Ilia Averbukh about ladies’ Grand-prix Final 2017
Ilia Averbukh talks about ladies’ Grand-prix Final 2017.
Ilia: Medvedeva and Zagitova can meet for the first time at Grand Prix final, but I do not know if it makes sense to do it now, because if one of them misses the final, nothing terrible will happen. Apparently, both athletes will be in the team, they showed themself better than others. However, I think that Elena Radionova can also interfere.
Zhenya is the absolute leader of the season, and her main task is to cope with excitement and skate cleanly. I am sure that with her diligence and talent she will cope with all the difficulties of the Olympic season, everyone has such. As for her decision to participate in the Grand Prix Final, I hope, Medvedeva and her coach Eteri Tutberidze will make the right choice based athlete’s health. This is not a super competition where you should really show your best to win, Olympics is ahead.
This season Sotskova showed herself very well, I like her program, she did well. As for Zagitova, she brilliantly skated all the free programs and also confidently failed all the short ones. So, she need to look for a psychological balance, because her jumping content is the most difficult in the world now.
Speaking about rivals of the Russians, Ilia mentioned Kostner:
Ilia: She is a great figure-skater, who has become a legend. Bravo – she performed well, got into the Final. Even though she is not taken into account as an Olympic medal contender, she is winning back her positions guided by legendary coach Alexei Mishin. I’m sure at the upcoming European Championships she will have a good result, because she does her job and waits for competitors.
Canadian Osmond wasn’t able to show a bright result, her scores were lower than Medvedeva’s, despite the excellent jumps the breakthrough did not happen. Still, our athletes are much ahead.
by Veronika Sovetova for tass.ru
Related topics: Alina Zagitova, Carolina Kostner, Elena Radionova, Evgenia Medvedeva, grand prix final, Ilia Averbukh, kaetlyn osmond, ladies
Many thanks for the update, Lotte. The figure skating scene in Russia is never dull.
Lotte, you are a far kinder person than I. I would never give Averbukh the benefit of the doubt. By the way, does anyone know what his ex-wife Lorbacheva is doing these days? Coaching? Performing?
According to what I read on Russian websites, she opened her own school, but as I understood, due to lack of money, it got closed. She organised some show on Red Square, but the Moscow government didn’t consider it a good investment and stopped funding it. As per February, she was training in Olympic Reserve school and didn’t understand their EHS rules :) and she misses USSR. She said then in USSR one could reach the climb thanks to the sport, the state cared about the sport and now you have to pay for everything. She’s complaining about the very bad conditions of coach’s work on Russia. She’s thinking about running for Duma.
Dmitriy Maryanov, Russian actor and Irina’s ex died recently. She’s blaming his wife for his death (and generally sounds like she was still hurt after their break up).
Darling, you need to upload his interviews more often. Love him. Great entertainment.
This time he forgot about Japanese girls. Who cares, right? OUR athletes should win. They are the best. Always. No matter what will happen.
And, oh, I love the fact that he’s able to say a few nice (but not too nice, right) words about Caro only because she’s training with Mishin.
Probably I should look what he said about other disciplines))))
:D
Actually, I found some of his statements on tass.ru and I noticed a funny tendency. If he speaks right after the competition, it’s usually divorced from reality and kinda hilarious. If the statement is made some time after the competition, it sounds much more sensible.
It gave me hope that Ilia is simply a tiny little bit too emotional :)