Alina Zagitova

[helenacm]

I don't know... she is still listed on that campany's web-page and she still has it on her IG
And who helps her with the translation into Japanese and English?

If it was really sponsored by Shiseido maybe Shiseido was in charge to make the proper translation. Probably tpromotion focus are in Russia and Japan.. (the countries that Alina's face is more known..) and the english is always necessary once the world speaks it.

 

[johnlawyer999]

Although I love to see Alina perform, but I think it might be better for her to pull out from Russianut. She has nothing else to proof against her own folks. It might be better to restore the energy for next year, which will be a tough year...tough battle to fight. May be she can increase the difficulty of her program during the period.

 

[lusk8]

That is one of the big differences between developed and undeveloped countries..Russia has its HDI (development index) very close to the other's big undeveloped countries as Brasil, China, India, South Korea.. Even all those countries having big economies, they still having undeveloped policies and minds. While in a developed country as Canada, US, Germany, Japan, the government encourages athletes through schoolarships, the kids from undeveloped countries choose sports to maybe have a better life (they normally run away from their reality and find in the sport something to believe..) Once I was watching a volley ball match in Rio, our girls are pretty amazing, they have a lot of olympic's medals (2 o 3 gold if I am not wrong). After it ends, I went to talk with one of them ,Sheila and say that she is awesome! We started a little talk and in the end I gave her a ride (took her to her home). She does not have even a car after years of a brilliant career. For me all those athletes are heros, even more heros than the ones from rich countries. Is very hard to believe, have strengh, and fight under kind of miserables conditions, far away from family, etc. The only sport that has a huge investment still being football.. (and those rich sport's leagues as tennis)
___
(Changing topics sorry I don't know how that forum works ... haha)
Alina's post on instagram seems to be sponsored by Shiseido..Probably that was the reason for 3 languages..

Figure skating funding seems to be a little bit different, and not as widespread in big rich countries like the US and Japan for instance. I think in Russia they do it better but that happens maybe only after you reach a higher level (make the national team in either seniors or juniors). In Japan it looks like they fund you if you are a big stand out.

In the US Skaters have to largely fund themselves with occasional (as I understand) small grants from USFSA.

American skaters and Japanese (admittedly two huge feds with many top level skaters) are largely dependent on their individual sponsorship deals (like with Nike, Kelloggs, whatever) for funding and quite many of them do GoFundMe campaigns too. Amber Glenn of the US did one recently and Yuna Shiraiwa of Japan (who competed quite competently alongside Alina at the GP Stages Alina was in) is running a GoFundMe in Japan right now. Link here for illustrative purposes: https://actnow.jp/project/figure_skate_shiraiwa/detail

Alina was helped by her family, her father and mother invested in her dream and, as I understand from posts here, one of her father's former sponsors helped fund her apartment in Moscow when she first moved there. As she grew in the sport RussianFed invested more on her, and I think that her training costs where possibly covered as soon as she first moved to Eteri (but that still left out living expenses). Now she has personal sponsors and this money can go into extra things for her training but mostly go into her living expenses and savings for her future.

It was a magical moment for her when she could gift back to her father and mother the car that she got from Russian Government and the Izhevsk apartment she got from a private sponsor. I'm sure she felt over the moon about being able to do that.

 

[helenacm]

whole post.

So our girl is independent with only 16 years old! Isn't she a fighter?:gclap: I think at the end that what I trying to say is that the road is much harder for athletes from countires like Russia, Brasil, China... Especially at the beginning! China is the worst case. Lucky Alina who always had her family supporting her! It's make all the difference.

 

[Finley]

Although I love to see Alina perform, but I think it might be better for her to pull out from Russianut. She has nothing else to proof against her own folks. It might be better to restore the energy for next year, which will be a tough year...tough battle to fight. May be she can increase the difficulty of her program during the period.

I think the more you compete (to an extent) the stronger you become. Worlds in Japan is going to be another Battle Royal. It will take everything she has to win there. I think going through the experience of a trial by fire at RusNats is good practice for that.

But I can also see your point. She doesn't have anything to prove and if she sits out it might give her time to do whatever she feels like she needs to do to get ready for Euros and Worlds.

Either way she has my support. I always assume that her team knows whats best for her.

But I still remember when team Moser thought Stolbova & Klimov should skip Worlds to focus on next season. I don't know everything that went into making that decision or their reasons beyond the ones they gave, but imo, it was a mistake.

Injuries and illness happen. You really never know what's around any corner. If you have a chance, take it.

 

[flanker]

So our girl is independent with only 16 years old! Isn't she a fighter?:gclap: I think at the end that what I trying to say is that the road is much harder for athletes from countires like Russia, Brasil, China... Especially at the beginning! China is the worst case. Lucky Alina who always had her family supporting her! It's make all the difference.

Well, that's not completely true. I was writing about this somewhere earlier in the year. In european countries, both eastern and western, the role of state/other public subject is much bigger in the children sport than in US, Canana, and probably even UK, where it is much more about private sponsors. There are many public clubs that provide necessary needs for the young people in many sports. Of course parents need to pay some fees but the majority of the costs are payed from public sources. Also in my country army is huge sponsor of sport clubs (typically "Dukla", our equivalent to russian CSKA), in some other countries it is police (like Carolina Kostner is officially a police agent). So the beginnings themselves are not hard in fact, as long as there is public support. There is a problem now with our ice hockey, where state hugely reduced the support and big rate of the costs must now pay the family, and for youg boys it is very big amout of money just to buy him gear, which he needs new every few months as he grows, so it reduces the field of those who can afford it. It is one of the reason why we did not win any medal at world championship during last six years. But in other sports where there are not such big costs it is still pretty easy for kids to start. E. g. my nephew (now 16) is playing floorball since he was 7 or something like that.

The other thing is to continue when you are not a kid/young person anymore. Then you either have to go in for sport that can keep yourself (like top football players/ice hockey players), having sponsors or be member of the army as I've stated above (many of our top athletes are offcially members of the army).

 

[flanker]

I apologize in advance to Flanker for not fully utilizing the gift he gave me a few months ago.

But I will not be visiting the competition thread again for Russian Nationals.
A shame that a few people can really ruin what should be a positive experience.

I will visit the competition thread for things like 4CC and US Nationals.
Yes, the nastiness will still be there, but I will not be as emotionally invested.

I'm also very tired of the "opinions" excuse for nastiness.

Dirty Harry said it best about "opinions".

There is nothing to apologize for, now I realize it was a kind of "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"

 

[Giltedge]

Although I love to see Alina perform, but I think it might be better for her to pull out from Russianut. She has nothing else to proof against her own folks. It might be better to restore the energy for next year, which will be a tough year...tough battle to fight. May be she can increase the difficulty of her program during the period.

My feeling is that Alina won't be feeling over-pressured and will actually be able to relax and enjoy the atmosphere at roas'nuts. While yet trying to do well and receiving sharp focus of attention from the media and administrators, she won't need to feel too fussed about results, and there will also be an opportunity for her team to be a little experimental with her programmes. Only guessing of course. Let's wait and see.

 

[lusk8]

There is nothing to apologize for, now I realize it was a kind of "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"

I thank you for it also Flanker and have been trying to honor it.

After all you are not Greek, right?

 

[flanker]

I thank you for it also Flanker and have been trying to honor it.

After all you are not Greek, right?

Just geek, maybe

On the other hand, my uncle was Greek, he married father's sister. But he was more Czech than Greek, there was a history behind it, in 40s just after the WWII there was a civil war in Greece with all the atrocities that only civil war brings. Tens of thousands of small children were sent to Czechoslovakia who took care about them to spare them those evil things, so we had rather numerous greek minority (some of them stayed here for the whole life, some returned to Greece in 70's and later), my uncle was one of them when he was just a small boy. In 70s they moved to Greece with my aunt, but in 90s they returned back to Czech Republic and stayed here for the rest of his life (he died of cancer several months ago).

 

[lesnar001]

There is nothing to apologize for, now I realize it was a kind of "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes"

I have gone there quite a bit and enjoyed it a lot. Even some of Alina's early season competitions.

99% of the posts there are nice and there are some really funny "regulars", plus a couple of hard working people who give respectful analysis of each skater's performance.

Even though it is not competition thread related, the whole "Besti-Slutski-Utski" negativity has soured me on a lot of things.

I will be there for US Nationals and Japanese Nationals.
Both very interesting competitions to me for entirely different reasons.

Plus - I feel like a real "insider" being able to go into a "restriced" area.

 

[lesnar001]

Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

Great - another language I don't understand!!!!

BTW - I know where the saying comes from.

It has to do with the Trojan Rabbit (I mean Horse).

 

[lusk8]

Just geek, maybe

On the other hand, my uncle was Greek, he married father's sister. But he was more Czech than Greek, there was a history behind it, in 40s just after the WWII there was a civil war in Greece with all the atrocities that only civil war brings. Tens of thousands of small children were sent to Czechoslovakia who took care about them to spare them those evil things, so we had rather numerous greek minority (some of them stayed here for the whole life, some returned to Greece in 70's and later), my uncle was one of them when he was just a small boy. In 70s they moved to Greece with my aunt, but in 90s they returned back to Czech Republic and stayed here for the rest of his life (he died of cancer several months ago).

Oh I'm sad to hear about your uncle's passing.

Greece is a gorgeous place, I love their history and mythology.

I don't think I have an ounce of Greek ancestry though I would love to have it (Greece and Italy are my two ancestral unicorns, I'm lacking past connections to both but love them dearly). I've studied Greek Architecture as part of my electives in college, best time I ever had.

The world is so full of beauty and amazing things that I deeply regret seeing that it also has plenty of awful things to balance it out (war, bigotry, oppression and many other things).

One of the things I really like about figure skating is seeing so many international skaters interact with each other and show the best side of camaraderie.

Alina learned to love Japan by experiencing it first hand and that is a great experience to have, I'm glad she is young and is already open to the world, that's a whole other gift that figure skating has bought into her life.

 

[zounger]

I thank you for it also Flanker and have been trying to honor it.

After all you are not Greek, right?

I'm the Greek here

 

[lusk8]

Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

Great - another language I don't understand!!!!

BTW - I know where the saying comes from.

It has to do with the Trojan Rabbit (I mean Horse).

Be glad you didn't have my uncle, he learned Latin at law school and once I got a Benetton t-shirt (in the early 80s) that had a fable in Latin (it was actually the wolf and the lamb) and he kept quizzing me about what was written on that t-shirt for many a Sunday family lunch.

 

[lusk8]

I'm the Greek here

Yessssssssss

:hap85:

 

[GS Forum Staff]

Hello Alina Fans!

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Do not insult, call out, or ridicule other posters.

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[flanker]

Oh I'm sad to hear about your uncle's passing.

Greece is a gorgeous place, I love their history and mythology.

I've studied Greek Architecture as part of my electives in college, best time I ever had.

Thank you.

It is interresting as I had history of art as one of my elective in grammar school, I even chose it as a part of my GCSE exam (we call it "maturita"). And ancient greek art incl. architecture was one of my favorite parts (in fact I liked most of it till 19th century, I just somehow did not find many interresting things in modern art apart from rare exceptions )

 

[flanker]

Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

Great - another language I don't understand!!!!

BTW - I know where the saying comes from.

It has to do with the Trojan Rabbit (I mean Horse).

Me too, don't be sad. We had some latin basics during grammar school, but I remember nearly nothing from it, in fact the most latin grammar I've learned from Brian

 

[lusk8]

Thank you.

It is interresting as I had history of art as one of my elective in grammar school, I even chose it as a part of my GCSE exam (we call it "maturita"). And ancient greek art incl. architecture was one of my favorite parts (in fact I liked most of it till 19th century, I just somehow did not find many interresting things in modern art apart from rare exceptions )

That is so cool.

I also took a history of the art elective in college, which was great, but the Greek Architecture one was a favorite of mine. We got to go all over NYC on field trips looking for Greek Architectural influences (even in modern buildings, or what passed for modern back in the dark ages when I attended college) and that taught me a lot about my city as well as about Architecture in general.

I always loved Greece and it's history so marrying that into "modern" NY was quite an experience.

I'm quite eclectic in my tastes in art, unlike my tastes in figure skating which favor Alina heads, whole yards and a few miles above anyone else.

One of my favorite humor quotes on modern art (I have a tea towel with that written on at that I got at the Guggenheim) is this: Modern art = I could do that + Yeah, but you didn't. Quote is from Craig Damrauer.

I could flip that quote back to Alina like this:

Alina = Anybody can do that + Yeah, but they don't