true, but no bearing on anything about anything.

But Alina is praised! (As she should be.) She worked hard, she surpassed the people ahead of her. Her mentality at the Olympics was crazy special. Aliona instead is a product and absolutely nothing special at all. All skaters have worked amazingly hard to be where they are. I just like giving the credit to them, they really deserve it.

She listened to her coaches and signed contracts I guess verbal contracts to make the japan open and the GPF series then takes her break. She fulfilled her duties.

 

[Jontor]

It's true, but no bearing on anything about anything.

But Alina is praised! (As she should be.) She worked hard, she surpassed the people ahead of her. Her mentality at the Olympics was crazy special. Aliona instead is a product and absolutely nothing special at all. All skaters have worked amazingly hard to be where they are. I just like giving the credit to them, they really deserve it.

Agreed! Alina at the Olympics is one of my FS highlights ever!

It's just a pity that we didn't have a constructive discussion about the Alyona vids I posted. As @chasingneverland said, the improvement for Alyona was "meteoritic". It is like two different skaters imo. Of course I might be wrong, Alyona might have been this good 10 months later without Eteri - what do I know? But I found the transformation interesting.

 

[silveruskate]

Alina is praised yes! But she's also come under intense criticism.

The narrative following her OGM wasn't what she accomplished but rather what Evgenia failed to do.

But regardless that has nothing to do with the current discussion.

Also some people think Alina IS a product of the code which allowed her to backload all her jumps and resulted in a rules change.

As you said, this is a discussion for now. And the same way, it's wrong to belittle Aliona's efforts too, and disrespectful. Also you can have all the content in the world, but if you fail to deliver, you failed to deliver. It is domination when you posted the highest combined score ever internationally, since that has never been achieved by your compatriots ever. Doesn't matter whether they had more content and fell.

The better reason IMO is that Anna beat Aliona at Nationals, so I wouldn't call it complete domination.

 

[Good Vibes Only]

At this point Aloina needs to return to AOP rink and fulfill her contract, maybe renegotiate any long term committments. She is the alternate for Worlds and she needs to skate somewhere. I don't even think she is in good enough shape to jump right in with Eteri's group, but by May-the transition time-she might be. I can't imagine why she couldn't wait for two months to make this switch-when it is approved by the Russian system. Now: To speculate: I can't help but wonder if this entire thing-from leaving Eteri, to now leaving AOP has something to do with either a crush/or relationship (real or imagined) with Rozonov. A teenaged girl's first love/crush, real or imagined, is a powerful thing.

This is absolutely disgusting, aliona is a 17 year old girl and rozanov is a 30 year old man. Speculating about a romantic relationship between them whether it be a joke or real is just something that i refuse to let slide. As fans we have no right to speculate a skater’s love life and most importantly spread rumors about minors dating someone 13 years older than them.

 

[iamchrislao]

At this point Alena better apologize and stay with Plushenko. However, his chances of making the Olympic team are slim.
It is sad that after being with the best coach in Russia who led her to success, she is now involved in this situation.
Eteri shouldn't have even considered accepting her after she left, no matter how much time they'd invested in her.
Honestly, she deserves what is happening.

I should call u out. When ure world no 1, ure a hot commodity. Combine that with the fact she’s a minor. Ur view is myopic, and quite frankly, alarming, as it fails to take these into account and u end up blaming a minor adults fought over since she was the hottest commodity, ending her season with world records, titles and as undisputed number 1. As to contracts, i’m a lawyer and minors (subject to law in russia) are not on equal footing with adults, hence the contract is deemed to have been attended by vitiated consent.

 

[Lechat]

Any proof that he encouraged her to come to AoP where he was at? And where is accusation of "narcissism" coming from - he thought he was not getting credit for what he was doing in Eteri's camp or thought he was ready to take the step to have bigger responsibilities and went where he could get that.

I was wondering why he left Eteri.

 

[iamchrislao]

Any proof that he encouraged her to come to AoP where he was at? And where is accusation of "narcissism" coming from - he thought he was not getting credit for what he was doing in Eteri's camp or thought he was ready to take the step to have bigger responsibilities and went where he could get that.

Go ahead and blame the minor instead of the adults. Also, i cannot overemphasize this enough, she was a minor + hottest commodity. What do u expect adults do in high stakes situations with a vulnerable party? Go figure.

 

[silveruskate]

Agreed! Alina at the Olympics is one of my FS highlights ever!

It's just a pity that we didn't have a constructive discussion about the Alyona vids I posted. As @chasingneverland said, the improvement for Alyona was "meteoritic". It is like two different skaters imo. Of course I might be wrong, Alyona might have been this good 10 months later without Eteri - what do I know? But I found the transformation interesting.

The "without Eteri" isn't an issue, because yes Eteri is a great asset to have + the training environment. As she is with all her skaters. But she made the decision to move to Eteri and had to work her butt off to get to where she got after 10 months. Travelling 5 hours a day, every day. Not all skaters become Eteri stars. Does Eteri do this in 10 months with all skaters? No. That 3A entry you were mocking. First it's a 3A. And secondly, that entry may be easy for Aliona but the point is that it isn't easy for everyone else! Ask Kolyada to do that transition into his 3A. He won't want to do it. How would it sound if I said Kamila's crazy spin is easy for her so it doesn't count, nothing special?

Also I remember you posting these exact videos before, so the discussion has already been had. But I didn't think it was disrespectful that time and didn't say it was. This time, it was really taking away all credit from Aliona on all aspects of her skating.

 

[chasingneverland]

It is domination when you posted the highest combined score ever internationally, since that has never been achieved by your compatriots ever. Doesn't matter whether they had more content and fell.

The better reason IMO is that Anna beat Aliona at Nationals, so I wouldn't call it complete domination.

I think we have different definitions of domination.

Domination is complete and absolute. There are no other realistic challengers. And that was never true with Aliona. Also while she had the highest combined score, she didn't have the highest FS score or the highest TES.

 

[Jontor]

The "without Eteri" isn't an issue, because yes Eteri is a great asset to have + the training environment. As she is with all her skaters. But she made the decision to move to Eteri and had to work her butt off to get to where she got after 10 months. Travelling 5 hours a day, every day. Not all skaters become Eteri stars. Does Eteri do this in 10 months with all skaters? No. That 3A entry you were mocking. First it's a 3A. And secondly, that entry may be easy for Aliona but the point is that it isn't easy for everyone else! Ask Kolyada to do that transition into his 3A. He won't want to do it. How would it sound if I said Kamila's crazy spin is easy for her so it doesn't count, nothing special?

Also I remember you posting these exact videos before, so the discussion has already been had. But I didn't think it was disrespectful that time and didn't say it was. This time, it was really taking away all credit from Aliona on all aspects of her skating.

I posted these videos before? When was that? I have no recollection of seeing them as I didn't follow juniors back in 2017.

I posted Maria Talalaikina's video from juniors 2017 about a week ago, and I commented something like "not a great skate, but hey, she beat Kostornaia".

 

[dhjh811]

You're paying 60K per year? Is that for undergrad?!

I am luckily in state so I only pay like $20k, but my brother had to pay $65k a year a few years back bcs he got in as an International applicant... Sorry, out of state tuition is about 45k/yr, but I guess with dorming+campus fees it'd be like 60k overall. America sucks

+yes, for undergrad. this is just for the UCs, but it's pretty much the same idea for private schools too. ~40k tuition a year+dorming+campus fees

 

[chasingneverland]

I should call u out. When ure world no 1, ure a hot commodity. Combine that with the fact she’s a minor. Ur view is myopic, and quite frankly, alarming, as it fails to take these into account and u end up blaming a minor adults fought over since she was the hottest commodity, ending her season with world records, titles and as undisputed number 1. As to contracts, i’m a lawyer and minors (subject to law in russia) are not on equal footing with adults, hence the contract is deemed to have been attended by vitiated consent.

That would all be true is she was the undisputed number 1. However, she wasn't. She was the most likely to win at World's but it definitely wasn't undisputed or a foregone conclusion.

Also, she wasn't exactly a commodity - there wasn't a bidding war for her. She left one group and joined another. That's what happened. She wasn't fought over then at all. Eteri let her go and Plushy accepted her outside of the transfer window. That's it.
Also calling her a commodity completely devalues her role and value as a skater and a person of worth. She's not an inanimate item - she's a talented skater whose worked hard to be where she is.

And the contract was signed by her parents, her legal guardians.

 

[Amei]

Go ahead and blame the minor instead of the adults. Also, i cannot overemphasize this enough, she was a minor + hottest commodity. What do u expect adults do in high stakes situations with a vulnerable party? Go figure.

I didn't "blame" the 17 year old, she made a choice to leave Eteri, its been said her mother didn't want her to leave Eteri. She left, he left, until your post, I've never seen any mention that he attempted to get her to come to AoP.

 

[chasingneverland]

I am luckily in state so I only pay like $20k, but my brother had to pay $65k a year a few years back bcs he got in as an International applicant... Sorry, out of state tuition is about 45k/yr, but I guess with dorming+campus fees it'd be like 60k overall. America sucks

+yes, for undergrad. this is just for the UCs, but it's pretty much the same idea for private schools too. ~40k tuition a year+dorming+campus fees

That's crazy...

Although tuition in general is just insane.

 

[Decoder]

Hmm I got a lot of grants in general - I actually still do now. In fact my entire tuition this term was covered by grants. So maybe?

I wish student loans weren't a thing in general, as long as you finished your programs. I'm happy for you if you get some reduced though!

Wow, very impressive. You must be straight A+!