"Wife will be difficult at the national championship": Butyrskaya about skating Medvedeva, four Trusova and the composition of the national team at the European Championship

- Do you agree that Alexander Trusov won as expected?

- When you have four quadruple jumps in your program, then you have a huge, really huge reserve. Even when something doesn’t work, there are falls, it helps you. In this situation, really her first place was expected.

- Trusova declares four quadruple jumps in the free program, but cannot complete them all. She did not succeed either in Moscow or in Canada. Does it make sense to fight for them like that?

- If she wins these stages of the Grand Prix, falling from the fourth salchow, then why not? At the moment, she is developing this jump, which in the future can help her very much. Trusova has a reserve that allows her not to be afraid to fall from this element. Apparently, the Salchow is still not very stable, but she wants to train him to show in the program and so that other rivals could not even get close to her. Trusova has an experienced team of trainers, who calculated everything mathematically and determined that the fall does not prevent the figure skater from winning, but when she jumps on salchow and performs at competitions, it will be a big bonus.

- Alexandra fell even on the cascade of Lutz - Rittberger, and earlier in the short program she completely abandoned him. Do not you think that she does not pay enough attention to other, less complicated jumps?

- Earlier, I just noted how well she performed this cascade in the second half. Now Trusova was a little hurried, she did not hit the push and did not push. In Canada, she did everything amazingly. It even seemed to me then that she could make a fourth rittberger, so cool she performed the second jump. Such small mistakes just happen. These are all the same ultra-si elements that you need to be very focused and attentive on. Slightly lower your left shoulder, and you are already past the exit, past the push, past the jump. In general, Trusova jumps this cascade brilliantly, no one does it better than her, she perfectly twirls everything. I would even say that she has a torsion on the Rittberger. But there are accidents, and since this is not the World Cup, she let go of the jump a little.

- Right before the start of the short program, Trusova suddenly fell. How did you react to this episode?

- Curiosities in figure skating are enough. An athlete with a capital letter must be prepared for this. And in the program, and at the end of the rental, this happens. Reacting to this is easier. The ice is slippery and one must always be careful. Let's just take it to a funny case.

- How to evaluate the points of Trusova for the components? In this direction, she progresses from start to start, but is still inferior to the leading athletes.

- It has always been so that the ability to own a skate and present his program is evaluated as he deserves. You need to go through a certain career ladder, slowly climb up to it, to prove that you are not just in figure skating and take first place. This is a subjective sport, and a second mark must be earned. This is Sasha and does from start to start. She does not get more than Yevgeny Medvedev and Alina Zagitova, but so far. She will still combine her quadruple jumps with real female skating and will receive dozens for him. Trusova is only 15 years old, and you just need to wait, you do not need to strictly judge her. Everything is fine with her.

- Is Evgenia Medvedeva second place a success?

- Yes, after the Olympics, this is the first start at which Zhenya performed as we expected. She completely got in touch with Brian Orser. The figure skater and the coach understand each other, go to the same goal, know what they want to achieve. If the short program still felt constricted, especially on the double axel, which Medvedev periodically breaks, then in the free program I felt from jump to jump how she takes pleasure in her skating. They had been discussing everything for two years, they said that Zhenya was no longer the same, but on Saturday she was the skater we were used to.

- In the short program, she abandoned the triple lutz, replacing him with a “cheaper” rittberger. How do you rate this step?

- Eugenia has such a good Rittberger that when she did it on Friday, she received more than for trying a triple lutz with the wrong rib. It may be cheaper, but the judges added more points. It is psychologically difficult to realize that you have complicated the program for a long time, and then once you refuse to jump. But now on this option you need to stop.

- And in the free program, you can refuse the triple lutz? It was on it that her only mistake was.

“No, there's no getting around it.” Only if Medvedeva had quadruple jumps or a triple axel, could the lutz be removed. Otherwise, it doesn’t work, since only two jumps can be repeated. But on the other hand, you can refuse the short program, with which Zhenya has just the main problems of the psychological plan. In arbitrary it is at least easier to ride, so there Lutz is not a big obstacle.

- And with what this psychological barrier before the short program can be connected? Not one Medvedev suffers from this ...

“I can't explain it.” Nowadays, when I was riding, it was clear where the psychological load came from. If you roll back a short program badly, then you won’t be able to win back in an arbitrary one, even if you are the first. Now everything is much simpler. Short rental does not carry such a semantic load. If something did not work out, and you really are strong in arbitrary, then nothing terrible will happen. Remember Anna Shcherbakova, who fell on the track, and then won the stage in the United States. Previously, she would not have risen to first place, but now it has become easier. Although it’s still better not to lose points.

- How do you evaluate the future prospects of Medvedeva this season after her performance in Moscow?

- It will be very difficult for her at the national championship, even with the skating that was at the Grand Prix stage. I treat Zhenya very well, I was really happy for her, but it will be very difficult to fight with the girls: Anna Shcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaya. They just have a large margin of safety, they can disrupt something or not finish it, but the rating will be higher than that of Zhenya. All the same, you have to fight, because anything happens, someone can get sick, you can’t predict anything. But it will be difficult.

- How do you feel about the idea of ​​sending different teams of girls to the European and world championships?

- What for? If a person has earned the right, then he must go. I understand that the European Championship is quoted below the World Championship, but still I really want to play and win there. Irina Slutskaya holds a record of seven victories. Maybe someone can beat him? So if you have won a place in the sun, you have to go to the competition with the national team.