Samokhvalov's interview with Gleikhengauz

hanca

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I think US sports media frequently criticize players and coaches for lack of results, poor strategy, etc. And I’m sure I’ve seen press conferences where coaches say stuff like, we need to do better against the run, or converting on third downs, or we have to work on x, etc. What I don’t recall seeing (and maybe I’m just unobservant) is a coach calling out a player or skater or team for being lazy or uncoachable, which is essentially what he’s saying here.
Which US coach was it who disclosed confidential info about Gracie Gold? Including the fact that she threw the national team jacket into the bin? Just saying…it is not only Russia where the coach may feel they have had enough.

ETA: just noticed someone mentioned the same incident with Gracie Gold.
 

kwanfan1818

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He didn't call her lazy: he said "it's just that people are different and not all of us are capable of repeating the same things day after day, turn off the emotions and just repeat the same things. Repetition - that's the toughest part of our sport."

That's a very different thing. He might be at the same level of jerkiness for saying this rather than that she was lazy, and his diagnosis might be wrong, but he didn't call her lazy. He didn't call her a diva who thinks she's too good to practice or thinks she can waltz in and beat Valieva. He didn't say she was making demands.

They're in the driver's seat, and they don't have time to do anything but focus on the upcoming Olympics.
 

On My Own

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More than anything, Danny G’s statements seem both like he’s heading off criticism for her results and revenging himself on her for her prior statements/ actions.
I cannot read Russian, so I cannot say what it reads like in the original interview. But in the English translation, personally I don't think it comes off like this, even if I wish he didn't say those things.

I don't think he's heading off criticism either. It is true that learning is a two-way street. I am not sure what they've tried with Kostornaia, but it's entirely possible they've exhausted every method available to them, and there are only so many methods to try. As he says, repetition is hard, and rather tedious, I might add. If someone doesn't take to it, then so it is. You cannot make someone want to repeat over and over.

And, again, I don't think this is appropriate for the press. I do think it's unprofessional to go to the press with this. But I don't see it as him deflecting criticism or revenge.

(Personally, I'm not sure what an appropriate equivalent of "we need to do better against the run, or converting on third downs" would be. I feel like if he'd said "we need to build more stamina so she makes fewer mistakes" there'd still be insinuations that he's calling her lazy. If he'd said she needs to practice more stroking and present the program better, same thing. I'm just not seeing what the equivalent would be in that case.)
 

thvu

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So I take it that as an adult, you would be perfectly happy if your next job review was made public or your boss’s critical comments were published in a newspaper or on the internet?
If you work in the government in the US, this is already the case. Every email I send, every document I create, every review I receive - it's all available for public consumption. When I was a teacher, parents could look up my observations, my evaluations, my VAM score.

In modern organizations that try to practice radical transparency, there is no such thing as a private grievance, a private review, or a private concern. Everything is aired publicly, every concern or review is up for discussion.
 

Tavi

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If you work in the government in the US, this is already the case. Every email I send, every document I create, every review I receive - it's all available for public consumption. When I was a teacher, parents could look up my observations, my evaluations, my VAM score.

In modern organizations that try to practice radical transparency, there is no such thing as a private grievance, a private review, or a private concern. Everything is aired publicly, every concern or review is up for discussion.
Not sure where you work / worked in government. It sounds unpleasant! That has not been my experience as a federal employee. Are our salaries publicly available? Yes. But beyond that, the law generally protects our personal privacy. FOIA requests for reviews and evaluations would normally be withheld under exemption 6, which covers “all information about individuals” in "personnel and medical files and similar files" when the disclosure of such information "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” Personal information might be produced in litigation if you can convince a judge it’s relevant, but usually only under a protective order (meaning it’s not publicly available). While the federal government does release a lot of records, FOIA, the Privacy Act, and other statutes - and in my case, legal privileges - generally limit what can be disclosed and how.
 

barbarafan

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Perhaps I’m misremembering, but I think the Raf comment was made directly to Adam, and it was Adam himself who later made it public. With respect to Gracie and Frank, if I recall he made a fairly restrained public statement that they were parting ways, without having told her first. I’m not defending either coach, but I don’t think either situation is quite the same thing as this one. More than anything, Danny G’s statements seem both like he’s heading off criticism for her results and revenging himself on her for her prior statements/ actions.
Didn't Frank throw her team jacket in the garbage at a competition? Or am I totally disremembering?
 

Tavi

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Gracie Gold is a case of a skater whose coach complained about her work ethic when there was actually much deeper, thornier issues happening.
I’m not sure where he complained about her work ethic, but here I think despite the difficult situation he was pretty gracious about her:

 

Coco

Rotating while Russian!
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Um.... we'll have to agree to disagree about the graciousness of dumping someone through a public statement, on the heels of seeking out a media audience to throw out their national team jacket after that person told you privately to throw it out when they were extremely upset.
 

Tavi

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Um.... we'll have to agree to disagree about the graciousness of dumping someone through a public statement, on the heels of seeking out a media audience to throw out their national team jacket after that person told you privately to throw it out when they were extremely upset.
I agree that if he didn’t tell her first that he would no longer work with her, that was not great, to say the least.

But I guess I’m wondering why you think he sought out a media audience or that their conversation was private? The article you posted was written kind of melodramatically, but I didn’t necessarily take either of those things from it (if I missed something that was posted elsewhere, please forgive me 😊). I don’t think I’ve ever been backstage at a skating competition, but I’ve frequently been backstage in theaters. Most of the time they’re full of people. An incident like that wouldn’t go unnoticed; in fact, it would travel like wildfire. So I’ve always assumed - perhaps wrongly- that when she threw the vest down and told him to trash it, there were witnesses.
 

Vagabond

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Gracie Gold is a case of a skater whose coach complained about her work ethic when there was actually much deeper, thornier issues happening.
As the Christine Brennan article makes clear, he was well aware of the much deeper, thornier issues.
“She has been in a deep, deep, deep depression,” Carroll said.
What I find the most heartbreaking about that quote is that after Gold left Carroll, she fell into even deeper depression.
 

Coco

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Ahhh, thread drift :)

@Tavi I'm sure there were witnesses, but I feel like the detail about him emerging from behind a curtain means there was a private area and an area open to the media.
 

hanca

Values her privacy
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I’m not sure where he complained about her work ethic, but here I think despite the difficult situation he was pretty gracious about her:

Gracious towards her? As in, telling the media that he won’t work with her any more without telling her first, you call that gracious? I don’t want to know what isn’t gracious then, in your view.
 

love_skate2011

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I dont think Kostornaia minds that much, she has a difficult personality but its up to her what her goal is for the season and her career. She is has some pictorial gigs.

Kostornaia loves Shopping and to unwind , maybe thats why DG giving her shades as being Lazy ?

 

Tavi

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@Coco, you’re right about the thread drift! 😂 But as a last word on curtains, to me they don’t necessarily connote privacy backstage. I wasn’t there & I could be wrong. Given the tone of the article (which struck me as less solid reporting and more “ooh, here’s some dirt on Gracie and Frank”) I guess I didn’t focus on that. And we’ll probably never know.

@hanca please reread the first sentence of my post 105 - and while you’re at it, Frank’s actual statement. In my opinion, it was a gracious statement. If you disagree, oh well.
 

Mayra

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With the latest Eteri injury, I can’t help but think maybe Kostornaia is the smartest one vs the laziest. It’s looking like the last one standing has the best chance.

Goodness knows half of Eteri run throughs and jump repetitions is still probably more than anywhere else.
 

canbelto

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What Aliona has going for her is that she's already gone through puberty and a pretty big growth spurt. So if she gets her 3A really reliable again she's not likely to lose that jump due to puberty.
 

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