Alena Kostornaia

[Scott512]

Alyona is on Edea Piano boots now, some of the most expensive, and probably some of the best around. Rated for quads by the manufacturer.

These boots are rated Stiffness 95. Any idea what that means? How comfortable are those boots on your feet and ankles, since skaters need to stand, walk, run around a lot in them before and after ice.
Do stiffer boots need stronger ankles? How long to break them in, and will they last as long?

She is on the best blades probably also, don't know which exactly, but they look to be of separate frame and iron, the frame probably some strong casting, stamped titanium or whatever, the irons high grade steel. But not on these high tech ultra light weight carbon fiber composite that one sees often on men. Does the very small weight reduction really matter in skaters her weight? I also guess due to the geometry of those ultra light weight blades, their rocker isn't constant.
Apart from Tursynbayeva, none of the Khrustalniy skaters uses those blades. (no, Daniil Samsonove rides on them, as does Veronika Zhilina)

I have to be honest. Stiffness 95 sounds very very very tight. But if Alena can handle it and skate great in those boots then I'm all for it.

 

[SkateSkates]

I have to be honest. Stiffness 95 sounds very very very tight. But if Alena can handle it and skate great in those boots then I'm all for it.

I believe Kamila and Daria are also in the same model of boots, so I think they are the correct stiffness for Aliona. The chorus boots she had before were very soft and well below her level - and likely contributed to her injury. It doesn’t look like the new boots are affecting her jumps or spins, maybe just the steps a bit as she it will be a little harder to press on a deep edge. But she seems to be adjusted to them just fine.

 

[Batsuchan]

I believe Kamila and Daria are also in the same model of boots, so I think they are the correct stiffness for Aliona. The chorus boots she had before were very soft and well below her level - and likely contributed to her injury. It doesn’t look like the new boots are affecting her jumps or spins, maybe just the steps a bit as she it will be a little harder to press on a deep edge. But she seems to be adjusted to them just fine.

I totally agree with you SkateSkates! I also suspect that her old boots were not stiff enough for her to be training triple axels and may have contributed to her injury. I also think that she is finding it harder to do the complicated steps in her SP because of the stiffer boots, but I think it's better for her to have the stiffer boots, especially if she wants to try training a quad salchow at some point. :yes:

 

[Batsuchan]

Well, I wanted to share my impressions of Aliona's performances yesterday, but apparently I've written something with a censored word, so my post got blocked. Anyway, hopefully I can post it later. I'm absolutely thrilled for her!

I'm sorry to see that she had to give up her dream of becoming a neurosurgeon, but I'm glad we'll get to see her skate for at least a few more years! :yes:

Also, I'm glad to hear that Daria is such a good friend and supporter of Aliona! And Rozanov too. Aliona had said at one point that he is her favorite trainer, and it's nice to hear that he continues to support her as well. :yes:

 

[Batsuchan]

I have been watching Alena since she appeared in the juniors and hoping she will be able to continue to develop and turn into a good senior skater. I saw her live in the Moscow Europeans gala and was impressed. Friday and today I had the chance to witness her senior debut live in Espoo and I am almost at a loss for words for what I saw. In the past 5 years or so, i have seen most of the current top women skate live (some many times), but I don't think I have ever seen anyone quite like Alena. Her speed and flow on the ice are just in a class of their own, the ease she does every element is just ridiculous, but what I loved most is her refined movement, the finish of everything she does.

The SP is good, but there was some weirdness in the last part - the steps looked small, slowish and convoluted in particular. Part of the armography felt also unrelated to what she was doing in general. I think I was also hoping for the 3A to appear in it, and was slightly underwhelmed.

But she did not fail me in the FS. I did not like the test skate version of the program very much at all - I could not read the story from the movement, there was very little difference between the human and vampire Bella esp. with the quite different styles of music. I still think they should really accentuate the moment of transformation to get it to be more understandable, but the second part had been made different in movement which pleased me. It probably develops further in time. I was also delighted to see a slightly different side of her as a performer. I would not want to see her be a one trick pony when it comes to performance.

Some people did understand to give a standing o at Finlandia - I was on my feet and so was Jimmy Ma who was sitting in the row behind me.

I think she said sth about not having had the time to put the 3A into the short yet. This is quite understandable if it is really true that she started to work on it after the test skates. Also, the entry into the 2A is very particular and they would have to change a lot to make space for the 3A. But I hope they will do it, because that could be her cushion against her peers esp. in the Russian nats. None of them can add anything technically into the short, but she can get slightly ahead with a clean 3A.

Her PCS were through the roof, but for once I agree with all the highest scores Medvedeva got 27+ PCS in her senior debut for SP (what a different world that was?!), Zagitova 31+. Both went on to raise their SP components score by close to 6 points during the season - if Alena gets the same treatment she would end up at 39-40 in the short.

Looking forward to the GPs!!

E

Thank you so, so much for this post and the impressions you posted in the Finlandia Trophy thread!

From my own experience, I have learned that what you see on a video can be very different from watching live, so I always try to rely on impressions from people who were actually in the arena. I'm SO happy to hear how impressed you are with Aliona. It makes me even more eager to see her live myself. (She better make that World team!! )

One of the Japanese fans who was there posted this comment:
https://twitter.com/tigerlily4lo/status/1182889126959468544?s=19
"When you are watching Kostornaia-Beauty live, she's super fast, so it's hard to take pictures of her."

Which reminds me, the Japanese fans on Twitter often refer to her as "Kostornaia-Beauty," instead of just "Kostornaia." They are not wrong!

 

[Batsuchan]

Aliona has a stalker?

So, for some less happy news...

After the medal ceremony yesterday, Aliona was sweet enough to go around the rink and take pictures with fans. :luv17: Then this one middle-aged man insisted on putting his arm around her and pulling her close, and then he kinda fell on her and dropped his phone. The whole interaction looked very uncomfortable for poor Aliona.
https://youtu.be/MLfLFkIUBVw?t=60

So then the Russian fans figured out who he was, and he seems to be kind of a crazy stalker of Aliona. See his page here, and the extremely creepy post where he's kissing Aliona's picture:
https://vk.com/id322191604

SERIOUSLY. NOT. COOL.

Thankfully it seems that people told Daniil and Skating Finland about it, so hopefully Team Tutberidze will be keeping a close eye on fans' interactions with their skaters. You can read more about the incident here (if you want to):
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183713213281656832?s=19
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183725578530234374

The safety of Aliona (and all the skaters) is most important! :yes:

 

[Watch]

So, for some less happy news...

After the medal ceremony yesterday, Aliona was sweet enough to go around the rink and take pictures with fans. :luv17: Then this one middle-aged man insisted on putting his arm around her and pulling her close, and then he kinda fell on her and dropped his phone. The whole interaction looked very uncomfortable for poor Aliona.
https://youtu.be/MLfLFkIUBVw?t=60

So then the Russian fans figured out who he was, and he seems to be kind of a crazy stalker of Aliona. See his page here, and the extremely creepy post where he's kissing Aliona's picture:
https://vk.com/id322191604

SERIOUSLY. NOT. COOL.

Thankfully it seems that people told Daniil and Skating Finland about it, so hopefully Team Tutberidze will be keeping a close eye on fans' interactions with their skaters. You can read more about the incident here (if you want to):
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183713213281656832?s=19
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183725578530234374

The safety of Aliona (and all the skaters) is most important! :yes:

This is beyond creepy :noshake: at least Daniil got notified about this incident and hopefully they keep this guy away from her. The pedophilic garbage on his page is absolutely disgusting.

 

[Azikin]

Well, I hope the whole event with all those unpleasant things that happened to her were not too shocking entry to the senior skating world and she will continue to be amazing..

 

[Scott512]

I believe Kamila and Daria are also in the same model of boots, so I think they are the correct stiffness for Aliona. The chorus boots she had before were very soft and well below her level - and likely contributed to her injury. It doesn’t look like the new boots are affecting her jumps or spins, maybe just the steps a bit as she it will be a little harder to press on a deep edge. But she seems to be adjusted to them just fine.

Probably so. but I tend to think that's stiffer is harder and causes pain but in figure skating and maybe just the opposite and offer the support that Alyiona needs to skate her best with.

Well, I wanted to share my impressions of Aliona's performances yesterday, but apparently I've written something with a censored word, so my post got blocked. Anyway, hopefully I can post it later. I'm absolutely thrilled for her!

I'm sorry to see that she had to give up her dream of becoming a neurosurgeon, but I'm glad we'll get to see her skate for at least a few more years! :yes:

Also, I'm glad to hear that Daria is such a good friend and supporter of Aliona! And Rozanov too. Aliona had said at one point that he is her favorite trainer, and it's nice to hear that he continues to support her as well. :yes:

I've been posting in this form since 2014 and only in the last seven or eight months have I been getting many posts deleted for reasons I do not know. I try not to use those magic words that will automatically get the post deleted. But it is frustrating Bat to spend five or 10 minutes on a detailed thoughtful post only to have it not appear. All I can say is you are not alone.

I think most people see brilliance and beauty and artistry and musicality in Alenas performances. when you combine all the aspects of figure skating together she really is the most talented of them all and the most appealing of them all. I don't think puberty will hit her hard like it has some of the other ladies out there so I think we're in for several years of wonderful skating from Alena.

 

[Yuzuruu]

Don’t worry about the boot stifness, I am only an amateur skater and use Edea Ice Fly which are marked 90 in stifness - I cannot imagine going back to anything softer. Stiff boots provide tremendous support and Edeas are very comforable in general Breaking in took about a month, but I believe Aliona uses them for a few months now so I’m sure they are already fully comfortable for her. They should last her for at least 2/3 seasons, possibly more

 

[SkateSkates]

We are lucky that so many photographers came to Finlandia this season. I don’t think I’ve seen this same volume of photos come out from any of the other challengers this season!

This photographer got some great photos:
http://photos.phantomkabocha.com/FigureSkating/Finlandia2019/AlenaKostornaia/index.html

As did this one:
https://ajtl.pictures.fi/kuvat/Finlandia+Trophy+2019/Ladies+free/Alena+KOSTORNAIA/

https://ajtl.pictures.fi/kuvat/Finlandia+Trophy+2019/Ladies+short/Alena+KOSTORNAIA/

https://ajtl.pictures.fi/kuvat/Finlandia+Trophy+2019/Prizegiving+Sunday/

Sport24 published photos and interviews from each day, which can be found on their Flickr (all photos in their photo stream)

https://flic.kr/p/2husHBZ

Plus many more from Japanese fans who made the trip to see and photograph Shoma.

 

[Batsuchan]

Ok, let's see if this works now... Finally posting my impressions of the FS!

1) I was feeling seriously ill (so nervous!) when the final group took the ice. And then it was so hard to tell who was who during the warmup, but then at the very end we saw Aliona do a perfect 3A+2T combo and I was somewhat relieved.

2) When Aliona took the ice she looked confident, not nervous at all, so I had a feeling she would land both those triple axels. The combo was so beautiful, so I was prepared to see her fall on the 2nd one, but she didn't! She hung onto the landing! Amazing! It did look tight on the landing, though, so I'm not surprised it got called UR. I held my breath when she got to that final 3Lz, but then she did it, a clean program! WHAT A STAR!!

3) I loved the dress, and I actually really like the blood drops. :luv17: As others have said, I was fond of the choreo to the "Meadow" music that has been mostly been eliminated; I hope they can add some of that back. I really liked the "running steps" to the beat that she used to have. It also is a little bit weird to me that her first three jumps are axel jumps. I think it might be better to switch the 3Lo and the 2A, unless the plan is to give Aliona another chance to do a 3A if she pops one. I still wish that there was more lively, interesting choreo to go to the end part of "Supermassive black hole," because the spirals in the choreo sequence are kind of a letdown, but overall, wow, it is so much fun to see Aliona having so much fun!

4) I really had no idea what to expect with the score. Again, I was kind of worried by the long delay before they announced the scores, but I guess the judges had to make sure they gave her all the points they could? Or maybe they got so caught up in Aliona's performance that they forgot they had to give her scores?
What an amazing feat to beat her previous personal best by about 17 points! It always makes me happy when Aliona is surprised by her scores. :luv17:

5) I'm actually glad that the solo 3A was called UR--that gives her something to improve upon. :yes: If she was completely perfect here, it would have been amazing, but it would have put enormous pressure on her to be perfect for the rest of the season, and it's clear that she's still stabilizing the 3A.

6) I know she was talking about the 4S, but I think stabilizing her existing content (and possibly adding the 3A in the SP) is what she should focus on. Did you see all the tape she had on her hip?
I suspect that is covering up a nasty bruise (from one of her falls on a 3A), and it reminded me that there is a cost to training these new elements.
Staying healthy and injury free should be Aliona's #1 priority! :yes:

7) Wow, how quickly things can change in a week. Last week a lot of people had written off Aliona for the season, and even I thought it would be very difficult for her to beat Liza, let alone make the Worlds team. And now I firmly believe that if she gets that 3A stable and adds it in the SP, she will be in the running for World gold!

 

[Batsuchan]

So for fun, I calculated Aliona's scores at Finlandia with men's PCS factoring.

For the SP, she would've received 85.79, which would have put her 4th in the men's SP.
For the FS, she would've received 175.51, which would have put her 1st in FS!
Her total score would've been 261.30, which means she would've won the men's competition as well! :eeking:

Yes, our angelic vampire TOTALLY slayed this weekend!! :cool2:

I also noticed that her TES of 85.91 is higher than Alina's TES when she got her highest FS score at 2018 Nebelhorn Trophy (83.54). If Aliona lands both 3As cleanly, I think she has a very good chance of beating Alina in the FS and overall. :yes:
Personally, I do not expect there to be too much of a gap in their PCS because Aliona IS the total package, and the only thing she lacks versus Alina is a loop combo. But maybe that's my wishful thinking...

If Aliona does beat Alina and/or their PCS are similar or Aliona even tops her in PCS, I do fear that the fans of Alina are going to start attacking our girl... :noshake: Oh well...

 

[Batsuchan]

It seems Aliona's stalking incident has gotten wider attention in the skating community (which is good). Christina Carreira, a US ice dancer, posted on Twitter about it with the hastag #protectangelalena!
https://twitter.com/ccarreira03/status/1183846061401628672?s=19

Yes, protect our angel!!

A few weeks ago, one of Aliona's fan accounts (Kostornaiateam) posted a story where they said that Aliona told them she wouldn't be able to do any fan meetings at Crystal rink anymore (or at least until "after graduation," whatever that means). Now I'm wondering if they've banned these fan meetings because of some other unpleasant incidents...

 

[sclloyd]

So, for some less happy news...

After the medal ceremony yesterday, Aliona was sweet enough to go around the rink and take pictures with fans. :luv17: Then this one middle-aged man insisted on putting his arm around her and pulling her close, and then he kinda fell on her and dropped his phone. The whole interaction looked very uncomfortable for poor Aliona.
https://youtu.be/MLfLFkIUBVw?t=60

So then the Russian fans figured out who he was, and he seems to be kind of a crazy stalker of Aliona. See his page here, and the extremely creepy post where he's kissing Aliona's picture:
https://vk.com/id322191604

SERIOUSLY. NOT. COOL.

Thankfully it seems that people told Daniil and Skating Finland about it, so hopefully Team Tutberidze will be keeping a close eye on fans' interactions with their skaters. You can read more about the incident here (if you want to):
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183713213281656832?s=19
https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1183725578530234374

The safety of Aliona (and all the skaters) is most important! :yes:

At first I was thinking, oh the man is somewhat on in age, perhaps it was a slip over the barrier, but after seeing his VK, I’m mortified. And to not just be an overzealous fan at the arena but to creep around her hotel as well?

I’ve no doubt that Daniil would take matters to his own hands were the security to be insufficient. We see how careful he and Eteri are protecting and shielding them from even the smallest bumps of random people walking past. And, as he’s said in interviews, these girls are as if his own daughters. I don’t doubt her safety with her coaches. They’re very protective.

When she is on her own is more concerning. I hope this doesn’t dampen how much her and the rest of Eteri’s girls seem to enjoy their moments as tourists. Even with parents and coaches looking onwards there is much more freedom.

I also attempted to translate what was written in the post of him kissing Aliona’s photo.

I’m not anywhere near fluent, and often rely on translations myself, but this is what I have.

“I am the husband. You, Aliona, my wife. I ran good, fresh air overnight. Aliona Kostornaia loves Vadim to improve health and beauty and sports. Alena kissed with Vadim. Another girl, mischievous girl who is able to escort off in a car and create conflict with Russian Vadim and Aliona Kostornaia.”

A couple things to note...I don’t know if escort has the same connotation as in the states, but combined with “creating conflict” it sounds... absolutely awful. Also, it doesn’t seem like he himself is fluent. I might guess he misspelled the word for escort which, if changing a letter translates to “drive”. I also don’t know if he’s using the wrong tense of “kissed” or if there is an idiom I am missing, and saying when he sleeps he is dreaming such things.

In any matter, the details need not be discussed. They, and him, have no place in the sport. He should be placed on a security watchlist and barred entry into any venue where Aliona is competing or performing.

Truly disgusting.

 

[sclloyd]

We are lucky that so many photographers came to Finlandia this season. I don’t think I’ve seen this same volume of photos come out from any of the other challengers this season!

This photographer got some great photos:
http://photos.phantomkabocha.com/FigureSkating/Finlandia2019/AlenaKostornaia/index.html

As did this one:
https://ajtl.pictures.fi/kuvat/Finlandia+Trophy+2019/Ladies+free/Alena+KOSTORNAIA/

https://ajtl.pictures.fi/kuvat/Finlandia+Trophy+2019/Ladies+short/Alena+KOSTORNAIA/

https://ajtl.pictures.fi/kuvat/Finlandia+Trophy+2019/Prizegiving+Sunday/

Sport24 published photos and interviews from each day, which can be found on their Flickr (all photos in their photo stream)

https://flic.kr/p/2husHBZ

Plus many more from Japanese fans who made the trip to see and photograph Shoma.

Your first link... why is she so photoshopped? I could understand some color correction to improve the brightness and colors of the photographs, but her eyes don’t even look like hers. I also see all the bruises on her arms are gone. Interesting the photographer would change her so much...

 

[flanker]

Aliona is thankful to her coaches and fans:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3mdj2joezl/

 

[Finley]

So for fun, I calculated Aliona's scores at Finlandia with men's PCS factoring.

.....

If Aliona does beat Alina and/or their PCS are similar or Aliona even tops her in PCS, I do fear that the fans of Alina are going to start attacking our girl... :noshake: Oh well...

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I truly hope that never happens. Especially not here on this forum. There will always be horrible people online who get pleasure from trying to make other people angry. I want to believe the majority of Alina's fans have more respect for fair play than attack another skater for no other reason than scores given to her by judges. Something that is completely beyond her control!

If anyone is tempted to, I hope they remember how not fun it was to read an entire season of 'overscored' posts about Alina.

Trying to manage my expectations this season. I wish all of the 4A success. They are absolutely beautiful, talented athletes who deserve all of their wings. Each one of them in their own way is a unique gift to this sport that won't be seen again. It's unbelievable that we will be seeing them all at the same time competing against each other!

As for my favorite, I just want to see Alina skate with joy and the results will be what they will be.

 

[nussnacker]

If Aliona does beat Alina and/or their PCS are similar or Aliona even tops her in PCS, I do fear that the fans of Alina are going to start attacking our girl... :noshake: Oh well...

Let's not stigmatize any group of 'fans', shall we? There would be attacks on whoever wins ANY gran prix stage, I'm already bracing myself for what Anna will have to endure this week. :noshake:
But most importantly, Aliona and Alina are a TEAM Alina would be happy for Aliona is she wins, that's for sure Girls support each other and no matter the result, I'll be more than proud for both, which I think applies to majority. There will always be one odd person looking for conspiracies and creating negativity. And whoever decides to start a stink - well, the best option is to ignore it at all costs, don't feed the trolls
Both ladies are deserving, and I would be happy if both win. Remember what Eteri said about Trusova and Zagitova? "The girls were a real team today!"

 

[wootini]

I t h I n k it's a bracket and I love that entry ... Maybe someone can confirm?

I wanted to try out this entrance this morning (with a waltz jump, not a 3A!) and so my daughter and I slowed the video to watch carefully - we are nearly certain it's a right back inside counter to a forward right inside counter, which leaves her on a right back inside edge. Then she power pulls onto a right back outside edge and steps forward into the jump takeoff.

It's definitely either a rocker or counter, as you can see clearly she is changing from one circle to another with each turn. (3 turns and brackets remain on the same circle.) Well, I can say it is definitely difficult to do and a bit scary but quite fun - although I can't imagine trying it at her rate of speed! Her knee action and edges are lovely and so well controlled.

So pleased to see Alena is happy and skating well! She's such an exciting talent and I love watching her skate.