Wednesday On Ice! Russian & Japanese Nationals Review 

I really don't think a teenager (Kamila in this case) gives a rat's ass about political views of any cast members across the globe. She watched a teenage show, liked it, danced to it and did it well. It's art and not politics.

As much as I love Aliona I don’t think my blood pressure can take it if she moves to pairs

Jenna Ortega is not Russian, it costs her nothing to speak out about this war. Even tho I bet she doesn’t give it much thought. While Kamila would lost her career or even freedom if she made any public statement. The girl just tries to live her life and skate. She had a right to perform as any character. Besides she is not responsible for a war in any way.

It's a miracle Elizabeta is still competing. Like I'm rooting for her just because she still exists in Russian skating conversations.

Major flue outbreak hit Russia this December. It’s really tough, a lot of people are sick. That’s why we haven’t seen Vasilisa and Valery, Irina and Dario (?) in ice dance, Mikhail Kolyada. After the free Samodelkina also had a fever. Sasha was feeling sick the day before the short (and she was doing 4lz+2a in training I believe, which is impressive). The day of the program she had high fever and was not allowed to compete. Yes, it was doctors decision. Kamila not covering her face: basically, she said the reason is that she doesn’t need to hide anymore. I don’t know what to think of that, honestly. Mark is already injured. He was in hospital dealing with back problems this month. Adelia is my joy, I love her short so much. Waiting for her comeback. She has it all to win. Also worth mentioning: - big scandal in ice dance as the winners are so overscored throughout the season; - identical points between 1 and 2 place in men category; - it’s Liza’s 15th nationals!

Kamila's gala performance and the Wednesday Dance blew me away. I have not seen such a crowd pleasing performance from her before. This raises the bar. I want to see more. ❤

I can't believe you haven't mentioned that men's podium ended up with equal scores of 2nd and 1st place. And Semenenko's k-pop free program! The men's competition was insane in a good sense but I feel bad for Mozalev and a little bit for Gumennik

I want Petrosian to become the next star, she has awesome vibes and charisma while on ice, and in my opinion, her programs and vibes are distinctive, just compare the voila program to the rest of the short programs featured there

pretty sure i saw that sasha's temperature was around 39.8, i might be a bit off, but still. even if she doesn't have a physical injury a fever so high is deadly. im glad she feels better now!

Hi, for clarification, K-Bao is Kamila’s nickname in Chinese. K stands for Kamila and “Bao” means the beloved child/ the chosen one. A lot of the merchandise used this name to appeal to her large Chinese fan base. The panda plushies are probably to represent the Chinese fan-clubs, since pandas are a national symbol of China ( this is my assumption) Btw, I literally cannot live without your content!!! Thank you so much for posting before the new year❤️‍🔥

Kamila Valieva won everyone with this Wednesday dance.

I like your point that team tut didn’t really push for variety this season compared to past seasons where they really packaged well. I think they decided to stay basic this year because they took a longer break post Olympics and knew it would only be a domestic season.

I loved Kamila’s Wednesday performance. She looked like she had fun doing it!

I think Kamila deliberately didn't wear the hood at the end. She's "not hiding" anymore.

Hi, Paola. Actually what happened to Shoma was that having popped his jump, he decided to improvise the Axel sequence, knowing he would get a minus, but save the scores. That's why he got delayed giving everyone that funny ending.

I think on the Kostornaia thing you are missing a couple of important things. First, if done properly you can be a pairs skater for a long long time. Many pair skaters stay in that discipline into their thirties. I think that it also has to do with the amount of psychological pressure, it is divided between two people on the ice. Vale Marchei transitioned very successfully into pairs after a long career being a solo skater and would have stayed if her partner, Ondrej Hotarek had not retired (what a shame they were marvelous). Even if the competition in Russia is so fierce, Aliona would have time to get the hang of it because she has what it really takes to be a female pair skater: you need to be fearless. However, I do think that injuries might be an issue. And also, finding a partner is not very easy. You need to find the right person to skate, in the right age range and the right nationality. That's a lot of qualifications.

you got me SO interested in figure skating, thanks to you!! These videos are so well made and fun to watch! cant wait to keep watching in 2023!!

when i saw that Wednesday performance i was like "time to wait for a Paola video ‼️" 💀💀

in adelia's defense, she was out of the most recent russian comps before nationals because of an injury, so i think the falls were partially cuz of that? idk i just love her lol

‘K-bao’ is the Chinese nickname (K宝）her Chinese fans made for her, can be translated into something like ‘precious K’ or ‘baby K’ 😂

omg i can`t believe you left out the fact that in men rusnats 1st and 2nd place scores were IDENTICAL, that`s insane that 2 boys could get exactly 295.07. and the one who got less in the free skate got the silver and he was extremely disappointed i feel so bad for him and also in pairs boikova/kozlovskiy got their moment becau se mishina messed up her jump, the difference was like 0.5 and there is a scorched field in ice dance because all the duets have fallen apart but it was still intriguing OH and also the hand in Kamila`s Wednesday performance in Dany G

Just a reminder as people tend to forget - fs is state sponsored in russia, meaning they're aligned with it's regime regardless. Also, let's remember that russia started the war *after* the olympics simply because china asked them not to do so during the games. Shoutout to Japanese ladies!! The field is so stacked and I'm so happy to see kaori and mai doing well, and rika coming back and getting better.

one more quick note, you are 100% right about the same programs and choreography. i still see echoes of Yulia Lipnitskaya and Zhenya in the one leg straight up spins

I really don’t understand why Kamila changed her SP dress, the blue one was GORGEOUS and the purple one makes her look kinda old 🥴

Ma’am how could you skim the Japanese Ladies Nationals? The field is so stacked. I don’t want to jinx them but Mao Shimada, Ami Nakai, and Hana Yoshida are really dang impressive. Rika didn’t do it in competition but she has her 3lz back, and I can’t wait to see her the next time she gets to compete bc her recovery seems to be going well.

In the recent interview Kostornaya actually said that she would consider pairs not ice dance because it’s more exciting and she loves jumps. Pretty much all figure skaters are injured in some ways, take Sui Wenjing and their Olympic gold. tbh I’d be more than thrilled seeing her compete in anything.

I have no doubt that Sasha probably unconsciously gave Mark what she probably had since they do live together (feel free to fact check me, I’m like 90% sure that’s right but it might not be) I just feel like I remember hearing that from someone on Instagram but idk

ice skating fan, kpop stan, AND eurovision fan?? you are my bff now LMAO

We stan a Queen who delivers the news we need. Thanks, Paola!

As a Sunghoon fan I wanted to add some details: the song they dance is Black Swan which incorporates a first death topic: losing the passion for your art, the fear of it. Sunghoon & Jun trained together as kids so their dance is a direct contrast, one kept the passion for ice skating, the other decided on another path. The way the choreo is done is also showing this, esp when they dance alone, Sunghoon is more conflicted while Jun tries to pull him in. Off topic but Sunghoon has been able to use his ice skating skills for shows like when he roller skated on MAMA or taught his group mates to ice skate. It was so nice to have this JunHoon reunion. /anyway back to watching thanks so much for your videos 🙏🏻

i think k-bao is a chinese thing bc 宝 which means baby or is like a general term of endearment can be translated into bao and i've heard a lot of chinese fans call kamila k宝 online

I think Yuma was and is still not fully recovered. He made a tweet and a post on instagram that he will rest and let his injury heal

My friggin’ worlds are colliding! I am a HUGE Enhypen fan! They are my ult group! Btw, they were covering a BTS song, Black Swan which is about the darkness that would overcome someone who realized that producing their art was no longer rewarding.

K-bao means baby K, it's a nickname for Kami that originated on Chinese twitter

The name on the Russian TV that you forgot what it’s called it’s actually called ice age 🎉❤ before it was called, dancing with the stars on ice but they wanted to invent their own name, and they changed it to ice age

Happy New Year, Paola 💜!! Thank you so much for all your amazing content! I've learned so much more about the sport, and have so many new favs now, like Shouma and Kaori. I started watching before the Olympics this year (thanks for helping us though that), and really wanted to get back into skating after my fav Evgenia retired. Looking forward to another year of videos! 💜💙💜 Thank you again! ☺

Im pretty sure its not that kamila's hood had a malfunction because you can see it open, but i think she just decided not to wear it to get over her trauma since its been almost a year. You also forgot to talk about kamilas quad comeback!!

i ADORE adeliya's sp she's far and away my fave currently competing skater (bar sasha but who knows how long she's lasting)

The song that Yuma skated to in the SP is actually Believer by Imagine Dragons (the one from Arcane is called Enemy lol) and it's actually not a show tune at all, believe it or not! I agree with you: it really didn't sound too great since it's a remix/not the original version. I was kinda put off by it when the second verse came up, and I'm speaking as an Imagine Dragons fan.

Team Svetlana Sokolovkaya actually did quite well, Alexander Samarin took bronze in the men's. He is also European silver medallist a few years ago. Sokolovskaya also coaches a junior Georgy Fedorov who is the winner of the jumping contest and took bronze at the Russian juniors.

I loved Kamila’s Wednesday performance. 💞

I’m so happy that you have uploaded, Paola!!

You always make my day 10 times better. Your comments are hilarious ❤ Love you paola la!

What you said about the russians not having anything intresting about their programs this season i feel like that is just happening cause of olympic burnout nobody is really giving it 100% this season not even kaori or loena

Hey, people in comment section are saying that Sophia Muravieva's dresses are taylored by her mother! Don't offend the dress! :))) Looks like she made a new one for the long program

I understood the hoodie thing as not a clothing malfunction but as Kamila being over her trauma and not needing to hide under it anymore. Also, surely I can't be the only one who is in love with Sofyas programms right?! Anyway thank you for getting me into this dumpster fire of a sport, I never thought I would be so invested in this sport and the skaters. And since you are literally the only person in my life (it is painful making a fs reference to your friends and they just look at you weirdly) who talks about this sport, I hope there are many more years of great content, laughs and drama to come ❤

The music from kageyama's short was believer by imagine dragon (so nothing to do with 50 shade 🤔?) and not from arcane either the arcane opening is another song by imagine dragon named enemy (just to clarify cause i went to check when you say it was from arcane lmao)

About surname of Svetlana, guide: the root of this surname is sokol (сокол) , which means falcon And the rest of the surname is just makes this word feminine and adjective and we get: sokolovskaya (that "aya" is feminine adjustive thing). Also, about "why they so disappointed, she is little girl", I mean this is sport, really harsh one, this is not show. We also had really great coaches, synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics, where tough coaches achieve incredible results in these sports. If you don't get why tough is normal, I don't know... I recommend you to dive into Russian history (spoiler: it is not so happy, a lot of harsh moments). Search about Great Patriotic War, five-year plans (these are plans to restore the country after World War II). Maybe then you can understand the Russian character more.

Kamila is amazing ❤

Thanks for your commentary, it has been a great year, thank you for introducing me to the drama of this messy but beautiful sport ♥️♥️

Happy New Year! 🎉

Se pronuncian: Akátieva, con el acento en esa "a". AdeliYA, no Adelia, aunque en castellano sea Adelia (creo) Petrósian, con la tilde en la "o". :) Espero que te sirva. Y discrepo absolutamente de que no se hayan esforzado en diferenciarlas y que no son diferenciables. Para los que venimos siguiéndolas desde Juniors tenemos que discrepar abiertamente. Lo siento :) Y que Jenna Ortega, muy respetablemente, sea defensora de Ucrania, no le da ningún derecho de posesión sobre un personaje y una historia que haya protagonizado ella. Cualquiera puede coger cualquier cosa de Miércoles. A Kamila le habrá gustado la serie, si es que la ha visto, o a Daniil, o lo por lo que sea que lo hayan hecho y están en su total derecho de inspirarse en lo que quieran. 🤷🏻‍♀️

as a Kpop girlie who is just now getting into figure skating, I was not expecting the enhypen mention lol, was a fun surprise! and the nct dream song linked in the music was also fun lol :)

I'm a day late but THANK YOU Paola for giving us such great content all year long!!

Muravieva's free is to Romeo and Juliet not an action thriller lolol. But yes the dress is bad. The whole of Russian nationals was a hard watch tbh, Japanese Nationals was so much more enjoyable.

я думаю, k-bao возможно связано с 宝(bǎo), камила популярна в китае и возможно это прозвище пошло оттуда. типа к - первая буква в её имени, а bao переводится с китайского как драгоценный ребёнок sorry for foreign language. my english knowledge isn’t enough to explain it

i think that kamila has met with putin but not with anything about the war it was some sort of medal or something though after the olympics but nothing pro war. i think that people are mad because they think that the program will make more people like kamila and once she recieves her her punishment there will be much more people sympathizing and defending her

Wednesday - its amazing

I enjoy your videos and thoughts on the skating world. Thank you for sharing! Have a safe and blessed New Year.

Love your videos so much ❤

fake love on ice is crazy😭😭😭 AND THE SUNGHOON CAMEO??😭 wow

Why must you dis male Zhenya and fail to acknowledge that he is the Russian National champ now? That win literally had to be decided on a tie-breaker. Is that not exciting enough for you?

Paola I started watching your videos to get a better understanding of what happened at the 2022 olympics and now I'm super excited whenever I see you've uploaded! Thank you for getting so many of us more invested in figure skating

3:35 I swear that the fact that they were childhood friends and now they are seeing again but in other circumstances and not skating 😢❤️ I love them both, Im so happy for them meeting again and hopefully they can keep being friends 😍

If youwatched Kosto's interview in Russian, she said that if she fails in singles she will definitely move to pairs.

8:00 The thing is most of the top athletes don’t go for the post-olypmic season. It’s not just Tutberidze girls. It’s all of the athletes around the world

Wanted to say thank you for putting out some excellent commentary. Also I’m currently wearing your “here goes nothing” sweatshirt (got it for xmas) and will wear it to all my practices in 2023. 😁

Akatieva's Saltoe tho… I don't get if she does a quad toe with full blade assist and moving blade, why didn't her coaches just let her do a legit quad sal...

I think anya is taking a break from competing this season, as well as recovering her jumps, but I think anya said she still wanted to compete

I’m so glad you touched on the Sambo programs. I literally watched Kostornaia’s exhibition programs the other day. They are so dynamic and interesting. I wish I could remember where I was reading that Tarasova isn’t as interested in the exhibitions now. It used to be a chance to try new things including things not allowed in competition due to rules. You could really have an artistic moment. Even Wednesday, despite going viral, wasn’t truly unique for me. It was the movie’s dance on ice. I had high hopes at the beginning. The hand thing was very cool. Maybe, it will grow on me. I wonder if the Eteri team is apprehensive about the age thing even if they return to ISU competition. They still have no skaters lasting competitively to a high enough age and haven’t ever. I doubt they want to be just a junior team of coaches. It’d be a real concern for me if I was them. No hate. Just trying to analyze how many things might be on their mind related to their reactions to skates happening.

i watched the japanese nationals religiously on a chinese live stream, it was the most amazing stuff ever, i just love figure skating (also the only way i keep up with the russians is through your videos lol; and i started getting into fs twitter and i'm scared but excited)

Am I the only one who hears Adelia's short program music in Sofia's short? Her music literally sounds like Kamila+Adelia's short programs put together haha

I wanted JSF press conference drama coverage 😔 great video tho I’m also so happy about Kaori comeback!!

Oh, and yes, Mura’s free program is Romeo and Juliet. How did you mistake that as a… thriller music… It shows how little you know.

I am so happy to see this video. If there are athletes I try to keep track of and see how they're doing, it's these Russian girls. It's honestly so sad to see how quick they go. I started watching Team Tutberidze after Yulia Lipnitskaya at the Sochi 2014 Olympics. I loved her, I loved Zhenya after her, I loved the feature on Zhenya and Alina that they did coming up to PyeongChang, I like Alina well enough but I don't love her. I loved Alyona, Anna, and Kamila. I like Sasha a lot. AND LOOK AT WHERE THEY ARE! Pretty much nonentities currently, except for Kamila, I suppose. I definitely have a favorite (Zhenya) and I love that Alyona actually talked a little bit about the behind the scenes of Team Tutberidze. Much love and respect for her and her decision to prioritize health over the Russian Robot Factory. It's just so sad to see how they go. And the last Olympics was crazy. I am happy for Anya, truly, but poor Kamila and that whole ugly mess and seeing Sasha so upset. They know they realistically have one shot at an Olympic gold and that they most likely will not see the next Olympics (competitively). I enjoy watching all these girls skate and watching the glimpses of them acting as young as they are and having fun, especially because that really isn't a thing anymore. I would much rather see skating go back to the artistic side, because that is what it is, an artistic sport. Unfortunately, we haven't seen that since Zhenya competed. Her skates were always beautiful and her ability to capture the tone of the program and the emotion and actually show all of it and use her whole body to perform was always such a joy to watch. But, people don't care much for that and just want to see who can jump the highest and spin the most times and it's proving that these young girls are suffering for it

You’re seeing Camila’s Wednesday skate on tiktok and in your feed? Well, that’s why she did it. Positive content for Russia. The extent to which Russian athletes are used as propaganda for Putin can’t be overstated.

I had no idea about them doing the BTS Black Swan choreography! Very cool!

Зачем впутывать спорт в политику? Фигуристка не имеет никакого отношения с тем, что происходит на фронте.

Mark was already injured and hospitalized before nationals. He decide to go but noticed in the short that he couldn’t do it. I feel like tutberidze did the Wednesday Programm to swing the attention from the doping. Otherwise it’s good bc it brings attention to the sport and I think it’s sad that mostly Russia advertises the sport

1)Svetlana Sokolovskaya also has a figure skater Alexander Samarin, he took 3rd place at the Russian Championship 2) I think that Kamila's performance is connected only with the series and the fact that the Wednesday’s dance became popular on the network

ohh that is my tweet on Aliona doin pairs! But I hope she won’t switch, it was just so shocking to see her do this on her telegram

paola have you seen kaori's new love shack program? that's the gala program everyone should be talking about rn !!

Amazing

Would she potentially go into Ice Dance rather than pairs? That I think is much more creatively based than physically based which would really suit her. All I know is she needs to get out of Russia ASAP.

KOSTORNAIA SWITCHED TO PAIRS! You really predict the future Paola

I adore Aliona. I hope that she is doing well, with the move to pairs.

Loved the video!!

It's unclear how ill Trusova was. A few days after nationals she was skating, flying on wire and dancing on toe shoes in a Plushenko show

I don't understand why you are so unfair to Russian figure skaters especially girls. Why the retirement at 16 in some other countries is considered normal (remember Alisa Liu)? While Russia is not allowed to participate in the major figure skating competitions I wonder how do these athletes motivate themselves? I highly appreciate Kamila and Sasha for moving on with their careers and at least TRYING to train, compete and keep their bodies in shape. I also understand Anna and her absence from competition this season like how can she motivate herself, trying to win cup of Moscow or smth like that? After she won Olympics and world's? This is ridiculous and I really wish you were more objective in judging these girls. A real athlete can work hard and sustain all the pains only for a greater dream ahead of them. As for Kamila if I were her I would probably throw my skates out of the window or smth like that after every thing she survived but she is still here and I have a huge respect for that. Looks like you are paid to throw shade on these girls, why not apply the same high expectations to other skaters? Like Mai Mihara for example, every season I see her skating almost the same program with the same elements in it, there's no improvement in both jumps and choreography. And the Gran-Prix final was simply boring apart from Levito maybe but she is also a product of Russian figure skating school.

Love your videos!!!

Is there an ig page that keeps up with Russian events?

I haven’t watched Wednesday yet because I don’t like Jenna Ortega haha. But the gala performance looks pretty interesting, even though I’m not much of a Kami fan these days neither 😂

Yumas song is a remix of believer by imagine dragons sadly not from arcane 😢

Girl I needed one of your videos, tyyyy

You are seeing it so wrong about Russian team. Your comments about the girls is so off, starting from Sasha, having fever at the day of competition and missing it only for that reason and nothing else, Kamila telling her story with the hoody which didn’t put on in the last performance to symbolize that the story is over now and she is moving on. I was really surprised that you mentioned ‘war’, ‘pro-Ukraine’ etc. so many times. Kami’s performance has nothing to do with all of that: Wednesday’s dance gone viral on social media and it’s a response to the trend with great choreography, made for her fans, who accepted it with appreciation. All the girls are truly loved in their country, all of them are actively participating in many ice skating shows which are given all year round, where the girls offer public new images demonstrating not only skating skills but also great artistic talent.

Haven’t been on Chinese internet for a minute, but I think K-Bao is probably just K宝，which just abbreviated K Baby, generally used pretty lovingly for younger children and makes sense for a younger figure skater. The pandas could be a sign of how a sizeable Chinese language following coming from the Beijing Olympics., seeing how much pandas associate with China, but whyyyy so many fans carryover is confusing? Except maybe how China has such a political alliance with Russia at this point that the only skaters for fans to choose to back are Russian stars and Chinese stars. I can’t say, only speculating here.

hey Paola! another breaking news: we have a first Japanese national 6 time? 5/1 time? ok nevermind I just wanna say DAISUKE "freaking love to do something first time in history" TAKAHASHI

Sasha has also tried out pairs skating

Couldn’t agree more with the not being able to tell the difference between the programs of Eteri’s girls this season. I just watched all of their programs the other day and even at that time I found myself thinking, “hmmmm didn’t I just watch this?” It’s like they just aren’t even trying this season.

“We have been through s*** with Kamila”. Nope, we are having secondary PTSD with Kamila and the Olympics.