“I’m upset by the level. For so many years, we really raised the level of women’s skating and now it has dropped by 10 levels.” Evgenia Medvedeva about women’s single skating at the Grand Prix
Translation of Evgenia Medvedeva’s comments about the level of women’s figure skating at the Grand Prix.
original source: Okko Sport
Here’s a translation of Evgenia Medvedeva’s comments about the current level of women’s single skating at the Grand Prix.
In the Grand Prix Final, Kaori Sakamoto is leading after the short program.
“Evgenia Medvedeva: I’m actually a little upset. Honestly. I’m upset by the level. For so many years, we really raised the level of women’s figure skating.
There were many of us, we did different elements, we skated at different levels, but we all raised, raised, and raised. And then what happened, happened. And somehow… level dropped by 10.
I want to justify myself a bit. I have always been very happy for Kaori Sakamoto’s victories – her first world championship, her second, her performance at the Olympic Games. I have always liked this figure skater a lot, and now I will also be happy for her scores.
I’m not talking about Kaori; she is, as always, great. But I have some kind of salty overall impression.”
Related topics: Evgenia Medvedeva, grand prix final
Russian women did not raise the level of figure skating until they started cheating. Full stop.
Well it doesn’t matter if Russian skaters would raise the level of skating. A big number of their Superstars showed support for their invasion of Ukraine and rallied for it with their president. And that’s why they are banned and should remain banned!
I agree with Dominique. Daniel Grassl trained in Russia and what happed to him? Doping violation. Remember what Grigory Rodchenko revealed? Remember what kind of state-run doping operation took place in Sochi? They did it during communism, they do it now. Sport is being used and has always been used by authoritarian regimes in propaganda and to improve image internationally. And, most important, Russia is not banned because they were too good at figure skating. They are banned because they invaded another country and they wage a war. Btw Israel in my opinion should be banned as well for the genocide on Palestinans.
Russians miles ahead and it is not only Chrystal you.
I disagree with some of Dominique’s analysis. I don’t think you can have it both ways. Either you have confidence in WADA’s rigorous anti-doping testing, or you don’t. That is, if you trust that a positive test result means a skater is most likely doping, you must also trust that a negative test result means that the skater most likely isn’t doping.
And I really wish to give Evgenia a straighforward answer, hoping moderator will allow it in this field. What Russian female skaters (at least those from Chrustalny) have achieved just CANNOT count. For one simple reason – because of doping. Now, only Kamila has been caught, but it could easily be anyone of the top skaters in the group. Now, the scores are dropping dramatically only in Russia, don’t they?? And this happens even with ”friendly” Russian judges, always willing to give their skaters oversized consolation scores. And when following the clean skaters we all see how they rise and develop, technically and artistically. And the scores reflect it as well. And one more thing – absolutely wonderful skating skills, that sadly very seldom are present in Russian skating.