2020-21 Russian Pairs' figure skating

[hanca]

The rumour on the Russian forum says that Balabanova/Sviatchenko have split up. To be fair, if it is true, it is probably the right decision. She was quite tall for him. Even though they were doing reasonably well, their long term prospects were quite limited. Someone mentioned that he has been seen skating with Labazina, which is weird because a month or two ago someone else saw her skating with Windsor. Was it just a tryout? And is this just a try out?

Yalin is looking for a partner on Russian ice partner search. So the partnership with Vislobokova didn’t last very long, it was a long shot. She was too tall for him and struggling with jumps.

 

[3T3T]

I really liked Balabanova/Sviatchenko. I enjoyed their skates at Russian Nationals, thye kicked off the free programme in style. They finished 10th, which is a sign of the depth in Russia, they would have struggled to get international assignments. They would have easily made another team in Europe but not in Russia. I hope both can continue.

Sad for Yalin but he will really struggle to find a partner and then be competitive enough to to make the national team.

I’m looking forward to seeing T/M in The Netherlands and good to see Osipova get an opportunity to skate internationally.

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

The rumour on the Russian forum says that Balabanova/Sviatchenko have split up. To be fair, if it is true, it is probably the right decision. She was quite tall for him. Even though they were doing reasonably well, their long term prospects were quite limited. Someone mentioned that he has been seen skating with Labazina, which is weird because a month or two ago someone else saw her skating with Windsor. Was it just a tryout? And is this just a try out?

Yalin is looking for a partner on Russian ice partner search. So the partnership with Vislobokova didn’t last very long, it was a long shot. She was too tall for him and struggling with jumps.

You seem to have quite a road on the Russian forums. Which forum is this? There was the Vasilieva/Volodin split, Labazina and her plethora of tryouts, the coaches advising Volodin to dump Ustimkina.....so far none of them have been proven false so I'll take your word for it.

Balabanova/Sviatchenko split is not very surprising, as he will probably look for a shorter girl who can jump a bit better, though Nastia has some nice triples. Vislobokova/Ialin....I am SHOCKED. I mean they were the perfect height for each other, didn't have a large age difference, and she didn't have any chronic jumping issues. It seems like back in the fall after the breakup of Ponosova/Ialin and Vislobokova/Shaderkov, they were desprate to get someone that they could skate with and ended up there. And then three weeks later they were competing? Their career together consisted of a short program at the Panin Memorial where there was only one team, and withdrawing from St. Petersburg championships. I question why the coaches felt the need to send them out to competition one month after teaming up. It was impressive how much they got done but clear that they did not even have a free program or a lift from the proper group.

They're both amazing pair skaters, however there is a problem with both of them. Stanislava's jumps and Dmitrii's height/age. I hope they will find new partners, though it will be very difficult.

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

Side note: why is it that whenever a decent pair boy splits with his partner, Labazina's name is in the mix?

 

[hanca]

You seem to have quite a road on the Russian forums. Which forum is this? There was the Vasilieva/Volodin split, Labazina and her plethora of tryouts, the coaches advising Volodin to dump Ustimkina.....so far none of them have been proven false so I'll take your word for it.

The FSO_COOL forum. There is a thread about pairs. I love pairs, so that’s one of the threads I keep an eye on.
Saying that, I can only repeat what someone mentions there, I have no way to check whether it is true. But skaters need ice rinks and it is very difficult to contain any information that happens at any ice rink - informations always get leaked. Far too many people have an access to the rink, including not only skaters and their coaches, but also the rink staff and skating mums...

 

[hanca]

Side note: why is it that whenever a decent pair boy splits with his partner, Labazina's name is in the mix?

Maybe because she has been a decent pair lady roughly year ago? Since then we haven’t seen her skating, so we wouldn’t know whether puberty or growth has changed that, but when a decent pair male is searching for a partner, it is natural that they would remember her. Especially if he would have been competing against her for a few seasons.

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

Maybe because she has been a decent pair lady roughly year ago? Since then we haven’t seen her skating, so we wouldn’t know whether puberty or growth has changed that, but when a decent pair male is searching for a partner, it is natural that they would remember her. Especially if he would have been competing against her for a few seasons.

Fair enough. I know she was a good skater, and was pretty tiny back in the day though she has appaently grown. I just question who is making her go from USA to Australia to Moscow and whatever if this is all true. If she does not have a stable partner then her career will never take off. Obviously the whole TJ thing was unfortunate and she is a viable candidate for other pair guys, but is there a need to give her a tryout with every available pair male on the face of a planet?

 

[LadyB]

Fair enough. I know she was a good skater, and was pretty tiny back in the day though she has appaently grown. I just question who is making her go from USA to Australia to Moscow and whatever if this is all true. If she does not have a stable partner then her career will never take off. Obviously the whole TJ thing was unfortunate and she is a viable candidate for other pair guys, but is there a need to give her a tryout with every available pair male on the face of a planet?

For the time being, this is only happening within the Mozer circle, they also trained with TJ and Labazina in the US. As she's already training with them, they might as well try various options out.

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

Speaking of Mozer team, someone just asked me if perhaps Kostiuk/Rud would like to switch countries. I heard this is easier for the Mozer teams, though I'm not sure?

 

[hanca]

Fair enough. I know she was a good skater, and was pretty tiny back in the day though she has appaently grown. I just question who is making her go from USA to Australia to Moscow and whatever if this is all true. If she does not have a stable partner then her career will never take off. Obviously the whole TJ thing was unfortunate and she is a viable candidate for other pair guys, but is there a need to give her a tryout with every available pair male on the face of a planet?

I don’t think anyone was making her go all the way from the USA and to Australia. What happened was that she went to the USA to skate with a guy, who appears to have a dodgy morals. Whatever happened in that partnership, it seems it didn’t work out. So it would be natural that if she was in the USA and suddenly found herself without a partner, she would go back to Russia. Especially when the Covid situation started, rinks were closed anyway, so why to pay for accommodation and food when she could live with her parents back in Russia and have it free?

The reported tryout with Windsor was happening in Russia. My guess is that Windsor couldn’t find a partner in Australia so he travelled to Russia to check if there is a suitable girl who doesn’t have a partner. It did work for him the first time he needed to find a partner, so why not try the same strategy again?

About your question about whether there a need to give her a tryout with every available pair male on the face of a planet, well, it is hard to find a suitable partner. She clearly has not excluded potential Russian partners, but if there was no one suitable, she is willing to go abroad to find the best suitable partner. She is not the only one to do so. Roughly a half of the europeans partnerships are from mixed (2countries) partnerships. That just shows how extremely difficult it is to find a partner who matches not only physically (he needs to be the right height), but also similar skill level (if she wants to compete internationally, no point getting a partner from singles) and also having the same goals be and be willing to put skating before other things. (For example, there have been pairs and dance couples who split up because one seemed to be much more committed to skating than the other partner.) Their personalities also have to be somehow compatible, otherwise their daily practices may become a battlefield.

 

[hanca]

Speaking of Mozer team, someone just asked me if perhaps Kostiuk/Rud would like to switch countries. I heard this is easier for the Mozer teams, though I'm not sure?

I don’t see why would they need to, at this stage. Skaters usually change when they realise that they have no chance to get anywhere at home. Kostiuk/Rud haven’t even tried at home. If they come from very rich families who don’t mind paying all the expenses connected with skating, that’s fine, but otherwise it would be a better strategy to try their best to qualify for the nationals next year to get to the national team. Then the federation will pay a lot of expenses and they will have free coaching, free skates etc. There are new pairs who managed to get on the national team after a year of switching to pairs. So if I was in their shoes, I would not aim for the switch of country, I would aim for doing the best at the Russian cups next season, qualify for the nationals and at the nationals aim to qualify for the national team. But that’s just my opinion.

ETA: just checked their date of births. Their last season of junior eligibility is 2022-23. The good news is that most of the current strongest juniors will age out of juniors by then and the only strong competitors (from current junior pairs) who they will be competing against is Petushkova/Malikov, Kuzmina/Khvalko (if they don’t split up because she became too tall for him) and Raskovalova/Butaev. So in theory, they do have a pretty good chance to dominate the junior level before they are forced to move to seniors. Why change country if there are no other European countries that pay so many expenses connected with skating? It makes sense to stay where they are for now. Also, if they changed countries and their partnership did not work out for any reason (e.g. she became too tall for him), their new country could make it difficult to release them. The country can keep them however long they want to, or request unreasonable amount of money for release! I know about an ice dancer who haven’t had any significant results internationally, did not get any financial support from their new country, but when the partnership did not work out and the skater wanted to be released to be able to start a new partnership with someone from a different country, this skater her to buy her way out (pay quite a lot of money to get released).

 

[hanca]

Russian forum says that Mukhametzianova/Mironov have split up!
She already skates with Antonyshev (not sure if it is just a tryout or if it is a new partnership). No news with whom Mironov skates, if he has a new partner.

 

[flanker]

Russian forum says that Mukhametzianova/Mironov have split up!
She already skates with Antonyshev (not sure if it is just a tryout or if it is a new partnership). No news with whom Mironov skates, if he has a new partner.

If that's true, I'm truly sad, M/M were my sweethearts even when they had this unsuccesful season.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Russian forum says that Mukhametzianova/Mironov have split up!

If that's true, I'm truly sad, M/M were my sweethearts even when they had this unsuccesful season.

This is so sad . Their Chess program was my favourite among the juniors this season. Ilya was always so supportive and caring in the K&C, I truly thought the two of them might stick together through their difficulties. But it is their decision and I wish them joy and success with their new partners if they choose to continue their careers.

 

[elektra blue]

i'm so sorry for this news i liked them together, but something wasn't clearly working, some maybe it's better this way

 

[3T3T]

This is disappointing news for M/M. Yes, they have struggled this season but I just put it down to growing pains and they would be fine next season. Ilya seemed very supportive in the K&C this season. I’ll miss them, this is my favourite skate of theirs I was raging when they changed it mid season.

Diana Mukhametzianova / Ilya Mironov (RUS) | Pairs Short Program | Chelyabinsk 2019

Visit https://isu.org/JuniorGrandPrix for more information on the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating.PAIRS SHORT PROGRAM START ORDER 16:15:00 - 16:21:00...

youtu.be

I hope it works our for them with their new partners. On a separate note I would be sad to see Kuzmina/Khvalko split. I really like them but he is kinda small for a Pairs guy.

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

Russian forum says that Mukhametzianova/Mironov have split up!
She already skates with Antonyshev (not sure if it is just a tryout or if it is a new partnership). No news with whom Mironov skates, if he has a new partner.

I was just about to say that AkhKol, KuzKhval, and MukhMir were the juniors I thought were really in danger. Not quite shocking, especially after their silent withdrawal from jr nats. It's sad that things ended the way they did, they had quite a lovely run. Same for Kuzmina/Khvalko. Khvalko is short but not too short, maybe about 178. Kuzmina is tall for him but also not too tall, around 160 at most. Although I guess that is quite tall for a pair girl. Neither have stable 3S and 3T

I mentioned once upon a time to someone that Kostiuk/Mironov would make nice partners, if she has not lost her triple jumps (sadly it looks like she might have). Mironov is a bit shorter than Rud and perhaps Kostiuk/Rud have better artistic potential, but technically things might be better for her that way. Has Finokhina/Antonyshev officially split up also?

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

This is so sad . Their Chess program was my favourite among the juniors this season. Ilya was always so supportive and caring in the K&C, I truly thought the two of them might stick together through their difficulties. But it is their decision and I wish them joy and success with their new partners if they choose to continue their careers.

It truly was sad. He did not cry for her, he cried with her. IT was painful to watch, knowing they have been together from the beginning and have been through so much. They had a nice chemistry. My personal guess is that it was not so much his decision, rather that of his family or coaches. It would seem like he has a brighter future but I wouldn't say it's all doom and gloom for Diana either. Could be a fresh start, and benefit from a taller boy.

 

[eterislouisvuitton]

I hope that I am wrong, but I see the end of the road for Diana and Ilya. It's been a really rough season....

Oh how I hate to be right sometimes.

 

[hanca]

Windsor has a broken arm or something?