K.L.: In men's single skating we have an unexpected result.
K.D.: And this result is very pleasant for me. Very nice! I am very happy for Kostya (name, affectionate form of "Konstantin", mostly used only by close friends and relatives - M.). He took third place.
And it is another positive point of the new system for evaluating skaters. After, if the skaters had been evaluated using the old system, an athlete who was 11th in the short program wouldn't have been able to get on the podium. It was completely impossible. There were options to win medals, taking 6th place in the short program, but for this there had to be the happiest of circumstances, the stars had to get in the most favorable position (Davydenko believes in astrological predictions ? – M.). This man (Konstantin Menshov) went up from 11th place to third because he was brilliant in his free skating.
K.L.: And this medal was won by him absolutely honestly. It is impossible to say that a coincidence played a role here.
K.D.: No, no (Davydenko doesn’t believe in astrological predictions, he is against cheating – M.)
K.L.: It's a really won bronze medal. (Here and below K.D. vividly expresses his personal empathy for the athlete with words and body language, against the backdrop of emotional excitement he even almost stops embarrassing himself in front of the cameras).
I know how difficult it was for him to prepare for competitions this season. He hasn't been on the ice for over four months or practiced very little due to a shoulder injury. He made some small movements of the arm, for example, doing choreography on ice, and his humerus bone popped out of the joint (the injury, which requires the placement of the bone in the joint by a qualified medical - M.) Indeed, how much strength he needed to overcome this fear of jumping, not be afraid, God forbid, to fall (not to provoke a new dislocation of the shoulder – M.) So he actually overcame himself.
The preparation <for the competition> was crumpled. Very often he had to go to the doctor and get treatment. By the way, a huge thank to the doctors! When Kostya won, I immediately called the doctors and told them many thanks.
Of course, we had to completely redo the program. Among other things, we had to change the choreography, it was impossible to add any sudden arm movement, so as not to provoke a new shoulder injury. This victory was not easy for him. This medal is all the more valuable to us, because the circumstances were such. I am very happy for Kostya.
K.L.: I can't help but ask you this question. What happened in the short program?
K.D.: It's very simple. It was decided, quite reasonable and correct decision to perform a quadsalchow. He (Konstantin Menshov) masters this jump (said with an uncompromising intonation, designed to cut off all possible doubts). Even a quadsalchow, for example, performed poorly and received a GOE -2, would yield more points than a triple lutz performed at a GOE +3. And he performs that element with confidence.
Alas, we trivially ran out of time to prepare for the competition. (K.D. starts curling his fingers, listing all the times when Konstantin Menshov safely performed the quadsalch). He performed both programs in training without mistakes. We did control skating, the skater came out in the suit, went through a six-minute warm-up, rolled back programs. He had no mistakes. He just lacked competitive experience. I am sure that if Kostya will continue his sports career ... I would like him to stay, because Kostya himself said at the press conference that he does not feel thirty years old, and I believe that he is now in the prime of his powers and God willing that he stayed, God willing that he and Sergei Rukavitsyn decided to stay in the sport, then he will learn to skate this short program well and I am sure that Kostya will do well.
Here K. D. "remembers" that in general he is not the main coach of the athlete he is discussing, and makes the necessary appeal to the main coach.
Here and thereafter, K.D. finally switches from the business tone of discussing the athlete and his successes to describing deep personal feelings towards him. Rodion Vodeiko becomes infected with the mood and supports him, and since he is a journalist and not constrained by coaching ethics, he freely begins to report the insults that, in his opinion, Konstantin Menshov receives undeservedly.
R. V.: I deeply sympathize with Kostya as an athlete and as a person. I even think that he is probably the most underrated of our athletes and singles in recent years and, to put it crudely, even a little bit "overshadowed" (a term used when someone is deliberately put behind the others in order not to show his successes - M.) I'll give you a simple example: the news about the men's skating results at the European Championships on one of the sports portals (not my *smiles*). I read: "Sergey Voronov came in second, Kovtun was fifth". I only found out about Kostya's bronze medal when I read the text. There wasn't even a single word in the headline about him. And apparently people don't realize how much this medal means to him and how difficult it is for a man who is only a year younger than Evgeny Plushenko, about whom there is so much talk, that he is a veteran in the sport.
At the same time, Kostya showed up quite late at the top level. But as many times as I saw him on the ice, I was always very impressed by his style, and I think he has great potential.
K.D.: Huge potential.
R.V.: He lacked a little bit skating stability in some aspects, but what I saw... (Places his hands on his heart) And I somehow managed to see his stable and good skating every time. It seems to me that he has...
K.D. (thoughtfully): Stability of his skating was not enough... Sorry, that I interrupted you.
R.W.: That's okay.
K.D. decides to take the opportunity to conclude the case and express, albeit politely, his grievances about how Konstantin is judged by the Federation.
K.D.: He lacked skating stability for certain reasons. In some aspects, as you said, he was in the shadow of other skaters. Sometimes he was not allowed to compete when a person went to an important international tournament...
K.L. (developing a thought): Maybe he didn't have enough experience yet...
K.D. (interrupts his interlocutor with fervor): Of course!
K.L. (finishes a phrase): ...big international starts.
K.D.: ... And when a person comes to an important competition and understands that he must skate without the right to make a mistake to gain a reputation, it is very difficult for him.
R. V.: And if there is no reputation, then the athlete is given points lower than he could get.
K.D.: ... and when a person comes to an important competition and realizes that he has to skate without the right to make a mistake to gain a reputation, it's very hard for him.
R. V.: And if there is no reputation, then the athlete is given lower points than he could have gotten.
K.D.: Absolutely right. (Returns to the discussion of the prospects of the career of Menshov, and expresses support for him in many ways). I repeat, that Kostya is really young, and what I see, for example, how he performs the jumps, those quads, he cracks them as nuts. These jumps he masters easily. Again, with all my respect for Evgeny Plushenko, he's not very healthy anymore. You know everything yourself, he has already had many different complex surgeries for this season. Kostya, thank God, is fine, yes, he hurt his shoulder, it was an accident. But in general I think that he is absolutely young in both mind and body, and that he should continue his career as an athlete.
R.V.: I honestly admit that judging from his skating that I saw, I think he is a potential champion.
K.D.: Yes, I totally agree.
R.V.: This man just need to accumulate more competitive experience and credibility with the judges, and then he will be fine.
K.D.: Yes.
love you, good son
