Evgenia Medvedeva: 'You have only one life'

[Dr. Jenn]

I really enjoyed this interview - Well done, Ted! It's nice to see him interviewing again. Evgenia is a great interviewee - charming and thoughtful, with well-reasoned and detailed answers. I am really impressed with how well she speaks English now!

 

[tomc100]

I kind of wish he had asked her if she ever read the golden skate forum. Lol. She's got a lot of fans here.

 

[Skater Boy]

I will be wondering how Evgenia develops both programs and her skating. Her body has changed.

 

[gizmo]

Thanks for the great interview, she is intelligent and obviously gave a lot of thought for her future. A brave girl to jump out of the comfort zone to start training in a totally foreign country, so glad she is happy with the TCC team, looking forward to see her improve!

 

[friedbanana]

Great interview - thank you so much!

 

[demarinis5]

Loved the interview! I chuckled when she talked about her dress.

Med is a lovely young woman, wishing her success this season!

 

[bobbob]

Clearly I'm in the minority here, but after watching Medvedeva's new programs only gave me more appreciation for her old style. She has lost all of her flow, fluidity, and grace--what has Brian done to her? The jumps, I will give her a pass (though she never struggled with jumps on the off season before) but the step sequence and spins are completely degraded. Brian's technique may work for someone who already had good foundations, and I understand his intent was to improve her skating skills. But Evgenia's skating skills were close to perfect (in the eyes of the judges), so why fix something that isn't broken? Evgenia's old style may have had poor skating foundations but she found a way to make it work with great flow, control, grace, etc. Now she has none of that.

 

[hippomoomin]

I am with you. Her old style worked for her, and she even liked them (contrary to most people think that Eteri forced those pantomime on her).

I really liked her Kukushka exhibition. Why don't let her do something dark and fierce? It's a change but still plays on her strength.

Clearly I'm in the minority here, but after watching Medvedeva's new programs only gave me more appreciation for her old style. She has lost all of her flow, fluidity, and grace--what has Brian done to her? The jumps, I will give her a pass (though she never struggled with jumps on the off season before) but the step sequence and spins are completely degraded. Brian's technique may work for someone who already had good foundations, and I understand his intent was to improve her skating skills. But Evgenia's skating skills were close to perfect (in the eyes of the judges), so why fix something that isn't broken? Evgenia's old style may have had poor skating foundations but she found a way to make it work with great flow, control, grace, etc. Now she has none of that.

 

[pandatours]

Brian's technique may work for someone who already had good foundations, and I understand his intent was to improve her skating skills. But Evgenia's skating skills were close to perfect (in the eyes of the judges), so why fix something that isn't broken? Evgenia's old style may have had poor skating foundations but she found a way to make it work with great flow, control, grace, etc. Now she has none of that.

People fix things that aren’t broken for self improvement, or possibly because her old style of skating was contributing to her injuries. Mao Adams had to relearn all of her jumps because she grew and they were becoming unstable. People may think it’s a shame her consistency never recovered but she was personally fulfilled and her Sochi FS is still very memorable. If you want to survive in figure skating you can’t sit on your laurels because the judges will eventually turn on you.

Of course it’s too soon to tell whether or not Brian’a approach will work for Evgenia but I also think it’s unfair to use one Challenger event to say that it’s already not working.

 

[composer]

Also this is the perfect season for experimentation - the next Olympics is still eons away - and if she had continued doing what she had done before no doubt the same doubter will be crying about how she is just doing the same old same old and how boring it all is ...

 

[tomc100]

Clearly I'm in the minority here, but after watching Medvedeva's new programs only gave me more appreciation for her old style. She has lost all of her flow, fluidity, and grace--what has Brian done to her? The jumps, I will give her a pass (though she never struggled with jumps on the off season before) but the step sequence and spins are completely degraded. Brian's technique may work for someone who already had good foundations, and I understand his intent was to improve her skating skills. But Evgenia's skating skills were close to perfect (in the eyes of the judges), so why fix something that isn't broken? Evgenia's old style may have had poor skating foundations but she found a way to make it work with great flow, control, grace, etc. Now she has none of that.

I think she is currently trying out different techniques instead of doing the same elements. She should be allowed to explore and see what suits her best. I don't expect anything this year. If she medals then great but I'm not too worried. Next season will be crucial though. Give her some time and space to do her thing. Right now it's about recovering, gaining strength, fixings lutzes, improving techniques, and exploration.

 

[moriel]

I think she is currently trying out different techniques instead of doing the same elements. She should be allowed to explore and see what suits her best. I don't expect anything this year. If she medals then great but I'm not too worried. Next season will be crucial though. Give her some time and space to do her thing. Right now it's about recovering, gaining strength, fixings lutzes, improving techniques, and exploration.

Actually this season is crucial.
The only advantage she has against the uber juniors are her PCs, and she cannot afford losing those, which means she still got to skate on top level this year, consistency, great programs and all.


Overall, I agree with folks who complain about her new programs. Her programs with Eteri seemed tailored to highlight her strengths and hide her weaknesses. That is not the case of her new programs - the only excuse i can see is that her current choreographers are not familiar with her, so gave her some generic programs.

 

[ArenaWings]

I think there is problem with programs that "show strength and hide weakness." It reduces your chances of tackling your weakness. A skater has to practice the programs for the entire season, so he/she might as well use that as a good practice tool, let it show and let people give you advice when they see something. And I don't like to see a skater faking their skills with the help of the program that much. But of course, Eteri and Brain might be under different kinds of pressure just by the nature of their job positions, and their clubs' situation, so they will naturally be going with different competition strategies.
I think Brain has a wholesome, well-rounded approach to figure skating, and Medvedeva will be fine under him.
But obviously, will it work for her in the end? I don't know.

 

[vorravorra]

This is ironic, how many people complained about Evgenia's bloated scores in the past, now she wants to replace them with something real, people are complaining again. Evgenia doesn't have the same RusFed support any more that made judges see perfection in her skating skills. She may need actual skating skills for a change, and an actual lutz, or at least something closer to it, and a better axel, etc. She already won a ton of things by killing herself on the ice and papering over weaknesses, the only thing she hasn't won is an OGM. Her main job is to at least last till the next Olympics, can she do it with the old methods and without a good foundation?

 

[Shayuki]

This is ironic, how many people complained about Evgenia's bloated scores in the past, now she wants to replace them with something real, people are complaining again.

To be fair, I don't think that it's the same group of people complaining in both instances.

Rather than complaining, I merely think that it's a bad idea. My opinion is that she cannot afford a single season during which she isn't in peak form beause there's no coming back from that.

 

[vorravorra]

To be fair, I don't think that it's the same group of people complaining in both instances.

Rather than complaining, I merely think that it's a bad idea. My opinion is that she cannot afford a single season during which she isn't in peak form beause there's no coming back from that.

It's more about being in peak form throughout the entire season. I don't think she can manage that any more because of her health. So far it's only September and she's had a couple of months of training, once again due to health. You have to do the best with the cards you are dealt, she doesn't have a time machine to go back to her 16 year old body.

 

[moriel]

This is ironic, how many people complained about Evgenia's bloated scores in the past, now she wants to replace them with something real, people are complaining again. Evgenia doesn't have the same RusFed support any more that made judges see perfection in her skating skills. She may need actual skating skills for a change, and an actual lutz, or at least something closer to it, and a better axel, etc. She already won a ton of things by killing herself on the ice and papering over weaknesses, the only thing she hasn't won is an OGM. Her main job is to at least last till the next Olympics, can she do it with the old methods and without a good foundation?

So far she is replacing her real scores with nothing, and her team does not seem to care. She replaces her actual skills with 2 foot skating through all the programs (unless you call 2 foot skating and jump setups through all the rink real skating skills). Replace her very real reputation with another liver medal and lack of consistency?
Please dont say about injuries, she was pretty well around the Olympics (if i recall correctly, she even said she performed at her best, which obviously means she was healed by then), and she was fine during the summer shows, including some triple jumps. Its not like she stayed a year without skating or something.

She has empty and generic programs (compare her SP with Alina's, which is much more CoP savvy) that do not play to her strengths and that she does not feels yet, and terrible packaging. Her SP costume is literally homemade, and her FS costume, while beautiful per se, does not flatter her. Come on, she has 2 Olympic silvers, she deserves a little bit more than that. If she is so not ready, was there a need for her to do a senior B early in the season? She could have even skipped the GP, as many Olympic medalists did. If she cannot be in top form for the whole season, not showing it is a good idea to preserve her position as russia's #1 or at least #2.

You know, when people talk about those things, i am just... She cannot afford it if she wants to last till the next Olympics, because Russia has just 3 spots for everything major.

 

[BillNeal]

I kind of wish he had asked her if she ever read the golden skate forum. Lol. She's got a lot of fans here.

Reading some of the comments on here, probably best not to give her any ideas . She's a smart, focused, young lady and the only skating advice she should be listening to are from her coaching team .

 

[pearly]

You know, when people talk about those things, i am just... She cannot afford it if she wants to last till the next Olympics, because Russia has just 3 spots for everything major.

Maybe she felt she couldn't last until the next Olympics if she didn't change something. Maybe she trusts Brian's methods.

 

[macy]

Maybe she felt she couldn't last until the next Olympics if she didn't change something. Maybe she trusts Brian's methods.

I think this was a major reason behind her change. she knew there were more injuries in store if she didn't do something.