- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
I don't think I've seen so many questions about anyone else recently, lol. She's been mentioned in a few threads, but many people still don't know what's going on and keep asking about her. Here's an article I've translated (that is, it's more of a summary, than a direct translation, but I've tried to be thorough). Quotes are translated directly. The link to the article (in Russian) is at the bottom (there's a pic with Soldatova and Sokolova on the podium at the Nationals there).
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"Stolichnaya"
January 13, 2004
Sergei Podushkin
After the talented Russian, Julia Soldatova, decided to represent Belarus, her skating began to degrade with each year, until she finally disappeared from the scene after the Olympic season. Luckily, not permanently. She's come back and skated well at the 2004 Russian Nationals (won the free program, and ended up second overall). However, it's very unlikely that she'll go to the European and World championships.
She now remembers the Belorussian period of her career as a bad dream. "It was my coach's, Elena Tchaikovskaya, idea. There was no use arguing about it. Elena Anatolevna is a person whom you either obey, or you can leave." Soldatova chose the first option, which she's regretted ever since.
Skating wasn't a pleasure anymore, and after the 2002 Worlds she was planning to leave the sport. She didn't train for 3 months, and then her mom told her to go back to her beginnings: to Viktor Kurdyavtsev's group. "I was very afraid to call him, after all we didn't part in the best of ways. But Viktor Nikolaevich, for what I'm really grateful to him, took me back, and didn't say a word of reproach."
Soldatova came back in a bad mood, but she's got over it, and began to work hard. Kurdyavtsev told our correspondent: "She was doing everything like I was telling her to, with a special attention to physical training, and in result she started to jump higher." It was his idea that she'd skate for Russia again. She agreed, sat the last season out, and trained for the 2004 Russian Nationals.
The enormous - on the verge of nervous breakdown - stress almost got to her. In her short program at the Nationals in Petersburg she was making a mistake after a mistake. She ended up sixth. On the next day, though, she didn't make almost any mistakes in the long program, and won the silver.
It would seem that the path to the Europeans and Worlds is clear. But the Belorussian period, which has already been hard enough for her career, rears its ugly head again [my wording! Sorry, couldn't resist it
]. Soldatova was skating for Belarus, even though she wasn't a citizen of it (she applied for citizenship, but was denied); she had signed some official documents claiming that she was.
The figure skating officials didn't like the machinations, and asked for all the papers from both sides to be submitted to them. And now everything will be decided at the ISU meeting in Budapest. "Soldatova has certainly earned her place on the national team with her skating. We've put her on the preliminary list, but the chances she will be allowed to represent our country are, objectively speaking, really slim," - told "Stolichnaya" Piseev.
Soldatova doesn't give up hope. "President Lukashenko himself gave me my Belarussian passport. But as it turned out later, their law didn't allow double citizenship, and I had never renounced my Russian citizenship. I didn't know the details, the Belorussian Federation took care of all the paperwork. I'm hoping that the ISU will decide in my favor. To prove my innocence in this, I've hired a lawyer, a family friend, " - told our correspondent Soldatova.
In case she's allowed to be on the national team, she's already been making ambitious plans for the second half of the season: she's counting on the gold at the Europeans, and a medal at Worlds. And in the future: on the success at the Olympics in Turin. Kurdyavtsev is more careful: "Before she can think about Olympics, Julia has to have more complex programs. But her chances [potential] are, indeed, very big."
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Link to the article in Russian here
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"Stolichnaya"
January 13, 2004
Sergei Podushkin
After the talented Russian, Julia Soldatova, decided to represent Belarus, her skating began to degrade with each year, until she finally disappeared from the scene after the Olympic season. Luckily, not permanently. She's come back and skated well at the 2004 Russian Nationals (won the free program, and ended up second overall). However, it's very unlikely that she'll go to the European and World championships.
She now remembers the Belorussian period of her career as a bad dream. "It was my coach's, Elena Tchaikovskaya, idea. There was no use arguing about it. Elena Anatolevna is a person whom you either obey, or you can leave." Soldatova chose the first option, which she's regretted ever since.
Skating wasn't a pleasure anymore, and after the 2002 Worlds she was planning to leave the sport. She didn't train for 3 months, and then her mom told her to go back to her beginnings: to Viktor Kurdyavtsev's group. "I was very afraid to call him, after all we didn't part in the best of ways. But Viktor Nikolaevich, for what I'm really grateful to him, took me back, and didn't say a word of reproach."
Soldatova came back in a bad mood, but she's got over it, and began to work hard. Kurdyavtsev told our correspondent: "She was doing everything like I was telling her to, with a special attention to physical training, and in result she started to jump higher." It was his idea that she'd skate for Russia again. She agreed, sat the last season out, and trained for the 2004 Russian Nationals.
The enormous - on the verge of nervous breakdown - stress almost got to her. In her short program at the Nationals in Petersburg she was making a mistake after a mistake. She ended up sixth. On the next day, though, she didn't make almost any mistakes in the long program, and won the silver.
It would seem that the path to the Europeans and Worlds is clear. But the Belorussian period, which has already been hard enough for her career, rears its ugly head again [my wording! Sorry, couldn't resist it
]. Soldatova was skating for Belarus, even though she wasn't a citizen of it (she applied for citizenship, but was denied); she had signed some official documents claiming that she was.The figure skating officials didn't like the machinations, and asked for all the papers from both sides to be submitted to them. And now everything will be decided at the ISU meeting in Budapest. "Soldatova has certainly earned her place on the national team with her skating. We've put her on the preliminary list, but the chances she will be allowed to represent our country are, objectively speaking, really slim," - told "Stolichnaya" Piseev.
Soldatova doesn't give up hope. "President Lukashenko himself gave me my Belarussian passport. But as it turned out later, their law didn't allow double citizenship, and I had never renounced my Russian citizenship. I didn't know the details, the Belorussian Federation took care of all the paperwork. I'm hoping that the ISU will decide in my favor. To prove my innocence in this, I've hired a lawyer, a family friend, " - told our correspondent Soldatova.
In case she's allowed to be on the national team, she's already been making ambitious plans for the second half of the season: she's counting on the gold at the Europeans, and a medal at Worlds. And in the future: on the success at the Olympics in Turin. Kurdyavtsev is more careful: "Before she can think about Olympics, Julia has to have more complex programs. But her chances [potential] are, indeed, very big."
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Link to the article in Russian here
