Kostornaia out of Russian Nationals

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Trillian

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The complainers don't like the skaters from Sambo-70 and are perfectly willing to ignore any other skater they do like who has injuries, even chronic or recurring ones. That's what is disingenuous about this whole topic every. time. it. comes. up.

Counterpoint: some of us really enjoy watching these skaters and are sad that so many of them leave the sport so quickly.

The sport as a whole needs to take injuries more seriously. But it’s absurd to pretend that every coach in the world is training an equal number of chronically injured children.
 

alchemy void

Post-its for the win.
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Whatever. It's the same circular argument like usual. Why are some so offended when Tutberidze's training methods are even questioned?

Team Tutberidze's entire program is built around over training girls and instilling questionable jump technique so they can achieve phenomenal results before they (a) grow or (b) become chronically injured. Obviously they've had incredible success, but this approach is bound to attract scrutiny.

I'm looking at what happened to her and questioning what was so unique about this situation, regardless of the camp she comes from.
Yes, of course this injury could have happened if Kostornaia was training with Orser or Raf or Buianova. But the point is, given Team Tutberidze's track record, is it not fair to at least question their training methods? I mean Gleikhengauz gave a bitchy interview just last month about Kostornaia's lack of work ethic and Instagram posts. Come on.

Skating fans are aware of the issues related to skating, but EDs are much more common outside skating and have sky rocketed with social media use by pre teens and teenagers. There have been internal reports from Instagram that indicate they are very aware of this. So, while figure skating and other sports have a subset, the problem with EDs and social media is much wider and is pretty much ignored.
What's your point? Is it not possible to be concerned about disordered eating in the sport and amongst the general population simultaneously?
 

Coco

Rotating while Russian!
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It's frustrating to me that we don't have anything approaching decent data on this important issue.

For example, major pro leagues in the US require teams to publish some injury statistics. Their athletes are men so people don't care about their health unless the brain damage gets to be too much :( But at least there you get patterns and you have a decent sample size which can make trends apparent. The NBA's New Orleans Pelicans and the NFL's New Orleans Saints are owned by the same group, who used to employ one set of trainers to work on both teams. It really caused physical harm to the NBA players, because their trainers were not specialized in basketball. But this became apparent, not soon enough for some guys, but it was noticed and then free agents started to not want to play for the Pelicans and the team corrected the problem.

With skating, otoh, of course Team Tutberidze will have the most injuries because she a) has the most skaters b) who are the most closely watched (by the media) and c) are at the highest physical level. But is this team's injury per skater ratio higher than other skaters at the same level? If they held these skaters back, limited their reps, etc., would the skaters go to other coaches to train as they please?

Very few other coaches at this level have multiple skaters in the same discipline near the same level, although some do share ice rinks. So for those coaches, are their skaters using the same off ice trainer? We don't know, but it would be relevant.

I have no doubt that there are a number of injuries we never hear about.

So how much of this injury problem is Eteri and how much of it is the nature of the TES race to rack up the most base value and GOE?

IMO, an age limit won't really fix things. We will just see slightly older skaters with similarly brief careers.

WADA exists to protect the integrity of sport but also to protect athletes from harmful PEDs. Perhaps they should test bone density for athletes?
 

BlueRidge

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WADA exists to protect the integrity of sport but also to protect athletes from harmful PEDs. Perhaps they should test bone density for athletes?
Have there been suggestions that skaters could have low bone density because of diet/training regimens?
 

Sylvia

TBD
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2017 GSD thread:
ETA: Just realized many of the article links in that thread are broken but this one still works:

New working link:
 
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Seerek

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But, I could cite every downhill skier's injuries. How many surgeries did Vonn have? Schiffer? (Mikaela) Shiffrin? She's struggling now preparing for the Olympics.

Actually, considering how many races across several disciplines she's competed in throughout her career, Mikaela Shiffrin has stayed mostly healthy over 10 seasons, and this recent back injury didn't actually result in her missing any races in slalom (her best discipline).

From an AP article last month:

"Looking back on my career I think it's a really cool thing to have gotten through this far with a fewer amount of injuries than a lot of people may expect," Shiffrin said.
 
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Trillian

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Agreed. What we all need is some real data.

I agree that we need more data, I just get frustrated that so many people want to insist that we don’t have any data. I work as an analyst. I don’t have to know what’s causing a problem to know when something needs attention, and I don’t have to crunch every number to take a glance through a report and identify a likely area that needs attention. I absolutely agree with you on this point, but I don’t agree with posters who want to view every injury as though they’re happening in a vacuum. They’re not.
 

AxelAnnie

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Was Gabby Daleman with Cricket when she turned into a shadow of herself?

I agree that we need more data, I just get frustrated that so many people want to insist that we don’t have any data. I work as an analyst. I don’t have to know what’s causing a problem to know when something needs attention, and I don’t have to crunch every number to take a glance through a report and identify a likely area that needs attention. I absolutely agree with you on this point, but I don’t agree with posters who want to view every injury as though they’re happening in a vacuum. They’re not
I agree that we need more data, I just get frustrated that so many people want to insist that we don’t have any data. I work as an analyst. I don’t have to know what’s causing a problem to know when something needs attention, and I don’t have to crunch every number to take a glance through a report and identify a likely area that needs attention. I absolutely agree with you on this point, but I don’t agree with posters who want to view every injury as though they’re happening in a vacuum. They’re not.
Injuries happen. Period. There are so very many factors involved. I agree with you. And as to raw data.........It is not like you can log into a server somewhere and get the data that would be needed to look at trends, draw conclusions and make recommendations. I would be very surprised if that information is kept anywhere.

The ISU oversees all this. I would be most surprised if they would EVER get behind such a project. They are not gonna mess with Eteri way too much money involved (think TV advertising)
And each system of training is better for some than for others.

I (of course) have an opinion about the training that goes on there) but it doesn't matter what I think.

And what football does has no bearing on figure skating. AND how do you know that what they post is accurate? Perhaps a sprain is a +4, and they are giving it a +

I care....intrigue, drama who doesn't like that? Mostly, though I just want to turn on my TV or computer and watch them skated.
 

Vash01

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A skater gets injured while practicing a triple axel and a storm breaks out. Major social issues, training methods, etc. Are discussed. Why? Her coach is very successful. Another skater coached by a different coach gets injured in training. We don't hear a blip, beyond xxx out with an injury. Had Alena been injured while in Plushenko's group, we would have seen sad faces but not allegations of abuse (although some do accuse him of abusing his son). Again, no data. Just guesswork and emotions.
 

Mayra

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Some people have a much stronger stake in being fans of Eteri than any of her skaters. They react when their fave is criticized.
This.

I've said this before, but IMO there are so many red flags coming out of this team that I can see them a mile away being held up by Lipnitskaya and her "powdered nutrients" and Shcherbakova with her "two shrimps."

@MacMadame mentioned the female athlete triad and IMO this is absolutely something that comes into play in this sport, and especially in a training team where multiple female athletes have spoken out about their injuries and disordered eating while in this environment. I don't think you have to walk too far to connect the dots between overuse injuries and the pounding of 13-18 year old female bodies that train multiple quads, 3/3's and 3axels a day. It's a high risk strategy, for high reward.

If people don't care because it's sport and their fave is winning, then proceed. I just don't get when people get upset when others point out the obvious risks and consequences of said actions. The outright denial is :wall:

IMO It's important to follow red flags, even if they don't end up going anywhere. A spotlight on one can help open the door for transparency, overall safety and smarter training methods for all.
 

TAHbKA

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If they are really starving themselves, I doubt they will even make it to 20. :rolleyes: Who are “these girls”. Are we now just assuming everyone is ”starving” ?
Of course, of course, it was Lipnitskaya's decision to feed herself smoothies and not her mom's at all. They are making it to 20 because they only need to starve themselves for 2-3 years and then the Olympics are over and so is their career. If you watched the movie about Margarita Mamun featuring Viner - it's all there. I highly doubt figure skating is any different.

The thing is - when you are working for as long as these girls do every day you get stress fractures in your feet. One of the ways to avoid it or at least postpone it - to weight less. BTW, the `weight less' was something my doctor told me when I came to him being quite close to a stress fracture. Only that I was skating for just 2-3 hours a day, I was not jumping, I was above the age of 30 and, frankly, at that point a bit overweight. Apparently your feet don't like it when you stress them for several hours a day, I can only imagine how much my feet would hate me if I were also jumping.
Imagine how much these girls feet hate them.

All that said, why is it even remotely relevant to Kostornaya's injury???
 

muffinplus

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"All that said, why is it even remotely relevant to Kostornaya's injury???" - you are asking me this? :lol: That is what I've been saying.. And we don't need to rehash Lipnitskaya, as you said, it's not relevant.
I've said this before, but IMO there are so many red flags coming out of this team that I can see them a mile away being held up by Lipnitskaya and her "powdered nutrients" and Shcherbakova with her "two shrimps."
"Danny G praised Anna for eating two shrimp" is an urban legend that started on Twitter from people who didn't even watch the interview and just decided to twist the translation.
 

tony

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[Post]

All that said, why is it even remotely relevant to Kostornaya's injury???
This is my issue with these threads. Anyone and everyone will think as they want (and they clearly do), but the constant 'This is obviously what's happening and if you don't agree then you don't care about the skaters' act is getting tiresome. Not one person in this thread knows anything 'secret' about what is going on, but I can point out plenty of times when people who state things in a matter-of-fact way as if they do, when it comes to Team Tutberidze.

This is a quote directed at me earlier for not immediately agreeing that a fall on a 3A by Kostornaia, an adult who does the jump successfully, should raise a bunch of red flags about things further than the fluke injury:
This is not about kids pushing themselves. This is about adults imposing abusive regimens on children - physically abusive in some cases perhaps but definitely mentally and psychologically abusive. Are you really ok with enforced eating disorders if that's what it takes to win?
As far as I am aware, no one in this thread is saying anything of the type, and I think it's a ridiculous reach because I simply believe that it's quite possible a completely healthy skater can take a big fall on a difficult element without a bunch of assumptions being thrown out.

And of course, when Kostornaia says it herself, there are people who believe it's all a cover anyways.. because Eteri..
 

skatingguy

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The judges are judging the elements for the most part and the choreography mark isn't about the choreo per se but also about how the skater performs it. If those programs were the "gold standard" then Jason Brown wouldn't score as high as he does.
I understand how the rules are written, I just don't think that's how it's being judged. In the women's discipline the choreography from Sambo 70 regularly receives among the highest PCS, and Jason Brown's marks aren't relevant to the discussion because that's a different discipline.
 

Trillian

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A skater gets injured while practicing a triple axel and a storm breaks out. Major social issues, training methods, etc. Are discussed. Why?

Because the same coaching team has at least four Olympic contenders with significant injuries this season, including at least two who didn’t even make it to Russian nationals. Not to mention four world medalists in less than a decade who retired by age 20. The more the same thing happens over and over again, the less likely that it’s just a fluke.
 

Vash01

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Because the same coaching team has at least four Olympic contenders with significant injuries this season, including at least two who didn’t even make it to Russian nationals. Not to mention four world medalists in less than a decade who retired by age 20. The more the same thing happens over and over again, the less likely that it’s just a fluke.
Statistically the more students the more injuries. This whole discussion stems from hatred for a successful coach.

I am sure this thread was started with good intentions - sending love to Alena, and hopes for her recovery. It has degenerated into something full of hatred and not worth reading anymore.
 
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tony

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Because the same coaching team has at least four Olympic contenders with significant injuries this season, including at least two who didn’t even make it to Russian nationals. Not to mention four world medalists in less than a decade who retired by age 20. The more the same thing happens over and over again, the less likely that it’s just a fluke.
But the 'retiring young' thing is not that uncommon. Lipinski and Hughes both retired shortly after winning Olympic gold (Hughes stayed an extra year and wasn't competitive anymore). Zagitova couldn't and didn't want to keep up with the younger skaters- she already had won it all. In the past, skaters like Elena Ivanova, Sydne Vogel, Deanna Stellato (for 15 years), Ann Patrice McDonough, Kristina Oblasova, Yukina Ota, Katy Taylor, and many, many non-World Junior medalists all retired at a young age for one reason or another- growth spurts, injuries, lack of motivation, getting away from mom, etc.

Russian women have the cards stacked against them to ever make Europeans or Worlds even if they enjoy a ton of junior success. They do, however, have plenty of opportunity to capitalize on their skating at a higher level in shows or other ventures within Russia. Why not do it? Zagitova was probably going to be torn to shreds by half of skating fandom if she stayed in and lost (it happened with Hughes), so why would she? Lipinski got out of eligible competition and many Kwan fans claimed she was just scared to lose. Medvedeva also knew she wasn't going to be competitive anymore.

Retiring by the age of 20, in short, really means nothing. Some skaters want to move on with their lives as a whole, and some want to move to other areas of skating where they may actually capitalize on opportunities.
 

hanca

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Because the same coaching team has at least four Olympic contenders with significant injuries this season, including at least two who didn’t even make it to Russian nationals. Not to mention four world medalists in less than a decade who retired by age 20. The more the same thing happens over and over again, the less likely that it’s just a fluke.
Do you know any other team that had so many contenders? Tutberidze’s team has most female skaters who do 3A or quads. So of course she may have higher rate of injuries than someone who has only skaters with triples or doubles. Working on quads comes with higher risks of injury. Look at Hanyu’s rate of injuries. Or when top pairs were working on quad throws and triple axels, they also had higher than average injury rates. Skaters will push themselves to win and some will get injured. And not only skaters, it is in every sport that the more you push yourself to the limits, the more you are likely to get injured. It is the risk connected with high level elite sports.
 

Trillian

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But the 'retiring young' thing is not that uncommon.

Yeah, but that’s…not great? It’s one thing when the skaters leave the sport healthy and satisfied with what they’ve accomplished, but we all know that many do not. I love Kostornaia’s skating, and I don’t have a lot of hope that we’ll see much more of her in the future, and that makes me sad as a fan. Watching kids end up with broken bodies and hearts over and over again is something that should never be normalized in any context. It’s exhausting. These girls deserve better than to just have people shrug because it’s always been that way.
 

MacMadame

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A lot of kids push to have the top GPA to get into a prestigious University, or maybe they push to have the most activities on their application, or the highest test scores, or whatever.
And they have poor mental health and some commit suicide. It's a big problem in the part of the country where I live. Some of these parents are something else.

nobody is calling out Zhou for his training methods.
They are calling out the Chinese Fed for pushing these two to stay in the sport though.

Have there been suggestions that skaters could have low bone density because of diet/training regimens?
I definitely made that suggestion.

In the women's discipline the choreography from Sambo 70 regularly receives among the highest PCS, and Jason Brown's marks aren't relevant to the discussion because that's a different discipline.
Because they have the hardest jumps. And that's even more true in the Mens event.
 

Gris

不做奴才做公民
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And, the biggest recurring injury nobody talks about is Sui. How many surgeries has she had to have over the past 8 years? They haven't managed to skate a full season in at least 4 years due to injury with one or the other, but nobody is calling out Zhou for his training methods.

FWIW - maybe not on English-speaking FS boards, but there certainly was a lot of discussion about the possible link between Bo Luan's (S/H's coach in their early years) training methods and their injuries on Chinese ones. In S/H's junior years Luan made them do big elements like quad throw and quad twist, which won them 3 consecutive WJC titles but I really do think that approach unfortunately contributed to their injuries in the long term.

ETA: And Zhao received loads of criticism for his training methods (making S/H continue to train quad elements) too, especially after S/H missed the Olympic gold since it turned out that Wenjing skated with a broken foot. The CFSA strategy of having them compete in both GP and JGP for two seasons back in the day was also criticized then.

So... to get back to the topic of this thread, it's certainly not just Tutberize who gets questioned for the training methods.
 
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Sylvia

TBD
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They [Sui/Han] haven't managed to skate a full season in at least 4 years due to injury with one or the other, but nobody is calling out Zhou for his training methods.
Nitpick: It's Zhao (Hongbo).

ETA:
Torgashev out all this year with a recurring injury.
Torgashev had some good things to say in his podcast conversation with Polina Edmunds (paraphrasing what he said ~23 mins.) about how he overloaded the first metatarsal bone in his right foot and should have realized he needed to strengthen his right hip more (that he never fixed the main cause of his injury). He stressed "how important it is to take a step back and evaluate everything that you're doing" re. warm up routines, including stretching more together with proper recovery after on ice training - "that's what separates the great from the good."
An important discussion between them re. "load management" starts at ~40 mins.
 
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bladesofgorey

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Actually, I'm quite serious about that. Skating fans are aware of the issues related to skating, but EDs are much more common outside skating and have sky rocketed with social media use by pre teens and teenagers. There have been internal reports from Instagram that indicate they are very aware of this. So, while figure skating and other sports have a subset, the problem with EDs and social media is much wider and is pretty much ignored.
So social media companies have a duty to address this since it's a known issue, just like the skating world has to address abusive environments that encourage (or require based on their own statements) disordered eating and a preoccupation with weight in preteens and teens. I'm super glad we agree.
 

tony

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Yeah, but that’s…not great? It’s one thing when the skaters leave the sport healthy and satisfied with what they’ve accomplished, but we all know that many do not. I love Kostornaia’s skating, and I don’t have a lot of hope that we’ll see much more of her in the future, and that makes me sad as a fan. Watching kids end up with broken bodies and hearts over and over again is something that should never be normalized in any context. It’s exhausting. These girls deserve better than to just have people shrug because it’s always been that way.
Most skaters will never come anywhere near a big championship or learning the most difficult, competitive jumps. So again, I get that you and some others mean well but the constant 'it's just not fair in figure skating and this shouldn't be normalized!' is something that happens in just about every facet of life beyond making a podium or a national team or getting assignments, or whatever. Kids don't get into their dream colleges even though they work their asses off in high school. They don't make the cut for dance teams or the football team. They aren't a starter in a sport. They don't get internship or job opportunities or the clothes or toys that others around them may have.

And to be clear, one of your earlier responses was to let them compete at lower levels of the sport and not be televised. That's not going to solve anything in the case you present above, so I really don't know what your ultimate goal is. There would still be competition at that point, and there would still be broken hearts and 'broken' bodies.

This isn't directed to you, but the 'it happens most in Tutberidze's camp' thing is because she has so many top-level skaters. But going beyond World Junior medalists, we can also see endless amounts of skaters down the ranks who cut their careers short by the time they were 20 or so: Tamara Dorofejev, Susanne Stadlmuller, Irina Tkatchuk, Marianne Dubuc, Mikkeline Kierkgaard, Svetlana Chernyshova, Sara Wheat, Stephanie Zhang (until an attempted comeback), Beatrisa Liang (who was 21 when she retired), Louann Donovan, Lauren Wilson, Tatiana Basova, Lina Johansson, Olga Naidenova -- most of these skaters were either top 10 in Junior Worlds or in JGP Finals at some point. This is all from the 2000-2004 era when I was the same age as a lot of the competitors, and you see they came from all over the world. Maybe people don't realize it because we didn't see every competition, but the competitions were still there and the medals and assignments were still up for grabs.

Skaters retiring due to injury or lack of top results is nothing new, and I think the majority of them understand the nature of sport. If you don't like it, then the only way out is to prohibit it completely for youngsters. But like I said, Kostornaia is 18.
 
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Trillian

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Skaters retiring due to injury or lack of top results is nothing new, and I think the majority of them understand the nature of sport.

True, but the problematic scenarios are the ones where skaters retire with severe injuries or other health issues (eating disorders, etc.) that are likely to cause long-term consequences well beyond their years in competitive skating. That happens far too often and should never be normalized. Of course there is always some risk in every activity. But elite skating regularly results in long-term physical or mental health consequences for kids who participate, and in many cases those things might have been preventable if some adult along the way had put the well being of the child ahead of competitive results.

And of course not every skater is going to make it to an Olympics. But what does is say about the culture of the sport that so many of them feel like failures if they don’t? Having such a narrow definition of what constitutes success isn’t serving them well, either.
 

muffinplus

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Bless. I don’t think even Kostornaia thinks the NY NY programme is good. :lol:
?? I don’t know what she thinks, but she did sell the 2nd half of that program really well, which makes it successful. I’m not sure what’s so bad about it. I’d really like to know actually…
 
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