Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kamila Valieva and her family and not Eteri are going to take the fall for this.

Especially since Kamila and her family are Tatars (a Muslim minority in Russia that faces a LOT of discrimination and persecution, there's actually a word for it, Tatarophobia).

That's ridiculous. First, Tatars are probably the least conservative of Russia's Muslim ethnicities. Second, there is a proud tradition of Tatar female athletes in performance sport, most notably rhythmic gymnastics and now figure skating. Alina Zagitova identifies as a Muslim (although clearly not observant or practicing). Kamila's faith, whatever it is, will not come into it at all.

Kamila will receive the hero's welcome in Russia.

Interesting. How about Eteri Tutberidze? What do they think of her after the final showdown?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she went out there with the intention to win and once she had that first stumble she threw in the towel. I don’t think she was told to lose, but mentally how can you go out there and skate knowing your win would prevent others from having their medals? Just a Terri me circumstance to be put under. Feel awful for her and the way she was treated by those abusive coaches (the guy was practically laughing as she was sobbing and they were talking over her as she was bent over sobbing into her hands). I hope she can recover from this and bounce back in 4 yrs and come back and compete again.

Nah, Eteri's students have a shelf life of 17 before they either break down or fall into disfavor. We won't see any of these girls again, I don't think. The next crop of junior victims is already on the way to the stage. They'll throw Valieva away now that she hasn't won anything and thus isn't worth defending.

Baiul, Lipinski and Hughes have all retired before 17. It's normal to retire at that age, and it is certainly more common under the new system, because adult bodies cannot sustain that level of technical difficulty easily.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eileen Gu is so annoying!!!

She is the worst. I find it really odd that she shared her SAT score. She is such a braggart and was painful to listen to go about omg, look at me, look at me. She sounds less articulate than most of the athletes and that she is going to Stanford. Well, Elizabeth Holmes also went to Stanford. So two assholes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kamila Valieva and her family and not Eteri are going to take the fall for this.

Especially since Kamila and her family are Tatars (a Muslim minority in Russia that faces a LOT of discrimination and persecution, there's actually a word for it, Tatarophobia).

That's ridiculous. First, Tatars are probably the least conservative of Russia's Muslim ethnicities. Second, there is a proud tradition of Tatar female athletes in performance sport, most notably rhythmic gymnastics and now figure skating. Alina Zagitova identifies as a Muslim (although clearly not observant or practicing). Kamila's faith, whatever it is, will not come into it at all.

Kamila will receive the hero's welcome in Russia.

Anonymous wrote:Notwithstanding is the fact that there shouldn’t be Russian athletes competing in these game AT ALL due to their horrendous doping and cheating.

The whole idea of a “Russian Olympic Committee” just to get these athletes into the Games is preposterous. Russians are cheaters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eileen Gu is so annoying!!!

She's had good media training - she deflected the questions about competing for China pretty deftly.

And she said she had this big audience for her "message" but then didn't actually say what the message is.

You must not be following her other interviews. She just won the gold and wants to celebrate. Doubt she wants to stand there and repeat her "message".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she went out there with the intention to win and once she had that first stumble she threw in the towel. I don’t think she was told to lose, but mentally how can you go out there and skate knowing your win would prevent others from having their medals? Just a Terri me circumstance to be put under. Feel awful for her and the way she was treated by those abusive coaches (the guy was practically laughing as she was sobbing and they were talking over her as she was bent over sobbing into her hands). I hope she can recover from this and bounce back in 4 yrs and come back and compete again.

Nah, Eteri's students have a shelf life of 17 before they either break down or fall into disfavor. We won't see any of these girls again, I don't think. The next crop of junior victims is already on the way to the stage. They'll throw Valieva away now that she hasn't won anything and thus isn't worth defending.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm of the opinion that children shouldn't compete. You should have to be 18 to compete at the Olympics.

Totally agree with this.

+1. They are pushing younger and younger girls to develop these advanced skills because puberty/changes in their physique fundamentally changes how they skate. So that's why the Russians are flaming out 16 and 17 year olds every Olympics. Make the age a hard 18 and let's get back to something more than mathematical formulas. We used to see skaters over two to three Olympics and you got to see them progress.

I watched the aftermath of the women's free skate. Valieva looked like a robot the entire time during her program. The Russian team was in a shambles and poor Anna Scharbawhatever - the Olympic Champion!! - was just left totally alone. You can watch the entire program on NBC Olympics. I didn't watch it all but I watched enough to observe that the Russian girls were all noticeably extremely thin compared to some other competitors. There was a Belgian skater - Loena ?? who was lovely. And a Georgian skater who had a really nice program as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trusova cried and yelled “You knew! You all knew!” amid the meltdown, what exactly does she mean?

She meant you, the coach, KNEW that even if I land five quads, I wouldn't take gold, they wouldn't give it to me, not with what the other girls have shown. Eteri must have told her if you land this, you have a real shot at winning.

+1

In this case, I have to say I side with Eteri. She was absolutely correct: Trusova only had a shot at a medal, any color medal, if she nailed all her tech content. Without jumps, she is uninteresting. So if that's the mantra Eteri used to rev up Trusova's competitive mettle, she was absolutely correct. And honestly the girl ought to be grateful for her silver. It's a bit much to have her as a gold medalist in the presence of relatively well rounded Scherbakova.

Uninteresting? She's a Grade A B!t$h that skated to the Cruella Deville theme song. She is the epitome of the stereotype of a Russian woman.

Anonymous wrote:Kamila Valieva and her family and not Eteri are going to take the fall for this.

Especially since Kamila and her family are Tatars (a Muslim minority in Russia that faces a LOT of discrimination and persecution, there's actually a word for it, Tatarophobia).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eileen Gu is so annoying!!!

She's had good media training - she deflected the questions about competing for China pretty deftly.

And she said she had this big audience for her "message" but then didn't actually say what the message is.

You must not be following her other interviews. She just won the gold and wants to celebrate. Doubt she wants to stand there and repeat her "message".

Anonymous wrote:

Uninteresting? She's a Grade A B!t$h that skated to the Cruella Deville theme song. She is the epitome of the stereotype of a Russian woman.

This pp is heartless. These children are puppets. I finally watched their performances on the ice and after. Three medalists in shambles, and a 15 year old who should be immediately shrouded from those who did this to her. The only chance this child has is to tell her story, and expose whoever drugged her. Coaches, parents, grandparents...don't care. It's her only chance to free herself from connection to the regime. The world will support her and lift her out of this hell.

This press person, a random stranger, protected her when the "machine" didn't.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/sports/olympic-figure-skater-kamila-valieva-was-failed-by-the-system-adults-170245056.html

Anonymous wrote:Curious to see what the headlines are posting in Russia this morning (although I assume it's already mid-afternoon there).
Supportive? Aggressive? Proud? Angry?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eileen Gu is so annoying!!!

She's had good media training - she deflected the questions about competing for China pretty deftly.

And she said she had this big audience for her "message" but then didn't actually say what the message is.