The "Galina Voice" is a terrible imitation. Just awful. I can't listen to more than a minute of it. He's just really bad at accents. He sounds like Kirk Cameron attempting a read-through of Chekhov. Just. No.
It's not the adults fault. Some people say that we should know better now in the 21st century, but the reality is completely different. This is the level that ALL sports are at now, so teenagers do what Lipinski did...pressuring themselves till they drop. It's impossible for parents and adults to know where to say stop. And if they do, it won't matter much anyway, because teenagers do what they want, it's in their job description.
how would the Russian Skating Federation benefit from having Russian born skaters skating for other countries? Federations benefit from getting a percentage of prize money and/or shows. A skater skating for a different federation would be contributing to that federation, not the RSF.
Russian skaters aren't even competing under the Russian flag anymore. What's the difference between Kamila as "Olympian from Russia" or whatever nonsense they call it versus Gubanova "Olympian from Russia representing Georgia"?
Given that Tuk has beaten Kost in every head to head this season, how can you say she’d be head of Liza not Alyona?
Yes, I should have clarified. Not any official rankings, but my favorites/rankings. I think Alyona is a phenomenal skater, one of the best I've seen. I hope something "clicks" in her head to get motivated to get to her earlier level. However, what I've been thinking/feeling is that Alyona has been fighting injuries for years and she's just too injured to do any more. She's a perfectionist, and when perfectionists start looking like Alyona this season, it's often due to injury. And then the mental edge goes with it, too.
I’m still mad at Greg Rusedski for leaving Canada to play tennis for Britain in the late 90s, so not sure Russians would be into athletes skating singles for other countries, but it could just be me.
I think that the Russia audience knows that Russian skaters are switching countries solely to just COMPETE internationally. They just want to show their skills. How could anyone not be onboard with that?
Didn’t they call Zhenya a traitor simply for training in Canada?
I'm sure some did, there's always people who complain about anything. And Evgenia is not similar, she appeared to be a Russian Olympic silver medalist who chose to leave her country after failing it at the Olympics. (Not my opinion). She was an established star. I am hopeful that Russians would embrace their skaters who want to at least compete in their sport to an international level.
So sorry for Masha. I'm sure she had high hopes especially after one of her BFFs Nastya has transferred to the Republic of Georgia already and is representing them internationally all while living and training in St Petersburg. Maria actually changed her world and left Russia and moved to Italy. So sorry for her I hope she doesn't feel like her career is over.
On the Russian sportsite I read the fans were happy Anastasia got away and can now skate for the Republic of Georgia. The only problem is she's only skated in one event for Georgia that was over five weeks ago and there are no signs of her skating again anywhere anytime soon. Someone said Nastya was supposed to skate last week in Austria and this week in Poland but pulled out. I would have had hope she would have skated in at least three events by now so she could build some momentum in her career. I mean she skated in only one event last year and only one so far this year how can she develop if she doesn't compete?
I was just reading one of the Russian Sports sites and the fans there are like let Maria go let her have her career and it will only benefit the promotion of the Russian figure skating School if she succeeds elsewhere. The Russian figure skating Federation may not appreciate that but their fans want these girls to go and have a career which they cannot have in Russia after they've given basically their lives to the sport.
www.sport-express.ru
That's too far away that's like 3 or 4 weeks away.
@Sylvia, since Russia Nationals are December 23-26, do you suppose Sofia Samodurova will not compete at Nationals then? I know that Anastasiia Gulyakova didn't quality for Nats, but would Sofia just skip it to go with Nastya?According to this article, Sofia Samodurova and Anastasiia Guliakova will compete at the Winter Universiade in Lucerne, Switzerland:
The women are scheduled to compete on Sunday & Monday, December 19-20, 2021.Анастасия Гулякова станет второй участницей зимней Универсиады 2021 от России
Как стало известно «СЭ».
ETA: I haven't seen an official announcement for the Russian team yet.
Maybe Sofia wants to retire anyway and wants to do it on a high note with a medal from the Universiade instead of ending up in No Man's Land at the Hunger Games?
The US families have done it for the last what, 50 years? They probably led for the way for all of this. I'm thinking of skates like Susanna Driano and and Dianne de Leeuw, who AFAIK were born and spent their childhoods in the US. Alice Sue Claeys, Patricia Neske-- many of them. While I believe all four cases had family actually from the country they represented and/or were born citizens of those countries, they still took a route easier to getting to World and Olympic competition.
but it had gone on long before that.
Where is she? I thought she moved to Italy like 2 months ago.
Nastia and Georgia had been working on her transfer for like a year and a half. I'm not sure about Maria and how long the process was for that but I was wondering what happened to her since we haven't seen her skate yet. What a shame.That’s really disappointing news for Maria Talalakina. I can’t understand why the Russian Fed won’t release her. I was so looking forward to see her on European and the World stage. She was never going to be a threat to the Top Russian ladies, but could easily have been final flight in Euros. Possibly Top 10 in Worlds and an Olympian. So sad
She had real personality on ice. I loved her Maleficent. This could be a warning to other Russian Ladies looking to switch nationalities. Gubanova did very well to get a release.
