Totmianina/Marinen interview in SOS

Hard work, with a touch of paranoia?

This is a little bit old now, but there was a brief interview with T&M and their coach Oleg Vasiliev in last month's Spotlight on Skating. Some excepts:

SOS interviewer Klaus Reinhold-Kany: "I saw (coach) Tamara Moskvina's pair Yulia Obertas and Sergei Slavnov skating to the same (short program) music in June during a clinic in Germany. Did you know that?

Vasiliev: Yes, and they have to change it. I played this music to our Federation president Piseev in Moscow in may and asked him to promise me that no other top Russian pair would use it for their Olympic season. We were first, therefore we will keep it. Moskvina has to change the music for her pair; I think she already has.

SOS: What are your plans for this season?

Vasiliv: Around September 20th , we fly back to Moscow to show our programs to the official of our Federation...No members of the public are allowed...We do not want to show our programs (before their debut at Trophee Eric Bompard in November) because if they are not perfect rumors would spread to China and everywhere among the judges that they are not good. We know that we do not have only friends in the world, but also have enemies.

On life in general:

Marinen: "My life is only work, work, work; it is getting more tiring every year. Both of us are not getting any healthier....Our financial situation is getting worse and worse, although we have done about 40 shows (including the "Champions on Ice tour) this year. But we put all the money into our career -- the apartment, the car, the coach, the costumes, everything.

Totmianina: We have almost no private life here (in the U.S.), only work. I have to do all the household cores. We come to the rink in the morning and stay till five or six in the afternoon.

I'd like to see a pair that's a bit happier about their life as skaters win the OGM :scratch: but then at the same time I would like to see all their hard work pay off, so they can be happy in the future.

They have a car, an apartment, a tour with SOI, and they complain. Would it be any better if they were in Moscow with Zhulin?

As for work work work which I believe is skating related, which skater anywhere has a life?

Joe

"SOS: What are your plans for this season?

Vasiliv: Around September 20th , we fly back to Moscow to show our programs to the official of our Federation...No members of the public are allowed...We do not want to show our programs (before their debut at Trophee Eric Bompard in November) because if they are not perfect rumors would spread to China and everywhere among the judges that they are not good. We know that we do not have only friends in the world, but also have enemies."

Yikes! This guy is totally PARANOID!

"On life in general:

Marinen: "My life is only work, work, work; it is getting more tiring every year. Both of us are not getting any healthier....Our financial situation is getting worse and worse, although we have done about 40 shows (including the "Champions on Ice tour) this year. But we put all the money into our career -- the apartment, the car, the coach, the costumes, everything.

Totmianina: We have almost no private life here (in the U.S.), only work. I have to do all the household cores. We come to the rink in the morning and stay till five or six in the afternoon."

Gee, I bleed for them. I have been working for years and am tired, too, and there is no end in sight. It's either work or I don't have a place to live, clothes on my back, and food to eat. I come to work in the morning and stay till six or SEVEN in the evening and then I have to go home and do the household chores, too.

Does that mean, Tat and Max, that if you lived in Russia you would be rich, not have to work at all, and have servants to do your chores for you?

Maybe I should consider moving to Russia!

[QUOTE

Gee, I bleed for them. I have been working for years and am tired, too, and there is no end in sight. It's either work or I don't have a place to live, clothes on my back, and food to eat. I come to work in the morning and stay till six or SEVEN in the evening and then I have to go home and do the household chores, too.

Does that mean, Tat and Max, that if you lived in Russia you would be rich, not have to work at all, and have servants to do your chores for you?

Maybe I should consider moving to Russia![/QUOTE]

Well, if they lived in Russia they would live with their parents - who would do all the chores, there would be no need to pay for an apartment and to have a car. No doubt, ice time and coach would be substantially cheaper in Russia then in Chicago. Don't forget that the Russian FSA takes a healthy chunk out of their earnings, unlike the USFSA that rightfully allows skaters to keep their hard earned wining $$ and tour $$.

Most rinks open around 5 am or so. I don't come home till 6 pm, but hey - I don't need to be at work till 9 am. I don't have to be at work on the weekends either.

Once again, most skaters would agree with Maksim's statements. They just have to be asked the question. Give them a break - they honestly answered interviewer's questions. Did we see them? No, just the replies.

And yes, Vasilliev is one paranoid guy.

Yana

To me I thought Marinin was saying that if they were in Russia, they'd have their friends and family around them and a more rich social life, for which you don't need much money. Maintaining a car and not living with parents is expensive, regardless of what country you're living in, and the USD they earn on tour would go farther in Moscow or St. Peterburg, simply based on the exchange rate. It also costs more to entertain yourself than to spend the evening with friends and family who are close by. Staviyski said pretty much the same thing about training in the US -- go to the rink, work, work, work, maybe hang out with a few Russian-speaking friends.

They are also living the life of their coach, Vasiliev, whose family lives in Russia. All he does is work, work, work in another country, and for him, he's in a place where his students have few distractions. I never got the impression from Moskvina, for example, that she wanted to isolate her skaters in the same way, and Tarasova created a family atmosphere for her skaters. It doesn't sound like the process of getting to the top has been a happy or fulfilling one, which may be why they have been so contained on the ice.

If Vasilieev is as paranoid as this makes him sound, then don't think it is mentally healthy for TT or MM to spend so much time with him.

There are choices.

I choose to live in NYC rather than a quaint town in New Jersey.

I think the Soviet system spoiled these skaters. I understand Yags just bought a house in British Colombia after he had all this trouble living in Amercia. He chose Canada over Russia. That's his business but don't whine because Russia isn't what it used to be. New York City isn't what it used to be either.

The times they are a changing.

Joe

I think a lot of you guys are really reading some weird things into this interview. Let's look at the issues they discuss one by one:

• Financial well being. Where on earth do you get America bashing there! All they are saying is that at this point all their money must be poured into necessities.
• Chores etc. If anything spoiled them, it was a Russian culture of closer parent/ children relationships, not the "Soviet System". The Soviet System would not do Tatiana's chores for her, the servants wouldn't do it - her mother would.
• Social Life. It's hard for them to have one in America. For many Russians dating Americans seems rather like dating aliens; yes, Maxim would have had more of a social life had he been in Russia. Plushenko trains hard, yet has a wife and is about to become a daddy. Is it anything but absolutely normal that this is envied?!
• America vs. Russia. Please note that the only time either of them mentions America specifically is when Tatiana talks about not having a personal life. Indeed, this is the only area where their lives would almost certainly have been easier back there.

Mzheng, I disagree with you assessment of athlete management in Russia today. They are basically on their own.

I do agree, though, that Vasiliev is one paranoid dude.