Mikhail Kolyada

[rachno2]

*NHK spoilers*
https://news.sportbox.ru/Vidy_sport...ale_Gran_pri_bez_Kolady_i_Alijeva__eto_proval

I know reading these things is bad for my health, but I just have to rant about Averbukh. This narrative that Misha could easily challenge the top men if only he fought harder is so arrogant, delusional, and unfair. I understand that this is what federations do; they exaggerate and promote the potential of their own skaters (like US media promoting Chen as the favorite for Olympic gold). But unlike Nathan, who had and has the technical arsenal to compete for gold, Misha faces a significant technical margin, and the top 3 are getting astronomical PCS. Even if he went clean, he wouldn’t suddenly become the favorite for gold in a stacked field. So why this recycled narrative?

I hate that Misha has to perform in Russia in less than a week under these circumstances. Thank God he’s a cheerful person with a good head on his shoulders, but to be branded a failure right before a home competition is terrible. He isn't even technically out of GPF yet.

Even Voronov got treated with condescension here. He's a "true fighter" (unlike Dima and Misha), the audience loves him, but his scoring potential isn't high enough to challenge for gold, so it's a pity he qualified instead of Misha. I'm over it.

Part of me really wants Misha to get usurped as Russian #1 this year so the constant smear campaign will stop and he can skate for himself. But, as we saw with poor Aliev, there is nobody else. Maybe Sergei can stay consistent, but the feeling I get is the Fed still doesn't want him, just like last year. So it falls to Misha to suffer.

 

[vorravorra]

The "someone else takes the number 1 spots and Misha is relieved and can happily skate for himself" narrative - this isn't really how it works for perfectionists with self-confidence issues. Never having leadership and losing it are two very different things. Especially if this requires a string of failures rather than someone with 16 quads appearing on the horizon that you can't reasonably be expected to compete with.

 

[coldblueeyes]

I mean, it will come to a time when Russia will just move on to self-destruct another discipline. They did it with dance, now they're doing with the men. What really grates me is that addiction to find someone to be the savior, because not one of the guys is it. Not even the junior kids, none of them is a prodigy as of now, so for the next five years at least I doubt we're going to see a russian men leading the way like the russian girls do. And no matter how much they think this radical approach is the right thing to do, it will never make a difference when they keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.

It's like they learned nothing in the past. It's proven that being inconsistent is not something only one skater is, and the faster they realize that--fans alike-- the better they can approach this to find a solution. Some people in Russia seem to just throw all the guys in one bag and shake to see who of them will come out on top, and that's just not how it works. We saw that last year: they wanted to flunk Sergei in RN, though Sergei helped them a lot, and then the chosen skater at the time flubbed his own competition in Euros. Then they ran like headless chickens during the team competition to save the other disciplines, and that plan worked with very mixed results, because not only Russia got away (only) with silver in the TE, they also lost the podium in pairs, which they were expected to make.

I have a lot of feelings about the way Russia treats the men, and they're not really getting better each year.

 

[rachno2]

The "someone else takes the number 1 spots and Misha is relieved and can happily skate for himself" narrative - this isn't really how it works for perfectionists with self-confidence issues. Never having leadership and losing it are two very different things. Especially if this requires a string of failures rather than someone with 16 quads appearing on the horizon that you can't reasonably be expected to compete with.

I know you’re right, I just wonder if it would relieve the tension even a little bit.

 

[vorravorra]

I have a feeling that being #1 motivates Misha at least as much as it weighs him down. He has a tendency to pull himself together just as his top position becomes truly wobbly. He will never go as far as actually saying it, but there has been enough between the lines that he knows he is the best and should be on top. Plus it's not like he would be left alone if he became number 2, witness Aliev.

 

[Tutto]

*NHK spoilers*
https://news.sportbox.ru/Vidy_sport...ale_Gran_pri_bez_Kolady_i_Alijeva__eto_proval

I know reading these things is bad for my health, but I just have to rant about Averbukh. This narrative that Misha could easily challenge the top men if only he fought harder is so arrogant, delusional, and unfair. I understand that this is what federations do; they exaggerate and promote the potential of their own skaters (like US media promoting Chen as the favorite for Olympic gold). But unlike Nathan, who had and has the technical arsenal to compete for gold, Misha faces a significant technical margin, and the top 3 are getting astronomical PCS. Even if he went clean, he wouldn’t suddenly become the favorite for gold in a stacked field. So why this recycled narrative?

I hate that Misha has to perform in Russia in less than a week under these circumstances. Thank God he’s a cheerful person with a good head on his shoulders, but to be branded a failure right before a home competition is terrible. He isn't even technically out of GPF yet.

Even Voronov got treated with condescension here. He's a "true fighter" (unlike Dima and Misha), the audience loves him, but his scoring potential isn't high enough to challenge for gold, so it's a pity he qualified instead of Misha. I'm over it.

Part of me really wants Misha to get usurped as Russian #1 this year so the constant smear campaign will stop and he can skate for himself. But, as we saw with poor Aliev, there is nobody else. Maybe Sergei can stay consistent, but the feeling I get is the Fed still doesn't want him, just like last year. So it falls to Misha to suffer.

Sergei is consistent when he is not trying to up his tech, is he getting anywhere with 4lo - doesn't look like he does, his 4Ts and 3As he has been doing for how long exactly? yes who can answer that I wonder - well over the decade (or two I guess no wonder they are reliable elements and still he occasionally makes mistakes on those too. Plus skating programs with virtually no transitions. I am not trying to diminish his good results his longevity in the sport is amazing and he is very likeable guy. But I also can see the RusFed's point here.
His team made a smart choice of taking out 4lo because he didn't need it, a little bit of luck with GP assignments and he is in GPF (and rightly so). Whereas Mika is not because his team can't think on their feet, if he wasn't 100% in Helsinki and couldn't land 4sal in the practice prior to LP wouldn't be a smart move to go back to a previous layout whth which he could secure bronze no problem.

Regarding the way media treats Mika I am afraid it could be a bit more than the usual narrative, maybe the path is being cleared for a certain comeback skater? There was a blog titled 'Kolyada always falls' on the sports.ru which appeared just a day or two before Helsink GP and stayed there well after it finished despite some complaints. The blog was pinned so one could not escape it, was quite alarming.
CoR will be a test of character - God help us!

 

[vorravorra]

You can clear the path for Kovtun all you want, but Kovtun is Kovtun. Let him grab at least onto the third spot first. I don't get the impression he himself is ready for number 1 right now or has such plans.

What Russia needs most of all is a male skater with a strong nervous system who can shrug off the pressure and loves going out there and destroying his competition, but there doesn't seem to be any in seniors and you can't predict anything with regard to juniors until they feel the full weight of expectations. People feel the right to expect another Plushenko and they are not getting one, which leads to frustration and vitriol. What I find most annoying is the entitlement where many Russian figure skating fans are 100% convinced skaters owe them to do well, as if the skaters were in their personal employ :noshake: Even if they are state-funded, it's not your personal money, income tax in Russia is spent on other things, OK? Plus it isn't like none of them are bringing in prize money and earning their keep.

 

[vorravorra]

I mean, it will come to a time when Russia will just move on to self-destruct another discipline. They did it with dance, now they're doing with the men. What really grates me is that addiction to find someone to be the savior, because not one of the guys is it. Not even the junior kids, none of them is a prodigy as of now, so for the next five years at least I doubt we're going to see a russian men leading the way like the russian girls do. And no matter how much they think this radical approach is the right thing to do, it will never make a difference when they keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.

It's like they learned nothing in the past. It's proven that being inconsistent is not something only one skater is, and the faster they realize that--fans alike-- the better they can approach this to find a solution. Some people in Russia seem to just throw all the guys in one bag and shake to see who of them will come out on top, and that's just not how it works. We saw that last year: they wanted to flunk Sergei in RN, though Sergei helped them a lot, and then the chosen skater at the time flubbed his own competition in Euros. Then they ran like headless chickens during the team competition to save the other disciplines, and that plan worked with very mixed results, because not only Russia got away (only) with silver in the TE, they also lost the podium in pairs, which they were expected to make.

I have a lot of feelings about the way Russia treats the men, and they're not really getting better each year.

Did they actually change the plan during the team competition? I think the skaters who had been appointed to skate, skated. T/M only did one program as intended, it's just that it didn't help them to get on the podium anyway.

The Fed must be craving predictability pretty badly. You can feel for them to an extent because they have to report to those on high (like the Ministry of Sports), but they are not the ones out there skating. They must be so happy to have Eteri because she can be counted on for medals. If not one girl then another, who cares. Even if skaters are objectively not the best, like S/B, if they are consistent you can be certain that politicking on their behalf won't go to waste. Imagine throwing your weight behind S/K and Katsalapov being Katsalapov yet again. Pairs aren't really that consistent, which is why I think if M/G manage to stay consistent the Fed will grab onto them for dear life. Men must be driving them nuts. You can't rely on any skater not to bomb or on any coach to ensure they have a student who doesn't bomb. You can have camps, closed skates, enure the skaters are in top form, and then have it not matter in the slightest. What else do you do? For the moment they can distract the people who provide the money and expect a return with shiny medals in ladies, fortunately for them.

 

[coldblueeyes]

It's not like humiliating them and undermining their good results is helping the skaters in any way. I understand the need to expect medals, and the pressure they do have to put on the skaters, but it becomes contraproducent and plain unecessary when it just doesn't bring results. Or even put too much expectations in only one skater - remember Plushenko in Sochi? Then Kovtun after him, then Misha himself. It's not like the trend has been upward since then, and it seems like the Fed just did not realize that.

 

[vorravorra]

It's not like humiliating them and undermining their good results is helping the skaters in any way. I understand the need to expect medals, and the pressure they do have to put on the skaters, but it becomes contraproducent and plain unecessary when it just doesn't bring results. Or even put too much expectations in only one skater - remember Plushenko in Sochi? Then Kovtun after him, then Misha himself. It's not like the trend has been upward since then, and it seems like the Fed just did not realize that.

Well, there has been a bit of an upward trend with Misha's World medal and three Worlds spots brought back (and not lost yet in spite of all the doom and gloom). There are now more men competing at a reasonably high level. Petrov turned Senior early and without quads because there wasn't much competition, now that's pointless, there are too many ahead. Some juniors look promising. There are no quad prodigies yet but how many are there in the world?

 

[coldblueeyes]

Well, there has been a bit of an upward trend with Misha's World medal and three Worlds spots brought back (and not lost yet in spite of all the doom and gloom). There are now more men competing at a reasonably high level. Petrov turned Senior early and without quads because there wasn't much competition, now that's pointless, there are too many ahead. Some juniors look promising. There are no quad prodigies yet but how many are there in the world?

It's not like three spots and a world medal seem to matter much for some? I mean, the ladies almost lost three spots at worlds, and didn't even medal. But I guess worlds was the least important competition of the season...

Though, the future is not bleak. It didn't even was that bleak a couple of years ago, or an entire cycle ago. But the guys just don't seem to last long. I wonder why.

 

[Danibellerika]

It's not like three spots and a world medal seem to matter much for some? I mean, the ladies almost lost three spots at worlds, and didn't even medal. But I guess worlds was the least important competition of the season...

Though, the future is not bleak. It didn't even was that bleak a couple of years ago, or an entire cycle ago. But the guys just don't seem to last long. I wonder why.

The girls don't seem to last long either.

 

[coldblueeyes]

The girls don't seem to last long either.

But they develop early enough to win for a lifetime. We just do not have four, five guys in Russia doing that at sixteen, seventeen. We don't even have that in the world.

 

[rachno2]

Off-topic, but do we think Misha will participate in any competitions before RusNats? He isn’t on any of the entry or substitution lists for the late challengers, but I was wondering if that could/would change given his absence from GPF Will he do Russian Cup final?

Going over a month without watching him is too long for my selfish heart, and I would like him to get practice stabilizing his quads in a competitive setting. (On the other hand, if he is still sick, then he should obviously take advantage of the time to get healthy)

 

[vorravorra]

Off-topic, but do we think Misha will participate in any competitions before RusNats? He isn’t on any of the entry or substitution lists for the late challengers, but I was wondering if that could/would change given his absence from GPF Will he do Russian Cup final?

Going over a month without watching him is too long for my selfish heart, and I would like him to get practice stabilizing his quads in a competitive setting. (On the other hand, if he is still sick, then he should obviously take advantage of the time to get healthy)

The Russian Cup Final is in February so I doubt Misha has any idea if he'll be there. Doing three Challengers after winning two is a bit... let skaters who actually need the SB and ranking points go there. The spots are limited. Maybe they'll find something.

 

[Tutto]

Off-topic, but do we think Misha will participate in any competitions before RusNats? He isn’t on any of the entry or substitution lists for the late challengers, but I was wondering if that could/would change given his absence from GPF Will he do Russian Cup final?

Going over a month without watching him is too long for my selfish heart, and I would like him to get practice stabilizing his quads in a competitive setting. (On the other hand, if he is still sick, then he should obviously take advantage of the time to get healthy)

He might do some domestic comp I guess but it could be a blessing in disguise (not going to GPF) if there are health problems as we suspect, actually I incline more and more to think that it is his chronic back that has been bothering him - hence shelving 4lz despite Raf's help on it.
Even we, fans, seem to forget that Mika has been going non-stop for 3 senior seasons now, never withdrawing from the competitions (apart from 2 small ones), studying at Uni as well, the Oly season especially was very intense, no surprise if he is simply burnt out, maybe Nepela was good as he had some energy after the off-season but Finlandia Trophy was too close and he just wasn't up to it (did he has to do 2 CS really?)

I am thinking of the upcoming weekend and for the first time I feel like I really have no clue what to expect from him?!
Sasha Cohen was predictable most of the time - an excellent SP followed by an okay LP with a couple mistakes, resulting in the podium finish usually 2nd - bingo
With Mika before I knew there would be either a good SP followed by not so good LP or a good comeback LP after a bad SP
Not anymore, even 3lz is not 'safe'
The worst of all I suspect Mika has no clue either

 

[Silver Blade]

Hi all!
Anyone going to Rostelecop cup this weekend?

 

[Tutto]

Hi all!
Anyone going to Rostelecop cup this weekend?

Alas, not! And British Eurosport has decided that we don't need to see anything on TV this weekend (NHK was to good to be true!)

 

[rachno2]

This is in the competition thread as well, but it looks like Misha's VK group is going to livestream his practice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDnm_1BluEU&feature=youtu.be

 

[coldblueeyes]

This is in the competition thread as well, but it looks like Misha's VK group is going to livestream his practice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDnm_1BluEU&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for the link - I stay away away away from competition threads. :agree: