Ekaterina Kurakova | Page 10 | Golden Skate

Ekaterina Kurakova

icetug

Medalist
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
The thing is that she lives in Toronto and I don't know how she is studying Polish over there. I know there is a big Polish diaspora in Toronto, but on the other hand she must speak English too.

Conrad Orzel speaks fluent Polish (and his younger sister probably as well, but I've heard only him) so they can speak Polish instead of English at TCC :). And a Polish boyfriend certainly helps ;).
 

McTwisp

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
I was catching up on Katia's past competitions. One thing that stuck out has been the number of coaches she has had in the last 3.5 years.

Natalia Dubinskaya, Stanislav Kovalev - Moskvich SC
Inna Goncharenko - CSKA Moscow
Sylwia Nowak-Trębacka, Dorota and Mariusz Siudków - MKS Axel Torun
Brian Orser, Ernest Pryhitka, Karen Preston, Tracy Wilson, Paige Aistrop, Ghislain Briand, Joey Russell - TCSCC

Her recent competition coaches:
4 Nationals 2018 - Mariusz Siudków
Minto Summer 2019 - Brian Orser and Ernest Pryhitka
JGP Riga 2019 - Brian Orser and Ernest Pryhitka
JGP Gdansk 2019 - Brian Orser and Karen Preston
CS Warsaw 2019 - Joey Russell

Now it gets more complicated with 3 different languages (Russian, Polish, English) plus moving from Moscow to Torun, Poland and then to Toronto plus a side trip to China and back again. What a whirlwind!

Through all that, Katia was still able to mentally focus and come through with the performance of her life at CS Warsaw Cup 2019. She landed all her jumps and simultaneously sold the performance to the audience and judges. Quite remarkable really. Hopefully Katia has finally found her forever skating home at TCSCC as well as some time shared at MKS Axel Torun.

From the K+C reactions, I like the connection she had with Joey Russell.
 

McTwisp

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
I found a spectator recorded video of Ilia Averbukh's Alice in Wonderland (Dec '18 - Jan '19, St. Petersburg) Cast: Ekaterina Kurakova, Tatiana Volosozhar, Maxim Trankov, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Maria Petrova, Alexey Tikhonov


Part 1 (1hr)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJUSaBX4_X4


Part 2 (50mins)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVs8d388Z7w


The show returns for 3rd year but now in Sochi - Jan 2 - Jan 6, 2020 with most of same cast. It is unknown who will play Alice for this show run as it is likely Katia will be busy preparing to compete at the Mentor Torun Cup (Jan 7, 2020 - Jan 12, 2020).
 

McTwisp

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Looks like the MKS Axel team gave a demonstration performance of their programs for friends and family
at their home Mentor Sport rink prior to departing for the Four Nationals in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Some photos on MKS Axel Torun Facebook page...

https://www.facebook.com/axeltorun/photos/a.183453158508680/1252306354956683/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/axeltorun/photos/a.183453158508680/1252306114956707/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/axeltorun/photos/a.183453158508680/1252305824956736/?type=3&theater
 

icetug

Medalist
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Congratulations to Katia on her second title of the Polish champion (and 4 Nationals champion) :clap:
 

DenissVFan

Medalist
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Congrats on defending both of her titles :hap10: It wasn't perfect but at least I'm never on the verge of a heart attack when I'm watching her :p
I hope she can spend more time in Canada before Euros. Speaking of Euros, I'm so excited for her! It feels like she's waited so long for her ISU championship debut (and so have we). But to make up for it, she'll likely go to 3 championships in one year :)

And how adorable is she in the K&C :)
 

McTwisp

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
She got it done. Katia seems to be a natural extrovert...drawing energy from the audience, amplifying it and sending it right back. It must be tough then to perform in a large arena of empty seats. It almost feels like a practice session and the legs lose some spring. It seems Katia has granted joint custody of her Sochi bear to both Brian and Sylvia.

Such a funny moment when Katia photobombed Natalia and Maksym's K+C. Sylvia then invited the rest of Team Axel over for team selfies while the judges took their time crunching the numbers. Nice family moment. Easy to see Katia is truly at home with Team Axel. Everywhere Katia goes she is missed when she is away.


The Mentor Torun Cup entry list is out. As expected Katia will be competing.

http://www.mentorcup.pl/entries
 

cynamoon

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 28, 2018
I have a serious question- do you see any improvement in her skating since she joined Orser? Because I unfortunately don't. She's super charming and endearing but that's it. And don't get me wrong, I'm from Poland so I'm 100% supporting Katya, but just... I honestly expected more from his coaching
 

Edwin

СделаноВХрустальном!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
I have a serious question- do you see any improvement in her skating since she joined Orser? Because I unfortunately don't. She's super charming and endearing but that's it. And don't get me wrong, I'm from Poland so I'm 100% supporting Katya, but just... I honestly expected more from his coaching

I think so too, Katerina is still sloppy in her edges and take off and landing jumps. #TeamBOrser isn't a magic recipe. Lots of hours are needed, taking months and years, and if Katerina isn't training in TCC, any change or progress quickly gets erased from her motoric memory. Will she return to Canada after New Year for full time training for Euro's?
 

icetug

Medalist
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
I have a serious question- do you see any improvement in her skating since she joined Orser? Because I unfortunately don't. She's super charming and endearing but that's it. And don't get me wrong, I'm from Poland so I'm 100% supporting Katya, but just... I honestly expected more from his coaching

Katia is very consistent on her 175+ level what means she can easily be in first 7 at Euro and first 15 at Worlds. Sometimes consistency can be taken as an improvement :) But lately she joined the group of 200+, so yes, I can see her slowly, but consequently improving.
I don't know why she decided to go to Orser but to be frank there are no coaches in Poland for a skater of her level. So why not Orser?

Will she return to Canada after New Year for full time training for Euro's?

She's on the entry list for the Mentor Cup in Torun, 7-12 Jan, so the time for prepering for the Euros won't be very long. At least she'll have more time for training for Worlds :).
 

cynamoon

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 28, 2018
Katia is very consistent on her 175+ level what means she can easily be in first 7 at Euro and first 15 at Worlds. Sometimes consistency can be taken as an improvement :) But lately she joined the group of 200+, so yes, I can see her slowly, but consequently improving.
I don't know why she decided to go to Orser but to be frank there are no coaches in Poland for a skater of her level. So why not Orser?

I'm just afraid she's treated there just like Tursynbavea was- she's not Evgenia, not Yuzuru-
not a top priority athlete. And we know there's a lot of 'alone' training in Canada. On the other hand, she's always very happy, very grateful so I can only hope that decision of training with Orser was well thought out.
 

cynamoon

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 28, 2018
I think so too, Katerina is still sloppy in her edges and take off and landing jumps. #TeamBOrser isn't a magic recipe. Lots of hours are needed, taking months and years, and if Katerina isn't training in TCC, any change or progress quickly gets erased from her motoric memory. Will she return to Canada after New Year for full time training for Euro's?

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, so will fix Evgenia's flutz, make Jason land quads etc. That's why I think Katya decided to join him, but we are still with shaky skating and kinda UR combos.

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
 

ejnsofi

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 23, 2016
I have a serious question- do you see any improvement in her skating since she joined Orser? Because I unfortunately don't. She's super charming and endearing but that's it. And don't get me wrong, I'm from Poland so I'm 100% supporting Katya, but just... I honestly expected more from his coaching

She's been there only for a year and before that she really didn't receive top level training. Her current the biggest problem is tendency to underrotate jumps which takes a lot of time to correct as changing the rotational spin is hard thing to do. Besides north american coaches are paid for hours and lets be honest: Yuzuru, Jason or Evgenia can probably afford more time at TCC than Katya.
 
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