Ekaterina Kurakova

Hi, I just came here from watching a clip of Katya’s step sequence from La Vie En Rose on Twitter and I am now emotionally invested. I didn’t know much about her other than the controversy of her skating for Poland, but that step sequence just...spoke to me. As someone posted above, she seems to be a natural extrovert on the ice. Also, she started off a bit slow but managed to gain more speed and flow by the end. I hope she does well at Europeans!

pandatours said:

Hi, I just came here from watching a clip of Katya’s step sequence from La Vie En Rose on Twitter and I am now emotionally invested. I didn’t know much about her other than the controversy of her skating for Poland, but that step sequence just...spoke to me. As someone posted above, she seems to be a natural extrovert on the ice. Also, she started off a bit slow but managed to gain more speed and flow by the end. I hope she does well at Europeans!

Click to expand...

Was there some kind of controversy?

ejnsofi said:

Was there some kind of controversy?

Click to expand...

I don't think so.

cynamoon said:

Yeah, I think Brian got very lucky with 3 tremendously talented skaters- Yuna, Yuzuru and Javier and everyone just started assuming he's a magician who can make you achieve everything

Click to expand...

I don't think that Katia's sponsor was so naive to judge only from the results achieved by the greatest. Everybody knows that team Orser worked both with Javier Fernandez and Javier Raya.
If you move away the Russian FS centres where I suppose Katia didn't want to train in the period of transition, not many options for a skater of her level remained. We also don't know to whom she sent an application. Great that TCC agreed to take her in the middle of the season and that there are Evgenia and Lilian she can speak in her mother tongue with (and the Orzel siblings she can polish her Polish speaking with ).

cynamoon said:

Also, may I just complain about her 3Lz-Eu-3F, because this is imo such a pointless combination, it always looks UR to me, is very muscled and the struggle of it never pays off, because she usually gets a pretty low GOE(rightfully tho). I want her to succeed so badly, but it just seems like they're not putting any thought in her jumping passes. Or maybe I am overly critical lol, it can be possible

Click to expand...

Again: we don't know any details to judge the coaches decisions. Is she capable at the moment to do 3+3 in FS? Or maybe she's afraid of 3F so much (she's been getting ! on 3F since she was a junior) that she prefers to do it as a first jumping pass, but not as a first jump in a combination?
I'd wait with judging to the end of the season, keeping in mind Katia loves performing in front of a crowd and competing with the best.

Katia seems to be back at TCC and goofing around with Joseph Phan

DenissVFan said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6eDo7NpI_S/?igshid=av6mdkgluln0

Click to expand...

So for Corey single skating and ice dancing aren't enough and he wants to be a first skater who starts in three categories?

Katia is not idling: she posted a picture with Jason at the rink in her insta story I hope that 2020 is a great year for her! I'm really happy that a wider audience will be able to see her at Europeans, Worlds and presumably junior worlds too.

REally felt she was underscored in PCS at the Mentor Turin Cup today.

princessalica said:

REally felt she was underscored in PCS at the Mentor Turin Cup today.

Click to expand...

She was. It was a very good performance with all jumps rotated , great step sequence and impressive spins. But I'm happy she got high TES (actually it's her highest TES ever) and I can take lower PCS as I assume judges didn't want to make a distance between her and other skaters too big.

A nice skate today! 4.75 x 2 If Katia's composition is worth 4.75 points, then skaters with doubles and level one non-jump elements must get -4.75 from this judge. Oh well.

Congratulation on 3rd consecutive win! And convincing the Judge no 4 to give her 6.50 instead of 4.75

Congrats! Now it's time for Mission Euros Can't wait.

Exhibition: https://youtu.be/bZ_OLh18X5E

DenissVFan said:

Exhibition: https://youtu.be/bZ_OLh18X5E

Click to expand...

Thanx for sharing. I was waiting for this one. Katia seemed to have alot of fun with it. I wonder if this was the exhibition that Ivan Righini and Kae Kae Lee choreographed.

I like that Katia used Yuzuru's "Pistol Lunge" and super low hydroblade.

Katia with Natalia, Maks, Justyna and Jeremie: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7je3HYJvkA/?igshid=tf8rv68yj7vm

Brian has come you can see some updates here (in the stories): https://instagram.com/pzlf_pfsa?igshid=pxdqvdqp6i3h

Brian Orser: “If it were not for the problem with her boot, Medvyedeva would easily have gotten to the European Championship”

Canadian trainer - about the quad jump of Medvedeva, her force majeure in Krasnoyarsk, Tuktamysheva and Hanyu.

This conversation with Yevgeniya Medvyedeva's Canadian trainer Brian Orser took place in Graz immediately after the training of his other pupil, 17-year-old Yekaterina Kurakova, representing Poland. Based on the best results of the season, she is the strongest skater of the upcoming women's European Championship tournament in Graz after the Shcherbakova-Kostornaya-Trusova trio, which, together with the team of Eteri Tutberidze, decided to start training in Graz from Thursday - the day before the short program.

Exclusive Cascade

“Katya had a good training,” Orser began. - Of course, she is worried, because this is her first European Championship and everyone will be very interested in watching her as a new athlete, because before that she had performed only at two stages of the Junior Grand Prix series and two tournaments of the Challenger series. Kurakova is a very charismatic girl, and we will be pleased to take her to a higher place in this championship, but for her now it is very important to just ride well.

-- In her free program, Kurakova makes a rare and complex cascade of “triple Lutz-Euler-triple Flip”, why?

- It's cool, albeit difficult (laughs). But she does this combination well, we basically work a lot on jumping, Katya likes her programs and her style.

-- This is your first European Championship without your famous Spanish student Javier Fernandez ...

- Oh yes, and this is so strange, because we together attended eight European Championships, seven of which he won. Javier was a cool athlete, and a year has passed since his last performance, incredible!

Graz's Nuances

-- And who, in your opinion, has the highest chance of winning the title this year?

- Two Russian guys - Alexander Samarin and Dmitry Aliyev (a conversation with Orser took place before the Russian singles in the short program - “SE”), Mateo Rizzo from Italy, Mikhail Brzezinsky certainly has every chance to get on the podium.

-- Have you been in Graz for a long time?”

- I arrived on Tuesday, and Katya Kurakova on Monday. Then on Tuesday night we had a training session in the main arena, and today on Wednesday in the training arena. Here, after all, a rather curious situation is that it was possible for the girls to practice in the main arena before the short program only on Monday and Tuesday, and the rest of the time only in the training arena. But it is what it is. Am I surprised to see an rink in a tent? Yes a little. But most importantly, the quality of ice on it is very good, just what you need for performances.

Force Majeure with boots

-- The Russian Championship ended almost a month ago, but the debate about what happened to the boot of Yevgeniya Medvyedeva in Krasnoyarsk does not subside ...

- I know (laughs out loud). The result of the tournament for us was simply heartbreaking. But when a horse limps - he no longer holds his leg as needed. You can do anything, stick it on, fix it with something, but this will not help. As a result, I had to make a decision to withdraw from the free program. Although I know that many people say: "She, as a professional skater, should have had another spare pair of skates." But you need to understand that it takes three weeks to break in a new pair of skates, and if you finally have broken in boots, you won’t start breaking in another pair. The incident was also a shame because Yevgeniya was in great shape.

In my opinion, if it were not for this force majeure, she would easily have been selected for the Russian national team to participate in the European and World Championships and would have squeezed out one of Shcherbakova-Kostornaya-Trusova. But in the first place should be the safety and health of the athlete, especially she you can eventually damage her leg. And the season is now over for us.

Beautiful and technical Tuktamysheva

-- You were surprised by the unsuccessful performance of Trusova in the free program in Krasnoyarsk?

- This can happen periodically. I knew that these three girls, in any case, would be ahead of everyone in technology. If you do quadruple jumps - this is a certain strategy. As a coach, you always build a certain strategy.

-- And how do you like the quadruple Toeloop from Tuktamysheva, even if it ended in a fall?

- I saw several landings of this jump during training. And I must admit that with her successes in mastering difficult jumps, she seems to give hope to all adult skaters. I do not know exactly how old Tuktamysheva is, but I know that Yelizaveta has been competinf for a very long time and she took up and learned the quadruple jump. You know, I remember how 10 years ago I came here in Graz for the stage of the junior Grand Prix series with my American student Kristina Gao, who was then beaten by Adelina Sotnikova. It was so long ago, but Tuktamysheva since then continues to perform! She is a beautiful skater, a real woman, but with great technique, thanks to which she is still competitive. When I saw that she was trying to jump a quadruple Toeloop and triple Axel in her free program, I thought: "Wow, this is just unbelievable."

Quad Salchow and Medvyedeva's taste

-- Continuing this so popular theme of quadruple jumps, are you working on them with Medvyedeva and Kurakova?

- Of course, with both. With Yevgeniya - on the quadruple Salchow. Soon she will return to Toronto and we will proceed. Now, since the season has already been completed for her, this will be her main goal. And I think that this is quite real, we have enough time, Yevgeniya’s technique of the Salchow is good, we just need to focus on this well.

-- And what is the most difficult thing for her in mastering this jump: a technical nuance or a psychological moment?

- Both. I think that as soon as she lands the first quadruple Salchow in training, the barrier to this jump will disappear. This happens with every skater mastering a new leap: once you made it and it already becomes easier.

-- Medvyedeva has already announced that her free program for the next season will be staged to “Cirque du Soleil”. Is this her idea or your suggestion?

- Hers. I believe that Medvyedeva is a very artistic and emotional skater plus an experienced one. Yevgeniya heard this music and she liked it, just as it was with music for the programs of this season. It seems to me that Zhenya has the right to make her own choice, she has a very good taste.

There is no conflict with Hanyu

-- Please explain: how did it happen that your other student, two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, ended up alone in Turin at the Grand Prix Final on the first day of the competition?

- A rather unusual situation happened. Only Ghislain Briand was accredited, at the last moment Yuzuru made just such a decision, to take a specialist who works with him on technical aspects and this is absolutely normal. But inItaly Ghislain's passport was stolen and therefore he was forced to return, get a new passport and then fly back to Turin. That is why Hanyu performed without coaches in the short program and trained alone before that. In general, everything is in order, we continue to work and we have no conflict on this issue.

(c) Екатерина Беспалова
-----
From: sport-express.ru/figure-skating/chempionat-evropy/reviews/eksklyuzivnoe-intervyu-brayana-orsera-o-problemah-i-chetvernom-pryzhke-medvedevoy-tuktamyshevoy-i-hanyu-1634401/

Good luck to Katia for tomorrow. I am looking forward to watching the SP online, and seeing her delightful performance.

Thanks for sharing the interview, Edwin! (A bit of a shame that Katia was overshadowed in the interview by questions about her rinkmates, but I guess that kind of happens when they are so well known.) I'm glad to hear that the ice is fine, despite all the consternation at Euros being held inside a tent, and how interesting to hear that Katia is also working on a quad. I wonder which one?

Shin Amano is in the technical panel so she needs to be careful with these URs.