I think if the Russian ladies are banished internationally again this time for next season I think it will certainly shorten careers because why put in all that effort for those trainings and ultra jumps if you're just gonna skate in the Russian cup and Russian nationals? Of course Russian nationals is a super big event for 3 of the 4 disciplines in which Russia has the greatest talent and depth.
Agree, if the suspension goes too long there are going to be retirements from the older skaters (Tuktamysheva, Shcherbakova, etc.) that have won a lot internationally. I don't know about the lower-aged skaters, I mean 1 of the great things about Russian skating is that it has domestic competitions all the time for their younger age skaters, so competing domestically only is something they are used to.
No one knows where sasha is at and if she wants to continue. I sure hope she does as spectacular as she is if she retires it would be a great loss for figure skating. I hope the silver medal at the Olympics did not break her. But I also wonder how upset she is at the federation for not putting her in the team event when she is the Queen of quads and the gold medal for the team event was wrapped up already..Maybe sasha is just on a break at the moment. I hope that's the case.
I actually think she needs to get 'broken down' a little bit - she's said before that her coaches tried to advise her to do less quads and focus elsewhere and cited that as a reason she left and went to Plushenko; there was something with Plushenko as well that caused her to leave, he referenced in an interview that he didn't know how to handle her personality. Eteri appeared to take the approach, let her do it her (Trusova's) way and when it inevitably doesn't work out, it will be on her vs. trying to fight her. 1 thing that both Shcherbakova and Zagitova had in their background was that they had to fight back from injuries to get to the Olympics; Shcherbakova was written off right and left, including up to the Europeans FS. Trusova came into seniors winning everything as a junior except 1 competition, on this board it wasn't talked about
if she would win but by how much, she got anointed with the various nicknames like 'quad queen'. I kinda wonder if it went to her head and was the source behind her lack of listening to her coaches advisements to focus less on the quads. We heard it on the broadcast at the Olympics that her mindset is winning is first place, everything else is losing; on the other hand Shcherbakova has often talked about she only wants to go out and show her best. Sadly I've seen it remarked that people wished Trusova had won because Shcherbakova wouldn't have reacted the way Trusova did and there wouldn't have been as much focus on meltdowns before the flower ceremony - which is terrible, just because 1 handles 'losing' better.
about how Russia and Belarus pay fees to the ISU which is not exactly rolling in cash. Interesting. But I would need to know what those fees are if they will actually make a difference.
ISU Communication referencing membership fees
As per usual you are flushed with information that few know about. Like the agreements for athletes in the past where visas are concerned
I will stress here, that was something I had seen mentioned on (I think on GS), I've got no idea if its truth, rumor or somewhere in between
I am assuming the federations will vote to ban Russia from next season and I am assuming CAS will overturn that on the basis that this is unprecedented and many countries have invaded other countries and gone to war this century alone and their athletes never suffered anything from it.
I have no idea how any of that would work.
The rally was confusing to me. I was a little disappointed some of the Olympic skaters went. Was it a pro Russia rally or a pro Putin rally? Those could be 2 different things.
What was the rally? It depends on who you ask, Western media says 1 thing, Russian media says something else. My opinion - truth lies somewhere in the middle. Regarding athlete participation, I have a neutral opinion on that, because if even half of what the Western media says is true, then I doubt they were given a choice at all or felt like they could say 'no'.