Russia’s Sofia Samodurova: ‘I grew more confident’ | Golden Skate

Russia’s Sofia Samodurova: ‘I grew more confident’

gsk8

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The Russian ladies have been dominant on the figure skating scene for the past few years, taking Olympic gold in 2014 and 2018 as well as the World title in 2015-2017 and 2019. The Russians also took six consecutive European ladies’ titles since 2014. However, Sofia Samodurova was the surprise champion in 2019 when she grabbed the gold ahead of teammate and Olympic Champion Alina Zagitova. The following month, she finished eighth in her debut at the ISU World Figure Skating.

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There is one more camp scheduled for the middle of August again in Tartu, Estonia, before the group, which also includes 2015 World Champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, will prepare for the test skates in September 7 and 8 in Moscow.

Here's wishing her a great and successful season!

How do you think she will fare along side the other Russian ladies this season?
 
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skylark

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As far as how Sofia will fare alongside the other Russian ladies, I think the most surprising thing about her is that she's very capable of surprising everyone. On paper, people may not give her much credence against the Russian girls with quads. On the other hand, who in the freaking figure skating universe would have thought she'd win Europeans, over Zagitova, even on an off day for Alina?

I find Sofia to be very grounded and confident. That, with her consistency, is a great asset in competition.

What I'm impressed with the most about her is that she keeps her own priorities and honors her own values in figure skating. She's a fan of Ashley Wagner because she cares about expression, while also being a good (maybe even fierce) competitor.

And she hasn't changed her mind about what's most important to her. My favorite quote from this article:

“I have to skate more freely,” she summed up. “I need to skate with more expression, for the spectators and judges. I have to improve my skating as much as possible. For that, I need to approach the character of my programs seriously and work more on skating skills.”
 

Skater Boy

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I wish her well. It is a very interesting and dynamic situation in Russia. Despite having the Euro Champion who could only place 8th at Worlds they have no idea how the 3A's, Alina, Sofia, Liza and Evgenia will pan out. This does not even factor in probably 4 or more capable skaters that include Maria S among other hopefuls. And that doesn't even factor in a former world silver medalist - Leonova. What country has the current Euro champion and world bronze medallists(also a former two time world champion and olympic silver medallist) looking like underdogs. But a lot depends on how the quadsters do with the fight against or with puberty. And the new pressure of senior skating.
 

yume

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If she had debuted in seniors in 2015, when tanos on every jumping pass and consistency were so valued and when there where less consistent ladies with big layout, maybe she would have made a bigger splash. Maybe her PCS and GOE would have got a meteoric rise like Medvedeva.
 

ancientpeas

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Good luck to Sofia. She is another plucky skater much like Liza and I wish her well. It is a shame that the Russian pool is so deep that so many talented skaters are likely to get lost in the shuffle.

BTW.. I always enjoy seeing Mishin in the kiss and cry. He seems like he does care about his skaters.
 

skylark

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But a lot depends on how the quadsters do with the fight against or with puberty. .

That says a lot about what The Powers That Be have allowed women's figure skating to become.
 

Amei

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But a lot depends on how the quadsters do with the fight against or with puberty. And the new pressure of senior skating.

I think Eteri learned a lot with her early skaters in terms of it needing to be more than just them being 'small' like Lipnitskaia or Medvedeva, though Medvedeva's appears to be genetics, her younger generation Zagitova and younger are a lot of muscle. Trusova, Shcherbakova and Kostornaia while slim (not a lot of 'heavy' elite competitive figure skaters) you can look at them and see a lot of muscle.
 

MrECartman

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How do you think she will fare along side the other Russian ladies this season?

Samodurova's chances of making it out of Russian Nationals this season are slim to none. Her programs continue to exploit that one-note "sassiness" that seem to define her artistry, her jumps are still small, with other elements nothing special, so she's going to be outshined by quite a few Russians in both performance and technique.

I always look forward to Liza T's performances (she's got tons of personality on the ice and oh that technique..her lutz gives me chills!), and yet find Samodurova's forgettable.
 

Skater Boy

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Samodurova's chances of making it out of Russian Nationals this season are slim to none. Her programs continue to exploit that one-note "sassiness" that seem to define her artistry, her jumps are still small, with other elements nothing special, so she's going to be outshined by quite a few Russians in both performance and technique.

I always look forward to Liza T's performances (she's got tons of personality on the ice and oh that technique..her lutz gives me chills!), and yet find Samodurova's forgettable.

Agreed. But still she won the Euros. I sadly think though with the 3As, Alina, Liza looking strong and Evgenia re improved it will be hard to crack the top five in Russia - too bad Canada could probably use her.]
 

Scott512

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Samodurova's chances of making it out of Russian Nationals this season are slim to none. Her programs continue to exploit that one-note "sassiness" that seem to define her artistry, her jumps are still small, with other elements nothing special, so she's going to be outshined by quite a few Russians in both performance and technique.

I always look forward to Liza T's performances (she's got tons of personality on the ice and oh that technique..her lutz gives me chills!), and yet find Samodurova's forgettable.

SS is likely to be the only top Russian lady to skate clean at this year's Nationals. She has every chance in the world especially with the pressure on 4A and I'm not counting on the four of them skating clean twice in such an important event. Yes Sofia is outgunned in a lot of departments but she's also a lot more consistent than everyone else and thats to her advantage and could play the role in Rusnats.

Does anyone remember Euros last January and how and why SS won gold? I thought not.
 

yume

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SS is likely to be the only top Russian lady to skate clean at this year's Nationals. She has every chance in the world especially with the pressure on 4A and I'm not counting on the four of them skating clean twice in such an important event. Yes Sofia is outgunned in a lot of departments but she's also a lot more consistent than everyone else and thats to her advantage and could play the role in Rusnats.

Does anyone remember Euros last January and how and why SS won gold? I thought not.

Despite 2 near clean programs and mistakes from other skaters she still finished 6th at last nats. If Tuktamysheva had competed she would have maybe finished lower and wouldn't have get a chance to compete at euros. She will be against many skaters that can afford some mistakes to beat her. If she doesn't up her game technically she will not need just a few mistakes but disasters or withdrawals. But knowing her luck it isn't impossible.
Euros was a weak field and she had only two serious opponents, who bombed. At nats she will have at least 7 opponents who can score higher than her.
 

theharleyquinn

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Samodurova's chances of making it out of Russian Nationals this season are slim to none. Her programs continue to exploit that one-note "sassiness" that seem to define her artistry, her jumps are still small, with other elements nothing special, so she's going to be outshined by quite a few Russians in both performance and technique.

I always look forward to Liza T's performances (she's got tons of personality on the ice and oh that technique..her lutz gives me chills!), and yet find Samodurova's forgettable.

Sofia showed more versatility in her two programs last season than Liza did.
 

yume

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Both had the same kind of programs imo. Similar music choices in both programs, similar choreos. Like twins. And Samodurova is basically repeating her programs this season.
 

icetug

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In theory she didn't have any chances to make it to the national team last season. The situation is still the same: in theory she has no chances for international championships this season.
Theory aside, Sofia is an outstanding performer and as long as she has spark in her eyes she can make just another surprise :laugh:.
 

Amei

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In theory she didn't have any chances to make it to the national team last season. The situation is still the same: in theory she has no chances for international championships this season.
Theory aside, Sofia is an outstanding performer and as long as she has spark in her eyes she can make just another surprise :laugh:.

I like Sofia, but the situation this season is much different from last season, last season once we got into the competitions it was clear that Medvedeva and Sotskova wasn't as strong as the previous season. This season there are 3 new seniors which beat everyone at Nationals last year and that's on top of Zagitova and Medvedeva both of which looked strong at their last competitions. Both Medvedeva and Zagitova would get the edge over her because of PCS, and Shcherbakova and Trusova even if they aren't nailing the quads consistently, they are a better gamble with a potential landed quad vs. Sofia who from what we know of doesn't have a triple axel or quad.
 

icetug

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I like Sofia, but the situation this season is much different from last season, last season once we got into the competitions it was clear that Medvedeva and Sotskova wasn't as strong as the previous season. This season there are 3 new seniors which beat everyone at Nationals last year and that's on top of Zagitova and Medvedeva both of which looked strong at their last competitions. Both Medvedeva and Zagitova would get the edge over her because of PCS, and Shcherbakova and Trusova even if they aren't nailing the quads consistently, they are a better gamble with a potential landed quad vs. Sofia who from what we know of doesn't have a triple axel or quad.

As I said: in theory Sofia has no chances for the national team spot and in this point nothing's been changed (sure, we can hold quite academic discussion how different is zero this season to the zero last season ;)). Anyway, we are on the eve of new season with no single competition Russian ladies took part as yet. If each and every sportsmen gave up because of their potentially stronger rivals even before the competition started, we would have never new champions (till the old retire) and the result would have always been predictable.

Her programs continue to exploit that one-note "sassiness" that seem to define her artistry

Many Russian ladies have been trying to be "sassy" but failed. Sofia's great in it :).
 

Noxchild

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I like Sofia. I hope she can show us interesting new programs and not get buried in the quad craze... and ditches those nightmare tano arms for ever and ever! :dbana:
 
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