RSF forcing Russian coaches to coach only Russians until Sochi

[Nmsis]

Isn't it confirmed that Amodio is leaving?

No, it isn't.

In this article, Gailhaguet is saying that, with the new policy of the russian fed, Florent won't be training full time with Morozov and that he has negociated a kind of part-time collaboration.

And in this article, there is the same thing from Gailhaguet and a quote from Morozov stating he wants to go on working with Florent, that he is an independant coach and that nobody can tell him what he can or cannot do.

[bek]

The Russian fed is looking increasingly desperate. I think Sochi is going to backfire on them big time, except in pairs (at least I hope the Russian pairs don't get f*cked over).

I hope they at least drop that rule after Sochi. Many of the coaches will choose "No Russians" over "only Russians" and then you will get another Marina/Igor situation. And I agree that training alongside skaters such as P&B is helpful to the young generation of Russian skaters.

I'd rather they try carrots instead of sticks: create a supportive and comfortable environment for any Russian coaches who wish to repatriate, and perhaps offer financial incentives to lower level coaches to coach Russians only, so that way they never leave in the first place.

What do the Russians have to be desperate about though. They have rebuilded their pairs program with more depth than anyone. They have a ton of young Wonderbaby jumpers, and given how the Ladies are skating right now...They have a lot of talented young dance skaters-and then Artur.

The thing is it depends. I know a famous Ukranian gymnastics coach joined the Russian gymnastics coaching team. Because he was promised not only boat loads of money (money he could make anywhere) But he was also promised something else that was equally important to him.-We will fund like we did in Soviet times.

I mean if the Russian federation is promising to rebuild a system similar to Soviet times- we will pay you Western like $ to train the talented kids, no matter if their parents can $ or not.

Well that's an attractive carrot. Because coaches want to win. And I get the feeling from reading Rodnina etc that a lot of the Russian coaches do feel that a system that is based on getting training based on talent/ ability, vs paren'ts money is the one more likely to have success.

So it depends.

[euterpe]

If the Russian fed would like to have Zoueva/Shpilband back, this is no way to entice them. Why should they give up their lucrative careers and drop the top ice dancers in the world just to return to Russia and train whomever the RFSF gives them for the next 3 years? I doubt Russia could pay them enough for that.

[Fashionista]

Tom Dickson choreographed Lutai's programs for last season.

But this was probably the only time I've seen a foreign choreographer work for a Russian skater.

Lori Nichol choreographed T/M's programs.

[millipied]

If the Russian fed would like to have Zoueva/Shpilband back, this is no way to entice them. Why should they give up their lucrative careers and drop the top ice dancers in the world just to return to Russia and train whomever the RFSF gives them for the next 3 years? I doubt Russia could pay them enough for that.

Zoueva/Shpilband have no desire or possibility to return to Russia even if Russia entice them.

[Ziggy]

Lori Nichol choreographed T/M's programs.

Good point, totally forgot about them.

Is it confirmed that Pechalat/Bourzat are going to Krylova & Camerlengo?

If it's true, I am absolutely ecstatic!

They are super creative and did wonders with Weaver/Poje.

[bibi]

aren't Morozov students training in Latvia ? If so, it would not affect them right?

[woodstock]

I think this decision from the RSF, and showing their desperation, only proves one thing....the points system has somewhat successfully eliminated bribery and favoritism among the judges. I may not care for a lot of aspects of the points system, but it most definitely seems to award quality of the performance the night of the competition. So many decades of dominance in pairs and dance, to barely winning any world/oly medals-all within one decade of the removal of 6.0, even with RSF still pouring $$ and support into their skating programs.

[millipied]

I think this decision from the RSF, and showing their desperation, only proves one thing....the points system has somewhat successfully eliminated bribery and favoritism among the judges. I may not care for a lot of aspects of the points system, but it most definitely seems to award quality of the performance the night of the competition. So many decades of dominance in pairs and dance, to barely winning any world/oly medals-all within one decade of the removal of 6.0, even with RSF still pouring $$ and support into their skating programs.

I think it's been pointed out by many that the reason for the draught in Russian FS talent is the collapse of Soviet training system, infrastructure and subsequent departure of most coaches to the West. RSF started to pour money into sport only after they won Sochi Olympics, which is one year. Also if you look closely all those quality successes under COP are still accomplished with Russian coaching. At least in Dance.

[oleada]

I think this decision from the RSF, and showing their desperation, only proves one thing....the points system has somewhat successfully eliminated bribery and favoritism among the judges. I may not care for a lot of aspects of the points system, but it most definitely seems to award quality of the performance the night of the competition. So many decades of dominance in pairs and dance, to barely winning any world/oly medals-all within one decade of the removal of 6.0, even with RSF still pouring $$ and support into their skating programs.

I think it was a successful Worlds medal-wise when you consider that their team is extremely young and inexperienced.

There was not a lot of money poured into skating until relatively recently.

[Cherub721]

I think this decision from the RSF, and showing their desperation, only proves one thing....the points system has somewhat successfully eliminated bribery and favoritism among the judges. I may not care for a lot of aspects of the points system, but it most definitely seems to award quality of the performance the night of the competition. So many decades of dominance in pairs and dance, to barely winning any world/oly medals-all within one decade of the removal of 6.0, even with RSF still pouring $$ and support into their skating programs.

That theory would only work if you contend that the current Russian skaters are of the same level as those past medal winners like G&P, K&O, K&P, U&Z, M&D, G&G, B&S, T&M, Plushenko, Urmanov, Yagudin Slutskaya...

[Jessica]

If the Russian fed would like to have Zoueva/Shpilband back, this is no way to entice them. Why should they give up their lucrative careers and drop the top ice dancers in the world just to return to Russia and train whomever the RFSF gives them for the next 3 years? I doubt Russia could pay them enough for that.

I don't know about Zoueva but isn't Shpilband now an American citizen?

[Mayra]

I don't know about Zoueva but isn't Shpilband now an American citizen?

Yes.

Meanwhile, Zoueva is a Canadian citizen.

[caseyedwards]

Pile On!! No but seriously have Russians vanished from being part of successful skaters careers? No they are every where!! Ladies gold Russian coach. All dance medalists Russian coaches. The ones with the most talent were the most likely to paid highly to leave and they did-FAST!!

[Made4Dancin]

I must be stupid. I love the Olympics because everyone from around the world comes to play together. I have never cared how many medals the US wins. As a fan of figure skating, my favorite skaters were always chosen based on who they are and their talents and abilities not what country they come from. So when I hear about stuff like this I just think it's silly.

However, if Russia is trying to repatriate it's coaches I would take it seriously. Meaning, if I were a foreign athlete, I wouldn't trust a Russian coach now. Just as coaches manipulate their athletes to win, they can do the opposite too.

[risto1803]

Many Russian skaters have said that they learn a lot from their training mates from other countries (I/K from P/B, Voronov from the others in Morozov's group). However, the ones that should be concerned are the top non-russian skaters training with top russian skaters; I wouldn't trust the russian coaches in that case-I'm convinced they will give more support to the russian skaters when the Olympics come (examle: Linichuk with D/S and B/A). I only see one such case: P/B and I/K, and I expect actually the French Federation to pressure P/B to leave Zhulin (and there are already rumors about this).

The Russian Federation can't say anything to Shpilbin and Zueva but they would like a top Russian dance team to train with them-and probably some team will move to S/Z after this season. However, I have the feeling that the Russian Federation would expect in that case S/Z to favor the Russian team over D/W,S/S, V/M, which probably won't happen.

[bek]

I think this decision from the RSF, and showing their desperation, only proves one thing....the points system has somewhat successfully eliminated bribery and favoritism among the judges. I may not care for a lot of aspects of the points system, but it most definitely seems to award quality of the performance the night of the competition. So many decades of dominance in pairs and dance, to barely winning any world/oly medals-all within one decade of the removal of 6.0, even with RSF still pouring $$ and support into their skating programs.

The Russian federation was hardly able to pour money in the 90s. The program faced a huge exodus of coaches etc, and I frankly don't blame the Russians if they are just a bit bitter about it. If Frank Carroll moved to Russia and started coaching mainly Russians, while American kids weren't being trained, I bet Americans would be bitter. This being said I don't blame the Russian coaches, because they did have families to support etc. And Moskvina moving to the US allowed Russia's top talent to get the training necessary. As another poster said your theory only works if the Russian skaters in Vancover were as good as the Russian skaters of the past-and well they weren't. Yes figure skating can be corrupt and the Russian fed is corrupt, but I don't think anyone can argue that a lot of those Russian champions were amazing.

And second what do the Russians have to be desperate about. They were going to have a rough time given the circumstances. But frankly they are bouncing back remarkably well. Of all the figure skating federations, they are the federation who least needs to be desperate.

In pairs-they are hardly "barely medaling" anymore when they just placed 3 teams in the top 5. They have a ton of young talent in pairs too. In dance, yes right now they aren't medaling. But they have a lot of extremely talented young teams. They dominated juniors this year. I don't know if they will have gold by Sochi, but THEY will be in the mix in dance soon.

In Ladies-they have a ton of young talent.

Mens-well that's hardly great, but they did just get a medal.

[aliona22]

Does Gorshkov have any non-Russian teams besides Hoffman/Zavozin?

[Domshabfan]

The Russian federation was hardly able to pour money in the 90s. The program faced a huge exodus of coaches etc, and I frankly don't blame the Russians if they are just a bit bitter about it. If Frank Carroll moved to Russia and started coaching mainly Russians, while American kids weren't being trained, I bet Americans would be bitter. This being said I don't blame the Russian coaches, because they did have families to support etc. And Moskvina moving to the US allowed Russia's top talent to get the training necessary. As another poster said your theory only works if the Russian skaters in Vancover were as good as the Russian skaters of the past-and well they weren't. Yes figure skating can be corrupt and the Russian fed is corrupt, but I don't think anyone can argue that a lot of those Russian champions were amazing.

And second what do the Russians have to be desperate about. They were going to have a rough time given the circumstances. But frankly they are bouncing back remarkably well. Of all the figure skating federations, they are the federation who least needs to be desperate.

In pairs-they are hardly "barely medaling" anymore when they just placed 3 teams in the top 5. They have a ton of young talent in pairs too. In dance, yes right now they aren't medaling. But they have a lot of extremely talented young teams. They dominated juniors this year. I don't know if they will have gold by Sochi, but THEY will be in the mix in dance soon.

In Ladies-they have a ton of young talent.

Mens-well that's hardly great, but they did just get a medal.

Good point about Frank Carroll where supposedly coaching in Russia, posters here would show us a long list of how much money USFSA spent in success of Frank's coaching ... also on that note, i would like to examine the anger of some of the posters on GSD on GE sponsoring Chinese FS team.

http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showthread.php?t=78607.

\Here, GE is being heavily criticised for sponsoring Chinese team and helping a FS team quote '' funded by communist sports machine''. Yet then they should also criticise GE for trading with China as well. We would like your yuans but we will not spend any profit in your country.

I can see where Russians are doing, argument being we are funding you heavily, so you must coach just our athletes. However the decision is lunatic, they are just mad in doing that since they are not winning any friends. and may even cause some coaches to leave the country.

[BigB08822]

I think Sochi is going to have tons of potential for huge scandals. I think the Russian fed will stop at nothing to dominate and we could see some gigantic judging scandals. Just a feeling.