2025-26 Russian Women's Figure Skating | Page 17 | Golden Skate

2025-26 Russian Women's Figure Skating

Nelyubova fantastic 4T-3T! Will 26/27 be the battle of the Kamilas?

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And working on some 4F as well!

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Nelyubova fantastic 4T-3T! Will 26/27 be the battle of the Kamilas?

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And working on some 4F as well!

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Actually, this has me optimistic for next season. With Dzepka recently demonstrating some of the most beautiful skating I've ever seen, jumping at least 1 if not 2 consistent, impressive quads, moving up to seniors, and at least 3 other fully grown non-Eteri girls demonstrating impressive quads alongside enjoyable general performance (Kamila 2x, Zakharova), we might be climbing to a new, really unique peak of Russian ladies' skating. This alone is worth great excitement.

Muravieva, while still imperfect, has improved since last season in more than one way. Most notably her speed has exploded, maybe to her best ever, and her confidence is clearly growing with her mental stability.

Frolova & Gushchina are sort of on the edge, with Sinitsyna unfortunately struggling quite severely. How will they do next season? If anything, it only adds more intrigue. We have many storylines building.

Lyashenko is effectively new on the scene. She is great to watch and lacks nothing, really. She should be one of the biggest improvements. What new programs will she show?

What about Kudlai? Her triples were some of the best in the world, and her performance generally is not bad. How much will she improve moving into this season?

Yametova has been realistically struggling for 2 seasons now, without much innovation in her programming. She was on a subpar training schedule with a subpar trainer in a subpar village, though. Can moving to AoP breath new life into her performances? I think so. It will be really interesting to see what they do with her over the next few months. Speaking of AoP, I still wouldn't give up on Mazur, she is enjoyable insofar as she doesn't gamble the quads.

I think Kulikova should not be overlooked. She had good showings generally, all things considered. She moves well, and the jumps aren't terrible.

Khusnutdinova is probably the most maligned, unjustly treated skater we've seen in a long time. Her performances are by no means subpar, and she jumps the easiest 3A in ladies' history (that doesn't mean the "best"). She should probably show the greatest development from one season to another from any of our girls. That being said, I fear how her free skates might suffer if Eteri forces her into jumping quads instead of just perfecting her axel...

Now consider also Lydia is moving up to seniors. If she skated her SP in seniors this season, she would be second only perhaps to Adeliia, Muravieva and maybe Sadkova. How much will she change into seniors?

So far as Eteri's quad girls go, I have little hope... However, it might be reasonable to expect at least one of Adeliia, Dasha or Alisa to have an impressive season with good programs. Right? Even just one of them succeeding will add a lot to the season.

While I hesitate to push much pressure on Gorbacheva this early, considering her major surgery, she is still on my list of excitement. Really, with maximum objectivity, I think she at her best was not far worse than Adeliia at her best. Gorbacheva moves worse than nobody else. I would not mind if she simply dropped the quad and worked on regaining great triples. She would surely be the best triples skater in the world.

There is the return of Agaeva as well, and of course few people dare to excite greatly over Akateva at this point, but I will never count her out no matter what...

Ignatova looked quite good in training recently, at least so far as jumps go. Her return with Valieva's will alone at minimum garner huge viewership and hopefully GS interaction, at least until next nationals. No matter what happened with Adeliia, thanks to these two, we have at least one more great season in the works.

I would say at minimum, we can maintain a really confident excitement in:

Valieva (already jumping good quad combos, naturally a master artist, seems motivated, in shape...)
Dzepka (best in the world)
Nelyubova (consistent, motivated, improving...)
Pleskacheva (huge potential, stabilizing better than I thought and much sooner)
Muravieva (always good and slowly stabilizing, one of the best artists and probably has the most consistently impressive programs of any skater over the same time period)
Zakharova (one of the best in the world if she gets good programs)

We can maintain a reasonable excitement in:

Petrosian (obviously still the best at her peak, but struggling)
Khusnutdinova (amazing skater, only doubt she will handle adding a quad to the repertoire well...)
Sadkova (great but inconsitent)
Frolova (great but not fully herself, hopefully recovers well)
Gushchina (same as above)
Dvoeglazova (looks good but that Lutz is not trustworthy)
Lyashenko (no reason to doubt her but hasn't shown quite as much as the first class girls)
Yametova (lots of potential, AoP is hopeful but no proof yet)
Kudlai (same as Lyashenko)
Ignatova (completely unknown but jumps look good, more hopeful than first comeback)
Kulikova (great but still stabilizing)
Gorbacheva (who knows how long her recovery will take, but I'm sure eventually she will at beast be a tier-1 triple skater)

And some tentative excitement towards:

Akateva (still somewhat hopeful, but lots of struggle)
Agaeva (should be good by next season?)
Vazhnova (completely unknown but enjoyable at her best)
Sinitsyna (could be one of the best in the world but really, really inconsistent unfortunately)
Mazur (not developed and inconsistent but solid potential)

Of course, there are some other complete wildcards like Anisimova, Tretyakova, Pulina, maybe even Zubkova...

But let's say at least 9 of the names in the first 2 groups should have a good season. This would be enough to maintain worth in watching the scene, and make it a better season than this one.

The atmosphere should also be quite charming and nostalgic, bringing back at least some of the old intrigue with both Valieva and Trusova making a comeback. This is the main factor. If they even just bring in the viewership and interaction while other girls carry the performances, then it's a success. Thanks to these two hope is maintained for our community to make it out of this ditch. Hopefully the last RGPF was rock bottom and it's only up from here. It's the first time in a long time that the favourites are mostly non-Eteri girls, which is really exciting. Again, that brings us the potential of not only re-peaking but finding a new, magically unique peak.

One of the most anticipated seasons for me at this point, especially the early season when we will see where everyone settles, and not including all the wildcards and breakout stars we get every season that might impress us! Stages should in general always be full and exciting, much better than this year.
 
Kamila 3A and 4T!!!

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Edit: Never use Jumpshare. GIFs broke. Replaced with Giphy that always ruins my framerates... :cry:
 
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Yametova has been realistically struggling for 2 seasons now, without much innovation in her programming. She was on a subpar training schedule with a subpar trainer in a subpar village, though. Can moving to AoP breath new life into her performances? I think so. It will be really interesting to see what they do with her over the next few months.
I'm not so sure about that. I assume by the "subpar trainer" you don't mean Davydov.. because it's quite questionable if she moved to a "better coach" in this case..
 
Have we seen anyone else do 4T+3Lo in training apart from Nastya Zinina ( :( ) and now Sofia?

It's a really impressive combo, one that will almost certainly never be used in competition, but still impressive nonetheless.
Anna & Sasha have done 4Lz-3Lo, Adeliia has done 4F-3Lo. Titova did 3A-3Lo which is unique.

4T-3Lo I can't think of anyone.
 
Dzepka is truly remarkable, first time I see a talent comparable with the 3A and Valieve era.
Valieva not really I'm afraid. Not cumulatively. I do think Dzepka's choreographical talent is top 3 that we've seen. Way ahead of 3A (none of whom are even in this discussion—not close). However, without a needle-spin or split-spin you cannot discuss anyone next to Valieva, and likely not without a 3A either (Valieva had one of the best 3As of all time, people forget this as it's outshone by everything else she did). She had the biggest women's 4T of all time. Her balleticism was also literally flawless, right out of Bolshoi, and while Dzepka is flooring as well I think people are desperate for a new Kamila so they start throwing out the comparisons too quick. Dzepka's upper body use is close, but leg-work not really, and it's not degradation of Dzepka but nobody has come close to Kamila's leg-work. Remember this was all proven already (except maybe the 4T) while Valieva was younger than Dzepka is now.

I wouldn't really combine "3A" and "Kamila" as one comparison at all. Have we seen a Kamila talent since Kamila? No. Is Dzepka choreographically the closest to her level and style since then? Probably. As for 3A, we have seen plenty of talent on their level since then, and higher—especially choreographically. Regarding only jumps? Sasha maybe not, Anna probably since she didn't have a 3A. And cumulatively for sure, if we look at spins, steps, general presentation and versatility, etc...
 
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I don't see a level of talent of 3A anywhere, Akatieva, Petrosian, Dvoeglazova are not on the same level, I was disappointed by Alysa last week her steps and spins looked very sloppy.
Zhilina was on this level in my opinion but too many injuries in her best years.
In juniors in my opinion Dzepka, maybe Pleskacheva, but that's it. I am sure there is some juniors that are 14 or 15 now that people say are amazing but yes, to me they are kids, I don't see depth in their skating.
 
Guys I have a weird favour to ask, with all this geoblocking online, does anyone know where I can find a montage done by Channel 1 for the Rostelecom Cup in 2020?
 
I don't see a level of talent of 3A anywhere, Akatieva, Petrosian, Dvoeglazova are not on the same level, I was disappointed by Alysa last week her steps and spins looked very sloppy.
Zhilina was on this level in my opinion but too many injuries in her best years.
In juniors in my opinion Dzepka, maybe Pleskacheva, but that's it. I am sure there is some juniors that are 14 or 15 now that people say are amazing but yes, to me they are kids, I don't see depth in their skating.
Pleskacheva and Zhilina on 3A level but Adeliia & Akateva below. Well, I guess we have to have some dissident opinions here to keep things interesting... fair enough?
 
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