2021-22 Russian Women's Figure Skating

[Minz]

Perhaps they want to get an idea of everyone's condition before they assign out spots to group skaters together? But they also may be waiting to hear in regards to COVID, Canada and France both cancelled their GPs last year, Russian Fed might be wanting to hear from the ISU about contingencies before they assign events out - imagine Valieva (who we all pretty much consider a favorite for the Olympic team at this point) gets assigned an event and that event gets cancelled and then she not only misses out an international senior event but the GPF.

I saw somewhere on here that Canada is only allowing visitors with Canadian approved vaccines which doesn't include the Russian vaccine or something like that, so I it wouldn't surprise me if the Feds might be delaying their teams to get word from the ISU about the contingencies for events and if the ISU is making any agreements with government bodies about covid protocols with quarantining or vaccines, etc.

If they allow non-Canadian approved vaccines for skaters, they’d have to do it for other sports too. The ISU is also probably wrangling for Speed Skating, and other sports governing bodies are probably doing the same. That’d be a huge risk factor when you consider it.

 

[Dawn825]

But they also may be waiting to hear in regards to COVID, Canada and France both cancelled their GPs last year, Russian Fed might be wanting to hear from the ISU about contingencies before they assign events out - imagine Valieva (who we all pretty much consider a favorite for the Olympic team at this point) gets assigned an event and that event gets cancelled and then she not only misses out an international senior event but the GPF.

Thats a good point. We're all sort of assuming next season will be back to normal but we really dont know.

 

[Jontor]

Thats a good point. We're all sort of assuming next season will be back to normal but we really dont know.

Oh, I sooo hope next season will be back to normal. But we don't know yet do we? Hoping for the best. Anything else would be non-computable in my mind.

 

[JazzUp]

Oh, I sooo hope next season will be back to normal.

WHO, ECDPC, CDC, ISU, etc...:

 

[flanker]

Provisional schedule of the skating at the olympics:



Now just to know who will be the members of the team

 

[flanker]

Very long profile of Sofia Akatieva:

 

[Paulipau]

Provisional schedule of the skating at the olympics:



Now just to know who will be the members of the team

Thanks Flanker

I think I will just get 2 weeks off at work, I don't think that I will be able to focus on working with all this pressure.

 

[starlight97]

So everything points towards having Olympics this summer and then again 6 months later in winter?
I was watching sth about gymnastics these days and man, are the figure skaters lucky that the pandemic didn't hit their Olympics... these kids train their whole life and according to their age from so early on their whole career is laid out in a way to make them peak exactly at their Olympic games. And for 98% of them that's their only chance, then their bodies are either ruined, they just can't handle it mentally for another cycle or they get pushed out by younger ones. So just seeing, for example, the US gymnasts or the Russian rhythmic gymnastics girls that then had to completely recalibrate to go on for another year and seeing now that many just couldn't keep up that level at which they would have been selected for the games one year ago and now will end up not going... Heartbreaking.
Yeah, girls like Alena missed out on their chance to go to/win worlds, but missing out on your Olympics cause of an external force, so devastating.

 

[Shayuki]

Rhythmic Gymnastics? Well not really sure about that. Lala Kramarenko wasn't really ready last year, she actually is better now. And it'll still be Dina Averina and Arina Averina who both are much older than what you're suggesting would be ideal(22). And it even benefits Dina Averina who was injured last year(still recovering it seems).

If what you're saying was accurate, I'd imagine there should be plenty of gymnasts who would be able to surpass the 22-year-old Dina and Arina Averina by now. But as it turns out, even the injured 22-year-old Dina Averina dominated European Championships.

 

[starlight97]

Rhythmic Gymnastics? Well not really sure about that. Lala Kramarenko wasn't really ready last year, she actually is better now. And it'll still be Dina Averina and Arina Averina who both are much older than what you're suggesting would be ideal(22). And it even benefits Dina Averina who was injured last year(still recovering it seems).

If what you're saying was accurate, I'd imagine there should be plenty of gymnasts who would be able to surpass the 22-year-old Dina and Arina Averina by now. But as it turns out, even the injured 22-year-old Dina Averina dominated European Championships.

In gymnastics there are plenty of prominent girls who will miss out cause of what I said above, especially looking at the US. In rythmic gymnastics in Russia, yeah the line up seems to remain the same, but the Averina twins are the example of the other aspect, having to battle on for another year while already "very old" in the horrible life span of that sport and plagued by injuries. If you look at the past cycle there, Kudryavtseva basically performed in Rio on 1 broken and glued together ankle and the other 1 giving in and ready to snap at any moment . She has stated she was literally on her last leg there and had no health left to even go another 3 months more than she did. And as far as the mental aspect, there are several interviews with Simone Biles where she explains how hard it was to have to go on for one more year and restart the training process, even without physical issues.
Point is, of course there are now others who have come up over the last year who are profiting, but also many who will miss out, who will not get another chance, in all sports of course.
Anyways back to figure skating, point is, these girls are lucky they didn't have to deal with all that on top of the usual struggles which are plenty.

 

[Bluediamonds09]

There was recently a profile on Akatieva, anything interesting about this documentary?

Crossing my fingers that all the jgp events happen! Akatieva vs Samodelkina vs Zhilina vs the girl with the B last name who was plushenko turned eteri turned plushenko again (forgive me, I cannot remember) vs everyone else who's working so hard.

 

[nussnacker]

the girl with the B last name who was plushenko turned eteri turned plushenko

Elizaveta Berestovskaya? Only she was never coached by Plushenko, she was and is Davydov‘s student.
Also don’t forget Adelia Petrosyan, she’s been quite successful.

 

[Bluediamonds09]

Elizaveta Berestovskaya? Only she was never coached by Plushenko, she was and is Davydov‘s student.
Also don’t forget Adelia Petrosyan, she’s been quite successful.

Yes, thanks! Didn't mean to write plushenko, oops. I meant to write davydov, didn't Berestovskaya go from davydov to eteri then back to davydov when trusova and kostornaia returned bcuz there wasn't room for her anymore?

 

[nussnacker]

Yes, thanks! Didn't mean to write plushenko, oops. I meant to write davydov, didn't Berestovskaya go from davydov to eteri then back to davydov when trusova and kostornaia returned bcuz there wasn't room for her anymore?

I didn’t hear anything about not having the room, but she likely went back because she didn’t manage to pass their trial period. Not everyone makes it, and it doesn’t have to do with the room (or with the athlete’s abilities/talent).
Sasha and Aliona were/are in the senior group. If someone from seniors left, then it would make sense to discuss not having enough room.
Liza was joining their midlle-age junior/advanced novice group, so probably changes in a senior group would not have impacted her in any way.

The year before Sofia Muravyova also was on a trial period at team Tutberidze, but didn’t make it. Probably not because of the lack of talent or abilities, clearly she’s very talented! Perhaps it’s because it just didn’t feel like the right fit.

 

[LiamForeman]

Yes, thanks! Didn't mean to write plushenko, oops. I meant to write davydov, didn't Berestovskaya go from davydov to eteri then back to davydov when trusova and kostornaia returned bcuz there wasn't room for her anymore?

Berestovskaya didn't pass the Eteri tryout. There is just about everything wrong with her jumps that Eteri probably said NOPE and NEVER. It didn't work out with Plushenko either, probably saw the same problems. So she's back to Davydov.

 

[flanker]

There was recently a profile on Akatieva, anything interesting about this documentary?

Short summary of the profile with english subtitles available:



-

As for Liza Berestovskaya, I understand the objections people have about her technique, but I really wished Eteri would accept her.

 

[Amei]

Short summary of the profile with english subtitles available:



-

As for Liza Berestovskaya, I understand the objections people have about her technique, but I really wished Eteri would accept her.

If I remember correctly after Kostornaia and Trusova went back to Eteri they decided they didn't have enough time for anymore athletes; I don't think it was necessarily something wrong with Berestovskaya.

 

[spicymacaron]

I don't really follow Berestovskaya, what's problematic with her jumps? Is she inconsistent or is the technique off?

 

[Idiote]

She is quite consistent, but the technique is a bit off - she gets very little height on her jumps, I think I remember the picking technique is not ideal as well but I don't recall much competitions of her after Jnats and I'm by not way a technical specialist so that's about all I know on the matter. I think she has all it takes to improve and get better as she grows and gets more muscles

 

[Shayuki]

I don't really follow Berestovskaya, what's problematic with her jumps? Is she inconsistent or is the technique off?

Neither so much, really. The issue is that her jumps are tiny, she gets absolutely no elevation. She also had Lip issues but that's pretty minor. Pre-rotates a ton on some jumps, especially 4T, but I think that that has more to do with the fact that she has terrible elevation on it and so it's the height of a small triple jump, and that she should not be even attempting 4T at this point in time.

I guess the other one is that her skating skills are very weak. I'm not sure how much Eteri values that, but it's quite clear that she's lately only had skaters who have at least good skating skills. The weaker ones really are Trusova and Shcherbakova, and skaters older than them.