Russian women news & updates, 2021-22 season

[Arch-]

But then again...rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva also had that "mark" to her name for some time and came back to win the Olympics in 2004 fair and square.

Tbh aren't there are a ton of athletes across all sports that have a pos test, served time, and came back strong? Especially in Track & Field, Swimming, baseball? Idk. I think people can make intentional & unintentional mistakes and can learn their lesson. I think if Valieva changes teams (someone earlier said Mishin which I think is clever) I'd root for her. The drug she tested positive for didn't give her quads or 3a. And she is naturally gifted with exquisite lines, and an extraordinary musicality that can not be taught. Sasha Cohen and more recently Satoko Miyahara had it too. Both, if I remember right, had bad backs to live in pointe.

 

[becca]

Tbh aren't there are a ton of athletes across all sports that have a pos test, served time, and came back strong? Especially in Track & Field, Swimming, baseball? Idk. I think people can make intentional & unintentional mistakes and can learn their lesson. I think if Valieva changes teams (someone earlier said Mishin which I think is clever) I'd root for her. The drug she tested positive for didn't give her quads or 3a. And she is naturally gifted with exquisite lines, and an extraordinary musicality that can not be taught. Sasha Cohen and more recently Satoko Miyahara had it too. Both, if I remember right, had bad backs to live in pointe.

I've seen her online taking ballet classes and although she doesn't currently have the ideal neck & shoulders, if she grows two more inches (I didn't realize how tall she's gotten!) everything else is there. I've not physically seen her feet, but I wonder out loud if she didn't go this route because her middle toe is too long? Her foot arch and flex looked great. I do not know this but I've been told by former co-workers who retired and know work with figure skaters that the ideation of skates and pointe shoes are very similar. Evidently they build up simular calluses and ankle/achilles strength. She's actually only a little late to start on pointe bc in the USA and Europe they have really been pushing on waiting until 12 or 13 to start point and 15-16 pas de deux class. Just a thought.

Hate to lose her she is such a special skater

 

[NAOTMAA]

I don't think so. You gonna throw that same suggestion in for B/K last year when Boikova lost it on Moskvina and suggest she only cares about the winners too? Tutberidze sat with Medvedeva for an extended time in 2018 just as the team did with Valieva and Trusova this time while the 'winner who matters' sat alone.

The simple fact of the matter is that Trusova thought her 5 quads would be enough to win. Hell, a lot of us including myself said way earlier in the year that Trusova would surely be on the Olympic team because she was likely the only one to challenge Valieva. Shcherbakova, as she's shown time and time again, delivers when she really needs to. And Trusova, although young, has to know that her mistake in the short both here and at Worlds last year are likely the reason she's not at the top of the podium, PCS and GOE ridiculousness aside.

I like Trusova, but for all the complaining people do about empty programs and bad technique, she's basically the leader of the country on those accounts. Her LP has nothing happening in it and the jumps are not worthy of strong GOE when shes extending her body all over the place and hunching forward on each of her jump elements. Her spins have remained incredibly weak, too.

As far as the comment about 'you knew', she and the rest of Russia can say all they want that it referred to the team competition situation, but I heard (and posted) early in the lead-up week to the team event that there was discussion of Valieva and Shcherbakova splitting the event. Not Trusova. This was from the same source that told me the entire Canadian line-up as well as Karen Chen doing both programs for the USA, so I would think there actually was a later discussion regarding whether to put Anna in. Either way, Trusova AFAIK was not part of the team event talks anyways so people trying to say her outburst was referring to that, make it make sense. She still wasn't going to be a gold medalist.

I remember when Boikova made her single one line remark everyone when down on her like she was big difficult b**** diva and that she needed to grow the f up. How dare she act like that to her coach and show disrespect. They made similar remarks after her meltdown backstage at the GPF. Trusova goes full crazy and it's "well but... but...." or "cut her some slack"

 

[becca]

I remember when Boikova made her single one line remark everyone when down on her like she was big difficult b**** diva and that she needed to grow the f up. How dare she act like that to her coach and show disrespect. They made similar remarks after her meltdown backstage at the GPF. Trusova goes full crazy and it's "well but... but...." or "cut her some slack"

I agree. I can forgive her but she definitely acted like a brat and I strongly suspect that type of drama is why Anna isn’t looking at two OGM

 

[mjb52]

A lot of people (this is a comment on the whole thing in general, not here) are treating this like a reality show or fan fiction. I wish we could stick to the pure facts of what happened, which are bad enough on their own. The approach Witt and Savchenko took seems like a good model.

 

[Arch-]

There are very few Catholics in Russia, be they cis, white, and straight or otherwise.

Orthodox has Catholic in its name but excommunicated each other, I think, around 1000 AC. The main big difference, is Roman Catholics recognize the pope, the bishop of Rome, as the authoritative head of the church. Eastern Orthodox Catholics saw the Roman pope as one bishop among 5 equals. Greek Orthodox, if I remember right, is simular in thought.

 

[Frau Muller]

St. Petersburg cafe bakes a cake in honor of Valieva:

Russian cafe makes cake in Valieva's honor

This cake was made in honor of Kamila ValievaLocation: St. Petersburg, RussiaA cafe in St. Petersburg has introduced an almond sponge caketopped off by a pair of ice skates made of basil and lemon mousse(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CO-FOUNDER OF THE BUDDY CAFE, ANDREI ALEXANDROV, SAYING:"Our team is...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Jimena]

I completely missed the Boikova outbursts. Is there any video?

 

[Karen-W]

I completely missed the Boikova outbursts. Is there any video?

Worlds last year in the KnC after they lost to MishGal. I don't speak Russian but she got salty with Moskvina and it was THE hot mic moment of the entire competition, lol.

 

[Amantide]

A lot of people (this is a comment on the whole thing in general, not here) are treating this like a reality show or fan fiction. I wish we could stick to the pure facts of what happened, which are bad enough on their own. The approach Witt and Savchenko took seems like a good model.

Words of wisdom. But what do you expect with the mass-media and social media throwing fuel into the fire and IOC trying to play the "compassionate" and the "good guy".

I was just hearing the BBC from the Pairs competition and Robin Cousin saying that Trusova outburst was because she was "lead to believe by her team that with 5 quads she would win". I don't know where these people get their information but it is clear what's happening here, and I find it disgusting. Then again, I always hated the mob and the self-righteous.

 

[NAOTMAA]

I agree. I can forgive her but she definitely acted like a brat and I strongly suspect that type of drama is why Anna isn’t looking at two OGM

I find the outburst right after it ended easy to swallow. The 3am one not so much.

It that is true she's responsible for Anna not being out in the team competition cause everyone wanted to walk on egg shells around her then that would really piss me off. But thankfully in the end Anna did get her OGM! Poor Evgenia, four years ago, had the misfortune of being on a weak Russian team and has none

 

[becca]

I find the outburst right after it ended easy to swallow. The 3am one not so much.

It that is true she's responsible for Anna not being out in the team competition cause everyone wanted to walk on egg shells around her then that would really piss me off. But thankfully in the end Anna did get her OGM! Poor Evgenia, four years ago, had the misfortune of being on a weak Russian team and has none

I don’t know that but I suspect. They feared it. “Everyone has a gold medal but me.”

Probably also feared similar in pairs.

I would have used Anna in the team she is more consistent in the free

 

[Amantide]

I find the outburst right after it ended easy to swallow. The 3am one not so much.

There was another outburst?

 

[Karen-W]

There was another outburst?

Not sure if it was another one so much as a continuation of the initial one. She refused to leave the arena and, per the translated reports on Weibo from Chinese folks familiar with the situation, Eteri had to go there at 3am to drag Trusova back to the Village, and at least one person said it "was a bit violent".

 

[NAOTMAA]

Words of wisdom. But what do you expect with the mass-media and social media throwing fuel into the fire and IOC trying to play the "compassionate" and the "good guy".

I was just hearing the BBC from the Pairs competition and Robin Cousin saying that Trusova outburst was because she was "lead to believe by her team that with 5 quads she would win". I don't know where these people get their information but it is clear what's happening here, and I find it disgusting. Then again, I always hated the mob and the self-righteous.

I seriously doubt Eteri would say something like that. Maybe it was her father and other people surrounding her. I remember the rumors (discussed here when she left Eteri and then Plushy) of him being a major stage dad and hoping she would win due to all the money and endorsements that would come pouring in

 

[MacMadame]

St. Petersburg cafe bakes a cake in honor of Valieva:

Russian cafe makes cake in Valieva's honor

This cake was made in honor of Kamila ValievaLocation: St. Petersburg, RussiaA cafe in St. Petersburg has introduced an almond sponge caketopped off by a pair of ice skates made of basil and lemon mousse(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CO-FOUNDER OF THE BUDDY CAFE, ANDREI ALEXANDROV, SAYING:"Our team is...

www.yahoo.com

OMG, did people watch the entire video? Not only is that cake ugly but it's tiny! More like a cupcake on a platform with a plastic figure skate jammed into the top.

 

[Cherub721]

There was another outburst?

FWIW's Trusova's version of the events regarding her not leaving the arena are different than what the Weibo volunteers reported. She said she had doping first. Then she went outside and waited an hour for the bus alone. Volunteers went looking for a car. She went back into the rink for the Internet to use a translator. An hour later, the car was found.

 

[Arch-]

St. Petersburg cafe bakes a cake in honor of Valieva:

Russian cafe makes cake in Valieva's honor

This cake was made in honor of Kamila ValievaLocation: St. Petersburg, RussiaA cafe in St. Petersburg has introduced an almond sponge caketopped off by a pair of ice skates made of basil and lemon mousse(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CO-FOUNDER OF THE BUDDY CAFE, ANDREI ALEXANDROV, SAYING:"Our team is...

www.yahoo.com

This quote sums up my faith that IF any of the obvious & blatant disregard for the rules face repercussions & penalties handed down to the skaters & or teams involved in ruining the trust and promise of fair sport in the Olympics forever will be felt by those people, reported correctly, & or believed in Russia. That any convicted wrong doings to minors & or athletes will have no effect in correcting the sporting culture.

"Kamila Valieva inspired us to create this dessert. She champions Russia."..... "The butterfly is a symbol of her lightness, her soaring flight. Ice skates mean the weight of injustice and hype around her."

 

[Amantide]

Not sure if it was another one so much as a continuation of the initial one. She refused to leave the arena and, per the translated reports on Weibo from Chinese folks familiar with the situation, Eteri had to go there at 3am to drag Trusova back to the Village, and at least one person said it "was a bit violent".

Oh mamma! I think I will stick with the men from now on. lol

I seriously doubt Eteri would say something like that. Maybe it was her father and other people surrounding her. I remember the rumors (discussed here when she left Eteri and then Plushy) of him being a major stage dad and hoping she would win due to all the money and endorsements that would come pouring in

I doubt anybody can make Trusova do anything she doesn't want to. Or persuade her not to do something if she has set her mind on it. But my point is, who told these people that? Nobody. That's who.

 

[Xela M]

I remember when Boikova made her single one line remark everyone when down on her like she was big difficult b**** diva and that she needed to grow the f up. How dare she act like that to her coach and show disrespect. They made similar remarks after her meltdown backstage at the GPF. Trusova goes full crazy and it's "well but... but...." or "cut her some slack"

This! Trusova's reaction was NUTS and her lack of sportsmanship (or class) were so off the scale that the scale was "a dot to her" (to quote Joey from Friends ). It was embarrassing and quite unbelievable, especially given that Anna won fair and square and Trusova was wayyy overscored in the SP!

If she's old enough to compete at an adult level she should behave accordingly.

Further proof that the age limit for ladies needs to be raised.

 

[Amantide]

FWIW's Trusova's version of the events regarding her not leaving the arena are different than what the Weibo volunteers reported. She said she had doping first. Then she went outside and waited an hour for the bus alone. Volunteers went looking for a car. She went back into the rink for the Internet to use a translator. An hour later, the car was found.

Oh, I read that on the fg gossip (?) site. The English was bad though and I couldn't understand what was that about so I didn't bother much with it. I just said in another thread that I'm so glad we didn't have social media and cameras everywhere back in the days when Grishuk&Platov were competing. lol

 

[Frau Muller]

It gets better. The Olympic Channel HD cable channel in the US just showed the medals ceremony at the plaza…minus the flags & Tchaikovsky music for Anna (not that the flags didn’t happen; just not shown). Each medalist was briefly interviewed, as normally happens. Anna & Kaori expressed delight about their respective medals. Sasha, on the other hand, declared, (close paraphrase) “Of course I want gold. Not this.” I nearly spit out my coffee! At least she’s honest. By the way, she looked great with her hair down…flaming red…

If I find a YouTube link, I’ll put here.

 

[becca]

It gets better. The Olympic Channel HD cable channel in the US just showed the medals ceremony at the plaza…minus the flags & Tchaikovsky music for Anna. Each medalist was briefly interviewed, as normally happens. Anna & Kaori expressed delight about their respective medals. Sasha, on the other hand, declared, (close paraphrase) “Of course I want gold. Not this.” I nearly spit out my coffee! At least she’s honest.

If I find a YouTube link, I’ll put here.

why do I feel a blow up will happen. This being said I think it’s common for the gold medalist to be happy and the bronze medalist to be thrilled but silver to be upset because it wasn’t gold

 

[Frau Muller]

This quote sums up my faith that IF any of the obvious & blatant disregard for the rules face repercussions & penalties handed down to the skaters & or teams involved in ruining the trust and promise of fair sport in the Olympics forever will be felt by those people, reported correctly, & or believed in Russia. That any convicted wrong doings to minors & or athletes will have no effect in correcting the sporting culture.

"Kamila Valieva inspired us to create this dessert. She champions Russia."..... "The butterfly is a symbol of her lightness, her soaring flight. Ice skates mean the weight of injustice and hype around her."

in a similar vein, I just watched on Russian PLANETA channel that the Duma (equivalent of the US Senate or UK Parliament) voted to confer highest State honors on Kamila. She’ll be welcomed as a National hero upon landing at Moscow airport…which I think is soon (?).

 

[altai_rose]

Well, per reports, seems like Trusova was at the pairs competition today and appeared quite happy.

 

[tony]

Well, per reports, seems like Trusova was at the pairs competition today and appeared quite happy.

They showed her every 5 minutes on the telecast, no need for per reports

 

[pointbleu]

.

FWIW's Trusova's version of the events regarding her not leaving the arena are different than what the Weibo volunteers reported. She said she had doping first. Then she went outside and waited an hour for the bus alone. Volunteers went looking for a car. She went back into the rink for the Internet to use a translator. An hour later, the car was found.

Still… One would think a team member would be with her… no?

 

[Tobbe]

The simple fact of the matter is that Trusova thought her 5 quads would be enough to win.

This is very true. A lot of people (including Sasha herself) think that if you do one quad you get 10-15 points extra. It doesn't work that way. Sasha needs to take out other elements to do those quads. And the 4th and 5th quad actually don't do that much. She has to take out high valued triples and/or combinations to be able to do them.

A lot of people tried to score her clean-ish 5 quad program from Test Skates. They ended up around 180-184 points. Sasha scored 177 points here. She lost about 9 points in GOE for three dodgy jumps. So her scoring potential would have been around 186 points max. And that if she was super clean. And here lies the problem. With a 5 quad program it is almost impossible to be that clean. So Sasha will NEVER beat a clean Anna or Kamila, even if she has a clean-ish skate and lands everything. Her overall skating is too weak and her teammates will always beat her on spins, steps and PCS.

Sasha loves to jump and don't care much about the other stuff. That's fine. But she has to know that it is not a winning formula.

I think this misunderstanding of quads values is leftovers from Sasha's junior days. Back then, quads had much higher base value and you didn't lose that much with a fall. But since the 2019 season it is not worth doing a quad if you fail, because then the quad is worth less than a successful triple. Sasha should know this as this has been the case in all her senior years. And that is also why she has never won any of the big titles.

 

[Arch-]

This is very true. A lot of people (including Sasha herself) think that if you do one quad you get 10-15 points extra. It doesn't work that way. Sasha needs to take out other elements to do those quads. And the 4th and 5th quad actually don't do that much. She has to take out high valued triples and/or combinations to be able to do them.

A lot of people tried to score her clean-ish 5 quad program from Test Skates. They ended up around 180-184 points. Sasha scored 177 points here. She lost about 9 points in GOE for three dodgy jumps. So her scoring potential would have been around 186 points max. And that if she was super clean. And here lies the problem. With a 5 quad program it is almost impossible to be that clean. So Sasha will NEVER beat a clean Anna or Kamila, even if she has a clean-ish skate and lands everything. Her overall skating is too weak and her teammates will always beat her on spins, steps and PCS.

Sasha loves to jump and don't care much about the other stuff. That's fine. But she has to know that it is not a winning formula.

I think this misunderstanding of quads values is leftovers from Sasha's junior days. Back then, quads had much higher base value and you didn't lose that much with a fall. But since the 2019 season it is not worth doing a quad if you fail, because then the quad is worth less than a successful triple. Sasha should know this as this has been the case in all her senior years. And that is also why she has never won any of the big titles.

What is even more frustrating is that she has the natural flexibility and physical ability to execute her spins so much better....if she wanted. I thought her spins have regressed significantly since that GOT program. I'm curious bc I literally am in the dark regarding things like this: Would her foot injury cause more spinning problems/fewer available positions bc of pain then jumping? Or would the off ice time healing the foot allowed her, theoretically, more time to work on the positions and centering?

 

[NAOTMAA]

This is very true. A lot of people (including Sasha herself) think that if you do one quad you get 10-15 points extra. It doesn't work that way. Sasha needs to take out other elements to do those quads. And the 4th and 5th quad actually don't do that much. She has to take out high valued triples and/or combinations to be able to do them.

A lot of people tried to score her clean-ish 5 quad program from Test Skates. They ended up around 180-184 points. Sasha scored 177 points here. She lost about 9 points in GOE for three dodgy jumps. So her scoring potential would have been around 186 points max. And that if she was super clean. And here lies the problem. With a 5 quad program it is almost impossible to be that clean. So Sasha will NEVER beat a clean Anna or Kamila, even if she has a clean-ish skate and lands everything. Her overall skating is too weak and her teammates will always beat her on spins, steps and PCS.

Sasha loves to jump and don't care much about the other stuff. That's fine. But she has to know that it is not a winning formula.

I think this misunderstanding of quads values is leftovers from Sasha's junior days. Back then, quads had much higher base value and you didn't lose that much with a fall. But since the 2019 season it is not worth doing a quad if you fail, because then the quad is worth less than a successful triple. Sasha should know this as this has been the case in all her senior years. And that is also why she has never won any of the big titles.

Well its not like her coach is an old timer like Alexei Mishin, who took forever to learn how to maximize Liza's tech score. Her coach rised to fame during COP and is famous for knowing how to milk every point out of the system. No one else at Sambo has this problem of maximizing points except Sasha. I refuse to believe nobody there tried to explain to her the fault of her logic. She's just so stubborn and strong willed she refuses to listen.

Remember when Sasha became the "quad queen" as a junior she was pretty much the only one who was doing them. She could fall and still destroy everyone (for the very reason you mentioned). She got enormous press and was hailed as untouchable. That stopped around the time they turned senior when her teammates got their own ultra element and improved the rest of their skating. Eteri and her teammates kept moving forward, reinventing how to milk the system, while Sasha remained still stuck in the "unbeatable quad queen" mindset of her junior days. She's STILL stuck in that mindset. Some people here said all that press she received as a junior went to her head and maybe it did and that's why she clings to it