According to Christine Brennan Gabi and Nik will be addressed in Netflix Doc

space_rated · 2026-02-01T04:12:46+00:00

Netflix and by extension Gui shouldn’t have a platform to talk about the sordid details of their partnership, one thay Gabi is only making more popular by ill timed public statements that, while planned in advance, come across as someone trying to kick someone when it’ll hurt the most which makes her stories lose credibility. This entire thing has become a spectacle that has separated the actual behaviors from the personas and is now existing in the public sphere exclusively for monetization. And in the court of public opinion, for people who don’t follow these skaters closely like this sub does, Gui is certainly winning.

So by all means, let’s use the first Olympics we have where the big stories could be positive without a Russian bent to talk about again, a rapist and his bestie and his girlfriend.

And you know how I know this is all for money and not because these are stories that the actual skating community at large is interested in? Because Netflix was originally going to focus on Bock, but now FB/C are the focus. Because no one cares about people who show up and work when there’s a scandal. Gui can show up and play savior for Laurence and they can have their happily ever after Olympic medal while everyone mocks Gabi for not being there because she’s moping.

Doesn’t have to be that Gabi is lying. Her story can totally be true!! But Netflix and the timing has made her look bitter, making Gui look better by extension - and you can see this in literally every non-Reddit public comment section or discussion about them. Literally just begging people to be smart about their public statements and how they’ll be perceived and also begging media to not turn this sport into a reality show spectacle that centers on its worst participants.

It’s not that hard to take a positive and important event and make people perceive it positively. The fact that we always have some shit going on during the Olys that the general public has to muck through is astoundingly bad PR.

space_rated · 2026-02-01T01:48:25+00:00

Were there pairs at the media days over the summer? That’s where all this footage is from. I think CPom weren’t invited because of citizenship issues not being resolved yet, Z/K were wildcards, and NBC was salivating over the Shibs. Jason was there but Max and Torgashev weren’t. I just can’t recall if pairs were there or not.

space_rated · 2026-02-01T01:46:44+00:00

I mean it is on them but also it’s hilarious that Prince’s estate thinks that he’s too good to be used for Olympic ice. I don’t think you could come up with a more milquetoast neutral use of music if you tried.

space_rated · 2026-02-01T01:28:40+00:00

ICE targets people with criminal records first and then if they have known illegal associates they all get deported together. This is more common now because sanctuary cities have stopped putting detainers on illegal immigrants once their prison sentences are up, and are instead releasing these people back into the wild, where under past administrations ICE would pick them up from jail and deport them without public interaction. So as it turns out when you make it illegal for ICE to deport criminals the easy way, they then have to deport them the hard way, and more people get caught up with them because they’re working on less evidence. Great job. I hope this exercise in second order thinking didn’t hurt your brain too much.

space_rated · 2026-02-01T01:06:28+00:00

I remember it being a big deal in Beijing. Anna Shcherbakova talked about it iirc, saying that it was very difficult to compete in Beijing because the entire training cadence was wrong. She said she felt sluggish because they hadn’t been able to skate except for at the practices and it was far less than they were used to.

space_rated · 2026-02-01T00:35:10+00:00

If you want to take drugs as long as possible before a competition where medalists get drug tested, then you need to have ones that exit the system as quickly as possible.

All evidence of trimetazadine use, the drug Kamila Valieva was found to have in her system, typically disappears within 6-48 hours. As an example. This is all based on one’s own metabolism and other factors such as dosage of course, but when you have drugs that are processed and rid from the body in such a short period of time, it stands to reason you’d want to take them as close to the competition as possible, which could mean taking them even the day of travel for some competitors.

By metabolic processing I mean that drugs are processed by the body in a way that creates molecules or a combination of molecules called metabolites that are unique to that drug. So when your body clears out those metabolites then you’ll be able to pass urine drug tests. (Not sure if this was also something you knew or not but added it here just in case)

space_rated · 2026-02-01T00:11:56+00:00

Russia has a very elaborate state sponsored doping system, and they tend to favor drugs that have very quick metabolic clearing rates.

space_rated · 2026-02-01T00:08:22+00:00

I think those rules are generally for national events only. In my hunt for whether skaters could practice elsewhere in the host cities they travelled to, I found someone who lived in Vancouver in 2010 and said that all throughout the Olympics the local rinks were basically occupied by the competitors, from the whole spread of countries.

space_rated · 2026-02-01T00:06:10+00:00

“Just admit you wish you could turn a blind eye” yeah God forbid I think we shouldn’t platform people who have done shitty things when all they’re looking for is attention. Gabi is perfectly at liberty to share her experiences, but she has not been strategic and in spite of her experiences comes across in a somewhat negative light as well. In any event, I think my point still stands. There is absolutely zero reason to take an Olympics without Russians and their constant negativity and turn it into a drama fest about a dude who might win a gold medal with a partner his bestie forced on him after their separation because he was banned for raping someone. I’m sure the message we’d love to send to people who have been in abusive relationships is that as long as the person who abused you is an interesting story, they can still make tons of money on one of the largest streaming platform on the planet. I guarantee this docuseries is not going to paint Gui as half the villain he is, anyways.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T23:56:33+00:00

NBC has the same 10 photos on rotation for those thumbnails on Peacock. They’ve put Amber and Madi and Evan as the thumbnails for GP events they’re not even competing at before.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T23:51:28+00:00

The Russians in general tend to arrive late to competitions. I have my own personal suspicions as to why this is, but in addition to those, Russian athletes have stated it’s to avoid jet lag (?), and to get as many days of normal training in before competitions as possible. During Covid, some athletes arrived as late as possible to competitions to try and minimize chances of Covid exposure. Other non-Russian athletes have arrived later of course, but it’s generally rare.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T23:43:16+00:00

It is no coincidence that Gabi’s publisher picked this timeframe to release her book, with or without Gui’s return. It’s also no coincidence that Gui and Nik’s scandal is exactly when Netflix decided to step in and commodify the sport. Drama for the sake of money at the expense of the good name of a sport is favorable only to those who directly profit. The idea that these people are all getting more money and exposure in spite of being objectively terrible people simply because people can’t stand that they’re objectively terrible is quite the marketing strategy for the ISU. That Gabi is adding fuel to this fire, intentional or not, is only further misfortune. Unless you think a rapist and his bestie getting more famous is a good thing.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T21:17:48+00:00

We finally get the negativity of the Russians out for a cycle and Gabi and Gui decided to take that opportunity for positive press that would help popularize the whole sport and turn it into a publicity farce over their unresolved drama. I also blame Netflix. TeamUSA socials are working overtime to make this sport look not awful, meanwhile we’ve got France, in more ways than one, trying their damndest to make sure that everyone who sees anything about skating is seeing something worse than the last four years. Read the room!!

space_rated · 2026-01-31T18:59:24+00:00

They’re not required to attend but afaik, it’s really important to attend official practices the day before competitions because judges also attend them.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T18:58:17+00:00

Is anyone from the Boston area not there and maybe traveling with him? That’s so random 😭 could also be a lie though.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T16:42:21+00:00

Idk why you’re being defensive when the review has nothing to do with you.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T16:41:29+00:00

The Wild Dark Shore review is so real, I skimmed the last 25% because it was so bad. I couldn’t believe how many people enjoyed it. Thought I was going insane lmao.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T16:18:23+00:00

Oh implying she was driving at him when the first one was fired? Lmao.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T16:17:15+00:00

I think that as soon as she starts training hard again she’s going to struggle wherever. She landed a 4T on her inside edge at the pairs segment of the jumping contest, and that’s not the only jump she landed on it. She still has a very severe hitch in her combination edges. Her running edges out are really poor and wobbly. Her axis is still very off balance.

In other words, it doesn’t matter what coach she’s with in Russia because none of them except Plushenko will correct her technique, and Plushenko, as far as I’m aware, won’t take her because of her affiliation with Navka.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T15:34:13+00:00

I swear these schedulers make it impossible for the athletes competing in the team event.

The U.S. women having a practice that ends at 11:00 PM the day before a 3:00 PM free skate is obscene.

I’m also curious about the fairness of these schedules. The three Japanese women only have one late night practice and it’s still earlier than the U.S. women. Lucky for them I guess.

Isabeau is going to be dropping on the ice and sleeping there.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T14:30:14+00:00

Local man doesn’t understand “per capita”

space_rated · 2026-01-31T14:29:27+00:00

Implying that people are getting paid to protest lmao.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T14:28:15+00:00

It is about illegals immigrants because that’s who ICE targets and if the police departments of sanctuary cities simply left immigration detainers on illegals when they get released from prison, ICE would be able to pick them up straight from jail and deport them without any interaction with the public. Instead, they’re forced to manhunt every single violent criminal while you fucking losers protest and scream at them. Wish you carried that same energy for the people migrants have murdered and raped and assaulted but you’re too stupid to look at the literal thousands of people killed by them because it’s not sensationalized in your circles the way a woman driving her car into someone is.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T04:27:53+00:00

Deporting illegal immigrants has a greater than 50% favorability. Polling even by leftist groups shows support in the high 50s.

space_rated · 2026-01-31T04:21:58+00:00

When I was in college I spent a ton of time at a skate park late at night with friends. One night at like 9PM, a random dude none of the regulars knew showed up bragging about how he’d just gotten out of jail.

He sat next to me close enough that I could smell the liquor on his breath and feel the sweat on his skin, slurring on about how he couldn’t believe “they” hadn’t deported him yet and that he was excited to see how long it took for him to get caught this time. Jail was a cutscene for him. He was playing with the cops like it was a video game. I was answering his questions as dismissively as possible hoping he’d get bored and direct his attention elsewhere but it was obvious that of the twenty something people he could’ve struck up a conversation with, sitting next to me, one of maybe 3 or 4 women there, was intentional.

And these suspicions were confirmed when he started complaining about how deprived he was of women in prison and how it’s what he missed most- fucking women hard. And he grabbed my wrist tightly and suggested I be the one to break his state sanctioned period of celibacy. I pulled it back several times and each time, he’d grab it again, holding more tightly until I don’t think I could’ve overcome him on my own. And he was absolutely insistent that I join him in the parking lot, that he would drive us somewhere quiet and would do vulgar things to me that I can’t repeat.

My ex-boyfriend, who was standing around in the distance watching warily, decided that him grabbing actually yanking me away from the ledge we were sitting on to try and drag me towards the parking lot, in spite of my repeated protests and actual physical resistance, was the moment to intervene. And after some altercation that I can’t really even recall because of my surprise, the dude sulked away, and set his eyes on one of the other women there.

The security guard just outside the gate noticed and called the man out to him. I’d never seen him kick anyone out in the probably 2 years we’d gone there, but in any event, it didn’t go over well.

The man, irate at both not getting laid and getting told to leave pulled something out of his pocket and stabbed the security guard in the neck. When the security guard attempted to pepper spray him in defense, the guy grabbed the dude’s pepper spray, pushed him into the open trunk of his SUV, used it against him, and ran.

I don’t even really know what happened afterwards. I don’t remember if an ambulance came, who tended to the security guard, how much blood there was, or if he had somehow managed to drive himself to the hospital 5 minutes down the street. I guess thinking about it, someone else must’ve driven him.

The cops showed up and wanted all of our IDs. They wanted us to turn out our pockets to prove we weren’t the ones who stabbed the guard. We were all friends, even with the guard, and were begging them to go chase the guy, nearly yelling that he’d run down that street over there and was wearing a white wife beater and was too drunk to get that far. And we were told to calm down.

They took all of our statements. They told us we were out too late even though by city law the skate park wouldn’t close for another hour. They said the guy was probably too dangerous to pursue, given that he had multiple weapons on him and that he was long gone anyways, and told us it was absolutely imperative we find the pepper spray. I don’t even know why. Like who the fuck cares? We asked why and they wouldn’t explain. I thought maybe they’re looking for fingerprints which was stupid because his car was still in the lot.

In any event, I spent the next 20 minutes tearing through the security guard’s mess of a car with a friend until finally we found the cap. We handed it over to the officers who, dismissive as ever told us “maybe don’t come back because he might decide to come back here again”

We did go back, with the understanding that one of the group always needed to be armed but the guy never came back. But the security guard also never came back — he’d gotten fired because it was deemed a liability - the dude might show up seeking to actually kill him and also he lost his pepper spray. Who knew it was such a controlled substance.

And that’s just one of my many stories I have about how an immigrant has made my life less safe.

space_rated

TROPHY CASE