Alena Kostornaia | Page 346 | Golden Skate

Alena Kostornaia

Lzbee said:
Yeah I don't believe Daniil has malicious intentions but he's learning the hard way that your words matter when many people are listening lol. You can see his reactions are also more subdued than previously because fans criticised his rinkside manners.

It's starting to look like Russia might need Aliona to be on form now so I hope she's ready to seize the opportunity as an underdog. I can't see her beating Anna but a silver with a big margin would be great.

I don't think IDF's field should be taken for granted though because there's a fair few skaters with 210+ potential. Aliona will have to beat Haein Lee and Wakaba Higuchi who have potential 3As, Kseniia Sinitsyna who potentially has 4T, Yeonjeong Park who almost beat Trusova and Mariah Bell who is a US darling.
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If there is anything Aliona does best it’s proving people wrong when she’s right on others heels.

“You’re so close, but you won’t be able to beat Anna and Sasha”
“Watch me”

Having a little breathing room competitively inside Russia might give her a second wind and that extra little bit of confidence and fire?
 
DizzyFrenchie said:
I was shocked by Z.'s reproaches to Daria but I never expect anything better from him. I don't understand why he's still in such a team.
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Same, I wish she would kick him out. I’m sure there are many other dance teachers to substitute him, he’s not bringing some unique value. He’s not the core part of the coaching team either, he gives dancing lessons in many different skating teams, he also teaches at his dance studio. But for the little time he spends there, he acts like he’s the boss giving all the interviews and pretty much his every interview makes me want to facepalm. At times he would insert himself in things, no one asked him about. He’s like Laishev! Half the time doesn’t even know what’s going on.


Batsuchan said:
I had said that Team Tut wouldn't pay attention to Aliona because they had too many other Olympic contenders, but now things have changed with Sasha and Dasha injured. At the beginning of the week Daniil was critical of Aliona not doing working as hard as she should, and now, voila!, he's liking her IG posts and singing her praises. :rolleye:
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He liked them even before that. I don’t think they had any issues between each other, maybe that interview inspired another honest conversation and changed something for them? Let’s see.
Perhaps Aliona feels like she has a window of opportunity now and I wish she would seize it.

But the words of Daniil make me hopeful. It sounded like her fire and desire to fight is coming back. I hope to see a better performance in France.

LadyScarlatta said:
:ROFLMAO:I feel happy, it really hurts me for trusova and daria are out but I'm happy that Aliona now has a little more opportunity for GPF.
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Aliona has a very high chance to get to GPF. Even if she places 3rd, she would only need to score higher than 206(?) to have a higher combine score than Young. Probably will take a meltdown from Aliona to not get there. With silver she’s in 100%.
Sounds doable to me, without even underestimating her competition.

Then she’d have 3-4 weeks until GPF to improve even more. If she medals there, it can be a big argument for her to be on the team. Then she’ll have another few weeks to gradually improve before Nationals, where she can hopefully can come full force.
 
nussnacker said:
He liked them even before that. I don’t think they had any issues between each other, maybe that interview inspired another honest conversation and changed something for them? Let’s see.
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The impression that Daniil didn't want her to come back came after his famous IG "It's not decided yet". Most comments I read on the topic assumed that he didn't want to take her back and still resents her now. But I never saw anything factual to support this assumption. For all I know this message voiced the state of things in the team without any indication as to who wanted to take her back and who was more reluctant. It means even less that she was not fully readopted afterwards. I see issues in everyday training relationships and he has spoken them but the evolution I felt last week (maybe wrongly) is that they have come to an understanding that they were all doing their best to solve them.

And now, I wonder if this last photoshoot with a more mature make-up wasn't an endeavour to catch the character she can have in her SP. It must be interpreted as a "full grown woman" not a teen. For Twilight she doesn't have to impersonate somebody else, rather give herself another story. In New York New York it's the opposite. She has just to sparkle (natural to her) but as a grown woman (interpretation). She already has these slower, deeper plié movements for instance. If things go on well this program will be fire.
 
nussnacker said:
I don’t think she’s an afterthought.
If she was, they wouldn’t even bother changing the programs. It’s surely an additional effort in an already busy season, but they are willing to do that in an attempt to help her.
And as bad as those words seemed from him, (which also made me very disappointed in him) he said their wish is for her to skate cleanly with 3*3A. That their connection is great and they discuss everything and she understands them. Daniil probably meant no harm and maybe had to think on his feet with his answers, because he was caught on the entrance somewhere when he was answering questions. But as FS is such a publicized sport, he should’ve known better and been very very careful about what he’s saying. He‘s not an idiot and should know how his words will be taken and printed.


What bothers me is that Anna started at a much worse point than Aliona this season. She started 1.5 month late, adding vacation time, she was probably off ice for 2,5 months.
She had less time than Aliona to get back her quads and get back consistent 3-3 and she managed.

I don’t think Aliona has any physical issues that prevent her from doing the same and skating consistently with 3*3A. She’s not any less talented than Anna. As Danny G said it’s not the lack of talent or motivation, it’s not her missing practices, because that’s not the case. He also mentioned that she competed better than how she trained, so her competitive instincts are still there.


I do think it’s the same issue we heard about earlier, that she doesn’t want to try jumps, when she feels weird, because she’s scared she’ll get injured.
Likely this also means she doesn’t want to do runthroughs at the same amount as others.
Probably also the reason why she just skates in circles, because she’s afraid to try the jumps. The reports I read from SC is that she tried 1 3A fell and had a hard time bringing herself to do another one. I don’t think they purposefully tried to pay attention to Kamila, but Kamila does jump a lot more often in practice, hence why there’s a feedback to give. If Aliona doesn’t feel like she can jump without getting injured that day, there’s likely no possibility to give her feedback on her jumps.

So I see this as not having anything to do with just 1 thing, it is likely a complex issue. I don’t see any issue in her technique, because her 3-3 are still massive and rotated, she is capable of rotating that 3A.

Likely she’s not training the jumps enough for them to be super clean and consistent, that’s why they are giving her issues. I don’t know what can help her, perhaps she needs a sports psychologist to help her get rid of that fear, but I really hope she‘s able to pull herself together and go for the jumps more often. There’s still a chance and not all is lost yet for Olympics. I believe she’ll do what she can, I just wish Aliona would go for it and be at her best, no matter how hard it is.
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i'd like to weigh in on a couple things with my past competitive experience.

i don't think the fact they left Aliona alone on practice means she's an afterthought. sometimes the coaches know when to just leave the student alone to sort through the problem themselves. in that moment, nothing they say is going to help and she needs to work through it in her own head. this happened to me plenty of times on practice as i had a huge mental block with popping jumps.

which brings me into the next thing. skating around the rink endlessly before a jump 100% means fear and a mental block. when skaters do this they are trying to build up their confidence to try the jump and they are afraid of it. i did this when i had the popping issue- i was afraid of the jump and the possibility of a hard fall or injury. this mindset in itself will increase the risk of injury. it is a big big time waster and in the end holds you back in all other areas of your skating resulting in stagnation and loss of consistency.

she has to find a way to work through this and gain her confidence back. i don't know if that means a sports psychologist or just forcing herself to do the axels to become comfortable, but she has to overcome it if she wants the olympic team.
 
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macy said:
i'd like to weigh in on a couple things with my past competitive experience.

i don't think the fact they left Aliona alone on practice means she's an afterthought. sometimes the coaches know when to just leave the student alone to sort through the problem themselves. in that moment, nothing they say is going to help and she needs to work through it in her own head. this happened to me plenty of times on practice as i had a huge mental block with popping jumps.

which brings me into the next thing. skating around the rink endlessly before a jump 100% means fear and a mental block. when skaters do this they are trying to build up their confidence to try the jump and they are afraid of it. i did this when i had the popping issue- i was afraid of the jump and the possibility of a hard fall or injury. this mindset in itself will increase the risk of injury. it is a big big time waster and in the end holds you back in all other areas of your skating resulting in stagnation and loss of consistency.

she has to find a way to work through this and gain her confidence back. i don't know if that means a sports psychologist or just forcing herself to do the axels to become comfortable, but she has to overcome it if she wants the olympic team.
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Oh yes, I 100% agree that Aliona seems to have a mental block (or at least she had one at Skate Canada), and I think that potentially a sports psychologist would help.
But as of a few weeks ago, it seemed like Team Tut (Daniil especially) was waiting for Aliona to figure it out by herself (either by overcoming it herself, or finding outside help on her own); they weren't going to help because they have so many other skaters to focus on. Now maybe their attitude has changed with Sasha/Dasha injured, or maybe Aliona's own attitude has changed because there's a chance she'll make the GPF and a glimmer of hope that she could potentially make the Olympic team.

I had written earlier that the Russian FS experts' talk about Aliona has shifted from trashing her to saying "don't count her out," and I was hopeful that we might see a boost in Aliona's scores, but it's really up to Aliona to capitalize on this opportunity.

The mental block about the 3A, the lack of stamina, and the fact that her programs weren't polished were definitely real issues at Skate Canada. I really hope she has been able to work on these things. :pray:
DizzyFrenchie said:
And now, I wonder if this last photoshoot with a more mature make-up wasn't an endeavour to catch the character she can have in her SP. It must be interpreted as a "full grown woman" not a teen. For Twilight she doesn't have to impersonate somebody else, rather give herself another story. In New York New York it's the opposite. She has just to sparkle (natural to her) but as a grown woman (interpretation).
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I actually disagree with this a bit; I think that Aliona has no problem playing a "full grown woman." If anything, I think the latest photoshoot character would have been perfect for her Beth Hart program, which fit her perfectly when she did it at Finlandia. The problem, to me, with "New York, New York" is that it's a bit cutesy, lightweight, jazz-handy. For me, it's the kind of program that would've fit Lena Radionova perfectly, but for Aliona, I want something a little darker, a little more intense, a little mysterious (like the photoshoot).

If I had picked an old jazz standard for Aliona, it probably would've been something more like "Cry me a river," maybe mixed with something more upbeat at the end.

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Aliona had mentioned in one of her interviews that they worked on 2 new EX programs for her (one for Canada and one for France), which is how we ended up with the NY, NY SP. I guess this means we might see a new EX this weekend? Maybe Edith Piaf, like she always wanted?
(But honestly, I kinda wish she would've used that time spent training her new EX to train her actual competitive programs...)

Anyway, I hope that the photoshoot was a helpful mental break for Aliona and maybe gave her a chance to step away and then refocus. I hope she has been training hard and can be confident and charismatic at IDF! 💪

One last shot from that photoshoot -- the photographer's favorite:

:love: :love:
 
I've seen a lot of people say that Aliona not trying enough jumps in warmups is a sign of fear, but she's been doing this her entire career. And I don't think the warmups affect her competitions as much because she is a mentally tough performer. Even Daniil says that Aliona always shows more in competitions(never falling on her 3A in comp even though she does a lot in practice). Ultimately as fans, we don't know much about the situation. Maybe she's struggling with covid aftereffects and this is the maximum she can show. Maybe she does need to practice more. Maybe she's struggling with motivation and needs a mental break. All we can do is show our support to Aliona. :pray:
 
Trick of a fans mind I did dream of Aliona tonight.
It is very strange because I don't remember dreaming except when I wake up during the dream or very short after, so I wonder it this appens more without me knowing.

It was a dinner...
... No. I know what you're thinking :devilish:: It was not a romantic dinner :shrug:
There was a lot of people, but anyone else at the table was like out focus.
That's a pretty good painting I think because should it happen I would barely take my attention away from her.
It was like representing that, to me, she will always stand apart in any crowd.

She was seated to the right of the person in front of me.
There's no need to say how stunning she was, being insanely beautiful with her deep enchanting eyes and her sunny smile.
What I find interesting was how lively, smart, elegant and funny she was. Listening and sharing her well tought opinions.
She was like an adored queen with her court orbiting around her.
I know it's my inconscious mind's projection of her, but I think is a good projection and worth sharing

(here at least where there is less chances to be considered crazy) :ROFLMAO:
 
macy said:
honestly i've kind of learned to not pay too much attention to her practices or get concerned if it's not going well. with her it's not usually an indicator of how she will compete.
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Same, she always competes better than she practices. I used to be the same way when I competed in Irish dancing lol, very different from skating but something I can relate to. 🤣

The only thing I am disappointed to see is that she's still not going for a second 3A even in practice. I really hope if the first one in the FS is good enough to tack a +2T onto she does go for it.
 
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