This week, one of the most anticipated intrigues of the season was destroyed - two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva announced that she would not play in the Russian championship.
“Unfortunately, I have to confirm my pass for the Russian Championship, this is our decision.
This season is probably the most difficult when it comes to health.
In the fall, there were back problems, severe pain, because of which I missed more than a month of training.
I had to spend a lot of time in clinics, ”said the skater.
The nature of the heightened interest in Medvedeva was understandable: in September, Zhenya returned to her former mentor, Eteri Tutberidze, and a change in coach is always, in one way or another, a change in the usual impression.
Especially when it comes to a coach who puts only victory at the head of the process.
But the skater's plans were once again destroyed.
She moved to Tutberidze, already having aggravated back problems, and after she began to train with redoubled zeal, the old injury began to remind of itself to such an extent that the training had to be suspended and went to the hospital for a micro-operation.
And on the day of discharge, it became known that the coronavirus test conducted the day before had given a positive result.
There was little hope that Medvedeva's disease would pass asymptomatically, but this illusion was quickly dispelled: the skater's condition began to deteriorate, her temperature rose, and Zhenya was forced to go to the hospital again, from where she came out only eight days later.
It is clear that there could be no question of properly preparing for the debut competition of the season.
Will she return to the ice?
Formally, there are no obstacles to this.
The leaders of the Russian figure skating federation were ready to admit Medvedeva to the Russian championship in Chelyabinsk, although Zhenya, like a number of other top-level skaters, did not fulfill the selection criteria.
If the two-time world champion is ready to compete in February, there will probably be no barriers to including her in the Russian Cup final.
One thing is clear: Medvedeva still desperately wants to continue skating, despite the fact that in the post-Olympic reality she has faced so many different challenges that none of the outstanding champions of recent years has faced.
Moreover, this desire is not at all momentary.
Rather, on the contrary: suffered through suffering and repeatedly deliberated.
Two and a half years ago, leaving Moscow for Canada to visit Brian Orser in a completely disassembled mentally and physically, Zhenya said in an interview:
“You know, I am a realist by nature.
I can admit to myself some not very pleasant things.
If I understand that yes, this is my limit and I am simply not capable of more at the moment, then in the same way I admit that I have taken my place - the one that is due to me.
Now I clearly understand that a completely new life is really beginning for me.
I have never lived in another country before, never trained with foreign specialists, never in my life have eaten an unusual meal for more than two or three weeks.
That is, absolutely everything is changing.
Brand new sheet.
Yes, I had a goal - the Olympics.
I walked aiming only at performing at the Games, I didn't look at anything else.
I actually didn't have friends, I didn't have any interests, despite the fact that I consider myself a rather versatile person.
There were no new acquaintances, I simply did not support them due to lack of time, and sometimes desire.
There was only training.
In the winter before the Games in Pyeongchang, when I was injured and could not skate, I suddenly caught myself thinking: really, when I finish sports, I will remain without friends, without any activities and skills, without personal life - without everything ?
And as soon as after the Olympics I, as they say, opened my eyes, life by itself flowed not only into a different channel, but simply became much more voluminous, as if it had turned from a stream into a river.
I made friends, I got a lot of interests, including the prerequisites for a future profession, which I may like, and, perhaps, will change 150 times more ... "
In numerous online discussions, Medvedeva was predicted the fate of the "downed pilot", and it cannot be said that this was done from scratch: none of the Tutberidze athletes have yet managed to keep the level of their previous results after leaving the coach.
Orser did the almost impossible in this regard: Zhenya began to slide better, her style changed, and most importantly, the Canadian coach managed to restore all the previous technical potential of jumps and even move forward.
At the 2019 World Championships, where Medvedeva won bronze, she showed a new cascade of salchows - rittberger, the total basic amount of technical elements was 61.81, which was only 0.52 lower than at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang and the two preceding World championship games.
What made this achievement outstanding is that it was realized on a completely adult body and, accordingly, gave reason to believe that this was not the limit, and even more so it was not a dead end.
Medvedeva reacted to the result of that speech very carefully and rationally, noting that any place on the podium was already a significant achievement for her.
“I understood, as it seems to me, a very important thing.
Every athlete goes to the competition with the thought of winning.
This is normal and correct.
It's just that each of us always has his own "victory" - depending on the circumstances.
Given my circumstances, I definitely won.
The World Championship was filled with special meaning for me, and the color of the medal does not matter here.
It is very important.
Although, as always, I'm not happy with everything.
I do not yet have the body that I want to have.
To learn more difficult jumps, the body must be like a machine.
And I will have it, ”Medvedeva said.
From the unsuccessful Russian championship in Krasnoyarsk, which could not be completed due to a broken boot, Medvedeva left for Canada with a persistent intention to learn the quadruple jump, which was the same in Krasnoyarsk, the athlete's mother told me.
Now, of course, it makes no sense to talk about how real these plans were, and what the skater under the leadership of Orser could have achieved in general if a pandemic had not happened.
But it is very likely that Tutberidze, having made the decision to resume work with the ex-student, was least of all guided by emotions.
It is possible that in a suddenly opened perspective, the coach simply saw a new challenge for herself: after all, in her past career, she had not yet had the opportunity to try to make an outstanding result with an adult, well-trained athlete, obsessed with the desire to skate and become better and stronger.
I don’t think I’ll be mistaken if I say that neither Yulia Lipnitskaya had such a desire after the Games in Sochi, nor Alina Zagitova after her triumph in Pyeongchang.
In part, perhaps, the fact is that Medvedeva, as her mother once said about this, never had any special natural data.
In this regard, Zhenya was much inferior to Yulia, and Alina, and many others.
Her main talent was incredible efficiency, the ability to continue climbing to the top even when all external circumstances prevent it.
In this regard, nothing has changed now: as long as Medvedeva continues to feel that her inner path has not been completed to the end, she will not give up and will not retreat - there is no doubt about it.
The only thing that can interfere with this attitude is trauma.
It is not yet clear how the back will behave when the loads are restored to full scale.
What a skater really needs now is the opportunity to perform.
Let it even be a show: after a year-long pause of competition, Medvedeva will have to get used to the stands, the stress of public speaking and, probably, the somewhat forgotten feeling that she is still loved and expected.
And not only in Russia.
And how events will develop after, that's a completely different story.