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- Jun 26, 2021
No, nothing wrong is with this mentality. Actually, if you dont have this mentality you cant be a good sportsmen. You cant even be a decent sportsmen.
Eteri Tutberidze interview on Russian TV
- Thread starter Alex Fedorov
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No, nothing wrong is with this mentality. Actually, if you dont have this mentality you cant be a good sportsmen. You cant even be a decent sportsmen.
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- Feb 22, 2014
Well "Mama's Boy" would never be a compliment, it's basically saying a person has no agency of their own and is completely under the thumb of their overbearing mother. That they're immature and a loser.
I find it strange that Eteri seemed surprised that having won everything Alina would WANT to continue grueling training for 12 hours a day. Like...I'd be more surprised if someone did in that situation.
I am sorry that Eteri's father was so lousy though, imagine saying to your kid's FACE they don't matter. What an utter jerk, I hope he came to regret those awful words (is he still alive?)
Just one thought:
you can do anything to be a champion:
- train 12 hours a day, 6 days a week
- under-eat to maintain weight
- live alone, away from your parents
- endure strenuous training, which will most likely contribute to chronic diseases of the osteoarticular system
- be subjected to "playful" mobbing (like being pulled by your hair over an ice rink)
- be publicly accused by your coach of laziness, ingratitude, gluttony
all this on one condition: that you are not a minor and it is your mature, well-thought-out decision.
For me, this interview once again shows the reason why the age of seniors - i.e. people applying for medals in the most important competitions - should be raised to 18 years. Neither a coach nor even a parent should make the decision to undergo such training on behalf of a child. Because this child is the one who will have serious health (including mental) problems throughout his/her life if something goes wrong.
(and I don't know why but a Stockholm syndrome was also coming to my mind while I was reading it).
you can do anything to be a champion:
- train 12 hours a day, 6 days a week
- under-eat to maintain weight
- live alone, away from your parents
- endure strenuous training, which will most likely contribute to chronic diseases of the osteoarticular system
- be subjected to "playful" mobbing (like being pulled by your hair over an ice rink)
- be publicly accused by your coach of laziness, ingratitude, gluttony
all this on one condition: that you are not a minor and it is your mature, well-thought-out decision.
For me, this interview once again shows the reason why the age of seniors - i.e. people applying for medals in the most important competitions - should be raised to 18 years. Neither a coach nor even a parent should make the decision to undergo such training on behalf of a child. Because this child is the one who will have serious health (including mental) problems throughout his/her life if something goes wrong.
(and I don't know why but a Stockholm syndrome was also coming to my mind while I was reading it).
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- Jun 26, 2021
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- Nov 12, 2021
He was just a Georgian. And I think he was talking at that moment with another Georgian who came to Moscow as a guest. Well, southern temperament, old-fashioned traditions and attitudes, something like macho in Latin America but softer. And he supported her anyway.
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- Nov 12, 2021
just in case, I will provide a link here to the English translation of the first part of the interview.
Unfortunately, this translation is not only oversimplified; a significant part has been thrown out of it. I will still try to make my own version of the translation.
Eteri Tutberidze: “It’s like in a war, give it all and take it all”
Big interview with Eteri Tutberidze.
fs-gossips.com
Unfortunately, this translation is not only oversimplified; a significant part has been thrown out of it. I will still try to make my own version of the translation.
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- Jun 26, 2021
It is very far from truth. If that was true, then US women (for example) would be far more popular than Russian women. But it seems for me that now situation is quite opposite.
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- Nov 12, 2021
- the interview does not say absolutely nothing about "be subjected to "playful" mobbing (like being pulled by your hair over an ice rink)". This is your own add-on.
- being under-eated and keeping your weight in check are two different things. And external control in such cases is sometimes required even by adults.
- Lipnitskaya, Shcherbakova or Trusova did not live away from their parents when they trained with Tutberidze. Only Zagitovа had to be separated from her mother.
- train 12 hours a day, 6 days a week - it's ok for someone who wants to be the best.
- If you think that athletes from other schools do not tolerate grueling training and do not risk getting chronic diseases, you are making a gross mistake.
This is something that often surprises me on our figure skating forums and especially on this one - as if I am at a gathering of kindergarten moms who are discussing a teacher who dared to shake her finger at their beloved child. It's like I'm in some world of pink unicorns. I keep asking myself the question - where does such a perverted worldview come from? So far, my working version is that they incorrectly perceive the relationship of skater-coach in Russia as a rock star and his manager.
You consciously or unconsciously mixed up the timeline. The increased weight, according to Eteri, she had before the stress fracture. The Olympics were after the fracture and by the Olympics she was already a normal weight. In addition, we are talking about a conscious increase in the weight made by Zhenya, because according to Eteri, "someone told her, and I know who it was, that she looks anorexic and because of this she will have a low PСS". This is clearly not about an eating disorder.
Say that to Yuzuru Hanyu followers, or Nathan Chen followers, and the list can go on, skaters with longevity who keep bringing in fans.
I can only speak for myself, I'm not a diehard figure skating fan, I don't follow juniors, and I don't know if I'll continue watching figure skating after this season if skaters like Alexandra Trusova or Anna Scherbakova retire at 17. (I don't follow pairs and dance, only men and women) I was so excited for Alina Zagitova, for example, in her last season, Ioved the costumes, the programs, and then she retired mid-season at 16. Just when you start being a fan of a Russian female skater, they go away. And it sucks and it makes you not want to watch anymore. And I'm not the only one (judging from comments on social media).
People do care about names and the longevity of their favorites AND about the "dopamine" (I didn't say they don't, you missed my point there). And there are a lot of fans like me who have no clue about juniors and want to keep seeing the newly senior and not so newly senior season after season. If not, what's the point? What's the point if they go senior for one season and then retire. You get all excited only to find out they're missing from the lineup. You only have those skaters for one or two seasons, and just when they start growing on you, they disappear from competition. For me, it's seeing my faves season after season what gives me my "dopamine". Figure skating is most popular in Russia, but in the rest of the World, minus one or two countries maybe, crickets. In the future we will probably have Russian after Russian podium sweeps in ladies of skaters who retire at max 18 and it will be fun for the Russians, I'm sure, but what about the rest?
I don't see how having the sport dominated by one country of skaters who are popular for one or two years and then retire because they're so overworked they can't sustain a normal-length career would make people want to be a fan besides a small group worldwide and a larger group in Russia. I know I'm losing my interest already.
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- Jun 26, 2021
Who bring more fans - Dasa Grm (who have that "longevity"-thing) or any of Eteri girls (who have medals instead)?
Well, there was a reason I mentioned people like Yuzuru, who brings in medals. Imagine, as an example, if he would've retired after his first Olympics (at 18?) like the Russian girls are expected to because they're already so burned out because of training that encourages skating injured, overtraining, not eating, and then, on top, coaches bash the skaters in interviews. People want to keep seeing those superstars who won the medals, it makes new fans want to still follow the sport instead of tuning in every four years because the Olympics happens to be on TV (some knowing the superstar they're seeing will be gone by next season).
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What kind of heartless infantile person does one have to be to say such words about someone else's dead father? You have no right to say that. This is between Eteri and her father. He didn't speak to "her face" - it was an adult conversation in which baby-Etery intervened. And he then explained to his daughter that he was talking about who would continue the family and surname - about son. He was a Georgian, as it is known, every Georgian traces his ancestry from some princely family (it's joke). Georgians are even now traditionalists and patriarchal (and this story happened about 40 years ago).
Whatever. Most importantly, it's none of your business. Don't try to teach other people and other cultures how to live. Again - this is between Eteri and her father and she love her father and it's only you need to know.
No, the relationship between skater and coach is as a child and their teacher. So the burden of responsibility is placed on the teacher, the adult and person of power in the relationship.
"responsibility" for what? For some reason, you and people like you imagine yourself as some kind of prosecutor on trial (and me as a "defender") But there is no trial. There is a super-successful teacher who tells interesting stories.
A meaningless question. If she hadn't won, we just wouldn't have discussed her.
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- Apr 26, 2018
She did not have "normal" weight at the Olympics - she was severely underweight according to her own words. She has talked about this herself, she has mentioned having disordered eating and having to learn not to starve herself.
Are you accusing her of lying? Also, Medvedeva was always extremely thin, yes, even at the test skates 2017-18 where Eteri claimed she had this "weight problem".
Honestly, I don't know why I'm even arguing this point. Anyone who accuses Medvedeva of being overweighed has serious visual issues. Or is grasping at straws to excuse their own faults. Given the whole blame game Eteri likes to play with her athletes, I‘d bet on the latter. Anyway, how you can excuse a coach talking like this about the athletes that brought her fame and recognition years after their retirement, is beyond me.
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So it wasn't about the usual problems with the weight of ordinary people. We are talking about professional super-successful figure skaters balancing on the edge of human possibilities. In such a situation, 1 kilogram is already a large excess of weight, but which, of course, we will not even see.
To be honest, I'm not interested in what Zhenya said there - she talked a lot over the years and often changed her testimony. I discussed what Eteri said in this interview - she made a logically consistent statement that you distorted.
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I played sports growing up for a soccer team ranked like 5th in the United States. I could’ve played in college but didn’t care to because for me it was just for fun. My team was in like, sportswear brand ads. Whatever. Just to highlight the level. But this weight thing is so alarming to me because I genuinely do not know how a high level athlete would sustain themselves on poorly diets.
We didn’t even train as rigorously (obviously!) it was like say 3 hours a day + weight training with Sundays off. I NEVER felt like I needed to eat less to make some weight for performance. I felt like I couldn’t eat enough to maintain muscle mass. At that time I was 5’2” and 101-103 pounds (45.5-46.5 kg). And it was a struggle for me to even maintain that highest weight. My coach would make me eat snacks before games! She thought my bones would break if I didn’t eat more, so at dinners she would say to those of us who were thinnest to make sure drink some milk or something. It is not like I didn’t ensure I had a nutritious diet or something like that but I also felt I could eat whatever I wanted, there was zero need for me to restrict what I ate just for the sake of calories. But at times where I ate less than usual because I was busy or I forgot my lunch for school or something, it maybe got me down to like 100 point something and then I felt sick. It was quite literally a wall. I would wake up the next morning and feel if I didn’t go eat immediately I will pass out before I’m even done taking a shower. 103 was hard to maintain. Sub 100 would’ve been impossible.
Even now with less physical activity it is still very easy for me to stay under 110 without any effort. But there’s such a hard stop for so many girls where it is incredibly difficult to get five pounds off when you’re already underweight. At one point in engineering school I was in a design competition to build an off road vehicle where weight of the vehicle + the driver was very important for a certain competition. Everyone put their smallest team member in the car. I did the math and thought if I can be 98 pounds we will be able to reach this time, and we could really compete then for top five in the US. But I couldn’t do it. No matter how little I ate or if I went for an hour long run, I couldn’t get back down to that 101 even. If I was less than the weight I was when I played soccer, I got migraines. It wasn’t worth it.
For reference— Aliona is estimated to be roughly 45 kg at 5 foot and Sasha is estimated to be somewhere between 44 and 46kg at 5’1”. These are normal weights for an athlete. They seem much healthier than Eteri’s earliest students. Anna was always very thin so I won’t make any note there but even she now is not as unnervingly skinny as Zhenya was in 2018.
Zhenya’s stress fracture was probably not from weight. Almost certainly it wasn’t. Aliona is heavier than she was. And shorter. Thousands of athletes do very intense and repetitive motions weighing more per inch. But low calcium levels, poor nutrition, etc. can weaken the bones enough to cause stress fractures. It’s very important to regulate one’s metabolism by not starving yourself, to regulate one’s mineral intake, to regulate one’s electrolytes etc. For me it’s amazing that with the apparent dietary restrictions from Zhenya and Julia that they were even able to perform at all.
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