New interview with Brian
THE NEW EVGENIA: “SHE’S NOT DEFINING HERSELF BY A SCORE OR BY A RESULT – SHE’S DEFINING HERSELF BY WHAT SHE’S BRINGING TO THE SKATING”
Q:Now onto your most prestigious European skater at the moment – how was Evgenia Medvedeva’s season before the abrupt disruption of it?
B: The season was going well. Especially in Moscow, at the Cup of Russia, she was great!
And things were really starting to come together, training well, working hard, so it was really unfortunate, her boot-situation. And there was nothing we could do about it.
[Due to one of her boots breaking during practice in Krasnoyarsk, and after performing the short program with the same damaged pair, Evgenia Medvedeva withdrew from the Russian Nationals in December – IS note]
Q:So the season has definitely come to an end for her?
B:Yes, it’s over for the season.
But she’s on her way back to Toronto actually right now [January 25] – as we speak, she’s on a plain to Toronto. So we will meet and come up with some kind of a plan.
Q:From the coach’s point of you – Evgenia has been in Toronto for more than a year and a half now – how do you see her improvement? To us, the progress she has made, in all areas, is very out there: the speed, the jumps, the flow…
B:Everything. [smiling] Yeah, but that’s it – you just said it: the speed, the confidence…
One thing that she has said, and that we have noticed, is that she just loves being a woman, she loves bringing that women’s figure skating.
Sure, she can do some very good tricks – but now it feels to me that she has embraced her body and what she has to offer to the sport. So that’s exciting – I mean, it makes me happy to see that she has embraced that.
And that she’s not defining herself by a score or by a result – she’s defining herself by what she’s bringing to the skating. And I was happy to see this year that we had a couple of really good skates.
Q:But in the light of how this season has been, with all the quads brought to the scene?
B:Yeah, I know, but you know what? We do what we can do.
We can’t get hung up on all the quad-stuff – we have to just focus on what we can do, and be realistic about it. And, sure, she does want to keep working on the quads…
Look, I am not obsessed with this idea, but from the way this season has gone so far it almost seems mandatory that, in order to be competitive, you have to have a quad… Not to win, to be competitive even…
We’re talking Top Three, because those are the ones… [smiling] I mean, for real.
And then there’s the Japanese girl that has a nice triple Axel [Rika Kihira], and there are some other skaters there are quite competitive. So, yeah, that’s where the sport is going…
Q:But do you agree with where the sport is going? The ladies skating, I mean, because the men have had their story with the quads… Do we want the ladies to go there as well?
I don’t know. [smiling] I’m all for being competitive, I’m all for that. [pausing] …I don’t know.
But, you know what, wherever we’re dealt, wherever the rules are, whoever we’re competing against, we do the best we can. And that’s all we can do.
If I start complaining about the system, complaining about the age, or complaining about quads, then my energy is going somewhere that’s negative. I need to be positive for the athletes and do what we can do.
Do I want her to be competitive? Yes. Are we gonna work on the quad Salchow? Yes.
And, you know what, Tuktamysheva, I mean, she’s the perfect example. That she has learned this as a woman, as a young woman. She has done this. So that’s possible.
http://www.insideskating.net/2020/0...nversation-about-his-european-skaters-old-new
