- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
Alina was in a class of her own, but so was Nastya. Alina skated to the notes of ostentatious music designed to display a dancer's physical prowess. Nastya skated to the soul of emotional music arranged to evoke mystery of the most profound human experience. Alina is to be admired, Nastya is to be felt. Try to imagine Alina skating to Nastya's R&J, and vice-versa. Nastya the poet musician, Alina the player piano. Scores are like footnotes to prejudice, judges think like athletes. Alina thinks like an athlete, Nastya thinks like a composer. They don't belong on the same score sheet, maybe not in the same arena, and certainly not with the same judges. You're right, puremagic, Nastya is an angel, as is Yulia Lipnitskaia. Quads are looming, the final nail in the coffin of soulful refinement and sensitivity that could have been ladies figure skating.
Reading some post from a couple years ago about the Junior Grand Prix final got me to quote this post so I can comment on it. Anastasia and Alina were both exceptional at the 2016 Junior Grand Prix final but Alina still won by about 13 points and hasn't looked back since. Nastya was very good at Russian Nationals two years ago finishing 5th I believe but still about 27 points behind Alina who won the gold. At last year's Russian Nationals Nastya was 9th I thought she should have been a couple spots higher but none the less finished about 27 points behind Anna. I think all of us agree that Nastya has been low-balled score wise especially in domestic competitions. But even if she got higher scores in those events that I just name she still ends up way behind the gold medalists. So Nastya has to do something to close the gap on the medal contenders. The question is how did she do that?
If Nastya does get put into Juniors this season she may face Kamila and Alysa who like 2 of the 3A do programs with greater technical difficulty and tougher jumps than Nastya has. But first things first. I suppose and that's asking her to become more consistent. If she can do that that will cure some of Nastyas issues where scoring is concerned. I hope Anastasia does become more consistent like Sofia the season. That will help her a lot.