Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin | Page 91 | Golden Skate

Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin

I just enjoy hearing the part where he said Ruslena is doing their talking on the ice. It was definitely an image repair interview. I didn't mean for Chaos, lol.
 
In essence his commentary included that all their issues could be linked to Zhulin not paying much attention to them. He was more concerned about shows and making a living. Zhulin was frequently absent from training, and when left with Volkov he was not particularly interested. They left because they needed to find something more suited to their needs. All this came out of his mouth when he was also badly injured in the back and could barely lift Lena. He was also extremely mistake prone that entire season. If you go back to their first season however you see that their material was nowhere as complicated as their peers at the time especially if you compared them to the Shibs. So in all honesty he should have cut Zhulin some slack.

Volkov punished him and expelled him from the rink cause he fell into a junior skater as well.:laugh2:

Oh I think we've had enough of the guy for tonight,bring Euros
 
I just enjoy hearing the part where he said Ruslena is doing their talking on the ice. It was definitely an image repair interview. I didn't mean for Chaos, lol.

LOL Goodness, your intentions were noble MK's Winter. I must just be in a funk. In fact this is a I/Z thread and it just got taken over by one K interview. I need to behave.
 
I just enjoy hearing the part where he said Ruslena is doing their talking on the ice. It was definitely an image repair interview. I didn't mean for Chaos, lol.

I liked that one too.At least for whatever reason he said it and it's really true
 
LOL Goodness, your intentions were noble MK's Winter. I must just be in a funk. In fact this is a I/Z thread and it just got taken over by one K interview. I need to behave.

Bram I love you passion! On the bright side we (Ruslena) are going to Euros and Worlds and well Nikita is not.

Damn. I went there.
 
Bram I love you passion! On the bright side we (Ruslena) are going to Euros and Worlds and well Nikita is not.

Damn. I went there.

I will not be tempted. But I must say I needed that laugh :) All good. I've recovered from that ridiculous rant. I am all in favor of completely deleting every unkind comment I made about K today. Every single one.
 
I liked that one too.At least for whatever reason he said it and it's really true

This was my feeling. He's got an ego bigger than an ice rink filled with girls but he had to acknowledge that they threw down this season. I took note of the side shade he threw but all in all he can take that tell all book and shove.....
 
I will not be tempted. But I must say I needed that laugh :) All good. I've recovered from that ridiculous rant. I am all in favor of completely deleting every unkind comment I made about K today. Every single one.

Don't you dare! It fuels out hate fire. LOL!
 
Don't you dare! It fuels out hate fire. LOL!

And you know Alba knows I have it in me to do just that, but I'm just gonna turn over that proverbial new leaf as they say. And oh yeah, he should just go write that book and ....I had to go there. :laugh2: But now that's out of my system.
 
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And you know Alba knows I have it in me to do just that, but I'm just gonna turn over that proverbial new leaf as they say. And oh yeah, he should just go write that book and hopefully somebody will take it and......I had to go there. :laugh2:

We are never turning over that leaf....ah well I should probably go to yoga and search for that inner light again....
 
Lol do you need to go to yoga too? We need to get a group rate!

:biggrin: I'm not a yoga type at all. I smoke, I drink, I eat. Tonight I drowned my sorrows in a delicious boeuf bourguignon prepared with my little hands, and calvados. :laugh:

Do you really do yoga by the way? I'm curious about the yoga.
 
Respectfully I have to disagree with you here. Trankov was marginally better than Katsalapov, because he knew without a doubt he and Tatyana were going to be unstoppable. But many of his interviews and comments around the time were very ugly. Very. If you work with Trankov, ever, you need to have that man sign a confidentiality agreement. :bang:

While Trankov and Nikita have a lot of similarities (drama queens, no filter), I think they are very different in some key respects (factors that imo play into one's success). Nikita strikes me as very delusional about himself - if he didn't think himself such a star on his own, I doubt even misery with Elena would've prompted him to leave, given his OGM ambitions. Trankov otoh is extremely self-aware - he might have a big ego, but he knows (correctly), and has proven, that he can back it up. He also made a logical choice in his breakup and reteaming ...

From his interviews and some translations of his competition commentaries, Trankov comes across as fairly objective and self-critical in evaluating his own and others' performances (sure, he should have more tact in making some of his comments, but for the most part he tends to be on the mark with his statements imo). Up until this season, all the Nikita interviews I've seen had him making excuses for his or I/K's flubs in competition - I don't recall him ever taking responsibility - it was always "we've never made that mistake before" (i.e. it was a fluke) or "things like this happen."

Also, I actually really loved Mukhortova/Trankov, so while I thought it was the right choice for Trankov to leave for Volo (and was excited about that), I was pretty gutted for the demise of M/T too. I was following that whole situation quite closely, and I disagree that Trankov was disrespectful towards Masha. For one, he gave her plenty of notice, and fulfilled their show contract with her. In their last show performance together, he actually got down on his knees when they took their bows in a salute to her (I mean he is a drama queen but still - I thought that was pretty touching). When prompted in a post-breakup interview to discuss whether Tanya is a stronger partner than Masha (which, duh ...), he actually, in a rare moment of tact (!!!), disagreed and said they each have their strengths and weaknesses. Basically, I thought he showed a lot of gratitude to his former partner. He only started airing the dirty laundry about the way he was treated by M and Vasiliev after Vasiliev blasted him to the media first, and even then his comments came across more as beef with V/defending himself than ill-will towards M.

Anyway, sorry didn't mean to hijack the I/Z thread with what turned out to be a long defense of Max haha. I don't even like the guy all that much as a person (though he does have pretty eyes :love:), and I completely agree that he needs to sign a confi/NDA always (but hopefully not really, so he can continue to feed us fans all the juicy tidbits :laugh:). I just wanted to note some things about him that I think make him more "champion" material than Nikita, since Niki is so inclined to be Trankov 2.0.

As for Nikita's interview - while surprisingly humble, it still annoyed me that he kept insulating there was a "real" story as to what happened - just made the whole "silence is golden" thing disingenuous. Either be like Trankov all the way and defend yourself with your side of the story (and let it be judged) or practice that silence you preach and shut the trap about it altogether. I love that I/Z were open and frank with their side of the situation and then just let their skating do the talking the rest of the way. Anyway, in time we'll see if this new Nikita persona is legit, or if this interview is another PR maneuver ...
 
While Trankov and Nikita have a lot of similarities (drama queens, no filter), I think they are very different in some key respects (factors that imo play into one's success). Nikita strikes me as very delusional about himself - if he didn't think himself such a star on his own, I doubt even misery with Elena would've prompted him to leave, given his OGM ambitions. Trankov otoh is extremely self-aware - he might have a big ego, but he knows (correctly), and has proven, that he can back it up. He also made a logical choice in his breakup and reteaming ...

From his interviews and some translations of his competition commentaries, Trankov comes across as fairly objective and self-critical in evaluating his own and others' performances (sure, he should have more tact in making some of his comments, but for the most part he tends to be on the mark with his statements imo). Up until this season, all the Nikita interviews I've seen had him making excuses for his or I/K's flubs in competition - I don't recall him ever taking responsibility - it was always "we've never made that mistake before" (i.e. it was a fluke) or "things like this happen."

Also, I actually really loved Mukhortova/Trankov, so while I thought it was the right choice for Trankov to leave for Volo (and was excited about that), I was pretty gutted for the demise of M/T too. I was following that whole situation quite closely, and I disagree that Trankov was disrespectful towards Masha. For one, he gave her plenty of notice, and fulfilled their show contract with her. In their last show performance together, he actually got down on his knees when they took their bows in a salute to her (I mean he is a drama queen but still - I thought that was pretty touching). When prompted in a post-breakup interview to discuss whether Tanya is a stronger partner than Masha (which, duh ...), he actually, in a rare moment of tact (!!!), disagreed and said they each have their strengths and weaknesses. Basically, I thought he showed a lot of gratitude to his former partner. He only started airing the dirty laundry about the way he was treated by M and Vasiliev after Vasiliev blasted him to the media first, and even then his comments came across more as beef with V/defending himself than ill-will towards M.

Anyway, sorry didn't mean to hijack the I/Z thread with what turned out to be a long defense of Max haha. I don't even like the guy all that much as a person (though he does have pretty eyes :love:), and I completely agree that he needs to sign a confi/NDA always (but hopefully not really, so he can continue to feed us fans all the juicy tidbits :laugh:). I just wanted to note some things about him that I think make him more "champion" material than Nikita, since Niki is so inclined to be Trankov 2.0.

As for Nikita's interview - while surprisingly humble, it still annoyed me that he kept insulating there was a "real" story as to what happened - just made the whole "silence is golden" thing disingenuous. Either be like Trankov all the way and defend yourself with your side of the story (and let it be judged) or practice that silence you preach and shut the trap about it altogether. I love that I/Z were open and frank with their side of the situation and then just let their skating do the talking the rest of the way. Anyway, in time we'll see if this new Nikita persona is legit, or if this interview is another PR maneuver ...

Thanks for such a thoughtful response. But the bolded part above really struck a chord with me. Let's see if Nikity was just playing Marina's wind up Ken doll.
 
@meteorlight8: Thank you so much about your reply. I agree with your post, and your description of Max.
Only one thing I disagree. Nikita might be a drama queen like Max, but he has a lot of filter actually. I may not agree with everything Max says but the guy can speak for himself.

He only started airing the dirty laundry about the way he was treated by M and Vasiliev after Vasiliev blasted him to the media first, and even then his comments came across more as beef with V/defending himself than ill-will towards M.

About Masha, this is what I remember actually. I don't remember what Masha&Vasiliev said about him, but I know Maxim was mad with him. They (M&V) were in a relationship, if I'm not mistaken? Anyway, disrespectful maybe is a strong word in this case. What I really meant was that there was no love between Max and Masha, but he tried everything till the end to make that partnership work, if I'm correct.
 
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@meteorlight8: Thank you so much about your reply. I agree with your post, and your description of Max.
Only one thing I disagree. Nikita might be a drama queen like Max, but he has a lot of filter actually. I may not agree with everything Max says but the guy can speak for himself.



About Masha, this is what I remember actually. I don't remember what Masha&Vasiliev said about him, but I know Maxim was mad with him. They (M&V) were in a relationship, if I'm not mistaken? Anyway, disrespectful maybe is a strong word in this case. What I really meant was that there was no love between Max and Masha, but he tried everything till the end to make that partnership work, if I'm correct.
Actually,when you insist there are people who know what happened you're not only throwing shade but trying to let the other that you have people on your side , let that be journalists only that are friends to someone's family.I wing give jus words an extra thought
 
Although after all his comments this season I'm not a fan of him at all, Max was in a very different situation to Nikita, as his partnership with Maria was clearly stalling, and in addition Vasiliev was absolutely awful to him. On the other hand, there was never any suggestion that Morozov let his relationship with Elena spill over into the way he coached Nikita. Nikita wanted to stay with him after the split, it's only because the federation told Morozov to get stuffed that he has ended up with Marina. (And the other difference is that Max was clearly trading up in his partner, and Nikita is very much not.)

I agree that this "I won't explain, I don't need to justify anything" angle not actually being all that respectful - sure, he's not directly criticising Elena, but it's deliberately leaving the space that allows other people to carry on with the gossip that she was lazy, a bad partner, not committed etc etc. If he just said something like "We achieved a lot, but we had personal differences that lead to me thinking we would be better with different partners" or something like that (preferably back in March!) it would gone a long way to improving people's opinions of how he's handled the whole situation. And the "people near to me know the truth" thing doesn't help either, it still implies that the blame shouldn't be shifted on him. If he is going to act like that, be explicit and own your reasons for doing it, instead of this hinting nonsense. Plus, even if he doesn't want to talk about Elena, it would be quite interesting to hear him justify why he had the right to split up someone else's partnership for his own ends. And he, and neither has Victoria ever publically acknowleged or thanked their former partners, and they never will, but still you see people responding to this with "oh what a classy & humble interview, sounds like he's got his head screwed on properly" :rolleye::disapp: The bit that really stuck out for me was the "I know quite well when you skate the whole season cleanly and prove you have a right to be in top 3 you get what you deserve" as if they were just kept off the team because of what happened at NHK, and not addressing that they can't get above level 2 on a step sequence, can't consistently get the levels on the lifts, have a coach that says she doesn't know why the judges give them the scores that they do.

ANYWAY, I am waiting impatiently for Ruslan's interview.
 
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Well, to sum up the comparison between M/T and I/K splits, there is a popular saying which has appeared among the Russian fans this season - "Nikita dreamed of becoming a Trankov, but turned out to be a Mukhortova" :biggrin:
 
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