“I very much like to watch dance, but I don’t see myself there". Gubanova - about coaches, h@ters and competition
The dream of competing in the Olympics never was realised for one of the most "component" skaters in Russia.
- At the age of 13, Anastasiya Gubanova was a leader in the Russian national team - in the final of the Grand Prix among juniors 2016/2017 she became the Silver medalist after Alina Zagitova.
- Many experts considered Nastya to be one of the most promising young ladies single skaters, noting her soft sliding and sense of music.
- True, Gubanova failed to get to the Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Since then, many contrasting events have occurred in her life: a change of coaches, injuries, failures at competitions and an attack by inappropriate fans. After a summer of harassment, Gubanova’s new coach, Yevgeniy Rukavitsyn, categorically forbade his student from talking to reporters until she showed the first results under his guidance.
Having won medals at two stages of the Russian Cup this season, Anastasiya agreed to tell how her life is going after leaving CSKA. On a rainy Saturday, “Match TV” met her in the building of her native ice rink in the interval between training and school tutors.
From this interview you will learn:
- why the “expulsion” of Nastya from CSKA is still a mystery
- how Internet bullying brought the skater to tears and isolation
- what has changed in the life of Gubanova after the transition to Rukavitsyn
- better skating out of anger or positive
- is it realistic to be friends with competitors
“This wave of negativity brought me to tears. I am a living person"
- I got the impression you are still isolated on social networks: you gave limited access to pages, direct messages are closed. I coordinated this interview through Yevgeniy Vladimirovich ...
AG: There is such a thing, and in general I rarely post photos. I think in the summer it was right not to respond to insults in order to maintain health. Now I sometimes read news and comments in groups, but I communicate with people very selectively.
- Did the h@ters attack you hard?
AG: It was terrible. So many angry reviews and insults in the press, social networks! I come home from training, I open my page, and there are a lot of comments under the last photo. People wrote nasty things to me, they proved something to each other, cursed.
Honestly, at first I did not attach any importance to this and laughed. But the persecution continued, I closed the comments ... They began to attack previous posts, then even earlier ones, they wrote in private messages. As a result, my nerves could not stand it, this wave of negativity brought me to tears. I'm still a living person.
- How did you manage to deal with this bullying?
AG: Family and coaches helped a lot. I was reassured for a long time both at home and at the rink. For some time I closed myself from the outside world, journalists and social networks, because it harmed my psyche, and at work this could have a bad effect. Fortunately, I have let go of the situation now and am calm about the summer scandal.
- Clarify the story of your arrival in CSKA and the subsequent "expulsion"?
AG: At a certain point, I realised that we need to move on. We had a little conflict with Angelina Nikolayevna (Turenko), changes were important. In CSKA strong athletes are skating, it was inspiring, and my dad called Yelena Germanovna. She almost immediately agreed to take me - she had seen me at competitions before.
As for the decision to leave CSKA, I can’t say that this was affected by a single event. Yes, in the spring I could not cope with all the stress due to injury. Perhaps the coaches immediately wanted high results, but I did not meet their expectations.
It was also difficult for me to live alone in Moscow - both in moral terms and in everyday life. My mother went to the first training session with me - we lived in a hotel or in rented rooms. Then they gave me a place in a student boarding school at CSKA, and she returned to St. Petersburg. I had no close friends in Moscow. I communicated well with all classmates, with girls from the gymnastics section, but they could not replace the family.
Yelena Germanovna and I calmly talked, assessed the situation and made a mutual decision that I was leaving the group.
- Why do you think the trainer voiced the unpleasant wording “deductions for non-compliance with athletic form” in the press?
AG: I was surprised when I saw it. After all, we parted peacefully - I came with a bouquet of flowers, sincerely thanked Yelena Germanovna for everything that she put into me. The word “expulsion” has never sounded during our last meetings.
- Over the past months, you received an explanation from Buyanova?
AG: No, I have never contacted her.
“I ask my parents, brother and sister not to come to competitions”
- So, your new coach is Yevgeniy Rukavitsyn. How did you agree on cooperation?
AG: We used to know each other, saw each other almost every day - the group of Angelina Nikolayevna has been based here at the Academy for many years. Honestly, after the story with CSKA, I was at a crossroads: I thought - either leave, or take a break. There was no certainty, and I went to Togliatti to my grandmother. Almost two weeks stayed away from everything, relaxing. Without obligations or schedules. But I missed the ice, I realised that I can not live without figure skating. My parents and I decided that we should not give up our favorite business, and went to Yevgeniy Vladimirovich. Fortunately, he accepted me into the group.
- I watched you at the stage of the Cup of Russia, which took place in Sankt Peterburg. Getting ready to go on the ice, you looked very calm and happy. Your life after returning here has really become measured?
AG: Of course, here are my family and my native walls. I have been skating on this ice for almost my entire conscious life, I know every corner. New coaches pay me so much attention, develop me from different angles. And most importantly, they taught me a safer attitude towards competitions. If before I was nervous all the time, now I perceive every public exit on the ice as a holiday.
True, I ask my parents, brother and sister not to come to competitions. When they came earlier, I was especially afraid to disappoint them; It’s not easy for my family to watch me skate, even live. We perceive everything too emotionally.
- Apparently, your career in sports has become possible thanks to the great efforts of your parents?
AG: Yes. In 2006, my mother left everything and took me from Tolyatti to Sankt Peterburg. At first we lived with relatives, dad stayed to work, supported us financially. Then my parents sold the apartment in Tolyatti, and dad came here. There were a lot of problems, they had to labour, including at night, to ensure my training. Now everything has stabilized: we are renting an apartment near the Academy, I have a sister and a brother.
My sister, by the way, is also engaged in figure skating, she is 9 years old.
- You have a unique choreographer - Olga Glinka, a rhythmic gymnast in the past. What is especially useful for your sporting experience? When to wait for Lipnitskaya’s crowning split?
AG: With Olga Germanovna we are training, as a rule, in the dry hall. She teaches us non-standard elements with the addition of hands, slow dancing, modern. We work at the barre. As for Julia, she has such a stretch from nature. Of course, I also do the split and insert it into my programs, but it is different.
- Tell us about a new free program to the music from the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring”.
AG: Many probably thought that I portrayed Stirlitz’s wife. But in fact, I portray an abstract image of pain. Imagine a field on the opposite sides of which stand millitary. The battle begins, bullets fly and hit the soldiers. It is as if I feel the pain of these people, their grief from the fact that they die so early and will no longer see those they love. I also express the pain of the officer, the protagonist of the film, and his wife during the war. This image is the idea of Valentin Nikolayevich Molotov.
- In the new season, you have radically changed the style of costumes - from gradient and lace to sober cuts and subdued colours. Does this have anything to do with your inner changes?
AG: I love that lace dress very much, it was sewn by Moscow designer Natal'ya Pokrovskaya. The program was dedicated to the love of nature, and the costume turned out to be very tender. True, there were technical problems with the first option, and they decided to change it.
This year, I did not think about how to specifically change my style. Just the images are different. “17 Moments of Spring” is a Soviet film about wartime, world tragedy. Cinema, as you recall, is black and white, and pastel tones are very relevant here. Choreographers have proposed such a design. In the future, for new programs, perhaps something bright is sewn.
- Some athletes say that they manage to perform well on anger. Does this condition help you?
AG: There was an experience in the season of 2016/2017. It somehow happened so that at almost all competitions I made mistakes in my short program, was dissatisfied and went out into the free with the feeling that I needed to be rehabilitated. It stimulated, and I really showed high results. But you know, this year I realized that it’s better to ride with harmony in the soul. No anger and obsession with “win back lost points” will help if you are poorly prepared. Now I go out onto the ice positive and calm. I like this particular condition.
- You are friends with Lisa Nugumanova, your classmate. Are warm relationships hindering competition?
AG: Yes, we have been friends since childhood, although we skated in different groups. It so happened that Lisa was in Mishin's group, while I was with Turenko. And last season, while I was in CSKA, Lisa studied with Angelina Nikolayevna. I try to distinguish between personal and sport. When I go out for a skating run, I think about myself, and not about defeating someone, much less a friend.
- I’ll ask the opposite question: does rivalry at the last competitions affect your friendship? Still, you and Lisa struggle "place to place", and not in different warm-ups.
AG: I'm just trying to push these thoughts away. Yes, there is tension when your result depends on someone else's skating run. But if the opponent defeated you today, or you defeated her, the main thing is that no one is conceited. There is work, and there is this person. A place on the podium does not prevent Lisa from being a great friend.
“The result can be announced when I jump the quadruple without a harness in competitions”
- The most valuable medal for you at the moment?
AG: Silver at the Junior Grand Prix Final in 2016. I was the leader that season, and in the finale I got a particularly emotional skating run in my free program to the music of Romeo and Juliet. I wanted to show sensitive and meaningful skating, the inner purity of the heroine. I was just at the age of Juliet. Until now, I often review that performance and cry, already trembling trembles.
- At which tournaments will we see you this season?
AG: At the end of October I will be performing in the Russian Cup stage in Sochi. It is important for me to succeed there in order to qualify for the Championship of Russia. Perhaps by the end of the year I will participate in additional Challengers, coaches are now deciding this. My further schedule will depend on the results of the national championship.
- Now in Canada at the Grand Prix are three Russian girls competing. How do you like their results?
AG: Sasha Trusova is a great kid. Zhenya Medvyedeva I feel very sorry for. She is a workaholic, we trained with her on the same ice last summer at CSKA. I saw how she works and tries to hone every gesture. I would like to believe that the mistakes in the short program were an unfortunate accident, and later Zhenya will succeed. Sima Sakhanovich - well done - she skated with dignity, with the exception of the errors in the cascade. And of the foreign skaters, I was impressed by Rika Kihira and You Young.
- You said that your global goal is the Beijing Olympics. Without ultra-si elements, girls are unlikely to win medals there. How are you doing with quadruples and complex cascades?
AG: At the end of last season, I was learned a quadruple. Now there is no time for this - I have ready-made programs with assembled elements, and I have skate these out on automatic. In the offseason, as there will be a break, I want to return to learning a quad. The result can be announced when I jump the quadruple at competitions without a fishing rod and harness.
- Given the fierce competition in women's skating, why do talented Russian skaters rarely try themselves in other disciplines?
AG: Perhaps someone can’t find a partner according to their parameters. Elsewhere there are no conditions and stability. I do not presume to judge others. I can only say for myself that I am afraid of heights and therefore can not imagine myself in throws, high support lifts. I like to watch dance very much, but I don’t see myself there. Still, I love solo skating, this is my vocation.
- In America, the question is already being raised of dividing female figure skating among those who jump ultra-si and those who focus on choreography, sliding. Is it fair, in your opinion, to introduce such a gradation?
AG: I'm all for it! It is dishonest when someone has a good technique, but jumping displaces the purity of lines, artistry. And if a person knows how to slide beautifully and show choreography, these are other aspects of the work, such skaters are also worthy of rewards.
Therefore, I will be glad if we delimit our discipline. Figure skating will definitely not lose spectators because of this. The balance of complexity and artistry is more important than the pursuit of elements. So another question is which of the two options for female skating would become more popular.
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From:
https://matchtv.ru/figure-skating/m..._Gubanova__o_trenerah_khejterah_i_konkurencii
No difficult questions asked about what caused all this h@tred, wether she apologised or learned anything from it. She does sound sadder but wiser though.
I hope the Russian Federation gives Nastya a Challenger and lets her expand her horizons a little bit with her two new beautiful musical artistic and elegant programs. she is just not seen enough and even when she did a wonderful version of Romeo and Juliet three years ago it was the best Romeo and Juliet I had seen since Sasha Cohen in 2006. I hope she brings that back next year or the year after because people need to see her do that program as a mature 18 year old woman senior not just a 14 year old Junior girl.
