Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin | Page 277 | Golden Skate

Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin

Sadly, it seems to me that there started a campaign against IZ in the Russian fs press. For one thing, there appeared an article by Elena Vaitsehovskaya in Sport Express under a curious title: “Volosozhar and Trankov came back in Oberstdorf” (http://www.sport-express.ru/figure-skating/reviews/920807/) The beginning of the second paragraph reads:

In Russian:
Начался турнир с танцев, где среди участников были заявлены вице-чемпионы мира американцы Мэдисон Чок/Эван Бейтс. Соперников для этих танцоров в сетке участников не наблюдается даже близко, поэтому основной интерес (причем не только для российских и американских болельщиков) заключается в неком виртуальном сравнении американской пары с теми программами и элементами, что этой осенью намерены показать те, кто завершил прошедший сезон в первой мировой шестерке, плюс – пропустившие год из-за травмы партнера чемпионы Европы-2012 Екатерина Боброва/Дмитрий Соловьев.
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In English:
The competition started with the ice dance, where among the contenders were the vice-world champions Americans Madison Chock/Evan Bates. There were no rivals for them here, not even close, and so the main interest (and not just for the Russian and American fans) is in a virtual comparison between the American team with the programs and elements which are going to demonstrate this fall those who finished last season in the top six at Worlds, plus the Champions of Europe of 2012 Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitry Soloviev who missed a year due to Soloviev’s injury.
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Glaringly and apparently deliberately omitted from this passage? The National Champions Ilinykh and Zhignashin who finished seventh at Worlds. Is that why Vaitshehovskaya talks about top six rather than seven (or, say, five)?

Another Russian fs journalist Andrei Simonenko started his article about Nebelhorn Trophy in Sovetsky Sport (http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/844234) by saying that all the top figures in the world fs come to this competition not because the competition itself is so very important, but because it opens the season, and so the fs power-brokers take this opportunity to work out common strategies for the upcoming season. “In short, specially for the fans of conspiracy theories, to make agreements about who’ll be judged how.” Then paragraphs four and five read:

In Russian:
Татьяна Волосожар и Максим Траньков. Екатерина Боброва и Дмитрий Соловьев. Аделина Сотникова. Как много в этих звуках! В них не только звон золотых олимпийских медалей. В них гордость за наше фигурное катание, которое после ухода предыдущего поколения очень многие объявили погрузившимся в бессрочный кризис. Ничего подобного! В Сочи все увидели, что кризис — это не про нас.

А вот в пост-олимпийском сезоне стало да, тяжко. И если флаг из рук Сотниковой подхватила нашедшая невероятный кураж и мотивацию Лиза Туктамышева, в честь которой впервые за 10 лет на церемонии награждения сильнейшей фигуристки мира заиграл российский гимн, то в парном катании и танцах на льду героев почти не нашлось. Юко Кавагути и Александр Смирнов Европу взяли — а вот на мировом уровне провалились. Ну а танцоры и вовсе за своими перестановками-рокировками отдали соперникам все, что было наработано непосильным трудом. В общем, Таня и Максим, Катя и Дима, Аделина — с возвращением! Нам вас очень не хватало!
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In English:
Tatiana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov. Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Soloviev. Adelina Sotnikova. How much is in these sounds! In them there’s not only the ringing of gold medals. In them there’s pride in our figure skating which many pronounced to have sunk into a termless crisis after the previous generation had retired. Nothing of the kind! In Sochi everybody saw that crisis is not our problem.

But in the post-Olympic season difficulties did come. And if the flag was snatched from Sotnikova’s hands by Liza Tuktamysheva who had found incredible spirit and motivation, and in whose honor for the first time in ten years at the award ceremony for the best lady skater in the world the Russian anthem was played, in pair skating and ice dance there were hardly any heroes. Uko Kavaguchi and Alexander Smirnov took Europe, but failed at Worlds. And as for ice dancers, with their switches of partners they have given away to their rivals everyting that had been won before in impossibly hard work. In short, Tanya and Maksim, Katya and Dima, Adelina – welcome back! We’ve missed you so much!
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Now how dare he say that there were no heroes in ice dance last season? And what have BS done that’s so special? Won team gold by skating their SD? And what have any of the skaters he’s missed so much done this season that so impressed him?

Vaitsehovskaya’s and Simonenko’s ramblings could, of course, have been easily disregarded, if one goes by quality of analisys, but they are the two most well-known journalists in Russia who write about fs, and they always side with the powers that be. It’s for this last reason that I find their articles a cause for worry.
 
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I don`t know if the Russian Fed has already decided to push B/S. What I know is that B/S were #1 for 4 years and the internationl judges never were that enamored with them. They were just waiting to push I/K infront of them, which happened at Worlds 2012 and Olys 2014, the two times I/K were actually clean in a major competition.

In the end there is nothing Elena and Ruslan can do, but work, work, work. After I/Z teamed up we heard thousand of reasons why they would never work: Elena has lost her motivation, Ruslan is too boyish, they will never have good lifts, they will look ridiculous together etc. But when they came out in their first competition, they stunned everyone. I like to compare this situation with the Weaver/Poje vs Crone/Poirier one. The Canadian Federation politiced very strongly for C/P, but the international judges often put them very closely to each other. I think, in the end it`s important who the international judges favor.
 
Marta25 said:
I don`t know if the Russian Fed has already decided to push B/S. What I know is that B/S were #1 for 4 years and the internationl judges never were that enamored with them. They were just waiting to push I/K infront of them, which happened at Worlds 2012 and Olys 2014, the two times I/K were actually clean in a major competition.

In the end there is nothing Elena and Ruslan can do, but work, work, work.
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That one. The international judges have never really liked B/S. They were always just waiting for I/K to actually deliver. There is no reason to care about a few articles, or at least no reason to panic.

And there is indeed nothing to be done but for I/Z to work and show the world what they can do.
 
tulosai said:
That one. The international judges have never really liked B/S. They were always just waiting for I/K to actually deliver. There is no reason to care about a few articles, or at least no reason to panic.
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I'm not sure about that. If judges didn't like BS so much then they wouldn't become EC champions and WC medalists. And I don't think that I\K got bronze just because they delivered but also because BS had very bad FD, changed it and it was clear for Fed that it is better to push I\K on OG instead of B\S.
So I don't think that judges loved I\K so much and didn't love BS.
 
Duality said:
I'm not sure about that. If judges didn't like BS so much then they wouldn't become EC champions and WC medalists. And I don't think that I\K got bronze just because they delivered but also because BS had very bad FD, changed it and it was clear for Fed that it is better to push I\K on OG instead of B\S. So I don't think that judges loved I\K so much and didn't love BS.
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I am. They faced so much disdain in the Russian press last year and had a tremendous season as a first year team. They survived it and honestly they thrive as underdogs. And they are very beloved by the judges. They have great skating skills, depth of edge, creativity and an uncanny ability to perform. Those are the things that will set them apart. Not crappily written gossip that didn't even impact them last year.
 
MK's Winter said:
I am. They faced so much disdain in the Russian press last year and had a tremendous season as a first year team. They survived it and honestly they thrive as underdogs. And they are very beloved by the judges. They have great skating skills, depth of edge, creativity and an uncanny ability to perform. Those are the things that will set them apart. Not crappily written gossip that didn't even impact them last year.
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100% Agree with this. The press is doing them a favour. It's much easier to chase than to be chased. ;)
 
Duality said:
I'm not sure about that. If judges didn't like BS so much then they wouldn't become EC champions and WC medalists. And I don't think that I\K got bronze just because they delivered but also because BS had very bad FD, changed it and it was clear for Fed that it is better to push I\K on OG instead of B\S.
So I don't think that judges loved I\K so much and didn't love BS.
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B/S were a much more senior team than I/K, but even so, the judges were prepared to put I/K ahead in their 2nd year in seniors at Worlds - B/S had a fall in the SD but both teams were clean in the FD and I/K were ahead by 3 points. The problem was the following season they had terrible terrible programs, but even with programs as derided as Ghost & the weird Aze polka, going against B/S's much more positively received Man with a Harmonica, I/K won the FD and were 0.11 behind overall. In 2013/14, I/K were receiving higher scores whenever they were clean, and by Sochi they were miles ahead. Furthermore, B/S's world medal came in a year when P/B and W/P both had missed a substantial chunk of the season due to injury. I/K had a disaster competition that year, C/L weren't seen as contenders - it just wasn't a year when the battle behind D/W & V/M was all that fierce.

This is not to say that B/S are bad, or there's nothing to like in their skating. It's more that they've always been the reliable steady ones, nothing too exciting, who won't win piles of medals just on their own merit, but who are solid and steady enough to usually be in contention when the other more volatile teams make mistakes. They've only been above 100 in the FD in a full ISU event once, and that was in Sochi when everyone was getting +3 and 10s all over the place.

Scoring at Nebelhorn has been interesting... C/B getting much more conservative PCS than they were at the end of last year.
 
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bramweld said:
That choreo for C/B doesn't strike me as Najarro's. I'd say Igor did a whole lotta tinkering.
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Honestly I feel like they are going for the P/C rip off. Many teams are. Rach does them no favors, they do not fill out the big music at the end. I fell a piano piece should be skated with attention to detail on deep edges and big skating.
 
uhh said:
Scoring at Nebelhorn has been interesting... C/B getting much more conservative PCS than they were at the end of last year.
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I think that judging at Nebelhorn trophy was always reasonable (conservative ;)). But their PCS was a bit higher than the PCS they received in 2014.

@Spiral
I agree with you that it's weird that those two russian journalists leave I/Z out. But the comment about the pair skaters is also unreasonable, because they took 1,2 and 3 at Europeans. It really seems that they want to push certain teams/skaters. But I wouldn't worry about that, if I/Z can't beat B/S then they cannot beat the Canadians and the Americans in the long term. I don't think that top 6 at Worlds or something like that is their ultimate goal. ;)
 
MK's Winter said:
Honestly I feel like they are going for the P/C rip off. Many teams are. Rach does them no favors, they do not fill out the big music at the end. I fell a piano piece should be skated with attention to detail on deep edges and big skating.
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You took the words right out of my mouth.
 
bramweld said:
That choreo for C/B doesn't strike me as Najarro's. I'd say Igor did a whole lotta tinkering.
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I believe that they did away with the choreo all together and that Rach 2 wasn't their first option... I wonder how it will measure up to IZ's FD at GP.
 
LisaM said:
I believe that they did away with the choreo all together and that Rach 2 wasn't their first option... I wonder how it will measure up to IZ's FD at GP.
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Wow, I wonder when Najarro found this out. :popcorn: As for how they will stack up, somehow right now I don't seem to care, I just really, really, like I/Z's programs.
 
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