Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin
- Thread starter OrdinaryDreamer
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Knee injuries are super common especially with male ice dancers. Didn't Soloviev have a bad knee injury? Is it because Bobrova is an elephant? Victoria is taller than Elena and Ruslan was alright. And Baker's Cysts aren't even a very serious injury. Elena putting on more muscle would probably help their lifts more if people actually wanted to give them advice and not just criticize her under the guise of concern.
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- Feb 17, 2010
I wonder what caused her to backpedal so decisively? Russian ice dance filled with such unnecessary drama and strife
Who knows. Yesterday they were losing their sponsor because they are not improving, today everything seems to be fine again.
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- Dec 21, 2011
Weight is very hard though, it's difficult to know for sure how much she could slim down healthily as it would almost certainly involve a sacrifice of muscle as someone else said and that could be disastrous for other reasons, and to much weight loss can also become an extremely vicious cycle. However, obviously, they have to find a weight for her and also for him that works for both of them. I am sure they are already consulting with professionals about this though, there is no point in our worrying about it. As always it is most important that BOTH of the are as healthy as they can be.
Vaitch, was speaking from a place of person bias, besides who knows what opinions had been whispered to her. Apparently news got to her that she should check her facts to avoid future embarrassment.
Look at Scott & Tessa - she's bigger than Lena, he's about the same size as Rus. No problems. Nikita is bigger than Ruslan, but still has persistent back & shoulder problems. Soloviev has permanently busted knees & a partner much smaller than him. Guinard/Fabbri have zero size difference, and their partnership works. Vatisekhovskaya is not a doctor, is not an I/Z insider and should stop her stupid crap with her dangerous attitude and obsession with weight. They have never, ever, had problems with executing lifts, apart from the freak accident at Euros when she caught her blade.
Bakers Cyst comes from overwork in general, not from lifting something that is too heavy - and it's an old injury, so how can you be sure that it's not from working with Victoria, who is bigger than Lena? And the overall point is, the more muscle Lena has, like Tessa, the more work she can do in the lifts.
@tulosai Igor has a history of having tough expectations about his female students weight. If he's wasn't happy with Lena, he would have said something by now.
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This can be worked out privately as its done with every other pair that don't have a significant size difference. Examples include V/M, Bob/Sol., Guignard/Fabbri, Anna and Luca. The list could go on. What I don't like is the insistence that Lena has to be smaller. If she just loses the weight the problem will just disappear. Other male ice dancers don't have similar injuries? Ruslan also by extension needs to make adjustments. This incessant need to weight shame her in public is just borderline vulgar. It's really a bullying tactic and they need to stop it.
Edit: uhh, thank you. You said it better than I could.
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- Feb 17, 2010
I remember a youtube video that once was posted in here that explained very detailed that lifts are actually not so much about weight, but more about coordination and balancing, that`s why reverse lifts are even possible for some teams.
Re Belbin/Agosto, if I remember it correctly Agosto used to have pretty big back problems throughout his career because Belbin was so thin that she couldn`t help him during lifts and that apparently also improved when she gained weight.
Re Belbin/Agosto, if I remember it correctly Agosto used to have pretty big back problems throughout his career because Belbin was so thin that she couldn`t help him during lifts and that apparently also improved when she gained weight.
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Yes, but I don’t think both of them will be out at the same time, and KA have teams besides IZ and Popova/Mozgov – wouldn’t they be attending competitions too, like Jr GP, Cups, etc. On the other hand, I’m sure IZ can get more ice in Medvedkovo than in Novi, and they’ll need it with all the lost time. So I hope maybe this played a part, plus KA will be able to give them more of their time on a daily basis. Also Elena said they need to sort out the costumes in Moscow. So I agree, let’s hope for the best.
She said in her blog that their sponsorship was up in the air, that their sponsor was considering whether to continue supporting them or not, but since no decision had been made yet, she couldn’t say that they lost their sponsorship. However, this article is not a lot better. She first writes in a paragraph about SK that the atmosphere in Russian sports makes skaters feel themselves stars before they’ve achieved any kind of serious results, and if they move to the US they then find it difficult to get used to the fact that the universe doesn’t revolve around them, and that they themselves and not their coach or someone else must make them work hard, including when they are tired or discouraged. And then she starts the new paragraph with, “Perhaps, this factor was indeed the biggest challenge for Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin after they’d moved to Detroit and begun working with Igor Shpilband.”
I do know only all too well how much health care costs in the US, but the Fed has paid for Katsalapov’s operation in America rather than ask him to go to Russia for it, and surgery costs way more than anything else. Sometimes they also sent their skaters to do surgery abroad (Smirnov, Miroshkin). So I don’t think money was the primary issue, but maybe one of several.
That’s better, but how many people read her blog and how many read Sport Express? Oh, well, maybe somebody important read the article and told her to stop; I don’t think anything else could make her change her tune. She’s a weather wane (except in cases of personal vendetta, like with Tutberidze).
I’m sure if Shpilband were unsatisfied with Elena’s weight, he would have said it to her alone, but his reputation in this regard makes me worried because I’ve read that Belbin got so thin in the first place at his insistence, because of Agosto’s knees, and that it damaged her kidneys.
I fully agree that doctors – and doctors only, not coaches, journalists and other unqualified people – should advise athletes on this issue.
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Yes there have been times when some of Igor's female skaters have looked a bit too thin to me but I think were it truly a problem more about it would likely have come to light by now, and in most of those cases the skaters have eventually gained at least some of the weight back (while still skating under him) so who knows, stress or something else might also cause it... for example at the 2010 Olys it seemed to my eyes that both Meryl and Tessa looked thinner than usual, and particularly in Meryl's case not necessarily in a good way, but by the next season they both looked a bit larger again (where larger is a VERY relative term, obviously both women are tiny and always have been) so who knows?
I do think coaches should be able to speak to skaters if they truly believe weight is causing a problem, since I think to some degree this is something a coach is qualified to notice, but I think that this is probably done too much at the moment and sometimes at the wrong times... for example if a 14 year old has gained 4 kilos because she went THROUGH PUBERTY this is not appropriate to address, if she is too big for her partner now she simply must seek a new partner not her old weight, but if a 25 year old has gained 4 kilos that might be appropriate for a coach to address assuming she was at a healthy weight previously. However I think that the coach's main responsibility should simply be to call the issue to the skaters attention and insist the skater see a doctor, nutritionist, and/or other specialists to address the issue, NOT to try to work on the issue with the skater themselves or simply insist the skater do whatever they have to to lose the weight.
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@Spiral: The JGP in Saransk starts officially tomorrow, further Igor also has teams skating at the US Classic this weekend. Next week they have 4 teams skating in Oberstdorf, so I guess Igor won`t be the only coach there. They also have teams at the following Challengers in Canada and Slovakia. So, it`s going to be very busy weeks for the whole coaching team. Concerning Kustarova, she only has one team in this year`s JGP and that`s Skoptcova/Aleshin. Mozgov apparently is injured. So, if Elena and Ruslan want to spend some training time with Kustarova, surely she will be able to find time for them.
Again I ask the same question, Spiral, dude why do you bother to post here? There's no need to answer this is a rhetorical question
Don't be so rude. Spiral's comments were fine, not bashing at all and they contribute a lot to this thread.
Spiral is a long time fan posting in good faith, they have every right to be here. I saw nothing wrong with their comments.
Also I had heard Popova/Mozgov aren't training with Kustarova's group anymore, that there was a conflict with training. At any rate, I/Z would be Kustarova's top priority and being one of three teams(plus Kustarova's various low level teams) isn't so bad. Igor has a team at every or almost every event for the forseeable future.
Also I had heard Popova/Mozgov aren't training with Kustarova's group anymore, that there was a conflict with training. At any rate, I/Z would be Kustarova's top priority and being one of three teams(plus Kustarova's various low level teams) isn't so bad. Igor has a team at every or almost every event for the forseeable future.
Again I ask the same question, Spiral, dude why do you bother to post here? There's no need to answer this is a rhetorical question
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