another Rafael Arutunian interview | Golden Skate

another Rafael Arutunian interview

Can someone please translate this into English? This would seem appropriate. Thanks!
 
Scott512 said:
He wants the age limit raised cuz he's never had anybody great at 15. Lol. Another one completely envious of you know who.
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Scott, I think that is unfair.

I would like to see the age limit raised. I'm not jealous of anyone, let alone "you know who" (whoever "you know who" is). Who are all the "other ones" "completely jealous" of "you know who"?

Rafael is not my favorite coach, but he's had many excellent skaters and he coaches Nathan Chen, so I doubt he's jealous of anyone:laugh:

We can have differences of opinion without attributing those differences to motivations like jealousy. Particularly when there is absolutely no "hard" evidence of such a motivation. :shrug:
 
Scott512 said:
He wants the age limit raised cuz he's never had anybody great at 15. Lol. Another one completely envious of you know who.
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Raf has had someone great at 15 but guess what he guided him to be even greater as he was leaving his teen years unlike a certain Russian coach.
 
I was agreeing with everything Raf was saying. The culture differences, the skaters who win once and disappear, everything. He also commented on Tursynbaeva - exactly the same words I said here, but I got an infraction for it. Is Raf going to get a Goldenskate infraction too?
But most I was agreeing about the age limit. I am becoming more and more allergic to one-season little girls. If the sport is going to be taken over by one-season little girls then it's the end of this sport. The sport is now promoting teenage girl body engineering. Even as we look at Anna or Sasha - they are 15 going on 16 and normal girls at 16 DO NOT look like Anna and Sasha. There is something wrong with this whole thing. Violating the natural growth process. It's just wrong. Raising the age limit is necessary to bring post-puberty women back to the sport. And it must be done.
 
I'm genuinely conflicted on age limits. While I think it's good for the sport to have champions who can remain competitive for more than two years, at the end of the day you want to know that the skaters who win the biggest titles are, in fact, the best in the world at that time. I felt that a potential Olympic champion stayed home in 2006 because she was too young and it took a bit of excitement out of the event for me.

What would change my mind is if the harder jumps we're seeing are truly detrimental to a skater's long term health. Injuries played a contributing, if not primary, part of ending the careers of most Olympic and World champions in recent memory, and we don't really know the extent to which these former skaters struggle with pain on a day-to-day basis. If Sasha, Anna, Kamila, or Alysa end up substantially worse off than those doing just triples, the ISU should probably reexamine not only age limits but maybe some sort of limits on technical elements.
 
In my view he thwarted his own argument by pointing to the Asian roots of Tursynbayeva and Tuktamysheva & hinting how Mother Russia is large and ethnically rich.

The champion skaters will remain slim and small, be the selection through age or genetics. Raising the age limit would close a chance for a lot of women to compete and achieve things in the sport.

What it would lead to, is women starving through their late teens fighting a horrifying battle against nature, counting down the days until they can finally compete in the prestigious events.

I also do not subscribe to the view that prima-donna culture is the best, for someone choking off the chance to win for everyone else for many years. I prefer it to be one or two years for the reigning champions.
 
Manitou said:
I was agreeing with everything Raf was saying. The culture differences, the skaters who win once and disappear, everything. He also commented on Tursynbaeva - exactly the same words I said here, but I got an infraction for it. Is Raf going to get a Goldenskate infraction too?
But most I was agreeing about the age limit. I am becoming more and more allergic to one season little girls. If the sport is going to be taken over by one season little girls then it's the end of this sport. The sport is now promoting teenage girl body engineering. Even as we look at Anna or Sasha - they are 15 going on 16 and normal girls at 16 DO NOTlook like Anna and Sasha. There is something wrong with this whole thing. Violating the natural growth process. It's becoming simply disgusting. Raising the age limit is necessary to bring post-puberty women back to the sport. And it must be done.
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This phrasing makes me very uncomfortable.

I'd understand if concern was expressed for the skaters' health but this sounds debatably like body shaming.
 
Lzbee said:
I'd understand if concern was expressed for the skaters' health but this sounds debatably like body shaming.
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To me, Sasha and Anna look fine for their age when you consider that top figure skaters can't eat whatever they want because they can't be competitive unless they are able to rotate quickly in the air. They might not be built like an average 16 year old, but the average kid isn't doing quads either.
 
lariko said:
In my view he thwarted his own argument by pointing to the Asian roots of Tursynbayeva and Tuktamysheva & hinting how Mother Russia is large and ethnically rich.

The champion skaters will remain slim and small, be the selection through age or genetics. Raising the age limit would close a chance for a lot of women to compete and achieve things in the sport.

What it would lead to, is women starving through their late teens fighting a horrifying battle against nature, counting down the days until they can finally compete in the prestigious events.

I also do not subscribe to the view that prima-donna culture is the best, for someone choking off the chance to win for everyone else for many years. I prefer it to be one or two years for the reigning champions.
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And I do not subscribe to the view that a long lived happy and healthy career is a prima donna culture.

It all depends on how you look at it;)
 
Then the desire to up the age limit is counterintuitive.

Taking into the account that the risk of trauma increases; recovery potential and energy level decline rapidly with age; and the uphill struggle to minimize the weight accumulates the longer it is maintained, starting the competitive years where they start now, at peak performance and body ability—as the ages of the champions in every skating country demonstrate—is what works.

The long and healthy career with what the skaters do is an oxymoron. It’s either short or healthy. Human bodies are not designed for the loads they take long-term, even elite genetic wonders.

At least when I look at Trusova, I don’t experience the same sense of cold dread and guilt that I shouldn’t be watching this kid destroying himself as I do looking at Hanyu.

You let them compete starting at eighteen, they will be out by twenty, because by eighteen, they would have prepared for 13 years to see if they can or cannot win, particularly if they didn’t medal.

Plus, at that age they have parental support to cover the necessities of life and don’t end up pondering alternative career choices in mid to late twenties.

And knowing in advance who is going to win, for years running, well, it gets too predictable. I don’t want the same person, the same recipe win time after time. I want more of them to stand the chance to be winners.
 
lariko said:
Then the desire to up the age limit is counterintuitive.

Taking into the account that the risk of trauma increases; recovery potential and energy level decline rapidly with age; and the uphill struggle to minimize the weight accumulates the longer it is maintained, starting the competitive years where they start now, at peak performance and body ability—as the ages of the champions in every skating country demonstrate—is what works.

The long and healthy career with what the skaters do is an oxymoron. It’s either short or healthy. Human bodies are not designed for the loads they take long-term, even elite genetic wonders.

At least when I look at Trusova, I don’t experience the same sense of cold dread and guilt that I shouldn’t be watching this kid destroying himself as I do looking at Hanyu.

You let them compete starting at eighteen, they will be out by twenty, because by eighteen, they would have prepared for 13 years to see if they can or cannot win, particularly if they didn’t medal.

Plus, at that age they have parental support to cover the necessities of life and don’t end up pondering alternative career choices in mid to late twenties.

And knowing in advance who is going to win, for years running, well, it gets too predictable. I don’t want the same person, the same recipe win time after time. I want more of them to stand the chance to be winners.
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Long and healthy is not at all counterintutive:scratch2: if the only way to succeed in a sport is to skate for three years, and then quit at 17 or 18 because you can’t take it any more, I don’t *ever* want to watch that sport.:laugh: Luckily, since I love the men, I don’t need to.

And with many skaters skating long healthy and happy careers, we see so many more skaters grow, challenge, develop rivalries, develop new rivalries: everything that sport should be, IMO:agree:

It would be a boring skating world if we all liked the same thing. But it doesn’t mean we denigrate those who like something different. I say if someone wants to see revolutions in the air, a million different movements (and I am trying to be neutral in my terms, that’s just what I call them), whatever floats their boat, good for them.:thumbsup: I like something different, good for me:thumbsup:
 
Scott512 said:
He wants the age limit raised cuz he's never had anybody great at 15. Lol. Another one completely envious of you know who.
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He had Mao Asada in 2006 and she was just too you to compete at the olympics, at the time he told the news papers that he had a Japanese skater that was better than all the girls who competed at the olympics. He has had young skaters who were great, Mao wasn't the only one Nathan has been another one.
 
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