Russia Is Ruining Figure Skating. Here’s How.
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- I know this might be a bit controversial but hopefully I've given adequate nuance throughout this entire video so everyone understands what I mean. Also, as I mention with some of these issues Russia isn't necessarily the root cause but certainly a symptom (e.g. of ISU/IJS). As a former competitive figure skater, these issues range from frustrating to alarming, and I hope change will come to the sport soon. I talk about all of this and more in this video.
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0:00 Intro
0:28 My Background
0:44 Overview to Video
2:10 Framework / Topics
2:29 Judge Scoring & ISU Corruption
7:05 Doping and Sportsmanship
8:46 Abuse of Young Girls
11:35 Using Girls For Politics
14:56 "Ethnic Discrimination", Politics
15:54 Tarnishing of International Events
17:27 Diminishing Artistry
19:56 Positives to Russia in FS
21:31 Conclusion
It's really sad that men get to have long careers, go to multiple Olympics and dominate the sport for years, but women's expiration date is now believed to be at 17-18. But let's remember it hasn't always been that way. Carolina Kostner was a top figure skater for 15 years. LITERALLY 15 YEARS, do you hear how incredible that sounds looking at today's women's skating?? The girl won 11 European championship medals. Freaking 11. She could've had more too, but was banned for 2 seasons. THAT's how far good technique can take you. I don't understand why we allow the men to grow and learn the most difficult elements gradually, but girls are now expected to have quads at 12-13? Eteri really has ruined women's figure skating.
@G Gomez I don’t completely agree with you on that . I couldn’t see men doing the hamel camel, or the Bielman spin, and I’ve never seen anyone do A scratch spin like Dorothy Hamil.
No man can do cantilever better than a girl, Sasha Trusova. 🙂
Most women make their debut at 17.
I just said the same thing!
Michelle Kwan won a medals at 9 different world championships. As long as the Russian coaches sacrifice female skater' 'bodies for immediate victories we will never see anything like Michelle's accomplishment again, at least for female singles skaters.
Let’s be honest… the downfall of figure skating began during the 2014 Olympics when the russians stole gold from living legend Yuna Kim. Ever since they have been dominating the podiums even with poor technique and child abuse
Legit the only Russian woman with proper technique is Tuktamysheva and that's because she was trained and arrived in seniors before the "domination" era that started in 2014. And now we have an Olympic champion with probably the ugliest technique of toe jumps I have ever seen. Her technique is so painfully bad, that I'm thinking that they're keeping her so extremely skinny (the infamous two shrimp for dinner thing), because they know that she'll fall apart immediately even with the smallest amount of extra weight on her.
Thats when the system just got bought by Russia and they began to glorify bad technique; pre rotations and wrong edges and pick vaults
@@Unfiltered494 I couldn’t agree more! I was so upset when Tuktamysheva couldn’t qualify for the Olympics. Although Shcherbakova is a good artistic skater her technique is awful. The Eteri girls rely too heavily on light weight distribution instead of muscle for jumps. She’s straining her back and I wouldn’t be surprised if she retired soon due to injury
@@fayetopias Elizaveta deserves so much better
@Jan Krynicky ?
Even a few Russian coaches have grumbled about how only Russian skaters from a particular rink are chosen to go to International competitions. They see what most international viewers of the sport view. The judging is so bad the ISU really needs to clean house. I don't believe they will but they need to.
Look at Anastasia Gubanova who had to switch countries because Russia didn't support her
Absolutely, I remember elizaveta nugumanova saying she didn’t understand why she wasn’t put on the worlds team in 2019 I think because she did everything she could and she placed well in nationals but they chose Alina and elizabet ( I could be wrong ) but she did say she didn’t understand and that it was upsetting and it’s true, she did so well and her skating is so beautiful but they were choosing people who didn’t earn it like she did that season. And Liza not going to the Olympics just proves it all
@@ChristineTheHippie and she’s still getting robbed 💔
@@badmiracle yes. Hopefully now that she will start getting Grand Prix assignments, she will get marked fairly.
Also the corruption of jump techniques that now favours pre-rotation, blurring of differences between toe and edge jumps, toe axels and the unabashed abuse of jumping with the arms aloft often almost throughout the entire program.
It was refreshing to see good, clean skating in their women's event being rewarded.
by taking the standard up through poor technique is one thing, but the full official organzation that is ISU believing and promoting and awarding the poor techniqued skaters is a whole other thing and yes that's how russia is literaly making the sport dead to women.
sad.
The detriment of artistry really bothers me right now. Trusova is such a beautiful skater, you can see in her exhibitions. However, in her FS in Beijing, she had so many jumps to do that she barely had time for any artistic moves. She has a stunning cantilever, but it was gone in a blink of an eye. The spread eagle gone in a blink of an eye. Her spiral, gone in a blink of an eye. You barely have time to appreciate how pretty it is because she's rushing from one move to the other.
Another thing that’s upsetting to me is that they have a group of many super talented girls who aren’t coached to fulfill their potential and have a long and prolific career. Their are coached to achieve their coaches goal.
These young girls in the end are robbed of their youth, their health and their career.
You put that perfectly.
Very well said.
I wonder if that’s why you see Russian girls competing under other countries.
@@nelliesmith5699 I think that's a very big reason why. These girls are disposable to Russia, and Russia doesn't seem to support anyone who isn't coached by Eteri. So why not go skate for another country where you will have the opportunity? Ekaterina Kurakova and Anastasia are both Russian but skate for Poland and Georgia respectively (Anastasia used to skaters for Russia as a junior) and they've both benefited
@@nelliesmith5699 may be one of the reasons, but I think they also have a huge pool of athletes. Some are great but the competition is tough.
It happens in other sports as well. You see many Brazilians okaying football for other countries in the World Cup, Dutch speed skaters representing other countries in the Olympics, etc
I feel sad that Tuktamysheva can't compete at worlds!!! Really would have loved her to participate and slay the competition with her awesome technique!!!
I understand that the elements are getting more difficult, (even with under-rotations, pre-rotation and terrible executions) but what saddens me the most is that we (Russians) no longer have *women* skaters.
The top Russian figure skaters are teenagers. Yes they work hard but the way they are build (extremely thin) and the way they perform is still plain and immature.
I don't feel like I'm watching someone grown and experienced performing...Someone top level. But I'm seeing an anorexic young girl trying too convey an emotion to us spectators by lifting her brows to show how emotionally invested she is while skating.
Maybe I'm just too tired of seeing the same look after training ballet and watching too many shows but this is nauseating and overdone, imo. The jumps with their hands up childish and a failed attempt to make something look more gracious than it is (and annoying).
They don't feel the music the same way someone in her 20s does, don't move the same way and before they get to feel more comfy and they will have to retire, for the reasons we know.
At this point I feel guilty watching them, it's exhausting and uncomfortable to look at them knowing what they went trough, knowing the final scores will be great beforehand, too look at 15-17 years old girls trying to prove that they can "do it like a dude" and are better than mature skaters while cheating and starving themselves and taking God knows what.
I miss the longevity of young skaters. Watching a teenager grow from a promising teenager to a mature women with a long career is what makes it enjoyable.
I agree with you & Im as American as an American can get. I hate to see these young women being exploited. Growing up watching it I remember Nancy Karagan & the Harding lady controversy but I was 7. Hell I’m 37 now & never seen snow. Only went ice skating at 11 in an indoor ring in Orlando, Fl & found a new respect for the sport when I got to experience how hard it is.
I also feel guilty now knowing their ages. I never really paid attention to ages growing up but I was forced to grow up at a very young age & I hate to see that done to people. Here in America it’s more of a football & baseball thing where parents are relentless in pushing their child. That too is sad to me, let these kids be kids & stop all the political brainwashing.
Btw, I do not look at any Russian citizen & blame you for what’s happening right now. I’m sorry for everyone involved in this mess.
skating fans literally have a saying called the “Eteri Expiration Date” because most of the russian girls retire before they turn 18 because of the life long injuries or eating disorders they acquire under her abusive coaching
Exactly. Most women's single skater are just getting started at 17/18 and peak in their early 20s.
@@ChristineTheHippie Yes. It’s so disturbing that literal teenagers’ bodies are giving out on them only for Eteri to replace them with younger and stronger skaters
@@faithl8152 it has been rumored that Eteri uses hormones to delay puberty in her top girls..of course that wouldn’t last forever
LOVED THIS! Thank you, Eric! 🇺🇦
Oh I know how the $ thing goes! Grrr. When I was a younger skater in late ‘70s thru 80s, I almost wished I skated for the USSR, only because my parents had so many financial difficulties with keeping me with coaches and ice time….let alone keeping up with my need for boots and blades. I was lucky that my mother was a very good seamstress and great at costume beading. I just felt it was so unfair that skaters who’d exhibited an early talent for figure skating were completely funded. At the time I just wanted to take the financial burden from my parents. People talk about taking skaters away from their parents to train, but back in my time skaters often left parents who didn’t have enough $ to travel to the better club let alone competitions. 😔 Sucks but it’s been taken to the extreme in “The” Russian Federation
I don’t think it’s the girls competing at fault but their coach Eteri Tuberitze. You can tell by looking at the Kamila Valieva doping scandal how impressionable these girls are. They are just doing what they were taught.
It's definitely nice their fault. They have no say. Look at Katarina Witt's career.
Thank you for this!
Edit: I miss Koola King haha
Hahahahahah... We all secretly miss her. Might disagree with some stuff but she definitely predicted a lot.
@@kasvinimuniandy4178 True. 👍👍👍
I was hoping to see a post from her after this tragic Olympics
I loved your takes on the topic! I'd also love to see you talk about some of Eteri's now ex and current students as more news come out about that.
Personally looking forward to worlds without Russia as I suspect it will be a clean and less biased competition
Come on Marsha! THE USA AND THE WESTERN WORLD THE KINGS OF DOPING=JOHN McENROE ( HORSEHORMONE USER) JOSE CANSECO MARK McGwire Barry Bonds Marion Jones Justin Gatlin Lance Armstrong Ben Johnson Jaap Stam Edgar Davids Marco Pantani Lindford Christie Terese Johaug Randy Barnes Sundby Froome Jacques Anquetil Tyler Hamilton Alex Rodriguez Jeannie Longo Eddy Merckx CJ Hunter Martti Vainio Kaario Maaninka David Millar Ricky Bruch Niklas Axelsson Marco Pantani AND SO ON!!
The world Championships Will Be The Cleanest You Are Claiming! No-one buys that! Yuzuru Hanyu skates 10% faster than The Top Ladies figure skaters! Yuzuru Hanyu his Jumps Are 17% longer higher than The Top Ladies figure skaters! The biggest Human Rights Crime these olympics Games in 2022 was Yuzuru Hanyu his Quads-Axel Jump=The Most cruel Sick so Dangerous Extreme Too Difficult So Cruel Raw rough Sports Ever! And Now Yuzuru Hanyu injured not in The worlds championships! Yuzuru Hanyu his Quads-Axel Jump=4,5-TURNS ROUNDS ROTATION!! THE TOP LADIES FIGURE SKATERS CAN JUMP=3,7-TURNS ROUNDS ROTATION WITHOUT THE POWER OF YUZURU HANYU ( 17% LESS POWER THAN YUZURU HANYU)! THE SISTERS ARE JUMPING THE QUADS-JUMPS TOO!! THE SISTERS ARE DOING IT!!! THE USA AND THE WESTERN WORLD DOPING ATHLETES THE KINGS OF DOPING!! THE WESTERN WORLD DOPING ATHLETES STARTED THIS DOPING DRUGS USE!! THE FINNISH OUR HEROES THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNING OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS USED PERVITIN STRONG STIMULANT AMFETAMIN ALREADY IN 1930s! THE BLOOD DOPING WAS THE FIRST TIME USED BY THE WEST GERMANS FOOTBALL SOCCER IN 1954! THE BRITISH CYCLIST DOPER SIMPSON DIED AN AMFETAMIN OVERDOSE WHEN HE WAS RIDING TOUR DE FRANCE IN 1967! AFTER THAT THEY STARTED TO DO DOPING DRUG TESTS?:WE ARE TESTING DOPING DRUGS BECAUSE THE WESTERN WORLD DOPING! THE WESTERN WORLD DO LOVE THEIR DOPERS! MARCO PANTANI WAS THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON IN ITALY! 93% OF THE PEOPLE OF ITALY KNEW AND LOVED THIS DOPER MARCO PANTANI!! MARCO PANTANI WAS MORE FAMOUS THAN THE POPE IN ITALY!!!
@@RaineriHakkarainen nobody denied that other countries dope as well. Every country has its own issues if you can’t accept those from one territory you have no right to criticize others.
@@beckyy584 Russian trolls are like little kids: I'm rubber, you're glue
@@beckyy584 Dear Becky! We The Finnish we started this Doping drugs use! The Finnish OUR HEROES The Long distance running olympic champions used Pervitin a strong stimulant amfetamin already in 1930s!!
@@ChristineTheHippie Come on Christine!! No-one Will not tell You These Facts that Yuzuru Hanyu skates 10% Faster than The Top Ladies Figure Skaters! Yuzuru Hanyu his Jumps Are 17% Longer Higher than The Top Ladies Figure Skaters!! And We do know=Yuzuru Hanyu his The Quad-Axel Jump=4,5-TURNS ROUNDS ROTATION!! THE TOP LADIES FIGURE SKATERS CAN JUMP=3,7-TURNS ROUNDS ROTATION WITHOUT THE POWER OF YUZURU HANYU ( 17% LESS POWER THAN YUZURU HANYU's) THE SISTERS ARE JUMPING THE QUADS-JUMPS IN THE FUTURE TOO!! THE SISTERS ARE DOING IT!! THE SISTERS ARE DOING IT!!
As a long time fan of this sport [found it due to Plushenko in 2002.] Im honestly so done with the ladies. When my favs get so underscored compared to the russians it just hurts. Like it breaks my heart. I dont want to watch it anymore... [ngl looking forward to a non russian worlds lol] and honestly.. when Yuma retires which will be a lil while away I might just quit unless if something truly changes for the better. the ISU is failing this sport, failing the skaters and failing the fans.. I truly hope something changes, otherwise when Yuma [who is my new fav in the mens field and he is really only at the start of his senior career] retires i honestly wont bother to tune in. I'll watch the ice shows that they have [before covid] but thats it.. It's really heart breaking for me. I grew up watching it! like i was 4 in 2002 when I saw Plushenko win Silver and it blew my tiny little brain and i kept watching! [and begged to be a skater but no rinks in my city at all lmao] and I stayed to watch his career, fell in love with Yuna Kim and Yuzuru Hanyu.. and now.. I dont get that feeling anymore and it fucking hurts... I honestly feel so bad for the skaters! If i as a fan feel bad, I know the skaters do too..
Russian skaters are definitely the most blatantly overscored but North American skaters are as well. The whole system is corrupt and needs to change. The ones that suffer the most are the korean and japanese skaters :( Look at their skating skills and overall programs.
The Koreans and Japanese skaters are all ahead of the North American skaters in the women's field where they should be. And in the mens, they are also where they should be, ahead of everyone else except Nathan Chen. What exactly are you crying about?
American skaters are 4th tier internationally let's be real
even though it wasn't her choice i am really glad kosternia isn't with eteri anymore, i really hope i get see her skating in some capacity because she is so talented and deserving of success
@@kara1460 i'm not super familiar with that camp but damn.. let us just send out some good vibes in the universe for her ✨️
@@kaikey2733 plus I fon't believe a coach who used to train Adelina. Maybe she is not as bad as ET but still from what I heard about her, she's still problematic
This is great! I love womens figure skating since I was 11. It broke my heart to see Kamila & Alexandra crying. I shot professionally for 3 years. So I understand people don’t see all the behind the scenes to be able to be a great competitor. Happy I found your page.
Great video, I gotta say and this may be a bit biased since she is my favorite skater from that camp, I do think if one of the current Eteri girls can have a long career I predict it'll be Sasha. Overall, I think her jump quality has, dare I say, been on an upwards trajectory for a few years now. She's always getting better and her technique isn't close to Eteri-style deterioration just yet even tho she's close to Eteri retirement age, which has to say something about her technique.
Also I like how she's visibly jumping primarily with her legs. A good example is her 4F, she barely hunches over at all, especially compared to her teammates like Kamila or Anna who almost become parallel with the ice when they enter their jumps.... Her 4S as well has barely any hunch. Her air position is generally fantastic, her take-off could be better but it's miles ahead from her quad-jumping counterparts (Kamila, Maiia & Anna). Right now, I would say her main ‘flaw’ is the prerotation on the flip & lutzes.
I think Sasha right now is at a pont where she's stabilizing her Ultra-c's, making them more consistent (although they've kinda always been pretty consistent if you've ever watched her practice videos, she just has issues handling the pressure of competition) and after this point we can perhaps start to work on other aspects of her skating as well.
But I do think this can only happen if she leaves Eteri for good. Crossing my fingers for some transfer news as the new season kicks off.
Completely agreed. Is Sasha stayed with plushenko her technique would probably be flawless .Pluskenko gave her artistic programmes and her technique was getting so good, but with the olympics round the corner she needed the eteri bonus ig.But going back to plushenko now would be great as you can see her technique compared to a lot of the other Russians and eteri girls is a lot better.Besides pre rotations on lutz and a few others her technique is ok and can easily be fixed with correct training
There's no quad revolution in women's figure skating. The russian girls jumps are overrotated triples with lots of pre-rotation and underrotations. Their Lutzes and flips are fakes, despite of it, they receive +4 and +5, like how??? I like the russian girls, but Sasha Trusova feeling entitled to win only because of the "quads" with that messy choreography is out of the world. Kamila's programs were very dull, but she is a expressive girl who could do so much more if she had a proper choreographer. Anna is almost 18 and she is world and Olympic champion now, she will probably gonna take a "pause" like Alina did. Sasha's only chance to survive in competitions is taking her dogs and leaving Eteri for a better coach. I feel sorry for Aliona Kostornaia, the girl walked the via crucis to have an Olympic chance for nothing. And I feel worse for Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Beijing was probably her last chance of an Olympic dream, but Eteri's greed and narcisism would never allow a girl from another camp to represent Russia at the Olympics. And the worst, everyone knows that Eteri doped Kamila, but she will continue unpunished exploiting girls to grab the medals and the prizes that her flopped career never achieved. It's a shakespearian tragedy.
In fact Alena has now broken a SECOND arm due to being forced out on the ice for 'practice' while the whole doping scandal was raging in Beijing in an attempt to divert some attention away from that. She was trying to skate at full tilt on an arm that was probably only barely healed, and couldn't properly save herself from the falls, so breaking the other arm. Its disgusting abuse. She was probably told she would be thrown off the team if she didn't do it (only for Eteri to dump her a few weeks later anyway).
truosova and some of the other russian skaters DO have true quads. trusovas free program was historic and she got a higher technical score then anyone, even in the mens. she deserved gold. plus her choreo isnt even bad, people just dont like that she skates with intensity instead of grace, people dont like intimidating women. even if it was shit, its not like its her fault so dont blame anything on the skater.
@@christina3573 The only real quad they have is the Salchow. Their toeloops, flips and the Lutzes all use full blade assistance instead of pure toepick take offs. But the judges overlooks this facts and give them +3, +4 or +5. Like what???? The problem with Sasha is not the lack of a "princess on ice" personality is the fact that her own team underestimates her power of self-expression and paints her like a stubborn rebel girl to promote the dutiful obedient role of Anna and Kamila. I would love see Sasha as a rockstar on ice, but Eteri would never alow that, so she is constantly the third girl with big jumps and sloppy choreography. Anya deserved the gold medal, she was the only stable one between the storms of Sasha and Kamila. Anya did the job and she was happy thinking that she was getting silver, but the olympians rewarded her consistency. That's the story.
@@christina3573 If Sasha played the part of Cruella during the performance, she'd deserve to win. But she was expressionless, worried about the quads. Her PCS should be even lower.
you probably know this, but alexander larkernik (vice president of the ISU) was on the tech panel during the ladies event in sochi. lmao. i fear unless the entire thing is overhauled we’ll be in this hell forever.
It makes me angry to see the majority of Russian coaches and skaters and higher-ups claim the rest of the world is just jealous of them. That the rest of the world is inferior I every aspect, that russian blood gives superiority in transitions and SS and jumping and everything. It's maddening. Like, no, the world isn't jealous, everyone simply wants a fair sport. And these biased people claiming how everyone is not as good as them and how the sport will suffer without them.....
No to mention how badly they fuel racism into EVERYTHING!!!!
I wish the ISU would only allow 1 beilman spin a program …. The judging & scoring need to be overhauled… if you remember last years Russian nats, Anna Scherbokova couldn’t breathe & barely got through her short program. She was given ‘smelling salts’ which does nothing for lung function . The very next day she had the program of her life. Although trusova’s quads are incredible, I have better skating skills…. Everyone hated koola king but she was right.
"If you want your children to have a famous Mom, *work HARDER.* " Eteri yelled at the girls.
With her style of training, she could be in jail in US. If she works in China, she will be a hero. They strongly believe in No Pain No Gain. China is too hungery for a medal of any color in lady skating.
Totally. Not to mention, with her style of coaching, it wouldn’t be surprising if those poor little girls actually ended up infertile… Ironic, isn’t it? Really giving me black widow red room vibes. I agree, she should be in jail.
100% agree with you especially the formula to win part. Nice video!!!
As I got into figure skating in 2018 through the Olympics and through the film I, Tonya. Since then I followed the sport, mainly women for a bit, but I have been so disillusioned by the direction the womens´ figure skating has gone. So after about 2 years away from the sport I decided to watch the olympics and I was horrified. While I am obviously a noob when it comes to the technical elements of skating, some of these mistakes from the Russian skaters are so obvious even someone who had never seen a skating competition before would notice. I mean Trusova was pissed she didn't get gold? With the mistakes you made, you can be happy you are even on the podium.
To me figure skating as a sport is more art than a competition/race. It will always be subjective, but there are certain elements that will be more appealing than others and if you simply give all the Tuberitze girls top scores seemingly no matter what they do on ice ofc they are going to win with the most difficult programs. Either the judges are corrupt and payed off by Russia (in my mind this is very likely) or they don't even understand the sport as much as someone like me who by all accounts knows nothing. I can't tell which is worse for the sport honestly.
I hope people like you can get in the right positions to make meaningful change, because it would be a damn shame to see such a beautiful sport wither away and die.
Eteri does/ has trained male skaters. They just haven’t been successful because her method of training is dependent on the girls maintaining a certain body weight and figure. That doesn’t translate well to male skating from my understanding
and i feel so sad that the innocent russian athletes have to suffer too .. it's a fucked up situation from all sides
Personally, I think all Olympic sports should be 18+ or older the year they compete. I agree with you on all the injuries, that’s why the rules should be made to made to make sure they don’t get prolonged injuries.
The doping stuff needs to be zero tolerance. I know these girls aren’t at fault for the cause, it’s the result of the diets their being forced & everything else.
I also look at skating as a beautiful art, if quads are damaging to the female skaters, then ban it. Everything is political about this & especially in Russia. It’s a sport & to much is put on the shoulders of these young competitors. I finally was able to watch the rest of your video & appreciate your opinions having been in the sport. You know firsthand what’s going on. These girls will just be used by russia for negative propaganda against the west. I wish Russians where free like we are here in America & I don’t agree with the state sponsoring anything. Because you see what happens when government has the power, they can ruin peoples lives over a sport. It’s just sad because I always loved to watch Sasha Cohen, she was always my true love growing up 😂. But the beauty & elegance of the sport is being taken away by all of this mess.
I find that women's figure skating programmes are not as cohesive and artistic as men's. It seems to be elements one after another rather than painting the music.
Thnx so much Eric! I love these reaction videos. Plz make more :) I just tuned into figure skating this Olympics... So sad I missed out on the good stuff from yesteryears
There’s a software fix for some of what you suggest in that if an edge or under rotation is called the GOE’s for that element should be automatically zeroed so that it’s immaterial what the judges think and makes grade inflation on that element an impossibility.
it's sad because pretty much all of my absolute ultimate favs are russian :/ i love those girls so much.. evgenia medvedeva was the skater that really made me get back into figure skating..
I think that’s why I liked Eva-Lotta’s SP this season. It was different from the ‘formula’. Though I don’t mind Team Tutberidze programs they do feel a bit repetitive. Also, I love that Russia puts money into figure skating. Sometimes in my country it feels that a lot of resources goes into male dominated sports and the rest get left behind. When I first came across figure skating it was a breath of fresh air to see that both men and women were being prioritised in the sport.
Fabulous! 👏🏽 such great points you made!
Hey Eric, CONGRATS on 1.26K subscribers!! Your analysis of things is much needed at this time and you're doing a great job, even, IMO, for non-skaters like myself.
As far as Russia, it seems to me that beyond the internal politics of skating in Russia, there must be a lot of MONEY going into these international skating organizations that leads them to "overlook" the judging. Maybe there will be more clarity moving forward but money seems to be at the root of many international committee oversights (that would also apply to National committees as well, including say US gymnastics for eg).
As for the doping issue, the underlying root cause IMO is conditioning, and that goes beyond just strength training, specific skills training, and going thru routines. The way forward is to institute ways of helping the athletes do all of the above and NOT GET INJURED. Beyond routine physiotherapy outside of the usual skating specific training, FMS (functional movement screens) are key so that the athletes have better propioception of their body. It won't prevent injury, but certainly will help to offset it. As far as I know, this is more of a thing in professional Football and Baseball here in the states, but you may know more about what the deal is with FMS in competitive skating. Finally, there need to be agreed upon Sport Nutrition programs that help with maximizing training and decreasing injury. I know this may all seem like too much to ask for, especially since it will take some time, but I feel it's the way forward.
But anyway, great job! Keep it up!
I was just thinking the same thing about football & baseball here in the states. I was a Quarterback when I played in middle school & high school. The diet the coaches put me on was & training regiment was big. I ate so much to put on weight & gain muscle when I was 15 to 17. Was 225lbs @ 2% body fat. I was ripped. Then at 17 was in a terrible accident & should’ve killed me but because the condition I was in I made it. But from the TBI I suffered ended both football & baseball for me.
So I know what it’s like to be the top of the world one day to waking up 11days later from coma not being able to move. Spent 31 days in the hospital & the last 19 years plague with injuries. Being a cowboy much of my life didn’t help injuries either but to see that these young girls are being put through this & then just discarded when they hit 18 is disgusting to me.
I always like your takes on these things you obviously have the background and the knowledge and you talk very objective about it not like *some* other people who very much are always on the hunt for "drama"
Part of the problem is that it's impossible to have a scoring system that is both hard-to-corrupt and that rewards artistry at the same time. Artistry is just too subjective. Remember, IJS started in response to proven corruption under the 6.0 system -- now at least most (but not all) of the corruption is confined to PCS.
I disagree - perhaps most (but not all) judging corruption does lie in judges (rather than tech specialists - but them too) BUT it’s way more than PCS - GOEs are often some of the craziest marks, being consistently higher or lower for different skaters based seemingly off of national origin & reputation. The systematic scoring segregation of PCS heavily filters into GOE, making skaters who don’t have those benefits having an extreme uphill battle to get anywhere near the top.
@@EricStinehart Maybe we can get chatGPT to do the scoring.
The doping needs to be cleaned up, period. Many of skatings pre-existing issues are exasperated by the doping aspect which is totally out of control right now.
Its just sad because it's not the russians athletes fault either like they are brang into all this political mess and they are being abused in front of our eyes. I really hope that now thomas Bach has found eteris behaviour disturbing etc I hope they do something about it
Thomas Bach started WADA. He’s so inter connected through all those agencies. I can tell you what’s going to happen to Kamila…. Nothing … since she’s a protected minor , nothing is going to happen. Now that Russians are banned , nothing will happen to Eteri either… that creepy dr at the boards had the Russian rowing team banned for doping . Who needs an anesthesiologist as a ‘team doctor’? There’s just so many questions & unfortunately there will be no answers & no consequences
Truth...Doping Russia should just be banned permanently
“Russia” Isn’t ruining anything, the big people of the country are, the government, not even all coaches, ETERI is the one who is the most problematic, other russian coaches are some of the best in the world (mishin,moskina, tarasova...) I am fcking sick of the hate for a country who has beautiful culture, cities, language, amazing ppl (except the government)
Rusfed is the one who tarnishing the figure skating with their politicking and favoring certain coaches. They're so petty and now just after they're banned because of invasion (not because of dopping), they plan to hold channel1 cup at the same time with WC. Guess what competition I will watch
Yeah, cause Eteri works totally alone and RUSFED is full of saint and law abiding members… 😂😂😂😂
@@angieortizurena3327 when did I said Rusfed was a saint? where in my comment have i said that? learn to read
When people say Russia they are referring to the state and the regime that perpetuated child doping, setting up.secret labs to swap blood and urine samples and infiltrate international bodies to cheat the system and all to the detriment of the sport, NOT the Russian people.
When a russian skater wins the gold medal it means that russia wins the gold medal. But when russia fucks up it is somehow different and only a small group of people is at fault? Very convenient way of thinking, Masha. Typical for russians.
The ISU and IOC banned Vallieva but the international court of sports arbitration overruled them. That court has made some seriously questionable ruling that are inconsistent at best.
- WADA found out they are deliberately holding the sample test result, which is over 22 days from the day the sample received, WADA breaching it's own protocol.
- WADA was called "incompetent" by the CAS because of that
- WADA use excuses such as "COVID" and "lack of staff", it didn't effective.
- CAS rule out that she still can compete because she was clean before and during Tallinn, and she was clean before and during beijing.
- Russian athlete committee demand thorough investigation.
the investigation is still ongoing until today.
it's clearly sabotage.
I agree. Irreparable harm...like whatever defense she gave, even ridiculous as grandpa burped in my cup, would not change the fact that she had a banned substance in her system. All it should come down to. She should have been disqualified.
@@rajs7876 "the investigation is still ongoing until today."
what's the part of "the investigation is still ongoing" that you didn't understand?
I stopped watching figure skating after Yuna Kim lost to Adelina. This was the beginning of what was to come in inflating gpa towards Russian skaters!
I've always felt pretty hopeless with scoring since it feels like judges can get away with anything. So I'm curious, is there a check for judges? Is there a governing body that can try to spot incosistencies in scoring? And from Russia I'm wondering, do you think other schools are raising questions about the extreme favor eteri's school gets? I would think mishin would cause he's such a respected coach and professor who's done actual studies on figure skating but I feel like we don't hear any critism besides from plushenko...
You're saying exactly what I've been thinking
It's just one women's team in russia causing all the drama
I know 3 of the top skaters in my country only 1 of them has ever landed a quad and yet all 3 of them are no 2 (Womans and pairs) and they are all amazing skaters who love the sport
Russian and Americans have a lot of control on scoring system due to most judges being from there side its crazy how underscored people like yuzu was
Да чего уж там, надо во всех видах спорта лишить русских права на участие. Может тогда ваш шизофренический "самоподдув" пойдет немного на спад.
Чел, затирает про использование русскими людей в целях пропаганды не замечая того, что сам отрабатывает "повесточку".
Я живу и тренируюсь в Японии и весь каток, где я тренируюсь, является большим болельщиком команды Тутберидзе, Камилы, Саши, Аны, кроме того, болеет за местных японских фигуристок. Я не понимаю, почему американцы так против русских фигуристов и почему. они не могут признать российское фигурное катание лучшим в мире. Они счастливы, что Россия запрещена, потому что они никогда не смогут выиграть ни у одного российского фигуриста в настоящем.
You should do an in depth video of the Sochi scandal! Even though koola has many videos on this, alot of people don't like koola and or see them as a bully.
It would be nice to have your perspective on the whole issue including the levels on the step sequences of Kim and sotnikova that season and then in Sochi and the judge that was on the panel and hugged sotnikova after the event who was also maybe involved in the 2002 judging scandal and is married to the Russian federation president. And also the objectively bad scoring on the edge calls underotations 2 foot landings and inflation of PCs etc
I think a video of this would be helpful for new fans to understand the history of the Russian dominance in a different way and a new fresh video from a reasonable and knowledgeable source will reach more people
Ok enough people have requested this that I will definitely try to do this soon :)
As an aside, the justification for nationals scoring has never made sense to me, not in terms of promoting fairness of an international sport. To me, in a way what I see is that Russia treats international competitions scoring exactly like some countries treat nationals competition... which makes sense actually in their own way. Nationals overscoring being seen as more acceptable is really a political argument about making exceptions, not really a logically consistent one about fair scoring and esp when not all feds and all skaters can receive equal political pull/opportunity for their national skaters/competitions. Similarly, people normalising Olympic inflation... The problem of hyping scores for viewers seems like a terrible idea for the long term view of the sport, but especially so if the hype is selective. The difference is the motive of money/advertising vs nationalism (though obviously that is still an important differentiation in terms of values and power). Anyway I suppose my thoughts are that yeah Russia and Eteri are obviously particularly egregious examples but people like Eteri don't come from nowhere, they come from enabling and normalisation of smaller issues that can get overlooked as minor and are then pumped up on rockets by Russian infrastructure being particularly good at gaming it for their own country's nationalist agenda. Also another issue is funding and with what strings - the opacity of not knowing what is actually being funded - figure skating? Or doping? judges? advertising companies? propaganda?
It's all the more reason to put pressure on fair, objective and competent scoring across the board on every front and frontier, not only when it starts affecting big feds. On knowing under what conditions could funding be taken away from skaters or stakeholders. Or even, I think, what difference would it have made to how the sport is going now if 2014 was responded to differently? If concerns were responded to differently prior to this entire saga? If smaller feds were given more opportunities? If big feds stood up for small fed skaters? Lots and lots of what ifs on my part.
Adelina still shouldn't have won gold. It was a 4th place performance at best.
good video. russia really spoiled the sport. same happened with syncronized swimming. now you need to start at 5 yo and work like hell to achieve anything in figure skating. cannot let my daughter go for this sport. choosing swimming. sadly. beautiful sport, but spoiled by greedy people.
The only reason I like figure skating is because of kamila valieva😅❤️and it’s boring without the Russians
But its not safe, thats the issue.
US ruined artistic gymnastics
14:00 what video omg 😭
twitter.com/sumlenny/status/1494582788216995840?s=21
@@EricStinehart omg that video 💀 when you think it can't get worse 😅
@@EricStinehart they really are built different jeez 😭
I liked everything you mentioned about figure skating itself. . . but you yourself are being very polarizing by basically grouping "conservatives" with a negative connotation . . . . there are good conservative people that enjoy and support figure skating
I mean. It's 'sportsMANship', not sportswomanship lol. Makes sense why this only happens in women's. Just kidding. I felt second hand embarrassment from watching. It's a hot mess :/
Russia Is Ruining Figure Skating, thats title is a lie,rude and hatefull. Is like you said US in Ruinining Gymnastics. SAME PROLEMS AND EVEN WORST¡¡¡
Im from Mexico and i have love this sport for 20 years, and the Russian are a huge part of this sport, Russian ladies are by far the most popular skaters in the world
I DONT LIKE ETERI AND AFTER KAMILAS CASE IM DONE WITH HER, but if you dont wanna see Russian ladies are by far the best skaters in the world, like Nathan in mens, France in dance and CHI-RUS in pairs, i dont know what you see.
btw quads are for everyone, Rika has jump quads, even in competition, womens are capable to jump quads, i dont get it
No one is saying that the female Russian skaters are bad skaters. The point is that the skating culture in Russia (which Eteri essentially controls) is very damaging and toxic and corrupt systems and organizations like the ISU reward this kind of environment, thus perpetuating it.
@@christiecakes014 About Eteri, agree, im huge fan of her skaters, not her, i want Eteri ban.
Agree about ISU bt thats ISUs fault and their judges, who are from all the world, not just Russians. If they follow the rules will be no need to change anything but her scores. Sasha is a TEC 100 but 6-7s in PCS.BUT THATS ISUs NOT ETERIS FAULT
@@kara1460 Mucho texto. So much words, i didnt read anything BUT thanyou to put so much time in me :)
It's pretty fair to say that when they are ruining figure Skating when they are ruining the reputation of the sport by a blatant campaign of cheating
The “fact” that Russia has so much control and influence over ISU is enough proof that they are ruining the sport.
Be careful what you are saying
Disagree about Sotnikovas win....she DESERVED to beat Yu Na that night her programe was more difficult and Yu Na had no 3S.
The reason her overall score was do much higher than other competitions was that, up till the OG she was never consistent and would produce a great SP and disastrous LP or vice versa. Therefore that gave her scores at the OG the false look of having been inflated. Similar to Tara Lipinski in 1998 she went put there, full of exuberance and did a high energy programme in front of her home crowd who roared her on, and the judges went with it. Yu Na programme was a bit slower and a different, more intense style snd the judges went with the joy of youth.
You are forgetting Sotnikva's mistakes that were all overlooked. You say Kim had no 3S. Sotnikova had no lutz but got full credit for it anyway. Same with Medvedeva at the following Olympics (and she still lost to Zagitova, LOL).
I think this is an overly harsh critique and doesn’t really give them the kudos they deserve. None of these girls are forced to be there. Girls have left Sambo 70 and come back. They are allowed to quit. The ones that stay choose to stay because they know that they have the best shot at being the best, getting sponsored by Nike, winning competitions, etc.
Eteri has really pushed the boundaries, not just in the jumps but in the presentation / dance / artistry. Kamila and Anna really combine power jumps with the presentation. Its beautiful to watch. Is it short lived? Probably, but at the end of the day, they are pushing the boundaries of women’s figure skating. It take craziness to do that. You cant do that just doing the same thing that every skater in the past did.
Must be nice to live in denial land! Is it every day sunny up there?
They know they have the best shot at the political game, not being the actual best. They know they are getting unfair marks unless they truly know nothing about figure skating.
😁
Tell me where you there or watching on TV if it was on the tv then you can not comment on this subject
THE JUDGES MUST CHANGE!!!MUCH TOO PALE, STALE, AND ALWAYS FREAKING MALE BEHIND THE SCENES.