- Joined
- Jan 25, 2013
Thank you so much for this excellent interview! I have not always been the biggest fan of his skating, but Kolyada seems like such a down to earth, wonderful person. His heart and head seem to be in good and healthy places. I wish him the best in the upcoming season as well as his new engagement!
It is a wonderful interview especially appreciated after months of 'radio silence'. It is good to know that he is in such a positive state of mind - quite remarkable after the season he had. But contrary to a common belief he is a true fighter, he's bounced back - good for him.
I am a little concerned that as regards the jumps his teams is still unsure of anything. I don't feel like there is any strategy behind those plans - taking out 4Lz, bringing in 4Sal , taking out 4 sal, bringing in 4Lz...the season after season it goes on and the end result is apart from 4T he has no other consistent quad which I blame entirely his team for...
2 quad SP is another worry - why not try to stabilise 4lz in LP first before risking it in SP? I am his biggest fan but even I begin to feel it is hopeless
(please Mika do prove me wrong and make me the happiest fan on the GS!)
Probably the plan with 4sal was about working with Rafael Arutyunyan, he worked with him on that last year but in competition he has never landed it: okay he has been dealing with illness but if you try an element all season and never land it i don't think it is worth working on it for now, especially if now the priority is getting that consistency. Also as he said in the interview they had to cancel the trip to California this time.
I do agree that if you want consistency you should have clear ideas on what to work on from the beginning, but the team is also responsible for all the things he's good at: the Federation should give him time and don't put that much pressure, results will come.
For example Russian Nationals last season was handled poorly in my opinion, basically forcing him to skate to fight for a spot i don't think it should have ever been in danger given the state of the other skaters.
Mikhail has landed the 4S in competition, I think at least twice, once at Rostelecom Cup last year: https://youtu.be/Ox9uQiYXxqY and somewhere else I don't remember now. But I agree, the consistency rate is low. Anyway, now they seem to focus on the quad Lutz which I think has a better chance to get consistent.
I agree about Russian Nationals. The Fed should have given him a bye. Maybe they would have if he had done better in the Grand Prix. But they don't like to give byes - even Lisa Tuktamysheva didn't get one and she had been on a roll before she fell sick. You still can argue that the field in ladies is much deeper. But then what about Sergei Voronov? He was the only Russian man to qualify for the GP Final. OTOH, I believe he needed more time to recover from his injury and probably wouldn't have been ready for Europeans (same for Lisa btw). Sergei didn't try to fight for a spot for Worlds at the Russian Cup Final, but I don't know if he was not ready yet or if he decided against it for other reasons.
However, even though it was very tough for Mikhail to compete at Nationals in the end I think it was a good decision that helped him and will help him. It earned him respect, for one thing, and also it proved to him that you are stronger than you think you are. He said in the interview that competing at Nationals was the the most right decision.
I forgot about that free skate, that was one of the most surreal performances i've ever seen: nailed all the difficult elements, popped all the easier triples
He should start with the combination in the SP though, so even if you fall on the 4 lutz, at least you get credit for the 4t-3t.
We say in the Olympics season him falling or popping the lutz and then making mistake on the 4t meaning no combo and that so many points left to the table.
On Sergei Voronov i thought RusFed didn't invite him.
Sending all my prayers for Misha to be healthy and finally show what he's capable of.
You know, Misha is often criticized by commentators for not having the fighter mentality that russian ladies have. For not fighting enough.
And all those commentators still call Misha an "all inclusive hotel", they praise him for having all natural talent a skater needs.
Explosive big beautiful textbook jumps, skating skills, artistic abilities. The thing no one can deny about him is that he's ridiculously talented.
He does really have all the talent in the world to be #1, I am just praying for him to start finally showing what he's got.
Do it Misha, land those quads in the next season and make it to the GPF.
The BESP guys said he is overburdened almost with talent!
It is interesting that Russian commentators tend to be moaning 'it is so easy for him' (like he could do it easily just doesn't want to)
but non -Russian commentators praise - 'he makes it look so easy' -
No comment
So only 5 men on the FFKKR top list (contrasting to 7 for the women): https://fsrussia.ru/sbornaya.html
What are the chances of two of the reserves making it into the top group during the season?
None.
According to what I read on FSO, there can only be 12 people in singles on the main team for funding. Per one article I read, 1 spot was taken from the men to give to the ladies, which is why there are 7 ladies and 5 men.
So to move someone from the mens reserve to the main team, they would have to remove 1 person already on the main team from either the men or ladies.
So for example, last year, there were 6 men on the main (and 6 ladies). When Kovtun won Nationals he was added to the main team. In turn, they removed Erokhov who was placed in reserves.
Does this make sense?
i don't know if this has been said somewhere, but do we know the challengers assignments?