#but that includes the eteri girls!!

[richkidcityfriends]

people who will defend tonya harding until their last breath but have no compassion for the eteri girls... wild to me 

[myshkafs]

ON NATIONALITY SWITCHES, AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION:

Recently as of maybe a few months ago, we've seen two Russian athletes switch nationality in the span of 2 weeks. Sofya Samodelkina switches to Kazakhstan, and Sofya Titova switches to Armenia for the upcoming season.

Is this the first time we've seen Russian girls switch nationalities? No. Will it be the last? Definitely not. However, it is the first time that students of such a high profile coach (Evgeni Plushenko) and coaching team (Angels of Plushenko) have switched, and the first time that 2 have switched in such quick succession.

There have been rumours about Samo's switch since august of last year, so this isn't so surprising. She ranked 11th at RusNats, and was not a top skater at her time at CSKA, before she was kicked, so it makes sense for her to want to switch out. She was relatively competitive in the JGP back when Russia was still eligible for intl. starts, and was pretty decent on the junior circuit, including a silver medal at the 2021 Russian Junior Cup Final and Gold at the same event in 2020, along with some 4th place finishes at Russian juniors Nationals, 2 JGP medals (bronze at Rostelkom and 3rd in Slovenia) and a win at the 21-22 Denis Ten memorial.

When she graduated to Senior level, though, it just. Stagnated. We've known for a while that Russia's oversaturation alongside the biased judging makes it impossible for any up and coming talents to succeed, where the Eteri bonus holds so much weight. Samo finished 11th at both RusNats and the Russian GPF, and her only medals of the season came from her performances at the GP stages, where she came second at the 2nd stage Velvet Season, where her only competitors were Adeliya Petrosyan, Veronika Yametova, and a, at the time, struggling Alexandra Trusova who was fighting through injury and a lack of motivation. She then won the Volga Pirouette Stage, which again, her only competition at that event was Sasha, who wasn't landing any Ultra-C where Samo had a 3A.

All in all, her level of performance just was not enough to get her to that place of success she needed to be at, and with Russia's ban from intl. sport, it was only looking like it would get worse, despite her improvements from switching to AOP full time late last year. Samo, who had stated before that she wished Beijing would be postponed because she knew it was her only shot at going to the olympics, is grasping at straws to stay competitive, and it just so happened that her mother was born in Kazakhstan, making her eligible for citizenship by descent.

For her, I completely understand where this has come from. She will be an eligible senior when she returns to the international stage, and has the technical ability to blow people like Kaori Sakamoto and Loena Hendrickx out of the water. Is it worth is? 100%. She'll be able to get back out there, potentially stake her claim for some senior titles she wouldn't win under Russia, like National Championships and Four continents.

I think Kazakhstan would also be relatively grateful for the heightened exposure her fanbase would bring to the domestic Kazakh events, and hopefully she'd be able to contribute to building that domestic sport up by earning them places on the international start that they lost in womens ever since the departure of Elizabet Tursynbaeva. The problem here stems in that I feel Samo and other girls who defect to other federations will be in for a rude awakening when they don't get the inflated scores they were getting under the Russian flag, and that it may be harder for them to bridge the gap between them and skaters like Kaori and the Japanese who are so strong in their components.

Back when the season was in full swing, we saw how AOP athletes suffered from the underscoring in place of the Eteri girls getting inflated scores. We saw, in 22-23, Sasha's components drop and her STSQ and spins falling for lvl 4 to 3. Sofia Muravieva is a great example. Mura had the scores to best Kamila and Akatieva in the SP, but was rarely given them.

And so Plushenko made his ultimatum to the federation: Continue devaluing his athletes, continue to give them scores less than what they deserve, and they will jump ship, and compete for a federation that wants them. I found this interesting, because we all know Plushenko has quite the reputation for being loud mouthed, and a Patriot??? It made no sense that he would actively encourage his athletes to leave the Russian federation, and so I thought originally it was all hot air. This combined with that Samo's nationality switch had been whispered about BEFORE Plushenko even said anything.

And then Titova. She has no discernible ties to Armenia that I could find, so the switch seems odd. But again, she's not the most competitive, and in a world where the Russian juniors are arguably MORE competitive than their senior counterparts,,, its ruthless. If she wanted any chance at being competitive, she'd have to switch. The timing was smart, she's ineligible for seniors right now, but will be able to make a name for herself outside of Russia on the international stage having never competed outside RUS before, as an armenian skater, and can build up titles and respect in both division. Most people will be unaware she was even tied to RUSFED at any point. She has an abundance of time to wrack up titles and earn Armenia more placements.

My only concern is, is Russia prepared to lose more athletes? We've seen two in the space of 2 weeks defect, and all I can say is, will there be more? Will Plushenko encourage his juniors to look outside of Russia when they cannot compete with Eteri's students and Russian judging? And is Russia prepared to lose more and more athletes the longer they're banned from international sport?

Even from the perspective of Ice Dance, they had the departure of Smolkin/Davis to Georgia, using Eteri's Georgian Citizenship to justify Diana's switch in nationality, and her marriage to Gleb to cement it, and the pair of Karina Akopova/Nikita Rakmanin to Armenia.

In the world of Ice Dance, sure, this isn't a big loss, but Diana and Gleb abandoning Russia altogether and training in US/Canada could be foreshadowing, along with departures such as Samo and Titova, of the future of RUSFED and what this means for their development. The oversaturation and the blatant corruption is discouraging athletes, driving them away from not only the sport, but their country. And if the Federation doesn't make changes soon, they're in danger of seeing this worsen, and the potential for a collapse of this integral part of their sports economy, as more and more athletes decide to leave.

And the potential for success if they choose this route is already being proven. Sofya Samo had just within the last 2 weeks won the Summer Championships of Kazakhstan with a healthy 20 point margin between herself and second place Sofia Farafonova. And while Samo, on a clean slate will have to wait to build up her ranking to go to any major comps, she'll most likely be in the running for a national title by the end of 2024. Titova, likewise, will most likely be in the running for an Junior title in Armenia, and potentially a senior one if she is eligible.

Athletes are seeing the appeal in leaving for success in an easier climate, than sticking around to be mistreated by judges and beaten by 12 year olds with 3As and Quads. And RUSFED has tp recognise now, with so many departures over this last season, that they have a problem.

Now, do I necessarily think it's ethical to allow athletes to leave like this? If they have dual citizenship, sure. If not, and other countries are offering them citizenship to skate for them, then it becomes more tricky. I recognise the trouble that Ice dancers and Pairs face to find partners, but for singles, where the only benefit is to become more competitive, especially in a climate where the Russians are trying to outmaneuver a ban,,, especially when those athletes go on to still live and train in Russia and only visit the countries they compete in to well, compete, it becomes a lot harder to say whether its right or not. On one hand, those athletes have the ability to provide more opportunities for domestic athletes if they do well, but on the other hand, they're also taking opportunities from domestic athletes on principle, and for many domestic athletes who have worked hard, it will feel like a slap in the face to have a Russian athlete waltz in a snatch up all the titles they've worked for for years, under veryyy different conditions and with less resources.

And the ban, although many complain, must be upheld. (On that, though, I will talk more in depth in another post about my thoughts.)

All in all, the switches will be interesting to observe, and we'll see what happens as the season progresses, if any more athletes decide to make the decision to leave.

[shiftingtomydrs]

OMG OMG OMG YOU HAVE A FS DR??? I SAW I COULD ASK U SOME QUESTIONS SO I RAN TO YOUR INBOX

who are you?? when is it??? any particular competition it is based on (I often see people do it with 22 beijing)?? what jumps do you have??? any ultra c elements (3A, quads)??? if you have one, who's your s/o??? what why who where when aaaa another fs shifter!!

xx kat (@xelsmultiverse)

hiii omg thanks so much for asking this <3

okk so just quick disclaimer beforehand, i dont know shit about figure skating except the very very basics (like what type of jumps and stuff) so if smth is incorrect or doesnt make sense its bcs of that haha also as always im hopelessly overpowered :D

In my dr im a figure skater from Germany, i was born in early 2007 and did ballet from when i was like 3 (thats canon btw i did that in my cr too haha) but then quickly got impatient and kinda bored with it (also canon, i regret stopping tho) and my parents put me into figure skating and gymnastics instead. since in my hometown there isnt really a big figure skating team (there is one but its not good ngl) i scripted that my now coach saw me by coincidence and decided i had talent and she wanted to coach me. I can do more on my coach if you guys want to btw its kinda a whole (unfinished) story (shes an oc).

So then she started coaching me in 2014, after a lot of convincing from me towards my parents cos they didnt actually want me to become a professional skater cos its obviously not the healthiest thing to do but after I saw Yulia at the 2014 Olympics I begged my parents to let me get private lessons until they gave in (yulia is kinda my role model and i wanna be like her)

I have an unfinished list of my senior competitions here (for the sake of plot i kinda made it so the covid restrictions on the 2020/21 season didnt happen for the junior competitions, only seniors, also kamila and i dont compete together before the olympic season) and yes ofc i win everything bcs as i said op af (also i know some of the competitions overlap so idk how im gonna do that yet, if anyone has an idea pls feel free to tell me haha)

for jumps i have all quads (yes including 4A cos im just that good lmao) and im playing with the idea (actually i put it already but its prolly impossible so im unsure if i should put it) of scripting i have a quintuple jump as well at some point.

Im really not knowledgeable on different spins i just scripted theyre centered and i dont have a lot of movement on the ice during them idk if thats how you say it but like i spin in one place and dont move to the left or right a ton

Then like some stuff that goes without saying, i have good technique, i dont get hurt badly, i dont have any long term problems from professional skating, stuff like that

My s/o is ilia malinin but since hes born in 2004 we dont get together for a while. We meet either at a competition or during my exchange year in the us in 2024 (my host family lives in the same state he does and we train at the same rink while im there) and then like slowburn friends to lovers pining everyone-knows-except-them kinda stuff (i really do love torturing myself in that aspect apparently)

Some other stuff i can think of rn is that my nickname is 'golden girl' or 'germanys golden girl' idk just smth i came up with (if you have any other ideas pls tell me haha unfortunately im uncreative af when it comes to stuff like that)

also you mightve noticed im technically too young to do senior competitions in time for beijing but i just decided to script that they make an exception for me for some reason haha

I can speak 4 languages, German, English, Russian (bcs of my coach) and Spanish

I get along kinda good (as well as you can as competitiors) with the Eteri Girls bcs we're similar age and my coach gets on kinda well with Eteri (they used to compete together except my coach is actually nice) and also i yk speak russian

oh also when i first get there its january 2022 so right before the olympics cos i wanna experience that not just in memory

soo yeah thats all i can think of for now again sorry for any inaccuracies or anything (wont apologize for op-ing myself cos thats what shifting is for after all ;) )

[seimeistsq4]

Eteri Tutberidze will be hosting a reality show on russian TV. It's called "Big girls", and according to synopsis, participants will try to lose weight under supervision of a team which includes Tutberidze.

I wish it was a joke

I wish...

[theskategatsby]

Heartbreak Olympics: Beijing 2022

It's decided; Kamila Valieva, Alexandra aka Sasha Trusova and Anna Sherbakova will represent Russia at the 2022 Olympics. They are all under the same coach, the infamous Eteri Tutberidze.

First up: the team event. This event consists of 8 parts, a short and a free program for each discipline. Surprisingly enough, Kamila Valieva, the favourite to win it all, is chosen for BOTH the short and the free program. This is surprising, seeing as both Anna and Sasha missed out on an opportunity to win a gold medal here. To nobodies surprise, Russia wins the team event. However, right before the medal ceremony, the ISU releases a statement saying that the medal ceremony will be postponed. After a while it becomes clear that someone on the Russian team has tested positive for a drug test. This is none other than the 'perfect' Kamila Valieva. While the investigation is ongoing, Kamila will be allowed to practise and compete, but if she ends up on the podium, there will be no ceremony.

With Kamila possibly out of the way for the gold medal, everyone looks at Sasha to win first place. When, on the 15th of February, the short program rolls around, Kamila places first, to nobodies surprise. Anna places second, and on third place we have the Japanese Kaori Sakamoto, and on fourth place, Sasha. Sadly, Sasha fell on her triple axel, which she had not been able to land even a single time in competition that season. This ended up dragging her total score down by a lot.

Next up: the free program. From the three Eteri girls, Sasha is up first. Her performance contains 5 quads and she lands them all, therefore making her the first woman in history to land five quads in the olympics. Sasha is pleased with her performance and thinks she will win the gold medal. This is because Eteri promised her that if she landed those 5 quads, she would win.

After Sasha, it's Anna's turn, she delivers a near perfect performance, landing all her jumps including two quads. At the kiss&cry, when Anna receives her scores and Sasha realises that Anna has more points than her, she breaks down crying and screaming "YOU ALL KNEW ". While this is all happening, it's Kamila's turn.

Everyone expects Kamila to deliver another perfect performance, but to everyones surprise, she delivers the worst performance of her life. She falls on most jumps, and the ones she does land are wobbly. As soon as the gets off, Eteri starts scolding her for her performance. When Kamila receives her scores at the kiss&cry, and realises she is off the podium, she says 'at least the medal ceremony won't be cancelled now' and breaks down in tears.

Anna Sherbakova is the new olympic champion, with Sasha Trusova second, Kaori Sakamoto third and Kamila Valieva in fourth.

Anna, who has just won the competition that she worked for her entire life, isn't celebrating. Her coach and all of her other trainers are busy trying to comfort either Sasha, who is still crying and saying she never wants to skate again, or Kamila, who broke down under all the pressure from the public. Anna later said that the first feeling she had when finding out she won, was empty.

Sasha, who hasn't won a major competition in three years, thought that this would be her moment, especially because Eteri promised her that win if she landed 5 quads. Some of the things Sasha said are: "Everyone has a gold medal, everyone, but not me. I hate skating. I hate it. I hate this sport. I will never skate again. Never," and "I haven't been winning major events for three years. I always try to reach a goal, I always add more quads,". This entire situation is even more heartbreaking when you add that Anna and Sasha used to be best friends, and they share their room at the olympics. Since the olympics, there have been no signs of them still being friends.

Anna, Sasha and Kamila have all endured years and years of abuse at Eteri's camp, from skating while injured to not being allowed to gain any weight. All of this just leads me to wonder, was it worth it?

Links:

Anna Sherbakova: short program, free program

Alexandra/Sasha Trusova: short program, free program

Kamila Valieva: short program, free program

[thelostrainbowthenovel]

The Lost Rainbow: Winx Club AU (as of 2024)

Yes, I am updating this AU for the third time lol. But, with the recent work I have done of imagining the main girls as fairies, I thought it would be best to update this AU once more! :D The biggest inspiration for this is from some talks I've had with @littlechaoticwitch about the AU, especially since she did originally give the idea of my main girls being fairies and came up with a storyline idea for this AU too! :3

This post is actually the first of a few posts for this AU! In this one I'll be going over some general information for the AU and including everyone's magic alignment(so pretty similar to the previous two versions), with another post for everyone's magic titles and then individual posts to go over the characters from each kingdom in more depth. Also, for some context this AU is considered an alternative timeline to the canon timeline of Winx Club, and will have the main kingdoms/countries of TLR translated over into the Winx setting. I felt this was the best route to take with this AU, especially considering I don't see my characters interacting with the canon Winx Club characters much.

So yeah, I hope you enjoy~! I'm putting the info under a 'readmore', just in case it gets a little long.

================================================

- Fairy: Hestia(former valkyrie before she discovered her fairy magic), Amaya, Talia, Meredith, Gaia(a dual fairy and witch), Raine, Shannon, Avani, Iris, Aurora, Noelani(former witch), Demeter

- Witch: Idalia, Ren, Enki, Arethusa, Skye, Eteri, Selene, Rosia

- Wizard: Ignatius, Caelestis, Argento, Archer, Castor, Carmelo

- Warrior(Specialists, Paladins, Valkyries): Kenneth, Tyson, Flint, Damini, Emberleigh(formerly, but has magic), Vulcan, Sefarina, Soleil(became a regular one after losing her magic), Brooke(does have magic, becomes a future witch)

- N/A(either doesn't have magic, doesn't do any sort of combat, or both): Adrien, Beckham(has magic, but his magic alignment is unknown), Vernon, Lian, Apollo(former warrior, does have magic but wanted to pursue music instead)

- Too young/no magic yet: Ashton(future wizard), Zephyr, Murphy, Alwyn(future witch), Beaumont

================================================

Many decades ago, the then-king of Melor had an encounter with an insanely powerful witch during his travels across the Magical Dimension. They struck up quite the bond during their travel together, resulting in them forming a rather passionate affair together. Yet despite their draw to each other the king was never truthful with her, so after one moment of sleeping together and finding out his true nature, she cursed him and his entire kingdom to be forgotten. Once a very powerful kingdom, Melor had lost all previous connections and was since sealed away from the rest of the Magical Dimension.

All the kings since then have done their best to try and break the curse and bring their kingdom back into prominence, but none were as successful or ruthless in their pursuit than the current king, Argento. He is the only one who has actually gone through with leaving their kingdom to find more resources and ideas on how to break the curse, and so far in his short time as king he has done so much. His plans do not just stop at breaking Melor's curse, as he has bigger plans in action to take over the entire Magical Dimension, so his name and kingdom shall never again be forgotten. During his pursuit so far he has also begun kidnapping those whom he believes holds potential to aid him in his plans of world domination, by expanding upon their magical power and breaking their spirits to act as obedient servants to him. This has unfortunately included the two eldest princes from the Elementals Alliance- an alliance that was formed between four kingdoms that had excluded Melor in previous centuries.

With this growing threat in the Magical Dimension, amongst many others, five fairy princesses have come together to help put an end to the terror. They have all come from the kingdoms in the Elementals Alliance, and especially as two of the girls have had their respective brother kidnapped, they hope to not only find them but help out anyone else who has fell victim to these evil forces.

[freifraufischer]

To be honest, Dvora has always come across to me as kind of a starfucker willing to flatter anyone for access. It’s a real problem with so many of the gymnastics “journalists” (aka bloggers and podcasters) these days - most of them are so unwilling to say anything critical about anyone, including awful coaches, for fear of losing access. I’m glad that Dvora realizes now that some of her work has been problematic, but she should have known that in the first place before she published it.

I think that's not an unfair critique. But it also reminds me of a story Lauren tells (who I would put in the same bucket) about watching Steve Rybacki scream at a journalist who had written a mild critique saying Ohoshi needed to work on her turns. Apparently using words like betrayal given that they'd had access.

It's one of the problems when you have such a closed world where it's difficult to have things to report without access. Even when you put aside the symbiotic relationship between traditional media institutions like NBC/USAG and the BBC/BG the bloggers and podcasters are terrified of losing access because the people in this world will cut them off. And the big boys who have power are often hiring experts within the world that are guiding their coverage.

I've seen arguments that Tim Daggett and Elfi Schlegel were just doing what NBC told them to do. And that Kathy Johnson stopped covering elite because she wasn't willing to play that game. But falling back to my own professional training... if you are an expert and the mainstream media wants to use you you have a responsibility NOT to be used like a puppet. If you allow yourself to be you own the things that come out of your mouth.

I tend to have more sympathy for the small less professional "journalists" in the sport than say... the many newspaper journalists who willingly wrote articles about how the 2000 US Olympic Team would have done better of Bela Karolyi was on the floor. Or the person who decided to write an article about a teenage girl in a court proceeding to be emancipated and imply that she was a spoiled brat and mention the BMW her father "bought" her after the Olympics. Or even more recently in figure skating the people willing to write glowing pieces about the physics of the Eteri girls quads when it didn't take a lot of research to know that their quads were literally breaking their backs and unsustainable after puberty.

I want to say "trust the gymnasts" too but then you have extremely complicated cases where what gymnasts said was used to further evil ends where it is genuinely hard decide when you give grace for their circumstances. Nadia's entire traumatic life until the 1990s makes me inclined to understand her going along with a lot of the rosy narrative simply because she may need that to function mentally. But I also understand why her former team mates find it frustrating that whenever they tell their stories all Nadia can say is she doesn't remember details. Especially when she's wealthy and influential and they are struggling to be heard. I have immense admiration for Tasha Schwikert and I do not blame her in the least for having given quotes to protect herself and am glad that she's now in a position to say things like "No I really was pushing Steve Penny away during that medal ceremony". But it does mean that I am often hesitant to even take gymnasts descriptions of good things as true.

[wosofan14]

We're going to go to sleep and likely wake up to some resolution on the Kamila case. It's heartbreaking and even more heartbreaking that she likely knows it's over because she deliberately touched the ice before the end of her last practice before the hearing. I can't imagine how she's handling this mentally and emotionally basically by herself with the only support being from two 17 year olds who are also going through a lot mentally and emotionally caused by the same coaches.

aw man I saw that, this really isn't how her olympics experience should be. it's her dream to be her just like so many others, and because the adults in her life have failed her she's not able to have the experience she wanted. I really hope she's at least been able to call her parents frequently or talk to other people that she trusts that can help her navigate this. I've seen some videos of anna and sasha with her though, and it looks like especially anna has been trying to keep her in good spirits. it's a lot to ask though to have the two of them be solely responsible for emotionally supporting her through this whole ordeal when they're victims of the system too.

[femmenerd]

If you are planning to watch the replay of the Women’s Free Skate this evening, I’d give a content warning if you think you’ll be upset by witnessing trauma responses from teenage girls including tears, rage, and disassociation. There were a lot of great performances also! But yeah, what an absolute trainwreck/shit storm/hot mess. If anyone needs proof that a) the age limit for senior competition should be increased & b) Eteri & the whole Sambo-70 training facility should be investigated & STOPPED, it is all right there.

[kittyprincessofcats]

Okay: Doping Stuff™

- First things first, and as far as I’ve seen we’re thankfully all in agreement on this one: This is not Kamila’s fault. She’s only 15, she’s coached by a very famously abusive coach who starves her students, forces them to compete while injured, and blames everything on them when anything goes wrong. (I could now go into examples of Eteri abusing her students, but really, we’ve been over those a million times before. If you’re new to skating and don’t know them, a few searches will tell you everything.) The point is that Kamila is in a very strict environment and doesn’t get a say about anything. The blame here lies entirely with the adults around her, not with the 15-year-old who was taught to just do as she’s told. Like... I hope we’re all aware that the 15-year-old didn’t just go to the pharmacy and buy a specific rare medication against cardiovascular diseases.

(So to be clear, when I talk about “evil doping Russians” in this post from now, I’m talking about the people responsible for this: Eteri and company, all the responsible adults, not Kamila.)

- Speaking of Eteri and company and every other adult responsible for this (including Kamila’s parents if they knew about it): If (if!) this whole thing is true, they need to face the harshest possible consquences, period. I want to see actual and severe consequences because this actually is a huge deal. You can’t just dope at the Olympics and get away with it. I’m already so angry at how Russia’s government-ordered (!!!) doping scandal only had the consequence of them having a slightly  different flag and different anthem. That’s not enough. It’s never been enough. I want to actually see cheating punished and punished harshly.

- Most of all, I want this to be the end of Eteri’s empire. We’ve all been pointing out her abusive coaching methods for years. We’ve all been talking about how she uses these girls for her own fame, ruins their bodies and mental health and then throws them away after two years. And yet RusFed kept propping her up and doing everything she wants, the ISU gave her a “coach of the year” award and overscored her skaters to hell and back, commentators like Ted Barton praised her and tried to silence anyone who voiced criticism of how she treats her students. I want this to finally be it. A doping violation at the Olympics is a huge deal. Drugging your skater who is a minor is a huge deal. I want this to finally make her face consequences. I want her banned from coaching figure skaters (or at least underage figure skaters) for life. Same for Dudakov, Gleichengauz and the whole team. I want that team doctor banned as well. Ban them all. These are the Olympics, not some small competition where everyone’s under her thumb. I want the IOC not to take Eteri’s shit. And if this costs them the Team Event Gold, I want Eteri to finally lose favour with RusFed as well.

- While they’re at it, I also want the IOC to investigate the ISU as a whole. I realize this part is very optimistic, but I want everyone who was complicit in upholding Eteri for so long to be held responsible. I want every commentator who’s ever praised her methods or downplayed the abuse to eat their words. I want the ISU to be investigated for the many sexual abuse scandals and the judging bias as well. Just reform the entire thing.

- If Kamila’s test really is positive that for me also raises the question: What about Sasha and Anna? Because if Eteri’s not above drugging one skater, I doubt she’s above drugging the others. I’m worried about Sasha and Anna in general because I was really surprised when they decided not to switch to either of them for the team event free skate. It wouldn’t have changed the result, only have given them one more “Olympic champion”. And when has Russia ever said no to that?

- It also raises the question of whether Eteri’s just been doping her skaters all along.

- If (again - if!) this is all true, then yes, I do think the team gold should be invalidated. Rules are rules.

- Whether it would be fair to still let Kamila compete in the individual event is a hard question - but again, I’m going to say no (as harsh as that is because this really isn’t her fault). I mean, this test was supposedly from december and I’m  not sure how long the effects of trimetazidine last - but even beyond that: rules are rules.

- Which brings me to a next point: Again, I don’t blame Kamila for this at all and it’s awful that she’s caught in this situation. But someone on twitter brought up an interesting point about how it’s dangerous to let under-16-year-olds compete while also considering them “not mature enough to understand doping rules”, because this could lead to coaches abusing young kids even more because of this “loophole”.

- I just hope that there will be consequences for Eteri and I hate how the Russian media is already trying to pin the blame on Kamila. That’s what they always do and that’s what Eteri is going to do, because at the end of the day, Kamila is disposable to them. She has other skaters who can win the gold. She was going to throw her away in two years anyway. She, RusFed and the Russian media don’t really need Kamila and they don’t really care about her. They’ll throw her under the bus and pin the blame on her to save Eteri’s reputation. They’ll gladly sacrifice all of these girls for Eteri because that’s who gives them more. I really hope things will be different this time (because really, it’s obvious AF who’s to blame here), but I don’t doubt that Eteri and company will TRY to make Kamila take the fall.

- That said, I really hope Kamila has people around her who support her right now. Unfortunately I doubt it (based on what I’ve seen of her mom), but I really hope I’m wrong there. No child deserves what she’s going through right now.

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

Hi! I totally understand if you don't want to answer this question, but I was wondering if you had any information on Shoma's brief time at Eteri's summer camp? I wasn't really following figure skating very closely during 2019, but I know there was a moment when Shoma was considering switching to Eteri, but ultimately he decided to go coachless, and eventually found his way to Stéphane (thank the lord!) But I was wondering if there were any insights about his (thankfully) brief stint there? Thx!

I don't know how seriously he really considered switching to Eteri, because it was a one month summer camp. I am very sure Eteri's team would have loved to have a Japanese Olympic medalist train at their camp permanently, but there has never been a permanent move been announced to her team in any regard.

2019 was a very wild period and as some recent comments of Shoma show, it wasn't his decision to leave his coaches, but his old coaches Machiko Yamada and Mihoko Higuchi decided that in order for him to grow he needed to have a change. Some recent comments reagarding his departure from his old coaches can be found here

The decision was made that he would try out various coaching teams and then decide.

About the time in Eteri Tutberidze's camp:

Tutberidze's team have annouced Shoma joining the training camp on their social media (the annoucement is now deleted from their social media) and also the Russian federation had annouced this: "Japanese figure skater Shoma Uno arrives in Moscow this week to begin preparations for the new season in the group of coach Eteri Tutberidze. The athlete plans to spend more than a month in Russia at the summer training camp of the group, after which further plans will be discussed.”

When he was there the team released various footage of him training with the Tutberidze girls and various Tutberidze skaters have shared pictures with Shoma. But there wasn't anything really extraordinary or insightful about it tbh.

Because his move was prominently annouced also via Rusfed, many ppl including me, believed that Shoma seriously considered to permanently train with Eteri Tutberidze. They made it sound a lot like this training camp was just a formality. According to the Japan Times article by Jack Gallagher Shoma did not want to agree to all the conditions to join the group of Tutneridze. It was never cleared what the reasons for not agreeing to the terms were. Also I would take this exaplantion with a grain of salt, because it was "revealed" by Jack Gallagher, who is known for shady articles and you cannot take his words for truth. In the Russian article you can read here Shoma btw said that he didn't speak to Gallagher and that "the team just wasn't for him." Shoma himself didn't say anything negative about the team of Tutberidze, but especially Daniil Gleighenkauz has used various opportunities afterwards to shade Shoma. Gleigh implied "Shoma has talent, but is lazy", which is utterly ridiculous knowing that his old coaches had to limit his training or he would overdo it. Truth is that Shoma until then had rarely off ice training, which was a thing that other Tutberidze skaters mentioned in interviews asked about Shoma's stay with them. The training in Tutberidze's camp was surely a different experience and imo it just didn't go together. (Btw I highly doubt that in a training camp there was any talk about doping or other performance enhancing legal way brought to the table, you wouln't discuss this from the outside.)

In the end Shoma did two training camps in 2019, the one in Moscow with Eteri Tutberidze and the one in Champery with Stephane Lambiel. From my understanding it sounded like Shoma actually decided for Stephane after Stepahne's camp but he didn't want to be a burden to a new coach for switching so late as the season was already about to start and decided to remain coachless. We all know how that went, so I am just super glad he found a home in Stephane's team.

I think this is all there is to know of the brief time of Shoma's stay in Russia. And I hope this answers your question.

We were all pretty worried and crazy about Shoma's move to Tutberidze. Some of my old replies on the matter can be found here

[beautifulstorms]

hi! i'm a new fs fan and i have little to no idea what's going on, would you mind explaning the posts about the russian girls and alena kostornaia to me since i don't really understand the situation? thanks <3

i can try! it's gonna be very long, i'm sorry

essentially, russian ladies have been dominating the field since 2014, and most of these skaters (including the 2018 olympic gold and silver medallists, alina zagitova and evgenia medvedeva) were/are coached by eteri tutberidze + her team (daniil gleikhengauz, sergei dudakov, etc) at sambo-70 in khrustalny

it's widely known that the eteri camp is abusive in many ways - encouraging eating disorders, encouraging their students to train/compete while extremely ill, teaching bad technique (that can cause lifelong chronic pain), overtraining, the list goes on.

because of this the competitive careers of their skaters are often cut short. like really short. they keep taking in girls that are 10-13 years old and leave them with life-changing chronic injuries by 17-18. there's a new wave of russian junior ladies every year and the pattern suggests that similar things are going to happen to all of them.

about alena kostornaia specifically:

alena is a heartbreaking case because when she burst onto the junior scene in 2017-18 (along with alexandra trusova and anna shcherbakova, also coached by eteri), she actually had sustainable technique, good skating skills and edgework, lots of speed, and beautiful expression. she was a very complete skater even as a junior and it looked like eteri wasn't pushing her to learn ridiculously hard quad jumps like anna/alexandra. people were hoping she would have longevity! or at least enough to make it to 2022 beijing

for her senior debut season (2019-2020), she learned a beautiful triple axel and went undefeated internationally, even against anna/alexandra who had harder tech content. then covid happened and the 2020 world championships got cancelled and everything went to hell

alena switched coaches (to plushenko's angels), and while she did ok it was obvious that her scores were significantly lower than what she got with eteri. she got covid not long after, and while her new coaching team was shitty in its own way they did keep her off the ice for two months as she recovered from complications (and the russian media blamed HER, the 17-year-old, for being 'lazy'). due to lingering covid and the judges dropping her because she wasn't with eteri anymore (yeah the eteri scoring bonus is real) she didn't make it onto the russian team for the 2021 world championships. this is the same skater who went undefeated internationally the season prior

she moved back to eteri to try to get that sweet scoring bonus again, except this entire season her coaches (danill especially) have been badmouthing her to the press, calling her lazy for being inconsistent with the triple axel (she's STiLL struggling with long covid it's so obvious they're so heartless?)... she continued to get much lower scores than literally everyone else in contention for the olympic team and now she's injured and won't be there at russian nationals. which means her olympic dream is essentially dead

like maybe it was just bad timing with covid, but i think it's the clear overscoring of eteri skaters (and therefore the need to stay with an abusive coach to be relevant), the sheer amount of pressure they put on her while she was recovering, and just how. nobody supported her or backed her up for things that were entirely not her fault. it's horrible i'm so so sad

[albinaretyunskikh]

These past two weeks have been hard to witness with everything happening in the world. When I feel emotionally overwhelmed, I try to take a step back. I tried to watch the Olympics with an open heart and an open mind and all the support and excitement I think such an immense competition deserves. The female figure skating event, however, was anything but supportive and exciting.

Kamila Valieva, representing the Russian Olympic Committee, was set to be the star of the event. She beat other skaters by dozens of points and became the first girl to land quadruple jumps in the Olympics. She was favoured to win by a landslide.

She and all the Russian girls are coached by the same woman, Eteri Tutberidze. She is known for her very strict coaching methods, which have been called abusive and excessive.

When news of Kamila’s failed drug test from December came out (there was a trace of a banned heart medication in it), I took a breath and wanted to wait for the results of the investigation.

Immediately, I saw so much vitriol online: the Russians did it again. Russia can’t compete fairly. Dirty dopers. Dirty athletes. They strip everyone else of a chance to win.

I took a step back. Not as a Russian. Not as a patriot. In fact, I find patriotism a rotten and flawed value with no basis in fact: no one chooses where they are born. Hence, feeling pride to be from somewhere seems to me like a made up belief that has cost lives and destroyed civilizations.

But I can see, without a shred of a doubt, how much Russia’s pervasive history of doping paired with its inhumane and indecent internal and foreign politics has played a role in the Olympics. Kamila is 15 years old. She is a child. Yet she endured so much vitriol in these past two weeks, poison not even a grown up could bear.

A few days ago, after days of stress, she was cleared to compete. The event included one more girl than the usual number of contestants to ensure she didn’t take anyone’s spot. Several doctors have said that the drug could not have helped her in any way. Because of her young age, she was given a chance to compete. Again, statements from the United States, other countries and other athletes started pouring in. And it got to a point where her humanity as a child was not even taken into account.

In the past few days, new information came out. She had 3 heart medications in her system at the time, and it is now believed she could have a heart disease which was hidden and undisclosed, and she was given these drugs without her knowledge by her family and entourage.

Russian propaganda channels are saying she took her grandfather’s medication by mistake, and that she even inherited the drugs. Absolute absurdity.

Meanwhile, American news coverage of the event portrayed her as a cheater, with insinuations that she took someone else’s spot in the event and should have not been allowed to compete. Opinion pieces came out pouring, saying she will lose even if she wins, and her medals could be revoked in the future.

What I saw, as a human being — not as a Russian, not as a Canadian resident, not as a consumer of American news — was a child who has been at the center of a massive scandal, enduring hatred and vitriol no one should face.

Today, Kamila was so visibly stressed and distraught, she fell multiple times, and crunched up crying after her performance. Her coach was more concerned about her own reputation and scolded her after she came off ice. She ended up in 4th place, and the medal ceremony took place since she was off the podium.

Now, everyone is on their high horse saying how sorry they are for her. EVERYONE, from her family, to her doctors, to her team, to the reporters and everyone who expressed their views on this event should take one hard look in the mirror for how this girl has been treated over these Olympics.

Everyone. Because even if your morals are in the right place, this child has been demonized and her spirit was broken, and she might not recover mentally and ever skate again after this. This was a failure on all fronts. And the only victim here is her. She is a child.

I hope a further investigation will yield results and she will get the support she needs. My heart truly, truly aches for her. I cried this morning looking at her. She is a child. A creature of God. She didn’t deserve any of this.

[prelude-numero-2]

Who is olgas favourite and why was it obviously Alina lol. Like I can’t think of an Alina costume that I didn’t hate but can’t say the same for the other girls. I don’t know if she’s going through a Danny g moment having to make costumes for so many people and themes but this season isn’t it for dresses from her

Hi ! I'm very sorry, I'm answering a week late!

I'm answering a week late! I completely agree with you about Alina she always had sublime dresses but... wait, the start of the 2018 Olympic season was emmm... yeah kinda worse... including for Alina...

Look Alina's first FP dress .. Yeah.. It was probably Zhenya's dress...

And Zhenya's first dresse for Anna Karenina were hemm, yeah better than some dresses the girls have now. I think it is better worked than now, but for the first version the colour was so wrong with the theme. Why black for Anna Karenina, it doesn't go with the theme, the costume designer really thought she was doing it for Halloween. Her dress is beautiful but for dancing on the Danse Macabre for example. Or an Evanescence medley.

Then there was a less-than-memorable red dress and then the final, most successful, and most elaborate dress of the three, who was very nice !

But I agree with you Alina has the best dresses by Olga in her senior career ! They were all so gorgeous ! Olga is talented when she is payed ! They are all diffrents and you can find the theme with the dress ! And each dress has material effects, 2-in-1 effects, nice finishing touches! It's so pretty !

And the best at last, her SP dress at the Olympics. One of my favourite dresses of all time to be honest, I can't get enough of this one. The fact that it's a tutu (I love tutus) the colours that mix very well, the violet, the black, the white (it's very beautiful when it moves). The play of materials, with the sequins, spandex and tulle. And for the theme of the program, purple is very unexpected, for Black Swan you imagine a black tutu. And there, the purple goes well. The tutu is very graceful but dramatic at the same time, with the lines formed on the front. Well, it's personal but I think it's gorgeous.

I'm sorry I'm a bit late, but I wanted to give you a complete answer, with pictures, I hope you'll see it. I may not have detailed the dresses of the other girls this year, I think it will be like in 2018, those who go to the Olympics will have other dresses. And apparently Eteri has employed a new seamstress. And Kamila reportedly said that a new dress for the Bolero was in the works. so fingers crossed that there will be new dresses with a bit more work, because I completely agree with you, none of them are really good for the Olympics, for some of them we have the basic idea (like Anna Karenina's) but they need to be more worked out. Fingers crossed!

[beardedmrbean]

The minimum age for figure skaters competing in high-level international competitions will be raised following a vote by the sport's governing body on Tuesday.

Figure skaters will ultimately have to be at least 17 years old to compete in international events. The limit will be phased in, allowing 16-year-old skaters to compete in the 2023-24 season.

Before this decision, skaters as young as 15 were allowed to compete.

The decision was passed 110-16 in a vote by the International Skating Union in Phuket, Thailand.

The issue came to a head following controversy surround the participation of Russian national champion, Kamila Valieva, at the Beijing Olympic Games earlier this year.

Valieva — who was allowed to compete despite failing a drug test — faced enormous pressure and scrutiny over her participation. She was a favorite to win the individual event after helping secure gold in the group event, but stumbled several times during her routine. She was then openly criticized by her coach Eteri Tutberidze in a tearful encounter.

However the issue of ever-younger competitors and medalists has long accompanied a sport where the additional agility of youth has become fundamentally important. All six individual male and female medalists in Beijing were 24 or younger, three of them were teenagers. 

"This is a very important decision," ISU president Jan Dijkema said. "I would say a very historic decision."

Young skaters face health risks

The ISU proposed the new limit, citing risks of "burnout, disordered eating, and long-term consequences of injury" for young skaters.

The governing body said it had "a duty of care to protect the physical and psychological health and safety of all athletes including elite adolescent athlete[s]."

A medical report written for the ISU said the new limit would allow young skaters to reach skeletal maturity before competing, and that young athletes faced a puberty delay of two years on average.

"They have the right to develop themselves as people during their adolescent age... They don't need us to be forcing them to compete," said Dr Jane Moran from the body's medical commission.

Russian commentators said the decision was aimed at hurting Russia's medal chances.

Former Russian skating star Alexander Zhulin, now a coach, told TASS news agency: "The decision is mainly directed against us."

"It is obvious to everyone that at 15-16 years old our girls cannot be beaten. Everyone is against us now so this decision was not surprising."

Former coach turned media personality Tatiana Tarassova told TASS: "We will win anyway."

Smaller nations said it would reduce their chances of winning, but other smaller skating nations including Iceland and Ireland defended the decision, saying the focus should be on protecting youngsters.

"We have to remember they are children first and athletes second," Ireland's representative in Phuket said.

The next Winter Olympics is in Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy in 2026.

[sashas4t]

Flutzes: How Big an Issue are They?

There is a common belief within skating fans that flutzes (or lutz jumps taken off from a flat or inside edge) are most common among Russian ladies. I have always believed the opposite, but as I am currently taking a statistics course, I thought it would be fun to see how my beliefs, and the common belief, hold up against percentages and proportions. Because I don’t have unlimited time on my hands, I will only be looking into every ladies skater at Russian, Japanese and US Nationals and analyzing their lutz edges (I wanted to do the Korean ladies and I might mention a few just for fun but as Korean Nationals was postponed until next week I’ve decided to leave them out of this for now). Next time I might return with a junior edition (since flutzes seem to be rather common amongst the Russian juniors).

To Begin: What is a Lutz?

The lutz jump is one of the six types of figure skating jumps. The ISU defines the lutz as “a toe-pick assisted jump with an entrance from a back outside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot”. Here are two textbook examples of what a lutz should look like:

(The landing here isn’t great - see the ice flying, but the takeoff is just perfection)

Both of these jumps, and any good lutz jump, have deep outside edges. Another qualification one may bring up is prerotation, but this post is mostly just analyzing whether or not certain skaters flutz - not whether or not their lutz is textbook overall. So there are a lot of skaters to be mentioned that have good outside edges on their lutzes, but their lutzes can’t be considered “textbook” because they prerotate far more than the acceptable amount. But that is a whole other controversial topic that really deserves a post of its own.

So what is a bad lutz then? 

In this jump, the skater takes off from an inside edge, instead of the outside edge that the other two skaters use. There are some other issues with this particular jump, but the inside edge is the issue which is most glaring. 

The Russian Ladies

Here are my conclusions drawn from Russian Nationals. Interestingly enough, besides Konstantinova, every other skater with an outside edge had a very clear outside edge. Out of the ladies with flat edges, some looked more inside (Samodurova’s namely but also Liza Nugumanova’s), while others looked more outside (Kostina’s), but because they all looked flat more than inside/outside, I grouped them together. 

The Japanese Ladies

I only looked at the 24 ladies who qualified for the free skate, and for many of them I ended up having to use videos from the National Winter Sports because JSF doesn’t post full videos of their skates at Japanese Nationals to YouTube. I also couldn’t find any videos of Natsu Suzuki, so I could not include her in this analysis. 

The American Ladies

Sadly there were a lot of American ladies that I couldn’t find videos of - so this is a rather short list (and probably not very representative).

Analysis:

In the Russian ladies - 47.1% have true lutzes.

In the Japanese ladies - 52.2% have true lutzes.

In the American ladies - 71.4% have true lutzes.

It’s really interesting that so many American ladies have good lutz edges. This is either because I could not find videos of many competitors, or because some competitors who have problematic edges did not jump the lutz (Starr is a good example). However, out of the American ladies, few have “deep” outside edges. Many of them do have “good” outside edges, as in it is very clear that they do, indeed, have outside edges, however few seem to warp the laws of physics like the most textbook examples do. Interestingly, the panel at US Nationals did call out many of the problematic lutzes with lower level skaters, while blatantly ignoring Bradie and Mariah’s clear flat edges. 

Out of the Japanese ladies with outside edges, not that many have “deep” outside edges either. I would say Rika, Tomoe and Honoka have really great deep edges. A few of the ladies I wrote as outside really have iffy edges (Wakaba’s probably the best example - sometimes its outside, sometimes it looks more flat). 

Out of the Russian ladies with outside edges, many have good outside edges. Except for Stanislava, all the ladies with outside edges have very clear outside edges (unlike in the other two countries oddly). I used to assume that coaches played a big part in whether or not a skater had an outside edge, but it appears this data says otherwise. The most interesting thing is that the slow motion replays almost always caught the lutzes in the best angle (the same angle as Boyang’s 4Lz in the first gif), and yet, very few lutzes were called. 

For example, for the Tutberidze Girls, three have unclear edges and 1 has a good outside edge, however, Sasha Trusova used to be an Eteri girl as well, and also has an outside edge. Same goes for Mishin, who was often mistakingly thought to teach good technique based off of Liza Tuktamysheva’s textbook lutz. But as Samodurova and Guliakova are also Mishin’s student, it appears that this technique does not come from his camp. These conclusions make rational sense as Mishin and Eteri usually do not coach skaters since youth, but rather often take in already established skaters. Eteri has been known to only accept students with their triples. If we were to look into some younger juniors, or some retired (switched disciplines) skaters I think I could present one coach who has consistently presented ladies with correct edges - Panova. Besides Frolova who has a problematic lutz edges, many of her other skaters - Tsibinova, Tarakanova, Sotskova, Sinitsyna, Kanysheva, Kostyuk etc - have had correct flip and lutz edges. This would require some more analysis though. 

While it looks like the US ladies clearly have a lead in this category, due to certain circumstances, it is unreasonable to say that overall, American ladies are less prone to flutzing just based off this data. I would do a 1-Prop Z Test but these statistics really do not check any of the assumptions or conditions necessary for such a computation.

Overall, it is really interesting that around 50% of the skaters at Russian Nationals and Japanese Nationals have problematic lutzes. It’s that widespread an issue. No, it’s not just Evgenia Medvedeva or Mao Asada or Anna Shcherbakova that suffer from it. Yes, they aren’t (well, Zhenya and Anya aren’t at least) being punished for it, but neither are a good percentage of the others who have problematic lutzes. 

For reference, at Japanese Nationals, only two lutz calls were given in the SP (! for Yoshida and Uramatsu). The tech panel was much harsher in the FS with flip and lutz calls galore (Kaori got “e”, Rika Hongo got “e” and Uramtaus got “e”). 

At Russian Nationals, in the SP only three edge calls were given - Trusova’s 3F, Guliakova’s 3Lz and Onishchenko’s 3Lz (which got “e”). In the FS, six edge calls were given (two on flips, two !’s for Guliakova’s 3Lz and one ! and one “e” for Onishchenko’s 3Lz). It is true that out of the lutzes at the competition, Onishchenko’s were the most problematic. However, Daria Usacheva’s were also taken off from an inside edge, and she not only was not called for the three lutzes attempted, but was given high positive GOE for many. 

At US Nationals, Ikenishi and Murdock both received “e” calls on their lutzes. Ikenishi receiving one the free skate and Mudock receiving two - one in the SP and one FS. There were no other lutz calls for the event. 

Of course, after watching so many events, assuming that flat edges will get ! calls and inside edges will get “e” calls is dreaming of the impossible. At best, really severe flutzes done by lower level skaters may be called, inside edges will be called “!” and flat edges will often be let go with no call nor deduction whatsoever. And while I looked at National protocols, it is true that these results are paralleled in international protocols as well. 

So, in conclusion - Russian ladies do not flutz any more than Japanese ladies do. And flutzes are becoming quite a severe problem. Several of the skaters at the top have problematic lutz edges, and it seems like this issue will persist given how the rising generation seems to be struggling with lutz edges as well. 

Many use these uncalled Russian flutzes as evidence of Russian overscoring, but in response to those comments I guide you to the PCS section of scoring. That is where the atrocities happen. Most of the top skaters won’t be punished for flutzing, however Russians are gifted extra PCS for existing, while the Japanese, with their excellent skating skills and attention to detail, seem to be getting punished with lower PCS (especially those prone to inconsistency).