“Not ready to train until the last breath”: Ilinykh - about pity and resentment, motherhood and the show, Beroev and Rourke

In sporting times, Elena Ilinykh was considered to be a figure skater who never realized herself to the fullest: they say, she wasn’t too lucky with her character, and she didn’t work out with a partner - but she could ...

Now it’s time to ask the question: is there any other figure skater in the Ilyins’ generation who has become so accomplished in her post-sport life?

Soloist on the ballet stage with her husband Sergei Polunin, travels around the world, meeting unique people in his profession, raising two children and dreaming of creating his own ice show.

At the show, in fact, we met.

- I can not get out of my head the phrase that you threw in passing.

The fact that, having finished with the sport, they gave themselves a vow never to stand on the scales again.

Was it that traumatic?

— It was, of course.

And not only this.

Although at times when I hear athletes talking about such things in public, I get a little lost.

On the one hand, I understand that this is the cry of the soul.

On the other hand, it seems to me that not everything that happens outside the ice should be made public.

It's like on a film set: a Hollywood movie is being shot, we see a beautiful picture, everyone is happy and no one cares what really happens behind the scenes.

- Now, when big sport is in the past, can you honestly answer: was it worth it?

- Of course.

It is clear that we all want to live in some kind of ideal world, where no one scolds you, no one forces you to lose weight, they allow everything you want, while you still become an Olympic champion (preferably more than once) and skate up to 45 years.

But you yourself know perfectly well what big sport is and what you have to face.

Yes, it's hard.

But there's always an option to say, "Guys, I can't handle this."

And leave.

In principle, I have never heard those who have come to their goal complain about life.

- Have you reached this goal yourself?

Or a certain dissatisfaction and resentment remained?

- You know, I have always tried (and still try) to look for the root of all my problems in myself, and not to be offended by someone.

When at the Olympics in Sochi, Nikita and I (Katsalapov. -

) became third in personal competitions after a short dance, and seven pairs were right behind us, each of which claimed the same place, I entered the free program with one single thought: in no case should we give away our position to anyone.

Even if you have to bite into it with your teeth.

- Is this “not giving up” a human feeling or an animal one?

Animal, I think.

Some instinct kicks in.

Because the ability to reason that sport is sport and anything can happen in it, at this moment simply turns off.

You fight for your own and are ready for a lot for this.

- I have been writing about big sport for more than 30 years and very often I encounter the fact that it is absolutely impossible to explain to people that the sport of the level of the Olympic Games podium is a world that cannot be compared with anything.

- This is generally some other world, where either you survived, or you were thrown out of life.

It’s just that with age, I began to understand: no matter how talented and efficient an athlete is, everything needs to come together at the right time at one point.

Talent, diligence, luck, location - so that there is no covid, so that you don’t suddenly get poisoned or get sick, so that you wake up on the day of the start in a good mood, finally.

- Not so long ago, Alina Zagitova was very offended by me because I wrote that her victory in Pyeongchang was a colossal combination of circumstances.

- I absolutely agree with you in this respect.

I don’t really understand when people say: “I myself!”

Because there are relatives who surround you, a coach, other specialists who work with you, and everything should converge with them on the day of your start.

Any Olympic victory is incredible luck, happiness.

- Gabriela Papadakis recently admitted that she had an abortion a year before the Games in order to fight for Olympic gold.

Would you be able to do so?

- I read this interview and just tried on the situation for myself.

I tried to imagine how Kolya, Nikita would react (Morozov

Katsalapov.

) ... Nikita skated with me for eight years, together we won the junior world championship, a bunch of other tournaments, together for so many years we went to the same goal, and here I am like this: “ Guys, I went to give birth.

I probably just wouldn't turn my tongue.

In fact, this is again a story about whether to expose such details to the public or not.

You yourself decided on this abortion, that is, you put the Olympic victory as a priority.

It was your decision.

Why should anyone feel sorry for you?

It is clear that you want to be sorry.

I really want to.

Was the decision to leave the sport difficult for you?

No, everything went smoothly.

When we broke up with Nikita, I naturally thought that I did not want to leave.

But I understood with my head that the point was set.

And that I won't have anything else.

- Really there were no illusions that it was still possible when you and Ruslan Zhiganshin won the Russian championship?

- Not.

I spent that first year together on some incredible courage.

I set myself the task of riding at full strength, with maximum efficiency.

Everything that could be squeezed out of myself, I then squeezed out.

And I realized that this is the absolute maximum that Ruslan and I are capable of.

Of course, I did not want to speak these thoughts, not to mention sharing them with someone.

Of course, you continue to subconsciously hope for something and yearn for more.

Plus, they tell you from all sides that you can.

That's why it's so hard to make a decision to finish.

You also understand that you just seemed to have everything, and suddenly - once, and there is nothing.

- When you and Yulia Lipnitskaya started a joint coaching project, I had the feeling that you just leaned against each other like two shot birds, not thinking about any business.

— So it was.

But, you know, it was an interesting experience.

I always understood while skating that I didn’t want to coach, although I can probably do it very well.

I am very observant, besides I went to a big school.

And Igor Shpilband skated, and Ilya Averbukh, and Sasha Zhulin, and Kolya Morozov.

And I see very clearly what and how to do in order to achieve results.

"Then why are you avoiding this choice?"

“I don’t want to go through this again.

Plus, I understand the full measure of responsibility that the coaching profession imposes.

You can't be a coach for five years and then say, "I'm sorry guys, I'm going to have kids, surf in the Maldives, or act in films."

At least, in my head, the idea of ​​the coaching profession is exactly this: if you take it, then you work right up to a hundred years, until your last breath.

I'm not ready for this.

In preparation for the interview, I watched some of your performances on stage.

And the question arose: have you ever been afraid to go out in public?

- Not.

I love this adrenaline, courage, nervousness of waiting for my own exit.

I love the audience very much, I love to hear the reaction of the audience.

It is clear, of course, that it becomes more difficult when you are not in shape and you understand that nothing good will happen now, but you still try with your last strength to do something, to show something.

• Yelena Ilyinykh and Nikita Katsalapov after the free program in the figure skating competition at the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

• © Vladimir Pesnya

- In this regard, was the transition from figure skating to the stage smooth?

- I disagreed for a very long time, to be honest.

- Why?

- I wasn't sure it was right.

I like it when people do something professionally, with which there is a huge shortage now, no matter what profession you take.

I understood that in figure skating, with all my pluses and minuses, I am a professional.

But on the stage - no, despite the fact that I have some qualities that allow me to be there.

In addition, I wanted my husband to make the highest quality product, and I was afraid that with my participation I could drop this quality.

Seryozha dispelled these my doubts for a long time.

Did you convince in the end?

- He simply explained that he did not need ballet standards, but a completely different vision of what was happening on stage.

Some completely different emotions.

So I agreed to try it.

And harnessed as best I can.

I studied a lot with Sergei himself, with a very cool Japanese director of the Rasputin ballet Yuka Oishi, with my partner from the Stanislavsky Theater Alexei Lyubimov, who plays Nicholas II.

These joint efforts of many people were aimed at me to such an extent that it turned out to be not at all scary to go on stage.

“Tell me that you weren’t nervous at all!”

- Honestly?

I expected to be nervous.

But when I came out, I remember, it even slipped through my head: why should I be nervous at all in comparison with figure skating?

You can’t slip, there are no hard limits when you lose 0.11 points, because you overdid the support by half a second.

What is half a second?

And your life almost ends here, you want to die.

Therefore, my main feeling from the debut was: wow, is it possible to live like this?

Not to die every time something went wrong?

What a buzz!

It is clear that all this is not easy in its own way.

It is very difficult to dance with Serezha in energy.

It is necessary to match, and the energy of such a partner sometimes leans so heavily, crushes ...

- What was the most difficult for you purely technically?

- If I like something, it's just not hard to work.

I don't remember that.

- Many people whose profession is a stage are afraid to have children so as not to lose what has already been built.

You and Sergei have two sons.

There were no fears that, having gone headlong into the family, you might never return?

I have wanted this family for a very long time.

Too tired of feeling constantly restricted.

In sports, you actually live around the clock in these restrictions.

It is clear that you get used to it, but psychologically it is not easy.

There were also fears.

That I can not give birth to a child, I can simply not meet a man from whom I would want to have children.

That is, I had some very complex scheme in my head on this matter.

And then Seryozha appeared - and everything somehow happened by itself.

So I was not afraid at all that I would not return somewhere.

Not really, however, I understood where I could go at all when the children grow up.

In the third month of pregnancy, she still danced with her first son, but Rasputin seemed to me then a one-time project.

- And then you give birth to a second child, stand on the scales, and you see a number there ...

- I saw a very large number there, just creepy.

But I felt so comfortable, I was so happy, I felt such care from Sergey, and indeed from all my relatives, that the figure did not bother me at all.

- Did you and Sergey immediately decide that children should be born in America?

- The fact is that the first births occurred in the winter.

And Sergey very carefully planned everything.

I reasoned like this: it’s cold in Moscow in winter, I would have to somehow dress with this belly, and walking with a stroller would be problematic.

So we made the decision to go to Miami literally three months before the birth.

Our eldest son Mir appeared there.

But Dar was born completely unplanned in Dubai, where we were waiting for an American visa.

I remember that I began to twitch a lot about my own condition, and Seryozha reassured me: “Be patient a little more, you are an athlete.

We'll get a visa and fly away right away."

So they endured ... It turned out that both children were born in January and both in warm countries.

But the second time was worse.

- In what sense?

- The first time you do not know what and how.

Hop - and here he is a child.

We somehow even discussed this with Serezha's former partner, Ksyusha Rozhkova, who also has two children.

To become a prima ballerina or an Olympic champion, it turns out that you have been going to this all your life.

And then a child is born - and you are immediately a mother.

And, by definition, it should be good.

Sometimes I read in blogs: “Oh, what a wonderful time!”

Well, it's a lie!

A lot of difficulties.

And diapers, diapers, and teeth are cut.

At night, the child does not sleep, and during the day you cannot go anywhere, because the bruises under your eyes are so scary to look at.

Why isn't anyone talking about this?

“I didn’t just ask you about weight.

I know what it's like to maintain a figure for so many years and suddenly find yourself in a “plus twenty” state.

“When you are loved a lot, you don’t notice such things.

It’s just that I myself, as a reasonable girl, three months after giving birth, decided that I really want to return to my competitive weight.

And she started taking care of herself.

I can say for sure that I have never lost weight so easily.

In total, these same 20 kg of the month were gone in three or four.

It remains to squeeze just a couple to the weight with which I competed at the Olympics.

- But they suffered so much with this problem in sports!

- It seems to me that in sports, children have a feeling that everything they do is not for them, but for the coach.

For example, I didn’t really understand the argument: they say, you have to be thin, otherwise the boy will not be able to lift you.

You are constantly hungry, but instead of eating at least something, you lose weight, lose weight, lose weight.

Because the coach said so, or some aunt from the federation, or mom, or partner.

That is, you are trying to lose weight for someone - with the feeling that you owe someone all the time.

It seems to me that it is very important to explain to children why they should do this and not otherwise.

This is a good way, win-win.

• Figure skater Yelena Ilyinykh (left) performing at the Swan Lake ice show by Yana Rudkovskaya and Yevgeny Plushenko.

• RIA News

• © Vladimir Astapkovich

- In some interview, I read that the ideal coach in your understanding is a coach like Eteri Tutberidze.

It turns out that you always had to force?

“I just always liked this state of hard work.

Sergey and I were in America not so long ago, met with actor Mickey Rourke.

He told how during the filming of one of the films, where it was necessary to play a dramatic scene and cry, he looked at a photograph of his deceased grandmother.

And even asked his agent to beat him with a belt.

So that it really hurts.

Well, a person tunes in to his role in this way.

Some people have different ways.

If they started yelling at me before the start, it put me in a state of courage and absolutely incredible adrenaline.

Although, perhaps, the whole point is that in figure skating from childhood you get used to being yelled at.

If they suddenly stop, you immediately begin to twitch: “Yeah, something is wrong here!”

— What do you feel when you meet people like Mickey Rourke, Emir Kusturica, someone else, whose names you used to only hear from the screen?

- This is great.

Not only do you talk to these people, but sometimes you catch yourself thinking that your thoughts are very similar.

I noticed that such people always listen very well.

You ask some questions, you discover something new for yourself.

Really really cool feeling.

I am directly grateful to fate that I have such an opportunity.

It adds a lot of color to life.

This is important, especially at a time like now.

- Participation in the "Ice Age" - is it fun, earnings or an opportunity to keep yourself in shape?

- Both income and pleasure.

But I would not agree to participate if there was no partner.

The one I want myself.

- How did Yegor Beroev bribe you?

- I really like him as an actor - the type itself.

Strong male energy, absolute reliability and at the same time the ability to feel strongly and subtly.

Yegor has an interesting approach to numbers, to music, to the choice of costumes.

Not at all like the figure skaters.

- What's the difference?

— In everything.

This is probably about the freedom of the stage and sports.

We're too busy, aren't we?

One free program for the season, and you roll it all over for several months.

Only three supports, so people still manage to repeat them from year to year.

What?

Make a new one?

Let's not take risks.

And every time I want to ask: “Guys, you have been riding this for a year.

Not tired?

Honestly, I still catch myself on some things that have been developed over the years in sports.

When the conversation about programs first came up on Lednikovo and they asked me what we were putting on, I automatically answered: “Whitney Houston.”

Why?

Because it is necessary to take bright, win-win, known.

And that Tarasova liked it.

Well, there are frames, frames.

As far as I am, I seem to have already moved away from the sport, rebuilt and creative, but it still sits in my mind.

It's been jammed in there for 19 years.

And I'm scared to try something new.

Well, you want to win, don't you?

- So Yegor asked me about it.

And then he cautiously suggested this: don’t you want to just try to pass the program for the sake of pleasure, and not for the sake of getting ahead of someone?

And I suddenly realized that I really like this way of thinking, this approach to work.

- The main creative plans you have at the current stage - is it a stage or ice?

— I really want my ice show.

For a long time.

I do not know yet how it will be implemented technically and where exactly.

But I would like to create an ice performance, leave something behind in figure skating.

Possibly Frida.

I have seen many productions, carefully watched how they are created - from music and the search for composers to scenography.

I roughly understand what and how I can implement.

Seryozha also really wants me to have my own project.

So this will definitely be our joint work.

Your sons have rather unusual names.

If the third child is a girl, what would you name it?

- Good question.

I don't even know if it's worth talking about.

From the very beginning, we agreed with Seryozha that he gives the boy a name, and I give the girl a name.

For some reason, I was sure that after the World we would have a girl.

And one evening, when I was already falling asleep, for no reason, for no reason, a name came to my mind: Matilda.

It went right over: Matilda Sergeevna - and that's it!

Sergey was so upset when I told him about it, he just didn’t have a face on him.

I even began to suspect that he did not want a second child at all.

But when I had another ultrasound and finally determined the sex of the baby, I can’t convey how happy my husband was ... I was just ready to jump for happiness that Matilda would not be.