Two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva returns to her former coach Eteri Tutberidze: unofficial news blew up the information space.
It is unlikely that there could be a person in the world of figure skating who, in his right mind, would risk suggesting a similar plot after all those dramas that took place in the relationship between the famous mentor and her former ward.
“As a matter of fact, there is little that remains in Khrustalny now.
And Zhenya needs a coach here and now.
Therefore, to be honest, I would not be surprised at this decision.
When the goals coincide, you can always agree ... ”, a person close to the Medvedev family wrote to me at the moment when the news plunged the fans into a deep shock.
It's a paradox, but if we ignore emotions, the fact remains: if Medvedeva's decision to return to Tutberidze takes place, everyone will benefit from him.
For Zhenya, this is, first of all, a real opportunity to find a coach.
It is no coincidence that when commenting on the performances of the two-time world champion at the open skates at Megasport, Evgeny Plushenko said: “If you are an Olympic champion, a world champion, a coach is always needed.
Someone should look at you from the outside, see mistakes, guide you, and most importantly, the skater constantly needs support. "
It is now clear that Tatyana Tarasova, who helped the skater in the process of her training at CSKA, failed to become such a support for Medvedeva.
Eloquent was the fact that during the rental of short programs at Megasport, Tarasova was not with Medvedeva at the side, and on the day of arbitrary performances she did not appear at the rink at all.
Zhenya, on the other hand, went to the start both days accompanied by a telephone picture of her Canadian mentor Brian Orser, which was designed more for a television picture than for real leadership of the process.
Returning to Khrustalny, Medvedeva gets the opportunity to live a stone's throw from the rink, to be in the hands of specialists who have known her since childhood and real competition, to which the athlete is also accustomed from a young age, and which she clearly lacked in the last couple of years.
For Tutberidze, Zhenya is a joker, a lucky ticket, the opportunity to shut up all mouths at once, starting to work with an established adult athlete.
Previous grievances in this situation look like sheer nonsense: it has long been known that in any game where the stakes are high, there can be no friends or enemies - there are only interests.
And even more so the coach will be in the black if he manages to restore Medvedeva to the previous stability.
Combined with very successful programs (by far the best this season among all the Russian singles demonstrated last weekend), the two-time world champion can return to the national team even without a quadruple jump.
Moreover, the moment chosen for the transition looks especially successful in the sense that any performance without falls and butterflies, in comparison with what Medvedeva showed at the box office, will look like a colossal success.
The Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) is also in the black here: it is always calmer when the athletes are at home.
In a pandemic, this becomes especially relevant.
Plus - cost savings.
Perhaps significant.
Even Brian Orser is the winner here.
After all, whatever one may say, it was his work that led to the fact that Medvedeva still remains one of the most popular and demanded figure skaters in the world, that she still wants to skate and in the training plan retains the ability to set high goals for herself.
In fact, it was Orser who successfully led the Russian athlete through puberty without losing muscle and speed qualities, made her a prize-winner of the World Championship, which means he was honored and praised.
In addition, for everything that was invested by the Canadian and his coaching staff in the Russian athlete - time, strength and emotions - he was paid in full.
As with all other coaches and specialists of the school.
In the Western world, where it is not customary to be hysterical about the transition of athletes from one mentor to another, the main thing is reputation and money.
Everything else is secondary.
The only question worth asking is whether Medvedeva will be able to withstand the stress and stress that she once got rid of by moving from Tutberidze to Orser.
During the rentals, the skater, according to Tarasova, was very worried about her back, which is why the last two weeks of training at CSKA turned out to be pretty crumpled.
The first competitive start for Evgenia is scheduled for the end of this week, and even if the new coaching staff considers it necessary to abandon the performance, postponing the domestic debut to a later date, the problem will not disappear.
In addition, in "Khrustalny" it is not very customary to give concessions to athletes because something hurts them.
And there is a fear that the two-time world champion will no longer be able to work on an equal footing with 15-year-old children, that is, for wear and tear.
There is, of course, another option: that the return to the once native walls is the same temporary "overexposure" that Medvedeva had at CSKA.
In the end, Zhenya is still officially assigned to the Sambo-70 club and, leaving aside the personal, it is much more logical to prepare for the season where you have all the rights to do it, than to be on someone else's rink in the status of a “co-worker”.
If so, then it is just right to state that globally nothing has changed in Medvedeva's life.
Well, and, probably, it is worth pitying the fans who made the goal of their existence the confrontation between Zhenya and the former coach and the persecution of the athlete on the Internet by all available means.
How will they live now, poor people ...