2025-26 Russian Women's Figure Skating

AlexBreeze · May 25, 2026

niks said:
Have the national teams for 2026/27 already been announced?

No, she just knows that.

I'll start new threads when there are new teams.

Alfa · May 25, 2026

Considering that World Gymnastics has now removed all the silly barriers for Russians, this should be sending alarm bells to ISU to actually pay attention because the pressure is now on.

Mathematician · May 27, 2026

flanker said:
Goodbye to Ksusha's unique programs.

That's not true. AoP can produce great classical programs which is Sinitsyna's forte. It's not like her programs last season were amazing.

Paulipau said:
seems like there is a lot of pressure for allowing Russians back to competion, I wonder if Mura's decision wasnt a bit early

She wouldn't be sent internationally for Russia anyways.

flanker · May 27, 2026

Alfa said:
Considering that World Gymnastics has now removed all the silly barriers for Russians, this should be sending alarm bells to ISU to actually pay attention because the pressure is now on.

The International University Sports Federation (FISU) has allowed Russian athletes to compete under its auspices.

https://www.sports.ru/athletics/1117223699-mezhdunarodnaya-federacziya-universitetskogo-sporta-dopustila-rossijsk.html

Mathematician · Jun 3, 2026

AlexBreeze said:
This Bolero video is over two months old.

Thanks for letting us know. She really has a huge repertoire right now with everything hard to judge her. Here's a couple other examples from the same period:

Skating91 said:
If I had never seen the 2021/22 version of Valieva or even the 2020/21 (she was only beaten by peak Shcherbakova) 2022/23 versions of Valieva in my life maybe I would say wow this skater has so much range if she puts it all together no-one will beat her, but she is not a skater growing and improving, it is a skater clearly in regression.

I made a long response to your post in the fan thread but it got deleted for being negative.

Basically I disagree with that completely. No, what we see with this skater now is not even close to "wow so much range if she puts it together nobody will beat her". This skater is worse than Kulikova based on what we've seen (the blue dress program and Russian callout were atrocious—this is known. What I posted above + Bolero also not good). Like significantly. Range is not the word. If this skater put it all together I still wouldn't want to see her take single digits at Nats (of course there's her ultra-c which can boost her, but disregarding that. If it was just triples I wouldn't want her top 10). Nevermind comparing her to even Sinitsyna at her worst. Different levels clearly. At least one can convincingly enter into an image.

Again my benefit of the doubt goes to her cause she's been skating like 10 programs she probably doesn't care about at all plus ice shows. She might just be feeling things out. If she finds a couple competitive programs she likes and focuses on them it could be a different skater. Show programs are always significantly worse than competitive ones. What's obvious though is that Sokolovskaya will produce nothing good choreographically.

The biggest problem to me is that she is using copy pasted choreo which she used to have mastered and now it's not effective at all. This doesn't seem to be something that'll improve. Another disaster is her presentation. Not convincing. When she tries to skate something lyrical or solemn it comes off worse by a margin than even Shcherbakova's most ridiculous histrionics. This will not improve either. She needs to stick with those "I See Red" type programs.

Best case scenario is she finds a couple competitive programs she likes and Benoit gave her good choreo. In any case without Eteri you can forgot about some sort of prime return.

Skating91 said:
To me she is completely unrecognisable from what she was under Eteri I foolishly thought Valieva was the genius responsible for her success where she obliterated world records (on merit in my opinion she really was/is the best we've seen), but there was no Kamila without Eteri tweaking her ear.

Yea, it always confused me why she seemed like a regular teenage girl in general but turned into a generational genius on ice. It's clear who the real mastermind always was by now. I wonder what Adeliia would look like outside of Eteri.

Skating91 said:
To say we did everything we could to resurrect our career. Leave no stone left unturned.

Yea.

Mathematician · Jun 3, 2026

In other news Sinitsyna and Yametova are at least training 3A with Plushenko. I wouldn't be surprised if Plushenko has a good season. Not entirely convinced Sinitsyna will be landing 3A competitively but it at least suggests she's still putting in work on jumps and has confidence in herself. I don't think something similar to 23/24 is out of the cards for her.

Yametova was always good just seemed to stagnate with a 2nd rate coach and the programs were bad. If Plushenko gives her good programs and gives her a new competitive drive it should be her best season. A lot to look forward to.

Paulipau · Jun 5, 2026

I think that Mura would be sent internationally, maybe would be hard to be sent to WC but GPs for sure.
and now she will be out for 2 years, i think she did herself dirty really.

And I don't like Valieva and would prefer her not to comeback, it all seems icky to me but yes, she served her punishment, and she really is so so very talented. Trusova is a sensational jumper but she need more than all Lvl2s and I didn't see her getting any Lvl4 is years and years.

AlexBreeze · Jun 5, 2026

Paulipau said:
I think that Mura would be sent internationally, maybe would be hard to be sent to WC but GPs for sure.
and now she will be out for 2 years, i think she did herself dirty really.

Meanwhile, the ISU has noticeably tightened rules for changing countries.

AlexBreeze · Jun 6, 2026

New season's thread:

Thread '2026-27 Russian Women's Figure Skating'

Jun 6, 2026

Follow Russian women's figure skating throughout the 2026–27 season, including news, programs, rankings, coaching changes, and discussion of Russia's women's singles skaters.

Previous Season's thread: