That‘s ridiulous. Eteri taught Zhenya a lot of things. It‘s true, that without her she wouldn‘t have all the medals she got in the last season. But Brian did more than simply “supporting“ her. Sure, he does that too but this makes it sound like his ONLY job is that. He‘s not her cheerleader, he‘s her coach. And this World Bronze is ZHENYA‘s achievement first of all but she couldn‘t have done it without her team. The team that yes, supported her these past months but also taught her a lot of things, some directly in link with skating, others life lessons. And this is Team Cricket‘s achievement and they can be rightfully proud.
No one‘s denying Eteri‘s past influence on Zhenya. But it‘s beyond ridiculous to give all the credit to her now after Zhenya‘s succeeded. Sure, when she was doing badly, it was all Zhenya’s and Brian‘s fault and when she does well, it‘s suddenly all Eteri‘s doing.
Honestly, every skater that changes coaches throughout their career have some parts in them of what each of their coaches taught them. Elizabet trained with Brian for years, so, most of her skating skills are attributed to him. And so what? Her silver medal today was her achievement and yes, Eteri‘s. So, if people can (rightfully) give the main credit of Elizabet‘s medal to Eteri, they shouldn‘t be hypocrites and do what‘s fair: Give Brian the credit for Zhenya‘s.
But in reality: GIVE THE MAIN CREDIT TO THE SKATERS. It‘s them who showed their best performances and went out there and did it. There‘s too much focus on coaches and this whole supposedly going on “war“. It‘s boring and unnecessary.
Let‘s ignore that. Zhenya just did it. She showed everyone. And her and her team should be really satisfied and not listen to people like this. I‘m a bit disappointed TAT said something similar, though. Like... what. You wouldn‘t think that after literally defending Zhenya‘s move to Brian for months, she‘d do that. But oh well. TAT‘s never been the most consistent in her opinions.