I think a lot of this is genetic, not all athletes are cut out for sport at the very highest level -- and that's what Russian women's figure skating is.
I don't think stress fractures are the result of whether someone treated athlete's "right" or not. They happen in all kinds of sports, and in figure skating with women who jump triples and doubles. It's not an Eteri problem but an industry problem.
If anything, Eteri's skaters are experiencing stress fractures at a rate lower than the overall numbers. Eteri has had skaters retire, but there are only ever three places available for international competition there is not much incentive to continue if you are scoring 200 in competitions.
Trusova looked like a completely different person after the Olympics. She obviously suppressed her calorie intake in the Olympic year. She admits she ate once in the morning.
Usacheva's injury was just a freak fall nothing to do with Eteri's methods.
Yes, I agree, and I also appreciate that you provide statistics to help vindicate Eteri from needless hate. However, my point was different even if I may have worded it poorly by referring to some aspects of training methods as "treatment".
What I'm saying is that Plushenko evidently puts significantly more focus on strength training and raw athleticism. This makes his athletes far less prone to injury. Especially in regards to acute impacts responsible for FS injury. Knowing Zhilina suffered an unrelated shoulder injury even moreso gives me confidence in Plushenko's athletes from a impact resistance perspective. Furthermore, his focus on athlete power allows his athletes to become heavier and follow more lenient diets. In general, Plushenko's skaters are more akin to power athletes. Even look at Trusova when she was with him - she got incredibly muscular and gave the impression more of an olympic sprinter than a balletic figure skater.
So, its not that I think Eteri treats her athletes "bad" but her methods are evidently more vulnerable to serious injury for her athletes. Eteri focuses more on lightness and balleticism, which leaves the girls frail. It's a tradeoff. I'm not here to say which is correct. But, hence is my strong confidence that in the case of Plushenko athletes (such as Zhilina) there is much greater chance that:
1. The injury is less serious
2. Full recovery is far more likely
And like I said, for recovery nutrition is extremely important. A hardcore diet plan during recovery is brain dead from any perspective and knowing that Eteri is very particular about athlete nutrition, it became one of the specific concerns I voiced in regards to Akateva. If Akateva eating more leads to growth spurts or loss of form etc... from which she cannot recover technically due to genetics, then the injury only hastened the inevitable. She has to be allowed to eat and take it easy right now or she has zero chance. Just because Eteri isn't "bad" doesn't mean her system might not have flaws, and this
could turn out to be one.
As for Trusova. Yes, like I said her weight exploded after Olympics. I agree that she was a different athlete afterwards. But, the point I was making is that her actual body structure was already post-development at Olympics and therefore if she had the will then she could have maintained form further. It wasnt a genetic stoppage on her part, but just mental exhaustion, which is understandable. But her developmental genetics were not the reason of her retirement. And if she wanted to then she could easily, even with the extra weight, have maintained a form at least equal to the current bigger Kaori. And with a strict regiment after a mental break, she could have come back and kept jumping quads for sure. That was the point - her development itself didnt kill her career. She just had no reason to put in that level of effort. But for some girls no matter the effort, their genetics are not beatable due to post-development failure.
As for Usacheva. I dont believe a "freak fall" is responsible for an irrecoverable hip break in a teenage girl. I'm not condemning Eteri here, but to say that Usacheva was purely unlucky and there were no extra factors seems disingenuous. I've never seen that happen before or since, and it isnt a coincidence that it happened in a sport where girls have to be extremely slim and also in the particular training camp known for the slimmest, lightest girls with the strictest diets. The only thing otherwise which could be responsible for that disaster is a severe genetic condition, but she would have broken something else far before in this sport if she had such a thing.
️ in her camp. Love her as a coach and I’m happy to see her with another star athlete.
