Alena Kostornaia

Fluture said:

Aliona is already busy after her win. All the dance teams + ladies were there for an autograph session but Aliona wasn’t because she has a fotoshooting. I like that - companies should recognize her greatness! Hopefully she’ll get some more deals in the future.

Of course I was a bit sad not to get an autograph from her but I already have one from JGP Linz so I really can‘t complain.

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McBibus said:

Can someone please translate this?
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ycmk2oY0j/

Anna is laughing as anybody else

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LuffyJackson said:

Congratulation to Aliona our new European Champion!

I just want her to let her body & mind rest for Worlds, I'm sure the 3Lz fall was a result of nerves because she was so off going into the muse part of her program.... I kinda expected something gonna happen I'm so sorry :sad4:

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Good Vibes Only said:

I was just able to watch Aliona’s performance because a kind soul posted a fan cam of it on youtube. Saying I am irritated with all of the copy rights and geo blocking in the US is an understatement

Anyways, Aliona performed very well, besides the lutz. I think that her opening triple axel- double toe was the best that we have seen her do in competition. She really made that triple look as easy as a double, I was amazed. In addition, her triple triple combination hit the beat of the music perfectly, that was another good highlight. The lite fall seemed harder than I thought it was, I hope Aliona is ok. I saw her check her arm for any cuts. One thing that is concerning me is that after both her long and short programs, it looks like she grabs/holds the left lower side of her back. I hope that her recent growth after nationals isn’t effecting her back. I didn’t notice her wearing any sports tape though, so maybe I am just being paranoid. Overall, congrats Aliona!! Get some rest and have fun in Graz!!

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Edwin said:

She took several hard falls on her hip bone. And I've come across a photo where in her Bielmann position a big protective plaster was visible under her tights: https://s74794.cdn.ngenix.net/m/f19b/00fb/61c1/fcde/6c9c/d48b/3e43/eca9/1200_1200_max.jpeg, so one can expect her (and all the other skaters that have taken hard falls on hip bones, femur heads etc) to be bruised blue, purple and green. Battle scars for figure skaters.

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McBibus said:

Can someone please translate this?
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ycmk2oY0j/

Anna is laughing as anybody else

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Batsuchan said:

Banquet photos!!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7zFpcEJyqk/

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McBibus said:

That smile (2nd and 3rd photo) looks finally free minded.
She seemed burdened this last days, even being the mischievus devil we adore out of the ice, like she felt the weight of expectation.
The other two girls seemed really under pressure too.

How did we come to expect perfection from a 16 years old?

I hope she could find the time to recharge the mind and the joy to skate before WC and that she is phisically ok.

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Vemvane said:

I think they have very high expectations for themselves, their Fed has very high expectations for them, and the media does as well. I'd be tempted to say that we started to expect perfection from a 16 year old when Evgenia Medvedeva had her two year streak of victory after victory, and then when Alina Zagitova had her phenomenal senior debut season, the standards were set for the Russian girls turning senior from Team Tutberidze. As a whole, the group presents very polished, very consistent skaters, and we are now so used to them winning that they are considered to have bombed if they don't finish in the top three, and can be written off even if they finish second. Which is not a healthy attitude for us to have as fans, I think - there are inevitably going to be ups and downs in a skater's career, and to demand that they are always perfect is setting ourselves up for disappointment.

To bring this specifically to Aliona, I remember last season that she had one JGP SP that did not go to plan, and she was so upset, because she appears to be very much a perfectionist by nature. She looked unhappy when she finished her RussNats gala exhibition, because she made a mistake in it, and that isn't even a competition. Plus, she said it herself in the Euros press conference, that Alexandra and Anna want to be the best, but she aims to skate clean and be satisfied with her performance. She wants that perfection and consistency, and because she has exhibited both of these qualities in spades for a teenager, both as a junior and now as a new senior, I guess we (using a very general we here) are so used to the standard she has set that when she has a day that is not so perfect, not as consistent, we sometimes react more strongly than we should.

(As a horse person side note, I think it is very good for Aliona to have horse riding as a hobby, because horses teach you to accept good enough instead of perfect, because trying to drill a very large prey animal until it is perfect tends to end not so well. You learn patience and generosity for mistakes when working with horses, and how to learn from them, put them in the past, and move on, which I think are skills that can benefit any athlete, but especially the perfectionists, like Aliona.)

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