I can't help wonder how a skater who medaled two or three years ago at GPF can go so down. I mean it's obvious that the puberty strikes badly, especially the russian girls, but even so... I feel very sorry for Sotskova. Sometimes I think that for the russian girls there is no middle, is either gold, either last. And they get to taste both of them, in that order that being last, after being used to be first, is so heartbreaking.
I really had high hopes for Alina, she looked so good at the Russian tests. I even thought she has a big chance to win this, even with Alena's triple Axels. She did some mistakes, I think because of what happened yesterday she felt insecure today and both the jumps and the performance were affected. She performed this LP at the Russian tests and it was amazing, she was smiling and she was very into her character. She still did a good job but I didn't feel the vibe. And I hope that the judges don't show her the cold shoulder while they are embracing the new Russian babies. Because I am so tired of this. "I like you if you're 15 and can jump and spin like a machine and you have no idea how is to lose because you always win, but then when you're already 17, I already like another jumping machine". I believe Alina can fight and has the proper technique to do so. I really want another 20 years old Russian skater besides Liza. I love all the new girls, it is impossible not to, but I need to watch some women skate too.
Well they are not machines. You can’t expect that everything will work all the time. I noticed that Alina often did well at training and sometimes she made mistakes on competition. She can still medal and she doesn’t need to win each competition.
The most important thing is she enjoys to skate without any pressure