Russian figure skating news & updates in 2022

[Karen-W]

FS Gossips has this:

Alexandra Trusova left the group of Eteri Tutberidze

Alexandra Trusova left the group of Eteri Tutberidze.

fs-gossips.com

They are citing R-Sport as the source, but no actual source link. Curious.

 

[On My Own]

They are citing R-Sport as the source, but no actual source link. Curious.

Supposedly this? https://rsport.ria.ru/20221001/trusova-1820908067.html

 

[rfisher]

Saw on twitter that Trusova moved to Sokolovskaya's group due to concerns of overworking and injury - not sure what the source is?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1576272792097464320

Probably because her boyfriend is there. And, moving to be with your significant other is never, ever a good idea especially when you're 17. Plus, while I adore Sokolovskaya, her skaters record speaks for itself. The test skates did not go well for Mark and I'll leave it at that. But, this is a good season for the skaters to experiment and try different things.

 

[Karen-W]

Probably because her boyfriend is there.

All I gotta say is Mark best not have any stamina issues in his programs, else we might not be able to blame that on gaming.

 

[rfisher]

All I gotta say is Mark best not have any stamina issues in his programs, else we might not be able to blame that on gaming.

Given his performance at the test skates, Sasha may be going to help him out.

And, before all the mind readers declare she's incapable of doing the quads and know what she's thinking, she's had a back injury and deliberately did not do them. That's why she didn't skate the free skate. She planned that before the SP test skate.

 

[Wyliefan]

I ... don't think anyone was going to declare that?

 

[Bouffantrex]

Saw on twitter that Trusova moved to Sokolovskaya's group due to concerns of overworking and injury - not sure what the source is?

Sorry, but this is straight out of the book of "who cares". Clearly they're distracting themselves with an endless soap opera over there.

Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, I must say, the men's one made me wheeze.

With such deft hand maneuvers, this thirtysomething man is sure to be one Russia's more highly skilled soldiers.

 

[Lilia A]

Oh here we go again. Getting ready for Tut and Gleikh's comments anytime soon. Any guesses? "Too lazy"? "Not willing to put in enough work?" "Impossible to coach?". Will we get another "I called her three times but she didn't call me back" rant from Danny G? Then there's the possibility that, like Kostornaia, she was gently asked to leave the group, but I don't see them dropping a high profile athlete now considering they don't have the abundance of riches they had last season. Unless it was some kind of ultimatum "Get your butt back to training with your back injury or leave". I wouldn't put it past them, and I wouldn't put it past Trusova to be like "eff you I'm out". I don't think she's leaving just for the sake of being with the bf because then she would have done that already. She had all summer to jump ship. I do wonder why she didn't go back to Plushy. She's very much the star of his ice shows, but those are managed by Yana and she's the boss there. I've seen comments on Twitter saying that Trusova seemed quite cold towards Plush on the tour while she seemed to get along fine with Yana and Mikhailov (her personal coach at Angels). After she went back to TeamTut, she talked about how she asked for Mikhailov to go with her to worlds and not Plush, but Plushy wanted to be "the" coach at worlds so he went instead. I imagine that having a puppet coach instead of your real one must have been annoying, and that might have caused tension there. Anyway, it's almost 1am on a Sunday in Moscow so we likely won't hear anything until Monday.

 

[clairecloutier]

According to this, Russian athletes will temporarily not be allowed to compete (and/or maybe train?) outside the country.

https://twitter.com/gymnovosti/status/1576252305187667968

So hopefully that means we won’t have to worry about Bach and the IOC letting them back in soon.

 

[ChelleC]

According to this, Russian athletes will temporarily not be allowed to compete (and/or maybe train?) outside the country.

https://twitter.com/gymnovosti/status/1576252305187667968

So hopefully that means we won’t have to worry about Bach and the IOC letting them back in soon.

My question is how are they going to force those already training abroad to return to Russia?

 

[Dobre]

My question is how are they going to force those already training abroad to return to Russia?

My hypothesis would be that a. they can't, but that b. they could stop signing the paychecks.

 

[Willin]

Probably because her boyfriend is there. And, moving to be with your significant other is never, ever a good idea especially when you're 17. Plus, while I adore Sokolovskaya, her skaters record speaks for itself. The test skates did not go well for Mark and I'll leave it at that. But, this is a good season for the skaters to experiment and try different things.

While it may have been a factor in where she went, I doubt it was why she left Eteri. It's been obvious for a while she's felt Eteri wasn't the right fit for whatever reason - hence the move to Plushenko - and only returned when it became obvious she needed Eteri for the Olympics. Then with her blow-up at the Olympics that included stuff presumably about Eteri... We also know how Eteri treats people that leave her and how she tends to only focus on her bright up and coming stars. And then with her injuries piling on and making her programs hard to complete... (gossip is she felt Eteri's intense training was making her injuries worse) It's pretty obvious Trusova was going to leave at some point.

It should be noted that this happened outside of the transfer window for Russian skaters (IIRC May to June?), so there must have been some serious incident or event that spurred it. IIRC from the Kostornaia to Plushenko drama, moving coaches outside of that window affects their funding. Maybe the injury concern rumor is true and she realized her body couldn't keep up with Eteri after Test Skates?

 

[hanca]

While it may have been a factor in where she went, I doubt it was why she left Eteri. It's been obvious for a while she's felt Eteri wasn't the right fit for whatever reason - hence the move to Plushenko - and only returned when it became obvious she needed Eteri for the Olympics. Then with her blow-up at the Olympics that included stuff presumably about Eteri... We also know how Eteri treats people that leave her and how she tends to only focus on her bright up and coming stars. And then with her injuries piling on and making her programs hard to complete... (gossip is she felt Eteri's intense training was making her injuries worse) It's pretty obvious Trusova was going to leave at some point.

It should be noted that this happened outside of the transfer window for Russian skaters (IIRC May to June?), so there must have been some serious incident or event that spurred it. IIRC from the Kostornaia to Plushenko drama, moving coaches outside of that window affects their funding. Maybe the injury concern rumor is true and she realized her body couldn't keep up with Eteri after Test Skates?

But Sokolovskaya is in the same school as Tutberidze, isn’t she? So the funding wouldn’t be affected because the money is paid to school. The Pluschenko’s drama with Kostornaya was that she changed schools, so the money continued to be paid to Tutberidze’s school and Pluschenko wasn’t paid for coaching her because she changed outside the transfer window. But Pluschenko didn’t seem to care anyway.

 

[Lilia A]

Nope. Sokolovskaya is part of CSKA, same school as Davydov and Buyanova. Eteri used to be part of Sambo but now it has its own affiliation. I forgot the name of the new club. Plush didn't care much about Kostornaia's funding back then, probably because he had just opened his new rink and needed stars to get him medals. It's been stated that Trusova will need to discuss the move with the federation on Monday. I'm guessing they'll discuss the funding issue. They've made exceptions in the past, such as with Kolyada two years ago when he moved to Mishin's group, as well as Kostornaia's move to Buyanova. Not much they could say to Kostornaia the second time considering Eteri kicked her out. Not like she had much of a choice.

 

[Rukia]

According to this, Russian athletes will temporarily not be allowed to compete (and/or maybe train?) outside the country.

https://twitter.com/gymnovosti/status/1576252305187667968

So hopefully that means we won’t have to worry about Bach and the IOC letting them back in soon.

Eteri is calling USFS on behalf of her daughter stat

 

[greenapple]

According to this, Russian athletes will temporarily not be allowed to compete (and/or maybe train?) outside the country.

https://twitter.com/gymnovosti/status/1576252305187667968

So hopefully that means we won’t have to worry about Bach and the IOC letting them back in soon.

This seems to me to be a way to stop any athlete/potential draftee leaving the country for a "training camp" other than those going to a country Russia can get them back from - "Applications of federations to individual friendly countries will definitely be considered."

"Unfortunately, we are not allowed to compete, and such a decision was made about the training camp," made it very convenient to implement this ban. If you cannot compete anywhere you don't need to train anywhere else, basically.

Athletes could be drafted at any time as it has to be expected there will be heavy casualties with the rookie non-soldiers. Those who already live abroad won't be returning any time soon, unless they are forced to do so.

 

[Karen-W]

According to this, Russian athletes will temporarily not be allowed to compete (and/or maybe train?) outside the country.

https://twitter.com/gymnovosti/status/1576252305187667968

So hopefully that means we won’t have to worry about Bach and the IOC letting them back in soon.

Eteri is calling USFS on behalf of her daughter stat

I presume this is directed at athletes who hold a Russian passport and live & train in Russia currently, but compete for other countries, like Metelkina/Parkman, Safina/Berulava, Gubanova, Kvitelashvili, etc. Or even those who don't hold a Russian passport, but who train in Russia, like Shaidorov. I said this last week after Nebelhorn, but it bears repeating, those athletes need to work with their feds to set up a training base in Western Europe, the way Kazakova/Reviya did earlier in June. I'd be calling Hotarek at IceLab in Bergamo, or some of the new, developing pairs bases (Massot, Savchenko, Kiefer) to see if they have space for a couple of other teams. Same with Shaidorov, he probably needs to leave Moscow & Dmitriev sooner rather than later or risk being stuck there.

There isn't much they can do about the Russians like Davis/Smolkin who have already left the country, though maybe they should be concerned about standing near windows or walking across bridges, like some of those oligarchs. I don't see how they can force those athletes to return to Russia.

Now, the question is, what happens to skaters who have already left the country with the intent to switch countries, like the junior aged Russian girl now in Vancouver with her family that competed in the BC Summer Skate comp in July or August. She's just waiting on her formal release from the RFSF, which was supposed to be considered in December, and Skate Canada has gone through the proper channels with regard to her competing in their domestic events. This might mean she isn't granted a release after all. Is this a situation where the ISU Council (don't forget, Benoit Lavoie is the Figure Skating VP now) would step in and grant the release?

And what about coaches? Remember the impact on Russian skating that the post-USSR exodus of coaches had on the sport in the new Russia? That's really what they should be aiming to prevent, rather than targeting the current athletes. We've talked about Eteri trying to set up shop here in the US because of Diana, but what about the less controversial coaches, like Sokolovskaya, Buyanov, etc? What if they leave now that the invisible noose is really starting to tighten? How will the Russian sports ministry prevent them from leaving and finding work elsewhere?

 

[greenapple]

The Russian girl who moved to Canada will get a release one way or the other as her family actually emigrated to Canada.

 

[zebraswan]

Sokolovskaya isn't going anywhere...she's one of the deepest in the kool-aid of all. She practically had an orgasm over Shoigu's visit.

 

[Vagabond]

Sokolovskaya isn't going anywhere...she's one of the deepest in the kool-aid of all. She practically had an orgasm over Shoigu's visit.

So that's what Weed Jesus has been smoking!

 

[Dobre]

The Russian girl who moved to Canada will get a release one way or the other as her family actually emigrated to Canada.

How does that guarantee her a release from the Russian Federation?

She's young and can't have competed much. I figure she'll be OK, but what does her family's emigration have to do with getting a release?

 

[Karen-W]

Sokolovskaya isn't going anywhere...she's one of the deepest in the kool-aid of all. She practically had an orgasm over Shoigu's visit.

I was just pulling a non-Tut name out of the air as an example, not saying she would be the one actually leave. But, there are others, like Dmitriev Sr and Morozov, who have strong relationships in the west based upon their time spent outside of Russia in the 90s and 00s. What would prevent them from packing up and leaving Russia once again?

 

[TAHbKA]

So.where does it leave Davis/Smolkin? They are scheduled to.compete in Russian 'GP' in Perm and Moscow I think. Will they jump off that sinking ship or move to erm.. Zhulin? Zhuk?

 

[Dobre]

So.where does it leave Davis/Smolkin? They are scheduled to.compete in Russian 'GP' in Perm and Moscow I think.

Emergency dental surgery?

Oh, who knows? Eteri is an x factor. Maybe she can swing them an exception. Maybe not.

 

[Vagabond]

Any appeals to Diana Davis to come back to Russia right now are likely to fall on deaf ears.

 

[Karen-W]

So.where does it leave Davis/Smolkin? They are scheduled to.compete in Russian 'GP' in Perm and Moscow I think. Will they jump off that sinking ship or move to erm.. Zhulin? Zhuk?

Wishing they'd said "suck it" 10 days ago and went ahead and competed at Challenge Cup in Philly? Lol.

 

[greenapple]

How does that guarantee her a release from the Russian Federation?

She's young and can't have competed much. I figure she'll be OK, but what does her family's emigration have to do with getting a release?

She is not country jumping. Because her family emigrated to Canada, she, as a minor, had no say in the matter. The Russians will have no argument to deny a release. That was confirmed by someone who is close to the situation.

 

[Dobre]

She is not country jumping. Because her family emigrated to Canada, she, as a minor, had no say in the matter. The Russians will have no argument to deny a release. That was confirmed by someone who is close to the situation.

Has she competed internationally for Russia?

 

[RoseRed]

Has she competed internationally for Russia?

I don't believe so

 

[TAHbKA]

Ok, we have Butyrskaya's comment on Trusova's switch. Waiting for Zhulin, TAT, Zhelezniakov, Liashev, Rodnina, Rudkovskaya, Bestemianova...