2021-2022 Russian Men's Figure Skating

[anonymoose_au]

With the announcement of the Russian Figure Skating Team today, it seems like a good time for this new thread.

Senior Men's Team

Makar Ignatov, Mikhail Kolyada, Mark Kondratyuk, Andrey Mozalev, Alexander Samarin, Evgeny Semenenko

Reserve: Dmitry Aliev, Petr Gumennik, Artur Danielyan

So what do we think of the team? What GPs do you think the guys will get?

Who will make it to the Olympics and if there's three spots for men (they still need to confirm the third spot at Neblehorn, I think?) do you think they'll have two men for the Team Event or will Russian/ROC save their swaps for the other disciplines?

Junior Men's Team

The Junior Team has been announced!

Aeksandr Golubev
Vladislav Dikidzhi
Egor Rukhin
Daniil Samsonov
Nikolay Ugozhaev
Ilya Yablokov
Andrei Kutovoi (reserve)
Gleb Lutfullin (reserve)
Kiril Sarmovskyi (reserve)
Artem Kovalev (reserve)

Questions:

Has Danill Samsonov recovered completely, how will he go this season?

Will Artem Kovalev break through in his last Junior eligible season? (He's only on the Reserve Team? What's that all about?)

Who will be chosen for the Junior Grand Prix? (It goes ahead!) I'm personally hoping the Brothers Sarnovsky - Kirill and Nikita get a go, but there's lots of talented boys so who knows?

Novice Team

Andrei Anisimov
Fyodor Zonov
Nikolai Kolesnikov
Ivan Popov
Semyon Solovyov

 

[Tolstoj]

Kondratyuk and Samarin getting the national team spot and likely 2 GPs over Gumennik and Aliev (who might just get one) is definitely a choice i don't agree, based on talent and successes.

Mark did fine last season, surprise medalist at Nationals but has zero track record internationally, so components won't be high for him (and this is the Olympic season, you have to have that recognition already), also because his skating skills are not very good: i see the passion in his skating but the positions are very ugly, and the landings are wild.

Samarin more or less the same of Mark, he has some medals (never at major competitions such as Europeans, GPF or Worlds) and he comes from a bad season.

 

[Mariiiiskate]

Kondratyuk and Samarin getting the national team spot and likely 2 GPs over Gumennik and Aliev (who might just get one) is definitely a choice i don't agree, based on talent and successes.

Mark did fine last season, surprise medalist at Nationals but has zero track record internationally, so components won't be high for him (and this is the Olympic season, you have to have that recognition already), also because his skating skills are not very good: i see the passion in his skating but the positions are very ugly, and the landings are wild.

Samarin more or less the same of Mark, he has some medals (never at major competitions such as Europeans, GPF or Worlds) and he comes from a bad season.

GPs are based on world ranking so Gumennik is more likely to receive 2 GPs than Mark as he had a good Junior season in 19/20. Samarin and Aliev should both still be in very high in ISUs list of 25 top male skaters in the worlds so they are pretty much guaranteed 2 GPs. Petr is also in the top 25 so he also could receive 2 GPs, Mozalev on the other hand is 26th so could miss out on 1 GP spot. Fun fact is Danielian is also in the top 25.

 

[Kittosuni]

Kondratyuk and Samarin getting the national team spot and likely 2 GPs over Gumennik and Aliev (who might just get one) is definitely a choice i don't agree, based on talent and successes.

Mark did fine last season, surprise medalist at Nationals but has zero track record internationally, so components won't be high for him (and this is the Olympic season, you have to have that recognition already), also because his skating skills are not very good: i see the passion in his skating but the positions are very ugly, and the landings are wild.

Samarin more or less the same of Mark, he has some medals (never at major competitions such as Europeans, GPF or Worlds) and he comes from a bad season.

Kondratyuk will probably get Rostelecom and then Rusfed will need to do some switcharoo with other Federations to get him a second assignment since he is not in the top 24 WR. Same situation with Semenenko, Mozalev, Ignatov

As long Rusfed submit Samarin and Aliev names they will most likely get two GPs being in the top 24 WR. Same situation with Kolyada, Danilian and Gummenik unless again Rusfed make some under the table dealing with other Feds to favor certain skaters.

 

[Mariiiiskate]

Kondratyuk will probably get Rostelecom and then Rusfed will need to do some switcharoo with other Federations to get him a second assignment since he is not in the top 24 WR. Same situation with Semenenko, Mozalev, Ignatov

As long Rusfed submit Samarin and Aliev names they will most likely get two GPs being in the top 24 WR. Same situation with Kolyada, Danilian and Gummenik unless again Rusfed make some under the table dealing with other Feds to favor certain skaters.

Technically cause Russia could get 3 spots in every GP which amounts 18 spots with some under the table negotiation Rusfed could give all 9 of the main and reserve team members 2 GP assignments. But I do doubt that will happen tbh.

 

[dearskate]

With the announcement of the Russian Figure Skating Team today, it seems like a good time for this new thread.

Senior Men's Team

Makar Ignatov, Mikhail Kolyada, Mark Kondratyuk, Andrey Mozalev, Alexander Samarin, Evgeny Semenenko

Reserve: Dmitry Aliev, Petr Gumennik, Artur Danielyan

So what do we think of the team? What GPs do you think the guys will get?

Who will make it to the Olympics and if there's three spots for men (they still need to confirm the third spot at Neblehorn, I think?) do you think they'll have two men for the Team Event or will Russian/ROC save their swaps for the other disciplines?

Junior Men's Team

The Junior Team hasn't been announced, I'll keep an eye out.

Until that happens, some questions!

Has Danill Samsonov recovered completely, how will he go this season?

Will Artem Kovalev break through in his last Junior eligible season?

Who will be chosen for the Junior Grand Prix? (It goes ahead!) I'm personally hoping the Brothers Sarnovsky - Kirill and Nikita get a go, but there's lots of talented boys so who k

 

[dearskate]

I'm very disappointed about Aliev not being in the team. I would have Aliev and Kolyada as my team. You can forget all the others! The idea that you would choose Samarin ahead of Aliev is incomprehensible. I think Samarin must be my least favourite men's skater ever.

 

[LiamV426]

I'm very disappointed about Aliev not being in the team. I would have Aliev and Kolyada as my team. You can forget all the others! The idea that you would choose Samarin ahead of Aliev is incomprehensible. I think Samarin must be my least favourite men's skater ever.

It's tough one 'cause neither had the best season but it seems they based the team entirely on RusNats (Top 5 there + Semenenko). I don't know if that's fair but it's the criteria they decided to use so it is what it is.

Putting my own feelings on each skater aside (Hate Samarin's skating, love Aliev's), I would actually say the person most overlooked here was Petr Gumennik. He was 3rd at Rostelecom and 2nd at the RCF. He was 7th at nationals but not far behind Samarin's total score at all. Aliev was 5th at Rostelecom and 3rd at the RCF so should he really be placed on the main team over Gumennik who placed ahead of him both times they competed against each other? With that said, based on their results though I would've put them both on the team, certainly over Samarin but I guess nationals was the most important competition to RusFed.

Remember the National team only effects the type of funding you get anyway, Aliev still has every chance to have a great season and go to the Olympics again, especially now that there's 3 spots.

 

[Paulipau]

Remember the National team only effects the type of funding you get anyway, Aliev still has every chance to have a great season and go to the Olympics again, especially now there is 3 spots

Who do you think they will send to Nebelhorn to get 3rd spot? I would send Aliev or Gumennik

 

[ladyjane]

One of the men still needs to get that 3rd spot though....

 

[LiamV426]

Who do you think they will send to Nebelhorn to get 3rd spot? I would send Aliev or Gumennik

I almost forgot the 3rd spot still had to be qualified there. I would probably go with Aliev (more international experience and his PCS will hold up better if he makes mistakes) but I guess it'll just depend on who is skating best come September. So I guess Test Skates will give us a better idea of who to send.

 

[Flying Feijoa]

Some others who I think might make the Junior team: Golubev, Dikidzhi, Ugozhaev, Vetlugin, Kutovoi? Yablokov or Rukhin (if they don't more to seniors)? Plus a couple of Moskvich or Sambo-70 boys might end up in the reserve team.

These are off-hand guesses based on what I remember of Junior Nationals and Russian Cup. I'm not sure exactly who is staying in juniors next season though. At the moment seniors is loaded with talent, so unless a skater is very good I guess it would make sense to stay junior if age permits.

 

[flanker]

When Dima Aliev was mentioned, here are some pictures taken by Tatjana Flade at team Rukavitsin's base, with Dima Aliev, Makar Ignatov and others. Interesting to see Alena Leonova there coaching.

 

[IndiaP12]

I'm extremely disappointed in Petr not being in the main team. Apart from nationals where he was injured & underscored (still no way Samarin with no landed quads, much lower BV and worse PCS should've been above him) he had the second best season out of the Russian men, bronze at Rostelecom, silver at RCF, and he was the first substitute for worlds and WTT, so this decision confuses me. Didn't he do enough? He didn't have a very consistent season but none of them did. And he posted those videos doing 4Lz+3T+3Lo, 4S+3Lo, 4T+3T etc. He also has great PCS, very well crafted programs, the only one who has good costumes () and great spins (which is rare for men). I'm not even being biased I just fail to see why Samarin deserves to be in the main team instead of him or even Mozalev who he beat twice. Anyway, he's 22nd in the world standings so he will get 2 GP spots, or at least I sure hope he will.

 

[IndiaP12]

Regarding the junior team, that's tricky. They don't have enough JGP eligible boys that fit the national team criteria (unless they've changed it due to the past season having no junior international events). The main team should be Rukhin, Golubev, Yablokov, Ugozhaev, Dikidzhi and Kutovoi based on their results at nationals and RCF. (Rukhin and Yablokov could go senior as they are 17 and were at senior nats/senior RC but they aren't on any of the senior teams). Junior reserve team - it's between Samsonov, Soloviev, Anisimov, Kovalev? idk where he fits in since he is 18 next month and came 8th at senior nationals just fitting the senior criteria, but wasn't named to either of the senior teams, and doesn't fit the junior criteria by coming 9th at junior nationals. Vetlugin wasn't at junior nationals or RCF so idk if they will put him there. There are other promising skaters like Sarnovskiy, Beliavskii, Knyazev, Zonov, Popov, Lukin that didn't fit the criteria. I desperately want Mark to get a JGP or two but he wasn't able to deliver at the important competitions

 

[Colonel Green]

do you think they'll have two men for the Team Event or will Russian/ROC save their swaps for the other disciplines?

I think men's is the discipline least likely to swap somebody out (ladies is the most likely, essentially guaranteed).

 

[Dreamer57]

Has anyone heard anything about Gleb Lutfullin? It feels like I haven't seen him for a while.

Also I was wondering about whether Samsonov would stay in juniors or not. The first time I saw him I thought he might aim for the 2022 Olympics.

 

[IndiaP12]

Has anyone heard anything about Gleb Lutfullin? It feels like I haven't seen him for a while.

Also I was wondering about whether Samsonov would stay in juniors or not. The first time I saw him I thought he might aim for the 2022 Olympics.

Gleb returned to competition in March (St Petersburg elder age champs) with all jumps restored including 3A and 4S, and won bronze there! He was at elder age nationals too where I think he was 6th? Skating as good as or even better than before his break

 

[Jeanie19]

Vladimir Samoilov switched to Poland. Do we have any details and can he compete this season for Poland?

 

[Mariiiiskate]

Vladimir Samoilov switched to Poland. Do we have any details and can he compete this season for Poland?

He hasn't competed at all this season and in 2018-29 and 2019-20 seasons he has only competed in Russian domestic competitions. According to ISU rules skaters need to wait one year from their last international competition and must meet residency requirements in order to represent his or her new country. Samoylov last international comp was in 2017 so he is clear on that but he does live and train in Russia so im not sure about the residency requirements. Also Russia fed needs to release him, I think while he said he will switch rusfed has not released him yet.

The IOC requirements are stricter they need the skater to have a Nationality from the country they represent to qualify for the olympics so I dont know if Samoylov has that or no.