"I see Mark with Bulba's haircut, and he will have to roll" Christ ": Sokolovskaya on the premiere of Kondratyuk and relations with Samarin

- Tamara Moskvina once admitted that, when starting to work as a coach, she constantly saw the backs of her great colleagues in front of her: her husband Igor Moskvin, Stanislav Zhuk, Elena Tchaikovskaya ... And she dreamed someday to stand on a par with them. Familiar feeling?

- Not really. At the age of 6, my mother sent me to figure skating, I started skating, and immediately said that I would be a coach. That is, I didn't want to be a figure skater at all, despite the fact that I had excellent teachers. I wanted to be like them. Like Zhanna Fedorovna Gromova, like Sergei Nikolaevich Gromov. I started with them, in Norilsk. I adore children, but at the same time I have never looked for some super-talented. Another thing was always important for me: to feel that a person is “mine” in spirit. Like Sashka Samarin, like Mark Kondratyuk. Although Mark, before everyone paid attention to him, did not skate for a year at all - growth zones opened up on his feet and he simply could not stand on skates. I constantly asked, realizing that the guy is fine even without figure skating: Markush, will you continue to skate? - Yes I want to. Well, then go for a drive ... I liked him.Therefore, I forgave him everything. Falls, constant vacations.

- In what sense are they permanent?

- He and his grandmother or parents went to the seas-oceans three or four times a year.

Before school, on New Years, on May holidays ...

- Is there something that you could not forgive the students?

- The hardest thing to forgive is the absence of a regime, failure to comply with my requirements.

I hate it when someone is late for training.

Everyone knows this and, we must pay tribute, being late is a rare case in our country.

I immediately try to convey to the athlete: if he skates with me, he accepts my rules.

Sometimes I even wonder: they all know perfectly well that you can use my love, but none of them does.

This is probably why it is easy for me to train them, it is easy to argue with them, to put up with them.

In general, I like to be friends when it's easy to swear.

And I live like that.

If a person sits on my neck, then this is not my person.

If a person is offended and left forever - he is also not my person, I immediately release him internally.

- How in figure skating can you exist with such openness in your soul, without constantly trying to adapt to the situation?

- This is how I live not only in figure skating.

I have a lot of friends, many relationships have been preserved since childhood.

I behave in the same way with them as with athletes.

- Climbers use the expression: there are no friends above seven thousand meters.

How difficult is it to be friends where there is a struggle for places in the Olympics?

I know you are very friendly with Yevgeny Rukavitsyn.

- We just learned to “drown” our feelings a little.

Each of us certainly wants his student to win, this is normal.

When Sashka did not get to the Olympics in Pyeongchang, having failed at the European Championships, and Dima Aliyev became the second at those competitions, I lay in a layer in a hotel room for two days, unable to move, and sobbed.

It was not envy of someone else's result, but rather a very strong resentment from the fact that I did not succeed.

Rukavitsyn then came to my room and said: "Light, if necessary - I will sit next to him as long as necessary."

- It's an act.

- This is exactly what I call friendship.

I then asked Zhenya to just give me a little time to recover, and after we cried together and talked everything together, Samarina said: “We are switching.

We can't change anything, everything that we could lose has already been lost, so let's go and congratulate our friends. "

- Do your athletes have the same relationship with each other?

- They are also friends.

In my group, Mark pulled up to Sasha, Makar Ignatov joined Aliyev at Rukavitsyn.

We spend a lot of time together at the training camp, the guys constantly see how we communicate.

They strike up a relationship, this relationship develops over the years.

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Publication from Alexander Samarin (@ alexander.samarin)

- For several years Samarin has clearly been the center of your coaching universe.

And then Kondratyuk appears in the group.

Was there no jealousy?

- When Mark won his first bronze medal at the Russian Championship last year, I didn’t see any envy or anger in Sasha.

Later he even said to me: "Svetlana Vladimirovna, I let you down, I pulled you out at least a little."

And I realized that, probably, we are on the right path in terms of life position.

- Is equal competition between two skaters in the group a plus?

- It seems to me that yes.

In general, I love it when athletes fight with each other during training.

All the time I repeat to both Sasha and Mark, and to small children too: this is an incomparable thrill when you beat an opponent in a strong struggle.

There is not and cannot be any satisfaction from winning when your opponent has failed.

It seems to me that this is the correct position.

You don't want to be the first among the poor, are you?

Moreover, the sport will end, some other life will begin, in which, I think, the guy must continue to live with the correct attitudes.

- Was it your decision to send Kondratyuk to Oberstdorf to win the third Olympic quota, and not Samarin?

- Rather, a wish.

At the same time, I didn't even have any thoughts about the quota, I just really wanted Mark to see the world.

It was only later, when Kondratyuk was fifth in the short program, I felt sick, panic began: what if we don’t win this fucking quota?

- It was believed that there was no one to lose at that tournament.

- Don't tell.

A person for the first time in his life comes to such a level, one "butterfly", or a fall - and that's it, khana.

And there is also a second assessment, which, of course, no one will overstate a new boy.

In my mind, I managed to quit a hundred times at that tournament.

I stand at the side of the free skate, and I think: God, I have such a good family, everything is wonderful in life, why am I doing all this at all?

- How can you explain that Samarin is entering the current Olympic season so long and hard?

- He grew two centimeters last year, and I, to my great shame, did not immediately pay attention to it.

Two centimeters is, consider, two additional kilograms, if not more.

The back and knees flew accordingly.

Plus - we changed three pairs of boots in a short time, and this is all together ...

I took Sasha to St. Petersburg, he was admitted to the hospital there, checked, tested, treated for something.

But we had to withdraw from the Russian Cup final.

Then, to be honest, I was not at all sure that Sasha would want to continue skating.

I even said that I understand how difficult the situation is, but I will accept any of his decisions.

Gave me a week to think things over.

Three or four days later, he comes to the rink.

With flowers, with champagne ...

- That is, the way it is customary to come to the coach in order to say goodbye to him forever?

- Well, yes.

Then my head was pounding.

And he is so sincere: “Forgive me.

I will not leave you anywhere.

Let's try to continue on the sly. "

That's how we started slowly.

We'll ride for a day, rest for a day.

At the same time, we were receiving medical treatment, then we left for Kislovodsk.

And he went there, went, went.

It is clear that the free program is still “floating”.

We try two quadruple lutz in it, you need to jump, roll them, and this is not a quick process.

- You once said that when you started working with Samarin, you looked up to Mikhail Kolyada.

Why exactly on this skater?

He, with his balletness, is the absolute opposite of your ward.

- We are not exactly equal, I just always liked Misha himself in skating.

At the same time, I understood from the very beginning, and Sasha understood that we would never be able to skate like Kolyada, if only because of the growth and structure of the muscles.

So I wanted to understand how you can win against Misha?

Obviously, only by jumping.

- Is the distance from one quadruple jump in the program to four different ones - is it a matter of physical fitness, or psychology?

- If a person is, in principle, able to jump quadruples, then first of all psychology.

The same Mark mastered all his quads in Kislovodsk.

But all this is very, very individual.

Approximately, as with the "ship".

Remember actor Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, who skated with Yana Khokhlova in Ice Age?

In humans, by nature, the hip joints are designed in such a way that making a "boat" even inward or outward does not pose any problems.

And Sasha Samarin, even if you break against the wall, you cannot teach this element so freely to do this.

Everything is given only through inhuman labor.

- In one of his interviews Samarin told me: “As soon as you lose concentration in the program, a karmic cook flies in right there”.

In what cases does a karmic cook fly in to the coach just as quickly?

- I often have the feeling that these cooks are constantly hanging over the ice and can fly in for any reason.

As for Sasha, he does not lose concentration, but simply has a great desire to do everything to the maximum, to jump over his head.

It all goes awry.

Therefore, I constantly remind: no feats are needed, you just need to do what you can do.

As in training.

- Several years ago you said that you are growing up with Samarin as a coach.

What have you learned working with Kondratyuk?

- Restraint.

I was very hurried with Sasha, I wanted everything at once.

Now I am already working on my ice, I have a team - Lilya Biktagirova, Stas Zakharov, Vitaly Butikov.

They are just like my-my-my people.

But the most important thing is that I really stopped rushing.

I learned to wait.

- With regard to the leaders of the men's world skating: Nathan Chen or Yuzuru Hanyu?

- Nathan, I guess.

Although I cannot answer unequivocally.

Hanyu for me is some kind of legend.

Difficult, talented, stubborn.

And Nathan is very smart.

By his mindset he reminds me of Mark, he also studies all the time.

I remember well the days when Nathan first appeared.

He jumped great, but he did not have a second mark.

But what he is doing now is in general space.

And Hanyu has been on the ice for so many years.

What kind of energy is it inherent to keep the hall, fans, referees for so many years in a row?

No one in the world has such a pronounced ability to do this.

How can you not respect him?

- Do you understand Hanyu's obsession with the desire to jump a quad axel?

- It will be a great story - to make such a jump the first in the world.

Yuzuru is both history and legend, but he wants to assert himself in figure skating more and more.

There are only a few such people in sports.

Therefore, they cannot be judged by general standards.

And Sasha Trusova with her five quadruple jumps is not for us to judge.

- Frankly, I was sure that you only work with guys.

And I was surprised that it was not so.

How different are these stories - to coach girls or boys?

- Quite different.

You can yell at girls, swear, force, and they work, work, work, puff, puff.

It's pointless to shout at boys.

No effect.

- Do you yell at your girls?

- If I say “you can”, it does not mean that you need to do this.

In general, I very rarely yell.

But if it breaks the bar, it goes to everyone who came to hand.

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Posted by Mark Kondratiuk (@ ninety.ninth)

- And from what you can demolish the bar?

- Not so long ago I told a story: the day before leaving with Kondratyuk to Obersdorf, I go to the ice with a tape recorder, as usual.

And I see Mark with Taras Bulba's haircut.

I had my hair cut, so to speak, before the flight.

And here in Oberstdorf, consider the first exit to the people, to roll Jesus Christ ...

- I can imagine your reaction.

“I’m afraid you don’t know.”

It was like boiling water poured over me.

Mark drives up to the side: "Hello ...", - I saw my face, I look - the next second he is already rolling in the far corner.

I'm hysterical, yelling, I can't stop.

I threw the tape recorder on the ice, it shattered ... I still had time to think, while the tape recorder flew over the ice like in slow motion: well, what is he to blame for?

And, in the ensuing silence, I hear Samarin, passing by Kondratyuk, say to him: "Damn, well, you couldn't get a haircut after I leave for Syzran?"

Then I began to cry, Boutikov calmed me down.

Although, to be honest, when I smashed the tape recorder, it became easier.

All emotions went into this throw, apparently.

And how divine the training was!

They fired off, just every one of them who was on the ice, all their programs in cash.

I even thought: more often, or what, should I yell at them?

- Many coaches, I know, believe that if an athlete has too many interests, he will never be of any use.

That a person should be 100% focused only on sports.

- I do not agree.

Mark has a billion interests in general.

You start to limit him in something, he will just go crazy.

And he will harass me, and he himself will become sad.

He cannot be within four walls at all.

Comes to any city - immediately turns on the Internet, looks where to go, what to see, where to sit.

Even in my native Norilsk, when I flew there for the demonstration, I walked around the whole city, looked at everything.

The first wooden house, which is now a museum, the street where I once lived.

- How did you get into figure skating from Norilsk, despite the fact that at that time all of it was concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg?

- I left for Voskresensk.

We were taken there from Norilsk by Yuri Grigorievich Razbeglov, me, Ira Zhuk.

I'm a dancer.

Zhanna Gromova sent me to dance after I grew 12 centimeters in one year and became thin and long.

I cried so then ... I thought that the coach had simply betrayed me.

We were almost native people - my mother gave birth to Zhanna Fedorovna.

But Razbeglov persuaded to give me to him.

- I'm so sorry that Gromova deliberately moved away from women's single skating after Irina Slutskaya finished her career.

- She somehow explained to me: they say, she has not met such as Irka over the next years. And he doesn't want another. Ira so, apparently, took her love, never betrayed, all her life with her. This is such a rarity - not only in figure skating, but in general in life. After such athletes, it is difficult to continue. In this regard, I understand Zhanna Fedorovna very well. When Lilya Biktagirova and Vika Romanenko were skating with me, it also seemed to me: if they finish skating, I will simply die. But then Nikita Mikhailov and Anya Ovcharova appeared. After Anya left for Switzerland, Sashka came, then Mark ... And it turns out that coaching is such an endless story. This year I celebrated 55 years at the training camp in Sochi, so you can't even list everyone who remembered about it. Someone flew in, someone wrote, someone sent packages, someone sent flowers. It is clear that all of them,finishing skating, they disperse, go into another life, but in fact they are always there. And they always come back.