remember that countries are only able to substitute 2 disciplines in the team event, Russia chose pairs and the ice dancers; pairs made sense to not wear out 1 team since pairs was the next event after the Team event and Ice dance was a weak discipline for Russia. Sotnikova was always a wild card on how well she would perform, Russia didn't need another questionable discipline knowing that ice dance was weak and no one was really sure what Plushenko was going to be able to do. Lipnitskaia won both GP events and placed ahead of Sotnikova at GPF and Europeans, having very few mistakes all season, it made sense for her to be the anchor of the team event.
I remember that very well ! (that countries are allowed to substitute in only 2 disciplines) That's exactly my point !
Initially, the plan was to have one ice dance team (Bobrova/Soloviev) and 2 ladies (Lipnitskaya, Sotnikova). That's what everyone was preparing for, including Sotnikova. At that time, Sotnikova was the more experienced skater. I wouldn't exactly call a 4-time Russian national champion "a wild card"... Yes, she wasn't the most consistent skater during that season. But the last 2 competitions proved that Adelina and Yulia were very similar in their abilities. In fact, Adelina received higher PC scores than Yulia at the Europeans ! Also, team Russia held additional test skates behind closed doors etc. For Yulia, this was her first full season in seniors. Experts were equally concerned about her that, considering her young age, she might crash and burn at some point... (which unfortunately proved to be the case).
What happened was - during the last test skates (a week or so before the team event) team Russia came to the conclusion that Bobrova/Soloviev were not strong enough in both of their programs. An idea arose that they could be replaced by Ilinykh/Katsalapov for the FD (the legendary "Swan Lake", for which they eventually won bronze). But that meant that team Russia would need to get rid of one entry. They couldn't remove the substitute for pairs, because pairs was the very first event in individual competition. What they could do was - get rid of one of the girls. There was no formal decision yet which girl would it be, or whether the federation would carry out this plan at all. This is when Tutberidze intervened, complained to the Minister of Sports and asked for Yulia not to be excluded. This is when the Minister asked her – in case they really ended up with only one spot for ladies, would Yulia be able to do both programs.
She did? Fascinating. You have any links for that?
Controversial stuff regarding Tutberidze has a tendency to mysteriously disappear from Russian web, you know... I couldn't immediately find those particular articles in search results. I'll dig through some newspaper archives as soon as I have a bit of time. I'll let you know in case I find it.
It's the same logic with Kovtun, imo. You're arguing that Adelina had a probability of skating clean, and if she didn't they would still win, but that's really not how it was in Sochi.
Same could've been argued about Kovtun, but he too wasn't a very reliable option, although he won nationals. They cut him off because they believed he was a risk, same fate awaited Adelina.
There were too many questionable variables aside from Adelina, so they HAD to have someone with a clean SP and FS for ladies.
No, it's not the same logic with Kovtun, BTW... The completely unpredictable one was Pluschenko, not Kovtun – because Pluschenko was severely injured. However, his actual skating abilities didn't matter THAT much, because he is the NATIONAL HERO for years and years. Kovtun... Kovtun who ? It HAD to be Pluschenko who carried home the gold, at ANY cost – because of TV ratings, sponsors' interest etc. It was no particular secret that everyone expected for Pluschenko to withdraw due to injury after the team event and get a medical replacement for Kovtun (because you are not allowed to replace an athlete during the Olympics unless there's an injury). Unfortunately, the officials got carried away with the euphoria after team victory. Also, there are contradicting reports whether Pluschenko insisted that he would skate in the individual event as well, or he was forced to skate by the federation and put his health in grave danger... But that's a whole another story.
You basically said that Tutberidze orchestrated Yulia to be the sole female singles skater at Sochi, because that would've put Yulia in spotlight. Now you're saying it happened even before the games? So Yulia basically didn't need to wear herself out, she still would've gotten the same spotlight. Again, that's a pointless argument to begin with. It wouldn't have made any difference to Yulia whether or not Adelina skated in the SP.
I basically said that Tutberidze orchestrated for Yulia to be the sole ladies gold medalist (or that's what she expected at the time...) – not because YULIA necessarily needed that, but because Tutberidze HERSELF needed that ! The spotlight was already on Yulia, she was the SYMBOL of Sochi Olympics... She was the media darling long before she had even stepped on the Olympic ice. Yes, SHE didn't need to “wear herself out”, because people LOVED her – and they probably would have loved her anyway, even if she fell a few times and placed off the podium (which is exactly what happened in the individual event). She's a lovely, hardworking girl ! Very young at the time – the youngest member of team Russia at those Olympics, if I'm not mistaken. What is there not to love...? “Oh well, better luck at the next Olympics !”
However, who was Tutberidze at the time ? Sure, she was a successful coach. But she wasn't that global powerhouse who she is now, a houshold name in Russia. SHE needed to establish her name as the best ladies coach in the world. For that, she needed for Yulia to win, but also – for no other Russian lady to win. Why would you prefer being one of TWO Russian coaches who can lead a girl to an Olympic gold, when you have an opportunity to be the only ONE ? That would have made very little difference to Yulia whether or not Adelina skated in the team event, but it would have made a big difference for Tutberidze.
Am I really not explaining this clear enough...?
As far as I know Anna never mentioned anything of this sort, and it's not some dirty evil secret to be hidden: if the core team is busy with top senior and junior athletes, it wouldn't make sense to spend that time to work on novices on their doubles and triples. There are other coaches who generally take care of younger talent. Perhaps at that stage they didn't have someone like Sergej Rozanov, who would've done that job for them and didn't have time themselves.
Those basic things are taught by coaches of other levels. You don't go to university professor and ask him to explain you basic math of 4th grade, right?
Shouldn't be a secret that Tutberidze probably doesn't spend any time with novices right now as well and only makes checks throughout the year, they would be trained by other coaches.
A university professor doesn't claim that he “made you” from scratch, does he...? He doesn't take credit for teaching you 4th grade math, when there was clearly someone else who did that. That's the difference. Credit should be taken where credit is due. Tutberidze routinely claims that these girls would have been NOTHING without her, even though they arrived at her camp with all of the triples. For example, Kostornaia... She was already an amazing-amazing young skater when she came to Tutberidze. Sure, she lacked polish and consistency – that's what she improved. And she learned the 3A. But she has been skating with Tutberidze for only the last 3 years – out of the 17 years of her life. There are also other coaches who deserve credit for raising her, not only-ONLY Tutberidze.
The fact that we had never heard this story about Anna – that she was asked by Tutberidze to leave her group (read, kicked out on street) and not come back until she had learned all of the triples on her own – it just proves Tutberidze's methods one more time. The story was published 2 weeks ago, you can read it here:
https://www.gazeta.ru/sport/2020/07/13/a_13151275.shtml
That's a long interview with Russian coach Viktor Adonyev who worked with Anna at the time.
My point is - in case a coach wants to work with very advanced skaters only, such as Orser for example – fine ! That's fair game. But the financing in Russia vs. U.S./Canada is very very different. In the U.S., it's normal for a senior national level skater to keep paying for everything from her own pocket (maybe with a little financial aid from the federation). In Russia – it's NOT ! That's what state-sponsored sports schools are for. Athletes' parents at this level don't pay for the coach, ice time etc., because most of the time they would simply never be able to afford it. Therefore it's completely inappropriate to kick someone “out on street” – to leave Anna without the backing of any sports school, so she had NO state-sponsored coach, no ice, no nothing. In case Tutberidze didn't want to waste time with her, she shouldn't have accepted Anna in the first place. Now, Anna was stuck – apparently she couldn't go to another coach at another school, because then she wouldn't be taken back by Tutberidze. So her parents had no choice but pay...
