Well, I guess it doesn't matter now... the question is what is Russia going to do next? They have no teams ready to offer a real challenge on the world stage.
Push S/B and make sure Junior teams stick together so they have a strong team for 2022
Obviously, but imho that's a mistake... SB are just not up to the task. And the juniors, who knows... anything can happen there and they have a lot of work to do ...the juniors are hardly dominating the field in juniors
But I guess that's what they are going with... what a disaster
Hmm, the juniors are hardly dominating the field in juniors?
Junior Ice Dance - Grand prix final - 4 out of 6 teams were Russian!
PL Name Nation SD FD Points
1 Anastasia SKOPTCOVA Kirill ALESHIN RUS 1 1 153.61
2 Christina CARREIRA Anthony PONOMARENKO USA 2 2 151.76
3 Sofia POLISHCHUK Alexander VAKHNOV RUS 3 3 149.04
4 Sofia SHEVCHENKO Igor EREMENKO RUS 5 4 144.38
5 Arina USHAKOVA Maxim NEKRASOV RUS 6 5 141.88
6 Marjorie LAJOIEZachary LAGHA CAN 4 6 141.28
World Championships Junior Ice Dance 3 out of top 5 were Russian
Result
FPl. Name Nation Points SD FD
1 Anastasia SKOPTCOVA / Kirill ALESHIN RUS 155.15 1 1
2 Christina CARREIRA / Anthony PONOMARENKO USA 147.68 6 2
3 Arina USHAKOVA / Maxim NEKRASOV RUS 146.88 3 3
4 Marjorie LAJOIE / Zachary LAGHA CAN 146.22 2 5
5 Sofia SHEVCHENKO / Igor EREMENKO RUS 145.85 4 4
Going by the Junior major championship results, I'd say Russia is totally dominating the field in Juniors!
But I'm curious, tvuckic16, who do you think is dominating the field in juniors if it is not the Russians?
I guess what I really meant to say is that none of them stood out to me... sorry but they don't. It's not like they are blowing the competition out of the water...
I mean Yanovskaya Mozgov were blowing the competition out of the water except for Hawayek/Baker of the USA and look how that turned out, Y/M broke up and HB didn't make it to the Olympics. I don't think you can say much about the juniors just yet... and to me, none of the pairs are exceptional...
SB were Junior Champions ffs, and they are awful
It was said in a Russian press release, I can't remember where and by whom, but in many places as well as on the Russian forums.
Before Russian Nationals, the Russian Federation had to send to the IOC who it wanted at the Olympics.
So the Fed had to anticipate the results of Russian Nationals in advance.
So it sent B/S and S/B as the main team and S/K as 1st reserves and Z/G as second reserves.
So those 4 teams were assessed by the IOC, if they were clean enough to invite to the Olympics.
When the list came through from the IOC of the teams invited, only B/S and Z/G were on the list.
Both S/K and S/B were absent from the list.
Why in a sport of people like margaglio and lobacheva it’s very clear how people can succeed with no skating skill! You can say well that was 6.0 but you must factor Russia is still in 6.0 only one needs talent mindset and their technical panels are so lenient all s/b elements are almost always level 4 including step sequences!They would need to be coached because, IMHO, I still see great things in their individual skating. OTOH, Nikita has to do so much work to make him and Victoria look palatable after 4 yrs already. Zhiganshin was great in the beginning, but after they made that great start he just couldn't keep up and that is why Frida didn't have the impact that it should have had. My little cutie Anton, well the less said the better. We're still waiting for him to keek up with her for a full four minutes! I don't think he and Lena would need more than two seasons to get their groove back. But I agree with you with respect to galas.
This must be my inner desperation talking, because I am not a fan of Katsalapov's character. But while I was intrigued by some of the juniors after watching them much more closely I realise they do have a long way to go. Also when I contemplate S/B being the new number one's in B/S's absence I just can't. I mean I looked at I/K's gala from 2013 EC and S/B's latest outing and its so glaringly obvious how superior these two were. No offence to her fans but Stepanova cannot skate. How is it that she progressed so far in the sport? It's unbelievable. I found Domnina and Shabalin the most impressive and cohesive as team, during that gala, than any of our current pairs. Oh well.
I do remember a huge list of like 500 being submitted but having no idea who was on the list! I don’t remember it ever being mentioned once Sinitsina or katsalapov Or both were banned. It didn’t matter but surely would’ve been bigger news!
It’s just when I was reading the zhulin interviews on his desire for s/k to go to worlds no one mentioned s/k being banned from the Olympics. I wish there was more info on The katsalapov olympic ban.Russian skaters on the original 500 odd list submitted in June 2017 were the national team at the time, B/S, S/B, S/K, Z/G, L/D
Then the final list submitted in late 2017 was just the first 4 without L/D
It has only come out recently the news that Nikita didn't get invited, it was in several Russian press releases.
Push S/B and make sure Junior teams stick together so they have a strong team for 2022
Stepanova is a weak skater. I suppose they can achieve being among the first 5 couples in World if they are consistent over the years, but not like they can compete with the couples which are really talented and have something special.
She didn't improve much. She's still painful to watch especially during steps. And she looks bigger than him: the knees aren't well matched.
I agree that they have a sort of a romantic chemistry - something similar to an easy comedy - you enjoy it, it was fun, but it doesn't impact you in anyway. For example, they don't have that spicy, turbulent vibe that I/K had, nor the ethereal, the feel that there is a complete union between them and with the music as P/C.
You can’t just have minor improvement in ice dance!! Once judges on technical panel discover Stepanova has no edge expertise you have why they are 9/11/10 at worlds! You need to show enormous gargantuan improvement so technical callers can watch Stepanova and give s/b level 4 in step sequences and judges can give Stepanova +3 goe!!
Everybody needs massive improvement for a level 4, it is that hard. I think only 2 teams (maybe 3) going into worlds managed to get at least one level 4 this season.
S/B main "issue" is those step sequences in the FD. The edges are actually much better than before without a doubt but it lacks a lot of seamlessness and they look a bit laboured (and sometimes unclear, that can lead to level 2s).
But have you notices their PCS at Euros ? 36+ and 55+ ? That's close to H/D and C/L (very close), I wouldn't be surprised to see them on the podium (or 4th) in Milano.
Everybody needs massive improvement for a level 4, it is that hard. I think only 2 teams (maybe 3) going into worlds managed to get at least one level 4 this season.
S/B main "issue" is those step sequences in the FD. The edges are actually much better than before without a doubt but it lacks a lot of seamlessness and they look a bit laboured (and sometimes unclear, that can lead to level 2s).
But have you notices their PCS at Euros ? 36+ and 55+ ? That's close to H/D and C/L (very close), I wouldn't be surprised to see them on the podium (or 4th) in Milano.
Everybody may need improvement to do level 4 but the point is no one needs to go further than Stepanova. Worlds is always s/b’s worst competition of the season and there is a reason for that! She’s exposed. She’s not against bobrova and capellini anymore. She’s up against papadakis! She’s up against hubbell , she’s up against great talents of the world.
It’s IJS! You can’t have a Stepanova anymore no matter how good Bukin is. Averbukh could have lobacheva and Fusar poli could have margaglio as a partner but in IJs where both skaters are put under extreme extreme microscopes (or close-ups) There can’t be any success like a world Olympic or gpf title with Stepanova. That’s the only purpose of a major Russian team. To win worlds and Olympics. That’s it! They are not doing the job. Their results are super awful and atrocious at worlds they have been to.But if you're comparing her to Gabriella or Maddison that's normal if you are not happy, these 2 are the strongest out there because they have the basics to go with.
Worlds is not their "worst" per say, last year they received massive scores compared to their previous competition (Europeans 2017), it's just that there are many more competitors. I think they have competition against Chock/Bates and even Weaver/Poje - The latter have a nice skating but it's unpolished and thus it doesn't get every GOE it could get. And compared to Maddie Chock, she has a lot of power (also, Maddie was injured this season, and they haven't been performing as well as they could).
And then you have to see Stepanova as "Stepanova/Bukin", there are 2 people in a team and you may be not convinced with her, but as a team I'd say they are definitely doing the job.