From Russia with love [#28]: Autumn to Winter 2017

[zebraswan]

It's one thing for us FS fans to voice our opinions under an anonymous screen name, but it's quite another for a figure skater in the public eye to do it. If Ashley wants to further her reputation as the "Mouth of US Ladies' Figure Skating," that's her choice, but she'd better be willing to accept the feedback that comes along with it.

If she had Alina's skills and was capable of pulling off clean, backloaded programs, Ashley would be competing for a medal at the Olympics, without a doubt... except that she can't, and she isn't.

I agree with Trankov, 100%.

I agree with him too. She obviously wants to get attention and then acts surprised when she gets it. Ironic that people here will trash Max for speaking his mind and then jump to defend Ashley because "she's so real and unfiltered" - same w/Duhamel. They can all say whatever they want and so can the rest of the world.

Ashley coasted with very mediocre talent for her entire career thanks to a lack of serious home competition, and then expected to be handed an Oly spot on a platter. She would probably wither up & die after a week w/Eteri.

 

[MAXSwagg]

No more Lubov please! Such an over rated athlete, elegant, great extension etcetc but in 10 yrs she's not been able to land a solo triple, ditto for Bazarova...
As for stealing Zabijako, I don't think Klimov is better than Enbert, let's face it much of s/k success was due to Stolbova.

Re Zagitova, her pcs were hilarious, 10's and 9.75s, those judges are making a moCkery out of the sport. She deserved her win 100% but there was no need for any of those components.
Everyone on here was predicting her PCS were going to go through roof event on event but this is taking the piss...

This is an insult and a blatant lie. Klimov is one of the more spectacular males in pairs skating, with clean and neat skating skills, exemplified by the positioning of his feet in the lifts and throws. Superior to Morozov who also has excellent skating skills, and equivalent if not slightly superior to Han. Not only in the skating skills but the body positioning and unison between he and Ksenia. Who is better? Radford or Massot (whom I can’t even make out the turns in the StSq half the time without watching Aliona because his edges are so shallow)? Please. It is true that Enbert has excellent skating skills as well but he’s a Russian pair skater. They all have arguably the best skating skills.

Trankov is 100% correct. Like Ashley wouldn’t have backloaded her programs if she could have.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Trankov is 100% correct. Like Ashley wouldn’t have backloaded her programs if she could have.

Ashley who? oh, that loud mouth looser who can't medal, let alone win at her own Nationals? or win any medals for the last two years outside of North America? the one who spent the whole season making videos about a programme instead of practicing? the one who made bunch of dresses for a 3 year old programme which she ditched? the one who made all the fuss about and took fotos of her naked athletic body instead of USING THAT BODY TO LEARN at 3Axel or clean jumps like her team mates?.... that Ashley...... well.. let her bark, and bark some more.... the wind is still blowing...

 

[quiqie]

Well, but when Wagner tries to diminish a fellow skater’s achievement saying that all they did was “killing time” and “just jumping,” she makes it so easy. The comments practically write themself. If it’s so simple, why don’t you do it, honey? And if a program is so important to you, why you keep skating the same one for three years?

 

[Marco]

Like Ashley wouldn’t have backloaded her programs if she could have.

She has 5 triples in the second half (vs 2 triples and 2 2axels in the first half), but since she still has 3 jumping passes in the first half, it still looked balanced.

I don't see anything wrong with what she said or how she said it. Everyone has preference and she obviously adores Kostner's style of skating. She gave Zagitova props for her technical prowess and admitted that she couldn't do it herself. If only people who could backload and jump like Zagitova can criticize her, might as well shut down this forum.

 

[IceAlisa]

Likewise, have those who trash Ashley earned any national or international medals? Ever completed a 3/3? No? Then STFD? Is that how it works?

 

[quiqie]

On the other side of the coin, that's coming from someone who never had to rotate anything harder than a salchow, and at a few critical times, he couldn't even do that.

Those pairs skaters have it so easy, don’t they? When was the last time Ashley had to lift someone, throw them up in the air, catch and put back on ice? Since we are all about equality here.

 

[skatingguy]

If someone disagrees with Wagner's opinion then state that rather than saying she hasn't earned the right to her opinion. Reading the tweets it seemed she was commenting more on the judging system and judges then on Zagitova. She certainly isn't alone in thinking that the back-loaded programs, though difficult, are not as pleasing to watch, and aren't being judged correctly.

Ashley Wagner‏Verified account @AshWagner2010 Feb 11
Ok. I respect the competitive approach. But no cannot do this set up. It's not a program. She killed time in the beginning and then just jumped the second half. It's not a performance. I understand that this is what the system allows but it's not all figure skating is about

Ashley Wagner‏Verified account @AshWagner2010 Feb 11
Ashley Wagner Retweeted Beth Snyder

I absolutely agree it's a strategy, she works the system like I've said before. It's not criticizing her she's using this to her advantage. I just don't enjoy it as much as a whole program though. I find back loaded programs very empty in the front and too chaotic at the end.

Ashley Wagner‏Verified account @AshWagner2010 Feb 11
Ashley Wagner Retweeted Mark

Oh the tone police have arrived! You won't get very far with that argument. Not criticizing, as an athlete I totally respect what she's doing! A shining star in this event

https://twitter.com/AshWagner2010

 

[Marco]

It is also hard to understand how having 6 or 7 jumping passes in a row (whether it is first half or second half) would still make the program balanced choreographically.

 

[reut]

I liked more how Jeffrey Buttle wrote about the same thing:

Is it an unbalanced program? Kind of. Does she camouflage the first 2 minutes well? Not particularly like Carolina skates. Would I do it if I had the endurance? Your dang right I would. I would be hyperventilating while crying trying to do those jumps in the second half.

https://twitter.com/J_Butt/status/962883140388835328

In general it always amuses me how you work your ass off, write a 6 page interview which close to zero people react to but then for pages they discuss some... non accurately written Tweet. No surprise that interviews/articles which get paid for the amount of likes and feedback are written the way the are written.

 

[Ka3sha]

Ksenia Stolbova: We are preparing for the Worlds and haven’t made any decision about retirement yet, but you better ask Trankov who knows best
https://rsport.ria.ru/figure_skating/20180213/1132485790.html

 

[SmallFairy]

Ksenia Stolbova: We are preparing for the Worlds and haven’t made any decision about retirement yet, but you better ask Trankov who knows best
https://rsport.ria.ru/figure_skating/20180213/1132485790.html

Susie!!!

 

[Lovemyvike]

Ksenia Stolbova: We are preparing for the Worlds and haven’t made any decision about retirement yet, but you better ask Trankov who knows best
https://rsport.ria.ru/figure_skating/20180213/1132485790.html

Well, this is getting weirder and weirder. If they do continue skating, I have a feeling it may not be with Mozer. And I thought it was interesting that a few weeks ago, Max posted an IG message of support for Fedor, but chose a picture from the podium in Sochi without Ksenia in it. Just him, Tanya and Fedor.

 

[Ananas Astra]

Do I smell a bitchfight between Stolbova and Trankov?

 

[Elkmaria]

The problem with Ashley's tweet is definitely context. If taken out of context, her statement is quite accurate - I doubt that many people consider Alina's programs perfectly structured (for the sake of beauty, not points). But the context is that Ashley is Alina's direct competitor, and not a more successful one at the moment. So even if she didn't mean to be bitter, she sounded bitter anyway, and her emotional choice of words didn't help. I'm sure that if this statement came from a retired skater or an expert, it wouldn't cause so much controversy.
And Buttle's opinion is an example of saying the same thing with way more class and humour.

 

[skatingguy]

But the context is that Ashley is Alina's direct competitor, and not a more successful one at the moment. So even if she didn't mean to be bitter, she sounded bitter anyway, and her emotional choice of words didn't help. I'm sure that if this statement came from a retired skater or an expert, it wouldn't cause so much controversy.

But Ashley is retired - unless someone gets injured between now and next Wednesday, she's skated her last ISU competition.

 

[Elkmaria]

But Ashley is retired

I admit I missed this announcement, so I stand corrected. But anyway, in the minds of many people Ashley is still the one who didn't manage to get to the Olympics, while Alina did. And the context remains unchanged.

 

[skatingguy]

I admit I missed this announcement, so I stand corrected. But anyway, in the minds of many people Ashley is still the one who didn't manage to get to the Olympics, while Alina did. And the context remains unchanged.

I don't know if there was an announcement - she didn't skate at 4CC (not that she normally would have) and I don't think she's continuing beyond this season so she's retired - even it's not quite official.

 

[TAHbKA]

You can imagine how messy things got with Ilinykh/K and Morozov for the fed to let them break up

They didn't. More than that, the federation did all they could to keep that pair. Just that hte USSR is over and they can't treat the skaters as slaves anymore. You know, like telling them to get married if they are skating pairs etc.

I agree with him too. She obviously wants to get attention and then acts surprised when she gets it.

Or she just wrote what she thought. The fact the russian journalists mistranslated her tweet and made sure to ask EVERY COACH to comment is a different matter .Because, you know, there are no other news at the Olympics right now...

 

[reut]

Talking about Trankov (just to add a few more pages to this thread )

Vaytsekhovskaya suddenly mentioned in her blog:
"Лично мне он сказал после короткой, что они с Таней просили дать им возможность откатать в команднике короткую - им отказала ффккр"
"He told me personally after the short (I guess after pairs' SP in the team event?), that Tanya and him asked to give them opportunity to skate SP in the team event - and Russian Federation declined"

https://www.liveinternet.ru/users/vellena/post430260054/page25.html#BlCom693323083

 

[TAHbKA]

Huh? I.e without participating the nationals, the international competitions to get an Olympic spot, do the SP and retire in the middle of the competition using one of Russian 3 spots?
Also who knows whether they would be invited by the IOC?
Somehow I tend to agree with RusFed here

 

[Marco]

Ashley is Alina's direct competitor

Oh sweetie.

 

[PRlady]

Ashley who? oh, that loud mouth looser who can't medal, let alone win at her own Nationals? or win any medals for the last two years outside of North America? the one who spent the whole season making videos about a programme instead of practicing? the one who made bunch of dresses for a 3 year old programme which she ditched? the one who made all the fuss about and took fotos of her naked athletic body instead of USING THAT BODY TO LEARN at 3Axel or clean jumps like her team mates?.... that Ashley...... well.. let her bark, and bark some more.... the wind is still blowing...

Harsh, Tinami, harsh. But I'm not a big fan of Ashley's attitude either, and when I saw that tweet last night (in the original English so not mistranslated), I thought, what a stupid thing to do (just from a PR standpoint, I don't like the backloading either and I can barely skate...)

But you have to admit that a bunch of Russians blowing up because Ashley spoke her mind about a Russian skater is CHUTZPAH, considering how "honest" and "direct" some of them have been over the years about non-Russian skaters. The list of those insulted is too long to quote here....

 

[love_skate2011]

So Fedor isnt ready to retire ??
but I whom he can partner with, maybe Astakhova if Rogonov retires ? Zabijako is too tall for him. The rest are junior or inexpreienced skaters. Not that many to choose from

unless he wants a Peng/Zhang like partnership

 

[love_skate2011]

Huh? I.e without participating the nationals, the international competitions to get an Olympic spot, do the SP and retire in the middle of the competition using one of Russian 3 spots?
Also who knows whether they would be invited by the IOC?
Somehow I tend to agree with RusFed here

They only wanted the medal glory I guess ala Plusehnko.

 

[TAHbKA]

They only wanted the medal glory I guess ala Plusehnko.

No, I think Trankov genualy wanted to help his team. Just that am not sure dismissing Stolbova/Klimov is helpful

 

[Bigbird]

Do I smell a bitchfight between Stolbova and Trankov?

Trankov just likes to interfere unnecessarily unto the affairs of others. It's actually quite rude and I wish more persons would call him out for it. I don't find him appealing in any respect, in large part to his personality.

 

[lala]

They only wanted the medal glory I guess ala Plusehnko.

"No, I think Plushenko genualy wanted to help his team." He was sent because of it...And yes, because of his 2nd Olympic gold medal. But after Kolyada's skating I don't think any people has right to criticise the Rus Fed's decision....

TAT said on TV: " no matter what people are saying about plushenko ( after his injury he was attacked) but in sochi he came out and delivered 19 points when it really mattered."

Yulia Lipnitskaya: in Sochi Kovtun would have skated like Misha.

Russian Eurosport commentator: now we are waiting for when Plushenko, the younger, will grow up to be a worthy replacement for his father, while Russian men are all sad!

 

[Marco]

I just feel they placed the wrong bet on Kolyada. Aliev would have been a much safer bet, and Euros proves that.

 

[love_skate2011]

I just feel they placed the wrong bet on Kolyada. Aliev would have been a much safer bet, and Euros proves that.

he is as inconsistent as Kolyada
none of the russian men are "reliable" bet.