Anyone have anything to say about the coaching change?
I haven’t posted in this forum for a while, but now Evgenia Medvedeva has returned to Eteri Tutberidze. This is fascinating news:
Will it destroy her? Will it restore her to her former glory? Some people are offended on behalf of Eteri to see the prodigal returning home. But I say, if Eteri has no objection, why should we? And to those who worry for Evgenia, let us hope that she has retained some of the self-care wisdom she learned in Canada, and that the expediency of having a coach nearby doesn’t have to mean an abandonment of her commitment to her health. Optimistically, perhaps the structure and presence of an on-site coach will actually help in that regard. After all, her back injury flared up while she was practicing without a coach.
I was surprised by the news of Evgenia’s return to Eteri, mostly because she seemed so happy with Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson at the Cricket Club. But that’s the thing: she’s not at the Cricket Club due to C19, and it sounds from recent interviews with Brian like there was some doubt that she and especially her mother would be able to return to Canada at the moment. And as Brian said to Evgenia, she needs a coach nearby.
Why Eteri, though, when there was apparently bad blood between them? Here are some possible reasons: 1) At this point, we’re outside the Russian coaching change deadline, but since Evgenia represented Sambo 70 even under Brian, a coach at Sambo 70 may have been her only option if she wanted to switch. 2) Better the devil you know: this woman coached Evgenia for something like 11 years. Evgenia’s grandmother remembers a young Eteri Tutberidze from when Evgenia’s mom used to take skating lessons. They may have had their fallings out, but in some ways these people are practically family. 3) I know some people really hate her, but maybe Eteri’s bark is worse than her bite. She did look super pleased to have Evgenia back.
Now let’s talk about whether Evgenia dug her own grave with her international travel in the spring. The way I see it, regardless of the motivation behind going early to Japan and ultimately getting stuck there and locked out of Canada, even if Evgenia had stayed in Canada over the summer training with Brian, she would still have been required to go back to Russia and skate in the Russian Cup this year if she wanted a chance to compete at Russian nationals. So there would still have been issues with quarantines and possibly not getting back into Canada even then. She may still have faced the challenge of training in Russia without Brian, as well as the missed training time due to quarantines. I think that Evgenia would have stayed with Brian if it hadn’t been for C19. But given her drive to continue, to do whatever she thinks it takes to be competitive and go down fighting, was her return to Eteri perhaps inevitable, even if she had skipped going to Japan early for her cancelled show? Maybe, given the restrictions of C19, she would have returned to Eteri regardless of the Japan debacle.
As to whether Eteri is a horrible person and a bad coach:
My husband used to love her until his favorite skater, Zagitova, all but retired. Now he says he blames pressure from Eteri for making the best skater in the world hate skating. Eteri is certainly polarizing — but lest we forget: she’s not a character in a badly-written American TV show about Russian sports. In reality, she’s likely complex.
I personally don’t see Eteri as a stock villain or as a coaching genius. She’s a failed ice dancer and a hard worker who became a successful coach based on a rigorous understanding of (and willingness to push the boundaries of) the IJS scoring system, fastidious attention to detail, and an ability to hide her skater’s flaws whilst highlighting their strengths. My guess is she cares about her skaters and does her best for them, but her system is not for everybody, and the more her team have turned it into a formula, the more it has sometimes highlighted her skaters’ flaws whilst appearing to obscure their strengths. (I personally don’t find her skaters less watchable than those from other schools. Like almost every other coaching team I can think of, some of team Tutberidze’s skaters are better than others, and some of their programs are great whilst others are inferior. This is not unique to TT.)
In some ways, Eteri seems to be learning how to be a better coach as she moves through the generations of skaters (or she simply recruits skaters now who have better basics), but in other ways she seems a bit rigid (I’m thinking of her response to Alyona Kostornaia’s complaints), not to mention petty. I feel that she was probably genuinely hurt when Evgenia left her after the Olympics — but I found her public reaction to be unprofessional. However, I am not Russian, so I don’t understand the nuances of Russian culture that seem to have caused her such offence at not being sent flowers or thanked. She also seems ready to extend an olive branch if former students thank her or speak to her retroactively.
So here we are: apparently Eteri has no issue accepting Evgenia back into the fold and says she wants to help her if she can. She has also lost two of her three top skaters from last season, as well as the olympic champion (okay, Zagitova has not officially retired). Eteri’s remaining senior lady, Anna Shcherbakova, is a beautiful performer, musical and graceful. She has also grown and does not seem at present to be the same kind of quad threat she was last year. And Kamila Valieva, who many people see as a shoo-in for the Olympic team, has incredible flexibility, spins, and skating skills, but some (to me) concerning jump liability with the wonky-axis quad and the landing of the first jump in her combos on an inside edge before tweaking her knee and switching to an outside edge. Neither skater is injury-proof or puberty-proof, just like Evgenia was not. Evgenia, if she can mitigate her back injury like she did at the Cricket Club, could continue to be an outside threat, a wildcard for the international team. Maybe that’s a big “if,” but one thing Evgenia definitely has is grit. It could be her downfall or it could be what gets her through — but that is true of many athletes.
In conclusion, to paraphrase Ted Barton: sometimes people make coaching changes. Sometimes bad, sometimes good, sometimes desperate. We’ll keep watching you, young lady. Thank you for the gift of your skating. Maybe it will turn out with your new-old coach. Maybe not. We don’t know yet. We’ll see.
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, I feel the need to respond.
) but my words obviously triggered your response so I just felt the need to throw my 2 cents in there...
I still can't stop laughing. Waiting impatiently for an interview where happy Medvedeva will tell us how she missed her second mother.
She doesn't need all three coaches. I think she'll be just fine. Fans generate problems where they don't exist.
The fans were ridiculous and stupid. Was Zagitova supposed to throw her skates and fall so Med could win???? She wanted to win as much as Medvedeva did and skated to win. Fan wars are stupid. There is a lot at stake for these skaters and they all want to win, but only one can. It was Zagitova sitting alone when she realized she won. I'm so tired of this argument. It's Sotnikova vs Kim again and it's tiring and boring. Only three skaters will medal in 2022 and only one will skate away with gold. There will be 3 Russians all trying for that medal. Maybe one will win. Maybe none of them will win. Deal with it.
