2021-22 Russian Women's Figure Skating

[Jontor]

We need a...

Season's Best List update - after 14 out of 28 competitions (we're halfway!)

1. Kamila Valieva - Rus - 265.08 GP Skate Canada (another new World record!!)
2. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - Rus - 233.30 CS Finlandia Trophy
3. Sofia Akatieva (J) - Rus - 233.08 JGP Krasnoyarsk (junior world record)
4. Alexandra Trusova - Rus - 232.37 GP Skate America
5. Alysa Liu - USA - 219.24 CS Lombardia Trophy
6. Alëna Kostornaia - Rus - 218.83 CS Finlandia Trophy
7. Daria Usacheva - Rus - 217.31 GP Skate America
8. Young You - Kor - 216.97 GP Skate America
9. Veronika Zhilina (J) - Rus - 216.92 JGP Kosice
10. Kaori Sakamoto - Jpn - 215.93 GP Skate America
11. Loena Hendrickx - Bel - 212.07 CS Finlandia Trophy
12. Sofia Muravieva - Rus - 211.81 JGP Linz
13. Adelia Petrosian - Rus - 210.57 JGP Ljubljana
14. Mai Mihara - Jpn - 210.01 GP Skate Canada
15. Isabeau Levito - USA - 208.31 JGP Linz
16. Anastasia Zinina - Rus - 206.20 JGP Krasnoyarsk
17. Kseniia Sinitsyna - Rus - 205.76 GP Skate America
18. Sofia Samodelkina - Rus - 205.67 JGP Ljubljana
19. Wakaba Higuchi - Jpn - 205.27 GP Skate Canada
20. Anastasiia Gubanova - Geo - 203.91 CS Finlandia Trophy
21. Karen Chen - USA - 202.49 CS Finlandia Trophy
22. Eva-Lotta Kiibus - Est - 202.04 CS Finlandia Trophy
23. Amber Glenn - USA - 201.02 GP Skate America
24. Satoko Miyahara - Jpn - 200.51 GP Skate America
----------------------------------------------------------
26. Elizaveta Kulikova (J) - Rus - 196.83 JGP Krasnoyarsk
27. Elizaveta Berestovskaya (J) - Rus - 196.07 JGP Krasnoyarsk
32. Maria Zakharova (J) - Rus - 190.33 JGP Kosice

Top 24 are guaranteed a spot at next year's senior GPs, except for (J).
The whole top 24 is already over 200 points, so it looks tougher than ever this season.

Still Shcherbakova, Khromykh and other big guns to go.

 

[nussnacker]

yes, because she was chosen. Thats how it works. Her skating is still juniorish

When you’re chosen, I guess giant quads and 3As, beautiful spins and SS just magically land on your lap. Nothing to do with years of hard work through injuries and pain.

 

[brigit66]

We need a...

Season's Best List update - after 14 out of 28 competitions (we're halfway!)

1. Kamila Valieva - Rus - 265.08 GP Skate Canada (another new World record!!)
2. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - Rus - 233.30 CS Finlandia Trophy
3. Sofia Akatieva (J) - Rus - 233.08 JGP Krasnoyarsk (junior world record)
4. Alexandra Trusova - Rus - 232.37 GP Skate America
5. Alysa Liu - USA - 219.24 CS Lombardia Trophy
6. Alëna Kostornaia - Rus - 218.83 CS Finlandia Trophy
7. Daria Usacheva - Rus - 217.31 GP Skate America
8. Young You - Kor - 216.97 GP Skate America
9. Veronika Zhilina (J) - Rus - 216.92 JGP Kosice
10. Kaori Sakamoto - Jpn - 215.93 GP Skate America
11. Loena Hendrickx - Bel - 212.07 CS Finlandia Trophy
12. Sofia Muravieva - Rus - 211.81 JGP Linz
13. Adelia Petrosian - Rus - 210.57 JGP Ljubljana
14. Mai Mihara - Jpn - 210.01 GP Skate Canada
15. Isabeau Levito - USA - 208.31 JGP Linz
16. Anastasia Zinina - Rus - 206.20 JGP Krasnoyarsk
17. Kseniia Sinitsyna - Rus - 205.76 GP Skate America
18. Sofia Samodelkina - Rus - 205.67 JGP Ljubljana
19. Wakaba Higuchi - Jpn - 205.27 GP Skate Canada
20. Anastasiia Gubanova - Geo - 203.91 CS Finlandia Trophy
21. Karen Chen - USA - 202.49 CS Finlandia Trophy
22. Eva-Lotta Kiibus - Est - 202.04 CS Finlandia Trophy
23. Amber Glenn - USA - 201.02 GP Skate America
24. Satoko Miyahara - Jpn - 200.51 GP skate America
----------------------------------------------------------
26. Elizaveta Kulikova (J) - Rus - 196.83 JGP Krasnoyarsk
27. Elizaveta Berestovskaya (J) - Rus - 196.07 JGP Krasnoyarsk
32. Maria Zakharova (J) - Rus - 190.33 JGP Kosice

Top 24 are guaranteed a spot at next year's senior GPs, except for (J).
The whole top 24 is already at 200 points, so it's look tougher than ever this season.

Still Shcherbakova, Khromykh and other big guns to go.

There is nothing like World Record in figure skating. Only highest score.

 

[Jontor]

They left Liza at home from Worlds the year after she was World Champion. Anna will have to deliver to be on the team.

Yes, Russia is tough like that. Their greatest skater ever (in terms of medals) Irina Slutskaya was the highest Russian woman at Worlds ever in '98 when she got the silver. But she was left at home the year after because she came only 4th at Nationals.

 

[Jontor]

There is nothing like World Record in figure skating. Only highest score.

Oh yes there is. It's only that every 4th year after the Olympics, the ISU seems to change the scoring system so they shelve the records and we start anew.

 

[brigit66]

Oh yes there is. It's only that every 4th year after the Olympics, the ISU seems to change the scoring system so they shelve the records and we start anew.

lol no, because they often change the scoring system like you said , the wr is wr like in 100m or pole vault. There is no new WR every 4 years

 

[Jontor]

lol no, because they often change the scoring system like you said , the wr is wr like in 100m or pole vault. There is no new WR every 4 years

lol yes

 

[brigit66]

lol yes

No. There is no Wr in figure skating

 

[nussnacker]

We need a...

Season's Best List update - after 14 out of 28 competitions (we're halfway!)

1. Kamila Valieva - Rus - 265.08 GP Skate Canada (another new World record!!)
2. Elizaveta Tuktamysheva - Rus - 233.30 CS Finlandia Trophy
3. Sofia Akatieva (J) - Rus - 233.08 JGP Krasnoyarsk (junior world record)
4. Alexandra Trusova - Rus - 232.37 GP Skate America
5. Alysa Liu - USA - 219.24 CS Lombardia Trophy
6. Alëna Kostornaia - Rus - 218.83 CS Finlandia Trophy
7. Daria Usacheva - Rus - 217.31 GP Skate America
8. Young You - Kor - 216.97 GP Skate America
9. Veronika Zhilina (J) - Rus - 216.92 JGP Kosice
10. Kaori Sakamoto - Jpn - 215.93 GP Skate America
11. Loena Hendrickx - Bel - 212.07 CS Finlandia Trophy
12. Sofia Muravieva - Rus - 211.81 JGP Linz
13. Adelia Petrosian - Rus - 210.57 JGP Ljubljana
14. Mai Mihara - Jpn - 210.01 GP Skate Canada
15. Isabeau Levito - USA - 208.31 JGP Linz
16. Anastasia Zinina - Rus - 206.20 JGP Krasnoyarsk
17. Kseniia Sinitsyna - Rus - 205.76 GP Skate America
18. Sofia Samodelkina - Rus - 205.67 JGP Ljubljana
19. Wakaba Higuchi - Jpn - 205.27 GP Skate Canada
20. Anastasiia Gubanova - Geo - 203.91 CS Finlandia Trophy
21. Karen Chen - USA - 202.49 CS Finlandia Trophy
22. Eva-Lotta Kiibus - Est - 202.04 CS Finlandia Trophy
23. Amber Glenn - USA - 201.02 GP Skate America
24. Satoko Miyahara - Jpn - 200.51 GP skate America
----------------------------------------------------------
26. Elizaveta Kulikova (J) - Rus - 196.83 JGP Krasnoyarsk
27. Elizaveta Berestovskaya (J) - Rus - 196.07 JGP Krasnoyarsk
32. Maria Zakharova (J) - Rus - 190.33 JGP Kosice

Top 24 are guaranteed a spot at next year's senior GPs, except for (J).
The whole top 24 is already over 200 points, so it's look tougher than ever this season.

Still Shcherbakova, Khromykh and other big guns to go.

Thank you for this! I was just wondering how top 24 SB are currently stacking up.

 

[soccerjc77]

My favorite part of the event : https://youtu.be/2bCUmlpLvT0?t=250
Oh my god's imagine this epic part in the Olympic, Let's go Liza !

 

[bookofcharms]

Is there any word on the status of Shcherbakova's quad?

 

[sclloyd]

My favorite part of the event : https://youtu.be/2bCUmlpLvT0?t=250
Oh my god's imagine this epic part in the Olympic, Let's go Liza !

Like I hate it. I don’t get why I hate it or why I can’t seem to connect with Kamila but like, if this is the Olympic team I’m not even going to bother watching the whole thing, tbh. The programs bother me, and of all the Russians these two rub me the wrong way most. Can’t get over Kamila just expecting to win RusNats last year, Bolero is a train wreck, Liza is over scored, and I just don’t relate to either of their personalities or how they come across on ice. I just want a 3A Olympic podium. Shred me, but those are my thoughts. And YES. Kamila was chosen. Anna has beautiful spins and Sasha has beautiful jumps and Aliona at the very least HAD beautiful components and none of them have been awarded for any of those talents the way Kamila is. It’s disappointing.

 

[brigit66]

When you’re chosen, I guess giant quads and 3As, beautiful spins and SS just magically land on your lap. Nothing to do with years of hard work through injuries and pain.

I wouldn't call her SS beautiful.I'm actually kind of repulsed by this program. The choreography is schitzo and frantic.
I would appreciate those quads more if she didnt completely face forward them. It was so visible during slo- mo.
And really don't like that popping joints stuff to show how flexible you are. It is creepy. Along with hands.
I can't remember any key points or moves from the program once it's over (other than creepy hands at the beginning), that's probably Daniil's fault but I still can't feel anything for her one way or the other. And what with all of Valieva's hand gestures in that red glove ?

 

[bookofcharms]

This is why it has been very easy to enjoy Liza over the years. She genuinely enjoys skating for pleasure and is very calm about the process. Through all the churn and burn of ladies, I don't need to worry about Liza not winning etc. There's no panic and hysterics, coach changes, crying and drama. She just calmly gets on with it and skates at the next competition. It's a very enjoyable process.

There is a life after these Olympics if any of these ladies choose to continue competing.

 

[karina17]

Like I hate it. I don’t get why I hate it or why I can’t seem to connect with Kamila but like, if this is the Olympic team I’m not even going to bother watching the whole thing, tbh. The programs bother me, and of all the Russians these two rub me the wrong way most. Can’t get over Kamila just expecting to win RusNats last year, Bolero is a train wreck, Liza is over scored, and I just don’t relate to either of their personalities or how they come across on ice. I just want a 3A Olympic podium. Shred me, but those are my thoughts. And YES. Kamila was chosen. Anna has beautiful spins and Sasha has beautiful jumps and Aliona at the very least HAD beauty components and none of them were awarded for any of those talents the way Kamila is. It’s disappointing.

There's a lot in this post that I don't even want to get into, but what do you even mean by Kamila "just expecting to win RusNats"? Do you mean when the 14-year-old just had the skate of her life, got out-skated just a few minutes later, and then had the audacity to look very slightly upset? Then immediately changed her face when she realised the camera was on her and she was being rude?

I wanted a 3A podium too, they're the three who really got me into following figure skating, but here it just looks like you're looking for reasons to crap on a 15 year old and that's just messed up.

 

[bookofcharms]

I can forgive people who are upset that the inevitable conveyer belt of ladies is affecting their favourite skater/s.

It is the worst. But I've seen enough of it to expect it. But I imagine for those with their hearts set on favourite skaters, watching this happen (particularly if it is the first time the cycle through has affected them) is very difficult.

 

[Jontor]

Like I hate it. I don’t get why I hate it or why I can’t seem to connect with Kamila but like, if this is the Olympic team I’m not even going to bother watching the whole thing, tbh. The programs bother me, and of all the Russians these two rub me the wrong way most. Can’t get over Kamila just expecting to win RusNats last year, Bolero is a train wreck, Liza is over scored, and I just don’t relate to either of their personalities or how they come across on ice. I just want a 3A Olympic podium. Shred me, but those are my thoughts. And YES. Kamila was chosen. Anna has beautiful spins and Sasha has beautiful jumps and Aliona at the very least HAD beautiful components and none of them have been awarded for any of those talents the way Kamila is. It’s disappointing.

Yes, you shouldn't watch the Olympics if you feel this way. OR, you can try and enjoy the sport more objectively...it's more fun!

 

[sclloyd]

There's a lot in this post that I don't even want to get into, but what do you even mean by Kamila "just expecting to win RusNats"? Do you mean when the 14-year-old just had the skate of her life, got out-skated just a few minutes later, and then had the audacity to look very slightly upset? Then immediately changed her face when she realised the camera was on her and she was being rude?

I wanted a 3A podium too, they're the three who really got me into following figure skating, but here it just looks like you're looking for reasons to crap on a 15 year old and that's just messed up.

It was not a look of being upset it was a look of “how dare Anna” and then once she realized the camera was there it was immediately “oh $&@!”. Do you not expect your competitors to also perform? I’m not looking for reason to crap on her, lmao. I just genuinely do not get the hype.

 

[Jontor]

This is why it has been very easy to enjoy Liza over the years. She genuinely enjoys skating for pleasure and is very calm about the process. Through all the churn and burn of ladies, I don't need to worry about Liza not winning etc. There's no panic and hysterics, coach changes, crying and drama. She just calmly gets on with it and skates at the next competition. It's a very enjoyable process.

There is a life after these Olympics if any of these ladies choose to continue competing.

Yes! Lovely post.

 

[lurkerghost1]

Aliona still had way more transitions and more complex transitions than Liza. That’s not a comparison in favor of Liza, my friend. Liza had literally zero transitions, it’s just 2 foot skating, no edge work and even her excessive number of crossovers looked rather labored. She was probably the slowest among top 6 and had very little ice coverage.

She wasn’t really underscored in PCS, she just never improved in that aspect. Quite often in the past she was underscored in TES, where she undeservedly often had very low GOEs for good quality jumps. She wasn’t always scored accurately before and sometimes she was underscored. In this competition she was overscored massively, to the point where it completely lost any touch with reality.

Yes, half of Liza's non-technical content consists of staying on the place and shaking her back and when she's moving it's slow as meadow slaver. She's still telegraphing jumps. That truly deserves same/higher SS and TR. C'mon.

The complaints are there because in any comparison Liza's non-jumping abilities and content are weak but heavilily prized. People mistake seductive moves for quality, that's why I'm so against the word "selling the program" so often used, because "selling" is not about the quality but about the camouflage. Any travelling salesman is trained to sell anything, even if that's just golden dung.

As opposed to half of Aliona’s content which consists of “I forgot it, maybe next time I'll put it in." Aliona's step sequence looked just as labored as anything Liza put out, even if Aliona's crossovers and transitions are smoother. From an artistic perspective, Liza doesn't deserve higher SS/TR but her program is WAY more memorable than Aliona's so give her a huge lead in PE/IN and even CO deservedly. Not that the judges actually care about any of that when assigning PCS.

"Selling?" Medvedeva, Wagner, Zagitova, and Scherbakova among others literally built their PCS reputation on average skating skills at best combined with knowing how to "sell." How many times did Medvedeva beat Miyahara or Osmond, or Zagitova beat Honda or Kihira, or Shcherbakova recently trounce Kostornaia and Sakamoto in components because they were able to "sell" for thirty seconds while the skaters with way superior SS got nothing? Since her 2018-19 free skate Tuktamysheva has merely learned from them and is now doing the same thing.

Even at this competition, Kostornaia was ahead of Higuchi and Mihara in PCS who delivered much more complex skating AND "sold it" better. So I would hesitate to even say Kostornaia was underscored. Now she experiences what Higuchi, Mihara, Miyahara, Khromykh, Usacheva, Tuktamysheva etc. experienced for a long time when they didn't have "the narrative" backing them. Only for Tuktamysheva has this recently switched. You could tell Mark Hanretty at Skate America was trying to drum up some narrative for Miyahara to get her more PCS because he too knows that's the only thing that matters.

But that's under the assumption that Liza makes Russia's Olympic team, which depends on who Russia chooses. The talent is so high in Russia that if Kamila, Anna (back in form), and Sasha place ahead of her at internal competitions, like Russian Nationals, they could very easily leave Liza off.

It depends on how consistent they are down the stretch. If Liza is scoring 225+ at her next GP, GP finals, and nationals that will be 6 competitions in a row of 225+. Whereas Trusova both at Worlds and at US classic scored below 220. This seems like a kind of arbitrary line but it's a big deal because the maximum for all the potential non-Russian competitors is about 225 considering Kihira is not in shape. So if Trusova is ok but not spectacular at nationals and ends up 3rd ahead of Liza, will they take the one who will guarantee them bronze or the one who could win gold - when they already have Valieva - but who could also lose to Sakamoto or Young?