Sport-Express interview with Tamara Moskvina

Ka3sha

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Dmitrii Kuznetsov's interview with Tamara Moskvina:

They think that in St. Petersburg people are a little more melancholic and not as fast as in Moscow - but this is definitely not about Tamara Moskvina. Already 45 minutes after the call from the Panin-Kolomenkin memorial, I found myself in the car of the honored coach of Russia and the USSR - "Maybach", as she jokingly calls her Volkswagen. Tamara Nikolaevna, who will turn 80 next June, was driving briskly on the way to Lisiy Nos, answering calls and my annoying questions at the same time. And answering, as always, wisely.

- Tamara Nikolaevna, do not consider it impolite, but how is your health? The leaders of the group are sick or have had the coronavirus, but apparently the virus does not risk approaching you.
- I am fine. In general, in the current situation I do not see a tragedy, this is not a war. The situation is non-standard and even extraordinary, but we have lived through much worse. Dmitry had a mild case, they had to skip the event in Sochi, I think he will recover by the next one. He has already started training.
- When I was walking to you, I had a moral dilemma: statistics show that you need to ask about Plushenko and Tutberidze. But it's unlikely that you are very keen on what is happening on Instagram.
- You know, I don’t think that the audience is so interested in it. I’m already bored to see all of this, during my career I’ve seen so many things. So the readers do not need to rehash the same, the plot is similar in the same place. You need to come up with something else. I try to have news stories around my teams as much as possible. But I achieve this with new elements, different tricks, interesting dresses.
- But women's single skating is clearly the most popular one. Isn’t it a problem?
- No problem. We really have great girls and strong men right now. But it was once different! Remember how it all began - pair skating was at the top, we won at all Olympics Games. Now yes, girls deserve attention and shall turn the audience interest to other disciplines as well. Your task, journalists, is to use this interest and turn people to other disciplines. After all, our teams are going to perform very successfully at the Olympics, we actually have victories too.
- We are in St. Petersburg, the Panin-Kolomenkin memorial has just ended. There were a lot of girls, but the pair teams did not manage to end the event due to the withdrawal of all pairs. Is this not a crisis?
- Oh, learned the word - crisis! There is no crisis. Pair skating is a very difficult sport, two people have to skate in a team. It is very difficult to find partners, you need the right ratio in many respects - psychological, weight, age. Plus a couple - I'm sorry, it's like a tram on the ice, which you can't overtake on the rails. They need the whole rink to get on the lift, to skate from one corner of the rink to another one, they will not give their way to others. This means that pairs need separate ice, more time. It happened that there were just six pairs at the World Championship. But the discipline did not die even then.
- You have two top pairs since this season. How do you organize the internal competition? We have seen obvious problems regarding this - coaching changes in Tutberidze's group , Plushenko's girls train separately.
- First of all, I will say that I have no information about the problems in the groups you mentiones. But when I worked, starting from the last century, I always tried to make the internal competition friendly and constructive, on the contrary, aimed at improving the technique and artistic content of the programs. We need a positive climate with jokes and a good psychological mood. There is no need to create destructive competition! If this happens, it means that the team is being led unwisely.
- Boikova/Kozlovskii and Mishina/Gallyamov can play a trick on each other?
- Yes, why not? My efforts, in a team with Arthur Minchuk, are aimed at ensuring that they watch others skate, but help each other. They did not point out the mistakes, but adopted something good from each other. If there would be just one car manufacturer in our country, it would have been boring, no motivation, no critique. For this, people unite in companies and countries.
I managed to maintain positive competition over the years - there were, of course, problems like what happened between Vasiliev and Makarov (a fight at the training camp in Kazakhstan in 1982 - SE note), but I managed to solve it. In 1992, at the Olympics, my students Mishkutenok and Dmitriev were first, Bechke and Petrov were second. And they competed among themselves and in the group. The same thing in 1998 - Kazakova/Dmitriev and Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze took first and second places, despite joint training. So internal competition can be successful.
- That's the question - how do you manage?
- I just want to make this competition like that. So that it does not go beyond the framework of good neighborly relations.
- Allow me, I will catch on the lack of information about the problems in other groups. And two skaters leaving Tutberidze's group is not an evidence of problems?
- But you also probably changed your place of work in the past. Why?
- It's more interesting in sports than in other areas.
- And someone thinks that the new group will be more interesting. So, what is the crime here? I do not see it. Everyone is free to dispose of their own life. People tend to look for better conditions, salary, and move up the career ladder. Skaters may also decide that the result will be higher with another coach. This is normal. When a new couple comes to me, I immediately tell them: “You have the right to leave for another school even tomorrow - this is your right. The only thing is - let's part normally, with flowers and champagne." We must thank each other, it is not that you were invited to another group just because you are great. Probably, it's your current coaches who taught you that.
- But still you do not have such a confrontation as in the women's singles. Although Nina Moser has been quite harsh about you recently, I suspect you've read that.
- If I have time, I read the news. But I generally respect specialists who give interviews. Bad people are not asked for their opinion. I judge people not by what they say, but what they do. And the results of Nina Mikhailovna are very positive. And as a coach, I respect her.
- When you said about the only car manufacturer - is this not an allegory for "Khrustalny"? For two years a group in one of the types dominated and there was a monopoly, now another - "Plushenko's Angels" has appeared. Is it good that there is such competition?
- Well, it’s not true, you took hooked two groups and talk about what is happening between them. And there are several of them. There is such a coach as Mishin, who has been bringing up excellent single skaters for a hundred years, there is Buyanova, Davydov, Rukavitsyn, Sokolovskaya.
- But Tutberidze did not lose for two years.
- She’s done well, I don’t argue. You don’t find this fact as somethin bad, do you? It would be like considering the work of Apple bad, which is now the leading company in the world. So I don’t find it bad, and Tutberidze works and worked perfectly hence there was such a winning streak. Other coaches and groups appear and also want achieve results.
- Did you follow the last stage of the Russian Figure Skating Cup, where these groups met? And there were many questions around the judges.
- In figure skating they talk about judging since the inception of the sport, when the judging appeared in it.
- But we now have biased judging, is there such a problem?
- It depends on what "problem" means. If you open the news about the past Olympics, then you will see that at each competition there was a question about judging. There are no objective assessment criteria, and this is normal. It's like with women - some like blondes, some with a sense of humor, and others - very smart. And how do you distribute the weights between these criteria? Yes, the factor of a more eminent coach plays a role when it comes to the scores. There might be a judging team from one city. But these are trifles. The strongest, if he is really the strongest, will win.
- But isn't the reaction of the public, even the whistle at times, a call? This is something new after all.
- Earlier there were no drums, banners, rattles. Generally no noise. Maybe it was suppotring whistling? It is necessary to talk about biased judging, maybe to conduct some kind of investigation. So you will make a film. I say this: in order to win, you have to be a cut above, despite the preferences of the judges. So that they cannot do anything, even if they want to. The ISU rules allow it, they still contain a lot of mathematics.
- The last thing - this season I have heard from the coaches more than once, they say, there are few competitions, although the athletes don't want more. Can we say that in figure skating there is a bias towards training? The skater appears at the competitions seven times a year, and trains for 300 days/ It's rarely in sports.
- When there was no situation with the coronavirus, there were never any problems like that. If the athletes did not have enough starts, they could participate in the St. Petersburg competitions. This season, the federation very wisely raised the status of the Russian Cup series - a national series, so the athletes can compete. And every city tries to organize something of its own.
As for your wishes, it is logical, but only in theory. Because when it comes to the development of specific details, you will need finances, ice palaces with free time. And if we ask the coaches, they will generally say, we have enough competitons.
- But the request for more figure skating is visible. And we don't open training sessions to the audience.
- Well, we recently hosted a youth tournament, the Cup, in St. Petersburg. What was it called ...
- The Moskvina Cup, I think.
- That's right! The Federation has made a request - there is a need for children with youthful, sports categories to compete, and it would be good if the tournament was held under your name. There is also a tournament named after Alexei Nikolaevich Mishin. And we are alright with it, this is our charitable assistance to children's skating. So there are not too few competitions. Not everything is as bad as you think.

Video version of the interview as a bonus:
 

mjb52

Well-Known Member
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5,995
- When you said about the only car manufacturer - is this not an allegory for "Khrustalny"? For two years a group in one of the types dominated and there was a monopoly, now another - "Plushenko's Angels" has appeared. Is it good that there is such competition?
- Well, it’s not true, you took hooked two groups and talk about what is happening between them. And there are several of them. There is such a coach as Mishin, who has been bringing up excellent single skaters for a hundred years, there is Buyanova, Davydov, Rukavitsyn, Sokolovskaya.

:) Subtle friendly shade re: Mishin, I love when she teases him. He's not quite a centenarian yet.

Fantastic interview, as always.
 

rfisher

Let the skating begin
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The reporter tried to get her to enter the conflict, but at 80 years of age, Moskvina is no fool and knows how to avoid looking like one. It's clear the media is bored and makes the drama more than it is. I only hope to still be as lively and engaged at her age. Her skaters keep her young. And, I 100% agree with her about winning and scoring. If you're good enough, you win. It doesn't matter who your coach is. It doesn't matter if the fans think you're the favorite. If you're better than the scoring system, no matter how it's structured, you win.
 

LeafOnTheWind

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17,504
- But women's single skating is clearly the most popular one. Isn’t it a problem?
- No problem. We really have great girls and strong men right now. But it was once different! Remember how it all began - pair skating was at the top, we won at all Olympics Games. Now yes, girls deserve attention and shall turn the audience interest to other disciplines as well. Your task, journalists, is to use this interest and turn people to other disciplines. After all, our teams are going to perform very successfully at the Olympics, we actually have victories too.
I loved that part. Lecturing the interviewer on what her job should be :lol:
 

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