I have to say I prefered to stay away from this discussion about Duskova/Bidar at first, because I think it is very unfair to judge somebody without knowing him and the whole situation personally. But some of the comments made me put my 2 cents here.
I think everybody is taking these „education“ reasons too seriously. For me, this seems like PR reply. Maybe it is one the reasons, but definitely not the only one. Actually, the first idea that came to my mind when reading this sad news was: „ok, so Bidar have finally enough, he fulfilled his job, worked through olympics and worlds and now, he’s running from „them“ as far as he can“
Now first of all, please don’t jump on me and say I’m Anna’s hater, because that is absolutelly not true. There are aspects of her skating I like less or more. I can’t judge her as person (actually I have impression she’s very joyous, nice young lady) and I have a huge respect for her as a sportswoman, especially after her heroic comeback from the injury.
That said, I’ve always had an impression of a very uneven possition of both partners in this pair, with Martin always playing the second fiddle. This feeling started during the EC in Ostrava, when some interviews where shown on the big screens in the areena during ice resurfacing. Mrs. Horklova was talking about the couple. She spend tons of time, talking about Anna as a leader of the couple, how amazing she is, expressive, with great technique,… Then, at the end, she put together 2 sentences about Martin. „He is very calm. His jumping ability is average.“ I was in a complete shock, hearing this. Seriously? How do you think the skater feels, if the coach have nothing good to tell about him? And it is shown to the audience during his first senior championship…. Also, how does she interact with him, if she is fine to comment about him on public this way?
I’m not even trying to find lots of information about them, but on numerous ocasions, I had impression something is really wrong. Them having their music, costumes,…completely organized by their coach. Some comments here and there in the interviews of their coach ("But the leader of the team, Anicka, has it in clear in her head, and I believe that she will always push for it." (does it mean he doesn't ?), etc….) . Having so much emphasis on Anna’s injury, while almost never mention his injuries. His costume miraculously forgotten in his coache's wardrobe….just small details, but to me, that relationship seemed always somehow unbalanced.
Even if you check their last instagram posts, Anna's is about having great memories and being gratefull to everybody who supported the couple, but she didn't really thank Martin at all. Also, her picture has her on the first plan. For Bidar it is the different, he thanks Anna for the years together and he choose picture that shows them equally. Maybe I'm reading too much into the pictures, but the fact she didn't really thank Bidar seems unfortunate to me. Also, I can see how he felt unconfortable, living with her familly at the age of 18 and I find it unacceptable her parents were informed about his intentions to move by the coach, before he had opportunity to do it himself. And if it is really true, that her parents informed the fed about their split without informing him, how can you even blame him for the split ?
Sure, Anna’s big quality is her amazing smile, speed and joy she’s projecting, while skating. But I would argue, Martin is otherwise much better. He should work on the presentation side, but he has much better lines, finishing his movements, he's very flexible for a male partner and pretty strong and reliable. Yes, I really find him strong. You have to consider, that while Anna is not so young (for pairs girls), he is super young (for pairs boy). At his age, parthers are generally dealing with 14 years old tiny girls. Also, from the dance choreographer point of view, I have big problem with, let’s say, aesthetics of her movements and it seems she’s not super helpfull in lifts neither. Again, this is not to criticize her, but to say, imo, he’s not getting credit at all.
I wish them all the best, her to combine her education and skating and not lose that amazing joy and him to fulfull all his ambitions while being more respected and free to make his decisions.
but 4 years with Danielle Montalbano.
Yann still wants to represent Poland, though.
).
