Alina has some of the best skating skills in women's skating, this is her strong suit. I don’t understand how this can be denied?
Since I’m among the ones you quoted. My take on this:
Calling Zagitova‘s SS her “strong suit“, even as a fan, actually does her a disservice. It diminishes her real strengths, such as her incredible jump combinations, stamina and spins, at which she actually
was the best at some point in her career.
Also, calling SS Alina‘s weakness is not an insult, it‘s a rational assessment and unless you think she literally has no flaws, I genuinely wonder what
you consider her weak points then. I‘m honestly curious: In your opinions, what are Alina Zagitova‘s weaknesses as a skater?
As for how this can be “denied“.. there have been a lot of discussions on skating skills in here, including the last few weeks. If none of the arguments delivered then managed to convince you in any way, I don‘t think what people will say now is going to do it.
It‘s okay, though. When I‘m watching their programs, my fan-mind is still convinced Medvedeva and Kostornaia are the best skaters to ever grace the planet. Forcing my brain to produce even semi-rational thoughts is more of an effort than I care to make most of the time.
It’s not over until it’s over. Anything can happen. But we are in for a crazy season.
Yes, it‘s surprising how quickly people make assumptions when there‘s a lot of factors to take into consideration and figure skating‘s historically a pretty unpredictable sport. Still, I think it’s smart not to underestimate the ”underdogs“ like Usacheva and Khromykh. They‘ll have the advantage of being under less pressure and scrutiny than the top favorites (Shcherbakova, Valieva, perhaps Trusova) + Kostornaya, who the fed will be watching very closely after the fiasco that was this season and the messy coaching changes. It‘s always easier to be the chaser than the defender and Valieva will additionally only be 15, has never been to international senior events before and yet is already crowned the Olympic Champ with all the promoting that‘s going on around her by the media. Trusova also has a lot on her plate, having to prove reliability with her ultra-c elements after more or less bombing the SP at Worlds.
As for Kostornaia specifically, it will depend on the 3A and her consistency. Her rotational speed‘s quite low, so a quad is probably not in the cards for her. But I do think that if she manages to go back to her 2019-20 form, she‘ll be preferred by both fed and international judges to someone like Usacheva/Khromykh, maybe even Trusova unless she finally manages to find her consistency. After all, she
is going into the Olympic season as the reigning Euros and GPF Champion and it‘s always good to have a stable competitor on the team, even if they don‘t have the highest theoretical BV. But it will definitely be an uphill battle - unlike Usacheva/Khromykh, she‘s already “old“ (I resent that expression but it is what it is) and according to Plushenko, chronically injured. There‘s a very real possibility that even if she gets the 3A back, it won‘t be as reliable for her as it used to. And without it, her chances are close to zero.
So, I‘d say September at the earliest can give us any half-reliable indications on how the Olympic season will go.
this is exactly why people think figure skating is easy! can she make SOMETHING look difficult so we all have a reality check??? 
