Why did Trusova leave Tutberidze? Understanding the logics of an unexpected transfer
May is a bad month for Eteri Tutberidze.
Two years ago, around the same time, she broke up with Medvyedeva - in Channel One prime time, Tutberidze showed screenshots of her messages, which Zhenya left unanswered, and was outraged that Brian Orser had made her a call. Not even by the fact that he lured a student, but by the fact that he called another pupil of Eteri - Sasha Trusova - a short-term phenomenon.
“ Wether a phenomenon or not, she made history. She went out and jumped two quadruples cleanly. Well, admit it, say - 'well done, girl'. Therefore, I have a feeling that Orser made the call ”, Tutberidze was determined at that moment.
Did Eteri manage to fend off this challenge? Yes, but not with Trusova.
Zagitova remained undefeated in personal duels with Medvyedeva, Kostornaya is already a world prima, Valiyeva is following close behind, she has quads, extensions, and an ideal year of birth in her passport. Shcherbakova was also added: in May 2018, few took her into account due to a serious injury that cost her almost the entire season.
The departure of Trusova is not a sensation?
Trusova remained he only loser in Khrustalniy. She was the first to show that quadruple jumps in women's competitions a) are possible psychologically and physically, b) do not ruin the program, c) are adequately perceived by the judges. Already sitting in the Kiss and Cry, awaiting her score for the phenomenal skating run at the 2018 Junior World Championships, Trusova dreamed aloud of a quadruple Lutz and triple Axel - technical records seem to interest her almost more than medals.
The whole past season, which was expected to be a presentation of the two-time Champion among Juniors, turned into a series of losses to classmates. Shcherbakova added stability to her quadruple Lutz, Kostornaya revived her triple Axel, and Trusova struggled with her own content, which often changed, throughout the season. Sasha then went to a crude triksel in the short, then declared five quadruples for her free. And at the same time, she struggled with the Lutz-Rittberger cascade: it suddenly became surprisingly unstable.
Perhaps the Championships of Russia became the point of no return, at which Trusova fell from two under rotated quadruples, unsuccessfully entered into a third and burst into tears after her skating run. Liza Tuktamysheva performed after Sasha, she could draw on content with more reliability and deprive Trusova of Bronze - and with it the tickets to the Europeans.
Trusova bursted into tears after her skating run: two falls, the embrace of Tutberidze and only the Bronze
“ Bursting into tears after skating? We ourselves always want to cry when it does not work out what the athlete is capable of. She is a maximalist, didn't do what she could. Perhaps now she will be a little angrier ”, explained Daniil Gleikhengauz then.
Even if Sasha got angry, this did not affect her skating. Trusova again failed to lead in the Europeans: with two falls, despite the fact that the number of quads was reduced to three from the ambitious five that were originally announced.
Finally, the star troika of Tutberidze cannot but be bothered by the fact that journalists and fans often perceive them as one.
“ We don’t like TShchK at all. And Triple A looks very funny in spelling. When I first saw this, I thought that they were writing about a triple Axel, and didn't understand what was being talking about. I don’t know, but certainly not TShchK ”, Anya Shcherbakova admitted a couple of weeks ago.
“ Once they have determined so, let them say so. But in general, we are separate individuals ” - this is how Kostornaya responded after her victory in the Grand Prix Finals.
Sasha’s decision to leave is expected. Before the Olympics, in another year and a half, the temptation to break away from her classmates is great, Trusova’s problems are rather in the uncertainty with content and weak components, not technical flaws.
And Sasha, despite all her outward immediacy and equanimity, looks like a vulnerable person whom insufficient attention can hurt. Especially if the declared principle “ everyone should have equal chances ” in practice is at variance with reality: a Sport24 insider told that Shcherbakova is the favourite of Gleikhengauz, and Trusova felt herself superfluous.
But why exactly Plyushchenko?
The main question that confronts any top female singles skater in recent years is “ who, if not Eteri? ” You can criticise her for strict methods, monotonous programming and controversial statements, but Tutberidze brought five medals from two Olympics, two of which are Gold and the other three are Silver. She has the full podium of the Grand Prix Finals, the Championships of Russia and Europe and promising juniors - the main contenders for the 2022 Games in Beijing.
Plyushchenko, frankly, is a coach without a name. His merits as a skater (which, in turn, are absent from Tutberidze) do not make him an ideal mentor. He broke up with Tarakanova in a scandal, spoke unflattering after Sakhanovich left; did not linger on ice with Yevgeniy(a) (?) and Maksim Kovtun. Plyushchenko’s main project now (let’s finally remove the brackets from 'Gnom Gnomich') is the headliner of his ice shows, Adelina Sotnikova.
At the beginning of the year, the composition of the academy was also replenished by Stanislava Konstantinova. True, no one yet has seen the results of their collaboration: the coronavirus intervened. The Sankt Peterburg skater, who spent her entire career in Chebotaryova's group, explained the transition as follows: " They gave me a chance, while some other people did not believe in me ".
Perhaps Trusova also felt that the group no longer believed in her. And maybe they helped her to understand this: in December 2019, Khrustalniy accused Plyushchenko of luring athletes.
Renat Layshev, the director of Sambo-70 to which Khrustalniy belongs, also hints at this option: “ Look at what happened with Zhenya Medvedeva, Polina Tsurskaya, Adyan Pitkeyev - everyone made suggestions and those who left went nowhere. Medvyedeva went to one of the best coaches in the world. Although we are from the world of martial arts, such a situation is strange for us: there are laws of ethics (in MA), but in figure skating this is the order of things ”.
Plyushchenko, however, countered with this response to Tutberidze's claim: “ Remind me, by the way, who did you bring up from scratch? Perhaps Sasha Trusova or Kamila Valiyeva, Alyona Kostornaya or Anya Shcherbakova? Olympic champions Yuliya Lipnitskaya or Alina Zagitova? After all, everyone knows that 'Team Tutberidze' takes only ready-made children with triple jumps so as not to unnecessarily linger. Of course, when it comes to luring, you have no equal. ”
It is no coincidence that Sasha Trusova was in this listing. Before moving to Eteri, she skate in the group of Anna Tsareva for awhile, and even earlier - in the group of Aleksandr Volkov. He called her jerky, stiff and wooden, but admitted that Sasha is real working material, from which you can fashion anything. Volkov said that he forbade Trusova to learn quadruples - he was afraid of injuries - but when the girl turned 11, he began to teach her the triple Axel. This will probably be their first joint challenge - all the more so since Sasha needs to strengthen the content in her short program in order to close the gap in components with the same Kostornaya.
It is interesting that Plyushchenko's was strengthened not only by a new student, but also by a coach: along with Trusova, Sergey Rozanov joined the enterprise. In the team of Eteri, he is in the shadow of Tutberidze, Gleikhengauz and Dudakov, although it was Rozanov who worked with the juniors and novices and reanimated Kostornaya’s triple Axel in early September.
And what other options did Trusova have?
Any 'I could see Trusova at Harutyunyan's' or 'Medvyedeva has always been an example for Sasha, so she needs Orser' are now impossible: the borders are closed indefinitely, and a pandemic cuts budgets. Moving overseas without parents is too adventurous for a teenager, apart from it being expensive: in addition to Sasha, there are two younger brothers in the family.
In Russia, Alexey Mishin, a techie who can instill confidence in an athlete and patiently wait out the difficulties of growing up, looks like an obvious option. But between a promising new student and the peace of mind of the old (Tuktamysheva), he could choose the second. In addition, moving to Sankt Peterburg would not solve one of Trusova’s main problems - finding the right images and suitable programs - but rather, even exacerbating this.
Evgeniy Rukavitsyn also drops off: firstly, his main successes are associated with men, and secondly, his students have problems with endurance - and Sasha really needs endurance to skate through such ambitious complexity. Valentina Chebotaryova and Yelena Buyanova, who do not work with girls aiming for the century mark in the technical assessment, do not fit either.
***
For Sasha herself, the outcome of her transition to Plyushchenko is completely unclear. The chance of her becoming another entry on the list of those who left Tutberidze and finished their careers is quite large - however, no one guarantees that if Sasha stayed in Khrustalniy she would have gone to the Olympics either. In June, Trusova will turn 16: time does not work in her favour.
Equally important is how Tutberidze will respond to the new challenge. Obviously, all efforts will now be thrown at Shcherbakova and Kostornaya - they will be the ones who will have to prove that female single skating outside of Khrustalniy does not exist. It would be strategically correct to recall Zagitova. Firstly, the other day she will turn 18, and she will be able to prove that Eteri can work with adult (and those who have achieved everything) skaters. Secondly, with Alina it will again be possible to sweep the podiums of tournaments without letting Trusova step in.
It is also unclear where Eteri is now looking for a new coach. Less than a year ago, Lyudmila Shalashova, the mother of Daniil Gleikhengauz, died: she helped the group with performances and choreography. Now the already reduced team has lost Sergey Rozanov, who unloaded the main trio from working with young children.
However, as Tutberidze herself said, it'll be more interesting.
(c) Полина Крутихина
-----
From:
https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/beznedokrutov/2776649.html