2024-25 Russian Women's Figure Skating

[Mathematician]

Highlights from Moscow championship, part 1 because the forum doesn't allow me more than 2 pieces of media per post:

Prineva improved a lot. Charming dress, and her instability is fading already with Eteri.



Solntsova, with an uncharacteristically coherent and sophisticated presentation of music for her age. Extremely intelligent skater:

 

[Mathematician]

Sarnovskaya with a splendid skate shows hope for team Plushenko and shows us a very unique upright position:



Solntsova again the intellectual early bloomer demonstrates an impressive maintain of focus through a long program rarely seen in juniors:

 

[Mathematician]

Diana Milto, with some very minor choreographic hardness, still demonstrates a massive artistic potential surpassing the junior standard by many layers to beautiful music with a well executed 4S-2A:



And if someone is in need of a lighter mood or enjoys happy up-beat programs, this is a fun skate from Diana's sister, Alisa Milto. There is no lack of talent in the Milto sister's blood:

 

[Mathematician]

And the star of the competition Vasilyeva, who puts some of our best seniors to shame. Her jumping technique is absolutely impeccable, with height almost unseen for a junior; artistry and focus suffer no interruption. This absolutely is a top senior level skater. She lacks slightly in spins only, with significant drift, though her now signature move of bouncing on the heel of her blade mid-spin adds compensation. In her short program, which to my dismay has not been uploaded, demonstrates a choreographic and artistic versatility I have never seen in juniors, and a potential for body control to rival Valieva. In any case, this free skate is still very enjoyable and proves to me she didn't just get lucky in the SP:



If one of these channels fold to my requests and upload her SP I will share it immediately.

Update:



Notice the control and subtlety in her opening movements, absolutely stunning. Her seamless transition between genres and versatility in dance style in combination with the FS. Unfortunately, the music and subject matter in this program is of low quality, but I am analyzing the raw talent for body control and her choreographic density and its cohesion.

 

[Mathematician]

Preliminary ladies test skates entries

Sofia Akateva
Alina Gorbacheva
Sofia Muravieva
Adeliia Petrosian
Daria Sadkova
Kseniia Sinitsyna
Alexandra Trusova-Ignatova
Anna Frolova
Veronika Yametova

Zhilina will not participate due to back injury (maybe priming for a transfer?)

 

[Azikin]

I'm still gutted about Tikhonova. Her SP was so charming. Now because of one mistake her season is over.

 

[macy]

And the star of the competition Vasilyeva, who puts some of our best seniors to shame. Her jumping technique is absolutely impeccable, with height almost unseen for a junior; artistry and focus suffer no interruption. This absolutely is a top senior level skater. She lacks slightly in spins only, with significant drift, though her now signature move of bouncing on the heel of her blade mid-spin adds compensation. In her short program, which to my dismay has not been uploaded, demonstrates a choreographic and artistic versatility I have never seen in juniors, and a potential for body control to rival Valieva. In any case, this free skate is still very enjoyable and proves to me she didn't just get lucky in the SP:



If one of these channels fold to my requests and upload her SP I will share it immediately.

she's really good, but IMHO does not come close to surpassing a skater like Kostornaia in her junior years. i had never seen (and still have never seen) a junior level skater with such posture, maturity, blade control and efficiency, edgework and skating skills like her. i still see a good amount of "junior" in this skater that i did not see in Aliona at the same level.

 

[patchris84]

And the star of the competition Vasilyeva, who puts some of our best seniors to shame. Her jumping technique is absolutely impeccable, with height almost unseen for a junior; artistry and focus suffer no interruption. This absolutely is a top senior level skater. She lacks slightly in spins only, with significant drift, though her now signature move of bouncing on the heel of her blade mid-spin adds compensation. In her short program, which to my dismay has not been uploaded, demonstrates a choreographic and artistic versatility I have never seen in juniors, and a potential for body control to rival Valieva. In any case, this free skate is still very enjoyable and proves to me she didn't just get lucky in the SP:



If one of these channels fold to my requests and upload her SP I will share it immediately.

https://youtu.be/Cmf2v84wYHU?si=-xHCGQBSa01y49Lf

 

[lariko]

Andreeva's SP was incredible and 3A3T from Streltsova was an unexpected surprise for me. As always, a strong competition in Moscow.

 

[Mathematician]

she's really good, but IMHO does not come close to surpassing a skater like Kostornaia in her junior years. i had never seen (and still have never seen) a junior level skater with such posture, maturity, blade control and efficiency, edgework and skating skills like her. i still see a good amount of "junior" in this skater that i did not see in Aliona at the same level.

You are absolutely correct, and shame on me for not recognizing that Kostornaia skated "Departure" or "November" as a junior. Her "Stella's Theme" has also always been one of my favourite junior skates. Alena was definitely more sophisticated in her temperament, and from a technical standpoint her skating was better. Spins especially, in which Vasileva lacks. I can not say you are wrong in the opinion that Kostornaia is the most complete junior we have seen.



With Vasileva I maintain that her body control seems historically unparalleled at the junior level. I am analyzing the raw affinity for body movement, control and choreographic execution & stability - NOT the general artistic quality of the program; by the latter standard, there is no reason to name Vasileva next to the usual suspects.

However, Alena's dancing and proprioception was not beyond other juniors, though again in temperament and artistic cohesion she does win. Coming from THE classical juggernaut camp Khrustalnyi, Kostornaia was operating daily in a world of significantly higher sophistication, so the program and subject matter quality is a given. I do not see a comparison in the exactity of movement between the two. Vasileva's absolute bodily precision, choreographic density and rhythmic perfection is not normal. Her SP opening sequence alone has a subtlety and total loss of tension you see from elite dancers only, almost never a figure skater. She is absolutely born to be a dancer.

The size of Vasileva's jumps are also not brining to memory any counterpart at the junior level. Kostornaia only gained her massive 3A in her prime senior season as well. Until then her jumping was absolutely splendid but followed the standard quick and light technique; Vasileva demonstrates a power and height in combination with soft landing and fluid exits that Kostornaia did not, nor did any junior for that matter, save for possibly Morozova, who's landing and exits I think pale in comparison still to Vasileva's. I dont see much junior in Vasileva's skating outside of spins, though her bladework is below Kostornaia's for sure, that is the highest bar you can set. In general Vasileva is not identifiable as a junior skater. Let me know what mistakes specifically you find with Vasileva's skating.

I do, however, on further consideration retract my overly high praise of Vasileva's artistic versatility. Even for a junior, she is not unparalleled at all. Akateva and Petrosian to date are without challenge, in regards to flooring versatility and sophistication in greatly varying subject matters, unbeaten in juniors. Kostornaia was extremely sophisticated and beautiful, she is not objectively measurable as below the former two in pure artistry, but she specialized exclusively as a lyricist like the typical talented junior girl, similar to Valieva. Vasileva is impressive, but follows an opposite trend, in that I can find no convincing classical performances from her anywhere. Meanwhile Petrosian had already mastered traditional Artsakh, French Chanson, experimental contemporary, lyricism, tango, and pop all as a junior. Akateva in one season demonstrated all the way from exciting traditional Chinese dance music to gentle neoclassical.

I am by no means implying that Vasileva is a better skater than Kostornaia, neither that she should surpass her. I made a post earlier analyzing the season averages of different skaters, Kostornaia I believe was 3rd or 4th of all time. Pairing this with her superior SS to other girls and non-inferior artistry I would fault nobody for considering her peak season as the absolute peak of ladies skating. Though, at this moment, for me Petrosian will always be closest to heart. My observation here is that Vasileva's proprioception and tamed jumping power is in another realm from any junior I am aware of, and the potential cannot be reasonably capped by any extrapolation or future prediction, which is extremely interesting.

As a side note, I will take every opportunity to mention that my favourite ever junior skate is the following:

 

[MiraiFan]

What happened with the court case with Plushenko? Did one of his skaters sue him? Parsegova, I believe. Could not find anything decently translated...

 

[Kittosuni]

What happened with the court case with Plushenko? Did one of his skaters sue him? Parsegova, I believe. Could not find anything decently translated...

I was curious so I did a quick search and it looks like it's Plushenko's Academy that is suing the 12 year old girl for 1.9 M rubbles for breaking her contract by transferring to Eteri group.

 

[Amei]

I was curious so I did a quick search and it looks like it's Plushenko's Academy that is suing the 12 year old girl for 1.9 M rubbles for breaking her contract by transferring to Eteri group.

The court case is over AoP won that but in the case of PR they are losing in comically bad fashion:
Summary of the case is Parsegova's mother signed a contract that she would stay for i think 8 years and didn't < hence the court victory. But it seems like AoP did not manage the girl's training well and at best it seems embellished in the public which her mother was able to refute with old text messages. Also it seems like AoP rushed the contract while Parsegova's father was gravely ill (he's passed away).

Now the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae....Eteri is organizing a training session with her coaches and skaters to pay for Parsegova's debt to AoP.

Disclaimer: I'm getting my info via Google translate

 

[MiraiFan]

The court case is over AoP won that but in the case of PR they are losing in comically bad fashion:
Summary of the case is Parsegova's mother signed a contract that she would stay for i think 8 years and didn't < hence the court victory. But it seems like AoP did not manage the girl's training well and at best it seems embellished in the public which her mother was able to refute with old text messages. Also it seems like AoP rushed the contract while Parsegova's father was gravely ill (he's passed away).

Now the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae....Eteri is organizing a training session with her coaches and skaters to pay for Parsegova's debt to AoP.

Disclaimer: I'm getting my info via Google translate

Thanks for this--what a MESS!

 

[MiraiFan]

I'm still gutted about Tikhonova. Her SP was so charming. Now because of one mistake her season is over.

What happened? Injury?

 

[AlexBreeze]

What happened? Injury?

She fell on her combo attempt in SP at the RGP qualifying competition.

 

[JeanA]

I was curious so I did a quick search and it looks like it's Plushenko's Academy that is suing the 12 year old girl for 1.9 M rubbles for breaking her contract by transferring to Eteri group.

A quick conversion shows that 1.9M rubles is the equivalent of $21K American dollars. Still a significant amount, but not quite as excessive as it sounds.

 

[Amei]

A quick conversion shows that 1.9M rubles is the equivalent of $21K American dollars. Still a significant amount, but not quite as excessive as it sounds.

Its especially significant sounding when statistically the average yearly salary in Moscow Russia is 1.2 million rubles.

 

[Mathematician]

Just learning about this shameful situation with Plushenko now. Actually it sort of seems in hindsight that Eteri has had significantly higher satisfaction rates with both students and parents historically than AoP. Especially consider how new AoP is to the scene. Eteri has experienced the most media hatred but when it comes to data from inside the academy it seems she has kept a way cleaner slate. Now from my research it seems AoP has long been accused of suspicious funding and connections. I really cant trust any pro sport training academies. I feel embarrassingly naive for drinking the AoP Kool-Aid.

 

[Amei]

Just learning about this shameful situation with Plushenko now. Actually it sort of seems in hindsight that Eteri has had significantly higher satisfaction rates with both students and parents historically than AoP. Especially consider how new AoP is to the scene. Eteri has experienced the most media hatred but when it comes to data from inside the academy it seems she has kept a way cleaner slate. Now from my research it seems AoP has long been accused of suspicious funding and connections. I really cant trust any pro sport training academies. I feel embarrassingly naive for drinking the AoP Kool-Aid.

But let's not pretend like the media/fan hatred is completely unwarranted, Eteri (or her assistant coaches) have a habit of going after skaters in the media when they left.

This does bring to light AoP's questionable contracts and the financial implications around it. Add on top of that they haven't exactly had a ton of success, I think they end up regretting bringing this lawsuit - even though they were 'technically' in the right, the long term ramifications might actually make this a loss for them. I wonder how many of their skaters have been concerned over their contracts with AoP. Unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if Parsegova's mother wasn't the only 1 who signed a contract and didn't consult a lawyer over it, from what I know in regards to Russian figure skating, private academies aren't the norm.