"I offered Tutberidze peace, but she is more satisfied with war." Plyushckenko - on judging and conflicts between trainers
Exclusive interview by SE with the two-time Olympic champion.
This week is still under the sign of Aleksandra Trusova and Yevgeniy Plyushchenko's school. First, the skater won the Russian Cup stage in Moscow, bringing the Angels their first big victory in women's single skating. Yesterday she laid down a successful attempt at a quadruple Rittberger - so in the quads, now only the Axel remains unconquered, which no man or woman in the world can do.
Trusova and Kostornaya will live in a chalet
The correspondent of "SE" on Wednesday managed to attend the training session of the 16-year-old figure skater, which takes place near the metro station "Michurinskiy Prospekt". During the hour that I stood at the boards, Sasha made several triple axels, quadruple Lutz and 4 + 3 Toeloop cascades. Trusova is generally such a skater who talks little, but tries to do a lot. Silent and concentrating on herself. In some ways, her approach for some reason reminded me of another successful representative of the winter sports for Russia - skier Aleksandr Bolshunov. Simple Russian character, few interviews and constant plowing.
Plyushchenko personally gave Trusova's instructions - the other part of the group, together with Dmitriy Mikhailov and Sergey Alekseyev, practiced rotations and choreography on the other half of the rink. And for him personally, the victory of Trusova, and now the Rittberger, is also a coaching success. However, Eteri Tutberidze's team will surely have something to respond to at the next stages of the Cup. And this is great - the competition between the two rinks moves the sport forward.
After training, the two-time Olympic Champion spoke about the plans for his academy, claims to refereeing, the proposal of peace to to Tutberidze and what happened between Trusova and Sergey Rozanov and Elena Ilinykh.
- Yevgeniy, we are now at the site of the Plyushchenko Angels, you recently announced the imminent opening of a new skating rink. How is the work progressing there?
-- Business is progressing great, construction is coming to an end. We are planning a test opening for my birthday on November 3rd. It will be a private skating rink, since now I rent a site. Finally, we will have our own base, I will show you where Sasha Trusova, Alyona Kostornaya and our other collections will live and train. For those of my athletes who show super results, there will be free tuition and accommodation. And they will live in separate chalet cottages, we are building them now. In order not to travel anywhere and immerse yourself in the workflow. Because we will skate a lot, three to four workouts a day. There will be halls for choreography, working out, a spa. In general, my wife and I are opening a full-fledged sports base in the Moscow region. In February, a second skating rink will appear in Moscow. Me and my wife, we decided to invest in sports, figure skating. There will also be a large playground, halls, and a restaurant. There are a lot of people willing to learn figure skating. Here, on Lobachevskiy, we no longer fit.
It's time for justice. Schools should be judged the same
- Last weekend, the Russian Cup stage was held, which was nevertheless won by Aleksandra Trusova. Are you happy with how it went?
-- The very atmosphere - yes, finally there was a sporting struggle. I want to congratulate the girls, and Kamila, and Dariya with their second and third places. They are strong skaters, they have a great future. And they have a good team. But I'm not happy with the short program grades of all three girls. Having read a lot of comments - why? Here is the answer.
To skaters the age of 14, you cannot give "tens" for components. This is junior skating, and no matter how beautiful they skate, no matter how beautiful the lines and spins are, this is not "ten" quality. Under the previous system, this is 6.0. This is a priori wrong. Where should they grow further? Some judges, coaches, and the leadership of the federation have already agreed with me - there was somewhat wrong. I'm telling you honestly. Let this truth be harsh. Valiyeva's 10 points are impossible.
- How do you explain this?
-- Judging errors. I will not go into details, we talked about this topic and figured it out. But I want to say one thing - there are athletes for whom I will drown myself. And I will not allow any judge to do the wrong thing against my athletes. I love justice. Sasha didn't win the short program, that's true. But she took not third, but second place, and lost not 10 points, but 5-6. I agree with this scenario, Valiyeva was higher. But why do they need to overestimate one and decrease points for my skaters?
I understand that the judges wanted to create a safety cushion for the free program. I know these judges, I even know where they are and whom they represent. But I don't want to go into specifics. Let's all understand that the time has come for justice. There is one school and there is another. You need to treat everyone equally. I had a substantive conversation ...
- With the leadership of the federation?
-- Let's confine ourselves to this wording - I think they heard me. However, our result does not mean that we need to hang the crown. They are very strong rivals, and we didn’t succeed in everything. We went for the triple Axel for the first time, a really difficult element. Without belittling anyone's merits - Sasha generally skated with a cold. But this is our problem, we dealt with it.
- What's next in Sasha's planned programs?
-- We are preparing for the fourth stage of the Cup, I would not like to reveal all the secrets. The program will definitely be strengthened. In general, I want to praise and thank Sasha. I have not seen a single athlete who would give her best and treat her profession this way. She plows, works hard, wants to learn new things. Her task is to learn how to skate well, add choreography, improve rotations. A lot of work. If we all had athletes with such dedication, it would be cool.
It's time for the head of "Sambo-70" to pack his suitcase
- One of the branches of discussion in social networks is whether the whistling from the stands and discontent in social networks helped her into victory. What do you say?
-- I want to thank the people who do not hate this story, but treat it professionally and talk about it. Look, Chen and Hanyu don't get tens, Costner didn't always have them. So what do we make a circus out of figure skating? Specially heat up the confrontation. Maybe all that happened is some kind of contractual history on the part of some people. Why then? Let's work and win fairly. Let's stop talking that someone has lured someone for "money". It's already up here with me (points to the throat).
How much nonsense can you talk about outbidding? The athlete moved on herself. If the athlete is doing well, it is extremely difficult to entice her for money. Impossible. We don't have soccer or hockey with a club system. They also tried to entice me at one time, but I believed Alexey Nikolayevich Mishin. Although he was eager to leave for America. So stop talking nonsense - it's me both to the trainers and to the fans. Take it for granted. And figure it out in yourself - why this is happening. I don't want to argue with anyone. We even had a conversation at the end of the competition - I suggested a peaceful truce, they say, there is no need to quarrel. Do your job, and we do ours.
- Have you approached Eteri Georgiyevna?
-- We talked with her staff, yes. Me and Yana (Rudkovskaya, Plyushchenko's wife). She now, like me, invests a lot of money in our schools, in sports and helps athletes with sponsors. And so we said - no need to invent some things, stop. We were in favour of peace.
- What did she answer?
-- So far we have not found understanding from that side. But I had this idea that we need to communicate normally. But the peace with Eteri did not work out. She is more satisfied with the war.
- In general, we are waiting for the continuation of Instagram battles.
-- Yes ... Their director (Renat Layshev) is giving word. In general, I think that as a civil servant he has no right to make such statements at all. Who skates worse, that Trusova will not be able to show the result with me? I have information that in the near future he will leave his place and it is time to pack his suitcase. A pity, he is very cheerful. Every interview is a masterpiece! Just what is this "Plyushchenko is a bum". He sincerely believes that he understands more than me about figure skating. So let's play along, okay? You ask him questions about figure skating with a blue eye, and he answers importantly. And then the whole world laughs. But we have such a character. I really like everything, let him be in our life.
- Eteri Tutberidze recently announced a collaboration with Mariya Shashina, who participated in organizing your shows. Are you ready for the fact that "Khrustalniy" will pull increase its PR?
-- Great, let it increase. Of course I'm in favour! Let them move too. Mariya worked for us as an administrator. She said she represented our show. This is ... an exaggeration. My wife does not need anyone, she is a pro, and she has a super team. Yana, in my opinion, does not even know what this Masha looks like. Masha only helped Arik (Ari Zakaryan, agent and director of the ice shows) to book tickets and hotels for our athletes, that's basically all her promotion of the show. I have a very positive attitude towards her, but, probably, when people start working with big stars, a little dizziness begins. Nevertheless, she's done well, she found a team. God grant that they succeed.
- Why did I ask about the audience. You interacted a lot with the stands, got turned on, played with your eyebrows during the announcement of Usachyova's assessments. Spontaneously or deliberately?
-- I excited the stands, of course. I was in a good mood. And the audience was a little heavy, you know, there was such an oppressive atmosphere. Everyone was waiting - well, who, who? You can already see how the fans split into two camps. And more and more people come over to us, I am sure that whole sectors will root for us. I just wanted to cheer up the audience. In my opinion, everyone appreciated me. Or not? The main thing was that it was interesting. Look at the numbers on television. In terms of the number of spectators, the Russian Figure Skating Cup has overtaken the soccer league.
I think such numbers were unrealistic before our team appeared. So much for the impact of the Plyushchenko-Tutberidze confrontation. Figure skating is returning to the status of the main and most popular sport in Russia, which it once was. It's time to regain our position, overtake Conor, Khabib and others. If there are high ratings, advertising contracts and fame will come, everyone needs it. Therefore, I work, I follow social networks, I read the opinions of fans.
- Do you personally run Instagram? All these "Lyosha, sit down, high five" - is this yours truely?
-- Personally. Of course - Lyosha is great. Merited "fiver". But I don’t think about Lyosha, and he, apparently, is all in thoughts over me and my school! Maybe he is really looking for an alternate airfield? Well, either it’s just a lack of attention, and neither television helps, nor “teasers” in a female guise.
- There will be no spectators at the Russian Cup in Sochi. Is our situation so difficult to close the stands? The ice hockey league in Sochi plays with several thousand spectators at their matches.
-- I don’t understand this at all. Yes, skating without spectators is very difficult, we need fans and support. But this is the present. You have to be ready.
Trusova no longer works with Rozanov and Ilinykh
- We talked a lot about Trusova, let's continue with Alyona Kostornaya. How is she doing with the same triple Axel, programs?
-- Alyona is all right. The only thing is that she broke her boots, and the day before yesterday she began to break in new ones. It takes time. But we are also preparing for the fourth stage, we are finishing the free program, it is ready.
- The program was made via video link?
-- Yes, via Skype, videos were exchanged.
- Do you believe in technology? There is no skepticism that it is unrealistic to stage a top program by video?
-- We have Seryozha Rozanov, who transferred it all to the ice, Alyona is not a little girl after all. I had a big dream that Shae-Lynn would stage the program, it costs a lot of money. We know each other, we skated in the show together. The main thing is that she said "yes", that she would be happy to work with Kostornaya.
- Alyona is comfortable at school, is she comfortable?
-- Alyona is comfortable at school. She has her own ice, very few athletes skate in her training session. Why complain? Choreography, dancing, massages. You have to work, that's all.
- There is a lot of information in the media and social networks about conflicts within the school. For example, Sergey Rozanov does not work with Trusova, only with Kostornaya. State your position, is this true and why it happened, if true.
-- Sergey has not been working with Sasha for a long time, it's true. He guides Alyona. Sasha and Alyona have separate teams, in both choreographers and coaches. There are two different teams. The only thing is that I work with both of them. It was Sasha's decision, I supported it. Seryozha had no questions. It happened.
- Does it bother you that the people who came to your school together broke up almost immediately?
-- Let's do it this way - Sasha came separately. Nobody arrived together. I say it as it is - Sasha came herself. And her dad invited me to take Sergey. I answered: "Why not, he is a good specialist."
- But they had a good relationship.
-- Yes. He gave Sasha her short and free program, this is his great merit. Over time, we began to improve and refine them. But Sergey now has his own work, he is working with Kostornaya, he has two groups.
- Okay, let's talk about the role of Yelena Ilinykh. Are there also no conflicts there?
-- Lena stopped working with Sasha, Sasha stopped working with Lena. They tried, looked at each other, felt, one might say, but did not grow together.
- How long ago did this happen? Yelena took Sasha to the Test Skates.
-- Somewhere just after the Test Skates. Sasha has new gliding specialists, we are still hiring other trainers. Lena works with other athletes, Kostornaya. In general, we have a lot of students: Titova, the Sarnovskiy's, the Zhilina's. Ilinykh does not go anywhere.
- Do they have a conflict with Trusova?
-- She has no conflicts with either Rozanov or Ilinykh.
- You talk about the new coaches. Do you have other acquisitions?
-- Acquisitions? I'm thinking of buying a car. Now I have to choose. (smiles)
I want my school to become the best in the world
- How are you now with harmony in life? A large school, many coaches and skaters with their own interests, already more offspring, not just one child.
-- There would be a desire. Live on, work, create. Probably, everything in my life worked out and is working out, but it throws up new challenges. But I have a very good, close-knit team. You can rely on them. It was not for nothing that I fired 17 specialists at one time. I have a faithful and beloved wife who is always with me and helps me. Lovely sons.
- Isn't it difficult to keep up with everything? Is there enough time for a family?
-- Everything is fine, Arsyusha is growing, we are very happy. How to keep up? Wake up at 6 in the morning, at 7 at work, until 17-18 work in the "Angels", then all the other things. Mom told me: "Slowly, but hurry." I set the tasks, they must be fulfilled.
- And how do they sound?
-- To make my school the best in the world. We will work hard to make this dream a reality.
(c)
Дмитрий Кузнецов