Your best bet for the Russian Olympic ladies team

[silveruskate]

Sure, but Tuktamysheva still currently has a huge advantage over the non-Russians with two triple axels, so she'd probably be able to handle the FS too. I think Russia's fed would ultimately decide who competes in which segment of the team event. Eteri might have some sway but there are other politics involved. Mishin is still hugely respected and has a lot of sway. Everyone knows Eteri's top dog in Russia as far as coaching goes, but for optics and fairness they can't let her skaters have the whole pie if other skaters are worthy, safe bets for the team event. It's a way better story for Tuktamysheva to get the team medal than Anna, and Liza is earning it.

I can also see a scenario where Kamila is left out of the team event and Liza takes the SP and Anna the FS - after all, they are the reigning World silver and gold medalists.

This way (assuming Russia wins team, which they likely will) -- Liza gets a gold (and likely an individual medal that isn't gold), Anna gets a gold (and likely an individual medal that isn't gold), and Kamila gets the individual gold (which is the key prize) and everyone is happy.

I think this is more of what some people want to happen IMO than what is most likely. Liza is likely to medal in the individual event anyways as you said. It will probably rest on Nationals so we'll wait and see!

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Trusova still has more drive than Lisa. It is difficult to choose one of these two (of course, provided that Sasha recovered from the injury).

If the GPF doesn't go ahead, this really benefits her the most.

I disagree that Trusova has more drive. I mean she competed with injury and has shown fight when her SP doesn't materialize, but to me Liza is showing the greatest fight of any of the Russians this season so far. She's doing essentially as good as she can - certainly results-wise she hasn't been lower than expectations. Yes it's a string of silvers but they're all 229+ scores (two of which are above Trusova's season's best) and the judges have started (maybe not deservedly, but still) giving her huge PCS. Trusova has two wins but her CS win was a really bad outing for her, and her Skate America win wasn't her at her best with the injury... so she's playing catch up. At Skate America her PCS was 4th best (as it should be), but she was given 69 PCS so it's not like the judges are keeping her out of the mix.

 

[Amei]

Trusova still has more drive than Lisa. It is difficult to choose one of these two (of course, provided that Sasha recovered from the injury).

I think its difficult to say skater A has more drive than skater B.

More accurately I think the phrasing is Trusova has more technical difficulty and wiggle room for errors than Tuktamysheva, and if healed or even mostly healed Trusova is a better pick than Tuktamysheva for the team.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I think its difficult to say skater A has more drive than skater B.

More accurately I think the phrasing is Trusova has more technical difficulty and wiggle room for errors than Tuktamysheva, and if healed or even mostly healed Trusova is a better pick than Tuktamysheva for the team.

Trusova can score high but she is also messy. Great that she won the FS at Worlds on the basis of her quads but it’ll be terrible if the winner of the Olympics has multiple falls but just rotated her jumps. With Trusova I can see that scenario coming to fruition. But I guess it’ll still be a winner, numerically speaking.

 

[Amei]

Trusova can score high but she is also messy. Great that she won the FS at Worlds on the basis of her quads but it’ll be terrible if the winner of the Olympics has multiple falls but just rotated her jumps. With Trusova I can see that scenario coming to fruition. But I guess it’ll still be a winner, numerically speaking.

Against Valieva or Shcherbakova she would need to be mostly clean to beat them overall in the competition, she might win the FS though

 

[kolyadafan2002]

Kamila (barring injury) seems like a clear lock.
Beyond that I have no clue - will need to wait for rusnats, cup of russia etc.

 

[mrrice]

Will there be any stream for this event? There is SO much on the line for the Ladies and I'm saying silent prayers for Liza Tuk! Such a long and successful career and I know she's talked about how much she wants to be on the Team.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

Will there be any stream for this event? There is SO much on the line for the Ladies and I'm saying silent prayers for Liza Tuk! Such a long and successful career and I know she's talked about how much she wants to be on the Team.

If you are talking about Russian Nationals, then yes: https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/2021-22-russian-nationals-womens-sp.90015/

 

[Skater Boy]

It is unfortunate that there are some concerns. Is Kamila injured? How healed is Sasha? I think Maia's recent inconsistency or some poor skates for a Russian makes it a four horse race Kamila, Anna, Liza and Sasha. Someone is going to be left off the team:.

 

[prorussian fan]

As I predicted when I opened this post, the Olympic team will be Kami, Sasha and Anna !!! Which makes me immensely happy !! Each of these girls deserves it more than anyone, making history in women's skating, breaking stigmas and starting a new era in this sport.

 

[Skater Boy]

Looks like Kamila, Sasha and Anna are going to represent Russia. All worthy but so is Liza. Forget abut the injured Anna, Daria or even Maia. I still worry about injuries or Kamila, Sasha and Anna as well as growth with Kamila. I think Anna has a lot of pressure comes Euros after a disappointing nationals. All Liza can do is watch and I don't want to say hope for implosion or injury but really that's what it will take for her to go to the olympics. Maybe she can posts her getting a quad toe and pressure the Russian Federation.

 

[Azikin]

Looks like Kamila, Sasha and Anna are going to represent Russia. All worthy but so is Liza. Forget abut the injured Anna, Daria or even Maia. I still worry about injuries or Kamila, Sasha and Anna as well as growth with Kamila. I think Anna has a lot of pressure comes Euros after a disappointing nationals. All Liza can do is watch and I don't want to say hope for implosion or injury but really that's what it will take for her to go to the olympics. Maybe she can posts her getting a quad toe and pressure the Russian Federation.

Why would Anna had a lot of pressure? She's a reigning world champion and three times Russian champion. One disappointing nationals don't matter. Russia needs to send its best to Olympics, not someone who can loose to Kaori Sakamoto even if clean..

 

[Jaana]

So far Tuktamysheva has self-destructed at 3 Russian Nationals in the Olympic season and I think that's enough and she does not deserve any extra skate-offs... The women skaters that got chosen for the Europeans 2022 did deserve it. Hopefully they all give great performances at the Europeans and at the Olympics, too!

 

[lurkerghost1]

So far Tuktamysheva has self-destructed at 3 Russian Nationals in the Olympic season and I think that's enough and she does not deserve any extra skate-offs... The women skaters that got chosen for the Europeans 2022 did deserve it. Hopefully they all give great performances at the Europeans and at the Olympics, too!

I have to agree and I say that as someone who prefers Tuktamysheva to Valieva and Shcherbakova. Tuktamysheva has had her worst outing of the season at nationals several times now. Samodelkina and Mishina/Galliamov broke their “nationals curse” this year but for Liza it continues.

As I said earlier if Liza had skated clean the judges would have been ready to score her 235+ and then it would have been a huge scandal indeed for Anna to place just a few points ahead of her with favorable judging, I would have been the first to say she was robbed of a spot. As it is, yes Liza landed 2 3As while Anna did not land a quad but Anna overall landed 10 triples and 3 double axels while Liza landed only 9 triples and one double axel.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

So far Tuktamysheva has self-destructed at 3 Russian Nationals in the Olympic season and I think that's enough and she does not deserve any extra skate-offs... The women skaters that got chosen for the Europeans 2022 did deserve it. Hopefully they all give great performances at the Europeans and at the Olympics, too!

Did Tuktamysheva perform at her worst this season at Russian Nationals? Yes. Was it an utter disaster? Absolutely not.

But a bit gutted that she wasn't able to replicate her performances and capitalize on Anna's issues.

As much as I love Liza, and was rooting for her, the safest bet at this point is to send Eteri's girls to the Olympics if a podium sweep is to be essentially guaranteed.

It's a numbers game at this point, and it's what we really expected... quads are king, and Tuktamysheva not landing her 3As pristinely and things like a 3-2 instead of a 3-3 really cost her. She still had the best *performance* of Russian Nats, and the framed picture at the end was really lovely to see.

Anna still isn't a complete lock for the Russian Olympic podium sweep, but I think she'll get it together.

The saving grace in all of this is that Valieva is likely/hopefully going to be clean so even if Trusova is a technically ambitious hot mess express that rotates her quads enough to land on the podium but falls in the process, and Anna fails to do any ultra-C but also ends up on the podium, at least the winner will be someone who is presentable as an OGM worthy winner to the rest of the world, instead of a winner with multiple errors but huge base value.