Episode 1: Highlights

EPISODE ONE JUNE 4 2021

We talk figure skating news + program announcements + other ramblings.

1. Sergei Rozanov (coach at Angels of Plushenko & former novice + junior coach at Sambo-70) interview: 

General thoughts: He is either trying to get his old job back (at Sambo-70) or is in talks with Layshev (General director of Sambo-70). Throughout the interview he was very complimentary towards Eteri & her coaching methods, adding that he himself trained with her for a period of time when he was younger. He iterates that he and Plushenko are not bad coaches but that Eteri has a special impact on her students that brings them to a high level. He'll be going to Benoit's skating camp for the next few weeks and we predict he will leave Angels of Plushenko when he returns to Russia. Rozanov indicated his wishes to leave Sambo-70 (he packed his bags in the middle of the 2019-2020 season and Dudakov was aware of his wishes to leave, but changed his mind) even before Alexandra Trusova left, confirming our prior thoughts.

Quotes that stood out to us:

[Translated from Russian]

“The point here is not that Plushenko and I, as they say, are bad coaches. Leaving Eteri Georgievna, the athletes did not understand that Tutberidze was a strong coach for them, who brought them to a high level. Leaving this specialist, the athlete loses a piece of himself.”

”Maybe it's the system. Maybe discipline. Or maybe they just do not have enough of Eteri Georgievna herself, the contact with her, the mood that she gives in training and competitions. Still, with her they became what they are now.”

In response to whether he will return to Sambo-70 (this and his complementary regards to Eteri indicate that he wants to go back or has already made definitive plans to leave AOP:

“We will not discuss this topic. I don't want to say yes or no. Time will tell."

2. Elizaveta Osokina's switch to pairs. Mentions: Ksenia Sinitsyna, Alyona Kanysheva, Adyan Pitkeev, Alisa Lozko

Osokina's success in novices gave us all hope. She seemed to be doing well under Buyanova, but her switch to pairs, training under Mozer was confirmed. This solidifies the stronghold Eteri has on skating, both domestically and internationally, maintaining that success is difficult to achieve with any other coach. We talked about Ksenia Sinitsyna, who is coached by Svetlana Panova. She currently has a 3Lz-3Lo which she landed in competition, a 4T, which she landed in a warm-up but popped it in competition, and a 3A. She's always been a solid skater but was unfortunately not invited to the Russian Cup Final.

We believes the switch from singles to pairs warrants a much more feasible route to success compared to the switch from singles to ice dance. Alena Kanysheva is evidence of this. She and her partner seem to be stagnated with ice dance unfortunately. They were training under Denis Samokhin and Nikita Nazarov and appear to have moved again per the recommendation of their original coaches which is a confusing call. This reminded me of Adyan Pitkeev and Alisa Lozko's switch to ice dance per the recommendation of Elena Ilinykh. Elena was coaching them but eventually left them to partner with Shibnev. Both Elena/Anton and Adyan/Alisa's partnerships went no where.

3.  National team announcements 

Ladies: Anna Shcherbakova, Kamila Valieva, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Alexandra Trusova, Daria Usacheva, Maiia Khromykh

Reserve: Aliona Kostornaia, Elizaveta Nugumanova

Thoughts: Maiia's Russian Cup Final performance seemed to solidify her placement on the national team. Aliona being on reserve was a shocker given her illustrious 2019-2020 season, but with her move to Angels of Plushenko (I credit this being a major reason as to why she is not on the main team as a "punishment" from the Russian Federation) & performance in the 2020-2021 season (silver medals at Cup of Russia: 4th Stage in Kazan & GP Rostelecom Cup). She has a step out + flip issues in Kazan but still managed to get a short program score of 78+. While not making the main team is unfortunate, under Eteri and hopefully rotated triples + a 3A (maybe possible a 4S), she will be fine scores wise. She showed massive improvements in the shows she skated in, indicated an upwards trajectory. In the last show she skated in, Aliona attempted a triple axel. This tells us she is possibly landing them in practice which gives us a lot of optimism! For Ceci the two she was unsure of who would make the main team was Maiia and Aliona. For me (prokofievfairy), it was between Daria, Maiia, & Aliona. Ceci attributes Daria's consistency, improvements, and the amount of competitions she competed at as to why did not have any doubts about her placement on the team.

Ice Dance: Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov, Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin, Tiffani Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro, Anastasia Skoptcova/Kirill Aleshin, Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva/Egor Bazin, Sofia Shevchenko/Igor Eremenko

Reserve: Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin, Annabelle Morozov/Andrei Bagin, Elizaveta Shanaeva/Devid Naryzhnyy

Men: Mikhail Kolyada, Evgeni Semenenko, Mark Kondratiuk, Andrei Mozalev, Alexander Samarin, Makar Ignatov

Reserve: Dmitri Aliev, Petr Gumennik, Artur Danielian

Thoughts: Not too many. Dima, Petr, & Artur are some of our favorite skaters and while Dima's placement on reserve is sad to see, he had a severe case of COVID and a relatively weak season compared to his prior (winning European Championships). Alexander Samarin being put on the national team over Aliev was a bit of a surprise. We were happy for Semenenko given how well he did at Russian Cup Final and proved that he could deliver at the World Championships as he was met with a lot of doubt and criticism for the decision to send him.

Pairs: Anastasia Mishina/Alexander Galliamov, Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii, Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov, Iasmina Kadyrova/Ivan Balchenko, Daria Pavliuchenko/Denis Khodykin, Apollinariia Panfilova/Dmitry Rylov

Thoughts: Not surprising. Kadyrova/Balchenko recently moved to train under Tamara Moskvina and Artur Minchuk in St. Petersburg. As a singles skater Yasmina Kadyrova trained in Kazan until the 2016-2017 season until she moved to St. Petersburg to train with Mishin. She then moved to train under Eteri in the 2018-2019 season where she was seen training a quad salchow. Injury ended her time in Moscow, subsequentally moving back to Kazan, where she was born. Moskvina historically has taken on multiple teams (a lot of the time them being competitive rivals) to train with each other but this move was a bit confusing given M/G and B/K's presence at the rink. We also talked about how being successful in seniors tends to necessitate training in Moscow or St. Petersburg (e.g. Mozer, Moskvina, etc).

Reserve: Karina Akopova/Nikita Rakhmanin, Iuliia Artemeva/Mikhail Nazarychev, Alina Pepeleva/Roman Pleshkov

4. Program Discussion 

We ramble here. A lot.

S/K: Pseudo Tango RD + Rachmaninoff 2 FD

Sinitsina/Katsalapov's 2018-2019 Tango Romantico RD was exceptional. We were a bit nervous for their RD plans given the pattern dance & rhythm requirements. Our namesake makes it clear we are big Midnight Blues fans, but we would rather not see Vika and Nikita's attempts at hip-hop as much as we love Vika's skating. They do tangos best and we're so happy they were able to circumvent the RD rules and do some sort of Tango for the RD. The Rachmaninoff 2 cuts that they are choosing seem to be the less interesting ones, so we aren't too excited about this. It looks like Papadakis/Cizeron are giving up on their Tango FD that we saw at the beginning of the season so we are assuming they'll do another lyrical FD. Ultimately we are really rooting for exciting programs from both S/K and P/C to amp up our excitement (which is pretty low) for the competitive battle between the too teams.

Pate/Bye: Cry Me a River and Bye Bye Bye/Hunger Games Soundtrack

This is going to be so good. Society peaked with NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye and the pun with Logan Bye's name makes this even better. Congrats to Logan on finishing his masters in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan.

G/F Atonement + Song of the Little Sparrow FD

The Atonement OST is fantastic as is the film, but the music cuts in this free dance are a bit odd. Nonetheless it's exciting that they're recycling this program. We think this is going to be their last season competing and were mourning how they have never won a Worlds medal and probably never will (except at a depleted Worlds field post-Olympics).

Molly Lanaghan and Dimtre Razgulajevs: Spice Girls FD

This team is lovely we're excited!

Natalie D'Alessandro and Bruce Waddell: Pulp Fiction and Swan Lake

They are going to absolutely kill it with the Pulp Fiction program. Recycling their Swan Lake FD is a solid choice to maximize it's potential. We discussed their ice dance career and how unfortunately for them to move up in the rankings, focusing on ice dance and quitting singles seems to be the best option.

Katica Kedves / Fedor Sharonov - Suicide Squad RD, Justice League FD (They are Martin Scorsese’s Least Favorite Team)

We are both alarmed and fascinated by this choice! Wishing them viral success on Twitter.

Amber Glenn: Circles by Misha G, Rain in Your Black Eyes, Bradie Tennell: Novel Bianche, Mariah: Vogue SP w/ Denali + other US Ladies

Circles is an underwhelming choice for Amber but we're less interested in her program choices and more invested in how her consistency and trajectory will look next season. We talked about her trajectory through 2017 up until now and less about her program. We have seen some discourse as to who will make the time and perhaps contrary to what others have been saying, we are pretty confident that Bradie is a lock.

Wakaba: Primavera and Lion King for her programs

Wakaba could skate to literal elevator music and I'd still sell my soul for her to get onto the Olympic team. Ceci is excited for Primavera and I didn't dislike Lion King (I think with more development it could make for a great Olympic moment).

Sambo-70 Program hopes 

We have come to the conclusion that we like Averbukh choreography. I'm pinning all my hopes on Aliona getting a Tango SP and hopefully Kamila getting a lovely ballet SP.