2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[flanker]

Where did he go?

To Alcatraz.

 

[starlight97]

honestly this is nothing compared to when Zhenya left. people were ready to crucify her.

Honestly when that happened I saw way way more hate and accusations directed towards Eteri than towards Evgenia. Many people here have a huge problem with the Sambo Team and their success and a skater that leaves them becomes a martyr. I can't speak for Russian forums tho.
As soon as Evgenia left suddenly she improved so much and became so great a skater etc in some posters eyes when in reality all she was doing was decline. But the fact that she had left success-witch Eteri elevated her in many people's eyes.

 

[Edwin]

Wow. Why is this equally shocking and totally not surprising at the same time?

With so much at stake, sabotage and worse happens to throw competitors off their game or even to take them out of contention.

Katerina Kurakova, who seems the sweetest and most likeable person, also openly spoke about the need to protect her gear at all times in one of her latest interviews.

Never accept any sweets, food or drink, always open only sealed water bottles at the venue, etc. etc. Young skaters get lots of sweets and candybars thrown at them along with the plushy toys, but I suppose will dispose of the candy instead of tasting it ....

 

[Lechat]

I didn’t know sasha’s parents took her in Egypt for vacation. They are really irresponsible.

 

[ruga]

Also jumping into Russian team 2022 predictions:

Kamila Valieva 48 She is of a very right age, has good basics, artistry and difficulty, already gets higher scores than many seniors.

Aliona Kostornaia 42 Great artistry and GOEs, no puberty is going to take these from her. Strong technical elements, consistent and Eteri knows how to prepare students for big comps.

Daria Usacheva 40 Very artistic, good spins, jumps have become more consistent, will probably have learned 3A or some quad before 2022.

Anna Shcherbakova 38 Will be established skater by then, but not sure how age will affect her abilities.

Maiia Khromykh 36 Basically has similar qualities as Kamila and Daria, but has been less consistent and her programs weren't the best. However, she trains 4S and performing it could be a game changer.

Alexandra Trusova 34 Technical base very strong, but without performing jumps with no mistakes, she can't expect much. The coaching change is a bit dubious, as Plushenko doesn't have much experience.

Evgenia Medvedeva 30 Still has desire to reach Beijing, but younger skaters are technically superior at the moment and it will be really hard to fight them

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva 28 Has guts and technique that is not going anywhere, but inefficient layouts and lack of quality in non jumping parts of skating are holding her down.

Alina Zagitova 25 Has had problems with motivation and has technical shortcomings from time to time. Not sure if she'll continue until 2022, but a clean program even with triples only can still put her in a good position.

Kseniia Sinitsyna 15 A pleasant skater to watch, but will only get a place in a team in case there is a meltdown or if she learns a quad or 3A.

 

[Edwin]

Honestly when that happened I saw way way more hate and accusations directed towards Eteri than towards Evgenia. Many people here have a huge problem with the Sambo Team and their success and a skater that leaves them becomes a martyr. I can't speak for Russian forums tho.
As soon as Evgenia left suddenly she improved so much and became so great a skater etc in some posters eyes when in reality all she was doing was decline. But the fact that she had left success-witch Eteri elevated her in many people's eyes.

The problem is, when you leave the best, who are you going to transfer to, to get even better? We all understand and even respect the motivations of the athlete who thinks he has reached the limits of what can be achieved with his current coaching team. We want them to improve, extend their career, and above all, have enjoyment in fulfilling their dream.

Wether the athlete is realistic about this new chance is entirely debatable. The changes can only be gradual, for the athlete wouldn't have achieved previous successes if he were a total klutz.

Given that both Tutberidze and her team and BOrser and his team are highly experienced and know how to work together in a coordinated effort with their various specialists to develop, correct or improve the athlete, there will be certain expectations but nothing too drastic. And they are able to give a reasonable time line, based on experience and expertise.

With a completely unproven entity like Plyushchenko's Angels, what can one expect? A new Trusova, higher, faster, stronger than before in an instant with the help of the best specialist from all over the world money can buy? More artistic, more expressive, more capable of impressing the judges, melting the hearts of the audiences the world over, more than the proven Khrustalniy team was capable of?

Plyushchenko refused to divulge into his 'training secrets' on Instagram, but one should better ask Sakhanovich, Tarakanova or perhaps even Konstantinova about their expectations and what these 'secrets' actually brought them.

To me, it seems Plyushchenko is out of his wits with the treasure suddenly acquired. Training pre-teenage children is one thing, training and coaching teenagers and adolescents is something completely different. Psychology, understanding, patience, empathy, sympathy, it all comes with time and experience to those who have the proper characteristics themselves and are open to critique and capable of learning. Plus you need time and dedication, Tutberidze, BOrser et al practically live at their rinks and are fully committed to and invested in their wards and pupils.

When one considers Yevgeniy Viktorovich as technically capable, given he graduated from Lesgaft with Professor Mishin as his mentor, I seriously doubt he is up to the psychological, emotional and moral part of training an athlete the calibre of Trusova. Apart from the time constraints, the needs of Rudkovskaya and GnomGnomich, running the Academy and whatever else, like picking fights on social media almost daily. Have the children's parents really signed up for this?

The Academy of Angels isn't a charity but a private enterprise obliged to make money. Yevgeniy Viktorovich is no Good Samaritan either but a businessman.

I'll put my faith in Rozanov for the moment, even though he is by all definitions still untried too. He equally has lots to prove, to himself, to his pupils, to his master and employer, but Sergey Aleksandrovich doesn't yet have external obligations as far a we know of. So he should be able to invest himself fully in the skaters, Trusova, Muravyova, the elder Zhilina and perhaps Titova too, and the boys.

Unfortunately, right now the official website https://angelsofplushenko.com is unavailable due to an expired certificate.

 

[Lechat]

Honestly when that happened I saw way way more hate and accusations directed towards Eteri than towards Evgenia. Many people here have a huge problem with the Sambo Team and their success and a skater that leaves them becomes a martyr. I can't speak for Russian forums tho.
As soon as Evgenia left suddenly she improved so much and became so great a skater etc in some posters eyes when in reality all she was doing was decline. But the fact that she had left success-witch Eteri elevated her in many people's eyes.

I respect Evgenia’s decision because she has to quit or change coach. I only regret all the drama. It’s not Eteri’s fault if she’s not an olympic champion like it’s not her fault if sasha « failed », she was still on the podium anyway.

 

[nussnacker]

I didn’t know sasha’s parents took her in Egypt for vacation. They are really irresponsible.

It was a somewhat major scandal, since the news broke that they had to be evacuated back. I read that there even were complaints to exclude her from Team Russia for this and people looked pretty upset and angry about this whole thing.
I feel for Sasha, because in the end this „scandal“ is none of her fault. She actually couldn’t do anything about it and didn’t have any voice in this, and yet I feel like all the negativity went towards her, as if she’s a culprit.

Coronavirus is a Problem of a global magnitude and people have a right to be upset at those who are doing something counterproductive to the cause of global well-being and I unfortunately personally know some people who passed away due to this, so to me this matter is painful and personal. But people need to understand that an underage girl probably doesn’t fully comprehend what the hell the pandemic is, how she should act and I’m sure she won’t just tell her parents she won’t go with them. She obviously trusts her parents to take care of her, so why the blame fell on Sasha is out of my understanding.

I don’t know why her parents did that, but Sasha was clearly not the one to blame in this...

 

[plushyfan]

It was a somewhat major scandal, since the news broke that they had to be evacuated back. I read that there even were complaints to exclude her from Team Russia for this and people looked pretty upset and angry about this whole thing.
I feel for Sasha, because in the end this „scandal“ is none of her fault. She actually couldn’t do anything about it and didn’t have any voice in this, and yet I feel like all the negativity went towards her, as if she’s a culprit.

Coronavirus is a Problem of a global magnitude and people have a right to be upset at those who are doing something counterproductive to the cause of global well-being and I unfortunately personally know some people who passed away due to this, so to me this matter is painful and personal. But people need to understand that an underage girl probably doesn’t fully comprehend what the hell the pandemic is, how she should act and I’m sure she won’t just tell her parents she won’t go with them. She obviously trusts her parents to take care of her, so why the blame fell on Sasha is out of my understanding.

I don’t know why her parents did that, but Sasha was clearly not the one to blame in this...

Do we know when they travelled to Egypt concretly? Has the quarantine been announced yet? How could they travel out of Russia if it was already forbidden? That was a real scandal or the media did scandal from it because Trusova is famous?

 

[Edwin]

It was a somewhat major scandal, since the news broke that they had to be evacuated back. I read that there even were complaints to exclude her from Team Russia for this and people looked pretty upset and angry about this whole thing.
I feel for Sasha, because in the end this „scandal“ is none of her fault. She actually couldn’t do anything about it and didn’t have any voice in this, and yet I feel like all the negativity went towards her, as if she’s a culprit.

Coronavirus is a Problem of a global magnitude and people have a right to be upset at those who are doing something counterproductive to the cause of global well-being and I unfortunately personally know some people who passed away due to this, so to me this matter is painful and personal. But people need to understand that an underage girl probably doesn’t fully comprehend what the hell the pandemic is, how she should act and I’m sure she won’t just tell her parents she won’t go with them. She obviously trusts her parents to take care of her, so why the blame fell on Sasha is out of my understanding.

I don’t know why her parents did that, but Sasha was clearly not the one to blame in this...

You know, the funny thing was, Tutberidze was actually blamed for not keeping her ward under stay at home orders.

And with the clip of Aleksandra skating in her rollers in the gate of the family house/dacha during the lockdown, likewise Tutberidze was blamed for allowing this and not telling her ward off.

Only in hindsight we know now, the Trusovs were under no moral obligations to Khrustalniy anymore, and perhaps thought a short holiday abroad might relax the family a little from the no doubt emotionally exhaustive break up that preceded it. Wether it was smart? Keeping the trip silent would have been smarter.

Trusova's current PR agent will have different goals and worries.

The sudden acquisition of that dacha/country house while previously Aleksandra was only seen on her scooter driving to the rink and back to the apartment block or inside her room in said apartment?

 

[plushyfan]

Edwin came back and started the tales on his personal opinions and thoughts. I hope most of the posters can distinguish real informations from assumptions and suggestions.

 

[nussnacker]

Do we know when they travelled to Egypt concretly? Has the quarantine been announced yet? How could they travel out of Russia if it was already forbidden? That was a real scandal or the media did scandal from it because Trusova is famous?

You can say media did a scandal out of it because it’s Sasha, and because they wanted to make a scandal.
I don’t know any specific dates, but from what I read at eurosport, they flew after the cancellation of WC and after the pandemic was already declared.
On one hand, people have to take into account that for some time russian news cycle was downplaying coronavirus, even independent Russian news sources didn’t report it as something serious, so maybe that affected their decisions.

 

[YuBluByMe]

Mr Trusov is not a pubic person!

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Nah, I’ll refrain. It’s mighty hard, but I’ll resist. Plushyfan, you meant to say public. That is all.

 

[Ifwe]

Agree, making assumptions about a 15 yr old parents when you don't know anything about them it's not okay. Russian media love to not support a skater when they change coach.

 

[nussnacker]

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Nah, I’ll refrain. It’s mighty hard, but I’ll resist. Plushyfan, you meant to say public. That is all.

oh my god!

 

[GINO]

So many Olympic predictions... I just want to remind how it was at the same time 4 years ago https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?60754-Ladies-Olympic-Predictions

Tsurskaya was probably the main favorite(how is Valieva now) and everyone knows how her story ended. It’s still too early to talk about Olympic team, a lot of things can happen.

 

[Fried]

I didn’t know sasha’s parents took her in Egypt for vacation. They are really irresponsible.

I'm sure. If we go back a few years, we will surely find even more irresponsibility of the Trusov family, about which we could be outraged. I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Fried]

We can only hope the relations between Alyona, Anna and Aleksandra will not have soured too much by the time a press conference with all three together at some event comes about (like in old days).

I can gladly do without that. I found the three-pack press conferences to be unworthy. Aliona and Sasha were mostly uninvolved and concerned with their mobile phones (what I can understand considering the ever same questions and answers), Anna alone kept the decency.

 

[Ballade88]

I wouldn't hold a lack of experience and success record against Plushenko yet. In the mid 2000s, Orser was also a new coach with little experience. All it takes is one star student with great success. Trusova and Plushenko partnership might work because I think they have similar mindsets and personalities in regards to competition.

 

[Edwin]

Interview with Ilya Averbukh on all things current: ice shows, Navka, Basharov, Plyushchenko, Lipnitskaya and more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_gNxde1ffE

Timeline is fully detailed, auto generated subtitles are available, plus partial transcripts are available on the usual media channels.