Evgenia Medvedeva retires, discusses permanent back damage

[Smith16]

The news comes from an interview Evgenia did and one of her fans sites on Twitter provided an English translation.

""I only can safely jump salchow, maybe even a loop, and then not always. Flip, lutz, I don't jump them: it doesn't work for me, physically. I really love these jumps, but… maybe the age limit will be raised to 25 and I will be able to go out and dig deeper."

Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bgOWOVahRA

English Translation: https://twitter.com/MedvedevaNation/status/1466056315919388682/photo/1

 

[yuumagical]

This is sad news to hear, even though I had a feeling she might retire soon. I may not have been a big fan of hers, but I enjoyed her performances at Skate Canada 2019. Wishing her the best of luck in this new stage of her skating career and hoping she is healthy enough to do shows for many more years.

 

[yelyoh]

I did like her especially when I noticed her as a junior. I was hoping she'd get an Oly gold. This is sad but not that unusual.
And she is only one of Eteri's skaters that really seemed to get genuine affection from her. And BTW I like Eteri.
I'm sure Evgenia will have a fine future whatever she choses to do.

 

[Tavi...]

I loved her and will miss her.

 

[alexocfp]

Not a surprise, I called this back in January when she started dabbling in commercials and TV.

She has more followers than she can count, revenue streams coming fast and furiously, she can skate shows and not have to put her body through the rigors of competition, and she isn’t beating Kamila even if she did come back. Nobody from the last Olympics is to be fair.

So, why continue when you can live a great post competitive skate life. I would have done the same thing. Let her make her money and skate without pressure. She earned that right.

 

[rlopen]

It’s kind of horrifying to think that at the age of 22 Medvedeva has permanent back damage and can’t turn it in one direction. The impact that all these figure skaters will have with their bodies and how in 20-30 years damaged they’ll be is something that scares me. Even someone like Lipinski has had horrible horrible damage to her body at only 16 and needed major corrective surgery for it along with having arthritis. Figure skating is really tolling on the body and while I support skaters going for quads and ultra-c elements I can’t help but wonder how they’ll be in 5, 10, 20, 30, years from now with the impact they have on their bodies. And remember Evgenia wasn’t even doing quads and triple axels.

 

[moonvine]

It’s kind of horrifying to think that at the age of 22 Medvedeva has permanent back damage and can’t turn it in one direction. The impact that all these figure skaters will have with their bodies and how in 20-30 years damaged they’ll be is something that scares me. Even someone like Lipinski has had horrible horrible damage to her body at only 16 and needed major corrective surgery for it along with having arthritis. Figure skating is really tolling on the body and while I support skaters going for quads and ultra-c elements I can’t help but wonder how they’ll be in 5, 10, 20, 30, years from now with the impact they have on their bodies. And remember Evgenia wasn’t even doing quads and triple axels.

Exactly. Jen Sey, a former US National Champion gymnast, has written a book “Chalked Up” where she talks about the things she had to do in training and how no one thought or cared what would happen to her body in the future. Now she can’t walk without pain and she has many physical problems.

 

[Skater Boy]

This is very sad and tragic. LIke she can only do edge jumps??? There is no way she could compete. Especially in Russia.

 

[surimi]

I am sad, knowing how much Evgenia wanted longevity I was still hoping that she could come back for one farewell season, regardless of the results. But in a state like this, it is only sensible to stop trying to compete. Good luck to Evgenia in her current and future endeavors!

 

[decafjava]

This is so sad, I wish her all the best as Evegenia does indeed have a long career in well many things and a lot of choices. She certainly made a splash at the Ice show!

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Nooo, that is horrible news This makes me really sad. I was hoping she would return for a year because I so badly want to see her perform the new programs and I think she wanted that herself.

But health comes first and the direction she has taking the last year it´s not the biggest surprise.

Good luck to Zhenya with her career further, she is going to be missed a lot and we know she is going to succeed in whatever is her next step.

 

[Greengemmonster]

Good luck with all your future endeavours Zhenya. I wanted you back because you were the performance queen. Thank you for giving us the 2018 Olympics showdown. It is my favourite Olympics so far and led me to becoming a full time figure skating fan

 

[Jeanie19]

She will always be my Queen. I never felt such emotion from watching any skater. I'm sad, but I don't want her to hurt her health.
And 22 is young, but she's been skating since she was 3. At a high level since she was 10. Internationally , 2 years in juniors and 5 years in senior. I love her and I want what is best for her.

 

[macy]

i am always so sad when skaters have to retire due to things out of their control. everyone deserves to go out the way they want and deserve.

i was holding out a bit of hope we would see her maybe once more competitively, but i'm glad she made a decision smartest for her health...but how horrible the problems are this severe. and she's only 22?

wishing you the very best and good health Zhenya.

 

[lariko]

A beautiful skater and I wonder if we’ll see her on the other end of the boards as a coach or choreographer one day. Or if she will become an official in the RusFed.

 

[ana]

Sad news. I'll miss her skate. Best of luck in her future endeavours and good health.

 

[kolyadafan2002]

Sad to hear,
but to be honest I don't think anybody was surprised. I had no idea she hadn't retired yet.

 

[sworddance21]

Exactly. Jen Sey, a former US National Champion gymnast, has written a book “Chalked Up” where she talks about the things she had to do in training and how no one thought or cared what would happen to her body in the future. Now she can’t walk without pain and she has many physical problems.

All the big jumps at such a young age reminds me of the damage that can be done to young pitchers if they throw breaking balls too soon. Hopefully the sport will take a look at the health risks of the big jumps on growing bodies. I don't know what modifications can be made, but it does seem similar.

 

[rinkside_user]

This is exactly the outcome of letting politics, sponsorship issues and media deals reign over health experts. And that's why I find it really sad when people are loud to express their wish to lift the quad ban in the short program for the women's field. Progress and profit must not come at this cost/price. A lot of the skaters are/were minors. Their adult trainers should know better and have responsibility in this.

It might probably be a far-fetched comparison, but doping logic works eerily similar: flashy results and heavy long-time consequences.

 

[bostonskaterguy86]

So sad to hear what she's been through.

Selfishly I was hoping we'd get to see that Masquerade program before the end - even her rough performance of it at test skates was captivating.

She seems genuinely happy with her media career starting to take off. I wish her the best with it all.

And again, selfishly, I hope she finds some time in the future to dabble in choreography. Her Beautiful Mess exhibition is one of my favorite programs of hers, and she choreographed it herself. I think she'd be an excellent choreographer.