“I couldn’t even breathe in the Ministry of Defense”: Sokolovskaya - about the meeting with Shoigu, Samodelkina’s crossing and Kondratyuk’s gag

- Now all Russian athletes are faced with the most incomprehensible period of their careers.

And what do you feel in this situation as a coach?

Thinking about future plans?

And is there any understanding of what to do and where to go?

“It is my profession to think.

And overcome obstacles.

I have no right not to think at all, especially after the Olympic season.

Should Mark and I somehow prove that that brilliant performance in the team tournament was not an accident?

No pandemic, no suspensions matter here.

Moreover, all of us with our incomprehensible situation were very well supported by the country.

Both morally and financially.

The whole team.

- Financial incentives softened the feeling that your athlete still does not have an Olympic gold medal, and it is not clear whether it will be awarded?

- Well, who said that softened.

We just accepted the situation, and we don’t disperse it inside ourselves, because it has already happened.

It is clear that in any situation you want certainty, but, unfortunately, we do not have it.

What will happen next is no longer dependent on any of the guys - they honestly did their job in Beijing, skating one better than the other.

And they fought to the last.

- Which of the post-Olympic events was the most memorable for you?

- There were a lot of different meetings and all very different.

Everything was somehow easy and simple with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, I would even say, at home, but when we met with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, I got goosebumps right through my body.

For the first time in my life I got into the Ministry of Defense, and I couldn’t even breathe, from the feeling of some kind of insane energy.

I don't know how to explain it.

But Mark felt it too.

He just had to go to the army, I hear him muttering to himself: "Oh-oh-oh ...".

I say: “Son, do you understand now where we generally ride?

And what is the CSKA club?

- Did you have to meet with the President of the country at a distance?

- Yes, because the coaches did not go into isolation before that meeting.

For me, as for a person who grew up in Russia, in the North, and feels Russian to the marrow of his bones, all this was like in a fairy tale.

I sat in the hall and thought that for the sake of the possibility of a personal meeting, as it was with the guys, I would be ready to serve any quarantine.

It really was worth it.

- If we talk about the state of Kondratyuk after the Olympics, what was felt more strongly - an emotional decline or a charge to continue skating?

We haven't had any ups and downs.

After the Games, we skated in Beijing on the same ice with Yuzuru Hanyu, Nathan Chen and Shoma Uno.

Then there was the Cup of the First Channel, then, when it was announced that we were not allowed to participate in the World Championship, demonstrations followed, where Mark jumped all his quads.

Well, then everything is as usual: vacation, fees, one, another.

If Mark had won the Olympic Games in person, perhaps everything would have happened somehow differently.

But on a personal note, he messed up.

And immediately got to his feet.

Dropped to the ground, so to speak.

- Before the Games, you said that you had never been to them and did not know what it was.

What will you answer now?

The Olympic Games are cool.

My adrenaline is constantly surging when I remember.

I liked everything there, no matter what.

In general, everything.

- The Olympic season is also the appearance of Ilya Malinin, who, at the age of 17, performs all quadruple jumps, including the axel.

Do you think this skater will greatly change men's single skating?

— I don't think about it.

We also learn new jumps, develop.

And we learn new rotations.

Which is much more difficult than quads, I think.

- Why is it more difficult?

New requirements?

- First of all, retention, static.

The rotation must be kept, resisted, show all positions according to the rules.

Sasha Samarin - he is more disciplined in this regard, and Mark is constantly moving, in his system of perception of the surrounding reality there is no static at all.

Therefore, in programs, he sometimes gives out an absolute gag.

Today he made two rotations, and tomorrow he has a different mood, and he will do nine.

I just caught the rhythm in music.

Am I supposed to kill him for this?

- You always seemed to me a coach for whom it is important that the students are happy.

- Why did it seem?

And there is.

- How can a girl who enters puberty feel happy?

I'm talking about Sofa Samodelkina, who moved to your group from Sergey Davydov in the summer.

- Well, somehow we taxi out, although it is not easy.

Was the arrival of this athlete to your group unexpected?

“I was blown away, to be honest.

At one time, Samodelkina skated with my student Lilia Biktagirova, that is, I know her, as they say, from the cradle.

But then something didn’t work out for them, and I myself recommended the girl’s parents to go to Davydov.

They had a very good, in my opinion, was a tandem.

But Sonya wanted to return.

- You do not ask in such cases why a person made such a decision?

Why bother digging into this?

You know, in my life I have not invited a single athlete to my place.

Not a hint, not at all.

And if they come to me, I ask you to think about only one thing - about the correctness of this transition.

Because if you run away from yourself, you can't run anywhere.

So I give time for a person to think carefully why he does this.

You never know, the coach yelled at him or quarreled over something.

Everyone fights, even in the family.

But if the transition is conscious and the decision is already ripe, the athlete will leave anyway.

Not to me, but to someone else.

- Did you immediately agree to take Sofa to your place?

- At first she asked: "What's wrong with your leg?"

I saw how she skated on the First Channel Cup.

Yes, and she came to me for the first time in a langette.

Therefore, we agreed: first we put the leg in order, and then we will talk.

- Do you see any qualities that can distinguish this skater from those with whom she will compete in the near future?

- At this stage, I do not have the right to talk about this topic.

I don't have results with girls yet.

None.

There was Lilya Biktagirova, who twice became third in the Russian Championship, but then she began to grow, and grew into my second coach, as they say.

- But, if you stupidly speak in sports language: did you get good material in the face of Samodelkina?

- Yes.

Sonya has an incredible character, she is a fighter, and a great one.

In general, she is inherently a winner, an athlete to the marrow of her bones.

That's why I want to try to help her.

She has another absolutely wonderful quality.

If you notice, she always takes attention to herself when she rides.

It does not stand over the soul, does not impose itself, but you involuntarily follow it with your eyes all the time.

This is a rarity in our sport.

- How soon will you try to restore quadruple jumps?

"We're definitely not in a hurry."

Moreover, Samodelkina, as it turned out, had a very difficult injury.

Sonya still rides with tape.

Plus - it is growing, it does not feel too familiar in this regard.

It is necessary to put the body in order, to restore complex elements.

That is why I decided to stage both short and free programs in approximately the same key.

Develop Sofa in this direction, and then see what else you can give her.

- Ideas for performances were found quickly?

- I'm not a very big specialist in terms of women's programs.

There was no such experience.

And I rushed about there, and here, realizing that I don’t like anything, in general, some kind of nonsense comes out.

We made a short program with Nikita Mikhailov, it seems that everyone liked it, they began to roll it.

And then I suddenly heard the music Can't Help Falling in Love performed by Diana Ankudinova - Sasha Trusova and Dima Mikhailov skated to it in demonstration performances.

I called Nikita to me and said: "Compose this music for me for two to fifty."

- "For whom?"

- "For Samodelkina, short program."

“Are you out of your mind?”

This is how we changed the program.

Here the emotions were removed, there the tracks were slightly altered, Sonya herself cannot understand anything.

But now I really like what we got.

- Returning to Kondratyuk, do you plan any tasks for yourself this season?

- Each start we have this year should be a holiday, that's what I'll say.

Mark now has a lot of fans.

Isn't that the purpose of making them happy?

Especially if there was an opportunity to perform throughout the season in their own country.

Sochi, Saransk, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk…

- Are you trying to convince me now that you can be happy skating exclusively within Russia?

- That's not the point.

It's like with an Olympic medal: there is a certain situation, and you either disperse it inside yourself, or you accept it and continue to work.

And stupidly waiting for your chance.

- One of the programs, I know, Mark was staged by Ilya Averbukh.

Yes, it's indicative.

Ilya is generally our godfather, as they say.

He, consider, raised Mark as an artist: from the age of 10, Kondratyuk performed in almost all his shows.

In the same "The Nutcracker" he played almost all the roles, whoever he was.

And a soloist, and in the crowd, and a Christmas tree ... Ilya always took him to him.

Therefore, I do not even perceive Averbukh as some kind of third-party director.

For us, he is family.

- Why then was it not possible to ask Ilya to stage Mark and competitive programs too?

Especially since he always gets into the figure skater's character and into the music, to a rare degree?

“Perhaps in the future we will come to this.

Now we decided that, firstly, we have our own wonderful director Nikita Mikhailov, who himself grew up in CSKA, and in comparison with him, Ilya is still a much busier person.

Secondly, now is not the Olympic season.

You can afford to try a lot of things, experiment ...

- How do you define graduation for yourself - this program is good, but this one is complete nonsense?

- Intuitive.

A lot of things happen by chance.

Somehow I went through the options for one of the programs: this is not good, this is not good, this is not good.

No no no no.

Then, out of desperation, they started to put something on, I looked, and the program turns out to be cool.

Mine laugh: “You just said a week ago that everything is really bad?”.

I'm like, "Yes?

It was wrong…”

On the other hand, now we have already set programs, there are finds for the next season.

Separately in the folder are: several options for Mark, one for Sasha.

- What is Kondratyuk's life outside the rink?

- Wherever he just does not happen.

In theaters, in some galleries, he goes to hockey, rides catamarans, meets friends, eats delicious food in restaurants.

Everything succeeds.

He moves.

I do not repeat this word in vain.

He moves all the time.

- Do you plan your own personal exhibitions yet?

- Not yet.

The mood seems to be different.

I know that very respected people asked him to paint a picture, but he did not succeed.

And he didn't hesitate to say so directly.

I can't, he says.

Haven't learned how to work on order yet.

- You have to force yourself.

— Mark?

Force?

It's going to be some sort of attraction.

Therefore, I always say: when Kondratyuk wants, he will do everything himself.

Do you have his paintings at home?

“Hmm… Good question, by the way.

Never gave, not a single picture.

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