It is always hard to find a partner, but it is especially difficult if you are a tall girl-- because there are hardly any boys to begin with, and if you're tall, there will for sure not be very many boys taller than you! And I think Ina is very tall, isn't she? According to her ISU bio she's even taller than I am, and once I finished growing I had a really hard time finding boys tall enough.

But it's not impossible! Angelika Krylova and Margarita Drobiazko are both also very tall-- definitely taller than I am-- and they were very successful. It's just a matter of being lucky enough to find the right partner.

Anyway, I've only watched the video of Ina and Yuri once, and it's hard to say a whole lot about their skating from it-- you can't see their feet during most of the footwork, and after awhile it seems like it's cut only to show their lifts? I will say that Ina looked much, much improved from the last video I saw of her! I was pretty to see how much better she looks. If she has very good training and works very hard and is very lucky, she may do well. I can't say about Yuri because I haven't seen as much of his skating, so I don't feel comfortable critiquing him so much.

However, I would not expect them to have results very soon. They (or Ina and a future partner) may develop into a good team, but for the next couple of years, they're going to be competing against teams from the U.S., Canada, Russia, France, etc. who have had the benefit of excellent training and the experience of very stiff competition at home since they were very small, so of course Ina and Yuri at their ages would have a very hard time being as well-developed as, say, the team that won U.S. Jr. Nationals this year. Later it may even itself out.

Thanks for posting that pic!








Beijinhos!

I just downloaded the video before the show

.Albenka and Max are very sweet with all of their fans but if i were them, i would get crazy , soo many people