- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
Anna is sitting behind me. Some lady came to her to congratulate. She asked: Do you realize already that you won? Anna answered: " I have not yet realized the last year." Good reaction and the sense of humor.
2019-2020 Russian Nationals travel notes
- Thread starter [email protected]
- Start date
well-educated and intellectual lady, as many here have noticed, and now you witnessed first hand.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2018
Samkrut, it has been completely delightful hearing about your adventures. As I read post #2 above—on the venue and the men’s event—I laughed out loud and was seized by a burning desire to come to Russia to watch some skating with you and your charming wife!
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
When the competition is over, the athletes are dull, tired or even worn out emotionally and enjoy a few days of being 'normal'. You did well to keep your distance, having people chasing after you wherever you go is tiresome.
Would competing athletes even want to visit one or more of those magical ice spectacles over the holidays? We'll find out soon enough by their social media.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
The competition on Friday ended at 10 p.m. which is only 6 p.m. Moscow time. My wife Anna just arrived and we decided to get to know Krasnoyarsk a bit better. First, we went to an island with a winter park. There is the tallest New Year tree in Russia there. Yes, it’s impressive – 50+ meter tall.
But it is artificial. Anna said that natural fir trees that big do not exist. I wonder where the tallest real New Year tree is. They said that there is a 100 year old fir in Moscow – I gotta see it.
After that, we had a dinner at the place called “Home” – a recommendation by one of our friends in Moscow. It was very nice – ceviche from northern fish, a deer steak – delicious. Most of the time we had a chat with the sommelier. That’s one of my favorite pastimes in the restaurants where sommeliers care about wine. Sometimes we become so close that they take me to their cellars – this happened more than once in various countries. Sommelier at Home does not have a big cellar. However, he is quite dedicated to his profession and he is quite flexible. He is also capable of taking a blow. I did not like one of his recommendations – he replaced the bottle.
It was 1 a.m. local time but still only 9 p.m. in Moscow. Therefore, Anna announced that she wants to sing. And when she says that she wants to sing no one can stop her. We visited karaoke bar “Boulevard”. I was happy after such a pleasant dinner. Karaoke had all songs including new and rare. What can go wrong then? Well, Anna said that the sound quality was not good enough. No matter how nice the people at Boulevard were they could not replace the sound like a bottle of wine. Anyway, we stayed and left Karaoke at 5 a.m. I already knew that we are going to miss the first event tomorrow.
2 words about the people in Krasnoyarsk. May be we were just lucky but everyone whom we met were not only nice – they were positive and looked quite happy. Another thing is that we saw no migrants. These 2 things are a striking contrast with Moscow. In Moscow like in many big cities worldwide taxi is predominantly migrants’ business. Not in Krasnoyarsk. Also taxi is quite expensive, at par with Moscow. I remember how surprised I was in Saransk when a taxi trip from airport cost me about $5. It is normal $20 in Krasnoyarsk…
…When we returned to the hotel, they already served breakfast. Breakfast at 5:30 a.m. What a service! And the food was so good that we broke all the rules and went to sleep with the sense of guilt but happy anyway.
To be continued…
But it is artificial. Anna said that natural fir trees that big do not exist. I wonder where the tallest real New Year tree is. They said that there is a 100 year old fir in Moscow – I gotta see it.
After that, we had a dinner at the place called “Home” – a recommendation by one of our friends in Moscow. It was very nice – ceviche from northern fish, a deer steak – delicious. Most of the time we had a chat with the sommelier. That’s one of my favorite pastimes in the restaurants where sommeliers care about wine. Sometimes we become so close that they take me to their cellars – this happened more than once in various countries. Sommelier at Home does not have a big cellar. However, he is quite dedicated to his profession and he is quite flexible. He is also capable of taking a blow. I did not like one of his recommendations – he replaced the bottle.
It was 1 a.m. local time but still only 9 p.m. in Moscow. Therefore, Anna announced that she wants to sing. And when she says that she wants to sing no one can stop her. We visited karaoke bar “Boulevard”. I was happy after such a pleasant dinner. Karaoke had all songs including new and rare. What can go wrong then? Well, Anna said that the sound quality was not good enough. No matter how nice the people at Boulevard were they could not replace the sound like a bottle of wine. Anyway, we stayed and left Karaoke at 5 a.m. I already knew that we are going to miss the first event tomorrow.
2 words about the people in Krasnoyarsk. May be we were just lucky but everyone whom we met were not only nice – they were positive and looked quite happy. Another thing is that we saw no migrants. These 2 things are a striking contrast with Moscow. In Moscow like in many big cities worldwide taxi is predominantly migrants’ business. Not in Krasnoyarsk. Also taxi is quite expensive, at par with Moscow. I remember how surprised I was in Saransk when a taxi trip from airport cost me about $5. It is normal $20 in Krasnoyarsk…
…When we returned to the hotel, they already served breakfast. Breakfast at 5:30 a.m. What a service! And the food was so good that we broke all the rules and went to sleep with the sense of guilt but happy anyway.
To be continued…
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
Travelling from one Russian city to another sure sounds like travelling to another country. (I'm from Central Europe, so I can't quite process just how big Russia is. A 2- or 3-hour-long flight takes me from Poland to Great Britain with only one hour's difference when it comes to time zones.)
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
… When we woke up the day after it was already dark. It reminded me of good old days when I was a student. My neighbor was a big poker player. In the middle of a winter semester, he gave up on his studies and completely switched to poker. They played at nights. And one day he complained that for more than a week now he did not see a daylight – he went to bed when it was still dark and he woke up when it was already dark. Like my friend, we missed the daylight and realized that together with it we missed the dance. Nevermind, I “knew” that Z/G would be third, there would be competition between S/B and S/K but the latter would win. I checked the results – it all went like that. Dance is so predictable.
One more word about taxi in Krasnoyarsk. In Moscow, Sochi and actually Saransk the main and only way to order a taxi now is Yandex. They are so powerful that they have merged with Uber so that Uber in Russia is Yandex. There is Yandex in Krasnoyarsk as well but it is like in Sochi 2 years ago – very slow. It took us 15 minutes before a car was found and it came in 15 more minutes. It meant that we were late for pairs as well missing M/G who were supposedly very good.
I forgot to say that we had very good seats in the middle. At the gala, it was actually the front row but our third row during the competition was quite good as well.
As expected, it boiled down to 3 pairs. And they all delivered. They are all top class pairs capable of winning over everyone but S/H when the latter have a good day. P/H have a lot of energy. They also have 3F. I remember what a big deal 3Lz by D/R was. Well, 3F is almost the same and they delivered it. They had a costly mistake – I realized that M/G were crystal clean because despite an impressive performance P/H lost the free program to them.
T/M were exquisite. They have reached the state of enlightenment. Now they skate like the best pairs of all times. But, but the best pairs could deliver when it mattered most. I cannot remember the last time when T/M had 2 back to back clean performances. Jumps are their nemesis. I believe that by the worlds they will finally manage to prove that they are great. 235 internationally is feasible to them same as the world title. They are very very good. The question is what is going on in their minds? Do they plan to drill, drill, and drill the jumps? Do they plan to bring back the quad twist? It could be handy if they do want to win the worlds.
I am still trying to fall in love with B/K. I cannot deny that they are unique starting with their characters. Dima is a pronounced leader, he is full of himself, full of ambition. Alexandra is soft, she even looks shy. Yet, I think that in their chain she is the stronger link – a wonderful pair skater. Technically, they are already amazing. I am a bit missing pair skating at the level of T/M, S/H and great pairs of the past. There is one former skater who, I think, talks too much. Once she referred to skating of Russian wonder ladies as “circus tricks”. I would omit the word “circus” but for me B/K skating is a collection of impressive tricks one after another. If they only managed to glue them with passion, with smoothness they could become great. Will they be able? I hope so – they are still quite young. T/M were rough at their age. But it is not guaranteed – one famous pair never learned it. I hope that they will follow “the smoothness path” rather than further beef up their tech with more difficult jumps and quad twists/throws.
Overall, the result is fair. T/M had to deliver that combo.
I won’t say much about ladies because in many ways it repeated the short programs. We have the range of 164 to 260. This is similar to what we have during the junior GP series: the range of 100 to 200. But at JGP circuit there are light years between 100 total point skaters and 200 total point skaters. I saw wide and deep canyons but I did not see light years at the Russian nationals. To cut the long story short I believe that many 164 to 190 point skaters here were lowballed. The only exception in those early groups was Ksenia Sinitsina. I am glad that her outstanding skating skills were appreciated and despite being in the first group she scored formidable 143. Many other skaters, IMO, deserved less harsh treatment, especially those like Gracheva who made up for a disastrous SP.
We waited for the last group drama to begin just to hear that Medvedeva WD. The crowd which prepared both the energy and the toys did not know how to react. It ended up with a weak applause – it was too big a shock to react. But then Liza went on ice and the crowd became alive again. After the shining performance of the short program Liza was not her own self in the free. She knew that Zhenya was out. Why risk with a 4T, why not go back with 2 3As on the fly? I don’t know. After her falls it was more or less “let’s survive these 4 minutes”. I think that judges were quite generous to her for what she showed.
And then Anna. As I write this on board a plane she is sleeping in the seat right behind me next to her mom – a cute little girl. But yesterday she was a glowing firebird. It was fantastic, it was cosmos. My wife said that everyone whom she saw earlier that evening were just nowhere near. She also said that the only time when she felt the same strong emotions was when she for the first time saw Zhenya’s “hear – do not hear” back in 2015. Yes, the score surprised me. I think it was to give Anna the chance to win unless Alyona would be 100% clean.
Alyona was 99% clean – 2 not perfect landings. The rest was superb including triple axels. Still it was fair that Anna won. Her 4Lz looks amazingly stable – she easily did 4Lz-3T during the gala. The next stop is to stabilize her 4F. Then 180 international score is not out of reach. Bravo!
Sasha…sigh. Something, may be, is going on. There were rumors about Kostornaya. It might be like in a joke: “Have you heard that Rabinovich won a million dollars in a lottery? Yes, I have. But not in the lottery but in poker, and not a million but a hundred bucks, and he did not win but lost”. After her best performance during the SP she was not her own self during the FP missing all the quads but one. And the rest of her performance was not inspiring. I hope that everything is OK with her. She tried a 4T during the gala and fell again. After the gala, she skipped her traditional quad battle letting Aliev and Ignatov entertain the public. May be she was just disappointed. If this is the only reason she should relax – she is in the team. There are still Europeans and the Worlds. On board a plane, she has a little doggy. She brought it with herself. This little friend should help her to quickly forget about her disappointment and focus on the future.
And Liza should do something extraordinary now like to change the jump layout to 4T, 3A-2T, 3A, 3Lz-3T, 2A-3T-2T, 3F, 3Lo and show that she can deliver it to command a serious bid for the team.
A couple of words about the crowd. It was predominantly local. And, as I said before, local people are very nice. They applauded to everyone. Of course, the stars received a bigger share of audience’s support but that’s understandable. The only thing to mention was the lack of standing ovations – people were glued to their seats, myself included. Well, I had an excuse: a big winter jacket with a scarf and a hat on my lap – too big a hustle to stand up. But even with such a relevant excuse I made 2 exceptions: the short program of Alyona and the free program of Anna. I think these were all time masterpieces – it just never was better, the best ever. Therefore, all inconveniences were irrelevant in the face of seeing making the history…
The last part to follow…
One more word about taxi in Krasnoyarsk. In Moscow, Sochi and actually Saransk the main and only way to order a taxi now is Yandex. They are so powerful that they have merged with Uber so that Uber in Russia is Yandex. There is Yandex in Krasnoyarsk as well but it is like in Sochi 2 years ago – very slow. It took us 15 minutes before a car was found and it came in 15 more minutes. It meant that we were late for pairs as well missing M/G who were supposedly very good.
I forgot to say that we had very good seats in the middle. At the gala, it was actually the front row but our third row during the competition was quite good as well.
As expected, it boiled down to 3 pairs. And they all delivered. They are all top class pairs capable of winning over everyone but S/H when the latter have a good day. P/H have a lot of energy. They also have 3F. I remember what a big deal 3Lz by D/R was. Well, 3F is almost the same and they delivered it. They had a costly mistake – I realized that M/G were crystal clean because despite an impressive performance P/H lost the free program to them.
T/M were exquisite. They have reached the state of enlightenment. Now they skate like the best pairs of all times. But, but the best pairs could deliver when it mattered most. I cannot remember the last time when T/M had 2 back to back clean performances. Jumps are their nemesis. I believe that by the worlds they will finally manage to prove that they are great. 235 internationally is feasible to them same as the world title. They are very very good. The question is what is going on in their minds? Do they plan to drill, drill, and drill the jumps? Do they plan to bring back the quad twist? It could be handy if they do want to win the worlds.
I am still trying to fall in love with B/K. I cannot deny that they are unique starting with their characters. Dima is a pronounced leader, he is full of himself, full of ambition. Alexandra is soft, she even looks shy. Yet, I think that in their chain she is the stronger link – a wonderful pair skater. Technically, they are already amazing. I am a bit missing pair skating at the level of T/M, S/H and great pairs of the past. There is one former skater who, I think, talks too much. Once she referred to skating of Russian wonder ladies as “circus tricks”. I would omit the word “circus” but for me B/K skating is a collection of impressive tricks one after another. If they only managed to glue them with passion, with smoothness they could become great. Will they be able? I hope so – they are still quite young. T/M were rough at their age. But it is not guaranteed – one famous pair never learned it. I hope that they will follow “the smoothness path” rather than further beef up their tech with more difficult jumps and quad twists/throws.
Overall, the result is fair. T/M had to deliver that combo.
I won’t say much about ladies because in many ways it repeated the short programs. We have the range of 164 to 260. This is similar to what we have during the junior GP series: the range of 100 to 200. But at JGP circuit there are light years between 100 total point skaters and 200 total point skaters. I saw wide and deep canyons but I did not see light years at the Russian nationals. To cut the long story short I believe that many 164 to 190 point skaters here were lowballed. The only exception in those early groups was Ksenia Sinitsina. I am glad that her outstanding skating skills were appreciated and despite being in the first group she scored formidable 143. Many other skaters, IMO, deserved less harsh treatment, especially those like Gracheva who made up for a disastrous SP.
We waited for the last group drama to begin just to hear that Medvedeva WD. The crowd which prepared both the energy and the toys did not know how to react. It ended up with a weak applause – it was too big a shock to react. But then Liza went on ice and the crowd became alive again. After the shining performance of the short program Liza was not her own self in the free. She knew that Zhenya was out. Why risk with a 4T, why not go back with 2 3As on the fly? I don’t know. After her falls it was more or less “let’s survive these 4 minutes”. I think that judges were quite generous to her for what she showed.
And then Anna. As I write this on board a plane she is sleeping in the seat right behind me next to her mom – a cute little girl. But yesterday she was a glowing firebird. It was fantastic, it was cosmos. My wife said that everyone whom she saw earlier that evening were just nowhere near. She also said that the only time when she felt the same strong emotions was when she for the first time saw Zhenya’s “hear – do not hear” back in 2015. Yes, the score surprised me. I think it was to give Anna the chance to win unless Alyona would be 100% clean.
Alyona was 99% clean – 2 not perfect landings. The rest was superb including triple axels. Still it was fair that Anna won. Her 4Lz looks amazingly stable – she easily did 4Lz-3T during the gala. The next stop is to stabilize her 4F. Then 180 international score is not out of reach. Bravo!
Sasha…sigh. Something, may be, is going on. There were rumors about Kostornaya. It might be like in a joke: “Have you heard that Rabinovich won a million dollars in a lottery? Yes, I have. But not in the lottery but in poker, and not a million but a hundred bucks, and he did not win but lost”. After her best performance during the SP she was not her own self during the FP missing all the quads but one. And the rest of her performance was not inspiring. I hope that everything is OK with her. She tried a 4T during the gala and fell again. After the gala, she skipped her traditional quad battle letting Aliev and Ignatov entertain the public. May be she was just disappointed. If this is the only reason she should relax – she is in the team. There are still Europeans and the Worlds. On board a plane, she has a little doggy. She brought it with herself. This little friend should help her to quickly forget about her disappointment and focus on the future.
And Liza should do something extraordinary now like to change the jump layout to 4T, 3A-2T, 3A, 3Lz-3T, 2A-3T-2T, 3F, 3Lo and show that she can deliver it to command a serious bid for the team.
A couple of words about the crowd. It was predominantly local. And, as I said before, local people are very nice. They applauded to everyone. Of course, the stars received a bigger share of audience’s support but that’s understandable. The only thing to mention was the lack of standing ovations – people were glued to their seats, myself included. Well, I had an excuse: a big winter jacket with a scarf and a hat on my lap – too big a hustle to stand up. But even with such a relevant excuse I made 2 exceptions: the short program of Alyona and the free program of Anna. I think these were all time masterpieces – it just never was better, the best ever. Therefore, all inconveniences were irrelevant in the face of seeing making the history…
The last part to follow…
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2009
Just wanted to quickly add (if it hasnt been mentioned already) that Evgenia's 3F-3T combo was downgraded and it received negative GOE. This played a big part in her overall SP score of 71. Her PCS was the second highest (just behind Kostornaia by a little less than a couple points).
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
- Country
-
Thank you for your reports samkrut! I'm really enjoying them! Your writing style is so vivid I feel like I'm there! 
Looking forward to the last part!
I find it interesting they didn't announce Med's withdrawl until the last minute! Those of us at home heard about it an hour beforehand. Were they afraid people would leave if they announced it too soon?
Looking forward to the last part!
I find it interesting they didn't announce Med's withdrawl until the last minute! Those of us at home heard about it an hour beforehand. Were they afraid people would leave if they announced it too soon?
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
I cannot argue with that. I understand that 71 did not appear out of thin air. What I meant was that having similar seats at CoR and Rusnats I did not see any deterioration in Zhenya's performance. I think that she even was more dedicated to music at Rusnats. I remember that she focused on elements in Moscow.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
Thank you for your reports samkrut! I'm really enjoying them! Your writing style is so vivid I feel like I'm there!
Looking forward to the last part!
I find it interesting they didn't announce Med's withdrawl until the last minute! Those of us at home heard about it an hour beforehand. Were they afraid people would leave if they announced it too soon?
I have no idea about that. Yes, people prepared toys and waited for Medvedeva. The beginning of the last group was posponed for several minutes. Then there was the announcement: "because of equipment issues that pose the health risk while doing multple rotation jumps Evgeniya Medvedeva has to withdraw from competion". My wife said that Eteri had some reaction when she heard that: apparently it was the news to her as well. I did not see it.
I don't think that people would leave. It's a different situation from Sochi when Pluschenko had to withdraw so that there were no Russian men left. But the disappointment was there. I expected the fight between Zhenya and Liza.
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
The funny thing is, the news of withdrawal of Medvyedeva was out in the public domain well in advance of the final flight, so people 'in the know' must have known before the hall announcer spoke.
Given you mentioning the crowd in attendance seemed mostly local and not dedicated fans of certain skaters per se, they don't follow all these social media channels us dedicated (and sometimes crazy) fans do.
Given you mentioning the crowd in attendance seemed mostly local and not dedicated fans of certain skaters per se, they don't follow all these social media channels us dedicated (and sometimes crazy) fans do.
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2015
Samkrut, thank you so much for the reports! I have learned a lot from reading your posts and I’m glad you were able to enjoy yourself.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
Let's do it! Next stop is CoR 2020. Well, there will be test skates before that - we did not miss those since 2015.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
Saturday night we had dinner at restaurant “Kupechesky” – recommendation by Tripadvisor. The food was excellent including pelmeni from mooze. The highlight, though, was Chateau Giscours 1995 that they sold us for the rock bottom price because it was the last bottle, which stayed with them for several years now. We were the only visitors there until another group arrived. I thought I recognized one of the guys. We used to be sports instructors at neighboring children camps back in 1988. He then became a local politician betting on helping babushkas and low income people – it was a new strategy back then. Well, I guess, I was mistaken looking up his current photo on the Internet.
We almost caught the beginning of the Gala. We liked it a lot. May be the only thing that was sort of depressing was the abundance of dramatic pathetic music scores. It did not square well with the New Year mood. The only exception were S/K. Their dramatic routine was breathtaking. Dima Aliev was quite impressive as well. I think, he even did a good quad jump.
One special thing was the presence of a camera dude on ice. Most of the time he appeared after the program ended and kept the distance.
But a couple of times he appeared early and even got in the way of figure skaters. It looked extraterrestrial.
One thing to mention is that ticket prices in Krasnoyarsk, although not cheap, were much more reasonable than what they recently ask in Moscow. Our prime seats cost 3000 rbls ($50) for SP and FP and 4000 rbls. for the Gala. In total 10000 rbls. vs. 21000 rbls. that CoR cost.
Overall, we went from the gala in a very good mood. Back at Hilton Anna went to spa and I wrote the notes.
The plane was full of skaters, coaches, and officials. I am glad that we managed to get tickets and the seats together. Some remarks.
Dudakov and Gleich were there. But I did not see Eteri. May be she came last and took the business class cabin, may be, she has a private jet now – I did not see her.
Skaters formed groups. Like Zhenya, Z/G, and Nastya Skoptsova (who seem to be an active outgoing person), Kostornaya and Pavlyuchenko, Samarin and the guy that I did not recognized…
3A kept separate all the time – they also had seats in different parts of the cabin. Anna and Sasha were with moms, Alyona was on her own. Sasha also had a tiny dog with her. The only communication that I saw was passing Sasha telling Anna who was sitting at the row behind us: “Oh, you are already here!”
Zhenya was sleeping at the back of the cabin with her mouth a bit open. As I went to WC, I saw a seemingly drunken guy in camouflage who started to take pictures of her. I am not sure that it was polite and appropriate.
I thought that there would be a crowd in Sheremetyevo greeting the skaters. It was not: may be a dozen people with flowers and air balloons…
It was -3C in Moscow. The next day we flew to Sochi. It is +15C here. Such a contrast with Krasnoyarsk. Yes, global warming: there is almost no snow now at our Olympic ski resort Krasnaya Polyana. And we planned to ski here.
We are now preparing for the party – all our family of 10 people are here.
Happy New Year, GS folks!
We almost caught the beginning of the Gala. We liked it a lot. May be the only thing that was sort of depressing was the abundance of dramatic pathetic music scores. It did not square well with the New Year mood. The only exception were S/K. Their dramatic routine was breathtaking. Dima Aliev was quite impressive as well. I think, he even did a good quad jump.
One special thing was the presence of a camera dude on ice. Most of the time he appeared after the program ended and kept the distance.
But a couple of times he appeared early and even got in the way of figure skaters. It looked extraterrestrial.
One thing to mention is that ticket prices in Krasnoyarsk, although not cheap, were much more reasonable than what they recently ask in Moscow. Our prime seats cost 3000 rbls ($50) for SP and FP and 4000 rbls. for the Gala. In total 10000 rbls. vs. 21000 rbls. that CoR cost.
Overall, we went from the gala in a very good mood. Back at Hilton Anna went to spa and I wrote the notes.
The plane was full of skaters, coaches, and officials. I am glad that we managed to get tickets and the seats together. Some remarks.
Dudakov and Gleich were there. But I did not see Eteri. May be she came last and took the business class cabin, may be, she has a private jet now – I did not see her.
Skaters formed groups. Like Zhenya, Z/G, and Nastya Skoptsova (who seem to be an active outgoing person), Kostornaya and Pavlyuchenko, Samarin and the guy that I did not recognized…
3A kept separate all the time – they also had seats in different parts of the cabin. Anna and Sasha were with moms, Alyona was on her own. Sasha also had a tiny dog with her. The only communication that I saw was passing Sasha telling Anna who was sitting at the row behind us: “Oh, you are already here!”
Zhenya was sleeping at the back of the cabin with her mouth a bit open. As I went to WC, I saw a seemingly drunken guy in camouflage who started to take pictures of her. I am not sure that it was polite and appropriate.
I thought that there would be a crowd in Sheremetyevo greeting the skaters. It was not: may be a dozen people with flowers and air balloons…
It was -3C in Moscow. The next day we flew to Sochi. It is +15C here. Such a contrast with Krasnoyarsk. Yes, global warming: there is almost no snow now at our Olympic ski resort Krasnaya Polyana. And we planned to ski here.
We are now preparing for the party – all our family of 10 people are here.
Happy New Year, GS folks!
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
- Country
-
Happy New Year to you too Samkrut and thanks again for your wonderful notes (did you enjoy Liza's and Tiffany and Jon's exs? I thought they were fun!). The guy on the ice definitely provided some awesome shots!
Didn't Sochi have a lack of snow during the Olympics? I thought I read something about it and thought it so strange that the country that has Siberia in it would have picked a place known as a summer resort for the Winter Olympics!
Didn't Sochi have a lack of snow during the Olympics? I thought I read something about it and thought it so strange that the country that has Siberia in it would have picked a place known as a summer resort for the Winter Olympics!
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
Was Jonathan Santa Claus? Yes, it was a good performance with New Year mood . I was a bit angry with him because he did not throw presents to our stands
Liza was a big fun as well. Still the majority of routines were to very depressing music.I think that Sochi was OK during the Olympics. As far as I can remember the weather was quite rainy - it means that there was snow in the mountains. Roza Peak is 2320 m and the base station is 1170 m so that the weather there is quite different from Sochi itself. Skiing has been actually quite good so far although the season is basically over by mid March.
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
Wow I just came across all your reporting on the first day of the new decade.
The Federation has to be sending messages even to an all-time great Russian Evgenia. To see her score so low on her short program when they were giving out big scores to the top skaters left many bewildered. And while Gubanova and Nugumanova seem to have made good moves going to their new coach and choreographer they got buried with scores about 60 points and their short programs. Certainly far from perfect skates for both but both deserved well above 60 points. The message is clear. the Federation is tired of those two and I wonder if the girls feel that and what it does to them mentally. It's like they're trying to break these girls and have them go the way of Polina and Dasha and Elena and Pogo. It's such a shame.
How did Nugu and Guby do in the free skate?
You've made some interesting points about Sasha. I really think her New Year's resolution needs to be put to pull back a little bit but that might not be in her DNA. she also maybe beating herself up physically too much too soon early in her career. I hope her handlers and parents see the big picture. . But now Anna is putting so much pressure on her doing three quads in the free skate and learning a triple axel. And aliona does the best short program in the history of ladies figure skating Almost always has a sizable lead after the SP..
Where is the cup of Russia final? Hopefully Saint Petersburg and not Vladivostok.
Perhaps a few st. Petersburg ladies will have a chance in that competition. Other than Liza the Saint Petersburg ladies seem to have no chance in any competition. Its hard to see that changing in the near future with the decline of Stanislava and Eteris Angels even as sweet as they are savaging everyone in sight! Then with Liza aging who in St Petersburg is going to compete with the top Eteri girls? At this point it looks like no one.
Well Sam I'm glad I finally came across you're recording from Siberia of all places. I'm sure everyone appreciates your efforts and fair reporting. Thanks again.
The Federation has to be sending messages even to an all-time great Russian Evgenia. To see her score so low on her short program when they were giving out big scores to the top skaters left many bewildered. And while Gubanova and Nugumanova seem to have made good moves going to their new coach and choreographer they got buried with scores about 60 points and their short programs. Certainly far from perfect skates for both but both deserved well above 60 points. The message is clear. the Federation is tired of those two and I wonder if the girls feel that and what it does to them mentally. It's like they're trying to break these girls and have them go the way of Polina and Dasha and Elena and Pogo. It's such a shame.
How did Nugu and Guby do in the free skate?
You've made some interesting points about Sasha. I really think her New Year's resolution needs to be put to pull back a little bit but that might not be in her DNA. she also maybe beating herself up physically too much too soon early in her career. I hope her handlers and parents see the big picture. . But now Anna is putting so much pressure on her doing three quads in the free skate and learning a triple axel. And aliona does the best short program in the history of ladies figure skating Almost always has a sizable lead after the SP..
Where is the cup of Russia final? Hopefully Saint Petersburg and not Vladivostok.
Perhaps a few st. Petersburg ladies will have a chance in that competition. Other than Liza the Saint Petersburg ladies seem to have no chance in any competition. Its hard to see that changing in the near future with the decline of Stanislava and Eteris Angels even as sweet as they are savaging everyone in sight! Then with Liza aging who in St Petersburg is going to compete with the top Eteri girls? At this point it looks like no one. Well Sam I'm glad I finally came across you're recording from Siberia of all places. I'm sure everyone appreciates your efforts and fair reporting. Thanks again.
- Joined
- May 19, 2018
Thank you so much for posting this! Reading it was like watching a movie.
And I totally want to try moose pelmeni.
And I totally want to try moose pelmeni.
