could you please link some video where it shows those? I watched lots of test skate vids and none show any banners with Alina.
2018-19 Russian Ladies' figure skating
- Thread starter Spirals for Miles
- Start date
could you please link some video where it shows those? I watched lots of test skate vids and none show any banners with Alina.
That‘s a great interview! Zhenya once and for all clearing up that she‘s Russian and intends to continue competing for Russia and that she doesn’t want to talk badly about Eteri nor have people tell lies about her! Great.
I think the damage is already done. Before she left Eteri, she was saying in her interviews she is not even thinking of changing coaches, and that was pretty much the same time she was negotiating with BO.
I am glad she got someone who cares about PR in her team to instruct her what to say in her interviews, or at least noticed that the PR also must target Russian audiences.
- Joined
- May 5, 2018
Zhenya also praised Sasha and Anna in an interview to the Olympic Channel:
“Figure skating is always improving, always going forward. That’s normal. So, those girls, Alexandra and Anna, just showed to the whole world that it’s possible. Not only men can do this,” explained Medvedeva. “They are such sweet girls. I’m really happy that they just did the first step forward in figure skating.”
https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/s...don-t-have-time-to-talk-to-anybody-only-work/
(You can also see a run-through of her tango FP on this link)
“Figure skating is always improving, always going forward. That’s normal. So, those girls, Alexandra and Anna, just showed to the whole world that it’s possible. Not only men can do this,” explained Medvedeva. “They are such sweet girls. I’m really happy that they just did the first step forward in figure skating.”
https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/s...don-t-have-time-to-talk-to-anybody-only-work/
(You can also see a run-through of her tango FP on this link)
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2015
Evgenia is an extremely smart person... she doesn't need any PR or expert in PR or her team to instruct her what to say.
Did you see how she talks during press conferences, for example?... she's a natural speaker... And what I really like at her is the mixture of proud Russian and openess for other cultures. This (and not only this) makes her a great ambassador for Russia.
I think it's not because Tsurskaya left Eteri but because CSKA team don't know what to do with her (and not only with her). I hope they'll be able to find their way and fix mistakes.
I think the solution is very simple: just train more the programs.
Although Tsurskaya is an exception cause Buyanova took an entire month to decide whether to take her or not, so she started training a month later. I can see improvements on her skating skills and speed but when the programs (not just jumps but spins also) are this messy, judges are not going to reward her even in the components.
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2018
I‘m so glad she praises Anna and Sasha for their wonderful achievements. I think they all look(ed) up to her as an idol and I think it means a lot to them that she‘s saying such good things about them. And she‘s definitely right: Anna and Sasha are pushing boundaries and showing the whole world how truly amazing they really are! Her FS looks a lot better than at test skates but it‘s still a bit empty. She feels the music more but I have to admit that I kind of miss her transitions. Maybe she‘ll add more. The program won‘t be my favourite because I don‘t really like tango and the choreo isn‘t that WOW for me like the SP for it to convince me. But it‘s a good, stable program and she‘ll receive the right scores with it.
About the jumps: huge improvement on the 2A! And only one 3Lz! I‘m relieved. Weird mistake on the 3F but she made it up later and it looked fine, so no damage done. She‘s probably trying to have more of toe pick technique and I‘m afraid this takes time. She already has a better pick on her lutz, they‘re probably working on the 3F now because her 3Lo and 3S are totally fine as they are. Overall, she looks fine.
No damage is done. She made an extremely smart and sensitive interview. About the interview in which she said she would never change coaches: I would kindly ask you to provide the time in which they were taken (not published!) or otherwise I‘m just going to assume you‘re twisting the facts. The interview she made with the coaching change was after the Olympics and she contacted Brian way after, during some shows. Sometimes there is a difference of time between taking an interview and publishing it.
The problem is: She never did anything that was “against“ the Russian audience. She literally only moved abroad to train there. Which currently millions of people do every day as we‘re living in the 21st century. She didn‘t change citizenship, nor did she ever say that she doesn’t like Russia/likes Canada better. On the contrary, she always talked about how the change was difficult, explained how she‘ll always be Russian and compete for Russia, made social media posts with the Russian flag... So, I don‘t know what you think she was doing other than targeting the Russian & international audience but I guess I won‘t change your mind either way.
It‘s fine, though, you don‘t have to be your fan and if you think she‘s shallow, that‘s your opinion, too. It‘s a bit funny to my mind that you seem to judge so quickly from just a few interviews but oh well, I guess that‘s the skating community. If you‘re life‘s boring, become a figure skating fan, we have plenty of drama....
I don‘t follow Nepela since I don‘t have a lot of internet and live streams take too much. How‘s Polina doing??
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2018
Her FS looks a lot better than at test skates but it‘s still a bit empty. She feels the music more but I have to admit that I kind of miss her transitions. Maybe she‘ll add more. The program won‘t be my favourite because I don‘t really like tango and the choreo isn‘t that WOW for me like the SP for it to convince me. But it‘s a good, stable program and she‘ll receive the right scores with it.
About the jumps: huge improvement on the 2A! And only one 3Lz! I‘m relieved. Weird mistake on the 3F but she made it up later and it looked fine, so no damage done. She‘s probably trying to have more of toe pick technique and I‘m afraid this takes time. She already has a better pick on her lutz, they‘re probably working on the 3F now because her 3Lo and 3S are totally fine as they are. Overall, she looks fine.
No damage is done. She made an extremely smart and sensitive interview. About the interview in which she said she would never change coaches: I would kindly ask you to provide the time in which they were taken (not published!) or otherwise I‘m just going to assume you‘re twisting the facts. The interview she made with the coaching change was after the Olympics and she contacted Brian way after, during some shows. Sometimes there is a difference of time between taking an interview and publishing it.
The problem is: She never did anything that was “against“ the Russian audience. She literally only moved abroad to train there. Which currently millions of people do every day as we‘re living in the 21st century. She didn‘t change citizenship, nor did she ever say that she doesn’t like Russia/likes Canada better. On the contrary, she always talked about how the change was difficult, explained how she‘ll always be Russian and compete for Russia, made social media posts with the Russian flag... So, I don‘t know what you think she was doing other than targeting the Russian & international audience but I guess I won‘t change your mind either way.
It‘s fine, though, you don‘t have to be your fan and if you think she‘s shallow, that‘s your opinion, too. It‘s a bit funny to my mind that you seem to judge so quickly from just a few interviews but oh well, I guess that‘s the skating community. If you‘re life‘s boring, become a figure skating fan, we have plenty of drama....
I don‘t follow Nepela since I don‘t have a lot of internet and live streams take too much. How‘s Polina doing??
Yes, there will be more transitions in the FS throughout the season Orser already announced that. TCC is known for adding transitions and changing a little bit of choreo throughout the season as the stamina of the skater builds up.
Polina did not do well sadly. Only 54 points. Got URs on 3 jumps.
Not well. She is struggling with URs now (and even downgrades) and levels.
I want to stress the level 2 steps sequence (although Polina has a lovely steps sequence) cause it is an issue also Gubanova has for both programs: i don't know who is to blame, but they need less flailing and more edges and turns.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
Agreed. I've read Bobrova's and Sotnikova's inerviews and statements. Those two are definitely not the best spokespeople... The "drip, drip, drip" comment was especially bad by Bobrova.
I just wouldn't like to see the same crap happen here as what goes on on runet.
Peter Tchernyshev did Gubanova's and Radionova's SP with the rap StSq. I'm not sure if he did Tsurskaya's program as well but the flailing during the StSq for Gubanova is his thing.
This is actually hard to explain for a non Russian person, since it takes a lot of national specifics.
Many of the things she said are basically not cool for your average Russian. For example, when she was raving how friendly people are in Canada, asking her how she is doing and so on, it caused many russian folks to facepalm (overall, in Russia, people are friendly with you the western way when they actually mean it. If a Russian asks you how are you, the person is genuinely interested on how you are doing, it is not a polite way to say hello. So we tend to think that western people are somewhat hypocritical for being friendly without actually meaning it, and we tend to think that people who take that for genuine friendly attitude are somewhat not smart). Or how she boasted how smart she is and how you need to be smart for winning stuff in FS just because she had 4-5s (out of 2,3,4,5) while studying as an athlete (while it is known in Russia that such education is not really comparable even with your average russian school - again, it is hard to explain the education specifics to a person unfamiliar with it). There is also a major tradition of respecting your teachers in Russian culture so for many russian folks her attitude towards Eteri is very wrong and condamnable (yep, you got to answer your teacher messages, you got to give your teacher flowers and thank in person and so on).
Most of those things sound not like a big deal to a foreigner, but Russians kind of get annoyed.
If you look, there are tons of figure skaters / coaches who trained abroad, and who moved abroad and they dont really face such negativity simply because they keep their mouth shut
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2012
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thank you :agree:
I would say Bobrova has the worst single comment, and Adelina holds the medal for worst collection of comments.
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2018
I shouldn't entertain someone with such an obvious agenda, but here it goes.
You do not have to like Zhenya or anything she says but do not purposely misrepresent what happened. Both Zhenya and BOrser have given exact dates of when they first communicated and when they first met. It was well AFTER she said she was staying with Eteri. That is a fact. Dislike her for making a coaching change in a way that you don't like but do not spread false information to create your own narrative.
It's quite disheartening to check this thread often and see people attack skaters' integrity simply because they do not like them. Not only is it disheartening, but I'm sure it's annoying to those who just want to discuss skating without all of the personal attacks and petty drama.
She said it after the Olympics. The difference was what, 1 month or 2?
Of course, such a long time to entirely change your point of view. There is no specific agenda, I just dont respect people who "change their shows while jumping".
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2018
You see, in principle I can understand what you‘re saying. It‘s probably a difficult topic. But there are a lot of Russian fans who don‘t mind any of this, who still support her. The arena at test skates was full of people cheering her name and making banners for her. Why don‘t they mind? How are they different? They’re probably all Russian. Do you really think it‘s just a cultural thing and not maybe a personal thing? I mean, that would totally be okay, we can‘t like everyone. But I find it a bit problematic to say that it‘s “most Russians“ or “your average Russian“ who are/is annoyed by this when in reality it‘s just a small but very vocal minority and she still has tons of Russian people following her on social media and cheering her on.
I won‘t comment on the things she said because this was discussed to death already. I just want to say that maybe it’s better to be a bit more careful as to not perceive things differently than people actually meant and said them. I think there’s a lot of things that were blown out of context (same with Liza‘s comment) or completely misunderstood and that‘s what I - personally - don‘t understand.
I thought Evgenia was the only ladies figure skater in Russia that moved abroad to train and before it had only been ice dancers? But maybe I’m wrong here. Who else did this?
After saying all this, I think it might be better to move on from this topic because we probably won‘t change each other‘s mind right now and that‘s okay. Agree to disagree, I guess.
I can agree with those points in terms of how Russians would likely hear things.
Walking between the two cultures is hard...and the interview was intended for a multinational audience.
As an aside...It's true that some things Canadians say, particularly 'sorry', do not have the same meaning even as compared to Americans.
That said, Canadian civility and friendliness is a real thing. The expectations about how to welcome strangers are high.
Zhenya is likely talking about real and unexpected kindness she has experienced and a different set of norms. She's not being naive, but I can agree she hasn't found a good way to convey it.
