2017-18 State of Russian Ladies skating

[Grin]

I would bet on Radionova rather than Konstantinova. Konstantinova scored higher at the nationals, but she won’t get those marks at senior worlds, whereas Radionova will.

Radionova is not in her best state now

 

[Grin]

It's Vaitzehovksaya time! Gold-plated tragedy

Brand new article about state of Russian ladies skating ... Will she ever stop attacking Eteri and her girls?

 

[kiamma]

It's Vaitzehovksaya time! Gold-plated tragedy

Brand new article about state of Russian ladies skating ... Will she ever stop attacking Eteri and her girls?

What is she attacking them for?

 

[Grin]

What is she attacking them for?

In this paritcular article she is attacking Eteri for exhausting Evgenia before the main start of the year

 

[tars]

What is she attacking them for?

I read some comments long time ago, that around 2013, when Julia had her brilliant season Vaitzehovksaya was trying hard to interview Eteri, but she refused several times, all of which happened in some unpleasant circumstances. Since then Vaitz reportedly holds a grudge against Tutberidze.

 

[j00mla]

Will she ever stop attacking Eteri and her girls?

giving links you help her as historian did to Herostratus, don't you think so?

 

[Shayuki]

It's going to be interesting to see how the Russian ladies' landscape will turn out for the next season.

I assume Medvedeva and Zagitova will be the 2 ladies to beat, but it's going to be interesting what happens with the rest. In my opinion, Sotskova is really not all that good or talented and is a clear step down so the third spot is going to be wide open.

Will Tsurskaya actually find her form after her injury struggles? Will Konstantinova actually end up doing decently internationally? Will Sakhanovich have further redemption? Will Panenkova establish herself successfully in seniors? Will Radionova be able to return to form?


Normally, I'd be extremely confident in predicting that Panenkova will be the Russian lady who'll end up being #3 for next season. After all, she's consistency itself, which means that when the others might struggle, she'd be able to deliver time after time and could establish herself at least somewhat. All the other skaters here are awfully inconsistent. However, the problem is that Panenkova would be a third Eteri skater and I really don't think they want all of Russia's three top skaters to be Eteri's(Good luck with that in a couple of seasons). Truly, the door is wide open... Which is yet another reason why I'm very saddened by Gubanova very likely won't be in seniors next season as this would have been a golden opportunity for her.

 

[curious]

Russia will not have a sustained ladies champion. They come and go like the wind, and the juniors are always on the rise. If it's one thing that ladies Olympics 2018 has taught us, it's that getting the big medals is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time.

If I were one of the girls in Eteri's camp, I would be terrified because dominating a quad doesn't mean anything. It's all about peaking at the right time. Med had 3 years of work washed away in 6 months.

You really think that was eteris choice. The Russian fed probably told her to get alina out there basically to take meds place in case she couldnt comeback from her injury.
I blame them for what happened to her. It was not alinas time but they didn't think med could win gold with her injured toe period.

 

[curious]

Russia will not have a sustained ladies champion. They come and go like the wind, and the juniors are always on the rise. If it's one thing that ladies Olympics 2018 has taught us, it's that getting the big medals is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time.

If I were one of the girls in Eteri's camp, I would be terrified because dominating a quad doesn't mean anything. It's all about peaking at the right time. Med had 3 years of work washed away in 6 months.

Yuzu about Alina and Evgenia: I would give gold to both
https://www.sports.ru/figure-skating/1060583927.html

They could have if they wanted. They sure did to that loud canadian pair .

 

[curious]

Russia will not have a sustained ladies champion. They come and go like the wind, and the juniors are always on the rise. If it's one thing that ladies Olympics 2018 has taught us, it's that getting the big medals is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time.

If I were one of the girls in Eteri's camp, I would be terrified because dominating a quad doesn't mean anything. It's all about peaking at the right time. Med had 3 years of work washed away in 6 months.

its dsgusting to treat a 15 year old like that. smh. And then crazy Christine Brennan a journalistic hack of Epic Proportions from USA Today has been attacking Alina's program as if she's breaking the rules makes me all the happier that she skated so well in the short program. This writer Brennan doesnt hide her disdain for Russian skaters. This pretty fragile looking girl Alina is tough as nails though.

Is nothing but insane jealousy. America does not have a decent skater since Michelle kwan.

 

[Shayuki]

An update on the seemingly eternal Sofia Dzepka watch - She was listed for a competition on the 25th but looks like she is not taking part in there either. She's also listed for a competition on the 10th of March. Please, there!

And actually, I'll go into an extended Dzepka rant now - Excuse me.

First of all, the performance during 2017 May is here. So she still is 7 years old there and the first thing that's not the most obvious but that might be the most relevant is that for a 7-year-old, the jumps are absolutely massive. The single axel just is straight up higher with more air time than many 2As. And the double Lutz air time is almost unbelievable because it's actually enough for a triple. Shcherbakova's triple Lutz for example has approximately the same air time. Just look at that Lutz at 0:58 of that video, it finishes rotating so early and stays in the air for eeeever. And this was as a 7-year-old, with obviously tons and tons of strength development left in her! Numerous girls have had absolutely tiny jumps at this age and still have been able to learn triples just fine. Yet how does she at the age of 7 have such absolutely massive yet effortless-seeming jumps?

The most obvious and easy to see thing about her is her skating. You literally never see girls her age(7!) or even significantly older than her skating like this at all. Not even close. Just the basic skating, acceleration, crossovers and the speed she's able to achieve is nothing short of incredible. She also already performs difficult steps/turns like Brackets, Loops, shorter Twizzles and some of the easier choctaws and I believe I also saw one counter turn. She also has some beautiful edges. But the most important thing here is really the effortlessness in the basic skating. Combined with her jump height I believe we can assume she has some seriously beneficial genes for explosiveness, which would translate into her having a great future as a jumper(Completely obvious just looking at the actual jumps but hey...). And it's not like her presentation's bad for her age by any means, even though it's not nearly as big of a stand out attribute as her jumps and speed are. In fact, it still is very noteworthy.

Even now, none of the girls in her age group have showed performances as good as this one overall, even though almost a year has passed since. I've tried looking around at some of the more recent stars like Akatieva, Berestovskaya and Samodelkina and none of them were even CLOSE to as good as Dzepka was as a 7-year-old. It really doesn't make any sense how good she was. And that's why I really really hope she hasn't been seriously injured and had a massive setback but has instead been secretly improving. A year ago she already had the height to perform triples and especially 2A so I hope she's going to be able to perform those jumps soon. The thing is, with her being only 8 years old even next season would be quite early for adding them but I could see her performing triple jumps as soon as this season assuming she's healthy. I don't know if I should be afraid that she's going to have lost some aspect of her skating, or shudder at how good she could potentially be. Hopefully we'll find the answer to these questions on March 10 and the wait will finally be over for this season. The thing is, even if she was a full year older and had that performance at the age of 8 rather than 7, I still would consider her the top overall talent. But that she only was 7...

And of course, while it's very early this is a pretty important point. She's born "at the right time". That is, her first senior eligible season will be the Olympic season in 2025-2026. Which is the most fortunate thing that can happen for these Russian skating talents. And while that's a very long time away, it's possible she is going to be such a special talent that she can become the youngest ever participant of Cup of Russia at the junior level. Which could mean... The 2019-2020 season already, just after turning 10?

 

[puremagic]

It's interesting to think about the different development methods for the young skaters, at least when it comes to their competitive programs. For some skaters, it appears as if they perform much too difficult content and move up higher and higher in difficult well before they are ready. Constantly pushing to advance further and further. But this has the downside of perhaps causing the skater to learn bad habits or "cheat" as they try to move up to more difficult content before they might have mastered the basics. This can lead to bad jumping habits, with incorrect edges for instance. On the other hand, some skaters seem to do a bit too simple content for their level where it seems like the focus is on doing that content as well as possible and trying to concentrate on getting the details and the basics right. But this method can backfire with the skater not being able to learn everything they might have the potential to. I believe it's rather important to have a balance.

I guess Melkumova's case is exactly about showing her skating skills and many difficult entries. At lower stages she can't perform a step sequence, so prehaps they decided to sacrifice quality on the jumps just to be able to show what she can in skating itself. Some of the girls on the contrary, can jump but lack of skating quality, and still they move up. Of course jumps are most important, but I think there's nothing wrong with Ksenia's path.

As for Uliana, probably it's also some strategy, she beats everyone and sets scores 10+ points higher than any other girls. Maybe there's some plan or whatever. But I'd like to see her step sequence. I'm sure it will be as beautiful as Melkumova's.

An update on the seemingly eternal Sofia Dzepka watch - She was listed for a competition on the 25th but looks like she is not taking part in there either. She's also listed for a competition on the 10th of March. Please, there!

Her skating there is insane good, I'm amazed how 7 yo kid can skate even better than many girls at this Olympics. But now I'm not sure about her at all. Almost a year of silence, and then she is listed, then she's out. In - out, in - out. I wonder what's the problem? Is her health okay? Let's hope she finally will be there. And still, it's heartbreaking if she was injured, because she lost almost a year of potential progress.

 

[Vandevska]

Hey guys, a bit off topic, anyone have any links from the gala? I wanted to watch it on NBCSN, but it turns out I had calculated the time difference wrongly and I'm 2 hours late

 

[Grin]

I guess Melkumova's case is exactly about showing her skating skills and many difficult entries. At lower stages she can't perform a step sequence, so prehaps they decided to sacrifice quality on the jumps just to be able to show what she can in skating itself. Some of the girls on the contrary, can jump but lack of skating quality, and still they move up. Of course jumps are most important, but I think there's nothing wrong with Ksenia's path.

As for Uliana, probably it's also some strategy, she beats everyone and sets scores 10+ points higher than any other girls. Maybe there's some plan or whatever. But I'd like to see her step sequence. I'm sure it will be as beautiful as Melkumova's.



Her skating there is insane good, I'm amazed how 7 yo kid can skate even better than many girls at this Olympics. But now I'm not sure about her at all. Almost a year of silence, and then she is listed, then she's out. In - out, in - out. I wonder what's the problem? Is her health okay? Let's hope she finally will be there. And still, it's heartbreaking if she was injured, because she lost almost a year of potential progress.

Finally you are back, I was a bit worried about you

 

[Tolstoj]

Russia will not have a sustained ladies champion. They come and go like the wind, and the juniors are always on the rise. If it's one thing that ladies Olympics 2018 has taught us, it's that getting the big medals is a matter of being in the right place, at the right time.

If I were one of the girls in Eteri's camp, I would be terrified because dominating a quad doesn't mean anything. It's all about peaking at the right time. Med had 3 years of work washed away in 6 months.

It's not that a skater can't sustain her technique because puberty or other things, but more because the juniors keeps getting better and better. Medvedeva will keep this technique which (axel wise) is very reliable, so she will continue to keep winning medals and the Olympic silver medal is by no means, a failure.

For three years she proved that she was better than all the new kids, but at the Olympics we saw that Eteri's new kids are better than her and ISU will reward them. Now it's Zagitova, tomorrow will be Trusova, or Kostornaya,...

Being at Eteri's rink it's tough and it will be even more after the Olympics: she is now the most popular coach in Russia, every parent wants to send their kids to Sambo70, and they travel from all over Russia. If you watch TSL recap with Megan Duhamel she said that according to her source already parents sleeps outside Khrustanly just to have a chance for an audition, and if you fail, you're out. (they're probably more kind with the guys because there aren't as much and they are not as strong as the girls)

Eteri and Sergei found this very successful method with a team that works perfectly together in a country where at least girls still have interest in figure skating and they will have even more watching her skaters succeed.

Dominating a quad is everything especially in ladies, just like backloading is also extremely difficult... i don't like how people who don't like her tend to diminish all these goals just because one of her students do it. We were all waiting for years for a 4S from Miki Ando in seniors and it never happened, but now Trusova or Scherbakhova could do it.

 

[Grin]

We were all waiting for years for a 4S from Miki Ando in seniors and it never happened, but now Trusova or Scherbakhova could do it.

It's not 100% clear that girls will be able to quads in seniors, but I think they will.

P.S. Finally it's over. So, I sent my OAR avatar to the trash bin (hope I won't have to use it again). Now I have a brand new one )

 

[atsumiri]

Now I have a brand new one )

is that you?

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Sotskova might be replaced due to poor results. And the fact that they LOVE both Konstantinova and Gubanova...

Poor results? She was 2nd at the GPF.

Yes she messed up her Olympics SP but her PB would have placed 5th at best. And 8th overall isn't terrible.

Pretty certain she is going to Worlds.

 

[BillNeal]

Hey guys, a bit off topic, anyone have any links from the gala? I wanted to watch it on NBCSN, but it turns out I had calculated the time difference wrongly and I'm 2 hours late

If you are still looking, they are posted here by Kutien in the OG Videos Thread.

 

[tars]

Uliana Vasilieva -> Sofia Akatieva -> Anna Shcherbakova - this is elite top talent stream in ladies for Russia imo.
Exquisite jumping, physical and artistical qualities in these kids.

Of course, some unknown names like Zagi may suddenly appear and conquer the juniors scene surprising us all, although having scout bureau of puremagic, Shayuki and Co., the chances for that are lesser than few years ago. :agree: