2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating | Page 58 | Golden Skate

2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

Maju

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
I think if they have three clear leaders of the teamafter nationals they will send the same team, but I can see several situations where they would not.
Firstly if one skater that they want on the team misses nationals and/or europeans due to injuries or sickness and that person got healthy in time for worlds they would switch.
Secondly if someone "bombs" europeans (failing to medal) and they have several strong alternates they might do some sort of skate off.
Thirdly if the results are verry close between nr3 and nr4 at nationals and they have had similair results throughout the season I can see them reevaluating which of them to send to worlds (3rd goes to europeans in this senario). If this coincide with the second scenario Im almost certain they would switch.

I think this is likely.
 

nussnacker

one and only
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 16, 2019
Do you guys think RusFed will send the same team to Worlds and Europeans or go Japan style and split it up?
If Zhenya doesn’t get Worlds or Europeans, what do you guys think she’ll do?

I really doubt that they will go the "japan" route.
See, europeans is not the same thing as 4cc. 4cc is a relatively new competition, history of europeans goes much further than that.
It is of a very old and respected competition, the status of a european champion is very well sought after.
If someone REALLY fails at europeans and on top of that has a history of inconsistency and unreliability, they will cut the person from the world team.
But if it's say 4th place finish, but with 2 decent skates and amazing gran prix performances, there's no way.

Konstantinova was cut because of her history of bombing one program, it happened pretty much every single time she competed internationally and she just did the same usual thing at europeans this year.
Unless people will withdraw themselves, I doubt there's a chance of having 2 different teams at worlds and europeans.
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
I think it'll be much harder for Alena to be on the team than Alina.

Unfortunately, I agree. Alena doesn‘t seem to have much chances with her current layout, unless the others make mistakes at Nationals. If she learns a 3A or backloads more of her combos (and does harder ones) she could be a contender. But this way, Alina‘s PCS will always be higher than hers. If Alina skates like she did at Worlds throughout the season, I can‘t see her scores dropping. And she‘s capable of contending with 3As and quads with scores like that...

It‘s way too early to make a guess but my feeling tells me it will be Sasha and Alina 100% on the team next year with Anna, Liza, Alena and Zhenya with chances to make it. It will depend on consistency now more than ever. With 3 3A I‘d say Liza has pretty good chances but I guess she‘d need some better programs, hers are always very empty and don‘t score well on PCS at all. Whereas Anna, depending on the state of her quad (quads?) usually has programs with lots of transitions and difficult content. With Alena it will depend on her layout but either way she has a chance by being the most consistent of the bunch. Not sure about Zhenya. She seems to be recovering just fine, even training 3-3 at the moment (3F-3T and 3S-3Lo as per her instagram) so it‘s likely she will be in better shape at the beginning of the season than she was last year. Which she will need. With so many ladies she can‘t afford mistakes. If she upgrades her content and stays consistent, I‘d say she has decent but not particularly great chances to make the team. Mostly it will depend on who stays clean during the season and especially at Nationals.

If I had to guess... It‘d be Sasha, Alina and Anna for the team.

(Even though, biased as I am, I will hope for either Zhenya or Alena to make it)
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
Do you guys think RusFed will send the same team to Worlds and Europeans or go Japan style and split it up?
If Zhenya doesn’t get Worlds or Europeans, what do you guys think she’ll do?

The same she would have done this year if she hadn‘t been sent. And the same the other 5 girls of a group of 8 (Alina, Zhenya, Alena, Sasha, Anna, Liza, Sofia, Stasya) will do if they do not get chosen. Prepare for the next season, use the time to upgrade the technical layout and do some smaller, international competitions. (challengers are a good way to up that SB score)
 

Tolstoj

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Unless Tarasova says different, they will send to both events those who will have the best chance for medal. Last season was quite different due to Liza's health and the result of russian championship, which was won by juniors, but I hope everybody will be healthy this time and whoever will be on the podium on the rustats it will be senior, very probably :)

We all know Liza's health was a nonsense excuse to leave her out, they used everything, even scores at a ridiculously small B event, despite she proved at Russian Cup Final she could skate two back to back clean programs, and despite the season she has had (medal at every single event).

When it comes Russian Nationals and the World team we should differentiate the skaters who will benefit from extra push from influential people in Russia, and those who have to earn the spot without those benefits, and it's also important which city you're representing cause at this point it's crystal clear Moscow skaters have an advantage at domestic competitions, and RusFed will never allow 3 SPB skaters from the same discipline to go to Worlds, unless there is literally no good Moscow skaters.

Liza is not supported by enough influential coaches (we saw the list of who they are) and she's coming from SPB so her way to grab a spot is to win as much as she can internationally.
 

Maju

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
The same she would have done this year if she hadn‘t been sent. And the same the other 5 girls of a group of 8 (Alina, Zhenya, Alena, Sasha, Anna, Liza, Sofia, Stasya) will do if they do not get chosen. Prepare for the next season, use the time to upgrade the technical layout and do some smaller, international competitions. (challengers are a good way to up that SB score)
Yeah, I thought so :) What would be some competitions the girls could go to?
 

Orlov

Medalist
Joined
Jun 19, 2018
Zagitova: "No puberty. You just have to close your mouth and don't eat."

This is just a one replica taken out of context. How do you know what exactly she meant by this ? (cuz it is impossible to live without food, and of course Alina knows this) For example, as Daniel said - Alina is a big sweet tooth in a group - "I think even the word chocolate already sounds sweet to her". Maybe she meant - "You just have to close your mouth and don't eat [your favorite junk food]", mmm? You don't need to be a certified nutritionist to know what is sweet, candies, buns, fast food, Coca-Cola - can't eat, at least systematically and in significant quantities.

I'm not a professional athlete, but even I don’t eat this, cuz I watch my figure. And if someone ask me how not to get fat, I will say the same thing - “just stop eating donuts, buns, ice cream, hamburgers and all that stuff”.
 

moriel

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 18, 2015
We all know Liza's health was a nonsense excuse to leave her out, they used everything, even scores at a ridiculously small B event, despite she proved at Russian Cup Final she could skate two back to back clean programs, and despite the season she has had (medal at every single event).

When it comes Russian Nationals and the World team we should differentiate the skaters who will benefit from extra push from influential people in Russia, and those who have to earn the spot without those benefits, and it's also important which city you're representing cause at this point it's crystal clear Moscow skaters have an advantage at domestic competitions, and RusFed will never allow 3 SPB skaters from the same discipline to go to Worlds, unless there is literally no good Moscow skaters.

Liza is not supported by enough influential coaches (we saw the list of who they are) and she's coming from SPB so her way to grab a spot is to win as much as she can internationally.

It is not about cities, but about coaches. For example, it is quite a safe bet that no 3 Eteri skaters and no 3 Mishin skaters will make the world team.
 

Reddi

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Do you guys think RusFed will send the same team to Worlds and Europeans or go Japan style and split it up?
If Zhenya doesn’t get Worlds or Europeans, what do you guys think she’ll do?

In Russia, Euros are seen as an additional stage of qualification for the Worlds. The final decision on the Worlds is made with Euros results in mind so if someone bombs the Euros then chances of losing spot in the team for them are pretty fat.
 

Tolstoj

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
It is not about cities, but about coaches. For example, it is quite a safe bet that no 3 Eteri skaters and no 3 Mishin skaters will make the world team.

Eh not sure if i agree entirely.

They did accept 3 Eteri skaters to sweep the podium at RN but at the same time they were very against the idea of sending 2 Mishin skaters from the same discipline to Worlds.

It all comes down to that list of people who vote for these decisions and if you look at where they come from, most of them are from Moscow and work there, and each of them protect their groups like for example we know Elena Tchaikovskaya is more pro Eteri, while Tarasova is pro Buyanova,... The only two from that group they'd support Mishin skaters are probably Tamara Moskvina and Oleg Vasilijev.

Konstantinova and to some extent Chebotareva's group is probably the only exception of skaters from SPB who are getting some recognition even from muscovites.
 

VenusHalley

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 6, 2018
This is just a one replica taken out of context. How do you know what exactly she meant by this ? (cuz it is impossible to live without food, and of course Alina knows this) For example, as Daniel said - Alina is a big sweet tooth in a group - "I think even the word chocolate already sounds sweet to her". Maybe she meant - "You just have to close your mouth and don't eat [your favorite junk food]", mmm? You don't need to be a certified nutritionist to know what is sweet, candies, buns, fast food, Coca-Cola - can't eat, at least systematically and in significant quantities.

I'm not a professional athlete, but even I don’t eat this, cuz I watch my figure. And if someone ask me how not to get fat, I will say the same thing - “just stop eating donuts, buns, ice cream, hamburgers and all that stuff”.

But she did not say, "don't eat junk food". She said "close your mouth and do not eat, or eat only a little". Then the whole "I had A BAD SUGARY DRINK after i lost 2018 worlds" (as if she was scared to even say name of some foods and drinks).

It just does not sound right and even all her medals will not undo the fact it sounds as disordered eating (since "b-b-but MEDALS" seems to be a valid excuse to anything and everything in some minds).
 

Jontor

Medalist
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Country
Sweden
My question is can Alina hold off the Russian young guns next season with her experience talent savvy and confidence of being number 1 two years in a row? I think it's doable. Hard but doable.
I think it is more a question whether the 3A can adjust to seniors? There are lots and lots of great junior skaters who never had a great senior career. Who remember the russian ladies skaters Elena Ivanova, Elena Pingacheva, Nadezda Kanaeva, Daria Timoshenko, Kristina Oblasova, Polina Agafonova and Serafima Sakhanovich. All were once World Junior medalists but had/has very weak senior careers.
We can also add Svetlana Bukareva, Ludmila Nelidina, Polina Shelepen, Polina Korobeynikova, Anastasia Gubanova who were all JGPF medalists.
It is not an easy transition to go from juniors to seniors...
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
Anna Shcherbakova will skate to the soundtrack of “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”
https://www.instagram.com/anna__shc...utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=3d20gg5t9ea6
very interesting!

Oh, wow, that‘s a very interesting choice and one I did not expect at all. I wonder who she will portray and how they will bring the story onto the ice. Intriguing.

I think it is more a question whether the 3A can adjust to seniors? There are lots and lots of great junior skaters who never had a great senior career. Who remember the russian ladies skaters Elena Ivanova, Elena Pingacheva, Nadezda Kanaeva, Daria Timoshenko, Kristina Olbasova, Polina Agafonova and Serafima Sakhanovich. All were once World Junior medalists but had/has very weak senior careers.
It is not an easy transition to go from juniors to seniors...

Oh dear... I only remember Sima of all the girls mentioned. I think the 3A are a bit different in this aspect, though. I mean, especially Sasha. She always strikes me as having a pretty similar character to Zhenya, the determination, the competitiveness. I can‘t imagine her failing to make her senior debut anything less than spectacularly. Of course everything could happen but she seems to want it so much, it would be really unexpected.

Anna is someone people are constantly counting out (me included even though I feel guilty for doing that) even though she has showed she can perform when it matters. It will depend on how she handles her nerves.

For Alena on the other hand it will be a different issue. She seems to be growing and her injury still doesn‘t seem to be recovered. She had her foot taped in her recent pictures.. and she did mention micro-injuries occurring every time she trained the 3A. If her health allows it, she could make a great senior debut as well. At the moment I am most worried about her. She is my favourite and she‘s so talented... I just hope she‘ll be healthy next season, with 3A or without!

Overall, I‘d say there is a decent chance that all three of them, and if not that, at least two adjust well to seniors. Alina can still keep her position on the team quite easily, though. She‘s the only one I‘m not worried about regarding making the team. As long as she is motivated and skates like she did at Worlds during the most important competition(s) (Nationals and Euros) she will make the Worlds team. She has the TES, the reputation, the experience, the maturity (at least over Sasha and Anna) and the PCS. She will be fine. And even if something unexpected happened and she didn‘t make the team - so what? There‘s still a next season. Use the time, rest a bit, then learn that 4F and come back to regain the throne. There‘s some time until the next Olympics. If she wants to make it to Beijing, of course.
 

Scott512

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
I think it is more a question whether the 3A can adjust to seniors? There are lots and lots of great junior skaters who never had a great senior career. Who remember the russian ladies skaters Elena Ivanova, Elena Pingacheva, Nadezda Kanaeva, Daria Timoshenko, Kristina Olbasova, Polina Agafonova and Serafima Sakhanovich. All were once World Junior medalists but had/has very weak senior careers.
We can also add Svetlana Bukareva, Ludmila Nelidina, Polina Shelepen, Polina Korobeynikova, Anastasia Gubanova who were all JGPF medalists.
It is not an easy transition to go from juniors to seniors...

While I agree with your assessment and explanation we must understand that 3a are much much much more talented and gifted than the girls you mentioned. But they should have to go through the normal growing pains and adjustments. It will be fascinating to see unfold.
 
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