2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Greengemmonster]

I'm stunned hearing Meagan Duhamel words about Anna in TSL interview. This is pure body shaming and bullying cunningly dressed in false concern.
I suspect, if she said that about any North-American skater, nobody from fs community would've shaken her hand anymore, while humiliating 16yo Russian girl is completely cool there.

Олимпийская чемпионка Меган Дюамель: «Мне трудно болеть за Щербакову. Не могу получать удовольствие от ее катания, она выглядит болезненной»

Олимпийская чемпионка по фигурному катанию канадка Меган Дюамель сообщила, что ей будет сложно болеть за россиянку Анну Щербакову на чемпионате мира-2021 в Стокгольме.

www.sports.ru

I am so sick of the freaking BS that Anna looks sickly or frail!!!

I was concerned about her at RussNats because she'd just recovered from illness (and yes she didn't look great after the SP) but every other time prior to that the girl has looked as fit as a fiddle!!!

I can list some men who I think look ill after doing quad programs (I won't because I don't want to start trouble). She has never even looked particularly puffed which I've previously admired her for.

This kind of talk is just plain malicious and what's more it's extra nasty because it's disingenuous and disguised as "concern" when it's nothing more than a vicious attack on a hard working teenager.

 

[FelineFairy]

Does anyone have the part of the script with Duhamel's exact words? I was so shocked I don't want to listen to it. Shocked not by the rudeness of her body shaming, which has happened before, but even more so by her, sorry, incredible stupidity to say Anna is not happy and doesn't enjoy winning???? No smile during skating is her proof? Well, not being able to relate to a skater is OK, but not being able to relate to music and at least understand that a real performer, an artist like Anna, emotes and performs with her face, too, instead of keeping a static glued smile during the programme? That is the understanding of music the former champion has? Wow.

 

[Vandevska]

I have a former classmate who, while much taller than Anna, body-wise looked exactly like her, she was kinda bony. She wasn't super involved in sports, though was very active, and quite healthy. Only once she hit 19-20 did she start sort of "filling-in". Some people are just built like that, it doesn't mean that they aren't strong or healthy.

 

[brakes]

Does anyone have the part of the script with Duhamel's exact words? I was so shocked I don't want to listen to it. Shocked not by the rudeness of her body shaming, which has happened before, but even more so by her, sorry, incredible stupidity to say Anna is not happy and doesn't enjoy winning???? No smile during skating is her proof? Well, not being able to relate to a skater is OK, but not being able to relate to music and at least understand that a real performer, an artist like Anna, emotes and performs with her face, too, instead of keeping a static glued smile during the programme? That is the understanding of music the former champion has? Wow.

"She looks so frail, I can't enjoy watching her, she looks sickly! [...]

I find it hard to root for her to win the title, because I want the winner to be well-rounded person, I want the winner to enjoy the experience of winning, not to feel like it was torture and to thrive off the competition energy in a good way and not by doing it because your coaches are pushing you. Trusova and Tuktamysheva look like they are driving forces of their careers individually, while there is something sad to me about Anna's demeanor."

All of this about a girl, who is super intelligent, thoughtful and loves figure skating with all her heart.

 

[YuBluByMe]

"She looks so frail, I can't enjoy watching her, she looks sickly! [...]

I find it hard to root for her to win the title, because I want the winner to be well-rounded person, I want the winner to enjoy the experience of winning, not to feel like it was torture and to thrive off the competition energy in a good way and not by doing it because your coaches are pushing you. Trusova and Tuktamysheva look like they are driving forces of their careers individually, while there is something sad to me about Anna's demeanor."

UGH. I ordinarily don’t pay much attention to this sort of thing as most of the time I find that it’s just fans overreacting. But I find the bolded part of Duhamel’s nastiness especially irritating. I could go on, but I won’t. Duhamel is beyond UNSAT and I’ll leave it at that.

 

[Scott512]

I am so sick of the freaking BS that Anna looks sickly or frail!!!

I was concerned about her at RussNats because she'd just recovered from illness (and yes she didn't look great after the SP) but every other time prior to that the girl has looked as fit as a fiddle!!!

I can list some men who I think look ill after doing quad programs (I won't because I don't want to start trouble). She has never even looked particularly puffed which I've previously admired her for.

This kind of talk is just plain malicious and what's more it's extra nasty because it's disingenuous and disguised as "concern" when it's nothing more than a vicious attack on a hard working teenager.

You would open a can of worms if you started in with the men and how thin they look. I mean the days of strong men like Urrmanov Kulik Yagudin and Plushenko winning the men's gold are over.

People only focus on the images and fitness of the ladies EG ladies mainly but I would like to see what the male figure skaters weigh. We would be shocked.

Duhamel? Too bad she's an Olympic champion because she does not act like one. Anna is very sensitive and all of this talk about her and her health and her fitness could really break her.
And we don't even know if she has fully recovered from the ammonia or coronavirus or both or whatever she had in November.

 

[macy]

"She looks so frail, I can't enjoy watching her, she looks sickly! [...]

I find it hard to root for her to win the title, because I want the winner to be well-rounded person, I want the winner to enjoy the experience of winning, not to feel like it was torture and to thrive off the competition energy in a good way and not by doing it because your coaches are pushing you. Trusova and Tuktamysheva look like they are driving forces of their careers individually, while there is something sad to me about Anna's demeanor."

All of this about a girl, who is super intelligent, thoughtful and loves figure skating with all her heart.

this was SO uncalled for. if she's saying this about girls she has never competed against and not even in her discipline i can't imagine what she'd say about a direct competitor. absolutely nasty comment.

 

[karina17]

I find it incredible how people like Duhamel can just...say things like that and be 100% convinced they're true even though absolutely none of it is backed by fact. The way she speaks it's like she's never even seen Anna skate before, let alone read a single interview, and yet she's so 100% convinced that this image of her in her head is true? What level of projection is this?

 

[Scott512]

UGH. I ordinarily don’t pay much attention to this sort of thing as most of the time I find that it’s just fans overreacting. But I find the bolded part of Duhamel’s nastiness especially irritating. I could go on, but I won’t. Duhamel is beyond UNSAT and I’ll leave it at that.

Perhaps the strangest comment from Megan if she wants the winner of Worlds to be a well-rounded person. There is no better or well-rounded and sane person Russian figure skating these days than Anna Shcherbakova.
I would say she's a much more well-rounded person then say aliona or Sasha.

 

[MiraiFan]

It's really disturbing how eager and harsh in judging she is, being so distant from Anya and her training environment.
And all of it from a grown-up woman, mother and a champion.

The same training environment where the skaters don't even drink water but rinse their mouths and spit it out. Agree that she shouldn't have made the comments, but let's not fool ourselves that any of these training environments are really healthy long term.

 

[MiraiFan]

There have been some comments on this board (not necessarily this thread) of people saying the Russian team shouldn't even be allowed to compete at Worlds due to the Russian Fed's lax rules for mask compliance.



I saw some photos as well of them with their masks off, but without being there I think we need to give a little grace for not knowing the circumstances - it can be hard to hear someone with the mask on so maybe they were needing to say something and had to take their mask off so the other person could hear them, maybe they were taking it off to take a picture, and it looked like they were pretty well spread out - i saw some skaters were in the middle seat and had the whole row to themselves and I saw some photos of skaters sharing a row but they had the middle seat empty between them. Plus, who knows the skaters may have been allowed to get a Covid vaccine, which if everyone on the flight has the vaccine then they should be able to exist just fine without masks. All in all from my perspective the Russian Fed did well for their skaters with quarantining them prior to leaving for Worlds and chartering a flight (which I know not all Feds could afford) to ensure their skaters weren't exposed to the general public, plus it probably made the event feel more special for the skaters which is nice considering they won't be able to have the normal Worlds festivities and an audience there.

You are not totally fine after a covid vaccine--you can still spread the virus to others. I wish the skaters and coaches could act responsibly for the sake of competitors from other countries who have not yet been vaccinated.

 

[Scott512]

this was SO uncalled for. if she's saying this about girls she has never competed against and not even in her discipline i can't imagine what she'd say about a direct competitor. absolutely nasty comment.

I'm sure she was very vicious behind the scenes when she was a competitor. It's her nature but now it's spills over into bitterness and viciousness that is unbecoming of an world champion in a graceful sport like figure skating. The international skating Union has code of conduct and ethics expectations of their competitors and champions and Megan is not meeting those. They should tell her or warn her if this keeps up it's unbecoming of an Olympic champion and we will strip you of your Olympic gold medal. That would get her to be a little more thoughtful. I don't expect that to happen of course but that's the way the world is heading if you've been paying attention. Is it Russophobia from Duhamel?

Is her former partner embarrassed by such words and body shaming?

But Duhamel feels like she can say and do whatever she wants and she can. But we live in a world of political correctness and snowflakeism and comments like Megan's which are nasty and body shaming should not be tolerated. In this cancel culture world people have gotten canceled for saying less.

But where are all the protectors of Anna and I dont mean fans? It's time for EG to speak up publicly and the team to protect this girl. She is after all Eteris third daughter.

 

[flanker]

The same training environment where the skaters don't even drink water but rinse their mouths and spit it out. Agree that she shouldn't have made the comments, but let's not fool ourselves that any of these training environments are really healthy long term.

One case ripped out of context doesn't make a point you are suggesting. That's wishful thinking, not reality.

 

[MaggieLin]

Apparently Sasha also landed a clean rippon 4f in practice...so yeah those planned layout is no where near what they’re actually going to do.

 

[Lzbee]

Does anyone have the untranslated statement that Megan made? I'm disappointed by her words, Anna doesn't deserve to be singled out like that, she's filled out a lot this year and doesn't look any different from other skaters.

But I do believe we should keep in mind that this is translated from English to Russian then back to English. Makes me uncomfortable to judge based on that when I could understand the original if given.

 

[karina17]

Apparently Sasha also landed a clean rippon 4f in practice...so yeah those planned layout is no where near what they’re actually going to do.

Found a clip of it!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMuSybSoo3t/?igshid=s41g1u5dezh8

 

[Arbitrary]

A pity Sasha cannot do 3A/3F//3Lz-3Lo in Worlds. This will saturate the SP and push ISU to allow quads in short. Too dangerous right before Olympics. It's Valieva's domain now.

Or could wait till someone lands the Dmitriev's combo 3Lz-3F. This will top the SP BV absolutely.

From my PoV it's somehow strange she does 3Lz-3Lo in her FP premium zone, but dropped it from the SP.

 

[Amei]

Does anyone have the untranslated statement that Megan made? I'm disappointed by her words, Anna doesn't deserve to be singled out like that, she's filled out a lot this year and doesn't look any different from other skaters.

But I do believe we should keep in mind that this is translated from English to Russian then back to English. Makes me uncomfortable to judge based on that when I could understand the original if given.

They comment on Shcherbakova about 1:21 and 1:26. Brakes quote was the statement that meghan made, that is not from a translation

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[silveruskate]

The ISU didn't agree with the back loading rules either which is why they changed them. But the rules were fine until the Eteri Russian revolution!

I remember what Ashley said about Alina and it pisses me off. What did Megan say if it was worse? That will be like a great doubles player in tennis criticizing Serena Williams or Roger Federer. Lol.

I don't see that. The rules weren't changed because it was Eteri. They were changed once someone specifically started to do it like this. It happened to be Alina, but the first skater that backloaded all 7 jumps would have had scrutiny over them.

However the SPs are even more similar than before. First two jumps as the first two elements, and then third jump as soon as you pass half-way. Every single skater does this. But at least it's genuinely more deserved because you can't just do your most difficult combos first and get the bonus, and there's the huge risk of not having another jump to add the combo to if you miss it.

 

[sashatrusova]

sasha’s 3A