It’s interesting that he writes several times that he may well return after the Olympics, presumably if his hand injuries heal, because he says it’s hard to skate with both hands injured, even if he can do quads.
I fully agree with
Silverfoxes that he’ll most likely make a wonderful coach, but it makes me feel very sad that I may not see another program from him. But if it’s because of injuries, I totally understand and agree. No career is worth ruining one’s health. However, I disagree with him that he’s been trying to forcefully enter closed gates. Judges at GPs have shown that they were prepared to place him highly when he skated cleanly. It wasn’t their fault if he couldn’t skate both programs cleanly. As to why, it’s also no mystery to me. I’ve often seen it that a nervous skater bombs the SP and then, when he knows that all is lost and there’s nothing to be nervous anymore, he relaxes and skates a clean LP. Or vice versa: a skater comes into a competition without great expectations, consequently he isn’t nervous and skates a great SP. But once he’s placed highly and realizes he can win a medal, he starts to feel the pressure to skate cleanly, which prevents him from achieving just that. Regarding the focus on the young by the Rus Fed, it may not have a choice, what with Kovtun quite unstable and Pitkeev with an injured back

. There was a time when the Fed almost gave up on Voronov, but once he started producing clean, competitive skates, the Fed was happy to award him medals at Nationals and send him to Euros and Worlds, although he was by no means a youngster by fs standards. But if the injury is the main reason, as Konstantin states, then there’s no more to say, other than
Thank You for his long and inspired career as a figure skater.