My only hope is that the event lives up to the massive hype and everyone is at the top of their game. I want to see the deepest field ever all have career days.
I updated the OP with the list of participants. The order is according to the Russian alphabet so that having Kamila at the top place has nothing to do with her being the best
I would like to apologize in advance if some of my translations are different from those that you may find elsewhere. Also, I won't link the skaters' bios to their names unless this is going to be done elsewhere. Then I would be happy to post a respective link in the OP.
I also removed from the OP some analysis that is irrelevant now that we have certain WD.
One more time, if someone needs more information in the OP, please, feel free to ask. And (even better) send me the sources like streams and TV programs. I will do my best to accomodate everything.
You are right in correcting me but it does not change the main idea. When I wrote the OP I did not know that Z/G are going to have problems and D/S are going to rise. Now "the sure" podium is S/K, S/B, and D/S. It's dance.
I shall post the list of participants as soon as we have the official one.
As for me personally, I have bought full event tickets for me and my wife and I bought also tickets Moscow - St.Petersburg. What can go wrong? We are currently in Africa coming back on Dec.21. I hope they won't place us under the quarantine to ruin both the trip to Rusnats and New Year.
I’m still beating myself up for choosing Montreal’s WC over Tallinn’s JWC in 2020, but I will give a shot to Montreal in 2024. I really hope that JWC in 2023 won’t get cancelled, because it’s like a dream come true to have it n Calgary!
But yeah, RusNats and Junior RusNats would have been so nice, but omg, what I need to do to get to Russia is too much.
Due to my health complications I cannot go see my parents for Christmas but hey, yay for me, at least there's something to look forward to.. Russian Christmas Nats with Ted..
I have no shame, so I emailed Ted Barton, and he said he will be commentating everything, including men and the international links will be in ifs magazine I had no idea existed.
Due to my health complications I cannot go see my parents for Christmas but hey, yay for me, at least there's something to look forward to.. Russian Christmas Nats with Ted..
I have no shame, so I emailed Ted Barton, and he said he will be commentating everything, including men and the international links will be in ifs magazine I had no idea existed.
I have no shame, so I emailed Ted Barton, and he said he will be commentating everything, including men and the international links will be in ifs magazine I had no idea existed.
Upcoming Russian Nationals are not only the qualifying event for the Olympics. For me they are the test of the grandeur of Eteri driven system. Yulia was a phenomenon, a wonder. So was Zhenja at her prime. At the same time, the mechanism was working - the clock was ticking. I expect that this year we shall finally have a constellation of mega talent - the best athletes this sport has ever seen at their prime.
Anna Scherbakova - the reigning WC, a 3 time National champion Kamila Valieva - the reigning JWC, the only skater who could beat clean Anna with quads Alexandra Trusova - "Russian rocket" - the only skater who tried 5 quads in one program, the skater who has potentially astronomical BV Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - 2015 WC and the reigning WSM. She is rumored to work on 4T. If she manages to add it to her 3 3As, her BV will be high enough to be competitive with almost everyone. Maja Khromykh - the third chain in "VUK" link. She was lagging behind "V" and "U" until she finally showed that she can land clean quads. And it has changed everything...
These skaters are the core. But there will be many other wonderful skaters.
I won't comment much on other events. It does not mean that they are not interesting. On the oppoosite. In men we finally have 3 spots. Misha's place looks firm. But what about 2 other spots? Evgenij Semenenko made a wonder during the last worlds having shown outstanding reliability under stress. But, I am sure, he will have to fight with Aliev, Samarin, Ignatov, Kondratyuk, Mozalev, Gumenik, and Danielyan.
In pairs it looks like 2 spots are taken: M/G and B/K. Who would think? Does it mean that the third spot will automatically go to T/M? I am not sure - there definitely will be some drama.
I don't follow dance. It seemed that as usual we knew everything before it even started. S/K, S/B, and Z/G. However, there is a twist with the meteoric rise of D/S whom many call "the daughter" as if there is no partner in the team.
Tickets went on sale today at 10 a.m. At 10-10 I started to click on the seats on the map - but they had been already gone. At 10-20 it was completely empty. I refreshed the site several times to be on the safe side. And finally 2 nice all day tickets showed up! So that I bought 2 center seats at the 5th row for the official price of $250 per seat. And now I can watch whatever I want! And I want to see everything!