Russian Ladies: The Missing Generation

The Polina Shelepen interview started me thinking about the subject of “different generations”.

I just went and looked up the Wikipedia article listing all the medalists at Russian nationals over the years. It seems like between 1999 and 2009, there was an age shift in the ladies field. We went from skaters who were born in the 1970s, like Irina Slutskaya, Maria Butyrskaya, and I see Elena Sokolova in there too, who was born in 1980. These ladies then retired and passed the torch along to the 1990s babies: Adelina S, Liza T, Alena Leonova, Ksenia Makarova, Ksenia Doronina, etc. I guess my point by bringing it up here, is that I just thought it was an interesting “age shift” worth pointing out. I just never noticed it before. That and I’m a 1983 baby, so it was odd to not see many close to my age on the list.

Wow. I never noticed that before, but you're right. :shocked:

As somebody who was born in the middle of the decade, I too am fascinated by this observation about there being no top Russian Ladies skaters that were born in the 80's. That we jumped from seeing 70's skaters to seeing 90's skaters.

I had never actually thought of it like that. But, when you do get it pointed out in those terms, it is a gaping hole! And there must be a reason. But, I haven't a clue what it could be.

So, can anybody shed any light?

This could turn into a VERY interesting discussion. So, with SarahSynchro's permission, it has been moved into it's own thread.

Thank you so much for noticing this, and for pointing it out.

CaroLiza_fan

The Russian figure skating program is ruled by FFKKR, the federation.

Its funding is dependent on the powers in charge in the Kreml, the Ministry of Sports. No doubt its budgeting is dependent on the political climate and its ambitions with presenting Russia as a Great Sports Nation.
And how many conglomerates and business they can attract as sponsors. Sponsors often have their own financial reasons and political agenda when it comes to sponsoring.

Russia had a very tumultuous 90s so everyone born in the 80s did not have as much funding and support especially fromthe state.

Also notice, the golden age of Russian (women's) tennis was brought by those who were born in the 80s (Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Myskina, Safina, Dementieva to name a few) as tennis was seen as a very lucrative sports. Lots of girls saw tennis as a way out of their challenged economic situation and there was a time when 8 out of the top 10 women were Russians. That dominance has faded now and nowadays, the young Russian girls are once again more attracted to figure skating as there is greater state support.

thegreendestiny said:

Russia had a very tumultuous 90s so everyone born in the 80s did not have as much funding and support especially fromthe state.

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The breakup of the USSR and the subsequent turmoil did cross my mind as a possible reason. But, the problem with that theory is that we didn't see the same thing happen in the other categories.

For example, we saw LOTS of Men born in the 80's coming through. Yagudin, Plushenko, Dobrin, Menshov, Voronov, to name but a few.

In Pairs, skaters born in the 80's include Totmianina, Smirnov, Mukhortova, Trankov, Maisuradze, Larionov, Rogonov. Again, we see a bias towards male skaters, but there were a few girls in there too (Kavaguti was born in the 80's as well, but she came up through the Japanese system).

It's even more balanced in Dance. Romaniuta, Barantsev, Kulikova, Domnina, Shabalin, Khokhlova, Novitski, Shefer, Soloviev, Gorshkova, Butikov, Tkachenko.

So, there must have been something else that was affecting Ladies Singles skating in particular that wasn't affecting the other categories.

thegreendestiny said:

Also notice, the golden age of Russian (women's) tennis was brought by those who were born in the 80s (Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Myskina, Safina, Dementieva to name a few) as tennis was seen as a very lucrative sports. Lots of girls saw tennis as a way out of their challenged economic situation and there was a time when 8 out of the top 10 women were Russians. That dominance has faded now and nowadays, the young Russian girls are once again more attracted to figure skating as there is greater state support.

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You could be onto something here. Girls being drawn towards tennis rather than singles skating.

And those girls that did take up skating getting encouraged to go into Dance and, to a lesser extent, Pairs. So as to provide partners for some of the many boys that were still taking up skating.

Sounds plausible to me :agree:

CaroLiza_fan

Was tennis in the Soviet Union ever conceived as a sport for the masses? Wasn't it prejudiced as some western decadency in USSR times?
After 1989, the tumultuous Yeltsin Years opened up Russia for all kinds of 'private initiatives' and 'business practices', both fair and foul. And widespread corruption and financial crime took over many sports' governing bodies at every level of administration.

Weren't those tennis girls born in the 1980's all from relatively wealthy families that were able to pay for those private lessons?

AFAIK, the only private high profile club in figure skating is Plyushchenko's Angels, it is in direct competition with the state sponsored clubs under FFKKR.

The collapse of the USSR is the root cause of this definitely. Tremendous changes in society as a whole and in every family. The sharp drop in living standards, a complete change of worldview of the overwhelming majority of Russians. This is especially true of young families, whose children could start skating at this time. Coaches went to the West or went into business, sports arenas turned into markets. People were looking for support in life, perhaps this is the reason that girls would go to pair skating or dancing. Why Plushenko and others? ... I do not know. Perhaps hard times make men stronger. Among other things. Just my opinion.

Alex65 said:

The collapse of the USSR is the root cause of this definitely. Tremendous changes in society as a whole and in every family. The sharp drop in living standards, a complete change of worldview of the overwhelming majority of Russians. This is especially true of young families, whose children could start skating at this time. Coaches went to the West or went into business, sports arenas turned into markets. People were looking for support in life, perhaps this is the reason that girls would go to pair skating or dancing. Why Plushenko and others? ... I do not know. Perhaps hard times make men stronger. Among other things. Just my opinion.

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Plushenko came from an incredible poor family but he felt in love with figure skating at his 4. In his family no one was able to remove him from the skating they tried to recommand him other sports. He was a hardworker from the beginning. When the ice rink has closed in Volgograd his family made the greatest sacrifice. They allowed to move to St. Petersburg at the age of 11. He was all alone, one year later his mother moved there leaving her daughter and husband in Volgograd. Without that he wouldn't have been this skater. I don't believe many families would have done it. I wouldn't do it!

The lack of top Russian ladies was notable at Europeans for a long time. In the six years after Slutskaya quit (2007–2012) Russian ladies won zero medals while Finns won seven. Leonova was 2nd at Worlds but only 4th at Europeans.