Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin | Page 206 | Golden Skate

Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin

Thanks Sabinfire, Doris and the Japanese TV. I'm so happy there is finally a HD video of that amazing SD
 
last one..very last one...that's by yours truly... (so thanks lol)

Wow! I didn't know that. Thank you so very much!!! It's such a wonderful site!

Okay, I have fixed the social media stuff!

I will add the update to the Summer Fan Fest Fete thread now.

Thank you very much! It's great to have everything in one place. I had never seen early footage of them. Elena already had such natural flare and grace even when she was 10-11 years old. It's really strange that Nikita broke up with her then (the first time around), but then it's Nikita... Well, in this case, it's eventually to the best. And it's the first time I heard them (I&Z) speak. They have pleasant voices. Just one small thing - I think it's a press conference from the Russian Nationals rather than Cup of Russia.

And a gift from sabinfire-hidef vids of Russian Nationals!
Great thank yous to both of you! It was really wonderful to watch these again. Fantastic speed, synchronicity, expressiveness and artistic range - and fantastic image and sound quality, plus no commentary whatsoever! If I could watch all FS like that!

I am pulling for COC and COR, they have such a fan base and the positive energy will be awesome!
Let's keep our fingers crossed!
 
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(I've been reading this thread from the beginning for uplifting purposes. :) )

Lol I do this when I'm bored at work! It's funny to see what we were worried about last summer, just hoping that they could skate well get their GPs and maybe get on the podium at Nats, and they did so much more than we hoped! :)
 
I have found the links to the COR press-conference, if there are plans to post them on the front page (IZ come in at the beginning of Part 2): (I've been reading this thread from the beginning for uplifting purposes. :) )

Omg I do that too! I love all of our reactions at events and our impatience and thoughts prior! I'm telling you Ruslena brings people together!
 
I really do that as well, and it's funny to see how it all turned out. At least our concerns were positive and not negative( we're nice:o:) and I think that I/Z's skating does all the talking . I really feel for everyone that can't understand that their skating is something like their visiting card. They just need to show it. There are good teams for me, potentially great teams, and then there's IZ that you see and fall in love, and not ask yourself, maybe this and maybe that. That's called charisma in my book. They stopped all the doubts some expressed the moment they got on the ice.
 
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Lol I do this when I'm bored at work! It's funny to see what we were worried about last summer, just hoping that they could skate well get their GPs and maybe get on the podium at Nats, and they did so much more than we hoped! :)

Omg I do that too! I love all of our reactions at events and our impatience and thoughts prior! I'm telling you Ruslena brings people together!

ITA! I wish I had come here sooner. I remember I was so worried for them before I saw them skate at COC because it was hard to predict how well gelled they'd look compared to the long-standing teams, but it seems to me that many people here were more optimistic than I felt back then. And it must have been great to share the journey of their first year together. Even rereading about it now I feel the excitement again - and the warmth. And it makes me feel even warmer inside to know that there are other people here doing the same thing.

I really do that as well, and it's funny to see how it all turned out. At least our concerns were positive and not negative( we're nice:o:) and I think that I/Z's skating does all the talking . I really feel for everyone that can't understand that their skating is something like their visiting card. They just need to show it. There are good teams for me, potentially great teams, and then there's IZ that you see and fall in love, and not ask yourself, maybe this and maybe that. That's called charisma in my book. They stopped all the doubts some expressed the moment they got on the ice.
Indeed. For me too, sometimes I like somebody's skating, and I remember their name and watch them again next time they compete. Sometimes, much rarer, I'm completely blown away by somebody's skating, and then I'm glad for them when they do well and upset when they don't, and read their bios and articles about them. And then there are cases - much rarer still - when something about a skater touches me so much that I worry about them before competitions, think about them off-season, bookmark their social media sites - and read a year's worth of their fan thread :). In case of Elena and Ruslan, I think part of it is their skating itself - they seem to live in their programs, and also their regard for each other which comes out in their skating - I think they're really looking out for each other, and they both have so much to give each other, and they give without counting. And then there are their personalities themselves. They are both such warm, personable people that I think it naturally gives people pleasure to commune with them, so to speak. That's why they bring so many people together, and, as you pointed out, nice people, or else they bring out the best in people (at least in my case. I used to think I'd love it if Elena and Ruslan stood on top of the podium in Korea, and Morozov and Katsalapov only got to see it on TV, but eventually I thought that Elena doesn't worry about them anymore, so why should I? And then I realized that if Elena and Ruslan indeed won the Olympics, I'd be in seventh heaven, regardless of other circumstances, and wouldn't even think of either of those men.) And, yes, although I've never thought about it in this way before, one can well feel sorry for those who can't - or don't want to - get the appeal of IZ's skating and invent stupid reasons for their popularity. These people really don't know what they're missing.
 
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Even rereading about it now I feel the excitement again

I found this place in December and started with the 'Elena and Nikita split' thread. It seemed so strange to read it 8 months later when I already knew the first results. There were lots of 'Oh, no, I can't believe' and 'is Elena pregnant?' and then somebody's shy 'could Elena possibly team up with Ruslan?' and 'no way, he's too short for her'. :)
 
When I see the magic Najarro created for their SD last season, my anticipation only increases for the FD. The amount of work they have done this season, never mind their results is impressive. I pray they become exceedingly consistent next season.
 
Hi,
there is report about the master-class I/Zh in the blog "48 cups of tea".
Just a few photos and good words for a good mood in the offseason :yay:

"Master-class Elena Ilinykh/Ruslan Zhiganshin, or a story about 122 smiles in photos"
http://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/48cupsoftea/788806.html

Thank you Jane!

I can hardly recognise my thoughts if I go back and read the threads from last summer. I loved Elena from when I first saw her in juniors in 2008, and I loved what she did with Nikita & I wanted them so much to live up to all their potential. I was heartbroken when they split, and I just wanted Elena to be OK - she's the sweetest person & really still so young, and to have so many people in the press attacking her and her partner & coach acting so cruelly must have been awful for her. I was glad she found a new team so quickly, but I really wasn't sure if she & Ruslan would work - I knew he's a good skater, but I just didn't see their styles fitting.

I don't even know what I was hoping for resultswise - maybe top 5 at their GPs, not miles behind S/K and maybe scraping onto the team for Euros & Worlds? I was taken in like so many other people by Marina's chat about how amaaaaazing her blue eyed darlings would be ;) although every interview she did made me so angry with Victoria & Nikita for being so classless. And I suppose a little bit of me hoped that Nikita would learn not to be an idiot & come back & that I/K would finally be the team I always hoped they would be. And then there was Cup of China and everything changed! I had to hide out in a Starbucks next to my office to watch the SD first thing in the morning & I was so proud of both of them (and it's silly to be proud of people achieving things that you had nothing to do with, but whatever!), and then they went to CoR and were even better than I had ever hoped for. I was at GPF with my skating friends & I remember one of them asking me "If you knew that Elena would win the OGM in 2018 either way, would you rather she skated with Ruslan or Nikita?", and by that point, my answer was just "...Nikita who?". Ruslan has just grown and developed so much in the last year, and I expect he'll keep getting better as they grow in confidence with each other & keep working with people like Najarro. And even more importantly, as you can see from the masterclass pictures, the whole team, coaches included just seem like lovely people who deserve all the success in the world.
 
Well, here I have to admit that I'm in the rereading club as well... I wonder what Alba would say. :)

Hi Tanka, I missed you. :)

To tell the truth I don't do that, but now I'm curious. :biggrin: I don't remember what I wrote back then, but I as far as I can remember I've always been optimistic about these two skating together. I never expected them to have such a good first year and I was skeptical about Carmen at first, so in a sense they surprised me but I never had any fear or doubt that these two would 100% fit together. For me they were the best two parts of their previous couples, so what could go wrong?! ;):)
 
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