2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[chasingneverland]

Choosing team for Euros/Worlds is one thing, but leaving 6th place Nats finisher (3rd place senior finisher!) out of National team funding for the whole next year would very unfair, dirty move. Rules say 6 top at nats get there.
Watching Nugumanova's Insta and Tiktok, you can see how important getting on the team was for her. You just can't mess with people's livelihood matters like that, I imagine she could easily sue them before civil court and win.

They didn't say that this year.

 

[chasingneverland]

no one is belittling any of Alina's accomplishments. just because someone has won more medals than her doesn't take away she won the biggest title there is to win.

and it's pretty bold to assume that Irina would trade all 26 of her medals for an Olympic gold unless she has said so herself. Many skaters end up satisfied with what they have achieved, even if they didn't reach their biggest goal.

I'm fairly sure Michelle Kwan would trade all her medals for that elusive OGM.

Also, there is an argument to be made that skaters kept competing because they didn't achieve their ultimate goal.

 

[chasingneverland]

Any skater that skated in the senior Russian cup stages cannot skate in junior Nationals. That should be the rule. Those three TT girls getting massive experience by skating in those senior events. I'm glad none of them will be skating at Junior Nationals. You have to pick and choose in life and those three girls chose fo skate the senior events.

Anna, Sasha, Aliona, etc all competed at the senior cup stages as juniors. Aliona actually won the cup final after competing at both junior and senior nationals. (This was the 2017-2018 season - Aliona didn't turn senior internationally until the 2019-2020 season).

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

Anna, Sasha, Aliona, etc all competed at the senior cup stages as juniors. Aliona actually won the cup final after competing at both junior and senior nationals. (This was the 2017-2018 season - Aliona didn't turn senior internationally until the 2019-2020 season).

I mean I think the original poster meant this season. Because obviously in other seasons it's rather vital that juniors skate at Junior Nationals in order to get selected for the Junior Worlds team (and they also qualify via JGP assignments anyways). Juniors, Eteri girls or not, do often compete in seniors as juniors. Some of them (like Anna, Sasha and Alyona) do it for practice (I would assume) and some others do it so they can qualify for senior nationals (Anna Frolova last season comes to mind).

 

[brakes]

I think Alina enjoys competing very much, she just doesn't like struggling in training, because she's perfectionist.

 

[lopsilceci]

Well in defense of who is the 'current competitor' - 1 of those skaters intended to compete this year but has been sidelined due to injury and illness, the other has announced her break from competition and has opted to do media work vs. competition (no negative judgement on that choice). So sure neither are currently attending competitions but 1 of them has clearly been striving for it and the other has not.

Fair enough.
But still, even if one intended to compete and the other didn't, the fact remains that both have not been competing for very long and both are in a very similar position going into next season.
But from what we've seen so far, it would probably be easier for Alina to get back to her usual competitive shape and make a comeback since she hasn't been sick or injured and has been able to mantain her triple Lz and F while not training to compete.

No offense, but you’re actually wrong. Evgenia competed at last year’s RusNats in the SP and has intended to compete in every competition since then. Alina took a break after GPF last year and did not compete at Rusnats and hasn’t had any intentions of competing since then. Clearly the situations are different, but Zhenya competed after Alina took a break and was also at the Test Skates this year.

Who cares, anyway? Why are people arguing about semantics?

I forgot about RusNats, but she did withdraw after the SP so, I'm not sure that it counts. And Test Skates is not a competition nor a requirement to compete.

 

[colormyworld240]

Yes. She was skating with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She looked stressed and it was hard to miss. She looks so much happier now, as she should. She is a darling young lady. I’ve read so many posts about how humble and sweet she is. Nobody is bashing her here and nobody should have to defend their opinions on how one seemed to appear while skating with the pressure of proving oneself.

It was in response to you saying Alina never enjoyed competing. I just gave you information from the source herself, where Alina described that she did enjoy competing, especially in juniors and her first senior season, but the pressure and negativity after her Olympic win affected her.

 

[flanker]

The trouble with this argument is that it is backward. You begin with deciding which of two skaters you like better, then you conclude that the acheivements of the one are more to be admired than the achivements of the other.

Oh well, we all do the same thing. I like Michelle Kwan the best and ... FIVE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS! -- wrap your mind around that, all you fans of the younger generation.

You put something into my mouth what I didn't say. I don't care at all who admires whom or who is "to be more admired". I state that gold from olympics simply gives you higher rank than 7 european silvers. Everything else is only your interpretation.

It should be also mentioned that the competition is on completely different level now from how it was 20 or even 10 years ago, but others did that better than I would.

 

[flanker]

You’re probably right, but Medvedeva made her intentions very clear that she intends to continue. Do I think she’ll be successful? Eh. Let’s see how her body holds up and what magic Eteri can work.

Technically Evgenia's last competitive skate took place only 3 weeks after Alina's last competition (and it was only a short program), that's why I consider your sepraration of them as Alina "not competing" and Evgenia as "currently competing" simply illogical. Intentions are not judged, esp. when you can't truly say anything about them for sure. I could say "I intend to compete, I just have some obstacles in my way", that doesn't make me "currently competing"

 

[flanker]

No offense, but you’re actually wrong. Evgenia competed at last year’s RusNats in the SP and has intended to compete in every competition since then. Alina took a break after GPF last year and did not compete at Rusnats and hasn’t had any intentions of competing since then. Clearly the situations are different, but Zhenya competed after Alina took a break and was also at the Test Skates this year.

Who cares, anyway? Why are people arguing about semantics?

That's true, but that's not a competition. If taken into the consequences, Alina also didn't hang her skates up.

 

[sinus]

 

[Novalis]

Someone should tell them that Dasha skated last

 

[flanker]

Only one thing is sad. I've seen it also in many comments, that people talk about Sasha, Kamila and Anna as the "last three skaters", completely ignoring Dasha.
Edit: I see I'm not the only one with the same thing on my mind

 

[Novalis]

Only one thing is sad. I've seen it also in many comments, that people talk about Sasha, Kamila and Anna as the "last three skaters", completely ignoring Dasha.
Edit: I see I'm not the only one with the same thing on my mind

Ted also forgot about Dasha at Junior Worlds

 

[flanker]

Ted also forgot about Dasha at Junior Worlds

Somehow Dasha always has the "bad luck" in skating last. Last junior nationals, junior worlds, senior nationals, she always comes last and people truly tend to forget her.

 

[Novalis]

Somehow Dasha always has the "bad luck" in skating last. Last junior nationals, junior worlds, senior nationals, she always comes last and people truly tend to forget her.

JGPFinal also, if recall correctly

She really gets to play that part often.

 

[Vandevska]

Somehow Dasha always has the "bad luck" in skating last. Last junior nationals, junior worlds, senior nationals, she always comes last and people truly tend to forget her.

Dasha be proving people wrong this year though.

I think that of all TeamTut skaters she might've improved the most from last season, - especially in consistency. Kamila is perhaps there too with having learned a 3A, and Sofia with her 3As and quads. It goes to show that consistency is key.

 

[Jontor]

I've never started a thread at this board and I was thinking of doing one for top five Russinas of all time. It's a great top five with number five being a three-way tie and a surprise at #4. .
I try to take greatness in a short amount of time and blend it in with longevity. Much better competition for the Russian ladies in recent years though.

But I'm not sure I want to start this thread. Maybe somebody else can do it.

That's easy Scott. If we go by # of medals (JW, Euros, Worlds, Olympics, GPs, JGPs, RusNats), here is the top 10, and then you can choose from there...

1. Irina Slutskaya 59 (JGPs not available)
2. Maria Butyrskaya 39 (JGPs not available)
3. Evgenia Medvedeva 28
4. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva 26
5. Viktoria Volchkova (Butsaeva) 25
6. Elena Radionova 23
7. Elena Sokolova 22 (JGPs not available)
8. Adelina Sotnikova 19
9. Alina Zagitova 18
10. Yulia Lipnitskaya 17

 

[Novalis]

That's easy Scott. If we go by # of medals (JW, Euros, Worlds, Olympics, GPs, JGPs, RusNats), here is the top 10, and then you can choose from there...

1. Irina Slutskaya 59 (JGPs not available)
2. Maria Butyrskaya 39 (JGPs not available)
3. Evgenia Medvedeva 28
4. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva 26
5. Viktoria Volchkova (Butsaeva) 25
6. Elena Radionova 23
7. Elena Sokolova 22 (JGPs not available)
8. Adelina Sotnikova 19
9. Alina Zagitova 18
10. Yulia Lipnitskaya 17

LenaRadi has a surprisingly big tally. Can I pick her as Russian GOAT?

 

[Scott512]

That's easy Scott. If we go by # of medals (JW, Euros, Worlds, Olympics, GPs, JGPs, RusNats), here is the top 10, and then you can choose from there...

1. Irina Slutskaya 59 (JGPs not available)
2. Maria Butyrskaya 39 (JGPs not available)
3. Evgenia Medvedeva 28
4. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva 26
5. Viktoria Volchkova (Butsaeva) 25
6. Elena Radionova 23
7. Elena Sokolova 22 (JGPs not available)
8. Adelina Sotnikova 19
9. Alina Zagitova 18
10. Yulia Lipnitskaya 17

That's a great list. I think we forget how good VV was.

But I don't go by the number of medals or length of career as the main criteria because back then with a lot of the ladies on your list there was much kess domestic competition compared to the last 5 years or so making it easier to rack up massive medal #s back then.

Also the number of medals for Zhenya Adelina and Alina don't come close to some others but they had great moments in their careers even though their careers were a lot shorter. I mean didn't Medevedeva start her senior career with nothing but gold medals
For the first 2 plus seasons of her senior career until she broke her foot in 2018? We will never see early career domination like that again.

No one even like Anna or sasha or perhaps any of the Sofia's in the future will ever come close to the top 5 on your list for number of medals because they are going to get pushed out of the way by the time they're 17, 18 or 19 by younger better girls That is happening now. I know it's hard to even imagine that happening to KV because she so brilliant at 14. But the cycle has been set in motion.