A rare sport event, but in its own way happy on Thursday, was each of the winners of the men's tournament at the European Figure Skating Championships. Maurice Kvitelashvili - rejoiced in the first medal won in his career - bronze. 16-year-old ward of Elena Buyanova Arthur Danielyan - the fact that the adult debut at the first attempt was crowned with a silver award. Dmitry Aliyev ... Does anyone need to explain why a champion is happy?
The difference between gold and silver sometimes seems insignificant. At last year’s European Championship, she amounted to only 1.75 points in the men's tournament. All of us then vied with each other that, if Alexander Samarin had at least a little luck, he would not have seen Javier Fernandez the seventh consecutive European gold.
It even seemed: well, what kind of valor is to be the first on the continent, especially when the leader’s best years are openly behind? In the same way, it seemed that another year would pass, and the place of the champion would probably be taken by exactly the one who a year ago was content with the prefix “vice”. But it did not happen. Aliyev happened - luxuriously unmistakable and equally confident.
Although, most likely, on Thursday, when the victory took place, Dmitry himself did not really understand anything. He told some funny stories at a press conference about how he likes to walk with a dog and ski in his spare time from training. Although the ski landing makes the athlete hunch, and in figure skating this is a big minus. The hall laughed, and it was somehow not at all easy to ask the winner about the serious. Yes, and it was not necessary, probably. It was enough to take a closer look at his coach - Evgeny Rukavitsyna.
Mentor was congratulated by colleagues and fans, hugging, clapping on the back and shoulders, and he, stumbling, looked for the right words in order to say them in a framed recorder. The fact that in Graz everything went exactly as it should, both training, and the mood for the performance, and the rentals themselves. That there was no force majeure.
Although in fact he was. Because they were determined to fight the Frenchman Kevin Aymoz, and he - well, what a bad luck - self-destructed, like the demons from a famous film - fatally failed the short program. And Dmitry Aliyev did not have a stern opponent. Remained even more severe - Dmitry Aliyev himself. The champion told reporters about his rivalry a day earlier - after a short program that he skated with a second result and did not think much about gold.
Or was he still thinking?
“If I saw that something was going wrong during training, I would have made some corrections,” Rukavitsyn continued to tell on duty. - But I saw that Dima was assembled just as much as necessary. Frankly, everything was quite complicated, although I’m not ready to detail it now ... ”
Details are usually leaked by rumors and half hints. According to these rumors, Aliyev was experiencing exactly the same problems with shoes that Samarin and Danielyan: Russian skaters are unlucky this season with shoes. But you can’t hang a sign explaining the causes of certain problems on your chest, going out onto the ice. This is probably why the coaching comment did without negativity.
“We perceived everything that was happening without panic, that's the main thing,” summed up Rukavitsyn. - How did Dima become better in comparison with his first European Championship? In fact, everyone. I always knew that he was a fighter. Even when failures occurred, there was no reason to doubt his fighting qualities. ”
When it came: “How independent is he?” - The mentor shone: “Great question!” Together we came to the conclusion that the athlete’s strongest quality is to be able to make decisions in such a way that the coach does not need to fit into these decisions. And now I can say that Dima can do this. He does not have to direct or motivate. It only needs to be supported. To support his desire to go out on the ice, to say something like this that the audience will remember and appreciate. ”
But after clarification: “And not to let him feel that the coach is also worried, but perhaps afraid?” - Rukavitsyn fell silent and thought, as if re-living the past days. He smiled at some of his thoughts, looking at the student giving an interview in the mixed zone. And then he firmly said: “There is no question of fear here at all. The only thing that is really important when we go to the start is that we are together. Always and in any situation. ”