2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[chasingneverland]

No idea about Aliona (fortunately because if I did, I’s probably freak out even more lol) but saying Zhenya‘s had it rough these past months is an understatement. She said in an interview that she‘ll try her very hardest to land one (!) triple jump at the Nationals gala. This is coming from someone who skated three clean programs with triple triples on a broken foot at the Olympics.

So, yes, covid and her injury affected her health very seriously. I don‘t know if her body will allow her to come back to competition but one thing‘s for sure, she‘s not going down without a fight.

Considering Plushy said "Unfortunately, she could not prepare after the coronavirus, it is very difficult for her to skate programs in terms of breathing. Such a difficult time now," I don't think she can make it through her programs.

EDIT: And Evgenia has "severe lung damage". I don't think either Alena or Anna or Liza have lung damage persay, they're just risking it.

 

[Fluture]

I think this was said only because Aliona withdrew. They’re leaving the door open, to decide later whom to send: Aliona or Liza. If she’s on, I think they’ll have a skate off at cup final for the spot between them. Which will be unfair to Liza, if she does well at RusNats and since she showed up here probably precisely because she wanted avoid this fate of 18-19 season, but Fed clearly doesn’t believe in Liza and Aliona can earn a lot on PCS, which Liza can’t.

Well, imo, the fairest and smartest solution would have been to make it abundantly clear beforehand that the actual selection for Worlds would take place at the Cup final. Especially after Euros were canceled. Because right now, there are essentially 4 skaters in contention for a worlds spot. Out of those, all four are recovering either from an injury (Sasha) or illness (Anna - pneumonia, Aliona and Liza - covid). Does it really make sense to rush them into a competition, to determine spots for a competition that will take place months from now? I don‘t think so. If they‘d used the Cup Final, the skaters would all have had more time to recover and we might have seen a more even playing field. The way it‘s now, they‘re making athletes risk their health over nothing.

 

[nussnacker]

Well, imo, the fairest and smartest solution would have been to make it abundantly clear beforehand that the actual selection for Worlds would take place at the Cup final. Especially after Euros were canceled. Because right now, there are essentially 4 skaters in contention for a worlds spot. Out of those, all four are recovering either from an injury (Sasha) or illness (Anna - pneumonia, Aliona and Liza - covid). Does it really make sense to rush them into a competition, to determine spots for a competition that will take place months from now? I don‘t think so. If they‘d used the Cup Final, the skaters would all have had more time to recover and we might have seen a more even playing field. The way it‘s now, they‘re making athletes risk their health over nothing.

I think 2 spots will be locked for Sasha and Anna after RusNats. That is, unless Liza T. places above one of them here. The skate off will be between whoever places 3rd and Aliona. 3rd place for going nowhere that is...

 

[colormyworld240]

She has an edge issue. look at this link at 4:56 - https://youtu.be/IyK0r4GLtI8

I'd call this a flip if I didn't know her program layout.

Kamila has an outside edge lutz. At 5:08 you can see another angle of it. Like all skaters, Kamila has her issues but lutz and flip edges are definitely not one of them. I definitely think she was overscored compared to Anna today in PCS, but what she does better is her lutz/flip edges. She's now one of the very few who have correct edges on both jumps. I think the only one in the top here, and maybe only her and Rika amongst the top ladies worldwide.

 

[starlight97]

What's this "Anna's health is in danger" situation about?
Because she breathed heavily after an athletic performance at full strength? That is rather normal. Especially in combination with panicking and almost crying, as she did, cause of making a spin mistake.
Or is it cause she had Covid? (Did she?) I'm kinda lost because pretty much 2/3 of the Russian ladies and their camps seem to have had it by now.

 

[Scott512]

Quite literally Russia:
"So, the Russian championship is officially not a selection for the world championship, but a motivational camp according to the results of which the federation will decide for itself who deserves to go to the Worlds and who does not. Everything is in the hands of officials, not athletes. “It makes no sense to discuss this (selection criteria for the world championship) before the national championships,” said Alexander Kogan, general director of the FFKKR. When asked if the Russian championship would not be the only tournament in the selection system for the world championship, the president of the FFKKR Alexander Gorshkov replied: “I would not talk about it now, because we will see how events develop. We will have an executive committee (December 27 in Chelyabinsk), where we will consider various options. " “We have plans and not one tournament, but several, which pursue the goal of preserving the sports form of our skaters,” Kogan said.

Thanks for all that motivational information. This makes it absolutely more mind boggling why the recently seriously ill Liza and Anya would even fly to Siberia to compete when it's not even a decisive factor about who goes to worlds. Those 2 ladies really have the hearts of lionesses.

 

[norwegianfairytale]

What's this "Anna's health is in danger" situation about?
Because she breathed heavily after an athletic performance at full strength? That is rather normal. Especially in combination with panicking and almost crying, as she did, cause of making a spin mistake.
Or is it cause she had Covid? (Did she?) I'm kinda lost because pretty much 2/3 of the Russian ladies and their camps seem to have had it by now.

This is not normal breathing: https://twitter.com/usssssta/status/1342492932818030597

 

[Scott512]

Seeing Anna struggle to breathe made me even more worried for Evgenia and Alena. I fear their health must be even worse.

No question their health is much worse than Annas.

Um sure it kills those 2 girls not to be there competing with their compatriots for the national title. But they made the right move not going. Both girls certainly could have competed in the short program and scored mid seventies or higher.

 

[brakes]

What's this "Anna's health is in danger" situation about?
Because she breathed heavily after an athletic performance at full strength? That is rather normal. Especially in combination with panicking and almost crying, as she did, cause of making a spin mistake.
Or is it cause she had Covid? (Did she?) I'm kinda lost because pretty much 2/3 of the Russian ladies and their camps seem to have had it by now.

Worse than covid. She had pneumonia just month ago, her state was pretty serious.

As I'm thinking about it, Kogan and Gorshkov should raise their butts in the morning, go to the team and promise them Anna goes to Worlds or at least be given a chance to be selected in some additional competition.
Then let the team, Anna and her parents decide what to do. It would be classy act towards classy athlete.

 

[NAOTMAA]

This is not normal breathing: https://twitter.com/usssssta/status/1342492932818030597

Even in those 8 seconds anyone and everyone can see she performed that program with every fibre of her being. She left absolutely nothing on the table when it came to interpretation here. She should have crushed everyone in the PCS

 

[starlight97]

This is not normal breathing: https://twitter.com/usssssta/status/1342492932818030597

Yes clearly not. She just finished her program and is about to cry. Probably she isn't at 100% capacity after her illness but I find this talk that she is "in danger" and risking herself a bit over the top. She's not jumping on a half torn ligament or on a cracked bone. She has a harder time breathing, worst that can happen is she won't get through the program endurance-wise. But not even that will happen since if she wasn't doing full Free Skate runthroughs in training, they wouldn't have sent her (aka see Alena).

 

[Amei]

What's this "Anna's health is in danger" situation about?
Because she breathed heavily after an athletic performance at full strength? That is rather normal. Especially in combination with panicking and almost crying, as she did, cause of making a spin mistake.
Or is it cause she had Covid? (Did she?) I'm kinda lost because pretty much 2/3 of the Russian ladies and their camps seem to have had it by now.

Shcherbakova had pneumonia not covid, still a serious illness. I think more is being made because someone noticed Daniil giving her what is assumed to be smelling salts before she skated.

This is not normal breathing: https://twitter.com/usssssta/status/1342492932818030597

So I'm prone to lung infections and a runner - if I've had an infection where I have had to take extended time off and then i go back to running, that level of breathing can be attained even though I'm healthy. Not saying she doesn't still have something going on but I think we should be careful of taking a clip that occurs right after she gets done with a hard performance where she nearly fell messing up a spin and just came back from illness and say its evidence that shes still sick or incapable of being on the ice. Her parents have given extremely level-headed interviews about her career, they know her health better than us and let her skate.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

Shcherbakova had pneumonia not covid, still a serious illness. I think more is being made because someone noticed Daniil giving her what is assumed to be smelling salts before she skated.


So I'm prone to lung infections and a runner - if I've had an infection where I have had to take extended time off and then i go back to running, that level of breathing can be attained even though I'm healthy. Not saying she doesn't still have something going on but I think we should be careful of taking a clip that occurs right after she gets done with a hard performance where she nearly fell messing up a spin and just came back from illness and say its evidence that shes still sick or incapable of being on the ice. Her parents have given extremely level-headed interviews about her career, they know her health better than us and let her skate.

No one is saying that she is incapable of being on ice. I thought her SP today was fantastic, but the point is - she's still recovering and does not need to endanger her health by competing here. Anya and her team may think it's fine, but her heavy breathing (which she has never done before after a program) suggests that she's winded after a SP. How is she supposed to handle a FS with a quad combo and 2 backloaded triple-triples? And the fact that the coaches were giving her smelling salts... she should not be competing. Not because she can't, but because she shouldn't.

 

[starlight97]

Shcherbakova had pneumonia not covid, still a serious illness. I think more is being made because someone noticed Daniil giving her what is assumed to be smelling salts before she skated.

Thanks for clarifying. I knew she had a lung infection but I don't know what's Covid and what isn't anymore since some camps and athletes have also been very flip-floppy and inconsistent about disclosing Covid infections as such.

Smelling salts... now it's really getting wild on here. Either way. Wild for them if it's true and just as wild for this forum if it's a conspiracy theory.

 

[chasingneverland]

What's this "Anna's health is in danger" situation about?
Because she breathed heavily after an athletic performance at full strength? That is rather normal. Especially in combination with panicking and almost crying, as she did, cause of making a spin mistake.
Or is it cause she had Covid? (Did she?) I'm kinda lost because pretty much 2/3 of the Russian ladies and their camps seem to have had it by now.

Because she had pneumonia. I believe she was hospitalized and it forced her to withdraw from Rostelecom.

 

[chasingneverland]

Thanks for all that motivational information. This makes it absolutely more mind boggling why the recently seriously ill Liza and Anya would even fly to Siberia to compete when it's not even a decisive factor about who goes to worlds. Those 2 ladies really have the hearts of lionesses.

Well I can see why Liza might. She's not on what I would consider the "normative" team and Russia has shown they don't trust her in the past. So I could see why she might want to "strengthen" her relative standing. For Anna though, it makes no sense.

EDIT: I want to be clear that I don't think that is fair to Liza and she shouldn't feel like she HAS to. However, especially considering that an injured Sasha and an ill Anna ARE competing and their positions are more secure and with Liza's history with the Fed and the Evgenia/Liza decision, I can understand why she and her team would want her to, if it's at all possible.

 

[Lzbee]

Well 9.75/9.25 with a fall means Kamila would be getting 10's without the fall. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised for a clean Valieva to get 38/77 or more PCS at nationals, RusFed likes to go all out to set an example for international judges. She is very good so what can I say.

Molchanova was very charming, hope her scores can improve. Talailaykina is like a Konstantinova without pressure, I enjoyed her program.

Nugumanova is fantastic. She's been quite consistent this season and got a deserved really good score here (PB?). I would honestly give her the highest performance and interpretation scores of the night.

Poor Anna, her breathing sounded really painful and wheezy, hope the adults around her can take of her because it's really not worth the risk of injury which is increased with stamina problems. Her performance was lovely but I'm just not a fan of the program, it's very one note but this is not Anna's fault, she does the best she can with what she's given.

Sasha's 2A was so good that surely got sky high goe? She definitely performs much more when not having to think about the 3A. Considering her edge call, her score seems reasonable to me but considering it's nationals, it seems quite low for a clean performance.

Daria is my favourite junior but I really don't like her programs this season. Usually programs grow on me but it's been the reverse for hers. I think she's capable of much better. Her 2A is very good but I think stumbles should affect pcs.

Liza's Lutz is stellar, that was a good performance. I want her score to be higher but I can't deny that it's obvious her skating skills still needs some work when compared to her competitors.

I really enjoyed Maya's performance today! But I don't think she was underscored tbh. She had some meh spins and her step sequence looked quite empty. She was clean though which is exactly what she needs at the moment. Ideally she needs to show that she's can score above 220 consistently for RusFed to pay attention to her.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

I really enjoyed Molchanova today actually. So much charm! Such a fun program! So much personality and the musicality is great too!

 

[chasingneverland]

Yes clearly not. She just finished her program and is about to cry. Probably she isn't at 100% capacity after her illness but I find this talk that she is "in danger" and risking herself a bit over the top. She's not jumping on a half torn ligament or on a cracked bone. She has a harder time breathing, worst that can happen is she won't get through the program endurance-wise. But not even that will happen since if she wasn't doing full Free Skate runthroughs in training, they wouldn't have sent her (aka see Alena).

Alena's doctor literally recommended that she withdraw, which Alena DID NOT want to do, as "it is very difficult for her to skate programs in terms of breathing." Anna is having the same difficulty and the concern as with Alena is complications. The worst that can happen is actually lung damage and complications - Alena's own doctors said that. And Anna by all accounts isn't doing full FS run throughs in training.

EDIT: Her own words from 3 days ago: "I train separate elements without limitations, but we have not been doing whole run-throughs for a long time now – it can have a bad effect. I do not do full run-through, but I hope that by the start I will get in shape and be ready to perform at full strength. When I returned from serious injuries, there was no such rush to specific competitions, I recovered calmly. Here, I will not allow myself to miss the Russian Nationals. It seems to me that I will come there in any condition and will show everything I can. Still it’s a selection for more important competitions. I just won’t forgive myself if I don’t even try to perform, qualify, but sit at home watching everyone compete." As well as no one has seen her do a FS runthrough yet.

 

[Scott512]

Well I can see why Liza might. She's not on what I would consider the "normative" team and Russia has shown they don't trust her in the past. So I could see why she might want to "strengthen" her relative standing. For Anna though, it makes no sense.

Agreed.

I'm just hoping Anna has a good skate tomorrow and is not in too much lung pain at the end but skating for another minute is pushing it. She really wants that three peat.