2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[starlight97]

Guys again, me or others never said she was totally fine and breathing perfectly and you are all imagining.
I said, yes, she clearly is not at 100% capacity, but acting like she's about to risk her life if she attempts to skate her best at the FS is over the top.

Eteri's camp is -insert whatever you personally feel- but one thing they are not is stupid. They would not have allowed her here if they didn't think she had the possibility to do it and have at least a decent showing.
They'd allow her to skate knowing she will just fall on everything and faint in the middle of the skate and cause a huge scandal around themselves? - most definitely not.
They will risk her entire career and "life" as some paint it here for a nationals podium finish when they only have Anna+Kamila as race horses for the Olympics next year? - most definitely not.
Anna's parents also have given highly intelligent and reasonable interviews, very uncommon for skating parents.
Let her do her best, water down the content if necessary and you cannot tie her to a bed if she is not willing.

 

[anonymoose_au]

What's extra awful is the Russian Figure Skating Fed has come right out and said they won't use Nats to determine who goes to (probably not gonna happen) Worlds.

So like what are Anna, Liza and Sasha even doing here? It's messed up! I bet if any of them withdrew the Fed would hold it against them forevermore.

Do any of those Fed people have a working with children check? Do they have those in Russia? Maybe they should!

 

[anonymoose_au]

They'd allow her to skate knowing she will just fall on everything and faint in the middle of the skate and cause a huge scandal around themselves? - most definitely not.

Well obviously they don't want that to happen, but I think it's highly likely Anna may have a lot of trouble doing her program.

I know figure skating is a risky sport and I realise Anna's not going to actually die, but I think she might possibly overdo it to the extent that she might not even be able to go to Worlds. She doesn't sound like she's totally over the pneumonia and could relapse. It looked like it was actually painful for her to breathe after the SP, I once got inflamed rib cartilage from a virus, it was excurating, I thought I was having a heart attack or something. How is one meant to cheer and applaud when another person is in pain like that? It feels so wrong!

 

[starlight97]

As for Plushenko's antics - oooh boy.
He's digging Sasha and Alena a huge hole here. Having an undiplomatic reaction in the K&C is one thing, but now directly and aggressively calling the judges and the fed out in interviews, video reviews, bribery... this will get punished on his poor skater's backs.
I don't know how famous he thinks he is and how much he is overestimating is power position on Russian FS, but he should take a lesson from Eteri at the beginning of her coaching career:
Buyanova's skaters were heavily favored over hers & she as a coach had no influence. And what did she do? Poker face, shut up and let her skaters speak on the ice. And soon Yulia was so good she overtook Buyanova's girl for the Sochi team, and from there it went.

 

[Vandevska]

As for Plushenko's antics - oooh boy.
He's digging Sasha and Alena a huge hole here. Having an undiplomatic reaction in the K&C is one thing, but now directly and aggressively calling the judges and the fed out in interviews, video reviews, bribery... this will get punished on his poor skater's backs.
I don't know how famous he thinks he is and how much he is overestimating is power position on Russian FS, but he should take a lesson from Eteri at the beginning of her coaching career:
Buyanova's skaters were heavily favored over hers & she as a coach had no influence. And what did she do? Poker face, shut up and let her skaters speak on the ice. And soon Yulia was so good she overtook Buyanova's girl for the Sochi team, and from there it went.

I totally agree that Pluschenko is making it worse every time. It's like whenever I think we've seen the worst he tops it off the next competition.

 

[silveruskate]

If the discussion would be about wrong judging generally, there wouldn't be any problem from my side. I simply has the problem with the claims that it's only about "Eteri bonus", to make it short.

Some of it is organic. Like Rolex can sell any product and people will rave about the quality. It's a long process to earn reputation like this and it's natural for judges to be influenced. You had Evgenia with her dominance and consistency, Alina with her true technical prowess, then Anna/Sasha providing the quad hype. All of this has slowly been building up the reputation of that one skating school such that everyone gets a leg up.

It also changed what is valued in jumps. Transitions and effortlessness are on top whilst height/distance aren't necessary to access the top scores. Even looking at your favourite skater Alina. I've always said she has a better 3Lz-3Lo than Sasha, whose 3Lz-3Lo as a junior was quite small in comparison. But it was more effortless so she still accessed similar and even higher scores. Also Alina's Flip is literally 20 times better than Valieva's but Valieva gets huge GOE for a very flawed and small jump.

 

[Lzbee]

I don't consider it a "warrior mentality" to compete until you break, I consider it foolish. We may have watched her grow up but Anna is still only 16. She is a minor and of course she will be gunning for her nationals three-peat just like Sasha has been for her quads. I respect her for her strength but this is not a precedent we want to set for even younger skaters who look up to these girls.

And this goes for all sports, society needs to change it's attitude towards this or we will forever have minors breaking themselves to please the public/parents/coaches/sponsors etc.

I can see RusFed not caring about Alena or Liza not being at full health for nationals but I'm very surprised that they have shown they also don't care for the health of their two-time national champion. This is on RusFed for refusing to delay nationals. An extra month and many of their skaters would be in much better shape with much less stress, it's not just for Anna.

 

[silveruskate]

I'm confused why Anna was even attempting a 4Lz, if anything I thought they would go for 2 4Fs. And it seems like she was gassed after the two 3-3s so didn't even go for the final 3Lz.

The spin afterwards was definitely not as usual. And then that step sequence. Did the SP yesterday take a lot out of her? I think she should withdraw.

Also Sasha skating injured too!! And Tuktamysheva. None of them should be skating and it would send a message if they didn't.

 

[Magill]

I don't consider it a "warrior mentality" to compete until you break, I consider it foolish. We may have watched her grow up but Anna is still only 16. She is a minor and of course she will be gunning for her nationals three-peat just like Sasha has been for her quads. I respect her for her strength but this is not a precedent we want to set for even younger skaters who look up to these girls.

And this goes for all sports, society needs to change it's attitude towards this or we will forever have minors breaking themselves to please the public/parents/coaches/sponsors etc.

I can see RusFed not caring about Alena or Liza not being at full health for nationals but I'm very surprised that they have shown they also don't care for the health of their two-time national champion. This is on RusFed for refusing to delay nationals. An extra month and many of their skaters would be in much better shape with much less stress, it's not just for Anna.

I can't help thinking of Zhenya and her Olympic season, her struggle and pain, and then her words from the last year's Rostelecom press conference: "I am not prepared to skate on my broken bones anymore". I thought then making that claim aloud was the true bravery from her and it was so good for her to have grown out of this fake warrior mentality which has nothing to do do with what sport was supposed to mean any more.

 

[Fried]

Инстаграм ФФКР репостнул историю в инстаграме: «Трусову обокрали! Мы так устали от российского судейства!» Позже запись удалили

Инстаграм ФФКР репостнул историю в инстаграме: «Трусову обокрали! Мы так устали от российского судейства!» Позже запись удалили - Фигурное катание на Sports.ru

m.sports.ru

 

[Deripashka]

Maybe Im overprotecting about Anna, but sometimes I really dont understand Eteri manners. How she throw off Anna from her coat when she was visibly KOed its just beyond me

 

[Scott512]

I doubt it

• Eteri would be risking ticking off her top senior skater (after she lost the other 2 in the offseason) if she attempted to strip her of her shot at a third national title. Trusova has said that Eteri and her coaches at Sambo restricting her on the number of quads she wanted to do was part of the reason she left.
• The last 3 skaters are Sambo skaters, if Valieva is ahead of Trusova and given the SP today if Shcherbakova and Usacheva are clean its highly likely they score ahead of Trusova and that would be Eteri's third sweep of the nationals podium 3 years in a row.
• Eteri seems very much 'this is a business' so I don't think she would be favoring 1 skater over another
• The Russian ladies field since Sochi is incredibly deep and talented and Shcherbakova if she's able (I honestly could see her winning with a 1 quad clean program unless Trusova or Valieva whips out an insane program) will be the national champion for the third consecutive year something that hasn't been accomplished in years, has only been accomplished by 2 other Russian ladies and would be incredibly difficult to ever do again in the foreseeable future. Plus, if Shcherbakova doesn't win nationals next year for the Olympics, it would be incredibly difficult for her to be left off the Olympic team by the coach's council, which would give Eteri at least 1 skater at the Olympics.

Thank you for such a great post of different points and possibilities.

your second scenario of an EG sweep at this National's would be unbelievable and this thread would melt down if that happened!
There would be a lot of thumbs down so to speak.

EG may not have any favorites but Anna has been with her for over 12 of her 16 years and she's like a third daughter to her.

The. Thing we have to look for from Anya is if she can get through a practice offer free skate and breathing okay.

I would like some information from a medical professional if after the way she was breathing after the short program yesterday if that puts her immune system at more risk for catching something when you're struggling to breathe. I believe her parents are looking on from Moscow and monitoring our situation but if Anna wants to skate she's going to go today.

 

[Scott512]

Maybe Im overprotecting about Anna, but sometimes I really dont understand Eteri manners. How she throw off Anna from her coat when she was visibly KOed its just beyond me

What were you looking at? They had a nice hug after her skate when Anya was catching her breath.

 

[alexocfp]

Mishin says Liza might withdraw.

Мишин: выступление Туктамышевой на ЧР под вопросом

Состояние фигуристки Елизаветы Туктамышевой неважное после перенесенного коронавируса, ее дальнейшее выступление на чемпионате России под вопросом, заявил... РИА Новости Спорт, 26.12.2020

rsport.ria.ru

I’m amazed she even showed up to begin with. She left it all on the ice yesterday and by the end you could see she was struggling.

The K&C was really telling. She is never that subdued.

If she withdraws, I will still tip my hat to her for showing up and completing the program even with her ailments.

What a warrior, makes me like her even more!

 

[Deripashka]

What were you looking at? They had a nice hug after her skate when Anya was catching her breath.

Yes and right after she bounce her off from her shoulder. As I said, maybe Im just overprotective, but I noticed few times before that Eteri react very like mother and literally 2 seconds after, she act roughly like she would be scared to show her soft side. Normaly I wouldnt care much about that, but when I see Anna in such condition, I find it disturbing.

 

[flanker]

Maybe Im overprotecting about Anna, but sometimes I really dont understand Eteri manners. How she throw off Anna from her coat when she was visibly KOed its just beyond me

I think, and you can call me blind worshipper, Eteri wanted to put warm jacket on Anna as fast as possible.

 

[Amei]

I'm confused why Anna was even attempting a 4Lz, if anything I thought they would go for 2 4Fs. And it seems like she was gassed after the two 3-3s so didn't even go for the final 3Lz.

The spin afterwards was definitely not as usual. And then that step sequence. Did the SP yesterday take a lot out of her? I think she should withdraw.

Also Sasha skating injured too!! And Tuktamysheva. None of them should be skating and it would send a message if they didn't.

Well just because she did a quad lutz in practice doesn't mean that's what she'll do in competition. Perhaps they were thinking 2 solo quads vs. 2 quads of the same type where she had to do 1 in combination.

Someone posted a comment in the competition thread regarding the spin error and Shcherbakova said she lost focus.

 

[silveruskate]

Well just because she did a quad lutz in practice doesn't mean that's what she'll do in competition. Perhaps they were thinking 2 solo quads vs. 2 quads of the same type where she had to do 1 in combination.

Someone posted a comment in the competition thread regarding the spin error and Shcherbakova said she lost focus.

It's what they're planning but preparing two different quads just seems very difficult. And it was the official run-through. No I'm not talking about the SP. Her spin after the 3F-eu-3S in the run-through was very tired looking. Not to mention she rested in between and didn't attempt the solo 3Lz. She aborted the step sequence, and the final spin she normally holds the bielmann for much longer.

 

[Scott512]

Инстаграм ФФКР репостнул историю в инстаграме: «Трусову обокрали! Мы так устали от российского судейства!» Позже запись удалили

Инстаграм ФФКР репостнул историю в инстаграме: «Трусову обокрали! Мы так устали от российского судейства!» Позже запись удалили - Фигурное катание на Sports.ru

m.sports.ru

Don't read the comments section. It's not very positive for the PA leader. And this is figure skating fans in Russia talking about a genuine icon Idol and hero to Millions.

From what I read in the English translation Little Liza was underscored the most.

As for Sasha taking her 3A out of her SP may have been costly. I think it was a good move because that sets her up for a free skate today without having a fall and having a good short program yesterday. Kamila needs to be admired for keeping her at 3A in her SP. it didn't work out yesterday but the judges respected that she had it in there she skated a good program otherwise. Kamila knows to win worlds or Olympics she will need the 3A in the SP and she's going to have a lot of competitions where she's way ahead after the SP.

I don't want to see Plushenko antics hurt Sasha or aliona This gold medal at Russian Nationals is well within reach for Sasha because it's hard to imagine and Anna and KV having clean free skates Anna because of health reasons and KV because she has a tough free state and she never skates it clean.
Of course never for this Phenom is just two Russian cup events so never is only two times.

In closing I just wanted to say how shocking it was to read the comment section.
The Russians posting those comments did not hold back.

 

[alexocfp]

The comment about someone getting fired on Monday is the truest one of all.