Alina Zagitova/interview: Only strong people remain in sport. You can learn a lot from them.

[Coco]

Death by meatballs!

 

[CaliSteve]

FYI
https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/water-intoxication#1

 

[IceAlisa]

FYI
https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/water-intoxication#1

No!!! Shocking!!! No has mentioned this even once here!!

 

[VGThuy]

Death by meatballs!

That reminds me of Julie Andrews' line in Victor/Victoria where's she's starving and her landlord is demanding she pay the rent and she sees spaghetti sauce on his shirt and tells him that she'd sleep with him for a meatball.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Death by meatballs!

In Zag's topic it's sushi balls, pleaaaaaaase.......
https://www.miami.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/05/sushi_5.jpg

.... or Masaru-balls, if you must....
https://buzzsharer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/cute-dog-pup-akita-inu-ball-play.jpg

 

[aftershocks]

....... and now they are both rich and two of the most beautiful..
https://sun9-4.userapi.com/c824202/v824202278/1a5b70/YpzWGR4kGVo.jpg
https://pp.userapi.com/c844724/v844724278/b77d6/RdvfnqHBY6M.jpg

It's good to be a Russian..

It's good to be a human too I suppose if you have shelter, enough food, all your needs met, stimulating company, and leisure time to enjoy creative pursuits and sports, etc.

If being rich and beautiful is the sole motivation for taking up figure skating, ummm, good luck with that! Maybe for some Russians though becoming a figure skater might be considered a ticket out of poverty or a difficult life, if you hit global paydirt success.

That said, All Hail Russian aesthetic tradition and technique in figure skating, especially in the pairs discipline. Not every Russian singles skater can be said to be models of exquisite aesthetic tradition and technique, despite many being excellent jumpers (excepting of course the more successful Russian male singles skaters including Yags, Urmanov, Kulik, Fadeev, Petrenko, and Pitkeev had the potential if not for injury, surely Aliev and of course Kolyada if he gets his act together, which he may under Raf's tutelage. Plushy is in a class all his own, but not necessarily an artistic one -- he was a technical juggernaut and a physical giant with tremendous will, desire, and love for figure skating. Plushy also possessed the potential for artistic genius but he didn't go as far down that road as did his rival, Yagudin).

On the Russian ladies singles side, there's only been a handful of really good skaters, until recent years in which we've seen an Eteri-manufactured endless boatload of promising teeny-boppers who still need seasoning, maturity, experience, improved skating skills and artistic growth, despite their spot-on jumping consistency. I've actually liked the less hyped Russian ladies more, including Alena Leonova at her best, star-crossed Ksenia Makarova, and the talented up-and-coming but personally challenged Polina Turskaya. I enjoyed Adelina Sotnikova who was slightly less-hyped than Yulia Lipnitskaya: Both ended up with shortened careers, somewhat reminiscent of Oksana Baiul who had gorgeous precocious artistry, but questionable technical strengths. Of course Lip and Sot were excellent technically, but they needed seasoning artistically.

I've always loved Radionova, but her beauty has trumped her abilities. Pogorilya worked hard to improve and she's had a handful of wonderful perfomances in addition to the Trainwreck-worthy. Greatness as a figure skater is written all over Pogo but something keeps getting in the way. Liza Tuktamysheva was formerly a bright light technically, but not so much artistically. Irina Slutskaya was in a class of her own, a great athlete, a survivor, and even an artist of sorts for a season or two with MK setting the example. Maria Butryskaya is to be commended for her beauty and mental strength. Maria made herself into a champion, but she could never soften her knees on jump landings.

The full Zag/Med saga has yet to be completed.

 

[Japanfan]

Plushy is in a class all his own, but not necessarily an artistic one -- he was a technical juggernaut and a physical giant with tremendous will, desire, and love for figure skating. Plushy also possessed the potential for artistic genius but he didn't go as far down that road as did his rival, Yagudin).

But Plushy did have his moments. I don't think he was as artistically lacking as many think he is.

His Carmen LP in 2002 is one of my favorite Carmens of all time. And his folk dance routine a few years ago was also memorable - mostly because he changed the order of the elements without that being part of the plan, and Mishin was at the boards hollering at him throughout the entire time.

I thought Dick Button was on the money when he said that Plushenko had a way of "bamboozling you with his arms".

Bamboozling is arguably artistic.

 

[snoopy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2HXzyXdVQI

Ms Zagitova's new SP. . . . she's much more womanly than a few months ago.

It’s a nice look for her. Very elegant.

Heh. No more back loading jumps.

 

[aftershocks]

But Plushy did have his moments. I don't think he was as artistically lacking as many think he is.

Ah, but I didn't say Plushy was 'artistically lacking.' I said that Plushy had the potential to be an artistic genius but he did not go as far down that road as did his rival, Yagudin. Plushy chose to focus more on the technical aspects of his skating, especially after Yags left the arena due to injury. Plushy became so dominant that he only fiddled around with his artistic side, and he did not delve deeply into that aspect until Johnny Weir came along and inspired Plush to smooth out aspects of his skating, and to think about developing a more artistic approach. And even then, Plushy's focus was still more on the jumps, flashy footwork, and charming audiences with his irresistible charisma.

There are of course, a number of Plushy programs in which he shined artistically, because indeed, he had it all. He simply did not really challenge himself too much artistically. And he wasn't being challenged either, until as I said, Johnny Weir came along and mesmerized audiences and his contemporaries with the sublime possibilities of male skating = artistry on ice.

ETA:

I thought Dick Button was on the money when he said that Plushenko had a way of "bamboozling you with his arms." Bamboozling is arguably artistic.

LOL, 'bamboozling' is uh "bamboozling" i.e., "to deceive someone by trickery, flattery or the like..." IOW, taking the easy way out by not challenging oneself.

 

[CaliSteve]

Im wondering how Alina feels about the juniors doing multiple quads at the Russian tests. Will she follow in Zhenya's footsteps and leave (I hope) or stay and be faded away.

 

[berthesghost]

^ she feels like Marla Maples did probably

 

[giselle23]

Im wondering how Alina feels about the juniors doing multiple quads at the Russian tests. Will she follow in Zhenya's footsteps and leave (I hope) or stay and be faded away.

This is where the 6.0 system worked better. The young jumping beans (properly) would not receive the second mark they would need to beat the more established (and more artistic) skaters.

 

[berthesghost]

^ and somewhere Kwan just Naomi Cambelled her phone across the room

 

[AxelAnnie]

This is where the 6.0 system worked better. The young jumping beans (properly) would not receive the second mark they would need to beat the more established (and more artistic) skaters.

What I liked about the new system was that it awarded points for fabulous spins and spirals (a la Alissa C.). Of course it has IMO been mucked around so much to ensure that certain skaters/countries can win, it is just silly.

 

[CaliSteve]

^ and somewhere Kwan just Naomi Cambelled her phone across the room

LOL!

 

[Tinami Amori]

Zagitova now belongs with the animals..
https://scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagra...630_183318732410414_3450134043327201280_n.jpg

 

[Japanfan]

Ah, but I didn't say Plushy was 'artistically lacking.' I said that Plushy had the potential to be an artistic genius but he did not go as far down that road as did his rival, Yagudin.

I'm not sure he had the potential to be an artistic genius. Only a minority of skaters too.

I don't know about Yagudin as I haven't followed his professional performances at all. I do know, however, that he's does some inventive stuff (i.e. climbing down a rope from the ceiling to the ice).

 

[aftershocks]

I don't think Yagudin was an artistic genius either. He just devoted more effort to exploring creativity in his skating than Plushy did. Plushy's focus remained heavily on technical achievements in jumping with only perfunctory efforts on the artistic side, until a bit later in his career. And he used his creativity a bit more in his exhibitions.

Plushy had some very nice programs in his career, but he also had programs where he was lazier about challenging himself creatively, and so he often took the easy way out with flashy footwork and his mischievous grin. I do say that Plushy had the potential to be an artistic genius because I think he's always possessed drive, passion and vision. He just didn't focus those strong qualities on pushing himself artistically.

 

[misskarne]

Plushy became so dominant that he only fiddled around with his artistic side, and he did not delve deeply into that aspect until Johnny Weir came along and inspired Plush to smooth out aspects of his skating, and to think about developing a more artistic approach. And even then, Plushy's focus was still more on the jumps, flashy footwork, and charming audiences with his irresistible charisma.

There are of course, a number of Plushy programs in which he shined artistically, because indeed, he had it all. He simply did not really challenge himself too much artistically. And he wasn't being challenged either, until as I said, Johnny Weir came along and mesmerized audiences and his contemporaries with the sublime possibilities of male skating = artistry on ice.

What the actual fcuk.

Yeah, I'm sure the incredibly hardworking athlete who knew what it was to starve from lack of money to buy food was "inspired" by the bratty diva who didn't know the meaning of hard work and thought restricting his food was "fashionable".

This one takes the cake. Maybe Weir should have been paying more attention to Plushy's origins and not just his brilliance. The penny might have dropped then about the sheer amount of work that went into Plushy's greatness.

 

[aftershocks]

What the actual fcuk.

Yeah, I'm sure the incredibly hardworking athlete who knew what it was to starve from lack of money to buy food was "inspired" by the bratty diva who didn't know the meaning of hard work and thought restricting his food was "fashionable".

This one takes the cake. Maybe Weir should have been paying more attention to Plushy's origins and not just his brilliance. The penny might have dropped then about the sheer amount of work that went into Plushy's greatness.

FYI: Plushy himself has spoken of admiring Johnny. They've always been friends. And Johnny has always looked up to Plushy, and has admitted that he did not have and has never had Plushy's tremendous will and desire to go to the nth degree to compete. Plushy never really wanted to stop competing. Nothing I said takes anything away from the extraordinary example Plushy set. Nor does any of this take away from the fact that Johnny's tremendous talents (which to some extent he took for granted and didn't develop to the fullest) were widely admired by his peers and by fans and by up-and-coming skaters, minus of course everyone who gets in a tizzy fit like they have a rod stuck up their a** whenever Johnny Weir's name is mentioned.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Fun foto (that's all) https://instagram.fhen1-1.fna.fbcdn...424_2187849407896366_814566257360633856_n.jpg