Fans of figure skating are accustomed to the fact that coach Eteri Tutberidze very rarely gives interviews and, in general, is not a very public person. In addition, the number of the specialist's students is growing steadily. The day before, it became known that Andrei Mozalev had joined her. The figure skater has been performing inconsistently lately and took only 11th place at the last Russian Championships. In an attempt to reboot his career, he parted ways with his former mentor Kirill Davydenko and moved to Moscow.
But the news about the appearance of another male loner in Tutberidze's group was overshadowed by another message: the specialist unexpectedly agreed to star in a television project on the TV channel "Friday!". She will become the host of the weight loss show Big Girls, in which heroines weighing more than 100 kg undergo physical and psychological tests for three months, learn to accept themselves and their bodies, and also compete for a prize of 1 million rubles.
Eteri Georgievna will become a mentor for the participants of the reality show and will help them change their lives. In addition to the figure skating coach, Kirill Kosharin, a psychologist, nutritionist and coach of the Russian women's rugby team, will work with the girls.
"Tutberidze is the Motherland, he is our goddess Kali, he is pride in the country without any mercenary admixtures. Eteri is a global figure. She's brought up so many champions, it's just breathtaking. And her arrival on our show is a huge success for the girls who participate in it, for us, those who make this show, and for the viewers. It's a pleasure to watch Eteri work – and she works hard, but masterfully," said Nikolai Kartozia, general director of the Pyatnitsa! channel.
However, according to Tutberidze herself, she doubted for a long time whether it was worth agreeing to the offer received from the TV channel.
"The decisive factor was the realization that this project has a chance to help not only the participants, but also the audience: it will inspire someone, motivate someone to choose the best for themselves and their bodies. This means that there will be more healthy and happy people in our world <... >
We can't influence everything in this life, but as for our own weight, it's absolutely in our hands. We are all born with almost the same bodies, and we live in those that we have earned and earned for ourselves," the press service of the TV channel quoted Tutberidze as saying.
According to the expert, when she was offered the role of the host in the show, the first reaction was surprise and laughter.
"I was amused that I was invited. It turns out that people perceive me as a person who can motivate me to lose weight. I understand that I am outwardly strict, but my guys are all thin and fit. And then I thought: if I was the producer of the show, and I needed a new face and a motivator for the characters, maybe you could really remember me.
I told Daniil Gleikhengauz and Sergey Dudakov about it, and they suddenly began to persuade me: agree, it's very cool. Daniel even took me into a real siege: "If you refuse, it will be very disappointing." I started arguing with them: like, where am I, and where is the reality show on an entertainment channel? The microphone, the cameras, the spotlights — it's not about me at all, I don't like any of it. I still think that someone else would have done a better job. I don't feel comfortable in the spotlight," Tutberidze told Sports.ru.
At the same time, filming in the show did not affect the training process in any way. They took place in the evenings, after Eteri Georgievna's working day, and ended at two or three o'clock in the morning.
"One episode lasted until the morning. I get in the car, and it's 08:07 a.m. I was driving home on an automatic - a couple of times I almost fell asleep at the wheel," the specialist added.
In the world of figure skating, they were not at all surprised that Tutberidze was invited to the show. According to Tatyana Tarasova, Honored Coach of the USSR, her approach can help the participants of the project. And with her thinness, Eteri Georgievna can serve as an example not only for the participants of the project.
"She is a well-known and competent person who works with girls, and knows how not to gain weight. It seems to me that people will listen to her and become her wards. Draconian measures? Where have you seen anything else when a person wants to achieve something serious? Serious steps require serious decisions, and not only in our work, but in absolutely any work. If you want to achieve something, recycle. And the measures are not so draconian. As Maya Plisetskaya used to say: don't eat. That's all," Match TV quotes the specialist as saying.
Olympic champion Maxim Trankov, who also works in Tutberidze's coaching staff, is confident that the specialist will be able to instill discipline in the participants of the project.
"Today it became known to the public, but for me it is not a surprise. It's cool, it will be interesting for me to see Eteri Georgievna in the role of a mentor in the show. What can the participants expect? What we have in sports and almost any coach could give is, first of all, discipline, dedication and achieving results," Trankov said.
Another aspect is interesting in the context of the reality show: how useful this project will be for Tutberidze herself. Perhaps the mentor decided to open up to the audience and figure skating fans from a completely different side.
"I really wanted everyone to succeed. But at first, it seemed to me that not everyone came there for the result, someone clearly only wanted publicity. I must admit that by the end of the project, I began to worry about one girl more than anyone else: she gave her all, she was so nervous, it was clear that she needed this victory more than others," Tutberidze said.