Tamara Moskvina and 2006

[Spirit]

I've been a little out of touch with skating this past season because I had less time than usual.

Are any of the current top pairs in the world coached by Tamara Moskvina? Is she grooming someone for the 2006 Olympics? I'm curious to know if the Moskvina Medal Express is still chugging along.

 

[Ptichka]

Moskvina (or, to be more precise Tamar Moskvina and Igor Moskvin) currently coach two teams - Obertas & Slavnov and Borzenkova & Chuviliaev. O&S came to Moskvina from the Velikovs, the coaches of Petrova & Tikhonov, former coach of Anton Sikhuralidze. B&C come fro Natalia Pavlova, former coach of Totmianina & Marinin, as well as Elena Berezhnaja; they are memorable for their huge height difference, as he is about 2 meters tall. The latter are certainly for the next Olympic cycle; the former are groomed not so much to medal, but to make a splash in 2006.

You could see this in the program (or, rather programS) that Moskvina did for them this season. The first LP really concentrated on technical elements, getting the skaters to feel comfortable with the difficulty. The LP they did in Moscow was to very popular music, which I consider very cheesy, and was full of a lot of tricks rather than being a real "program". The only way I can explain this is that she created for them a program that was charismatic and memorable. In theory, though, they could, with much luck, get the bronze in Turin. This season I believe they've been known to beat Pa&To, Pe&Ti, and Z&Z in SP, but I don't believe they could do it overall.

 

[chuckm]

I am very fearful for Julia Obertas, after watching their programs this season. Slavnov is very shaky on some of those complicated lifts, and at times it seemed she was about to take a header. The throws weren't secure, either.

I think this season was definitely a step backwards from last season. I think this season would have been better spent on working on making these two 'skate as one' rather than pushing technical skills that clearly they were not quite capable of. Not only were the lifts scary, but their final spins were often not only clumsy but also ugly.

 

[Spirit]

Thanks, Ptichka.

When was Berezhnaja coached by Pavlova? I thought her previous coaches as an adult were Zakharov and then Drey.

 

[Ptichka]

I could be wrong, but I believe Berezhnaja & Shlyakhov trained with Pavolva before Moskvina noticed them (they then left her when they started skating for Latvia). BTW, Elena's first coach was Nina Ruchkina with whose son she skated.

 

[hockeyfan228]

With Totmianina/Marinin, Petrova/Tikhonov, and Obertas/Slavnov all seeded skaters, and a maximum of two seeds from one country allowed in any one event, I'm hoping that Borzenkova/Chuvilaev get at least an invitation to Cup of Russia and a second one as well. I think they're skating beautifully together this year, and more as "one" than Obertas/Slavnov, who have the advantages of being Moskvina's top team, Obertas' charisma and line, and bigger "tricks."