From Russia With Love - Winter 2012/13

[ioana]

double post, sorry.

[ioana]

Overall, Leonova has been the more successful skater - eleven senior international medals vs. Makarova's two.

Oh, I get that. I meant this season they've had comparable results (i.e., equally bad) but there's a pretty clear-cut difference in the way they've been treated by the RSF. Somehow, "past performance not indicative of future results" is not a disclaimer that gets applied here. I'm sure there are plenty of other non-skating examples where this happens, but I was griping about this since I enjoyed Makarova this season, errors and all. Leonova seems to be getting some suspiciously high scores nationally (LP at Nationals, now Russian Cup), but she still skates scared and stiff from what I saw on youtube.

eta: I agree with the rest of your post. This will most likely be a moot point very soon.

[caseyedwards]

Makarova has at best two triples she can rotate leonova has 4 to 5.

[Nomad]

This is probably Leonova's last hurrah, so I hope she makes the most of it.

[Vash01]

This is probably Leonova'sd last hurrah, so I hope she makes the most of it.

If she does poorly at these worlds, i don't believe she will make the Olympic team next year. IMO she made the worlds team this year, despite a poor showing during the season, is that she is the reigning world silver medallist.

I still want to see her do well. May be she will surprise everyone at worlds by skating well. At this point though, I think Russia's 3 spots in the Olympics depend more on the youngsters Liza and Adelina. If Alena skates well, that's a nice surprise.

[Jammers]

Leonove had better up her game next season if she wants to make the Olympic team. Besides Tuk and Adelina who seem to be sure things she will have to fight off Julie, Gosviani and perhaps even Korobeynikova if she can get it together. Even Pogorilaya will be eligible for the Olympics though she's a long shot and will probably stay on the JGP for another year.

[Cherub721]

Leonova is a fighter. I don't expect her to be on the Olympic team either, but that doesn't mean her career is over. Sot, Lip, and Tuk are not necessarily going to claim every spot on every Euro/World team for the next 5 years. Everyone has their ups and downs. Maybe she can be like Sokolova and Arakawa (Olympic team members in 1998 and 2006, but not 2002).

[Lyinna]

To be fair, this is her second season she has not been skating well, so what would you expect?

Biruykova isn't better, she withdrew from the russian cup this week-end (I think). Korobeinikova bombed both LP at russian national and this week. Sorry but they don't deserve more than Makarova to be on the list.

[hanca]

I can see why she's getting the cold shoulder, but she wasn't any worse than Leonova season. It's pretty clear a former World medal counts for a lot in Piseev (and the rest of the federation)'s eyes.

I think the difference is that it is Leonova's first season when she skates bad and Makarova's second season. Last year Makarova has been already skating bad and she kept getting the benefit of doubt, but this season she stopped being held up. Leonova has been getting the benefit of doubt this season, but I think if next season she still doesn't deliver, they will stop holding her up.

[Autumn_girl]

I think the difference is that it is Leonova's first season when she skates bad and Makarova's second season. Last year Makarova has been already skating bad and she kept getting the benefit of doubt, but this season she stopped being held up. Leonova has been getting the benefit of doubt this season, but I think if next season she still doesn't deliver, they will stop holding her up.

Leonova also has Worlds and GPF medals while Makarova's best international result is silver from one of the Grand Prix events. But next season, of course, Alena probably won't get second chances anymore with Lipnitskaya and Pogorilaya in the mix. I'd say, she has to be perfect at Worlds and next season competitions to have a chance for Olympic team spot, and it still may not be enough

[Ziggy]

I think that Bazarova/Larionov really should go to Pavlova. She's great at developing the whole package and giving her skaters interesting programs and this is something B/L have been really lacking.

With Lipnitskaia and Pogorilaya age eligible for the Olympics, Leonova's chances of making the team are pretty much none. Of course stranger things have happened, so hopefully she'll keep on fighting.

I just wish she left Morozov asap.

why the hell is she wearing the Sochi jacket the other way round?! And wtf about the skates? TAT is losing it.

She lost it a long time ago.

I know he got a deduction for the single Axel (illegal element)

Single axel is not an illegal element in the SP.

[Domshabfan]

Nothing related to directly to skating but isn't this Marina Anissina's husband. I knew he was bit crazy (to some extent her too) but not to this level.

[Ziggy]

Nothing related to directly to skating but isn't this Marina Anissina's husband. I knew he was bit crazy (to some extent her too) but not to this level.

The video of him singing whilst she's giving birth (giving us all a lovely view of her uterus) wasn't crazy enough for you?

[Domshabfan]

The video of him singing whilst she's giving birth (giving us all a lovely view of her uterus) wasn't crazy enough for you?

Oh my God, I completely missed that one....

I wish I had stopped the urge to youtube the word, my god ...

[bek]

Leonova is a fighter. I don't expect her to be on the Olympic team either, but that doesn't mean her career is over. Sot, Lip, and Tuk are not necessarily going to claim every spot on every Euro/World team for the next 5 years. Everyone has their ups and downs. Maybe she can be like Sokolova and Arakawa (Olympic team members in 1998 and 2006, but not 2002).

There are very good youngsters coming up who will also be challenging for spots. The year after the Olympics Radionova will be eligible and then the next year Serafina etc.

[Sylvia]

Seraphima Sakhanovich was born in Feb. 2000 so she's age-eligible for ISU Junior events in 2013-14 but will have to wait until she is 15 to be age-eligible for Senior B/GP comps in 2015-16 due to the ISU's new minimum Senior age rule that takes effect in 2014-15.

[Asli]

The video of him singing whilst she's giving birth (giving us all a lovely view of her uterus) wasn't crazy enough for you?

To me, the video that showed them presumably conceiving the baby was more cringeworthy, especially since Marina used to be such a private person.

[Vash01]

Nothing related to directly to skating but isn't this Marina Anissina's husband. I knew he was bit crazy (to some extent her too) but not to this level.

Can you just tell us what he did? I don't understand Russian. I can see him dancing in the video but I have no idea what this is about.

[bek]

Seraphima Sakhanovich was born in Feb. 2000 so she's age-eligible for ISU Junior events in 2013-14 but will have to wait until she is 15 to be age-eligible for Senior B/GP comps in 2015-16 due to the ISU's new minimum Senior age rule that takes effect in 2014-15.

I know she won't be eligible for three years for Senior competitions but I'm just stating that the Russians have a lot of young talent coming up....

[Katarzyna]

Russia is looking to the future with their Men so that's why they are sending Kovtun. It's not like Voronov or Menshov hadn't had years after Plushenko to take the reins of the Russian Mens program an keep them competitive which they haven't. And lets face it at 25 and 30 they don't have many years left. So why not give the kid a chance? It's not like someone like Gachinski is any better in fact right now he's a disaster. That Bronze he won at Worlds in 2011 is looking more and more like a fluke. He's only 19 so he has time to turn it around but right now he can't be counted on either.

Why not give the kid a chance? Because he doesn’t deserve it (yet)? Actually it was up to Kovtun to prove he should go to Worlds – all he needed to do was to show up at Russian Cup Final and skate at least equally good than the others.

And as you mentioned Menshov had years to prove – while a 5th spot at Nationals earned Kovtun a spot at World, placing 4-6th place at Nats consistently some years ago didn’t give Menshov even a chance to get a GP event. Russian Fed decided to send younger skaters who placed behind him. Guess it’s hard to prove yourself without a chance to do so.

In addition skaters might have different pace in their development, e.g. not everybody has the chance to train with elite coaches from teenage years like Kovtun. On the other hand some skaters seem so promising as teenagers and then they lose it completely (e.g. Gachinski), others might develop slower when being younger, but speed up later on. – Shall they be banned for good of the team? I just think of how many great performance we had in figure skating thanks to late bloomers (e.g. Paul Wylie).

I'm so sad for Makarova, she's not even listed as substitute for Worlds

I didn’t see substitutes listed on that link that was posted here? Is there another list around with the substitutes? I’m a big fan of Makarova, but as much as I love her, as she didn’t participate in Russian Cup, I think it’s pretty fair if she isn’t listed. Her scores at Nats compared to Leonova is of course another story.

Makarova has at best two triples she can rotate leonova has 4 to 5.

Well, Makarova had better TES than Leonova at Russian Nats. To put things into perspective this season both girls skated pretty much equally worse technique wise.

I thought it might be an issue of minimum score, but apparently Makarova has both scores now that they've been revised. I am thinking that not participating at all in the Russian cup final basically excluded her from consideration, given that the rest of her season was poor. The other ladies alternates were on the roster, although Biryukova withdrew. Perhaps not signing up was basically a way of her saying she declines to contend for a spot. I mean, why train just so you can possibly be second alternate at best, rather than recovering from a tough season and getting a head start on the Olympic year?

As she is one of my favourite skaters I hope that she just made a good strategic decision – if competing at Russian Cup Final, she’d probably once more lost to Leonova, not matter how she skated if judging would have been the same like at Nationals. It’s definitely smarter to quietly regain strength, cure injuries, stabilize technique and fight back in full force next season. Beside that as she didn’t skate many competitions this year, she might keep her gorgeous long programme for the Olympic season.