Alina Zagitova

[sx98423]

What they say-skaters, coaches, politicians in the interviews, and what really happens in the backstage are most of the time 2 completely different stories.
The evidence is her practice session the day before the competition:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-UN55vDWg8

i just see people at a practice? nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact that it might not have been the perfect practice they wanted. alina didn't cry after either of her performances at euros whereas she used to get teary eyed after performances with tiny mistakes. it seems like alina and her team have all accepted that it's ok to not win sometimes. im sure it was hard having to adjust from being nearly undefeated to suddenly having to fight for wins.

even if you want to take that one practice as "evidence" theres way more evidence showing that her coaches have not been breaking her spirit. see like every other practice where everyone's smiling. we've also seen videos of when eteri has made alina cry from last season so i'd say that would be the best evidence of "breaking her spirit" but her spirit seems to have remained intact through all of last season :confused2:

 

[sx98423]

It worked once, but is not working right now. You can be demanding and strict, without having an abusive attitude, an attitude that doesn't affect the mentality of the skater. Don't try to normalize emotional abuse.
And it is not only one video, there are many, there are also many girls who have gone and told their stories... but someone said i know nothing, so yeah each of us has made the decision of who supports and who does not. Peace.

making someone feel uncomfortable or even making someone cry does not equal emotional abuse. if your boss at work tells you your work is crap and makes you feel awful and you cry about it, it's not emotional abuse. if you do a bad job there are things that need to be said, and it doesn't need to be said nicely. emotional abuse would be if you boss insulted your character, says your good for nothing, and picks on you for reasons unrelated to work.

i do feel like eteri could be a little nicer sometimes since alina is so young, but i've never seen any sort of harshness from eteri towards her off ice, it's always related to skating which is "work" for alina. sometimes work can be hard and your boss can be harsh.

 

[Arbitrary]

Could we consider the OGM or multiple WGM who later struggled with his/her performance, lost competitions one after another and at the end resigned - to be worthless, unlucky, not a good sporst(wo)man?
Deny him/her some credit?

One can have a trauma right before Olympics. Other may win Olympics and be unlucky (or lucky?) to have it immediately after? Elvis (not Presley) likely lost his gold in 1998 ruining his leg in preparations before FS.
Doesn't he deserve some credit to his long sport career?

Same here. Zagitova may feel herself betrayed by her own body. She may decide to retire today or attempt another year. The tendency is bad, as she lost GPF, RusNuts and EC. Having even her best performance with the current SP/FP may give her 2-3 place in the Worlds as best. So she has to thing either to stop now or she may say to herself: - I want to start all over again. I'm a "not so old dog" to try to learn a couple of fresh tricks.
We must accept her decision whatever it is.

Zagitova first thought about retirement 7 months before Olympics. Tutberidze and Co succeeded to bring her back. Who knows...

 

[j00mla]

come on, guys
she is hockey coach's daughter, when his team (at that moment 'Izhstal") lost 3 matches of 4, Alina sent sms to father:
"Dad, why are you losing to everyone? ream them out!" (i.e. scold them)
https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/373698

even in the case of the legendary Karpol emotional abuse is not the right term https://youtu.be/0x8vFHzC8kw?t=133

 

[Tsuki]

Yes, to stay relevant: 198 at Europeans and 54 TES. If you think that Alina is happy with this result, you are totally wrong. She had tears in her eyes during all victory ceremony.
If i choose to stay closer to the reality, it doesnt mean I do not make nice comments.

A Silver at Europeans makes one irrelevant? 198 is not a good score for her, true, but she is still Silver. How many skaters are relevant than? Only the latest winner?

Of course she is not happy. But let’s be honest, if she was not coached by Eteri you would not say her team broke her spirit. Why her own team would break her spirit I don’t understand, we should not sit behind our screens making comments of things we actually don’t know and are not involved in. As another poster said, Alina has had bad skates last season too. She won OGM after those. She is not a always perfect skater, this is okay. No one wins everything and she has tough competition and yes she herself was not at her best.

If She chooses to leave Eteri that’s her decision and she will have our support but there is no reason to make such comments or start a witch hunt.

 

[flanker]

A Silver at Europeans makes one irrelevant? 198 is not a good score for her, true, but she is still Silver. How many skaters are relevant than? Only the latest winner?

Exactly. In fact, that is the burden of those who are successful on daily basis (Exaggeration of course, but in this case I think relevant), that many people consider the succes as natural thing and talk much when there is problem. In contrary to that when someone is usually not as succesful and than shines for once, it is notable occation. Look at all those films about sport, they make usually stories about underdogs who won, even if they were never able to extend it. While there is significantly less attention paid to stories of those who are succesful continuously. If, of course, they don't have some slump On the other hand, people love stories about downfalls and new risings

 

[EdRoz]

First National channel report ,
amazing fans !!!

https://instagram.com/p/BtGBaCXHQto/

 

[madison]

The main idea is that Alina is struggling and it is not because she is not into what she's doing 100%. I see that she is super motivated to train and compete, to keep a diet, to give up to social media, in short to dedicate exclusively to figure skating.
So if she is doing all these things right, why is she struggling? my answer is that the coaches are not doing something right.
I didn't like what I saw in that video. For me that was abusive. She left the rink with the head down, in low spirits. She seemed confused by the indications of the coaches.
Before Eteri starting to scold and yell to her, she skated better than after. Her practices at this Euros before this episode were better, after they got worse and worse. I am not saying that they are doing this in purpose. But maybe this harsh approach is not good for Alina or at least not good at this moment of time.
These are evidences, not my opinions. She came at Euros in good moods, ready to fight. Even though she is not crying (in public), it doesnt mean that this is not affect her, on the contrary.
Were there any of the coaches with her at the victory ceremony? I didn't see anyone. I hope they were, at least Daniil.

 

[madison]

A Silver at Europeans makes one irrelevant? 198 is not a good score for her, true, but she is still Silver. How many skaters are relevant than? Only the latest winner?

Of course she is not happy. But let’s be honest, if she was not coached by Eteri you would not say her team broke her spirit. Why her own team would break her spirit I don’t understand, we should not sit behind our screens making comments of things we actually don’t know and are not involved in. As another poster said, Alina has had bad skates last season too. She won OGM after those. She is not a always perfect skater, this is okay. No one wins everything and she has tough competition and yes she herself was not at her best.

If She chooses to leave Eteri that’s her decision and she will have our support but there is no reason to make such comments or start a witch hunt.

Actually no, It is not about Eteri. I am not interested in Eteri lol. My disspointment in that team is actually Daniil, not Eteri. From Eteri I would have expected this behavior.

 

[EdRoz]

Actually no, It is not about Eteri. I am not interested in Eteri lol. My disspointment in that team is actually Daniil, not Eteri. From Eteri I would have expected this behavior.

May you talk about Eteri and Daniil in Tutberidze thread ??

 

[Scott512]

i just see people at a practice? nothing out of the ordinary except for the fact that it might not have been the perfect practice they wanted. alina didn't cry after either of her performances at euros whereas she used to get teary eyed after performances with tiny mistakes. it seems like alina and her team have all accepted that it's ok to not win sometimes. im sure it was hard having to adjust from being nearly undefeated to suddenly having to fight for wins.

even if you want to take that one practice as "evidence" theres way more evidence showing that her coaches have not been breaking her spirit. see like every other practice where everyone's smiling. we've also seen videos of when eteri has made alina cry from last season so i'd say that would be the best evidence of "breaking her spirit" but her spirit seems to have remained intact through all of last season :confused2:

She he's not broken she is just struggling with the pressure and expectations of winning gold at every event and that's on top of her going through puberty in the last year getting bigger and stronger.

Trust me she will not be the favorite at the world championships and that will be of great benefit to her.

I do not think Alina is being broken by her coaches. Russian coaches are notorious in any sport for being very hard as a student's very disciplined with their students.

I am upset because Alina is hurt in some way emotionally because she did not win gold as expected and I'm upset because her little sister probably cried her eyes out when Alina failed to win gold as expected yesterday.

Sofia won an important gold medal yesterday when the favorite failed in the free skate. Someday Alina will win an important gold medal by someone else failing ahead of her. That's figure skating. Remember Osmond winning the World Championship gold last year when a few skaters ahead of her in the standings after the short program bombed the free skate? Alina suffered through that and I still wish you never went to World's last year. But it is what it is and she has overcome that and she was overcome this failure yesterday at the European championships.

I am bemused and confused by the frustration and anger at Alina not winning gold yesterday especially in the edge. No reason to panic she's just growing up in front of the world learning to handle the immense pressure she's under. Let's cut Alina some slack. Remember Liza after winning 2015 World Championship? the pressure got to her and her game disappeared the next 3 years. this is not happening with Alina. She is putting the work in she's developing physically and emotionally and trying to handle the pressure and it's very hard. I truly believe she will get through this and be a better skater and competitor for it. the rest of her career after the Olympics was never going to be a smooth and easy as it was for her to win the European championships last year and the Olympics.

One final thought for me is Stasya is working with a sports psychologist this year and she actually had a pretty good year even with all her ups and downs and I do wonder if it's time for a Lena to talk with somebody besides our coaches or parents or sister about what she's going through. Maybe Edroz or orlov or somebody can tell me if it's common these days for Russian athletes to work with a sports psychologist. I think it is. I wonder if this is something that Alina should consider.

 

[egoshina]

she lost GPF, RusNuts and EC. Having even her best performance with the current SP/FP may give her 2-3 place in the Worlds as best.

So she has to thing either to stop now

She didn't lose GPF and EC, she got Silver in those - that is not losing. There are many a figure skater who would roll their eyes if you suggested them to retire after they had got silver medals at GPF and/or Euros.

2-3 place at Worlds is not bad either and certainly NOT the reason to retire.

And Alina is certainly a gold medal contender for Worlds - we will have to wait and see.

 

[Scott512]

I dunno.
I wouldn't exactly call that youtube video "evidence" of her team trying to "break her spirit"
It is speculation at best.

And I am for Alina 100%.
If there were any real evidence (not saying that there is) of Eteri not having Alina's best interest's at heart.
I would be supplying the pitchforks and torches myself.

I know there is genuine concern for how Alina is skating now.
I am concerned too.
But I am getting confused here because I cannot manage to parse which comments actually care about Alina, and which are agenda driven because of who her coach is.

Twitter, YouTube comments, FS Boards, Russian media --- it is all too much now.

If anything is breaking Alina's spirit, maybe it was discovering there is a cottage industry on social media counting down the days until she is "done".
There are actually people out there that want her to fail.
Either to "prove" a point about Eteri. Or so they can go around saying "I told you so".

Maybe that's why she is no longer on social media.

Alina is obviously very popular.
She has over 500,000 followers on IG.
Look at the outpouring of support from fans at competitions.

But to be a sensitive 16 year old and see that even a few people actually want you to fail?

Sad.

I agree with you that's some concern is caring for Alina and her feelings and others are agenda-driven because they hate her coach.

And your final point about how popular Alina is yet her knowing some people want her to fail it's something she has to learn to deal with. Maybe that's why she recently left social media. This is part of the reason why I'd like her to work with a sports psychologist. But the hate Adelina Sotnikova received after the 2014 Sochi Olympics is unparalleled and I do wonder if she worked with a sports psychologist because she would have needed one for that and she still gets the hate on social media. The hate is a much much much much smaller scale with Alina but it can be just as painful.

I am so glad she gets a break for a few weeks to take a step back work on her skating and prepare the best she can for the world championships in a couple months.

 

[zounger]

If Alina stays healthy and motivated anything will be achievable by her. Even her shadow is enough to win silver medals. Alina has my biggest admiration from the current ladies.

 

[Edwin]

One phrase from one of the interviews with Samodurova stood out to me: "I owe this result to my trainers' hard work and support'.
Samodurova is still at the very start of her international career, Zagitova is having a career most sportspersons will envy, and every sportsperson knows there will be highs and lows in their career.

That same phrase is still very true for Zagitova, at the same age and maturity as Samodurova, and both girls have good parental support to fall back on. None of these adolescents is yet mature, independent or brave enough to switch trainers just because of a series of less than perfect results. They first and foremost look up to their trainers, their substitute parents in sport, and take their advice by their word without questioning the wisdom or motives. They work for their trainers' appreciation first and always, before satisfying the needs of any other subordinate party.

I think many fans read way too much into small details at some training session. Zagitova and Tutberidze c.s. have a close working relationship, and though there is a certain structure of 'command and obey', both master and pupil respect the other very much. Training and competing at this level it very tough, only for the strongest of body, mind, spirit and character. It does come with some yelling, swearing, etc no doubt, but one shouldn't judge a trainers' character solely based on their behaviour under duress. Trainers will not break the self esteem of a pupil they have been working with for so long but will try to learn together and emerge better and stronger.

Of course Alina was disappointed with herself, but she will evaluate her mistakes in earnest and work together with her trainers in eliminating them. At this moment in her career, which might not even have reached its peak yet, there is no need nor desire to switch coaches I think. No doubt, as Alina gets older and becomes more independent as an adolescent, her trainers must adapt to her new found maturity and mindset and need to establish a different working relationship. Only when this doesn't happen and the relation becomes unbearably tense and strenuous, a change of coach might be beneficiary.

 

[Hello from Brazil]

Hello everyone! Long report incoming!
Today the men's free skating was fantastic and Alina was there watching too! After the victory ceremony, I was going to leave the arena to eat when I realized they were holding the Ladies's FS small medals ceremony and then they gave the medalist the watch from the sponsors. Alina thanked all the fans for the support when questioned about what would he her best memory of the Europeans 2019.
And then the autograph session began. It was as packed as Tokyo's subway, but Alina was signing every peace of paper handed to her! I even managed to say "I'm form Brazil " and "well done" in Russian.
She is such a sweet girl and I was relieved to see that she looked better and was smiling.
I hope she leaves yesterday's nightmare behind and skates wonderfully at worlds!
But it's not over until de gala!

 

[TheBallerina]

Now to happier thoughts
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtEwK6EBXg4/

I love Alina's and Sofia's interactions, they are so friendly one towards another, always joking and laughing together. At the victory ceremony, the way Sofia hugged and looked at Alina showed so much respect from her, I was speechless. Sofia is a nice girl, she deserved this win because she was the best skater yesterday!

How Alina herself said...hoping that for her the best is yet to come!

 

[TheBallerina]

I also pray that Alina goes to the Russian Cup Final in February. She absolutely needs a clean skate before she can compete at Worlds. If she goes to Worlds with Euros as her last competition, I don't think we can really expect much of a different outcome for Alina.

I understand where this comes from...but I kindly disagree with this part. No Russian Cup Final aka skate-off is needed for Alina. She needs peace around and inside her, to prepare for Worlds.

Alina won her Worlds spot fair and square. Even not taking into account her past season, and her status as Olympic Champion, and analysing all her results from this season, she won gold or silver at every single international competition she took part in and was the second senior skater at Russian nationals. No Russian skater achieved these results this season, so she is the obvious, top pick for the Worlds team, because her results (not some subjective opinions) speak for themselves.

 

[Lechat]

The main idea is that Alina is struggling and it is not because she is not into what she's doing 100%. I see that she is super motivated to train and compete, to keep a diet, to give up to social media, in short to dedicate exclusively to figure skating.
So if she is doing all these things right, why is she struggling? my answer is that the coaches are not doing something right.
I didn't like what I saw in that video. For me that was abusive. She left the rink with the head down, in low spirits. She seemed confused by the indications of the coaches.
Before Eteri starting to scold and yell to her, she skated better than after. Her practices at this Euros before this episode were better, after they got worse and worse. I am not saying that they are doing this in purpose. But maybe this harsh approach is not good for Alina or at least not good at this moment of time.
These are evidences, not my opinions. She came at Euros in good moods, ready to fight. Even though she is not crying (in public), it doesnt mean that this is not affect her, on the contrary.
Were there any of the coaches with her at the victory ceremony? I didn't see anyone. I hope they were, at least Daniil.

So true. There’s something wrong with the coaching and they have to fix it of course if they care about Alina more about themselves.
During the kiss and cry Alina felt her fan cheering for her, I’m glad she didn’t cry.
I’m also happy for Sofia, Mishin is like a father and if things getting worse for Alina why not.

 

[Lechat]

I understand where this comes from...but I kindly disagree with this part. No Russian Cup Final aka skate-off is needed for Alina. She needs peace around and inside her, to prepare for Worlds.

Alina won her Worlds spot fair and square. Even not taking into account her past season, and her status as Olympic Champion, and analysing all her results from this season, she won gold or silver at every single international competition she took part in and was the second senior skater at Russian nationals. No Russian skater achieved these results this season, so she is the obvious, top pick for the Worlds team, because her results (not some subjective opinions) speak from themselves.

She earned the right to be at worlds because it’s thanks to her that Rusfed has 3 spots this year.