- Now, when emotions have subsided a bit and you can evaluate more soberly, how will you remember the 2022 Olympic figure skating tournament?

— These Games were very bright and quite difficult for me.

Due to my age and experience, I watch figure skating quite calmly, but the women's tournament caused me just a storm of emotions.

I have not been so worried about our athletes for a long time.

It felt like my own children were riding.

Their talent, their skill, their will to win conquered me.

I hoped to the last that Kamila Valieva would have enough margin of safety to perform in a free program, but after the first broken element, it became obvious that this did not happen.

- In your opinion, did the situation with her positive doping test affect her, or is it not just that?

- I have said more than once that the Olympics are not simple competitions, their complexity lies in the fact that you are boiling in the cauldron of the hostel.

Someone comes with tears, someone with joy, someone leaves for competitions - there is no peace.

In pre-Soviet times, athletes at least had the opportunity to go into the city from the Olympic Village to take their minds off the competition.

This time everyone had to sit inside the “bubble”, boil in their thoughts, and this psychological stress ate away their physical strength as well.

As for Camila, one cannot ignore everything that fell on a 15-year-old girl ... Just imagine: she went to Beijing with high ideals that the Olympics is a celebration of sports, peace-friendship-chewing gum, but it turned out that she came to war , where they began to press her ruthlessly, without proving her guilt.

I don't think she was ready for this.

- It turns out that Anna Shcherbakova coped with this situation best of all.

But at the end of the competition, more often they talked about Trusova or Valieva than about the Olympic champion.

Why is that?

– Anya this season was in the shadow of the bright Kamila and Sasha, who have very complex technical content, such jumps that you always expect something incredible from them.

Anya, for which I like her and close in spirit, is such a quiet worker who works systematically, listening to the coach, completing all the tasks.

And so she came out at the right time, and at the right time, despite even new shoes, she did what was required of her, and that was enough to win.

And I think that her medal is absolutely deserved.

- What is Trusova's trouble?

She made history, jumped five quadruple jumps - and took only second place.

- Sasha, as far as I can tell, is a practically uncontrollable and unpredictable person.

She, due to her youth, talent and inner fire, does not hear the coach.

And the coach still needs to predict the result and know what to expect from the athlete.

Sasha decides to jump the triple axel and all his quads.

But if she carefully, systematically started the season with two quads and gradually increased momentum, showed progress and reached the peak of her form for the Olympics, then it might have been a gold medal.

- According to Tatyana Tarasova, Sasha showed the figure skating of the future.

Do you think that we will really see such women's skating in the near future, or is Trusova so unique that her achievements will not soon be surpassed?

- Well, look, we already have juniors who, looking at Sasha, are approaching this level.

The same Sonya Akatieva, who won the championship of Russia.

Sofia Samodelkina has all five quads in her arsenal, but her coach Sergey Davydov still believes that she is not physically and mentally ready to show them in the program.

There was a time when men jumped two quads, a sheepskin coat and a salchow, and no one thought about the same lutz.

And then Boyang Jin in the short program made a combination of a quadruple lutz - a triple toe loop, and everyone said “wow”.

And the next season, the first five leaders jumped different quads.

Any uncertainty is scary, but as soon as you open this door, everyone understands that this is possible.

Sasha, being brave, talented and unstoppable, did it.

Everything, now progress cannot be stopped.

- Yuzuru Hanyu went the same way, risking a quadruple axel and remaining far beyond the top three.

“Hanyu is already a demigod.

By his example, he shows what a highly professional athlete should be.

Of course, if he wanted to fight for the podium, he didn't have to take that risk.

But this is what distinguishes a genius from just a talented person.

Talent sees the goal and ways to achieve it, while genius looks further.

Yuzuru opened doors to another dimension, and for that he can only be admired.

- In pair skating, on the contrary, the risk was justified, and the quadruple twist brought gold to the Chinese Sui Wenjin and Han Cong.

- You know, for me personally, the victory of the Chinese couple was 99% predictable.

No surprises.

They just needed not to make blunders, and they did it.

Still, no one canceled the factor of home walls.

I am very happy for Vova Morozov and Zhenya Tarasova, they showed the best skating in the history of their pair.

But here it is worth returning to the issue of stability, which we just talked about regarding Trusova.

If the guys had skated at such a level throughout the season, then perhaps the alignment would have been different and they could have competed for gold.

- Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Gallyamov were just very stable.

- Nastya and Sasha are a young couple, only the second season they ride in adults.

They still have everything ahead, they still have to skate and skate, although they already have the gold of the team tournament.

But, on the other hand, participation in the command team had an impact on their final result.

Despite his youth, it is quite difficult to skate four programs physically and psychologically.

Moreover, if usually at the Olympics the greenhouses finished their performances first, then in Beijing they had to complete the tournament together with the hockey players, and the guys had to wait a very long time after the team competition.

All this worked against them.

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- Less than a month left before the World Cup in France.

Do you think it is worth going to it with the strongest squad or is it better for the team leaders to rest now?

- Difficult question.

One of the few who was able to perform brilliantly at the World Championships after the Olympics is Alexei Yagudin in 2002.

Usually, this rarely succeeds.

Firstly, athletes approach the Olympics at the peak of their form, after which there is a natural decline.

And secondly, after the Games, the party begins.

Interviews, receptions, social events.

And this is also important.

This moment, the guys who brightly flashed at the Olympics, need to go through, get their share of love and recognition.

Do not neglect this, as everything passes very quickly.

But for all these reasons, it is quite difficult for leaders to show high results after the Games.

The only exceptions are those who have a huge margin of safety.

For example, Sasha Trusova.

I think she now has every chance to win the world championship if she goes to it.

I don’t know if Camila will be able to go there, but if so, a very interesting struggle could unfold between them.

- If you look at the dynamics of development, what can we expect in figure skating in the next four years?

- Everything suggests that in single skating there will be even more quadruple jumps.

Now it's up to the Ritberger.

There are already athletes who perform it, the same Ilya Malinin.

I really hope that we will see him at the World Championships.

He is already doing a cascade of two quads or a triple axel - a quad toe loop in training.

This guy can set a new trend in figure skating.

As for pair skating, I think, as in this Olympics, Russian and Chinese pairs will fight for the podium.

This is because this species is quite demanding.

To create a successful couple, you need a sufficient amount of ice and the coincidence of many factors: a partner and a partner, their financial situation, psychological compatibility and a suitable coach.

And while in our country, as in China, there is an opportunity for figure skaters to train for free, there is no need to be afraid of competition from greenhouses from other countries.

Of course, if they are not trained by Russian specialists.

- Can we now say that among the successful Russian coaches a new name has appeared - Maxim Trankov?

Still, he led Tarasova and Morozov to the silver medals of the Olympics.

- Of course, these medals are the merit of Maxim, but I would not say that only him.

Now, in order to achieve results, we need teamwork.

It was not in vain that Trankov turned to Tutberidze in order to be able to work with various specialists - on skating, staging.

It is almost impossible for a coach to cover the entire scope of work alone.

Therefore, one should not forget Pavel Slyusarenko, who did most of the technical work, Alexei Tikhonov, who shared his experience, the Tutberidze team, who worked on the jumps, and Alexander Zhulin, who staged the programs.

This is a team effort that brought such a high result.

- The last two four years in women's skating can be called the era of Tutberidze.

Do you think the situation around Kamila Valieva will shake the position of her coach?

- This whole situation will forever remain a lever of pressure on the Tutberidze team.

And Camila should be mentally prepared for the fact that after any victory she will hear first of all not congratulations, but a question about bygone days.

She will be reminded of this scandal all the time, and she needs to be ready for this.

The monopoly and popularity of Eteri do not suit many in Russia and in the world.

Everyone wants to achieve results, but when you realize that there is no chance to fight with such a strong competitor, some kind of fuss begins.

For the house to collapse, it is necessary to undermine the foundation, which is happening now.

I would not want Tutberidze to suffer in any way, because she drags both Russian and world figure skating up.

Sets the bar for everyone else to strive for.

Of course, according to the law of life, any void is filled: there will be no Tutberidze - there will be someone else.

But will this personality be as bright as she is, that is the question.