- Joined
- Jun 6, 2019
Why don't we wait and see with this. There is no point trying to predict what she will do, as she has not been public with her decisions.
When you build a program on prepubescent girls and their anatomic quirks, you are at the mercy of anatomy. And anatomy is at the mercy of time. So relentless turnover is inevitable.
When you build a program on prepubescent girls and their anatomic quirks, you are at the mercy of anatomy. And anatomy is at the mercy of time. So relentless turnover is inevitable.
I think she will return but I don't think she'll be consistent
I wish there wasn't so much fear over girls going through puberty. It is a natural thing and becoming a woman shouldn't been seen as the end of your career.
Depends what you mean by 'return' - is she going to come back like she did last season where she was content to just go out and skate and let the chips fall where they may, or is she going to return and fight to be competitive and a contender for being National champion and European/World team caliber?
Her interview where she said she was just talking about taking a break for the rest of the season sounded a lot like retirement - I don't remember a previous instance of a figure skater or any athlete doing a TV interview to announce they were taking a break for the rest of the season unless it was for some serious reason beyond being 'tired'. BUT at the same side she said it was just a break, so until we get to the point where there are multiple breaks from competition/injuries, I'm taking her at her word that she is going to come back to competition skating.
The problem I can see for her as well as for Medvedeva (Zagitova was likely several weeks longer) is that the COVID-19 situation that's taking everyone off the ice and out of serious training is likely going to be harder to come back from since just based on the bit of details we do know since they were both in shows for the first few months of the year it seems unlikely that they were doing hardcore competition training before the rinks got shutdown. It will likely make it harder to gain a quad and/or a triple axel, which is what is going to be needed to beat Shcherbakova/Kostornaia/Trusova.
I wish there wasn't so much fear over girls going through puberty. It is a natural thing and becoming a woman shouldn't been seen as the end of your career.
For all the people who like to predict (esp. Alina's fate), this is the result of the local predictions of the winner of the last year's worlds:
https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=605&d=1553043772&thumb=1
Let's be more careful in our predictions
When people were claiming that Zagitova is going to win automatically just by showing up ( worlds 2018) or that Trusova is unbeatable and is going to win everything, nobody was saying that we should be "more careful in our predictions"... It only happens when there is ( justified) doubt about certain skaters. Interesting....
When people were claiming that Zagitova is going to win automatically just by showing up ( worlds 2018) or that Trusova is unbeatable and is going to win everything, nobody was saying that we should be "more careful in our predictions"... It only happens when there is ( justified) doubt about certain skaters. Interesting....
There are few things to consider:
- Alina claimed last season she will compete for fun. But will she ever become that type that can compete for fun and she "geee, I fell on a jump and popped another... but by spins were on the point and I had fun, screw the scores, I have the medals already". She was not that the person last year, even after "proving herself" by winning worlds. Perfectionism is something that eats up a person whole life in many cases.
- But I think the lockdown sorta equalized everybody. Yeah, maybe some girls are jumping quads in their backyards in tennis shoes. But nobody is on ice. Maybe some went through puberty. Maybe we will see lower TES overall next year and Alina did develop her artistry and feel for the music. Of course it all depends on type of programs she gets and what state of mind is she in. Olympics is too far away... would her OGM champion PCS still be with her?
- Does she even want to compete, starve herself for elusive quad or will she say "eh, I get cosmetic contracts and movie roles even if I eat..." and just do shows and occasional gigs?