Russian figure skating news & updates in 2022

[greenapple]

Maybe people under 40 think 76 is old but in today's world many are still holding down full-time jobs at that age - and older.

 

[skatingguy]

Media is reporting that the cause of death was a heart attack. I agree with PRLady that 76 isn't old enough for me to assume that anyone just died of old age, so my first thought was "what happened". Unfortunately, heart attacks don't discriminate old from young.

Life expectancy for males in Russia is 71.

 

[Yuri]

Lakernik mentioned that the current situation with figure skating was becoming stressful for him, but, unless they heavily edited his quote he didn't mention Valieva. The only one I've seen so far is Irina Viner. I wouldn't trust anything that comes out of that woman's mouth. Honestly, I hope they don't go with that narrative, because while I'm sure some would love a repeat of "the west is evil, blame the west" and I can see the media playing that game again, I can't imagine being 16 and reading "this man died because of something you're directly involved in". Heck, I couldn't handle it now in my 30's, forget being 16.

I checked back to my Russian news media sources which had numerous quotes from many well-known skaters and officials paying tribute to Gorshkov and yes, Viner and Lakernik were the only two I saw who alluded to the stressful year he's had--and that's before the cause of death was announced as a heart attack. My dad passed at age 77 after over a decade of serious health issues, and both of my grandfathers also died in their 70's, but I concur as I get older that 76 isn't really THAT old anymore. As mentioned, Gorshkov did exceed the typical lifespan for a Russian man.

Great point that it's horrible to make any suggestion that a 16-year old girl would have anything to do with the death of one of the most legendary Soviet/Russian figure skating champions and officials, the first to win an Olympic gold medal in ice dancing with his fabulous partner Pakhomova who died far too young.

On a lighter note, I will always remember that one of my closest figure skating friends named her childhood stuffed animal "Gorshkov" after him! Again, it was years later before I connected that very old, raggedy dog to the Olympic Champion Gorshkov.

 

[Ananas Astra]

I met him in Oberstdorf during Junior Worlds in 2007 when I was volunteering there. The first time I met him in the hallway when I left my room to go to the ice rink and he was mildly surprised such a young person knew who he was after I had said hello and he replied very politely.

My favorite incident with him was when us volunteers were watching one of the competitions during our time off and he was sitting in a room behind our row at his computer and was giving zero ****s about the competition while playing Minesweeper .

May he RiP.

 

[Holy Headband]

Media is reporting that the cause of death was a heart attack. I agree with PRLady that 76 isn't old enough for me to assume that anyone just died of old age, so my first thought was "what happened". Unfortunately, heart attacks don't discriminate old from young.

The average male life expectancy in Russia is 71, so you can go ahead and assume it.

Anyway, RIP.

 

[Sylvia]

Separate news thread in GSD:

Alexander Gorshkov passes away

Gorshkov died earlier today. In addition to being head of the Russian federation, he was the first ice-dance Olympic champion with his late wife Ludmila Pakhamova. May he Rest In Peace...

www.fsuniverse.net

 

[rfisher]

Event 5: Khuda rules.
Ladies:
I love Trusova and she has a mature SP, but she was gifted big time. She popped the axle, albeit the rest of the program was good. 69.50 The chat went wild.
Frolova: Best costume of the season. Chockworthy. Skated very well. I think she's the most underrated of the Russian women. 70.74
Samodelkina 3A (fell--she fell on this in the warm up), 3F, 3Lz-3T (all the Russian women do this combo--Most do this layout). It's sad the 3 Sofia's didn't get to compete for the junior world title. 73.15
Ksenia Guschina: Another good skate. Davydov's skaters always have solid basics. Jumps very straight in the air. 69.31
New find: Sofia Chaplygina. Excellent skate and finished 5th

Over all, this was a good event. Lot's of good skates.

Pairs: First group a bit of a mixed bag. Osokina/Gritsayenko are a young team with a lot of promise.
Artemieva has been struggling lately, but not today. Very good skate from she and Briukhanov. Happy all around. 75.74
Boi/Koz Excellent. Moskvina's pair girls do excellent and elegant lifts, although I sometimes think she doesn't know exactly what to do with Boi/Koz. She absolutely gets Mish/Gal, but Boi/Koz, I wonder. That being said, this is a good SP for them. 84.02
Kadyrova/Kolesev: He falls on SBS jump. Moskvina is shaking his hand and telling him it's OK (I presume although she could be telling him off for all I know) and she's doing all the talking in the KnC, but they're all smiling and laughing. 71.68

Men
Vetlugen (Mishin's would have been junior) excellent SP. 85.12
Anisimov (Volchkova) Typical Volchkova skater. She's more entertaining to watch than he is.
Mozalev: 4S-3T,3A (bit of a wonky landing), 4T: Much better than his last event. 97.61 Happy KnC
Lutfullin. He wuzrobbed in his first event. 4T-3T, 4S (very nice), 3A. also very nice. I really like him. Very expressive. LOL silly fall out of his final spin. He's laughing. That's too bad because I think he'd have gone ahead of Mozalev. Mishin is laughing too. He's so not the typical Mishin skater except for his excellent technique. 92.77
Danielian 4S, 3A (nice), 3Lz-3T (fell on the 3T) He was doing so well and he beats himself up when he makes a mistake. Unlike Lutfullin, he's not laughing. He needs to learn to relax. He's such an nice skater and the 4S and 3A were very good. 81.5
Samarin: 4Lz-3T, 4T (fall), 3A step out. Typical Samarin. He lucked into a medal in his first event. 90.15
Kondratyuk: Interesting costume. No idea what it means, but it's colorful to say the least. Jazzy program. Mark does not do typical music. 4Lz, 3A, 4S-2T all clean. This program is very interesting. And, he's happy. 102.84 The judges found it very interesting as well.
Katichev 3A, 3lz-3T, 3Lo. Nice program, but not nearly at the same level as the rest of the group. He'll swap places with Vetlugen for the FS final group, but, he's scarfing down an ice cream and doesn't seem too upset about things. 75.41 Danielian could learn from him.

 

[Primorskaya]

I met him in Oberstdorf during Junior Worlds in 2007 when I was volunteering there. The first time I met him in the hallway when I left my room to go to the ice rink and he was mildly surprised such a young person knew who he was after I had said hello and he replied very politely.

My favorite incident with him was when us volunteers were watching one of the competitions during our time off and he was sitting in a room behind our row at his computer and was giving zero ****s about the competition while playing Minesweeper .

May he RiP.

Well, it's a very addictive game, I can understand.

 

[angi]

I have to say that the scoring for ice dance in those fake GPs is beyond hilarious. They are handing out level 4 step sequences like candy and giving scores that are about 20 points higher (and I'm not even exaggerating) than what the same program will score internationally. The scoring in general has been wild, but for ice dance, it's just ridiculous.

 

[hanca]

I have to say that the scoring for ice dance in those fake GPs is beyond hilarious. They are handing out level 4 step sequences like candy and giving scores that are about 20 points higher (and I'm not even exaggerating) than what the same program will score internationally. The scoring in general has been wild, but for ice dance, it's just ridiculous.

Why do you care? They can do whatever they want to at their home competitions. Most home competitions in any country are overmarked.

 

[Bigbird]

Why do you care? They can do whatever they want to at their home competitions. Most home competitions in any country are overmarked.

True words. I haven't watched one competition. Ice Age was more interesting, except for the vomit inducing fawning over Vika and Nikita in all episodes. Luckily there is youtube. But truthfully who honestly cares? Nobody.

 

[Primorskaya]

Yes, thank you for telling the people what they should or should not care about. It's not like we're on a forum to comment about stuff anyway.

 

[hanca]

Just to clarify, I do care about the skating. I watched the Russian Grand Prix, especially their junior and senior pairs. But I really don’t care about how they are marking their skaters.

 

[Bigbird]

Just to clarify, I do care about the skating. I watched the Russian Grand Prix, especially their junior and senior pairs. But I really don’t care about how they are marking their skaters.

Understood. But somehow it's hard to be invested given their reputation of institutionalized doping. Of course some things are beautiful but then you think about their methods and I'm just not impressed.

 

[angi]

Why do you care? They can do whatever they want to at their home competitions. Most home competitions in any country are overmarked.

1. So it's not ok to comment on Russian skating in a forum that is dedicated to skating chatter and in a specific thread that talks about Russian skating? Thanks for letting me know
2. There's national scoring inflation that happens everywhere, and there's marking your #8 nationally ranked team the same as the #4 team in the world. It's counter productive as it supplies no real feedback - not for material, not for performance, and definitely not for technical levels which means these teams will get a very rude awakening if and when they ever return to the international field. And it's also laughable when I happen to catch both the NHK FD event and the fake GP RD event and the differences are just glaring.
But sure, I'll check with you next time when I comment, god forbid I won't get your meaningful approval

 

[Tesla]

How dare you criticize the poor widdle Russians!

 

[On My Own]

The only Russian pair I liked were Panfilova/Rylov, please tell me they're still alive and kicking.

 

[zhenyah]

How dare you criticize the poor widdle Russians!

But the thing is, people here (except 1 or 2 maybe) do nothing but criticize all the time. About absolutely everything and anything.

So people here hate all Russians, all 140 millions of them, and all things Russian-related. They are convinced beyond any shade of grey that Russians are the root of all horribleness in the world and nearby galaxies. Fine. But there must be about half a dozen threads in this forum to go over and over about how evvvviiiiilllllllll Russians are. Why come here and throw out pure hate at every single message?

Russians organize local competitions just to try and survive? These competitions are fake and shouldn't be allowed. A Russian skater, despite all the blackness and hopelessness surrounding them, does not give up and and tries to continue to skate? Skate brands that supply them with skates should be denonced and blacklisted, so they would have no skates, ah ! that would show them! Those skaters put out lovely performances and try to offer a glicht of beauty in this tumultous world? They are clearly doping and overmarked.

In every single post from 98% of posters here, there is nothing but venom. It's tiring, unhealthy and counterproductive. This forum is simply toxic.

 

[Amy L]

The only Russian pair I liked were Panfilova/Rylov, please tell me they're still alive and kicking.

They haven't come back to competition yet. AFAIK, she's still waiting for him while he recovers from a major surgery. They were supposed to miss at least one full season, and since they didn't do the fake GP, it looks like they're on the way to missing a second.

 

[PRlady]

Expecting this thread to remain a pristine recounting of which Russian skater skated what is unrealistic. Particularly because the Russians themselves keep politicising their skaters and skating.

 

[allezfred]

This forum is simply toxic.

You know what's more toxic? Invasion and genocide. At least, you have the option to not look at this forum or put people's opinions you don't like on ignore. Ukrainians don't have the option of ignoring the missiles raining down on their heads.

 

[Wyliefan]

Need a Snickers, @zhenyah?

 

[airgelaal]

In every single post from 98% of posters here, there is nothing but venom. It's tiring, unhealthy and counterproductive. This forum is simply toxic.

Vlad Tarasenko (Lipnitskaya's husband) is now preparing to go and kill Ukrainians. Plushenko, for whom Vlad worked, fully and openly supports him. In this school, every child knows how honorable it is to kill others. The children trained by Tarasenko will grow up and want to tell from world pedestals how proud they are of their teacher.
russian figure skating community is so bright and healthy...

 

[Vagabond]

Need a Snickers, @zhenyah?

Can I recommend a Valieva Cocktail?

 

[rfisher]

They haven't come back to competition yet. AFAIK, she's still waiting for him while he recovers from a major surgery. They were supposed to miss at least one full season, and since they didn't do the fake GP, it looks like they're on the way to missing a second.

After his surgery, she broke her foot over the summer.

 

[caseyedwards]

Vlad Tarasenko (Lipnitskaya's husband) is now preparing to go and kill Ukrainians. Plushenko, for whom Vlad worked, fully and openly supports him. In this school, every child knows how honorable it is to kill others. The children trained by Tarasenko will grow up and want to tell from world pedestals how proud they are of their teacher.
russian figure skating community is so bright and healthy...

No reason to pretend the war started this

 

[hanca]

1. So it's not ok to comment on Russian skating in a forum that is dedicated to skating chatter and in a specific thread that talks about Russian skating? Thanks for letting me know
2. There's national scoring inflation that happens everywhere, and there's marking your #8 nationally ranked team the same as the #4 team in the world. It's counter productive as it supplies no real feedback - not for material, not for performance, and definitely not for technical levels which means these teams will get a very rude awakening if and when they ever return to the international field. And it's also laughable when I happen to catch both the NHK FD event and the fake GP RD event and the differences are just glaring.
But sure, I'll check with you next time when I comment, god forbid I won't get your meaningful approval

I am not telling anyone what is or is not ok. I am being curious about why someone bothers to be worried about skaters getting overinflated marks at home competitions. It is not going to make any difference to international skating because their scores don’t count towards seasons best or world ranking anyway. They could get 100 points for short program and 250 for long and I wouldn’t care. Their home scores won’t impact on my life in any way, so why waste the energy to worry about it?

 

[hanca]

Expecting this thread to remain a pristine recounting of which Russian skater skated what is unrealistic. Particularly because the Russians themselves keep politicising their skaters and skating.

I don’t think anyone expects it to be pristine, but this forum really became toxic. I didn’t bother even to renew membership this year because the level of hatred here is unhealthy.

 

[angi]

I am not telling anyone what is or is not ok. I am being curious about why someone bothers to be worried about skaters getting overinflated marks at home competitions. It is not going to make any difference to international skating because their scores don’t count towards seasons best or world ranking anyway. They could get 100 points for short program and 250 for long and I wouldn’t care. Their home scores won’t impact on my life in any way, so why waste the energy to worry about it?

To quote myself:

1. So it's not ok to comment on Russian skating in a forum that is dedicated to skating chatter and in a specific thread that talks about Russian skating? Thanks for letting me know
2. There's national scoring inflation that happens everywhere, and there's marking your #8 nationally ranked team the same as the #4 team in the world. It's counter productive as it supplies no real feedback - not for material, not for performance, and definitely not for technical levels which means these teams will get a very rude awakening if and when they ever return to the international field. And it's also laughable when I happen to catch both the NHK FD event and the fake GP RD event and the differences are just glaring.
But sure, I'll check with you next time when I comment, god forbid I won't get your meaningful approval

As for worrying, we comment on skating, it's basically what this forum is all about. Do I stay awake at night worrying about it? No. Do I think it's an absurd decision given that skaters need productive feedback in order to improve? Absolutely.

 

[Karen-W]

I am not telling anyone what is or is not ok. I am being curious about why someone bothers to be worried about skaters getting overinflated marks at home competitions. It is not going to make any difference to international skating because their scores don’t count towards seasons best or world ranking anyway. They could get 100 points for short program and 250 for long and I wouldn’t care. Their home scores won’t impact on my life in any way, so why waste the energy to worry about it?

Honestly, it bothers me a little bit, because I feel like the hyper-inflated scores the skaters are receiving is part and parcel of the propaganda that Putin is using to convince the folks at home that they're invincible. "We are the best! No one else can touch us!" Rah-rah-rah, the world is nothing without Russia, the rest of the world is just afraid of us, we are all-powerful, look how amazing we are.

Additionally, it's doing them no favors in the long run. If you're truly the best then why aren't your judges the best too? There's no chance this season of a snap-back to the reality of what sort of scores they're likely to receive internationally for most of these skaters. That's going to be a harsh blow when they are allowed back in international competition and they're not being rewarded, especially if it's most egregious in ice dance where Russia isn't the dominant power.