by chuckiem » Wed Sep 06, 2017 7:58 pm
I agree with Andy. As a junior and early senior, Yulia was heavily coached and choreographed down to every single gesture in her programs. Judges responded with astronomical scores and audiences and critics with raves. But when her sophomore season began, she was given choreography then was left to her own devices to figure out what to do with it, and her performances weren't the same. She still got high scores, but as her body changed and the jumps began to fail, everything went downhill, despite her attempts to regain her former glory. A sad story.
I do recall several years ago when her choreographer Averbukh commented that Yulia's weight was a concern (and at the time, she was about 14 and very tiny). He apparently recognized that her jump technique would not work if she did not maintain a very slender physique.