- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
Yeah, I really don't see a downside to it. All of the North American skating fans I know are excited that she will be training here because there's a better chance that we can get to see her skate live at an event, and we're looking forward to more English tweets and interviews as she becomes more immersed in the language. This is good for Russia, because she puts a good face on her nation.
Things like her Sailor Moon exhibition draws anime fans into figure skating, and who knows how many K-Pop fans have an interest after all the attention her EXO fandom received during the Olympics, and all of these people who begin to take an interest in figure skating because of her see her as a cool Russian girl, and that only helps Russia. The more that "cool" and "Russia" are linked together in the minds of westerners, the less hostility there will be, so I really don't get this Russian national sentiment that she is some sort of traitor. She is actually quite the opposite, although I can understand being upset that your tax dollars are paying a Canadian rather than a Russian coach. Still, that seems a small matter to be bitter enough over to say nasty things to an 18-year-old on the Internet. You do you, Zhenya. You make both figure skating and Russia more appealing to the rest of the world.
Agreed.

), and I realized she performed her 9/11 program exactly a year after the Paris attacks. It feels... weird, watching the program after noticing the date 