From Russia With Love (No 32): Spring to Summer 2019

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starrynight

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Fantastic showing by Tuktamysheva at WTT - especially after being away from training to do Stars on Ice.

If she’d skated like that at Worlds it would have probably been the silver medal at least.

Mind blowing to think a skater of that caliber was left off the World team.

At least she had a happy and satisfying end to the season.
 

Bigbird

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Fantastic showing by Tuktamysheva at WTT - especially after being away from training to do Stars on Ice.

If she’d skated like that at Worlds it would have probably been the silver medal at least.

Mind blowing to think a skater of that caliber was left off the World team.

At least she had a happy and satisfying end to the season.


Shows you just how deep the USA team is and how they hung tough together to get that gold medal. I really admired Vincent Zhou. It was fun, the only thing I need to know is who won the team spirit award. France was so crazy :)
 

sharsk8s

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Shows you just how deep the USA team is and how they hung tough together to get that gold medal. I really admired Vincent Zhou. It was fun, the only thing I need to know is who won the team spirit award. France was so crazy :)
Canada won, not quite sure why:confused: :rolleyes:. I would have had them in 4th or 5th for team spirit
 

Eislauffan

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The team was completely destroyed by Samarin

Well, 1 point in the short program for Alexander Samarin was almost the worst case scenario (only Konstantin Menshov getting injured and being unable to continue the competition one year was worse) and far below expectations. In the long he scored 4 points, not great either. You could definitely expect more from the European silver medalist. All other Russian skaters fulfilled the expectations or even surpassed them. That SP probably cost Russia the silver medal.

In order to compete for gold, they would have needed to bring in Alina Zagitova or Evgenia Medvedeva (instead of Sofia Samodurova, although she skated very well) and Mikhail Kolyada (but if he hadn't gotten sick he would have been there instead of Andrei Lazukin, Alexander was on the team anyway). Of course Alina, Evgenia and Mikhail have bombed this season as well in some competitions, but in general their scoring potential is higher.

I feel bad for Alexander, too, because now he probably will get a lot of hate as if he had skated poorly on purpose and that is not fair.
 

Mad for Skating

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Thank you!

I thought Alina handled herself well and came across very genuine. Not to mention she looked stunning in her Prada dress!

I agree; she seems like a very sweet, smart, levelheaded girl and I think she answered everything extremely well. And of course, she’s gorgeous.

Ekaterina Bobrova and Andrei Deputat became parents - it's a boy

Congratulations to them!

AWW! I’m so happy for them! This is so sweet!
 

caseyedwards

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Well, 1 point in the short program for Alexander Samarin was almost the worst case scenario (only Konstantin Menshov getting injured and being unable to continue the competition one year was worse) and far below expectations. In the long he scored 4 points, not great either. You could definitely expect more from the European silver medalist. All other Russian skaters fulfilled the expectations or even surpassed them. That SP probably cost Russia the silver medal.

In order to compete for gold, they would have needed to bring in Alina Zagitova or Evgenia Medvedeva (instead of Sofia Samodurova, although she skated very well) and Mikhail Kolyada (but if he hadn't gotten sick he would have been there instead of Andrei Lazukin, Alexander was on the team anyway). Of course Alina, Evgenia and Mikhail have bombed this season as well in some competitions, but in general their scoring potential is higher.

I feel bad for Alexander, too, because now he probably will get a lot of hate as if he had skated poorly on purpose and that is not fair.
Samarin has been totally horrendous for three competitions in a row! When do you say it isn’t on purpose? Horrible at univerisade, worlds and now wtt! Does he want to be in Skating anymore? He didn’t do anything to fix any problem.
 

whiteskates

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Samarin has been totally horrendous for three competitions in a row! When do you say it isn’t on purpose? Horrible at univerisade, worlds and now wtt! Does he want to be in Skating anymore? He didn’t do anything to fix any problem.

What do we know? He may have tried but failed. There are occasions and periods in every person's life and that goes for skaters as well when things just go wrong regardless of what you try to do about it. Most people have experienced such phases in life and we should have that in mind before we blame it all on the skater in question.
 

Bigbird

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What do we know? He may have tried but failed. There are occasions and periods in every person's life and that goes for skaters as well when things just go wrong regardless of what you try to do about it. Most people have experienced such phases in life and we should have that in mind before we blame it all on the skater in question.

Are there any stronger prospects? The men are just weak and unpredictable in general, will Voronov return?
 

Eislauffan

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Samarin has been totally horrendous for three competitions in a row! When do you say it isn’t on purpose? Horrible at univerisade, worlds and now wtt! Does he want to be in Skating anymore? He didn’t do anything to fix any problem.

As for Alexander Samarin, true, he's not been skating great, Europeans was the one exception where he gave two solid performances (and still was overscored in components IMHO). Maybe he and his coach are too ambitious, take too many risks, like including a brandnew jump, the 4F into the short program at major events. And he doesn't have the components to save him.

Of course isn't skating like this on purpose. He actually feels motivated and is happy to be skating at all. A year ago he had surgery and it wasn't clear if he will come back.
 

Eislauffan

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I don't think many will even notice - the WTT is just a WTT. Doubt he'll get a fraction of what Kolyada got screwing up in the Olympic team event

For sure there is a lot less attention on WTT than on the Olympic team event and WTT is far less important. But I saw a few negative headlines about Samarin in the Russian press.
They are always very quick to judge and not always they get their facts straight. Mikhail Kolyada messed up the SP at the Olympic Games team event, yes, but even if he had been second in the SP behind Shoma Uno (which was possible, but would have been more than the team could have hoped for with Nathan Chen and Patrick Chan competing as well) it would not have been enough for Russia to win gold in the end.
 

Mad for Skating

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What do we know? He may have tried but failed. There are occasions and periods in every person's life and that goes for skaters as well when things just go wrong regardless of what you try to do about it. Most people have experienced such phases in life and we should have that in mind before we blame it all on the skater in question.

Exactly! No one screws up on purpose, y’all. It’s just one bad short program; he’ll be back on his feet soon.
 
D

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For sure there is a lot less attention on WTT than on the Olympic team event and WTT is far less important. But I saw a few negative headlines about Samarin in the Russian press.
They are always very quick to judge and not always they get their facts straight. Mikhail Kolyada messed up the SP at the Olympic Games team event, yes, but even if he had been second in the SP behind Shoma Uno (which was possible, but would have been more than the team could have hoped for with Nathan Chen and Patrick Chan competing as well) it would not have been enough for Russia to win gold in the end.
In the scenario above, both teams would have tied on 72 points, then Canada would have won the tie break based on the combined total of 2 best events. Mozer and Russian Fed would have had to face ire of the media for swapping Z/E for the pairs FP. Anyway, all was lost after the Men's SP, so we will never know how others would have skated if Kolyada had gone clean...
 

Mad for Skating

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Mozer and Russian Fed would have had to face ire of the media for swapping Z/E for the pairs FP.

And I go back to complaining about how none of this would’ve happened if the IOC could’ve given Stolbova/Klimov their dang invitations #stillbitter. Z/E would’ve never been considered for the event. Does this still hurt over a year later? Yes. Hell yes.
 

Dobre

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Well, 1 point in the short program for Alexander Samarin was almost the worst case scenario

Naw, it could have been both Russian men. The men are such a roller coaster ride. And all these guys--even the #2s for France and Italy--are quite decent. A JGPF qualifier with a surprise quad lutz (yay, Adam!) and a Junior World medalist. I was worried about the scores for Tomoki on the SB list because scores tend to sail at WTT, and I knew those guys had potential to score on a good day. Samarin had a bad one. But it could have been any of the Russian men. As we saw when Kolyada & Kovtun placed behind both Grassl & Siao Him Fa during the LP at Europeans. Moving forward.
 

caseyedwards

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Exactly! No one screws up on purpose, y’all. It’s just one bad short program; he’ll be back on his feet soon.
It’s not though. It’s every SP since euros and mostly every lp too. Since euros he is doing the worst skating of the season and his life! He was building to his euros performance. He almost was the GPF! He was having an amazing season. Every competition amazing. Extremely Low PCs of course but he was amazing. Since euros it’s like he desperately wants retirement.
What do we know? He may have tried but failed. There are occasions and periods in every person's life and that goes for skaters as well when things just go wrong regardless of what you try to do about it. Most people have experienced such phases in life and we should have that in mind before we blame it all on the skater in question.
Maybe! But he was doing great all season and the post euros time includes not even having jump ability anymore. He lost his main selling point. He can’t do anything. Is he mad he didn’t win euros? Is he mad no one thinks he has any talent because he’s not musical and therefore everyone opposes his euros silver?

As for Alexander Samarin, true, he's not been skating great, Europeans was the one exception where he gave two solid performances (and still was overscored in components IMHO). Maybe he and his coach are too ambitious, take too many risks, like including a brandnew jump, the 4F into the short program at major events. And he doesn't have the components to save him.

Of course isn't skating like this on purpose. He actually feels motivated and is happy to be skating at all. A year ago he had surgery and it wasn't clear if he will come back.

Euros was not the exception. All his Grand Prix events, Russian nationals, euros. He was totally amazing. Now he’s like a lesser lutai
 

Tinami Amori

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Anastasia Tarakanova says in her video blog that she will remain in Juniors next year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHcTJe-x7B8

Poor Samarin! My heart went out to him during the SP when he kept falling.
He is "getting it" in the press and in commentary, less than Kovtun and Kolyada... and the more reasonable media and commentators spreading the "guilt" to all Russian men skaters, though.

Does that mean Masaru will actually be on the ice?
If! Alina brings Masaru to Japan, for her show, given what she said a few times, and the fact of Masaru's dress, seems, yes, Masaru will come out on the ice "and do something", maybe just for a photo op, or riding an ice-skate board... :D
 
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