2021-22 Russian Women's Figure Skating

[chasingneverland]

Yes, the first one was with a step-out, the second one was clean with a combo with 3T, but possibly should have been with a 2T, because Maiia Zayaked herself and the last Lutz was not evaluated as she repeated 4T, 3Lz and 3T. I guess the layout is how the program should be if she was doing 4S instead of one of the 4Ts and maybe she didn't realize that in the moment (as she had to put the combo behind the second quad because of the step-out on the first one).

Oh yeah I know, I just misunderstood the 4s as a 4S.

 

[kmw227]

It was a really good result for Maiia today, beating someone of Anna's caliber is always impressive. What made it more impressive to me is that Anna wasn't at her best, but neither was Maiia and Maiia still won. She's made quite the statement for her first international event as a senior. That being said, I know Anna will only get stronger as the season goes on, so it'll be interesting to see how they both fare on the Grand Prix.

I also thought it was strange that Daria was the only one of the Eteri seniors who didn't do a Challenger or Senior B before the GPs start, but if she's injured that would make sense. Hopefully she's ready to go for Skate America this weekend!

 

[jenaj]

Congrats Maia.

Did Anna win silver and where did SS finish?

It's going to be really hard keeping Maya and KV off the Olympic team because they have the the big jumps and they Is are the right age to peak at the Olympics which alinat the Olympics which Alina proved 4 years ago.

Anna sasha and aleona still have time to have good seasons and make the Olympic games.
But the pressure is on them and the competition is like nothing we've ever seen for one discipline for any country and then the Russians have almost the same thing in pairs.

Maiia has big jumps and Trusova doesn't? Trusova has more difficult quads (4Lz) and can do more of them. She won the free skate at Worlds with 2 (or was it 3?) falls. Barring injury, she will be on the team. Maiia had a good senior debut but that is hardly predictive of her season overall.

 

[Zora]

I didn't enjoy Anna's and Maiia's free prgrams at all. Usually there are some parts of a program I immediately want to re-watch after seeing it the first few times, but here, nothing. Only Anna's change of expression stands out. And I feel like Daniil's choreography now becomes repetitive in even just a single program these days? Anna was in a lunge position at least three times. Kamila repeats the squat position a few times in her Bolero.
I never thought I would enjoy Trusova and Tuktamysheva the most of the Russian skaters this season.

Maiia - I think she would do so well with a light program like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Kh09aRyms
(Now everyone will say this is boring )

 

[yume]

Maia really improved on consistency. If we were two years back, she would have made more costly mistakes.

I wonder if one of the 3As will break the pattern. Every new Eteri's senior has usually two seasons to win the most things she can before having to compete with a (upgraded) training mate. And as soon as the training mate moves to seniors, they don't win anymore.
Lipnitskaia got two seasons without a rival of the same camp, Medvedeva got two seasons of freedom too. Zagitova wasn't so lucky because she had to compete with Medvedeva (and Kihira who was of the same caliber) during her two seasons but beaten her in all their face-to-faces. Then 3As moved to seniors and Zagitova couldn't win anymore too. But they were the most unlucky because the pandemic made their lose three big titles (1 worlds, 1 euros, 1 GPF).
Now the next generation is already replacing them. If Daria gets 3A it will be harder for them. Trusova is the one who has the most chances to win against them imo.

 

[Fluture]

But they were the most unlucky because the pandemic made their lose three big titles (1 worlds, 1 euros, 1 GPF).

Maybe that‘s why it feels so surreal to see them getting replaced already, even though it should have been expected, given the life cycles of Eteri skaters over the last years. They got a lot less time on the international scene than they would have otherwise. Not that two seasons is a lot but they had even less than that… I do hope at least two of the three manage to break the pattern and go to the Olympics (Valieva’s a lock no matter what) because I find all three of them to be more interesting skaters than the new crop of juniors. But then again, it‘s always like that with the Russian ladies. Just when they‘re coming into their own artistically, they end up injured and overworked and technically outclassed by the younger ones… I do agree that Trusova, theoretically, has the best chances to be an exception because she seems to be less prone to injuries. But she‘s also a very nervy competitor, so who knows… Shcherbakova‘s looking very rough and she‘s been dealing with the traditional injuries TeamTutberidze skaters get at age 17–18 but she has something neither Trusova nor Kostornaia seem to have. Nerves of steel and self-confidence. Maybe she can ground out those quads by sheer will for another season. I wouldn‘t put it past her, given what we‘ve seen from her last year, when she was already hanging on by a bare thread. Imo, this is her biggest advantage. She doesn’t ever succumb to pressure and Valieva/Khromykh/Usacheva still have to actually survive the blood bath that will be Nationals. Kostornaia, sadly, I‘m less optimistic about. She’s even older than Trusova/Shcherbakova and her confidence seems to have been shattered by that disastrous last season. I don‘t see anyone in that team being willing (or even knowing how) to deal with that.

Anyway, Khromykh‘s victory today was well deserved, as was Valieva‘s at Finlandia. That doesn‘t make the situation any less frustrating, at least not to me. C'est la vie, I guess. Let‘s see if the trajectory changes in any way during the GP series.

 

[Jontor]

Skate Canada will have the same Russians as Finlandia - Valieva, Tuktamysheva and Kostornaia.
GP Italy will have the same Russians as Budapest - Khromykh, Shcherbakova and Samodurova.

It's like these two first competitions were like tests for the GPs to come.

 

[fabienne1996]

Skate Canada will have the same Russians as Finlandia - Valieva, Tuktamysheva and Kostornaia.
GP Italy will have the same Russians as Budapest - Khromykh, Shcherbakova and Samodurova.

It's like these two first competitions were like tests for the GPs to come.

So basically unless Sasha falls on every quad there is , she is the winner of her gp event because she literally got the one new senior that has at the moment no quads or 3a?

 

[spicymacaron]

So basically unless Sasha falls on every quad there is , she is the winner of her gp event because she literally got the one new senior that has at the moment no quads or 3a?

Not necessarily, Dasha could still beat Sasha's US Classic score without ultra-Cs if she skates clean.

 

[Scott512]

Maiia has big jumps and Trusova doesn't? Trusova has more difficult quads (4Lz) and can do more of them. She won the free skate at Worlds with 2 (or was it 3?) falls. Barring injury, she will be on the team. Maiia had a good senior debut but that is hardly predictive of her season overall.

Of course Sasha has big jumps but this is her 3rd Season and the other 2 are just kids and they're at the magic age of 15 where everything is fun and it's pressure free for the most part. Sasha is in the mix for everything.
But KV Maya and Dasha are on the rise like 3A was 2 years ago.

 

[Baron Vladimir]

Yes her lutz look good in this competition. They really seem outside too me. She look like she did work on the edges. Not good when the tech panel these days are more concern with flip edges. She djd receive some dubious rotation calls though. I still maintain that TP was looking for a score too settle especially finding out after the fact who the tech specialist was. No wonder the scoring was so eerily familiar.

Well, i can have a small chat with Katarina Grof etc but that Slovakian judge i don't know at all Most of the coaches these days are working more on a lutz edge than on a flip edge because you are getting more points on a lutz jump... but in general its very hard to have both perfectly clean edges to begin with... To me personally, comparing to the other top skaters, Anna edges are fine (in a current women situation only Rika and sometimes Kamila have a perfect differentiation between lutz and flip and thankfully, for the sake of a figure skating, majority of the judges are not so obsessed with perfection of it).

 

[alexocfp]

Yup. The wheels on my "Maia is going to the Olympics" van is rolling in full motion. Beating the world champion and getting 70 pcs in your senior debut is one big statement. Alena is a mess, Anna cant land a quad because of injuries and Daria hasnt shown any ultra c element.

It‘s not just you.
Maia‘s odds to make the Olympic team were slashed heavily today. Now at 3.50. Overtook Liza (at 4.00 now) as the 4th favorite.

 

[Lzbee]

I knew Maiia was one to watch out for. I think she can make GPF as her assignments are a couple of the less tough ones.

I really wanted 3A to be the ones to disprove the curse of the expiry date. It's sad to see them struggling.

 

[Skatesocs]

Skate Canada will have the same Russians as Finlandia - Valieva, Tuktamysheva and Kostornaia.

I wonder who the real 73 PCS will be here.

 

[Azikin]

I really wanted 3A to be the ones to disprove the curse of the expiry date. It's sad to see them struggling.

Really. These were warm up events. No one is "getting replaced". Wait for RusNats.

 

[spicymacaron]

I wonder who the real 73 PCS will be here.

I expect Kamila to get 73 no matter what and for Liza and Aliona's pcs to depend on how clean they skate. Although I think they must do something about the middle of Aliona's fs. The beginning and end are alright, but the middle is so empty.

 

[flanker]

So far no one is "replacing" 3A as no one "replaced" Tuktamysheva. when she was struggling for years. See my post above.

Also, look at Asian Trophy. Kaori lost to Mai Mihara, is she also "replaced" because of the result of one competition? Be serious. Even if hypothetically none of the 3A gets to the olympics it doesn't mean they are being "replaced", it would just mean that in particular time somebody else was better.

 

[Baron Vladimir]

I expect Kamila to get 73 no matter what and for Liza and Aliona's pcs to depend on how clean they skate. Although I think they must do something about the middle of Aliona's fs. The beginning and end are alright, but the middle is so empty.

To be fair, in majority of the cases, how the programme looks is more related to the skaters ability on that day than to the choreographers work. If Aliona is ready to perform to her full potential, components will be high.

 

[nussnacker]

Really. These were warm up events. No one is "getting replaced". Wait for RusNats.

Of course. This whole replacement talk is so ridiculous.

It completely devalues Maiia’s personal achievement and ignores Anna’s health situation. People are acting as if Maiia was this star junior and everyone was waiting for her to start crushing seniors once she’s out. This was never the case, in fact it was 2 years with a lot of disappointment and subpar performances. Last year there was a lot of criticism about her even trying quads, because she kept losing to everyone. For 2 years she was not considered to be anything to remotely threat a podium.

The moment she finally believed in herself and managed to be a bit more consistent, people go “ha, look at the replacement, another 15 year old doing quads”.
Completely ignoring the fact that this is probably only the 2nd competition she’s doing more or less well. Plus despite being 15, she’s quite tall, jumping clearly isn’t her strong side and these quads come with a lot of effort to her. She won 1 competition over Anna who had an unfortunate neck situation after having less time than others to get into the shape, and it was still really close and could’ve easily gone the other way. But some are really quick to jump to conclusions and run with it, probably because they want that to be the case.

Hoping for Anna to get better soon, she’s been going through a lot this past year. Maiia to get even stronger and more confident and keep believing in herself.

 

[LiamForeman]

I am somewhat concerned for Anna. I know, this is only a "B" event, but still... This is an event then that she should have won on PCS. That she didn't, AND lost to Maiia who had an entire 3lutz erased from her score, is very concerning. Then again, Maiia was credited with two fully rotated quads... It almost seems like Anna is getting the "no quads, no love" treatment like the rest of the world now.

Saying that, I am very happy for Maiia. I just wish that she would show some of her own personality and style in her choreography. She and Daria are very similar and I hope Daria can work on this too, in that they do EXACTLY what they are told to do choreographically, yet they don't put their own "stamp" on the performance. Of course they are just 15, but I would expect a bit more maturity and sophistication in their performances from them by this point. Daria especially, since she is so exquisite in her movements. It's like they are skating their choreography like a choreographer is showing a student what s/he wants to see, and leaving it as that, with no personal contribution. At least for me a performance doesn't work if the skater is just going through the (albeit 'perfect') motions...