- You spent your entire sports career in the group of Tamara Moskvina. In those years, there were no talks about any contracts between the athlete and the coach?
- Nevertheless, such contracts existed. For some they were written, for others - oral, but the mutual relationship between the mentor and the ward was always discussed in the Moskvina group.
- Did this relationship imply a forfeit in case the athlete expresses a desire to go to another specialist?
- Not. On the one hand, our contracts outlined the activities of a specialist in a very concise form. On the other hand, the athlete's financial obligations, which consisted in the deduction of a certain percentage of earnings - prize money, advertising, and so on.
- Do all specialists have such agreements in figure skating?
“I don’t think so. For example, when I became a coach, I myself never made any written agreements with my charges. We discussed some things in advance in words and adhered to these agreements. This form of relationship seemed more correct to me. Firstly, I believed that human relationships are more important than any pieces of paper. And, secondly, I understood perfectly well that if an athlete does not want to continue working with you, he will still leave, regardless of any initial obligations, be they written or oral.
- Can the contract system, for which many of your colleagues are now advocating, somehow hinder the movement of an athlete from coach to coach, or at least provide for a penalty?
- It seems to me that we are approaching the solution of the problem a little from the wrong side. Let's not forget that in our country sports are funded by the state. Each mentor and each athlete, as a rule, receives a salary from several sources: from the Ministry of Sports, from the club in which he works, and from the Olympians support fund. In addition, the skater receives equipment, ice, medical care, plus the state pays for all the specialists he needs. What contracts "coach - athlete" can we talk about here, if there are no direct commodity-money relations between people?
- Is this the main difference between the Russian training system and the one adopted in the West?
- Quite right. The contract system may well exist in the USA or Canada, since the athlete pays for the coach's work there. From your own pocket, or from sponsorship - it doesn't matter anymore. Therefore, all financial relations there are as transparent as possible. If an athlete decides to move somewhere, the new mentor will never accept him, without first making sure that all monetary issues have not been completely settled with the previous specialist. This is a rule that has been in American figure skating for 25 or 30 years.
Our system is arranged differently. If an athlete at some point in his career begins to believe that his work with a certain specialist has exhausted itself and that in terms of professional and personal growth he can get more from another coach, then he leaves. A new mentor will already receive money for working with him, but only if the transfer is made within the framework of the transfer window. For this, in fact, it exists.
- What happens if the skater decides to leave the coach after the transfer window closes?
- If an athlete did not manage to move from one group to another on time, that is, before June 1, then the salary and all additional bonuses for working with him will be paid to the former mentor. The new one, it turns out, is forced to work out the season virtually free.
- Why, then, around the transition of Alena Kostornaya from Eteri Tutberidze to Evgeni Plushenko there was such a great stir?
- Apparently, because, in addition to government payments and grants, there are other items of income: prize money earned by an athlete in competitions, fees for performing in certain shows and advertising contracts. And the former coaching staff loses this money if the athlete leaves. This is painful and offensive, especially when it comes to a titled and sought-after skater, but this is how reality works.