Will Zagitova return? | Page 5 | Golden Skate

Will Zagitova return?

Finley

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 19, 2014
I would be 😍if Alina came back, and I have no doubt if she wanted to, she could stay competitive. Having said that, she has also won everything there is to win in figure skating, and I would be totally fine if she wanted to pursue something else. She is young and the sky is the limit! I just hope she is happy and continues tuning all the media gossip out.

So say we all!

:agree:
 

taylor1

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
I think she'll definitely compete this season. It's just a matter of how well she does when she returns to competitions to determine if she'll keep going or not. My dream would be for Alina and Zhenya to make the ultimate comeback and win 1st 2nd at competitions like the old days, now that 3A is reaching that stage of near doom
 

Scott512

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
I would be 😍if Alina came back, and I have no doubt if she wanted to, she could stay competitive. Having said that, she has also won everything there is to win in figure skating, and I would be totally fine if she wanted to pursue something else. She is young and the sky is the limit! I just hope she is happy and continues tuning all the media gossip out.
What else could she try? I think she wants to skate and it won't bother her too much if she's not a gold medalist at every event. You can do more big shows like she did Last Christmas I think a Lena should be proud of what she's done and look forward to anything else you can accomplish competitively.

I think she'll definitely compete this season. It's just a matter of how well she does when she returns to competitions to determine if she'll keep going or not. My dream would be for Alina and Zhenya to make the ultimate comeback and win 1st 2nd at competitions like the old days, now that 3A is reaching that stage of near doom
that's a great dream and I appreciate how you see the glass half-full instead of half-empty. I have no problems if Evgenia and Alina continue their competitive careers. I think if they want to continue to make major money and sponsorships from companies say in Japan then they need to continue their competitive careers and skate well whether they win gold medals or not.
 

macy

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
saying any skater is "done" is disrespectful, insensitive and dismissive of their efforts regardless of who the skater is, their achievements, struggles, etc.
 

ancientpeas

The Notorious SEW
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Feel free to take your issues with the moderating team to the feedback forum. They don't belong here.
 

Scott512

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
saying any skater is "done" is disrespectful, insensitive and dismissive of their efforts regardless of who the skater is, their achievements, struggles, etc.
Agreed. Every figure skater deserves to leave the sport on their own terms and that includes the reigning and defending Olympic and World Champion in ladies figure skating.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I think she'll definitely compete this season. It's just a matter of how well she does when she returns to competitions to determine if she'll keep going or not. My dream would be for Alina and Zhenya to make the ultimate comeback and win 1st 2nd at competitions like the old days, now that 3A is reaching that stage of near doom

Of the three, I think Alena will have the fewest problems. She isn't reliant on quads to win, and probably could compete with Alina and Evgenia on the jumps through the lutz alone. She's that good. I just hope she has better programs this season.
 

Skater Boy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Lest we forget there are the Americans and the Japanese ladies who have great jumpers and improving artistry. Liu, Tennell, Rika, Kaori, and the up and coming Koreans. Russia is not even guaranteed a medal at the next olympics.
 

flanker

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Country
Czech-Republic
Lest we forget there are the Americans and the Japanese ladies who have great jumpers and improving artistry. Liu, Tennell, Rika, Kaori, and the up and coming Koreans. Russia is not even guaranteed a medal at the next olympics.

Not that this is a topic for Alina's return, but if you put the things this way... :rolleye:

Alysa, Rika and Young You are the only ones that could threaten, in good consteation of stars, the current top russian ladies.

As for the othres:
Kaori? Umm, I'm sorry to talk about her this way, but your formulation doesn't give me other option than to remind that even with how many times people are sending Alina to the grave, still all her last season's results were better than Kaori's (Alina's worst score was 205, Kaori's best was 202). She has obvious consistencty problems, not to mention her problems with self-confidence, which she herself pointed out.
Bradie? Something around 145-148 in the FP is her maximum (generally overscored Team Trophy results shouldn't be counted for anyone). She's better technically than she was, but from the point of artistry she is inferior to even russian juniors.
There is no other current japanese, US or korean lady apart from the trio named above that could stand a chance, and of them only Alysa, if she keeps her jumps, is truly serious competitor at all circumstances. For Rika to beat top Russians would require they would have to do two or rather three serious mistakes, You would require even more to have a chance at least for bronze.
It can be seen it even on junior level, japanese young girls from the years after Rika are inferior so far, Americans apart from Alysa have only Ting Cui, who has long term health problems. Two or three Koreans are promising, but for several seasons the picture is the same - they do very well during the JGP stages, but later (JGPF, JWC) their results go down significantly. This can change, but so far only a little concern for the tp russians.

Russians, on the other hand, have 3A, still Alina, Evgenia, Kamila and Daria will be senior eligible for the olympic season, Ksenia Sinitsina can still repeat what she has shown at JGP and during the FP at russian senior nationals. In reality only serious health problems or complete lack of the training opportunities thanks to the current situation could change this. At the beginning of the last season people were sending Anna back to juniors, Aliona wouldn't stand a chance, Kamila shouldn't have a chance against Alysa (at the end even Daria has won over her at junior worlds). Than Anna stabilized her 4Lz, added 4F, Aliona got 3A, Kamila won everything etc. But, such predictions can be still amusing when compared with reality.
 

Thrashergurl

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
Didn’t Alina get beaten by Rika and Bradie already? And Mariah Bell also beat Alina in the LP.

I wouldn’t underestimate the competition
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Didn’t Alina get beaten by Rika and Bradie already? And Mariah Bell also beat Alina in the LP.

I wouldn’t underestimate the competition

I wouldn't say that the international competition needs to be underestimated, but to get to any major international competition including the Olympics in 2 years means she's got to be top 3 in Russia first. And seeing as how the Russians the last year were the class of the field, if she get back to top 3 there, she's ahead of the competition internationally as well.


And I really discount this past year in terms of Zagitova's results, she wanted a break and didn't seem to push to win like she was the prior 2 seasons, she only back-loaded her 3-3's when she made mistakes on the planned combination at the front of the program. I don't see a Bradie or Mariah beating a Zagitova that's skating with a drive to win. Rika can beat her if Rika hits her triple axels and especially if she hits the quad as long as Zagitova isn't increasing her technical content, but Rika hasn't exactly been the most consistent with her triple axels.
 

plushyfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Country
Hungary
Lest we forget there are the Americans and the Japanese ladies who have great jumpers and improving artistry. Liu, Tennell, Rika, Kaori, and the up and coming Koreans. Russia is not even guaranteed a medal at the next olympics.

:scratch2: Of course..we don't know right now. But that would be one of the biggest surprises in FS history.
 

pesto

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Unless Russia is banned from the next Olympics, they will get medals. If I were a betting woman, I'd say they probably won't sweep the podium, beause more often than not, when things seem set for a podium sweep, mistakes or injuries intervene.
 

zounger

Medalist
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Didn’t Alina get beaten by Rika and Bradie already? And Mariah Bell also beat Alina in the LP.

I wouldn’t underestimate the competition

And all of them got beaten by Tursunbayeva. That's called sport sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I don't think anyone is underestimating the competition neither the capabilities of other skaters. If you do mistakes other skaters will surpass you, isn't that obvious? Or if someone's technical arsenal is a lot bigger than yours they will surpass you even with mistakes, that's obvious too.
 

Scott512

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
I would be 😍if Alina came back, and I have no doubt if she wanted to, she could stay competitive. Having said that, she has also won everything there is to win in figure skating, and I would be totally fine if she wanted to pursue something else. She is young and the sky is the limit! I just hope she is happy and continues tuning all the media gossip out.
True.

Lest we forget there are the Americans and the Japanese ladies who have great jumpers and improving artistry. Liu, Tennell, Rika, Kaori, and the up and coming Koreans. Russia is not even guaranteed a medal at the next olympics.
when will the next Winter Olympics be 2026 2030? With the way this virus is hanging around the Beijing Winter Games and 21 months are in great doubt.

And all of them got beaten by Tursunbayeva. That's called sport sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I don't think anyone is underestimating the competition neither the capabilities of other skaters. If you do mistakes other skaters will surpass you, isn't that obvious? Or if someone's technical arsenal is a lot bigger than yours they will surpass you even with mistakes, that's obvious too.

Exactly!
 

Thrashergurl

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
That is true, this is a sport and anything can happen. I just don’t see the post-Olympic skates of Zagitova holding back any of the younger Russian girls, or possibly even the ever improving Japanese, Americans and Koreans.
It will be nice if she comes back and proves everyone wrong, but the last 2 years she looked miserable. If she does come back, let’s hope she does it for HERSELF and isn’t forced again.
 

zounger

Medalist
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
looked miserable.

That's up to a conversation, you say it easily but it's not obvious to me. It's different being miserable and different being under constant pressure. What Alina had was being under pressure and not miserable. By the way, she coped very well with her "misery".
 

flanker

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Country
Czech-Republic
That is true, this is a sport and anything can happen. I just don’t see the post-Olympic skates of Zagitova holding back any of the younger Russian girls, or possibly even the ever improving Japanese, Americans and Koreans.
It will be nice if she comes back and proves everyone wrong, but the last 2 years she looked miserable. If she does come back, let’s hope she does it for HERSELF and isn’t forced again.

I would like to get a penny everytime someone suggests that Alina is "forced". I think I could make a fortune ;)

Now. People are clapping to Gracie Gold for her attempts to get back to the form, people regret Loena Hendrickx's injury and wish her comeback and so on. But then they start talking about Alina and start with this BS. Is she forced? Can she get to form? Isn't she done? Is she even alive?

The activity certain people devote to Alina's "being gone" etc. hugely surpasses the activity (if there even was any) those people ever paid to at least congratulate her when she was winning.
 

Scott512

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
That is true, this is a sport and anything can happen. I just don’t see the post-Olympic skates of Zagitova holding back any of the younger Russian girls, or possibly even the ever improving Japanese, Americans and Koreans.
It will be nice if she comes back and proves everyone wrong, but the last 2 years she looked miserable. If she does come back, let’s hope she does it for HERSELF and isn’t forced again.

Last two years she look miserable? You mean like iat worlds 14 months ago? Alina is a happy girl making money having great sponsors and living the life she wants. She's not nearly as miserable and unhappy as some might think she is.
 
Top