An interview with Kostornaya by RIA's Zhukov and Averina sisters published in vk.com
why pairs? Because after the surgery in September she came back to the ice and realized she can't do the jumps anymore - it was painful. She had a show ahead of her for which she had to learn the pair elements and from there on they tried.
She has a hip injury
on throw jumps and pain: I have to do less, it's the partner, it's the take off that is painful, while in the pairs she has her partner doing that job for her.
on the federation: first they were sceptical about her switching to the pairs, but now they are supportive.
why Kunitsa: just happened. By that time he have been skating pairs for a while which quite experienced partners but things didn't work out. First they were in the shows only, then Kostornaya offered to try out and he agreed to approach the coaches and try.
the plans: they want to make it to the team. The competition is huge.
The parents/relatives always support her, the friends - Anna, Daria and the others were a bit shocked.
Combining the personal relationship and work is fine
Kostornaya was not afraid of the lifts and split twists, but the throw jumps were scarrier - her single jumps are higher than the throws and she was falling quite a lot. Since Kunitsa is more experienced in the pairs she trusts him and they learn together how things would work for them.
Ksenia Sinitsina tried the pairs for a couple of weeks, didn't like it and came back to singles. If things wouldn't work our Kostornaya would have tried to come back.
The triple throw jumps are not yet working - she still has to figure the rotation in a different axis.
The Olympic season: she was supposed to go to the GPF, it was cancelled, then she broke one arm, spent 8 weeks of the ice, a week later she broke another arm, again 8 weeks of the ice, then went ot Buyanova, they made her do the scanning of her hip and she had to have a surgery. So the season was off. She tried skating with the broken arm, but the couldn't tie her ice skates, she couldn't put her coat on, the arm expanded in the cast and it was painful. The cast went above the elbow. The decision not to do the Russian nationals was the right one, she had no chance to compete - her arm was not bending. Dudakov and Gleikhengauze saw that practice, called Tutberidze and Shvedski who were at the Fed and Kostornaya was withdrown from the nationals. The options were for her to run around and ask to be taken off or for the coaches and fed to do it fast. It was not a scratch on her finger the way it was presented. The coaches are not telling what injury it was really because then they will be asked why such injuries happened on their watch. Kostornaya does not hold grudges against the coaches who told a different story about her injury, though she didn't feel nice about it, especially when she was not beleived when she revealed what her injury was. More than that at that point she was not allowed to reveal her injury - the coaches were saying one thing and then she would be telling a different story making them looking like idiots. She was anyway the most problematic skater in the group.
It's not anyone's fault that she fell and broke her arms - no one pushed her and demanded she jumps.
She did not watch the Olympics because well, in theory she could be there.
She has 5 tatoos.
The hair colour: she dyed to red to match her father's beard but then he dyed it to blue, so they didn't match
The tatoos: the coaches haven't noticed the tatooes, they are focused on the elements and not on their bodies/tatoos.
She absolutely loves Sokolovskaya who can shout, be super funny but she is never hurtful to her pupils.
Switch to Pluschenko: I had a chance to improve, just that there were things that prevented her from. Just that she didn't have a chance to use the opportunity - it was a quarantine, then the switch, then finally a month before the competition they finished the SP. Because of the quarantine it took a long time to recover and get her jumps back. The Salchow took about 4 days to come back. It was tough, she would go on the ice and the body would not cooperate. Everything hurt, and the kids around her were landing 3/3 around her. She had a covid a bit before the Nationals. So first the quarantine when her body have changed, then the covid and thanks to that her bones are less strong and her immune system is not what it used to be, but she was not ready for it - she never was getting ill and all of the sudden she was breaking her limbs, being ill all the time .Pluschenko and his wife helped a lot.
Pluschenko let her choose some things, but it's not as if she could choose her ice time. She was offered several options and she had to choose one. The off ice training in Pluschenko's group is super strong, the girls are incredibly fit, it was hard for Kostornaya. The ice time was 1.15 but it was tense. On the other had she was not limited for one time music and if you missed something go train with the kids. That was not the case. The off ice was either running 5km or playing hockey, Kostornaya choose the running. The ice was free after 10pm and they switched with Trusova - 2 times a week it was Trusova, 2 times - Kostornaya.
Weight control - her whole life - mom would weight her in the morning and the evening from the very young age to prevent the knee injuries. She was under the constant control of her mom. She was not beaten too badly but there was physical violence. According to Kostornaya she was unsuffarable, she was not doing what she was told, if she didn't feel like doing what she was told she just would not. She needed to be thrown ideas her direction and not told what to do.
She worked with the shrink and fortunately they caught her potential eating disorder on time and got help she needed on time. She was sent to the shrink for a completely different reason, but that was a trigger.
After coming back from Pluschenko all of the sudden Tutberidze was talking to her and they had a better understanding.
it's important for Kostornaya to be heard by the coach. That her point of view would be taken and considered. The `you tell us what you want and we'll use our music because we have to liten to that for a year and watch you dragging your feet to it'.
After coming back from Pluschenko team Tutberidze were communicating with her really and it was new and weird. Not during the competitions, of course, because there are like 15 skaters and there is no time for everyone and that eventually caused the final break up.
When Pluschenko steps on the ice there is a power he projects and the is the same during the practices. He projects the power and the energy.
When Tutberidze is on the ice it's like an ice queen and you are shaking a bit. For the first 2 years Kostornaya was afraid to make a wrong step, she was hiding near the borders.
Buyanova can express with her words with no curses at all something that would sting on one hand and on the other she was not feeling humiliated but motivated. It was not a one time thing and that motivation stayed for longer.
Tutberidze is a product line - one is broken the next steps in. Some work with the athlests from 18 to 40y.o, some from 15 to 18 and after that age it's not about hte sport anymore.
The 1st channel interview with Tutberidze the questions were set to make Kostornaya sound bad. When she was accepted back into the team she had to do the interview, cry and say she was an idiot and beg to be accepted back. She swore never to give such humuliating intervierws and she is always frank and says the things the way they are.
The interviewer must be Ivana Komova working anonymously.
www.sport-express.ru
