Updates on Russian figure skaters?

[zanadude]

Is there any simple summary of what has happened in Russian figure skating since the Olympics? Just checked in for the first time in forever, and I don't recognize 90% of the names I'm seeing at this point.

 

[Mathematician]

Is there any simple summary of what has happened in Russian figure skating since the Olympics? Just checked in for the first time in forever, and I don't recognize 90% of the names I'm seeing at this point.

Shcherbakova and Trusova (effectively) retired post-Olympics. Trusova is with Plushenko now but only trains for his shows. Shcherbakova doesnt do any consistent training at all from what we know but skates shows consistently. Both have been seen hitting 3-3s and Trusova hitting a 4Lz still within the last year but neither have conditioning for competition.

Kostornaia became a pairs skater and married her partner Georgii Kunitsa. They made Nats but had poor placement. They arent worried about it and have potential. They train under Plushenko.

Khromykh still skates. Recovering from severe injury she made nationals but had a disaster event. She can hit a 3-3 but lacks cardio and hasnt seemed to adjust to her new body (she is very tall and has probably the biggest skeleton in ladies FS right now).

Ushacheva officially retired and is now a children's coach, I believe she coaches at Eteri's camp but I could be mistaken.

Samodelkina (do you know her?) has a very consistent 3A in training. She is with Plushenko. She did not compete this season because she wants to compete internationally for Kazakhstan.

Zinina injured. Form totally unknown.

Tuktamysheva lost motivation. Could come back for internationals but otherwise effectively retired.

Kamila stopped pushing for Olympic shape. Taking a relatively fairly scored 237 bronze at Nats. Hit a growth spurt and gained some weight. She is still top 3 in the world despite this. She has an inconsistent 4T, which has sort of been her kryptonite so far. This season she has not been fully focused on competition (despite coming 3rd at Nats) next year she should gain a better form as she adjusts to her new body. She has been getting many brand deals and also does shows.

2 new prodigies from Eteri - Petrosian & Akateva. Both can push 240+ scores easily. Akateva is injured this season, she was the reigning national champ with a 249 score. Petrosian winning this year with 246, and without her usual 3A due to multiple sicknesses and falling on 4F (but hitting 2 4T); her peak should be seen at Spartakiad (Spartakiad replacing GP-final this year) where she could likely push 260+. Both have/had a super consistent and clean 4T. Petrosian now developed an inconsistent 4F. Both are considered to be extremely talented artists as well.

Muravieva is Plushenko's star girl (you probably know her?) and generally the fan favourite. She has a decent 3A but no quads - she is top 2 in the world currently (not including injured girls) with 239 at Nats. She hit her 3A but had a freak trip on StSq in SP losing her 7 points. Ironically this same thing happened to her last Nats and lost her bronze - she never trips in practice or any other time. She is the only Russian girl who is loved by international viewers just as much as Russian ones.

Zhilina (I guess you know her?) is injured this season but looked great before that. She can likely push 230+, and is skating for seniors now.

Sadkova is an Eteri girl who switched to seniors this year. In juniors she had significant podium showings and showed advanced artistry for the age group. She now has a decent 4T and very high level StSq/Spins. She also has an inconsistent 4F and has hit 3A in training. After being injured for months she is now mostly recovered; evidently gaining stability over this season and despite a really unlucky SP at Nats (missed a spin) she dropped a 150 FS. She is improving really fast and could be a podium favourite for the upcoming Spartakiad.

Sinitsyna and Frolova are the best without ultra-c. Sinitsina dropping 226 at Nats (more than Kaori at GP final, and recovering from injury which occured at the start of the season) and Frolova (do you know who that is?) with 219 (she was sick - we will see her full form at the Spartakiad). Likely you know Sinitsyna. Frolova is considered quite artistic. Sinitsina is supposedly working on a 4T but its status is unknown.

Many Junior prodigies. Foremost namely Bazyluk, Dvoeglazova and Prineva. The former 2 being Eteri girls with stable ultra-c, who could also even be potential favourites against any active senior girl except for Petrosian. Margarita - 3A, 4T, 4S all seen in competition. Dvoeglazova - 4Lz, 4T seen in competition, quite consistent. Prineva has a decently consistent 4Lz in competition and has a supposed 4Lo in training. Dvoeglazova skated a 158 FS at a recent junior cup competition (it was a show competition - FS only). Rita's best this season is 230, so is Dvoeglazova's. Prineva 216 but with many mistakes. Bazyluk is likely the slight technical favourite, but Dvoeglazova is considered very artistic. Prineva also has uncharacteristically good artistry for a junior. People tend to compare Prineva to Trusova both by her skating and looks.

Other notable skaters:

Gorbacheva - Last year's junioe champion. Has a 4S but very inconsistent. Top 3-ish potential with a perfect tournament.

Yametova - no ultra-c yet but she just started seniors. Very consistent and energetic, athletic - generally not considered super artistic.

Gushchina - Extremely stable non-ultra c girl. Top 5-6 potential if shes clean. Could beat Frolova if shes perfect, likely not Sinitsina. Very artistic. Just recently began injury recovery (but made Nats and scored decent). Waiting for Spartakiad to see her peak form.

Agaeva, Vazhnova - young girls who had a breakout season. Improving fast and have good potential.

There are countless notable junior skaters. Russian junior girls is likely the most stacked category in the world. I advise watching the JNats.

2 girls who are notable but you wont see:

Titova - Had ultra-C last year, made national team. Unfortunately had a disaster stage this year and didnt make JNats. Didnt hit peak.

Gordeeva - also national team girl with a 4S. She landed it this season but only after her stages. She has a known problem with late peaking. Didnt make JNats.

 

[AlexBreeze]

They train under Plushenko.

Their coaches are Sergei Roslyakov and Betina Popova.

 

[icewhite]

Is there any simple summary of what has happened in Russian figure skating since the Olympics? Just checked in for the first time in forever, and I don't recognize 90% of the names I'm seeing at this point.

De facto retired: Shcherbakova, Trusova, Tarasova/Morozov, SinKats, Kolyada, Tuktamysheva (might come back, but seems unlikely)

Akatieva became champion last year, but had to miss out due to injury this year.
Valieva is fighting, it's unclear whether she's just going through a developmental phase or how hard she's even trying right now. She's doing better than some expected, worse than some thought.
16 year old Adeliia Petrosyan (Eteri) is currently the strongest in women due to her jumping capabilities (4T). It remains to be seen how she develops. Her strongest contender at this point seems to be Sofia Muravieva (Plushenko) who has no quads but a half stable 3A.

In pairs it's a battle between Mishina/Galliamov and Boikova/Kozlovski, but M/G have the upper hand. B/K switched to Eteri. Other strong pairs but none yet on the level of these two.

In ice dance StepBuk are back after Stepanova gave birth to a child this summer. A young very promising and popular ice dance couple broke up and now there's a bunch of young teams which are not on the level of StepBuk at this point so the "oldies" are able to dominate.

In men's Semenenko won nationals for the second time, but his first win against Gumennik happened by tie breaker and this year he was not that far ahead of Gumennik and new star Vladislav Didikzhi, so some people don't value him much.

The domestic schedule seems orientated towards the ISU schedule. The cup has been renamed "Russian Grand Prix". A separate "jumping tournament" and an exhibition program contest are happening.

 

[Azikin]

Valieva is fighting, it's unclear whether she's just going through a developmental phase or how hard she's even trying right now.

How hard she's even trying? Are you serious? Despite everything she went through, despite where other girls from her Olympic team are right now, she medalled at the most difficult competition in the world...

 

[icewhite]

How hard she's even trying? Are you serious? Despite everything she went through, despite where other girls from her Olympic team are right now, she medalled at the most difficult competition in the world...

It was not meant as a dig. I don't follow the Russian girls closely, I was trying to give a neutral account of what I read. I don't know how much effort she puts into her performances, but it sounded like people were doubting it a bit and honestly in case she gets a two years retroactive ban in Janurary, which seems quite likely, it would make sense to not give it your all for a title that will be taken.

 

[Dreamer57]

There's a promising junior woman called Sofia Dzepka who featured in this year's cup series, I hadn't spotted her for a couple of years but it's nice to see her skating again.

I might add that men's skating is focusing more on quads, Gumennik in particular has scored 200+ in a couple of his free skates. However Semenenko has won nationals twice in a row with his consistency.

Just to expand on the ice dance:
Promising juniors: Rybakina/Makhnonosov, Kolomenskaya/Frolov, Scherbakova/Goncharov

Seniors: Welcome back to Stepbuk who were greatly missed.
Morozov/Eremenko were in Krasnoyarsk but haven't been seen at nationals. Rumoured to be switching to France where she has citizenship.
After the partnership of Khavronina/Cirisano dissolved, he teamed up with Denisa Cimlova and they wanted to represent Czechia. Unfortunately the fed wouldn't release him, so he recently partnered up with Elizaveta.

Congrats to Mironov/Ustenko who made the national team and stayed together, in addition to Khudaiberdieva/Bazin and Leontieva/Gorelkin from the top teams (and that's about it)

2022 nationals	2023	2024
Shanaeva/Naryzhnyy	Morozov/Naryzhnyy	Khavronina/Naryzhnyy
Morozov/Bagin	Shanaeva/Drozd	Morozov/Eremenko
Ushakova/Nekrasov	Pasechnik/Nekrasov	(Ushakova/Angelopol)
Pasechnik/Blinov	Kaganovskaya/Angelopol	Kaganovskaya/Nekrasov
Khavronina/Cirisano	[Cimlova/Cirisano]	Pasechnik/Cirisano
Shevchenko/Eremenko	Kravchenko/Shustitskiy	Shevchenko/Yezhlov
Tyutyunina/Shustitskiy	Tyutyunina/Bagin	Tyutyunina/Grachyov

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Sadkova is last year's junior champion, she is now skating seniors and has a decent 4T and very high level StSq/Spins. She was injured for a while but is mostly recovered; evidently gaining stability over this season and despite a really unlucky SP at Nats (forgetting a spin) she dropped a 150 FS. She could be a podium favourite for the upcoming Spartakiad.

Little correction, Dasha is not last year's junior champion, she placed 8th at Jr Nats, 2nd at the Jr Cup Fina and 2nd at the Older Age Novice Championships. (She also didn't "forget" a spin, but lost balance and had to put down her free foot during the base rotations which invalidated it. And she has shown a 3A in training).

Last year's junior Champion is Alina Gorbacheva, who has a 4S but had a very turbulent season so far and just finished 7th at Sr Nats.

 

[Mathematician]

Little correction, Dasha is not last year's junior champion, she placed 8th at Jr Nats, 2nd at the Jr Cup Fina and 2nd at the Older Age Novice Championships. (She also didn't "forget" a spin, but lost balance and had to put down her free foot during the base rotations which invalidated it. And she has shown a 3A in training).

Last year's junior Champion is Alina Gorbacheva, who has a 4S but had a very turbulent season so far and just finished 7th at Sr Nats.

Thats embarrassing. For some reason this whole time I've been thinking of Sadkova as a junior champion, and so I guess I thought Gorbacheva won a year previous because shes a year older. After reading your post I thought maybe I was swapping them but I just checked Sadkova's skating scores and I guess she never won anything major. Thats very weird to me because I was convinced Sadkova was a champion.

I did include information about Gorbacheva.

Fixed the post. Thanks.

 

[icewhite]

There's a promising junior woman called Sofia Dzepka who featured in this year's cup series, I hadn't spotted her for a couple of years but it's nice to see her skating again.

I might add that men's skating is focusing more on quads, Gumennik in particular has scored 200+ in a couple of his free skates. However Semenenko has won nationals twice in a row with his consistency.

Just to expand on the ice dance:
Promising juniors: Rybakina/Makhnonosov, Kolomenskaya/Frolov, Scherbakova/Goncharov

Seniors: Welcome back to Stepbuk who were greatly missed.
Morozov/Eremenko were in Krasnoyarsk but haven't been seen at nationals. Rumoured to be switching to France where she has citizenship.
After the partnership of Khavronina/Cirisano dissolved, he teamed up with Denisa Cimlova and they wanted to represent Czechia. Unfortunately the fed wouldn't release him, so he recently partnered up with Elizaveta.

Congrats to Mironov/Ustenko who made the national team and stayed together, in addition to Khudaiberdieva/Bazin and Leontieva/Gorelkin from the top teams (and that's about it)

2022 nationals	2023	2024
Shanaeva/Naryzhnyy	Morozov/Naryzhnyy	Khavronina/Naryzhnyy
Morozov/Bagin	Shanaeva/Drozd	Morozov/Eremenko
Ushakova/Nekrasov	Pasechnik/Nekrasov	(Ushakova/Angelopol)
Pasechnik/Blinov	Kaganovskaya/Angelopol	Kaganovskaya/Nekrasov
Khavronina/Cirisano	[Cimlova/Cirisano]	Pasechnik/Cirisano
Shevchenko/Eremenko	Kravchenko/Shustitskiy	Shevchenko/Yezhlov
Tyutyunina/Shustitskiy	Tyutyunina/Bagin	Tyutyunina/Grachyov

The 200+ points for Gumennik are due to heavy overscoring though. Gumennik has jumped an outlet with 4S3T, 4Loq, 4S and average landings and got a 200+ score for it. He (and Semenenko when he skates very well) gets GOE and PCS as if he was Kagiyama.
There is a huge bunch of Russian men now who attempt quads, even 4Lo and Lz, but the scores are not meaningful at all.

 

[lariko]

After the partnership of Khavronina/Cirisano dissolved, he teamed up with Denisa Cimlova and they wanted to represent Czechia. Unfortunately the fed wouldn't release him, so he recently partnered up with Elizaveta.

Oh, no. I missed that. This sucks. I really hoped to see him live.

 

[Skater Boy]

I guess Tarasova and Morozv took the year off but have not formally retired but I do wonder if they will come back. They still are contenders for at the worst a world bronze and could win a title. In many ways they are the forgotten team. They narrowly lost the gold to Sui and Han and at the last Olympics easily could have been awarded the gold but for I think we all knew it was going to Sui and Han!

 

[skim1001]

I guess Tarasova and Morozv took the year off but have not formally retired but I do wonder if they will come back. They still are contenders for at the worst a world bronze and could win a title. In many ways they are the forgotten team. They narrowly lost the gold to Sui and Han and at the last Olympics easily could have been awarded the gold but for I think we all knew it was going to Sui and Han!

They have already announced their retirement.

 

[Jumping_Bean]

Does anybody know is this guy appearing in the end of this video the boyfriend or coach of Gubanova?

Anastasiia Gubanova ãã£ã³ã©ã³ãã£ã¢ãããã£ã¼2023 Free Skating ã¢ãã¹ã¿ã·ã¢ã»ã°ããã¯

www.youtube.com

Yes, that's her fiance (at the time boyfriend), Roman Galay, who is also part of her coaching team.

After learning of the suspicious circumstances of how they got together though, I do not want to touch that situation with a ten-foot pole. Let's just say it like this, these two seem to deserve each other.

 

[Arbitrary]

Margarita Bazileuk and her Russian Nations Jumping championship title 2024.
QQ combo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_IAEwDExPA

 

[Skating91]

Setting new benchmarks. I never even considered a female would jump a 4S-1Eu-4S but there you go apparently it is possible. In terms of jumping, I think this is more impressive than Trusova jumping 5 quads. She jumped 4T-3T-3T-3T-3T only minutes before.