FS: Season X: The Medvedeva Files

You know, things change.  Sometimes we don’t want them to, but it’s just the way life is.  When you know change is coming, you can plan for it and be ready, but when it’s unexpected, it needs a bit of soak time, and then the sun comes out again the next day.  Then sometimes you realize that maybe it’s not so bad and you adjust.  Spoken from a person who hates change.

Yuzu’s newest Olympic Gold medal hasn’t even had time to collect any dust yet, and in this short time, we have seen the normal expected post season changes plus some we certainly didn’t expect;

• Official Retirements:
  • Team Canada: Patrick Chan, Kevin Reynolds, Elladj Balde, Megan Duhamel/Eric Radford
  • Team Japan: Takahito Mura
  • Team USA: Max Aaron
• Coaching Changes:
  • Team Korea: Eunsoo Lim moving to train with Rafael Artunian
  • Team Japan: Marin Honda moving to train with Rafael Artunian
  • Team Russia: Evgenia Medvedeva moving to train with Brian Orser!
• Rumors of coaching Changes
  • Team Japan: Wakaba Higuchi to train at TCC under Brian Orser
  • Team China: Boyang Jin to train at TCC with Brian Orser (full time not confirmed and still retaining his own coach)

I am sure there are more, but these are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head at this moment.

May is NHL playoff time and last night while I was sitting on my couch, screaming at the tv at a couple of missed cross-checking and tripping calls, during a commercial break, I was thinking about next week’s season finale of Dynasty and wondering what was I going to watch in the summer months for drama.  Well, I didn’t have to wait long for the answer to my question.  I opened my twitter feed to find the craziest drama of the off-season!

The last 24 hours have turned the figure skating world upside down.  I now have read that rumors about Medvedeva leaving Eteri have existed for at least a month, however, I was unaware that she was considering a coaching change.  While I was shocked at the news and unfolding drama, I’ve had my soak time, and am now ready for the rest of this story to unfold.

Here are my thoughts about everything that has transpired:

It was quite evident during the Kiss and Cry moments at the Olympics, that Medvedeva was shocked to her core with the results.  She was “the one” that was supposed to win Olympic gold.  However, Medvedeva was a gracious silver medalist and held her head high even though all she probably wanted to do was go into a room and cry.  Poor Zagitova probably wanted to jump and scream when she won but had to hold all of her excitement in check because she didn’t want to make her friend and training mate feel bad.  This whole situation played out very differently than that of Yuzu and Javi.

I suspect that in the months after the Olympics, Medvedeva did a ton of thinking about what happened, how it happened, and got angry about the whole situation.  Fortunately for all involved, there was no scandal about this, just a set of circumstances that did not work in her favor (foot injury, bonus point rules etc).  This coaching change looks like she got angry enough to do something about it.  Speaking of bonus marks, Zhenya gets bonus marks for handling this transition calmly and without slinging any mud at Eteri.

Anyways, as much as I thought Eteri always favoured Medvedeva over Zagitova, Eteri created a program for Zagitova that basically won the Gold medal for her on the merit of the backloading bonus marks.  Sure, Eteri played by the rules, to the letter of the law, and she just gave each one of her students the best opportunity to win based on their strengths.  There are so many rumors out there that Medvedeva asked for an upgrade in technical content but was denied.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but let’s not forget that Medvedeva was injured and was in no position to add upgraded technical content into her arsenal last season anyways.

Throughout the past few seasons, after watching Medvedeva’s practices at events in person, I have always thought that if she did have an injury, it would be an overuse injury.  The way Medvedeva pounded the triple toes and triple flips over and over and over again, had me thinking she was primed for an overuse injury.  I mean, Evgenia’s practice repetition also accounted for her amazing consistency over those years, but that type of training really didn’t have much vision to the future.  I think Brian will put a stop to that, just like he had to reign in Yuzu when he first arrived.  Will Evgenia be willing to embrace a significant change in the style of training?

Much has been said about Eteri only being able to train young girls, and doesn’t know how to train girls once they hit puberty.  Eteri’s infamous comment about girls “not being able to jump once their bodies start getting prepared to become mothers” lends credence to this so her students have to learn early and win fast.  Recent events have shown us that Evgenia is thinking about having a long career versus being a one hit wonder.  I believe that the move to Brian for this new outlook is one of the smartest moves she will make.  Brian’s coaching philosophy will support Medvedeva’s goals for career longevity.

Whether or not the “why couldn’t you make Alina stay in juniors for one more year?” comments exposed by Eteri about Medvedeva are true or not, it does raise some questions about Eteri’s morale code.  Dirty laundry does not need to be aired in public, and regardless of who you are, Eteri needs to learn a bit of discretion.

What is Medvedeva going to get when she arrives at TCC??  Well, she is going to find a very different environment than what she is used to.  She will not be pitted against anyone during practices, she no longer has to keep looking over her shoulder at the all the young whipper-snappers chasing her.  She is going to be re-taught a foundation of skating that will serve her well into the future so that she can become more than just Medvedeva, the machine.  Hopefully in her new-found freedom and input into her own skating, her creativity will flourish, and we will see so much more to her artistic development.

One critical thing Medvedeva will learn is that she is allowed to eat!  Brian’s team definitely fosters a healthier environment for her.  Weight training, power, and muscle are not bad things.  Yuzu also had to learn this as he was also once scared that he would gain too much muscle mass if he did any weight training!

Aside from other technical jump details that may be corrected (ie: the flutz), I am most excited to see if Mr. Triple Axel can fix Medvedeva’s double axel.  Zhenya’s god-awful double axel is the stuff of my nightmares!

It will surely be a huge adjustment for Zhenya.  She will no longer be top dog at the rink, she will be the newbie trying to fit in.  She will be in an environment that in by all accounts, listens to their skaters and truly does foster a team concept that includes the skater.  She will have a team of support that creates training plans with the skaters that work to strengthen a skaters’ skills and focuses on their ultimate goals regardless of the bumps it will take to get there.  The way the TCC team has worked with and handled Yuzu’s serious injury and his recovery should be very reinforcing and comforting for Evgenia.  I’m not saying that the Eteri Factory is all bad, but the trend with her skaters that we can see so far is pretty telling.

After watching the instagram video Medvedeva posted of her reviewing the hidden Russian colours on her Olympic team uniform, there was no way in my mind that she would ever consider skating for any other country than Russia.

As I was writing this blog entry, the first interview with Brian about Medvedeva’s move was published (link below).  A number of really interesting points have been brought to light in this article but none more insightful than the following to me.

“The main thing is she needs to have a voice in her own skating,” Orser said. “We have been discussing music, what direction we want to go — she has never had that luxury before.  She told me it was, ‘This is what you’re skating to.  This is the order of your spins, these are your spin positions.”’

http://www.icenetwork.com/news/2018/05/07/275657578

I look forward to the new look Evgenia!!

Will this work?  Will we see a new plaque with Evgenia’s name on it, added to the wall at TCC?  Who would have thought that year one of the new Olympic quad was going to be so intriguing??  and…FUN!!!

 

Go Evgenia Go!

 

Go Yuzu Go!!!  Doki Doki!!