From Russia with Love [#35]: Winter 2019

Evdokimova/Bazin are no more :(
Egor continues, Sofia does not know so far.
Well, I always had a soft spot for them as the couple not from the big centres, being together for so long.
Happy they got their medal at nationals and made it to Euros at least once!

Such nice words by Bazin :love:

Weren't they a couple off ice?
 
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Ah, so that's the new partner for Ilinykh?

I think Soloviev mentioned making some kind of a statement at the end of February. Guess the press forgot about it...
 
few news that may not make the press.

Ksenya Stolbova - submitted a form to the RusFed to take her name off the "active athletes list". She will no longer seek a partner or intends to compete.

Stanislava Konstantinova - left her old time coach Chebotareva (on friendly terms). She applied to Mishin, but he refused to take her. She is now with Angels of Plushenko group.

Popova/Mozgov - will no longer compete. Mozgov has too many back injuries, also they don't see too many prospects: they do not have any GP assignments, they are not on the team or even in "reserves". Their only option is to travel to various Challenger events at their own expense, and they can't afford it. Popova plans to become a judge and train kids on the side. Mozgov is already training, said he will be at the JWC in Tallin because he is working with some junior kids (did not name who).

Alena Kanisheva - is choosing ice dance over singles. She had a serious injury back on Nov. 2018 (when still with Panova at "Snow Leopards" Club.) Panova transferred her hopes and attention to Sinintsina, Kanisheva felt it and moved to Tutberidze. Tutberidze worked with her for a month, and then everyone decided that Kanisheva needs more medical treatment, which she has been getting. In the end she decided to ice dance and is making arrangements for a partner.
 
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Ilinykh could be an option . But would they skate for Russia or another federation? Popova plans to continue or not?
 
Popova plans to continue or not?

She is not seeking new partner or has any plans to compete. She gave a long russian video blog interview talking about improper use of the judging system and her idealistic hopes to improve it once she is a judge.

This is the youtube chat with Pop/Moz. it is in russian very informal. it's long and chatty. one needs to really speak russian fluently and able to tolerate that form of conversing.
but any way - welcome to our small russian figure skating world - Discord - Ledocol FK - we have many interesting informal chats with skaters.

Pop/Moz

This is the general site - we now have an interview from this morning with Alexander Majorov.
 
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well certainly for a while anyways. The baby may have to stay a certain number of months to complete the prerequisites of the dual citizenship. Then she would have to start skating and getting into shape. Would that give her enough time b4 2022?
 
Mozgov is already training, said he will be at the JWC in Tallin because he is working with some junior kids (did not name who).

Netjaga & Gaidajenko? An earlier post said that he was planning to coach in Estonia, and they are the Estonian team on the entry list for Junior Worlds.
 
well certainly for a while anyways. The baby may have to stay a certain number of months to complete the prerequisites of the dual citizenship. Then she would have to start skating and getting into shape. Would that give her enough time b4 2022?
In theory, she could start skating while she is in the USA. It’s not as if there were no coaches there. But personally, I don’t think she has the motivation to do so. If she had, she could have skated with Soloviev. She chose not to.
 
O dear what is it with all the Russian splits and retirements ?

I’ll miss E/K, I always enjoyed their skating. One of my seasons highlights was seeing her land the SBS in the short at Russian Nationals, sadly the free wasn’t as good. I secretly hoped for them to run of to Belarus where any amount of Senior championships would await them.

Sad to see Stolbova retire but I think it’s the right decision. I regularly watch the GPF performance in Barcelona, one of my favourites of the previous quad. I wonder was the decision was made after CoR we never seen them skate again. I feel sorry for Novoselov, he could have got to the Olympics with France and now he is partnerless in Russia. He risked a lot for no gain.

Sad also for Z/E. I thought they got a lovely send off this week, the video montage was great. I was glad to see them get their worlds medal last year. I really liked him with Gerboldt and Davankova but they can retire happy with their world and olympic medals. Loved the sword fighting short.

Not the biggest fan of Dance but I did like E/B and was happy to see them get to Euros and deliver two strong skates last year. I found P/M a bit OTT for my liking but they did have a big following.

On a separate note would anyone know the name of the song below? Came across it on YouTube, it’s from the Voice of Russia battle rounds and the singer is Sevara. No idea what she is singing about but I find it powerful and emotional. Is it a traditional song?

 
O dear what is it with all the Russian splits and retirements ?

I’ll miss E/K, I always enjoyed their skating. One of my seasons highlights was seeing her land the SBS in the short at Russian Nationals, sadly the free wasn’t as good. I secretly hoped for them to run of to Belarus where any amount of Senior championships would await them.

Sad to see Stolbova retire but I think it’s the right decision. I regularly watch the GPF performance in Barcelona, one of my favourites of the previous quad. I wonder was the decision was made after CoR we never seen them skate again. I feel sorry for Novoselov, he could have got to the Olympics with France and now he is partnerless in Russia. He risked a lot for no gain.

Sad also for Z/E. I thought they got a lovely send off this week, the video montage was great. I was glad to see them get their worlds medal last year. I really liked him with Gerboldt and Davankova but they can retire happy with their world and olympic medals. Loved the sword fighting short.

Not the biggest fan of Dance but I did like E/B and was happy to see them get to Euros and deliver two strong skates last year. I found P/M a bit OTT for my liking but they did have a big following.

On a separate note would anyone know the name of the song below? Came across it on YouTube, it’s from the Voice of Russia battle rounds and the singer is Sevara. No idea what she is singing about but I find it powerful and emotional. Is it a traditional song?

Isn’t it the song that SinKats used this season for their exhibition program?
 
O dear what is it with all the Russian splits and retirements ?

I’ll miss E/K, I always enjoyed their skating. One of my seasons highlights was seeing her land the SBS in the short at Russian Nationals, sadly the free wasn’t as good. I secretly hoped for them to run of to Belarus where any amount of Senior championships would await them.

Sad to see Stolbova retire but I think it’s the right decision. I regularly watch the GPF performance in Barcelona, one of my favourites of the previous quad. I wonder was the decision was made after CoR we never seen them skate again. I feel sorry for Novoselov, he could have got to the Olympics with France and now he is partnerless in Russia. He risked a lot for no gain.

Sad also for Z/E. I thought they got a lovely send off this week, the video montage was great. I was glad to see them get their worlds medal last year. I really liked him with Gerboldt and Davankova but they can retire happy with their world and olympic medals. Loved the sword fighting short.

Not the biggest fan of Dance but I did like E/B and was happy to see them get to Euros and deliver two strong skates last year. I found P/M a bit OTT for my liking but they did have a big following.

On a separate note would anyone know the name of the song below? Came across it on YouTube, it’s from the Voice of Russia battle rounds and the singer is Sevara. No idea what she is singing about but I find it powerful and emotional. Is it a traditional song?

I think all the retirements seem to be quite expected.
Efimova/Korovin - they seemed quite promising in their first senior season, but then as if their progress suddenly stopped. She started struggling with jumps and they just weren’t improving. Which was fine while there were just a few top teams in seniors and they could be considered as Russian team number 4-6, but now the situation changed. There are many very talented junior pairs moving to seniors and Efimova/Korovin just keep dropping in Russian ranking. I liked them, but the split is probably for the best.

Zabijako/Enbert - it is pitty about Enbert’s health, but I think they already achieved their maximum anyway. They have a medal from worlds, which I never expected that they would get. So maybe it is time to move on.

Evdokimova/Bazin seem to me the ice dance equivalent of Efimova/Korovin. Not bad, but not great and not improving very much for a few years now. Which is fine when there is no huge competition in Russia within ice dance, but can be a bit of a problem when the younger teams starts moving up and pushing E/B down the Russian rankings.

Popova/Mozgov - well, not sure what to say. I never fell in love with this team. I still can’t forget the way how he split up with his previous partner. It is working relationship and people part their ways, but the way how one does it can show what sort of person someone is.

Stolbova/Novoselov - that made me quite sad. I so wished Stolbova to get her happy ending like Savchenko, but it was quite a long shot. The fact that it works out for one person doesn’t mean that it can work out for anyone; I think Savchenko had a huge amount of luck and Stolbova just wasn’t as lucky.
 
Is Bazin really that good though? Why don't they contemplate shows? The top 3/4 is set and it is gonna take some time to learn how to skate as a pair....Oh well, it's a tough road that of an athlete. Hoping they make the best choices.
 
It's strange because none of the splitting teams are teams I am too invested in (I did really love Pop/Moz but was starting to see the writing on the wall where they were concerned a bit in terms of placements) but I feel sort of shell-shocked to see so many break-ups all at once. Excited that competition is starting back up again with Junior Worlds though.
 
Not sure if this can be considered news, but Adelina Sotnikova officially retired
Apparently, Adelina had a serious back injury for quite some time, underwent a surgery and now has metal plate and six titanium screws in her spine :scream:
 
I don't know but some of these athletes are seemingly struggling with their priorities. Figure skating seems to be like a drug that they can't seem to walk away from, or the notoriety and fame. The sacrifices they make are so.....it's hard to take in.
 
There was a brief comment in a Zhiganshin interview I read recently about his transition to coaching as part of Krylova's team:

"What is your day like now?

– Like everyone else’s, I guess: I wake up, drink coffee, go to work. Although it’s very unusual to call what I do “work”. I have completely different associations with this word. Work is when you are sitting sad in the office from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and waiting when this day will finally end. I rather have a paid hobby."

That makes sense to me - a lot of these skaters have been doing this since they were children; this is an opportunity to spend all day long doing something they really love, that has to be hard to give up, especially if they aren't sure what else they would like to do. For so many of them this has been their whole world for so long.
 

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