Bitter truth or sweet lie: what lies behind the revelations of figure skaters Shevchenko and Nugumanova about their mentors

One after another, two interviews appeared in the Russian press, which to some extent shocked the world of figure skating.

Sofya Shevchenko and Elizaveta Nugumanova spoke about completely different problems that they faced in the course of their sports career.

Sofia Shevchenko is the winner of many awards at the junior level.

Repeated winner of the Grand Prix stages, bronze medal winner of the World Championship and winner of the national championship.

However, last season their budding couple with Igor Eremenko ceased to exist.

The reason for this, according to the girl, was her disappointment in the refereeing system and claims to the notorious "queue" in dancing.

But Sophia's loudest statement in an interview with RIA Novosti referred to former coaches - Alexander Svinin and Irina Zhuk, who, according to the athlete, allegedly agreed with the judges to underestimate the couple's scores in favor of other duets of the group.

“When the fans asked us questions about places and points, we stood, nodded and smiled politely.

What else to do?

Then the judges came up after the competition and said: "Your coaches asked to put you in for such and such."

And you have a complete dissonance in your head.

You think: “Why am I skating in this group then, if this happens?”

Okay, so be it, if we are a team and then compensate for all this.

But when the judges tell you this…” Shevchenko said.

Zhuk and Svinin, in an interview with RIA Novosti, called these accusations "an insult to the departed athlete."

They emphasized that they never set up their pupils in competitions and did not ask the judges to put one of them higher or lower.

The honored coach of Russia Tatyana Tarasova also reacted negatively to Sophia's words, who said that she "had never heard of such a practice."

“I don't believe this can happen.

You can't take it like that and throw mud at someone.

Let him name who, to whom and when he specifically approached and asked to underestimate their grades.

We don't even know the girl's last name.

She finished skating before she even started,” said the renowned specialist.

Elizaveta Nugumanova also showed promise in junior age, won medals at the Grand Prix stages.

But then her successes became not so significant.

In the summer of 2019, she left Angelina Turenko for the group of Evgeny Rukavitsyn, while noting that it was a great honor for her to work with a specialist of this level.

And now, almost three years later, the athlete, in an interview with Match TV, stated that she had been insulted and humiliated by the coach.

“The team often told me that I was fat, that nothing would work out for me.

There were even such words: “Even in your social networks, soon no one will need you with your figure.”

It was funny to hear it, ”Elizaveta recalls.

According to her, she tried to follow the recommendations of mentors and lose weight, although she does not consider herself complete.

However, at some points, according to her, the situation "reached the point of absurdity."

“In the end, I lost weight, of course, but you can’t cross the line.

I also look at myself from the outside and understand that I look good on the ice.

I'm not blind.

And if I understood that I didn’t look very good, I would definitely fix everything, but this is not so.

Well, I'm not fat!

And the coaches told me the whole last season the opposite: that I am fat, that nothing happens because of the weight, ”Nugumanova emphasized.

At the same time, she stated that the coach forbade her to engage in an adult group, saying that she "did not deserve it."

As a result, the skater skated on children's ice with the younger generation.

In this story, Tatyana Tarasova also sided with the coach, not the athlete.

“You have to watch your weight, it’s true.

You have to jump, not talk and wait until your legs break.

We can't do that either.

We must make a remark if a person is unprofessional and does not understand how much he should weigh.

Evgeny Rukavitsyn's team is very good.

Everyone loves each other very much and treats each other well.

I will never believe that she was poisoned there.

They are very attentive to their students, ”the Championship specialist quotes.

Both stories testify to how much the mentality of athletes has changed over the past decade.

The new generation, who grew up in the Internet era, is more open to communication and much more frank.

They are used to living for show: most of them are active in social networks, where they talk about training, travel, and communication with friends.

Therefore, it is much easier for them to share the negative moments that arise during their career with other people than their predecessors.

Here it is worth recalling the recent confession of Alena Kostornaya about why she left the Eteri Tutberidze group in 2020 - the figure skater, according to her, was tired of being “riddled, slandered”, she wanted a normal attitude towards herself as an athlete, “at least not total humiliation in front of the whole group, ”and the story of the boyfriend Diana Mukhametzyanova about how she was expelled from the group of Nina Moser because of being overweight.

At the same time, the reaction to frank statements often turns out to be either negative or conciliatory and condescending.

Thus, the president of the Sambo-70 sports and education center, Renat Laishev, commenting on the story of Nugumanova, advised the athletes to skip some words addressed to them and draw useful conclusions.

“You need to say thank you, smile, keep doing your job and show the coach that he was once wrong.

And in principle, this happens in all sports.

And Nikolai Karpol spoke out sharply in volleyball, and Irina Viner in rhythmic gymnastics, and Eteri Tutberidze.

This is a normal workflow.

I repeat, you just don’t have to take everything to heart, but at the same time you need to heed the valuable advice of the coach, ”the Match TV functionary quotes.

Of course, there is a rational grain in this approach.

Successful athletes who have achieved high results rarely allow themselves to complain about the public.

Most often, those who have something that did not work out in their careers speak out.

However, the increased number of dissatisfaction with coaching approaches may indicate that change is overdue in this area.

Specialists of the old school work in the usual manner, forgetting that any careless word can not only hurt the pupil, but also instantly become public knowledge.

And even without someone's intentional participation.

A vivid example of this is the scandal with Lokomotiv volleyball coach Andrei Voronkov, who threw an unsightly phrase in the heat of the final match and received a disqualification that could cost him two years of his career, if not put an end to it.

Obviously, the more technology develops, the more popular social networks become, the more information will leak from the sports behind the scenes.

And the more progressive approaches will require new generations of athletes.