An interview with N
atalia Dubova (translating mainly the figure skating related stuff)
- I can be very strict, sometimes not. But I can always put myself in the athlete's shoes.
- My family always came first. My family always had my back - I cried back home, I was emotional back home. So I could support my athletes.
- The family: my grandmother worked in fur shop, she didnt' live long but she was my close friend. Mom was a doctor. Father was a mathematician - he was doing calculations for the bridges. My figure skating made me stand out in such a family. We had a grand piano in the flat and my aunt from Lvov would bring her pupils to Moscow. Mom would tell me `have you seen X practicing so hard' `yes, mom' and went to the rink, which was not what was expected.
- By the time I had to graduate the highschool I decided to finish the exams a year earlier. Mom didn't even believe I would get my diploma
- Figure skating - I simply wanted to skate and even to this day I don't understand how my parents allowed me going to the rink before the school. I had to go to school and I couldn't show up with the skates, so I would shove it into the snow and pick it up on the way back.
- In 1966 I went abroad for the first time to Turino for the Uni games.
- Both Averbukh and Zhulin - men say figure skating is a tough sport. Am not sure about Averbukh, but indeed it was hard on Zhulin - I worked with him for 19 years. He was lucky to have the talented Usova for a partner. Usova/Zhulin were the only Soviet skaters who were so popular in the USA
Usova: she is so sincere with everyone: the skaters, the judges. For me it's the most important thing - that defines a human. I am so grateful for Natalia for giving me this sincerity and thanks for all you have done for me.
- They were very talented, but I was very strict to them. They missed out on a lot, there were reasons - the divorce and all - the personal life came between them and the Olympic medal they never won. Back home we have my husband's diploma for a word record - he is a swimmer and he was the first to beat the USA athletes. There are many medals he has, but the only one he is missing is the gold Olympic medal. He really supported that team and think those 3 talents haven't taken the medals they should had.
Zhulin: Getting a praise from Dubova was hard. I had lame legs and arms, not that I was the ugliest one,but I was far from the best. Yet once we got to the competition I was the best and the most handsome. We did a huge job and once we were at the competition it payed off. The next day we would be back to Moscow and I would be lame again. I preferred to keep my distance and hear her from 5-6 meters, so things wouldn't fly in my direction. However, if you were well disciplined and did all the tasks, took the work seriously there were no negative remarks from her.
- I started coaching at the age of 19. Once the work became serious I switched to a very prestigious rink - I had Linitchuk in my group and hence I was accepted to a very good rink. My athletes didn't get a lot of ice though. I had to work on a bike track instead. I I was expected to work there. Once there were some results I was given the open rink and only later an artificial ice.
- It's hard to figure who to talk to in the figure skating. Today a coach can say it's her pupils, but in real life it's mine, Zhuk's, Kudriavtsev's, Mishin's skaters. And yet...
- I started working at 5:30 the earliest, usually at 6am.
Gorshkov: She is very demanding. It allowed her to to get into the USSR coaching ice dance elite. She had an intuition who to work with and who to let go. The Free Dance of Usova/Zhulin is still the masterpiece and that's what the ice dance should look like.
Zhulin: Dubova is very strict, demanding and I think we had a very strong team- think she was the only coach who had the whole World podium. If she didnt' show up in the practice we would do our best. If she came - we would start working like crazy.
- I went through 36 Worlds and 7 Olys and never had my skaters come home without a medal.
Tutberidze: she taught us the whole podium is ours, we are ahead of everyone.
- 1984 Klimova/Ponomarenko - we came to the Olympics in Sarajevo. We won the USSR nations by then, we had a slight chance to get a medal. We got to a meeting and we are being asked who is the n. 1 here? And someone else was named. So there is nothing you could do. Torvill/Dean won heads down in 1984. And then Klimova/Ponomarenko started winning. It was an explosion having the young skaters winning a bronze at the Olympics. 4 years of competition against the federation - the head of the federation was friends with another coach, I was still a young coach. It went as far as leaving Moiseeva/Minenkov coachless. I was called to the federation and told Moiseeva/Minenkov don't have a coach and, frankly, by then they were written off. I understood if we lose I will be kicked out together with them. So am at the Europeans with Moiseeva/Minenkov. Right after the competition we had to get fast to Sverdlovsk, where another major competition was taking place. My Klimova/Ponomarenko were competing there. I was told I would not be flying there. Later I learned another coach was going there who later STOLE them from me. Or another example: we come to Nagano, I was coaching a Canadian team, we were living not far from Canada, the conditions were awesome. I was also coaching the UK and the Israeli team, a Chinese team etc. Anyway, the Olympics are on and I see that my dance - the compulsory dance I created for Klimova/Ponomarenko - the Vienna Waltz that became compulsory. So they had a chance for a bronze, they skate their Golden Waltz and they end up... 5th! Why? Because everyone knows they have an amazing free dance, and once we said goodbye to the medal I see Shae Lynn during the warm up next to her is the coach's assistance, who stole her and later married her. So she never became an Olympic champion, they divorced immediately after.
- The easiest way to get rid of a coach back then is writing about them. That they are not loyal and I would not be allowed to travel abroad. I was shown a letter. By chance it made it to my friends. I saw the last names of the people who signed that letter. Fortunately I was not banned from travelling, even though Klimova/Ponomarenko's first competition in the UK I was not allowed to go. Back then you would be authorized travelling by the organs, and you would learn it on the way to the airport. It was the same for the theatre or ballet.
- My husband - we are married for 42 years. My son will be 50 next year. We both were married. He came as a journalist to the nationals. The competition was over. My very first team skated quite well - Garanina/Zavozin were not allowed to get the bronze they deserved. I was sitting on a table and crying. He was walking near and asked why was I crying. After the 1980 Olympics in Moscow we got married. We moved to the USA because in 1992 the USSR was over and the funding was done. There were some weird sponsors, who I didn't want to have anything with. My husband gave the sponsor a car and asked to support the group.
Tutberidze: everyone were leaving - the ice became private, so we had to pay for the ice and we didn't make any money. The coaches who left did not leave for the money, but for an opportunity to work - they simply didn't have an ice.
- I don't know what came first - probably my husband's illness. He was in the USA and fell ill. The USA Olympic committee offered me a contract. It was the middle of the Olympic cycle, so I couldn't leave my athletes, who were in Moscow. I couldn't sign a contract without talking to them first. I gave a seminar, that I was payed for, my husband underwent an open heart surgery in 1992 in the USA. The head of the committee was there, he took his shirt off to show me he had the same surgery. I declined signing without my athletes. 19 people moved to Montreal and we started working. We were given a place to live and cars, it was quite outskirts, but we could work and we had an ice. My husband taught me a lot - his stories about his career is something that motivated me.
: https://twitter.com/EOCmedia/status/1129828168129495041
to your heart's content
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), his daughter Annabelle who is currently a Russian ice dancer.
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about the host spot next season.
