Gosh, poor Evgenia. She states that she is not exactly depressed, but it definitely sounds that way.
I had the same reaction when I was reading the article. Throughout adulthood, I have struggled on and off with depression. Warning bells were going off for me. This sounds bad to me.
About 9 1/2-10 years ago, a string of difficult things happened in my life all at once. I still describe it as feeling like someone had taken my whole life, put it in a blender, and turned it up on high. It sounds like that is what happened to poor Evgenia. At the time, a few friends and I had a small email group to stay in touch with each other. I sent a lot of emails at the time about what was going on. One of my friends, who had also dealt with depression, recognized what was going. They contacted me privately and talked me into making an appointment with a psychologist. It took awhile, but therapy and medication are wonderful things. At a minimum, she needs to be seeing a psychologist by herself. They should probably be seeing one together. I think H/D in ice dance have mentioned working with a psychologist when dealing with a similar situation. Obviously medication is a call that the psychologist/psychiatrist seeing the patient makes, but I sort of wonder if based off this it might be indicated. I have no idea though whether there are any options approved by WADA or if it's something a therapeutic use exemption can be pursued for.
This interview made me super sad - I hope things get easier for them soon. I think they've ended up with beautiful programs and would love for them to skate them perfectly at Worlds.
It made me super sad too. Not only for how broken Evgenia seems right now, but they always seemed like they were crazy for each other in the "this is going to last forever and ever" sort of way. Looking back a bit and reading this article, it looks like their personal relationship was a casualty of the Olympic stress fallout, post-Olympic depression for sure for her, possibly post-Olympic anger from him. I know from my personal experiences that depression can make you do things that you would not otherwise normally do. That can include pushing loved ones away and self-destructive behavior, like killing a relationship that's been a big and important part of your life. Maybe I'm just being a hopeless romantic, but if that's the case with them, it might very well not be over forever for them. One of the things that happened when my life got thrown in the blender is that my parents divorced. Even though my sibling and I were grown, they felt the need to maintain some sort of friendship for our sake because of still both being our parents. They eventually decided they missed each other, worked through things, and got back together. Now, that period of time is just a dark phase our family went through in the past. You never know what's going to happen or how something like this will ultimately play out. (And, hey,
these guys also went through a spell where they broke up for awhile in their mid-20's and it all seemed to work out for them in the end.
) Hopefully, they both find some peace, whatever that ends up looking like.
I would suggest that starting over with a totally new coaching team would be beneficial in the long run, but I don't think Evgenia is in any emotional state to handle another
I absolutely agree that they need a new coaching team, but I actually think instead of Evgenia not being able to handle it, it might be just what she needs. One of my struggles is with situational depression. Sometimes, there is nothing you can do to change a situation. As a psychologist I worked with in the beginning said though, sometimes there are things you can do to change your situation. Radical change can be beneficial. A totally new environment completely divorced from the old one. It's almost like Evgenia is stuck in some sort of purgatory where they can't go back to their old training environment (and it quite frankly sounds like they don't really want to with that comment you shared from the World of Figure Skating), but the new one is maybe not exactly what she needs either. Yet those two worlds are so close together that she can't separate it out. Sometimes, the ghost of memory is everywhere you turn. Evgenia seems to get comfort from Mozer, but it seems like a child's tattered security blanket to me, given the comments Mozer has made. I know Mozer had to step back for a bit for her health, but she's also said in the press that she's bored with T/M. They're a team with the talent to win in 2022, but she's bored. No one is going to be their best with a coach who is bored with them. Others have pointed out the dynamics would be weird going to Moskvina with the younger pair having been there longer. (I also think that Stanislav Morozov is working with her group and T/M aren't too fond of him after splitting ways after their junior years.) In passing, I've seen it mentioned in a few articles that if it hadn't been Max, they had the option of a coach in the US. A specific coach was never mentioned, although I have a few guesses, but what that does mean is there is someone willing to sponsor them to go out of Russia for coaching. My thought for them is Marina Zoueva for their choreography and then Jenni Meno, Todd Sand, and Robin Szolkowy in Irvine for coaching. They seem to want to build this into an international coaching center. T/M would be top dog there. Katia Gordeeva, who seems quite fond of them
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq73wzsl8HR/, would be near to possibly serve as a mentor. Jenni and Todd have gentleness and warmth and steadiness that I think would be really good for Evgenia right now. Robin is a bit of holdover, but it's the calm and stable Robin whom they seem to really like to work with and vice versa. Alexa Knierim seems to be one of the few NA skaters who comments regularly on Evgenia's social media posts, so she would have someone who seems like they could be a friend there. Big move, but it might do a world of good to literally be half a world away from Moscow and the past.
I think there's a lot going on with their training that they're not really talking about. In the Russian magazine
World of Figure Skating, this is a quote (my very unprofessional translation):
Why did you move to Novogorsk, if you still are under the tutelage of Nina Mikhailovna (Mozer):
Vladimir: It is inconvenient for Max to get to "Inspirations", he lives outside the city, and in general probably not particularly fond of this rink. Plus there are other pairs who skate there we are not very comfortable training with. New projects, juniors... I do not really want to get into it.
What pairs are driving out World medalists??? Max has also been making a lot of snarky Instagram posts complaining about hypocrites and armchair experts. So this whole team seems to be in disarray.
I sort of wonder if the close person who made the comment about Evgenia not being able to win is a former training mate at the "Inspiration" rink.
Considering that they didn't take any time off after the Olys, switched coaches and broke up in their personal life, what more do you want?
- you can easily spend an hour and a half or two hours in traffic jams on the way from work to home. I can't say that the pace of life in St Petersburg is slow (especially in comparison with other Russian cities and regions), it's just different.
