- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
That's for sure, we all want the skaters to have success and our favourites win in beautiful and fair competitions.
Which brings me to politics. Previously, it seemed Russian FS was all CSKA and skaters from the regions hardly played any role unless they transferred to the big central club from its divisions in the various parts of Russia. And going by old interviews, it was like the military proper, with a chain of command, ranks etc.
Between CSKA Moscow and CSKA Sankt Peterburg there was considerable and often bitter rivalry, with some disciplines being dominated by each over a couple of year before changing positions.
Then Sambo-70 came into play (a Dinamo division?), with its Khrustalniy branch under the leadership of Tutberidze effectively taking over the female single skating since the last couple of years.
Now a third party enters the arena, privately financed, but not yet able to raise its own athletes from scratch. Spoiled kids from wealthy parents might not be the best stock to create champions from? You still need a thousand 5 year olds to get one 15 year old the likes of Trusova, 10 long years later. Unless you can keep all the 999 others on board and have them subsidise this single stand out elite athlete. There will be huge expensive and resources wasted over those 10 years, no investors can be found for that apart from ambitious parents. So this private academy predates on, or even parasites on the state schools, where these constraints of money and time don't count, since the SDYuSShOR are essentially normal schools with compulsory attendance and a strong emphasis on sports. Here, one can find these thousand year 1 kids and hope by year 11 one of them remains.
These practices of luring, poaching, predating or however you'd like to call them won't make the state schools and by extension their organisations of CSKA or Sambo-70 happy. They'd hate to see their investment go to nil when the athlete gets lured away, all the while they cannot really, morally or legally oppose the wish of the athlete ('s parents) right? Those days are past.
So far the only high profile privately financed academy is the Angels of Plyushchenko, but there are many more, usually offering recreative and low intensity competitive classes, courses, training camps and development schemes, with (I assume) a high turnover in children. FFKKR looks at these academies with suspicion, as their quality isn't guaranteed, as opposed to the state schools. Are there even any federal requirements as to insurance or compulsory 'certificate of good conduct' and periodical checks since one is working with children?
Triumph Academy under the leadership of Sof'ya Fedchenko has the only other 'private' athlete on the national junior team, 12 year old Alina Gorbachyova, officially from Tver in the regions. Fedchenko's top group of Triumph shows they take the sport very seriously, training at the highest level of intensity and quality. During their live streams, one can always see parents asking for admittance, the summer camp etc. on behalf of their child. Since the parents pay, the peace between the 'skating moms' has to be maintained, or it could all go downhill pretty fast.
So with the two camps of CSKA and Sambo-70 established by now, how does the Academy of Angels fit in? Where does it find its allies, where does it finds its political support? Will it have its representative among the official judiciary and governance of the overseeing body and Ministry of Sports? Remember the judging by Aleksandr Volkov in the Moscow qualifying events?
Much depends here on the personality, character and behaviour of the people in charge. It is far more difficult to get honest allies than it is to get enemies. Plyushchenko belonged to CSKA as a skater, will the CSKA column silently or openly support him still? Earning respect amongst your peer trainers begins with your personal attitude towards them. Yevgeniy Viktorovich in this respect has his work cut out for him.
