Good
Could you imagine how long we would be there if coaching changes were part of every announced bio? Good gawd. I have a feeling if you left Eteri you can kiss the Oly team goodbye. She has two strong skaters who never left. And what about Liza?
Yeah, okay, except that neither Maiia nor Anna scored that high at Budapest Trophy a couple weeks ago. Tukt might have a ceiling but those girls have yet to surpass it or even come within spitting distance of it - and that includes the rest of the Russians not named Kamila or Sasha.
but a ceiling means she cannot get higher score unless Tukt lands a quad. Stepsister2 already scored 152 with invalidated jumps and a clean Anna with just 1 quad will easily outscore that.
Did you even watch Skate Canada today? Liza is scoring, consistently, in that range. Once any of those other women demonstrate they can do the same, then we can have a conversation about who is likely to beat her.
skaters only in one poster's mind.
The poster is referring to stepsis1 Daria Usacheva and stepsis2 Maiia Khromykh
Based on how the first programs were received changing the programs was the right decision. They clearly aren't ready yet, but they don't need to be.
I don't think she owes anything to anyone but herself. She clearly has a talent, and it would be a shame if she never got the opportunity to display that on the largest stages that the sport has to offer.
Last season was odd though and she did make a coaching change. I'm willing to cut her some slack and it sounds like her programs now are what she had previously and didn't use.
Would you please SHUT UP with the "stepsister" thing. It's dumb and offensive on all sorts of levels. The reason you are using it is to say "less favored" or "not as good", so say that instead of insinuating a step child is always less loved or worse yet in reference to the fairy tale where the full phrase was "ugly stepsisters".
The fact is Russia has 7 skaters who could be on the Olympic podium. They could sweep just like they did at Worlds. Only three of them will get the chance. The other 4 could be on the Olympic podium if they skated for another country. Gubanova has the chance of being top 10, maybe top 7, at the Olympics and Worlds and wouldn't have even made Russian nationals this year. That is how insanely deep the ladies field is in Russia. And, there is a good chance at least one of the 3 making the Olympic team, won't medal at Russian nationals given the juniors who will skate senior nationals.
This is what I am thinking, too. I'm still counting on Anna though, but if she's off I hope Liza gets the team. She would be so deserving of it, and so would Mishin.
All of this, exactly. And I think you and I have discussed previously the idea of another event like the Cup Finals if Tuktamysheva does sneak in for a top 3 eligible skater placement. I think Trusova and Valieva barring injury are in- if only one goes then it's going to take a meltdown by that one skater to probably lose the gold. Sending both will add all the drama needed for a great event. I'm not going to count Shcherbakova out yet, either, because she really seems to hit at Nationals.
Not a criticism of Kostornaia, but, IMHO she has never been a fighter. She's the most emotional of the Russian skaters and always has been. That's part of her ability to express herself when skating, but if everything isn't going her way, she cries and has temper tantrums rather than digging deeper to fix the problem. This is the difference between her and Anna, Sasha, Kamilla and Tuk. It's not the coaching team or the programs. She's had 10 programs over two years. She's got to want it and right now she doesn't want it enough to do what needs to be done. I suspect this has been the biggest issue she's had at Eteri's rink. They are not coddlers, but neither is Panova, or Buyanova or Mishin. I can only imagine how she'd fare with Tsareva. She'd have the same issue if any of them coached her. I won't even go into the whole Rozanov debacle.
Will the Sr G-P final in Osaka consist of only six Russians? Not sure if there’ll also be a 7th “Japanese host pick” in seniors as there will be in Jrs.
Seriously, and yes, even with all this, if she were in any other country, even Japan, she'd be #1.
No, she was on track to win Worlds in 2020 and broke world records in that season- that was by far her best season. But things change by the month in Russia. Look at Pogorilaya- she was on track to contend for gold at 2017 Worlds and then melted down in the free skate, dealt with injuries, showed up at one more Grand Prix the next fall, and was done for.
