How many social network subscribers can a teenager have? 50? Classmates, teammates, dacha buddies, camping, sports club, music school - mark the correct answers. Supposedly, 100-200. Figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya is 16, she trains so much that she almost never visits school, but on vk.com she has 355,720 subscribers, and 123,000 more follow her on Instagram. In the beginning of the last season the 15 years old Yulia bravely jumped on her first adult Grand Prix competitions, and in February she became part of the Olympic team. She confidently won both programs and in two days became the most adored teen in the country. Year after the Sochi games, the PROSport decided to find out how the life of the young champion changed.
Yulia Lipnitskaya never visited the Bolshoi Theatre, and only was on circus once, when she was 4. Tightrope acrobatics doesn't excite her, and the ballet, she says, one can watch on Youtube.
Still, acrobatics and ballet come to mind when you watch Lipnitskaya skate. She is delicate like Picasso's circus acrobats, and fresh like Renoir's dancers. While her programs are competitively rational - Yulia does all the complicated elements - they tell tender stories that remain in people's memory. Perhaps, this is why in the choreography hall of the "Hrustalny" ice rink, where PROSport was holding the photoshoot, everyone was expecting the elf-girl from the Olympic broadcasts.
But when time comes, a very different Yulia appears. A girl with character. Tired after the training session, and a bit harsh. She did not say "hello", and did not shake hands when offered, she asked the make-up artist not to apply too much make-up and left some of the outfits aside: "I do not wear such things". However, after changing from the jump-suit to the pale-pink dress, Yulia immediately turns from a naggy, exhausted adolescent into a young diva. A second before she appeared stuck in her iPhone, murmuring answers without raising eyes from the screen. But now, under the camera's gaze, her green eyes brighten up, giving out calm and clear shining of absolute love, and one brow capriciously raises up. The photoshoot attracts Yulia and draws her in, and she works on every detail with apparent pleasure.
In the frames you see Lipnitskaya as she can be, and as she wants to be. A successful skater, an attractive young woman, an idol of the girls and every man's dream. A celebrity athlete, much like Maria Sharapova or Tatiana Navka.
The producer and the photographer behind the camera catch on to the the mood of their heroine and mount a frontal flattery assault.
- Yulia, what a fiery lady you are!
A shadow of a smile runs over Yulia's face, and the mood in our improvised studio quickly lightens up.
- It raised all by itself, I don't know how, - playfully informs us Yulia.
Mock panic among the crew:
- What? What raised?
- Er, the brow, - Yulia replies.
Lipnitskaya's coach, Eteri Tutberidze, peeks into the room. Yulia experiences a momentary stupor. "Such a beauty!" - Eteri notes approvingly. "Let me take a look at you, it's so adorable and I only see you during training sessions!". The coach, apparently, would not mind staying, but the photographer, sensing Yulia's tension, politely asks her to close the door. The "princess game" goes on.
It soon becomes clear that the Yulia before us is not only the Yulia that she wants to be, but also the one that trains every day, and is currently experiencing perhaps the hardest period of her sports career ever. But, as a real diva, she does not let it show.
A Sochi golden girl is in a dive this season. In the free skate during the Grand Prix in China, Yulia fell from the jump, stumbled three times, forgot the step sequence and and could only murmur "this is horrible" while waiting for the scores. And then she slept through the awards ceremony. A micro-scandal occurred, and Yulia, explaining the situation, admitted that after the Sochi games she lives in a state of constant stress - no freedom, and the need to control every step. "I am still in a state of shock from all this" - she said in November 2014.
The PROSport photoshoot was held several days before the Russian Nationals, where Lipnitskaya had to be in top three to be selected for Euros. Yulia finishes only ninth, and it seems that both she and her coach knew that this would happen. The free skate program doesn't work, the new skates leave bloody bruises on her feet, Yulia is nervous, and the Sambo-70 education center, to which her sports school now belongs, does not have as much clout as CSKA or the Pluschenko clan. Still, the main cause behind what's going on with Lipnitskaya is in herself.
- Who calls the shots in your team? - I ask. - Who is responsible for everything?
- I, of course. The program just doesn't come together. I fall and let everybody down.
Everybody knew that the post-Olympics season would be hard. Even choreographer Ilya Averbukh, who insisted that Yulia should be allowed to grow up a bit. Even Yulia herself admitted in the Autumn interviews, that her quickly changing body as if does not belong to her - it keeps landing every jump differently.
Still, the Lipnitskaya's team decided to skate this season. "We discussed this with her last Spring, and this Autumn, when things started to become so hard", - says Tutberidze. - "I was saying - "Yulia, you are no longer that girl from Yekaterinburg, who had neither money to live nor place to live in. You can try other things in your life now". But Yulia clearly stated, that she wants to continue skating. This may be hard, and she will have to keep proving herrself every time, but this is her choice and her life".
This is also the life of her mom, Daniela Leonidovna. Six years ago she risked everything - her job, her home - for her nine-year-old daughter. Now, Daniela Leonidovna quietly sits on a chair at the entrance to the rink. "You should discuss everything with Yulia", and "It will be as Yulia decides" are her only replies to any attempt to engage her in a conversation.
Little is known about Yulia and her mom's life before Moscow. No word about the father, and only a few about mom's small business. "I never asked Daniela Leonidovna personal questions. - says Yulia's first coach Elena Levkovets. - I knew she had a business, but exactly what she did for a living, I don't know".
Lipnitskaya's official history begins May 23, 2009, when they gathered their belongings, got into a car and traveled two days from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, for a try-outs with Eteri Tutberidze. They decided then: if Tutberidze does not take them, Yulia will be done with skating.
The coach approved of Yulia: "in an athlete, everything is important for me - the haircut, how she looks, how she looks away, how she handles disappointment. If I don't feel sympathy, I say so. Here was a good girl, who came onto the ice, skated a couple of training sessions, and I realized that I like her".
Elena Levkovets agrees: Yulia is special. During the very first trials - she was four then - she made people notice her. "Yulia had qualities that are unique in children - compliance, good working ethic, and good disposition. And, of course, she is physically very gifted".
At nine, Yulia won every competition in Yekaterinburg and nearby region. "At Yekaterinburg, we had only one rink for the skaters. Cold dressing rooms, uneven ice. I understood that Yulia needs to move on, explains Levkovets. "When we went to the Russian Nationals, we've seen that Tutberidze has some very strong girls, for example, Polina Shelepen. So their decision to move did not came as a surprise for me. They behaved very humanely in all this. They are very humane girls, the Lipnitski's. We do not keep close contact now, but we still keep in touch". Elena Levkovets traveled to Sochi Olympics on Lipnitski's invitation.
That Lipnitskaya would become an Olympic Champion, Daniela Leonidovna told Eteri Tutberidze during their first conversation.
"She asked: "You know, that her age allows her to be in Olympics?" I did not understand right away what she's talking about. "Yes, according to the rules, and her age, she can be at the Olympics!" Yulia was nine then, and she was already talking about Sochi. I was a bit at loss, I must admit. But I realized then, that not only they set a goal for themselves, they are thinking strategically". Tutberidze said this a couple of weeks before the rumor spread, that Lipnitskaya will prepare for the new season in CSKA. Yulia refuted the rumors the very next day. Yes, she explained, the age problems, the exhaustion - all this affects the relationship with the coach, but she does not thing of switching coaches: "I rely very much on the wisdom of Eteri Georgievna". The new season Yulia will begin together with Tutberidze.
"She has huge potential" - says Eteri about her pupil. "I'd really like her to overcome the growth problems, the pressure and the circumstances, and realize herself. She has this something, that cannot be taught". Tutberidze know this and allows Yulia to choose not only her costumes. "In choreography, I set the steps, but all that has to do with the arm and body movements, Yulia decides herself. And you should not touch it or change it, as it is something very personal for her".
The soundtrack for the Schindler's List Yulia also picked by herself. "I warned Yulia that there will be criticism, they will say that the child is not ready. But Yulia said "I want this!". During the production we were selecting the suit. I thought about something in the grey tones, but Yulia said: "No, I want it to be the red coat!" Initially, I did not understand why. I had to re-watch the movie to recall the image of a girl in red coat".
Cinema is a conversation saver when talking to Yulia. She abruptly cuts off any unwarranted question, but softens when it comes to the safer subjects: about how great it felt to decorate a living New Year's tree at home, or about how any chapter of "Harry Potter" or "Narnia Chronicles" never fail to raise the mood. "But lately watching "Narnia Chronicles" is not a pleasant experience to me, they have a lot of computer graphics in there and I began to notice it".
Anyway, Yulia has plenty other reasons to be upset. Her iPhone is often hacked into, as well as her VK and Instagram accounts. And "her" Twitter has nothing to do with her at all. Who is doing all this? She doesn't know. She only understands that she cannot control this situation.
"Yulia is a good girl" - tells me Tutberidze. "With me, she is open, and she likes to have a laugh. She is interesting, all-round balanced, funny and tender. Of course, sometimes she can get hurt and withdraw, and not talk to you. But I love her talents. I like the way she skates, the way she expresses herself. However, she is an adolescent, so she closes off from the press and from the world. This is normal and natural".
In the room next to us Yulia changes from the rosy dress to the next outfit. She is standing barefoot on a cold concrete floor. My maternal instincts won't let me look calmly at such outrage - and then I catch her eyes for the first time. They tell me that emotionally she is stretched to the very limits. My own experience of dealing with my adolescent daughters tells me that tears are right next. But Yulia won't cry. The stakes are too high where she is at, and weakness is not an affordable luxury for her. She is 16, and the only person behind her is her sad-eyed mom. And Yulia knows this very well.
American clothes are EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD. EVERYONE wears clothes with English words on them. Moreover, English is an international language so many clothes companies, even not from America/England/Australia, would use English on their clothes so that they can be sold in all countries. That's the curious position of English: when I see it, I don't think of any one particular country (or even a group of countries). It's come to be the lingua franca and also, in many countries, curiously, the language that is most politically neutral (e.g. India).
