Alina's "Spectacular And Dramatic Decline Since The Olympics"
5th at Worlds (Great SP, Bad LP)
1st at Nebelhorn
1st at Japan Open
1st at GP Finland
1st at GP Russia
2nd at GP Final (including 2 skaters with a triple axel)
5th at Russian Nationals (Great SP, Bad LP) - 2nd among Senior Skaters
2nd at Europeans (Good SP, Bad LP)
1st at Worlds (including skater with 3A, skater with 4S)
2nd at Japan Open (beaten by Sasha Trusova)
2nd at GP France (against Aliona)
3rd at NHK (against Aliona & Rika)
6th at GP Final (Great SP, Bad LP) --- against an extremely strong field.
Yes - she has had her "struggles". But she overcame them.
Even during the Olympic year she had big problems in her SP during the GP series.
I hope Alina reads all the "predicitions" about her decline and imminent retirement.
And uses it as the "motivation" she needs to keep competing at a high level.
By decline I mean how fast their star explodes and then plummets. It's been the same story with every Eteri wunderkid so far. Lipniskaia (exploded in 2014 and then got replaced by Medvedeva and was pretty much done after that), Medvedeva (exploded in 2015, kept it for another season, fell spectacularly in 3rd season and got replaced by Zagitova), Zagitova (exploded in 2018, very shaky in 2019, now on her way out the door and replaced by 3As).
No other top ladies skaters has had as spectacular rises and falls. Zagitova has only been on the senior scene for 2.5 SEASONS. That is a blip on the radar.
It's rinse and repeat. We have had the same teeth gnashing every single time with each skater.