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Elena Vaytsekhovskaya's interview with Elena Buyanova `Sotnikova and I had to stop deceiving ourselves' for sport-express.ru
3 years ago Adelina Sotnikova said in the interview she always wanted to understand: what is so special about winning the Olympics that makes the young skaters retire. `I know when I won that I didn't want to leave. Especially not the way Tara Lipinski did'.
She didn't come back, though she did change a coach - left Buyanova for Pluschenko, notifying the RFSF she does not plan retiring.
The conversation with the previous coach took place during the summer preparations - Buyanova is coaching two skaters - Radionova and Sotskova. We met to talk about Sotnikova.
EV: When the athlete makes a decision to switch coaches it is always preceded with the chill in the previous relationship, the drifting apart. Your pupil's move to Pluschenko was something you didn't expect, or deep down you know that's where things were going?
EB: Everything happens for a reason. I guess the first moment that hit me as a coach was Adelina's injury in 2015. Previously she never had any serious injuries. Ever. Sotnikova was always not only well disciplined and hard working, but well shaped - not a single weak spot in her body. The problems began after a pause in the training. Adelina was being invited to various events, I didn't mind but always repeated: you have to decide yourself what do you want. She always replied she wanted to skate.
As a coach I saw clearly what and how I can do with Adelina in the future. But a year later I noticed there things that were not really annoying me but...
EV: You wanted more clarity?
EB: First of all. You know what kind of regime an athlete has to keep to remain competitive. We, on the other hand, had a kind of a chaos. We decided together we needed to start competing at least in the B competitions, we created great programmes. Of course it was hard for Adelina. She gained weight. Not much, but it gave her back pains once she was training. Still, she was really working hard and wanted to compete. The `Ice Age' theme was not out of blue. I knew Sotnikova was offered to participate all the time and was offered a lot of money. More than that, we discussed it and I thought the decision was made. Remember you and I were talking about how hard it is for an Olympic champion to find the new motivation? I was thinking about it all the time back then. I was so happy when we submitted the plans for the new season after the September test skates: it was not me, but Adelina who voiced her will to skate and compete.
So we submitted the plans and literally a couple of days later, when we got back to Moscow from Sochi Adelina said she is joining the `Ice Age'. For me it was... the last stroke, I guess. You know, the limit of trust is a limit, because it has it's well, limits.
EV: Have you considered there was your fault as well? Perhaps you were not near your pupil at the moment when she needed you, didn't say the right words, were not harsh enough even?
EB: I did. That I probably should had pressed harder and be harsher. Yet I allowed the athlete do whatever she did and it was, of course, my fault. But I couldn't do it any differently - I saw how much Adelina was loving all that. For so many years she was deprived of the normal life or doing what she wanted. She is a good girl, so kind, compassionate. As once one of our coaches said - you can apply Sotnikova on the injuries and they will heal. Just you know how it happens: you set the goal, get there and then release a bit. It seems like nothing: you'll make a step back and you'll be back to the previous life. Just that it's not true.
EV: At the beginning of our conversation you said you know where to head with Sotnikova. What were your plans?
EB: Adelina has a very good technical potential. She could land a 4T, but she needed to have her body ready.
EV: Why a 4T and not a 3A?
EB: We attempted the 3A, before the Olympics. Adelina was rotating it not badly, but her toeloop was better. Hence I thought it might be easier adding a rotation to the toeloop. Besides, Sotnikova was, as you can put it, aiming there. At any rate, I always wanted her to stand out in her skating - hence I sent her dancing on the floor when her leg was healing after the injury. Adelina moves well, she've been taking jazz lessons since the childhood, she knows it all. She've been participating our shows since she was a kid - she was always on the stage. Every choreographer who ever worked with her were in awe how fast she learns things - they never had to explain things in length. Hence I always knew Adelina will not be lost. I just wanted her to pick a different journey and not be where she is now.
On the other hand am happy I was able to raise an athlete, who besides her grandiose results is professionally required and can go on developing professionally. The rest is up on Adelina, on how much will she want. That is her journey now.
EV: Not a long time ago I was talking about the Sochi Olympics to one of the golden team members who said the shows participating has 2 sides. On one hand you are skating and gaining a new experience, but the feeling of the easy money changes you. The athlete starts understanding quite fast the practices are hard and tedious and you never know what the result will be. The show is easy - skate and get payed.
EB: There are shows in which you as if prolonging the training process and develop. Take the Japanese - they skate their programmes with all the jumps. Why did I send Sotnikova to a dance floor show after the injury? So she wouldn't be sitting down but work full force. She recovered much faster, Adelina changed on the ice, she became different. Even later I told her many times: if you participate a show make the programmes harder, overcome, otherwise it will be too hard to come back. There are so many good girls in our team.
EV: Where, do you think, Sotnikova crossed the point of no return to the high level?
EB: The athletes usually don't understand such things. Retiring, stepping into the unknown is always hard - it's like falling off the cliff. You will never do it yourself, unless you will be pushed. I saw so many athletes who were ready to retire yet they couldn't make that last step and were coming back. There aren't so many who switched to the new life at instance. You are right: when there are too many shows it debauches. The athletes stop being demanding. They stop understanding that if you step on the ice as an Olympic champion you have to be on that level.
EV: Are you saying that what happened to Adelina?
EB: Unfortunately...
EV: When your pupil Maksim Kovtun switched to Inna Goncharenko you were saying how painful it is seeing every day your skater being coached by someone else. Now the situation is reverse: you agreed to accept Elena Radionova fully understanding Goncharenko would be feeling the same. What did you do it for?
EB: I did not accept Radionova as a revenge. She asked to join the team and said she was ready to work. It was not about some athlete from the side. Lena grew up in our school, in a lot of things - in front of my eyes, I know what kind of fighter she is, how can she skate. However you put it - it's our school and our kids.
EV: When Kovtun was leaving I don't recall you talking about `our school, our kids, it doesn't matter who coaches them'.
EB: As a head of the TSKA I actually could prevent that coaching switch. Yes, it was hard for me. But if my athlete made that choice why should I stop him?
EV: Have you accepted Radionova at instance?
EB: No, I thought about it a bit. What I liked was that Lena was not trying to take the blame on how she spent the previous season off herself. The coach is not a god, even the most genious one. The athlete is equally responsible.
EV: You had no doubt that Maria Sotskova, who had been working with you for a year by then might react as well? That, so to say, she might take it badly and go look for a more comfortable team?
EB: I doubt we currently have athletes who can set the rules for the coaches. At least I don't really understand such a position. Obviously Sotskova was in a kind of a discomfort, especially as after the Europeans there were talks about her being switched with Radionova. It was voiced out all the time. But I think if anything it made Maria stronger and I see nothing wrong with that. After all Javier Fernandez and Yudzuru Hanyu train together, does it make them any less good? Take Etheri Tutberidze: she has Zagitova who practically grew up under Medvedeva, who, in her turn, was skating under Lipnitskaya.
You asked about Sotskova - it's not a fact she is uncomfortable with Radionova. Elena not only stepped into a complicated situation, but into the hardest possible, knowing no one will give full attention to her only. If I have to compare those 2 athletes, it's harder for Lena, because she more or less missed the year, she has to catch up and that's a lot of work. When the athlete is still a kid and only starts winning it's just work, work, work. I.e. the first toeloop, the first axel, the first lurtz, then the combos - things that are common for everyone. Yet here we are in a stage when we can decorate the programmes. Like the christmas tree.
EV: The last 2 years the figure skating world is only talking about Russia having Evgenia Medvedeva and her being unbeatable. I would think many athletes would be discouraged thinking it's possible to beat Medvedeva. What about the coaches? Do you sometimes think it's impossible to beat Medvedeva?
EB: Do you offer to sit down and wait till Zhenya retires? Well, someone else will come up. If one athlete has a reputation of unbeatable as a coach I always respect it. I know better tha anyone else how much work that requires. My goal is to make sure my skaters compete with the leader and not only share the ice on the same competition. I really liked the recent interview with Shoma Uno where he said he likes being a pursuitor. It's great when the person does not feel he is catching up, but pursuing.
Obviously those, who become the leaders set the standard. But it does not mean you can't overtake it. Leader is the one, who wants more, works more, overcomes more. Such people become the first. When the athlete settles for what they have they become mediocre. Frankly, I don't quite understand why work so hard to be mediocre. I'm not even talking about myself. After all coaching is my profession and I made my choice to be one as an adult. But all those, who I coach I always try to explain: when you are mediocre - you are nobody. Perhaps that's why I'm so demanding - I've walked that path many times and I know how scary it is retiring when there is a void inside and a feeling of a missout. Medvedeva has a goal now - to make sure no one catches her. She has to become even better, even more interesting. Though am sure there are people who think `Even better? What for?'
EV: How serious is the rivalry of the Canadians Osmond and Dalemann?
EB: I like them both: strong, jumpers, very feminine and it's a big advantage. It's kind of a skating I always liked: I like it when the jump is not big, but huge. So they both can be dangerous at the Olympics. We should not underestimate them.
EV: Speaking of the Olympics: you can't not see no matter how hard will Sotskova and Radionova work the current competition in the ladies is such that they both might not make it to the team.
EB: It's something every coach should be ready for. I just want my athletes not to miss the opportunities they have. This is what we work for - not missing them. A year ago many were doubting Sotskova would make it to the GPF - I saw the doubt in the eyes. But Maria said herself when we were submitting the plans `I'll make it!'. When she started working I was in awe of her determination. And immediately believed that girl will make it. Then there was the Russian nationals towards which Maria was working like crazy.
EV: And then she just didn't have any more power left?
EB: I'd say she slightly `exhaled' when she made it to the team. But there were objective moments. During the winter Maria was seriously ill for 2 weeks and, of course, the thought she might be replaced was pressing on her. While her basic technique is really good she has to work much harder than the other skaters because she is tall.
EV: Is there a slightest chance Sotnikova will start skating again and will ask to come back to your group?
EB: What do you mean will want to skate? She says so. She is getting ready for the test skates.
EV: Despite the fact once she moved to Pluschenko she almost immediately tore a ligament?
EB: The injury has nothing to do with it, even though it was a serious one. When the athlete tells the press about the new programmes, the plans and yet does not decline all the other `events' its' obvious the plans to come back should not be taken seriously. Nothing happens just like that in the sports.
EV: Are you still upset Adelina notified you about the switch to Pluschenko by a text message?
EB: And I don't hide it. But that's not the point. I just know Adelina too well, may be even better than her mom. In some ways she is still a little kid. It's something all the big athletes have in common: they truly believe they achieved everything themselves. They don't understand and don't want to understand that the result is partly thanks to the coach pushing and pushing you for years, carried you where you couldn't walk alone. When Adelina and entered that period of the lack of understanding she once said `it will be hard for you with me'. I replied `do you think it was ever easy with you?'
There was a time when I thought there is nothing new for me in figure skating. That I will never have the harder athletes to work with than the ones I already had. That the next ones will be easier. And then someone comes and you understand how different they all are. That you can't accept someone and just copy/paste the previous work. At least I can't do that. Everyone is different, a different experience. And it pushes you forward.
As for the `comeback' - we've already been there and seen it. As I said, I ran out of the limit of trust. I don't love Adelina less than before, she is still precious to me as an athlete with whom I made a long and a complicated journey, but there is no more limit. We have hardly seen each other during the last year because of all these shows and coaching between the shows is something I would never do. I can't bring myself to believe Adelina really wants to come back. I don't think it would be right to keep deceiving both myself and her.
EV: Perhaps it's really much easier? Perhaps Sotnikova, knowing how demanding you are, how high you set the goal was just afraid she can't live up to the expectations? You have to agree it's hard to come back to the team where another athlete is getting into the top shape and where you would feel not equally good. She does have some self esteem.
EB: I guess deep down she indeed couldn't share me with Maria. She expected me to dump everyone for her.
EV: And?
EB: And convince her to skate.
3 years ago Adelina Sotnikova said in the interview she always wanted to understand: what is so special about winning the Olympics that makes the young skaters retire. `I know when I won that I didn't want to leave. Especially not the way Tara Lipinski did'.
She didn't come back, though she did change a coach - left Buyanova for Pluschenko, notifying the RFSF she does not plan retiring.
The conversation with the previous coach took place during the summer preparations - Buyanova is coaching two skaters - Radionova and Sotskova. We met to talk about Sotnikova.
EV: When the athlete makes a decision to switch coaches it is always preceded with the chill in the previous relationship, the drifting apart. Your pupil's move to Pluschenko was something you didn't expect, or deep down you know that's where things were going?
EB: Everything happens for a reason. I guess the first moment that hit me as a coach was Adelina's injury in 2015. Previously she never had any serious injuries. Ever. Sotnikova was always not only well disciplined and hard working, but well shaped - not a single weak spot in her body. The problems began after a pause in the training. Adelina was being invited to various events, I didn't mind but always repeated: you have to decide yourself what do you want. She always replied she wanted to skate.
As a coach I saw clearly what and how I can do with Adelina in the future. But a year later I noticed there things that were not really annoying me but...
EV: You wanted more clarity?
EB: First of all. You know what kind of regime an athlete has to keep to remain competitive. We, on the other hand, had a kind of a chaos. We decided together we needed to start competing at least in the B competitions, we created great programmes. Of course it was hard for Adelina. She gained weight. Not much, but it gave her back pains once she was training. Still, she was really working hard and wanted to compete. The `Ice Age' theme was not out of blue. I knew Sotnikova was offered to participate all the time and was offered a lot of money. More than that, we discussed it and I thought the decision was made. Remember you and I were talking about how hard it is for an Olympic champion to find the new motivation? I was thinking about it all the time back then. I was so happy when we submitted the plans for the new season after the September test skates: it was not me, but Adelina who voiced her will to skate and compete.
So we submitted the plans and literally a couple of days later, when we got back to Moscow from Sochi Adelina said she is joining the `Ice Age'. For me it was... the last stroke, I guess. You know, the limit of trust is a limit, because it has it's well, limits.
EV: Have you considered there was your fault as well? Perhaps you were not near your pupil at the moment when she needed you, didn't say the right words, were not harsh enough even?
EB: I did. That I probably should had pressed harder and be harsher. Yet I allowed the athlete do whatever she did and it was, of course, my fault. But I couldn't do it any differently - I saw how much Adelina was loving all that. For so many years she was deprived of the normal life or doing what she wanted. She is a good girl, so kind, compassionate. As once one of our coaches said - you can apply Sotnikova on the injuries and they will heal. Just you know how it happens: you set the goal, get there and then release a bit. It seems like nothing: you'll make a step back and you'll be back to the previous life. Just that it's not true.
EV: At the beginning of our conversation you said you know where to head with Sotnikova. What were your plans?
EB: Adelina has a very good technical potential. She could land a 4T, but she needed to have her body ready.
EV: Why a 4T and not a 3A?
EB: We attempted the 3A, before the Olympics. Adelina was rotating it not badly, but her toeloop was better. Hence I thought it might be easier adding a rotation to the toeloop. Besides, Sotnikova was, as you can put it, aiming there. At any rate, I always wanted her to stand out in her skating - hence I sent her dancing on the floor when her leg was healing after the injury. Adelina moves well, she've been taking jazz lessons since the childhood, she knows it all. She've been participating our shows since she was a kid - she was always on the stage. Every choreographer who ever worked with her were in awe how fast she learns things - they never had to explain things in length. Hence I always knew Adelina will not be lost. I just wanted her to pick a different journey and not be where she is now.
On the other hand am happy I was able to raise an athlete, who besides her grandiose results is professionally required and can go on developing professionally. The rest is up on Adelina, on how much will she want. That is her journey now.
EV: Not a long time ago I was talking about the Sochi Olympics to one of the golden team members who said the shows participating has 2 sides. On one hand you are skating and gaining a new experience, but the feeling of the easy money changes you. The athlete starts understanding quite fast the practices are hard and tedious and you never know what the result will be. The show is easy - skate and get payed.
EB: There are shows in which you as if prolonging the training process and develop. Take the Japanese - they skate their programmes with all the jumps. Why did I send Sotnikova to a dance floor show after the injury? So she wouldn't be sitting down but work full force. She recovered much faster, Adelina changed on the ice, she became different. Even later I told her many times: if you participate a show make the programmes harder, overcome, otherwise it will be too hard to come back. There are so many good girls in our team.
EV: Where, do you think, Sotnikova crossed the point of no return to the high level?
EB: The athletes usually don't understand such things. Retiring, stepping into the unknown is always hard - it's like falling off the cliff. You will never do it yourself, unless you will be pushed. I saw so many athletes who were ready to retire yet they couldn't make that last step and were coming back. There aren't so many who switched to the new life at instance. You are right: when there are too many shows it debauches. The athletes stop being demanding. They stop understanding that if you step on the ice as an Olympic champion you have to be on that level.
EV: Are you saying that what happened to Adelina?
EB: Unfortunately...
EV: When your pupil Maksim Kovtun switched to Inna Goncharenko you were saying how painful it is seeing every day your skater being coached by someone else. Now the situation is reverse: you agreed to accept Elena Radionova fully understanding Goncharenko would be feeling the same. What did you do it for?
EB: I did not accept Radionova as a revenge. She asked to join the team and said she was ready to work. It was not about some athlete from the side. Lena grew up in our school, in a lot of things - in front of my eyes, I know what kind of fighter she is, how can she skate. However you put it - it's our school and our kids.
EV: When Kovtun was leaving I don't recall you talking about `our school, our kids, it doesn't matter who coaches them'.
EB: As a head of the TSKA I actually could prevent that coaching switch. Yes, it was hard for me. But if my athlete made that choice why should I stop him?
EV: Have you accepted Radionova at instance?
EB: No, I thought about it a bit. What I liked was that Lena was not trying to take the blame on how she spent the previous season off herself. The coach is not a god, even the most genious one. The athlete is equally responsible.
EV: You had no doubt that Maria Sotskova, who had been working with you for a year by then might react as well? That, so to say, she might take it badly and go look for a more comfortable team?
EB: I doubt we currently have athletes who can set the rules for the coaches. At least I don't really understand such a position. Obviously Sotskova was in a kind of a discomfort, especially as after the Europeans there were talks about her being switched with Radionova. It was voiced out all the time. But I think if anything it made Maria stronger and I see nothing wrong with that. After all Javier Fernandez and Yudzuru Hanyu train together, does it make them any less good? Take Etheri Tutberidze: she has Zagitova who practically grew up under Medvedeva, who, in her turn, was skating under Lipnitskaya.
You asked about Sotskova - it's not a fact she is uncomfortable with Radionova. Elena not only stepped into a complicated situation, but into the hardest possible, knowing no one will give full attention to her only. If I have to compare those 2 athletes, it's harder for Lena, because she more or less missed the year, she has to catch up and that's a lot of work. When the athlete is still a kid and only starts winning it's just work, work, work. I.e. the first toeloop, the first axel, the first lurtz, then the combos - things that are common for everyone. Yet here we are in a stage when we can decorate the programmes. Like the christmas tree.
EV: The last 2 years the figure skating world is only talking about Russia having Evgenia Medvedeva and her being unbeatable. I would think many athletes would be discouraged thinking it's possible to beat Medvedeva. What about the coaches? Do you sometimes think it's impossible to beat Medvedeva?
EB: Do you offer to sit down and wait till Zhenya retires? Well, someone else will come up. If one athlete has a reputation of unbeatable as a coach I always respect it. I know better tha anyone else how much work that requires. My goal is to make sure my skaters compete with the leader and not only share the ice on the same competition. I really liked the recent interview with Shoma Uno where he said he likes being a pursuitor. It's great when the person does not feel he is catching up, but pursuing.
Obviously those, who become the leaders set the standard. But it does not mean you can't overtake it. Leader is the one, who wants more, works more, overcomes more. Such people become the first. When the athlete settles for what they have they become mediocre. Frankly, I don't quite understand why work so hard to be mediocre. I'm not even talking about myself. After all coaching is my profession and I made my choice to be one as an adult. But all those, who I coach I always try to explain: when you are mediocre - you are nobody. Perhaps that's why I'm so demanding - I've walked that path many times and I know how scary it is retiring when there is a void inside and a feeling of a missout. Medvedeva has a goal now - to make sure no one catches her. She has to become even better, even more interesting. Though am sure there are people who think `Even better? What for?'
EV: How serious is the rivalry of the Canadians Osmond and Dalemann?
EB: I like them both: strong, jumpers, very feminine and it's a big advantage. It's kind of a skating I always liked: I like it when the jump is not big, but huge. So they both can be dangerous at the Olympics. We should not underestimate them.
EV: Speaking of the Olympics: you can't not see no matter how hard will Sotskova and Radionova work the current competition in the ladies is such that they both might not make it to the team.
EB: It's something every coach should be ready for. I just want my athletes not to miss the opportunities they have. This is what we work for - not missing them. A year ago many were doubting Sotskova would make it to the GPF - I saw the doubt in the eyes. But Maria said herself when we were submitting the plans `I'll make it!'. When she started working I was in awe of her determination. And immediately believed that girl will make it. Then there was the Russian nationals towards which Maria was working like crazy.
EV: And then she just didn't have any more power left?
EB: I'd say she slightly `exhaled' when she made it to the team. But there were objective moments. During the winter Maria was seriously ill for 2 weeks and, of course, the thought she might be replaced was pressing on her. While her basic technique is really good she has to work much harder than the other skaters because she is tall.
EV: Is there a slightest chance Sotnikova will start skating again and will ask to come back to your group?
EB: What do you mean will want to skate? She says so. She is getting ready for the test skates.
EV: Despite the fact once she moved to Pluschenko she almost immediately tore a ligament?
EB: The injury has nothing to do with it, even though it was a serious one. When the athlete tells the press about the new programmes, the plans and yet does not decline all the other `events' its' obvious the plans to come back should not be taken seriously. Nothing happens just like that in the sports.
EV: Are you still upset Adelina notified you about the switch to Pluschenko by a text message?
EB: And I don't hide it. But that's not the point. I just know Adelina too well, may be even better than her mom. In some ways she is still a little kid. It's something all the big athletes have in common: they truly believe they achieved everything themselves. They don't understand and don't want to understand that the result is partly thanks to the coach pushing and pushing you for years, carried you where you couldn't walk alone. When Adelina and entered that period of the lack of understanding she once said `it will be hard for you with me'. I replied `do you think it was ever easy with you?'
There was a time when I thought there is nothing new for me in figure skating. That I will never have the harder athletes to work with than the ones I already had. That the next ones will be easier. And then someone comes and you understand how different they all are. That you can't accept someone and just copy/paste the previous work. At least I can't do that. Everyone is different, a different experience. And it pushes you forward.
As for the `comeback' - we've already been there and seen it. As I said, I ran out of the limit of trust. I don't love Adelina less than before, she is still precious to me as an athlete with whom I made a long and a complicated journey, but there is no more limit. We have hardly seen each other during the last year because of all these shows and coaching between the shows is something I would never do. I can't bring myself to believe Adelina really wants to come back. I don't think it would be right to keep deceiving both myself and her.
EV: Perhaps it's really much easier? Perhaps Sotnikova, knowing how demanding you are, how high you set the goal was just afraid she can't live up to the expectations? You have to agree it's hard to come back to the team where another athlete is getting into the top shape and where you would feel not equally good. She does have some self esteem.
EB: I guess deep down she indeed couldn't share me with Maria. She expected me to dump everyone for her.
EV: And?
EB: And convince her to skate.
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), Gordeeva - AFAIK they still land the stuff they used to dring their competitive days. Am not sure it's not due to the fact the technical content was much less back then?
and she's always been the most naturally artistic Russian lady of the lot IMO.
