2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Fluture]

Here we go again.

Only thing I‘m going to comment on:

“Zhenya being awarded a gold "champion of hearts" medal.“

Lol. It was her fans who did this. Unless you‘re trying to suggest it was Tarasova or the Russian media behind this, it was nothing more than a bunch of Zhenya fans seeing how upset she was over losing OGM, being upset themselves and giving her a present with a reference to her favourite anime, showing their love. They didn‘t go to Alina to steal her gold medal, nor did they make any comments about her. The whole “champion of our hearts“ thing. Yeah, well, they are fans. Sure, Zhenya is their champion. But it‘s not like they went to Alina and told her this, only to Zhenya personally. What‘s written in the media or social media for that matter or what Tarasova said more than a year ago, is something else entirely and frankly, I see no reason why it should even be here as it‘s purely negative and only fuels the fire of all this ”Medvedeva vs Zagitova“ nonsense and “who said what when and why and who is the biggest bully“ we‘ve had enough of in the last days.

 

[Fluture]

Shocking :eeking:

Yeah, we‘d never have guessed, would we? Quite a revelation.

 

[Scott512]

I think both her SP and FS will give her a good start for her next season. Her SP was finished in April and between June and July she finished her Free Skate, both look to be very suitable for her music choice wise and she said that she had wanted to skate to both programs for years and feels a connection to them, but was not old enough for them the seasons before.
Now she has enough time to get them solid before Test Skates compared to last season where she only rehearsed her Free Skate 10 times before Test Skates. I cannot wait to see the full programs, the small clips already look promising.

I also love Alina's music choices. So I am extremely happy at this point and look forward to the season. Now I am hoping that Anna's FS and Alena's SP will also be amazing *fingers crossed*.

Last year Zhenya was a little nervous and scared because everything was new and rushed. It showed for most of the season then she kind of found her bearings and I expect that to continue this season even with the tougher competition out there.

Alina should have two fine programs this year. I'm looking forward to her continuing maturity.

 

[Fluture]

Alina should have two fine programs this year. I'm looking forward to her continuing maturity.

Is it shallow to say that I‘m really looking forward to seeing the costumes? Olga always makes great ones and I‘m hoping to finally see a good Cleopatra costume.

Test skates will be so interesting. And they‘ll be broadcasted on National TV too. So far I‘m really looking forward to seeing Zhenya‘s and Alina‘s programs and Sasha‘s FS. For me, these are great choices so far. I‘m neutral if slightly curious about Anna‘s SP and hesitant about Aliona‘s choice for the FS. Hoping we‘ll get announcements for the rest of the programs soon now that their training camp has ended.

Also, do we know anything about Sofia‘s programs? Has she announced them yet? It will be interesting to find out which direction she plans to take with her skating.

 

[nussnacker]

I don't like Zhenya. I have my russian peeves, but honestly I would probably have gotten over them and would go back to cheering for her, because I admire her determination and hard work. And also because I sort of cheer for a flag and I want "our" athletes to win - the ones that have some ties with Russia. But thank you russian media, thank you "furcoats", your bias is so huge that my balance loving heart wants to get as far on the other side as it can.

Don’t say that Moriel. Say that “you don’t hate her, but you just don’t like some of her actions” and then go on criticizing as much as you want, that’s how people do it here

 

[Scott512]

And another issue to all this is that non-Russian speakers kind of miss a lot of russian media context, which had a lot of fun stuff happening since the Olympics, which was the thing that turned quite a few fans away from Zhenya
They don't hear Lipnitskaya commenting on Zagitova's Olympic Gala performance, and wondering why is Alina getting so much hate.
The Olympic videos by 1st channel (tarasova commenting) actually had to be edited before being uploaded to youtube, due to how inappropriate her live comments were. People who don't speak russian can't appreciate that.
They dont hear Tarasova insulting Alina's father on tv.
They don't see al the russian media and FS community outcry to raise the age limits (compare this with US, who are happy to have the young prodigy Alisa Lyu, mostly - while russians spent most of this year defending the raising the senior age limits. For real.)
They likely didn't get to read Levan Matua's interview about pre-Olympic marketing.
The negativity about Eteri in russian media and interviews of FS people.
Journalists calling Medvedeva a "holy person", or openly insulting Alina.
Headlines about Alina always containing something negative: "She won, but fell" and so on.
Zhenya being awarded a gold "champion of hearts" medal.
Stuff like that.

And while many of those things are not such a big deal or even cute if isolated from everything else, all together has a certain trend.

Most non speakers end up missing quite a lot of context like this, while quite a few russian speakers are actually so annoyed by all that at this point that they just want it to end, because it is incredibly ugly. And I don't mean Medvedeva here, but all the PR + Journalists + FS people such as Tarasova.

Ok, I spoke out. Don't hit me, people.

I don't like Zhenya. I have my russian peeves, but honestly I would probably have gotten over them and would go back to cheering for her, because I admire her determination and hard work. And also because I sort of cheer for a flag and I want "our" athletes to win - the ones that have some ties with Russia. But thank you russian media, thank you "furcoats", your bias is so huge that my balance loving heart wants to get as far on the other side as it can.

What did Julia say about Alina's olympic gala performance?

I'm sad because the way you described it the Russian sports media is absolutely horrible. Probably even worse than our sports media here in the good old USA. We should send Christine Brennan to Russia so she can write for sport Express.

 

[Bluediamonds09]

Is it shallow to say that I‘m really looking forward to seeing the costumes? Olga always makes great ones and I‘m hoping to finally see a good Cleopatra costume.

Test skates will be so interesting. And they‘ll be broadcasted on National TV too. So far I‘m really looking forward to seeing Zhenya‘s and Alina‘s programs and Sasha‘s FS. For me, these are great choices so far. I‘m neutral if slightly curious about Anna‘s SP and hesitant about Aliona‘s choice for the FS. Hoping we‘ll get announcements for the rest of the programs soon now that their training camp has ended.

Also, do we know anything about Sofia‘s programs? Has she announced them yet? It will be interesting to find out which direction she plans to take with her skating.

Sofia Samodurova? She’s using Roxanne from moulin rouge as her free skate, and I forgot what piece she’s using for the sp, but I think it’s Spanish influenced.

 

[Fluture]

It is as ridiculous as Plushenko getting his Platinum Medal for me (and I love Plushy as skater).

As for "enough of this", I find it funny how certain things tend to be ignored by certain people, and how it is a waste of time to reason with such people, who entirely refuse to try and understand what other people think, and what things happen outside their little bubble =)

That‘s good for you if you think it‘s ridiculous. It‘s not the point here, though. The point is that you make it look like as if Tarasova or evil Russian media were gifting Zhenya a gold medal to discredit Alina while actually it was just a bunch of fans wanting to please their idol.

Yes, frankly, I ignore certain things, such as the insurmountable depth of nonsense and craziness the media can produce. I don‘t need to be informed about the ”richness“ of Russian tabloid press and how they‘re dragging who through the mud again. It‘s exactly what they want to get from this, attention and clicks and what they present is rarely if ever even close to true. If “trying to understand what other people think“ means having to dig through the mess that are those articles, hate and comments, then I’m perfectly content to stay “in my little bubble“, thank you very much.

I don‘t see how this adds anything to skating or the Russian ladies. I will go back to enjoying both Alina‘s and Zhenya‘s skating as they are both great personalities and athletes. And I hope for their sake that neither of them listens to anything the media is writing about them and that they’re both able to focus on the upcoming season without giving even one minor thought to what Tarasova said about whom a year ago.

 

[Scott512]

It is as ridiculous as Plushenko getting his Platinum Medal for me (and I love Plushy as skater).

As for "enough of this", I find it funny how certain things tend to be ignored by certain people, and how it is a waste of time to reason with such people, who entirely refuse to try and understand what other people think, and what things happen outside their little bubble =)

How has Alina handled all the negativity that's come at her from the Russian sports media, her fellow Russian skaters and TAT? Is she bitter? The way TAT treated Alina's father on that TV show was horrendous. Adelina Sotnikova felt so bad for him that she left her seat and went running up to him to give him a hug. Remember?

 

[Fluture]

Sofia Samodurova? She’s using Roxanne from moulin rouge as her free skate, and I forgot what piece she’s using for the sp, but I think it’s Spanish influenced.

Wasn‘t that Stanislava Konstantinova who’ll be skating to Moulin Rouge?

 

[Scott512]

Sofia Samodurova? She’s using Roxanne from moulin rouge as her free skate, and I forgot what piece she’s using for the sp, but I think it’s Spanish influenced.

SSbesides being a fine figure skater is an amazing singer and she should skate to her own music someday! She has a much better voice than that Billy girl people go crazy about.

 

[NoviceFan]

And another issue to all this is that non-Russian speakers kind of miss a lot of russian media context, which had a lot of fun stuff happening since the Olympics, which was the thing that turned quite a few fans away from Zhenya
They don't hear Lipnitskaya commenting on Zagitova's Olympic Gala performance, and wondering why is Alina getting so much hate.
The Olympic videos by 1st channel (tarasova commenting) actually had to be edited before being uploaded to youtube, due to how inappropriate her live comments were. People who don't speak russian can't appreciate that.
They dont hear Tarasova insulting Alina's father on tv.
They don't see al the russian media and FS community outcry to raise the age limits (compare this with US, who are happy to have the young prodigy Alisa Lyu, mostly - while russians spent most of this year defending the raising the senior age limits. For real.)
They likely didn't get to read Levan Matua's interview about pre-Olympic marketing.
The negativity about Eteri in russian media and interviews of FS people.
Journalists calling Medvedeva a "holy person", or openly insulting Alina.
Headlines about Alina always containing something negative: "She won, but fell" and so on.
Zhenya being awarded a gold "champion of hearts" medal.
Stuff like that.

And while many of those things are not such a big deal or even cute if isolated from everything else, all together has a certain trend.

Most non speakers end up missing quite a lot of context like this, while quite a few russian speakers are actually so annoyed by all that at this point that they just want it to end, because it is incredibly ugly. And I don't mean Medvedeva here, but all the PR + Journalists + FS people such as Tarasova.

Ok, I spoke out. Don't hit me, people.

I don't like Zhenya. I have my russian peeves, but honestly I would probably have gotten over them and would go back to cheering for her, because I admire her determination and hard work. And also because I sort of cheer for a flag and I want "our" athletes to win - the ones that have some ties with Russia. But thank you russian media, thank you "furcoats", your bias is so huge that my balance loving heart wants to get as far on the other side as it can.

I speak only for myself, but I am a non-Russian fan (Western fan, whatever term you want to use), who tend to focus solely on the merits of the figure skaters I follow. I find arguments premised on intrigues, gossip and controversy unpersuasive. So while I acknowledge you effort to educate non-Russian fans about the reasons you don’t like Zhenya, I find that I haven’t missed anything relevant at all

 

[Mathman]

It is as ridiculous as Plushenko getting his Platinum Medal for me ...

What's ridiculous about it? I hope both Medvedeva and Plushenko were touched by their fans' token of affection. I think Slutskaya got something like this from her fans once. I think Michelle Kwan did, too. Hanyu gets tributes like this daily (of course he has his two real Olympic gold medals as well. )

If a child draws a picture of his favorite skater and says, "I made this for you, put it on your refrigerator," that's a good thing. Why rain on his parade?

 

[moriel]

What did Julia say about Alina's olympic gala performance?

I'm sad because the way you described it the Russian sports media is absolutely horrible. Probably even worse than our sports media here in the good old USA. We should send Christine Brennan to Russia so she can write for sport Express.

She was basically shocked that Alina is getting so much hate for winning.

 

[theharleyquinn]

It is as ridiculous as Plushenko getting his Platinum Medal for me (and I love Plushy as skater).

As for "enough of this", I find it funny how certain things tend to be ignored by certain people, and how it is a waste of time to reason with such people, who entirely refuse to try and understand what other people think, and what things happen outside their little bubble =)

How do you think it can be fixed? You agree that this is largely the media creating this problem. It's not Zhenya's fault that the aftermath of the Olympics went the way that it did. It's also unclear to me why there's hostility towards Eteri in Russian media except maybe that the old guard doesn't like how much influence she has over the sport through her coaching success and that seems very unfair.

It's also just the case that Alina (smartly) doesn't speak to media much. I admired her for responding to Ashley Wagner's criticism after the Olympics, but that was a special exception. But who knows, maybe that allows for more criticism too because then the media just continues to compare. Alina and Zhenya have two wildly different public personalities, and seemingly private as well. It's unfair that people project what they want, positive and negative, onto them to create drama.

 

[moriel]

How has Alina handled all the negativity that's come at her from the Russian sports media, her fellow Russian skaters and TAT? Is she bitter? The way TAT treated Alina's father on that TV show was horrendous. Adelina Sotnikova felt so bad for him that she left her seat and went running up to him to give him a hug. Remember?

Well, in the beginning of the year, she said in an interview that she reads her social networks. Not anymore.
Also, I would suppose that a big part of her issues later in season - rusnats and euros - were associated with the hate. Its quite hard for a 16 years old to see people wishing her to lose, saying she is not the true champion, and demanding her to prove she is not a one time wonder.

 

[Scott512]

Well, in the beginning of the year, she said in an interview that she reads her social networks. Not anymore.
Also, I would suppose that a big part of her issues later in season - rusnats and euros - were associated with the hate. Its quite hard for a 16 years old to see people wishing her to lose, saying she is not the true champion, and demanding her to prove she is not a one time wonder.

Oh God. It's so sad.

it's probably for the best that ailena does not read social media posts other than what her agent or parents would point out that was a positive one.

 

[Mathman]

It couldn't have been anything close to what I'd Alina had to put up with for years after 2014.

On the lighter side, auto-correct can be a hoot!

 

[moriel]

How do you think it can be fixed? You agree that this is largely the media creating this problem. It's not Zhenya's fault that the aftermath of the Olympics went the way that it did. It's also unclear to me why there's hostility towards Eteri in Russian media except maybe that the old guard doesn't like how much influence she has over the sport through her coaching success and that seems very unfair.

It's also just the case that Alina (smartly) doesn't speak to media much. I admired her for responding to Ashley Wagner's criticism after the Olympics, but that was a special exception. But who knows, maybe that allows for more criticism too because then the media just continues to compare. Alina and Zhenya have two wildly different public personalities, and seemingly private as well. It's unfair that people project what they want, positive and negative, onto them to create drama.

I wish that Rusfed would stick to the way they took when they threatened to withdraw Vaitsehovskaya`s accreditation because of her bias.
Overall, it is a whole system, sort of a soviet remain, where you would have "base coaches" that would train kids and juniors, and then top coaches who received the promising athletes (this is how Tarasova was getting her first students, for example, this is how CSKA stil tends to operate). The old guard issue is not simply with Eteri's influence - in their minds, she should, lets say, train Zagitova and Medvedeva as juniors, train 3A as juniors, and then pass them on to "actual coaches" to polish and shine. To win medals.
This system is still supported, as there is a whole bunch of good coaches who grew influential in this system. Its kind of like Tarasova winning a "best commentator" award for her "olympic performance". The same one they had to edit out some parts of it to release it.
Also, there is $$$ in game - Matua's interview is very insightful in that regard, you can clearly see how it was not just a personal medal at stake.

 

[Fluture]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aiitEDnr7dg&feature=youtu.be

Anna Tarusina landed a 4T with a harness and it looks surprisingly promising. Is it certain she‘ll stay juniors? And how likely is she to get two JGP events?