TAHbKA
Cats and garlic lover
- Messages
- 20,872
Elena Vaytsekhovskaya's interview with Valentin Nikoaev for ria.ru (please click the original link for the counter...)
The coach of the Olympic champions Petrenko and Baul talking to Vaytsekhovskaya and explains what differs Zagitova from the other skaters and why he stopped following the pairs skating.
EV: I know you are following closely the competitions of the single skaters. What did you think of the Europeans?
VN: It made me think. If you recall the 92 Olympics Yamaguchi won landing a 3/3. Midori Ito landed a 3A on the same competition. Back then the idea of the ladies skating was landing five triple jumps and in 92 about half of the competitors were able to land them. By 2002 the triples became a usual for the ladies, though the 3/3 combo was still a rare. Now we see the five triples and the 3/3T combo are the usual standard. Some leaders are attempting a 3/3loop, like Zagitova. At the time it was done by Irina Slutskaya, so there is nothing special about. What am trying to say is that the ceiling of the ladies skating should be broken sometime soon. But to which direction? The quads? I doubt.
EV: Why?
VN: For that we’d need a new generation of the athletes who would not lose their speed when hitting the puberty. And most important, the initial speed entering the jump. `hit-spin’ like Alexey Mishin called it. While the girls are small and light that `hit-speed’ allows them to gain a lot of revolutions in second. Once the child grows the angular speed is gone.
Even now there are adult female skaters who can land the complicated jumps keeping their rotational speed. Once there will be many of such skaters the quads will be come a usual. It’s as inevitable as it was in the men skating. We do remember the times when the 4T was landed by Stojko and Browning. Every time it was entered with the drums and there was no guarantee the jump will be landed. Galina Zmievskaya and I were suffering Petrenko’s quad. We tried everything, but the initial speed was not enough for Viktor. Zagorodnyuk’s quad was more confident. Vasili Eremenko with his incredible speed was landing three different quads. But those are some rare examples. Which will probably exist in the ladies skating soon.
EV: They already exsit.
VN: I know, I’ve seen the recordings. First of all there is an underotation problem and second – it’s kids, not seniors. But there is, for example, Zagitova. I wasn’t fond of her a year ago. More than that, I didn’t see where would her skating progress. I was wrong: this year Zagitova skaters much better. But she is different in general – not like anyone else. It’s not a Medvedeva, but it’s not the little girls behind her. I’d call her the first call of the new generation who should come to life in figure skating in the next couple of years. She has an adult body and I assume she is past the puberty. Zagitova does not look a child – she is a little woman.
EV: Guess it’s not by chance Irina Viner in rhythmic gymnastics found so many potential champions in the East?
VN: The USA nationals took place recently, so out of 24 competitors 19 had Asian roots. It was the late Igor Ksenofontov back in the times when the figures were cancelled who said the Asian athletes have a better speed quality. Zagitova, the way she is built and her speeding abilities is quite close to the ideal of today’s skater.
EV: I.e. you don’t think after the Olympics she would be taken off the scene by, say, Alena Kostornaya?
VN: I watched Kostornaya at Russian nationals. I watched the ladies performances several times and enjoyed the competition so much. I have to admit I liked Stanislava Konstantinova the most. Liked her so much.
EV: Why?
VN: I can’t put it into the words. I understand that everyone works hard, and she, like everyone else, is in pain during the practices, that her programme is quite complicated. But Konstantinova does not show it. She skates and it looks as if there was a halo around her. Everything seems comfortable for her, though when you look closely you see she is saving some elements and fighting for them. It’s a hell of a job spending 4 minutes on the ice not having a chance to breath. And she does not have a tattoo on her forehead `I must win!’.
EV: Perhaps that’s the reason - she really doesn’t have to win.
VN: Indeed, it’s easier to skate when there is no pressure. Have I told you why at the time I moved to Odessa from Kieve, though I had a chance to move back to St. Petersburg or pick another city? I once participated a judging seminar in Odessa. On a street I saw a guy who was walking on the tram rails. He was so full of self respect that it was obvious – that’s the owner of the world. That’s the way the kids in Odessa are. No matter what will happen around them – they’ll survive.
This is what I saw in Konstantinova. She looks like a well dressed chooligan, who at any moment can defend himself. She is not afraid of a competition – it’s obvious. And if at the same time she is not rushed – kudos to her coach who managed to take away the pressure from her athlete.
EV: Yet at the top of the ladies we see Medvedeva and Zagitova – the girls who are rushed to beat everyone.
VN: So what? They endure it for now. Though Medvedeva’s example shows everyone has a limit. The stress fracture is an injury that happens for one reason only: too much training plus lack of attention to the athlete’s health. I.e. something went wrong in the preparations. You have to work really hard to have such an injury when young.
EV: In Moscow Evgenia said she feels no consequences of the injury.
VN: I don’t believe her. She was skating much more cautiously at the Europeans than she usually does. She was stubborn till the last moment, hence the landings were so so and some jumps she was fighting for her life. It was very unconfident. Unlike Zagitova, who jumped out there like a surprise box. Though it seems the odds winning the Olympics are rather low for both.
EV: Why do you think so?
VN: Let me explain. Zagitova has an advantage competing with Daleman. Yes, the Canadian’s jumps are bigger but all and all the programme and the interpretation are much worse. Just that Alina might not hold for long enough. The jumps are just the jumps, but the second mark is the second mark. Beating, say, Miyahara or Osmond, should they skate well, with the second mark will be hard. For that Zagitova must provide not a good skate, but an exceptional. Her programme is a ballet and one show is not like the other. I know it quite well – when I was studying in St. Petersburg the ballet Mariinski were in charge and starting the 3rd grade we could go to the shows. I saw many ballets several times. Though Alina’s jumps are really good, nothing to say here.
EV: At the Europeans all my colleagues were in ave how much Zagitova and Medvedeva jump at the practices.
VN: There is a way to reduce the stress – with a lot of repetitions. But the coach has to be 100% confident the athlete will land all of the jumps. If at least one of the jumps will not be landed under these circumstances the confidence will be gone. Though in general such an amount of jumps is too demanding on the body and it drains the resources too early. It usually causes a lot of injuries. The injury in figure skating is always around the corner, though the severe injuries are quite rare. I once read the medical statistics, and learned our sport is on the 3rd place – after the mountain ski and the artistic gymnastics. The rest of the sports are far behind. Even the most brilliant Hanyu was unable to stay injuries free.
EV: I know you never routed for the `win no matter the price’
VN: It’s a matter of approach. There are coaches who are trying to save their athletes as long as possible and there are those who want to win no matter what. Take Stanislav Zhuk: he had his goal that was the Olympic and the World champions. He was throwing all of his pupils there and he didn’t care whether they will stay alive or it will be the remainders left. There were so many injuries, so many talented athletes who didn’t make it. Sergey Tchetveruhkin is a great example. In that the approach of Zhuk and of Igor Moskvin were the opposite. Stanislav was a great coach, treated me well and helped me a lot, but Moksvin’s approach to the sport and the people involved were always to my favour, than Zhuk in figure skating or Anatoli Tarasov in hockey. There were so much less injuries in Igor Moskvin’s group.
EV: But, it seems, you can’t avoid all the injuries?
VN: In our group with Zmievskaya there weren’t many, though the athletes were jumping quite a lot and were reducing the amount of jumps only before the competition. They were always in a great shape, it was the usual. I recall once a 18y.o athlete spent an off ice warm up with Vyacheslav Zagorodnyuk and asked after `if that was a warm up, what on earth do you call a training?’. Except for that we had an annual camp on the sand – were working on the ligaments. Now there is hardly any work done in that direction. It’s a contradiction: the higher the person is the less time they have to work on their body and get it ready. We were in that position as well: say, everyone were working full force on the sand, while Viktor Petrenko was in Collins tour and joined the group only in July. It’s a different story for the little kids – they grow up, became taller and the muscles mass % become less, though the athlete keep training without reducing the stress. I.e. the more he is capable to do the more he is prone for the danger.
EV: Many specialists think the complexity of the jumps the athlete is able to land is not a matter of the talent, but of how much his body was worked on.
VN: Indeed, but it’s also important what is the goal the coach sets to the athlete. I often think that the girls on the level of Zagitova and Medvedeva with their natural gifts could show more than just a lutz-loop. Now, of course, no one will work on that, it’s too late. Learning the quads at the age of 16 is hard, no matter who would teach them, whether it’s Dudakov with Tutberidze or Mishin. It’s not just the change of the technical habits, but the global change of the jumping approach. The change of the jumping philosophy. I know Mishin understands that. Most of the other coaches – no. If you take a girl to Mishin and tell him she has to land a quad in a year I don’t think he’ll take her. But he was interested working with Carolina Kostner.
EV: Perhaps because he was not held responsible for the result?
VN: It’s not that. I think he was curious to learn: will he be able to get Carolina from the state she was in or not. I think the project failed.
EV: I disagree. She has all of her jumps back, even the 3lz, which didn’t work in Moscow, but she landed it in the Nationals.
VN: Yes, but she didn’t do anything new. If you look closely to how Kostner used to jump in the past and jumps now there isn’t much different in the technique. Mishin, working on the details of each element gave Carolina a mental confidence. Which happens when the athlete understands the tiniest details of what is going on and can predict an error. What happened to Kostner now is a result of an overconfidence. I guess she was practicing really well recently.
EV: I.e. she could have come to a conclusion she can work with any coach now?
VN: Yes, especially when the coach gives her a task she can perfect herself. Kostner does not need to be controlled. She works a lot and she works with her head. Kostner is an athlete, who, say, you don’t need to tell get the ball into the gate, but get it into the left corner when you are standing a mile away. She came to Mishin not because he is a great coach, but because Huth was not progressing. He lost the ability to come up with the new challenges for Carolina, which she needed.
I was once a witness of Tchetverukhin working with Zhuk on a 8 back with loops. Stanislav was late to the practice and when he showed up he asked `what are you working on’ and hearing an 8 back with loops he kicked Tchetverukhin out from the ice. Because the element has so many details you can only work on something particular. And it’s important when the athlete can divide the work into the details.
EV: Are you interested in the Olympic team event, which will happened for the 2nd time?
VN: No. Perhaps it’s because for me the competition is when the athlete is out there and overcoming himself. All that circus around the team event is not for my taste. Though I don’t think it shouldn’t exist. I equally dislike the lyrics in the music – think the figure skating lost a lot. There are so many amazing beautiful melodies. The modern, classical, operas. There are so many interesting performers. There is even the opera music with no lyrics, what we called ‘skeleton’. It was hard to put your hands on such records, there is only one company in the UK who produces them, but we did.
EV: Would you try to predict the singles skating Olympics result?
VN: The Olympics are a tough competition. For the judges as well. Look at the Europeans results: do you believe Maria Sotskova did not deserve to be 3rd? She did. So why did Kostner end up there? Because the Olympics are ahead of us and no matter what are the judging rules, as long as there 9 people pressing the buttons there will be various processes inside that group which can be summed up in `who are we friends against today?’/ The Italians were given a spot at the Europeans, i.e. the Italians have to return the favour. When and where is a different matter. All and all I like the way the Japanese are preparing for the Olympics. I liked Osmond at the beginning of the season and even though I’d like to see her medaling.
EV: Why her?
VN: Well, who would shake to their boots with another triple now a days? No one. Hence it’s not what they are jumping now, but how are they skating. I love the liveliness on the ice. I don’t like the drama. There are enough tragedies in our lives. And there isn’t that much fun. Hence the normal person would always prefer a comedy. Am a normal person.
EV: I know you were always fond of the pairs skating.
VN: I was. I was rooting for Stolbova/Klimov. I don’t know what happened to them, but they lack the something special they had. They are just one of the many now. I even stopped really following the pairs skating. Yes, there are teams who do the complicated elements, but it doesn’t attract my attention.
EV: What about the men skating?
VN: I was not impressed by the USA nationals. The general level is higher. The skating, not so much. So the very same people will skate in Korea: Hanyu, Fernandez. I don’t talk about winning, but about skating. Don’t mix that with the ability to move fast across the ice. It’s a different thing. Nathan Chen jumps great, but his skating skills and the moves on the ice are not even near Hanyu. For me – Chen is a more successful copy of Boyang Jin or the second American, who lands so many jumps. Hanyu is special.
EV: Perhaps you just don’t like Chen?
VN: Indeed, I don’t really like him. I usually dislike when an adult athlete switches the coaches all the time. It was painful twice: once when he left Arutyunian to move to Zueva and second – when Raf took him back. I think it was a mistake. So there wouldn’t be a skater Chen now, so what?
EV: Don’t you think the ideas of what is right and what is wrong that you are talking about are outdated? That now it’s a pure business?
VN: If you treat figure skating as a business you’d better not coach Chen, but those who are starting skating now. You’ll get the same salary and much less headache and sleepless nights. I recently parted my ways with a Chinese female skater who we started working on a 4Lutz. I did at once when the parents attempted to rule the practicing process. I am not trying to say the relationship `coach-pupil’ in the USSR were different, that we were treating them as our own kids. It’s not about that. But about not letting anyone treat you wrong. Never and on no level.
The coach of the Olympic champions Petrenko and Baul talking to Vaytsekhovskaya and explains what differs Zagitova from the other skaters and why he stopped following the pairs skating.
EV: I know you are following closely the competitions of the single skaters. What did you think of the Europeans?
VN: It made me think. If you recall the 92 Olympics Yamaguchi won landing a 3/3. Midori Ito landed a 3A on the same competition. Back then the idea of the ladies skating was landing five triple jumps and in 92 about half of the competitors were able to land them. By 2002 the triples became a usual for the ladies, though the 3/3 combo was still a rare. Now we see the five triples and the 3/3T combo are the usual standard. Some leaders are attempting a 3/3loop, like Zagitova. At the time it was done by Irina Slutskaya, so there is nothing special about. What am trying to say is that the ceiling of the ladies skating should be broken sometime soon. But to which direction? The quads? I doubt.
EV: Why?
VN: For that we’d need a new generation of the athletes who would not lose their speed when hitting the puberty. And most important, the initial speed entering the jump. `hit-spin’ like Alexey Mishin called it. While the girls are small and light that `hit-speed’ allows them to gain a lot of revolutions in second. Once the child grows the angular speed is gone.
Even now there are adult female skaters who can land the complicated jumps keeping their rotational speed. Once there will be many of such skaters the quads will be come a usual. It’s as inevitable as it was in the men skating. We do remember the times when the 4T was landed by Stojko and Browning. Every time it was entered with the drums and there was no guarantee the jump will be landed. Galina Zmievskaya and I were suffering Petrenko’s quad. We tried everything, but the initial speed was not enough for Viktor. Zagorodnyuk’s quad was more confident. Vasili Eremenko with his incredible speed was landing three different quads. But those are some rare examples. Which will probably exist in the ladies skating soon.
EV: They already exsit.
VN: I know, I’ve seen the recordings. First of all there is an underotation problem and second – it’s kids, not seniors. But there is, for example, Zagitova. I wasn’t fond of her a year ago. More than that, I didn’t see where would her skating progress. I was wrong: this year Zagitova skaters much better. But she is different in general – not like anyone else. It’s not a Medvedeva, but it’s not the little girls behind her. I’d call her the first call of the new generation who should come to life in figure skating in the next couple of years. She has an adult body and I assume she is past the puberty. Zagitova does not look a child – she is a little woman.
EV: Guess it’s not by chance Irina Viner in rhythmic gymnastics found so many potential champions in the East?
VN: The USA nationals took place recently, so out of 24 competitors 19 had Asian roots. It was the late Igor Ksenofontov back in the times when the figures were cancelled who said the Asian athletes have a better speed quality. Zagitova, the way she is built and her speeding abilities is quite close to the ideal of today’s skater.
EV: I.e. you don’t think after the Olympics she would be taken off the scene by, say, Alena Kostornaya?
VN: I watched Kostornaya at Russian nationals. I watched the ladies performances several times and enjoyed the competition so much. I have to admit I liked Stanislava Konstantinova the most. Liked her so much.
EV: Why?
VN: I can’t put it into the words. I understand that everyone works hard, and she, like everyone else, is in pain during the practices, that her programme is quite complicated. But Konstantinova does not show it. She skates and it looks as if there was a halo around her. Everything seems comfortable for her, though when you look closely you see she is saving some elements and fighting for them. It’s a hell of a job spending 4 minutes on the ice not having a chance to breath. And she does not have a tattoo on her forehead `I must win!’.
EV: Perhaps that’s the reason - she really doesn’t have to win.
VN: Indeed, it’s easier to skate when there is no pressure. Have I told you why at the time I moved to Odessa from Kieve, though I had a chance to move back to St. Petersburg or pick another city? I once participated a judging seminar in Odessa. On a street I saw a guy who was walking on the tram rails. He was so full of self respect that it was obvious – that’s the owner of the world. That’s the way the kids in Odessa are. No matter what will happen around them – they’ll survive.
This is what I saw in Konstantinova. She looks like a well dressed chooligan, who at any moment can defend himself. She is not afraid of a competition – it’s obvious. And if at the same time she is not rushed – kudos to her coach who managed to take away the pressure from her athlete.
EV: Yet at the top of the ladies we see Medvedeva and Zagitova – the girls who are rushed to beat everyone.
VN: So what? They endure it for now. Though Medvedeva’s example shows everyone has a limit. The stress fracture is an injury that happens for one reason only: too much training plus lack of attention to the athlete’s health. I.e. something went wrong in the preparations. You have to work really hard to have such an injury when young.
EV: In Moscow Evgenia said she feels no consequences of the injury.
VN: I don’t believe her. She was skating much more cautiously at the Europeans than she usually does. She was stubborn till the last moment, hence the landings were so so and some jumps she was fighting for her life. It was very unconfident. Unlike Zagitova, who jumped out there like a surprise box. Though it seems the odds winning the Olympics are rather low for both.
EV: Why do you think so?
VN: Let me explain. Zagitova has an advantage competing with Daleman. Yes, the Canadian’s jumps are bigger but all and all the programme and the interpretation are much worse. Just that Alina might not hold for long enough. The jumps are just the jumps, but the second mark is the second mark. Beating, say, Miyahara or Osmond, should they skate well, with the second mark will be hard. For that Zagitova must provide not a good skate, but an exceptional. Her programme is a ballet and one show is not like the other. I know it quite well – when I was studying in St. Petersburg the ballet Mariinski were in charge and starting the 3rd grade we could go to the shows. I saw many ballets several times. Though Alina’s jumps are really good, nothing to say here.
EV: At the Europeans all my colleagues were in ave how much Zagitova and Medvedeva jump at the practices.
VN: There is a way to reduce the stress – with a lot of repetitions. But the coach has to be 100% confident the athlete will land all of the jumps. If at least one of the jumps will not be landed under these circumstances the confidence will be gone. Though in general such an amount of jumps is too demanding on the body and it drains the resources too early. It usually causes a lot of injuries. The injury in figure skating is always around the corner, though the severe injuries are quite rare. I once read the medical statistics, and learned our sport is on the 3rd place – after the mountain ski and the artistic gymnastics. The rest of the sports are far behind. Even the most brilliant Hanyu was unable to stay injuries free.
EV: I know you never routed for the `win no matter the price’
VN: It’s a matter of approach. There are coaches who are trying to save their athletes as long as possible and there are those who want to win no matter what. Take Stanislav Zhuk: he had his goal that was the Olympic and the World champions. He was throwing all of his pupils there and he didn’t care whether they will stay alive or it will be the remainders left. There were so many injuries, so many talented athletes who didn’t make it. Sergey Tchetveruhkin is a great example. In that the approach of Zhuk and of Igor Moskvin were the opposite. Stanislav was a great coach, treated me well and helped me a lot, but Moksvin’s approach to the sport and the people involved were always to my favour, than Zhuk in figure skating or Anatoli Tarasov in hockey. There were so much less injuries in Igor Moskvin’s group.
EV: But, it seems, you can’t avoid all the injuries?
VN: In our group with Zmievskaya there weren’t many, though the athletes were jumping quite a lot and were reducing the amount of jumps only before the competition. They were always in a great shape, it was the usual. I recall once a 18y.o athlete spent an off ice warm up with Vyacheslav Zagorodnyuk and asked after `if that was a warm up, what on earth do you call a training?’. Except for that we had an annual camp on the sand – were working on the ligaments. Now there is hardly any work done in that direction. It’s a contradiction: the higher the person is the less time they have to work on their body and get it ready. We were in that position as well: say, everyone were working full force on the sand, while Viktor Petrenko was in Collins tour and joined the group only in July. It’s a different story for the little kids – they grow up, became taller and the muscles mass % become less, though the athlete keep training without reducing the stress. I.e. the more he is capable to do the more he is prone for the danger.
EV: Many specialists think the complexity of the jumps the athlete is able to land is not a matter of the talent, but of how much his body was worked on.
VN: Indeed, but it’s also important what is the goal the coach sets to the athlete. I often think that the girls on the level of Zagitova and Medvedeva with their natural gifts could show more than just a lutz-loop. Now, of course, no one will work on that, it’s too late. Learning the quads at the age of 16 is hard, no matter who would teach them, whether it’s Dudakov with Tutberidze or Mishin. It’s not just the change of the technical habits, but the global change of the jumping approach. The change of the jumping philosophy. I know Mishin understands that. Most of the other coaches – no. If you take a girl to Mishin and tell him she has to land a quad in a year I don’t think he’ll take her. But he was interested working with Carolina Kostner.
EV: Perhaps because he was not held responsible for the result?
VN: It’s not that. I think he was curious to learn: will he be able to get Carolina from the state she was in or not. I think the project failed.
EV: I disagree. She has all of her jumps back, even the 3lz, which didn’t work in Moscow, but she landed it in the Nationals.
VN: Yes, but she didn’t do anything new. If you look closely to how Kostner used to jump in the past and jumps now there isn’t much different in the technique. Mishin, working on the details of each element gave Carolina a mental confidence. Which happens when the athlete understands the tiniest details of what is going on and can predict an error. What happened to Kostner now is a result of an overconfidence. I guess she was practicing really well recently.
EV: I.e. she could have come to a conclusion she can work with any coach now?
VN: Yes, especially when the coach gives her a task she can perfect herself. Kostner does not need to be controlled. She works a lot and she works with her head. Kostner is an athlete, who, say, you don’t need to tell get the ball into the gate, but get it into the left corner when you are standing a mile away. She came to Mishin not because he is a great coach, but because Huth was not progressing. He lost the ability to come up with the new challenges for Carolina, which she needed.
I was once a witness of Tchetverukhin working with Zhuk on a 8 back with loops. Stanislav was late to the practice and when he showed up he asked `what are you working on’ and hearing an 8 back with loops he kicked Tchetverukhin out from the ice. Because the element has so many details you can only work on something particular. And it’s important when the athlete can divide the work into the details.
EV: Are you interested in the Olympic team event, which will happened for the 2nd time?
VN: No. Perhaps it’s because for me the competition is when the athlete is out there and overcoming himself. All that circus around the team event is not for my taste. Though I don’t think it shouldn’t exist. I equally dislike the lyrics in the music – think the figure skating lost a lot. There are so many amazing beautiful melodies. The modern, classical, operas. There are so many interesting performers. There is even the opera music with no lyrics, what we called ‘skeleton’. It was hard to put your hands on such records, there is only one company in the UK who produces them, but we did.
EV: Would you try to predict the singles skating Olympics result?
VN: The Olympics are a tough competition. For the judges as well. Look at the Europeans results: do you believe Maria Sotskova did not deserve to be 3rd? She did. So why did Kostner end up there? Because the Olympics are ahead of us and no matter what are the judging rules, as long as there 9 people pressing the buttons there will be various processes inside that group which can be summed up in `who are we friends against today?’/ The Italians were given a spot at the Europeans, i.e. the Italians have to return the favour. When and where is a different matter. All and all I like the way the Japanese are preparing for the Olympics. I liked Osmond at the beginning of the season and even though I’d like to see her medaling.
EV: Why her?
VN: Well, who would shake to their boots with another triple now a days? No one. Hence it’s not what they are jumping now, but how are they skating. I love the liveliness on the ice. I don’t like the drama. There are enough tragedies in our lives. And there isn’t that much fun. Hence the normal person would always prefer a comedy. Am a normal person.
EV: I know you were always fond of the pairs skating.
VN: I was. I was rooting for Stolbova/Klimov. I don’t know what happened to them, but they lack the something special they had. They are just one of the many now. I even stopped really following the pairs skating. Yes, there are teams who do the complicated elements, but it doesn’t attract my attention.
EV: What about the men skating?
VN: I was not impressed by the USA nationals. The general level is higher. The skating, not so much. So the very same people will skate in Korea: Hanyu, Fernandez. I don’t talk about winning, but about skating. Don’t mix that with the ability to move fast across the ice. It’s a different thing. Nathan Chen jumps great, but his skating skills and the moves on the ice are not even near Hanyu. For me – Chen is a more successful copy of Boyang Jin or the second American, who lands so many jumps. Hanyu is special.
EV: Perhaps you just don’t like Chen?
VN: Indeed, I don’t really like him. I usually dislike when an adult athlete switches the coaches all the time. It was painful twice: once when he left Arutyunian to move to Zueva and second – when Raf took him back. I think it was a mistake. So there wouldn’t be a skater Chen now, so what?
EV: Don’t you think the ideas of what is right and what is wrong that you are talking about are outdated? That now it’s a pure business?
VN: If you treat figure skating as a business you’d better not coach Chen, but those who are starting skating now. You’ll get the same salary and much less headache and sleepless nights. I recently parted my ways with a Chinese female skater who we started working on a 4Lutz. I did at once when the parents attempted to rule the practicing process. I am not trying to say the relationship `coach-pupil’ in the USSR were different, that we were treating them as our own kids. It’s not about that. But about not letting anyone treat you wrong. Never and on no level.
