Today is the second Sunday in September, it's rainy and it feels like summer has left us forever. My Challenge is also coming to an end, which I am thanking for living again the sports stories of all the skaters in this group - adults and juniors. However if I let the juniors go with joy, wishing them a happy new season, when I let the adults go, I have to cry. Today I will say goodbye to figure skater Aleksandrina Degtyareva.
The moment of transition to the adult team has come. If Aleksandrina didn't achieve success in the juniors, in seniors she had no chance to even get close to the top. She could have tried to succeed in her home country and become the number two of the St. Petersburg team, but even here she had competition from Samodurova, Gubanova, Nugumanova, Konstantinova.... Unfortunately, it was beyond her abilities. Aleksandrina grew larger and bigger, and it became more and more difficult for her to cope with her jumps. It's a shame she couldn't handle the competition.
I really like her programs from this period. Aleksandrina is a mature, liberated woman, confident in herself. She got a short program to the music from the movie "
Burlesque" and a free program to
Bonny Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart. This is a mature, desirable, attractive, energetic woman, able to feel deeply, love and experience emotions deeply.
Alas, she was well aware that things were not going according to plan and no good would come of it. The 2019-2020 season, when the pandemic began, was Aleksandrina's last competitive season.
I hope she's happy now, though she touchingly admits she worries when she remembers she can jump. I hope she is actually happy to be a coach and lead her students to victories. She is happy about the success of her boys and Ksenia Gushchina, who has already had more success than she`s coach.
I hope that she actually got what she wanted. That every night as she finishes her day, she is happy to be living the life she is living and not dreaming about her name being played over the stadium and taking to the ice to music. Hopefully, all of that is in the past.
But this is a total eclipse of my heart. You have totally eclipsed my heart, Rina.