An unpleasant incident occurred on Friday, February 2, with the young figure skater Vladislav Dikidzhi, who distinguished himself this year at the Russian Grand Prix and at the national championship, where the young man took second place. As the athlete said on social networks, he was attacked by a man in the St. Petersburg metro, on the stretch between the Chernaya Rechka and Pionerskaya metro stations.
“Friends, can you imagine, I was, well, almost stabbed to death in the subway... I’ll tell you later what happened and how it happened, but the knife was quite close to my throat. I think I would have reacted a little later - that’s all. At the moment I am with the police, I will write a statement,” the 19-year-old skater wrote in his Telegram channel.
Dikiji’s coach, Oleg Tataurov, was the first to report the details of what happened.
“A man about 60 years old and not quite at ease sat opposite, then he pulled Vlad’s backpack, and when he stood up, he put a knife to his throat. Vlad pushed him away and jumped out of the carriage. I didn’t understand anything myself. If this person wanted to show in this way that Vlad should give up his place to someone, then no one stood nearby at all - neither with children, nor in old age. Vlad told me that he would now go to the police to give an explanation, and then, perhaps, this man would be intercepted,” said the RT specialist.
And then he added that the athlete did not have any cuts and he planned to take part in the morning training, although the young man spent a lot of time at the local police station. Closer to night, he posted his first video after the incident on social networks.
“Dad picked me up from the police station. I was very tired, I spent a lot of time. The day and evening turned out to be eventful. At the moment I can’t say anything about this situation, but then I’ll definitely share. I am safe, healthy, everything is fine. Thank you all for your support,” Dikiji said.
We must give the skater his due; the next day he actually made it to the skating rink.
“Vlad had his first training session. Everything is fine. His physical and emotional condition is good,” Tataurov noted.
The very next day, during operational search activities, Primorsky district officers detained the second participant in the incident. He turned out to be a 61-year-old local resident from Shcherbakova Street, working as a service engineer in a private company.
According to the man, he had a conflict with the young man because he did not give up his seat to a woman in a subway car. As a result, the elderly man took out scissors and threatened his opponent with them. As reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, piercing and cutting objects were confiscated from the suspect, and a criminal case was initiated against him under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism). The maximum penalty is up to seven years in prison.
“Yes, he is detained. Investigators are investigating. To be honest, I don’t know what will happen next,” Sport-Express quotes Tataurov.
Later, the athlete stated in his Telegram channel that next to him “there were no elderly women, no pregnant women, no women with children.”
“In general, I was going about my business in the subway. The same man was sitting opposite me. I had my headphones on, was glued to my phone, and had a huge backpack on my lap. At some point, my backpack is sharply pulled in the opposite direction. I thought that they wanted to steal it, so I pulled the backpack back to me and looked at that same man in bewilderment.
Since I’m not a conflicted person per se, I didn’t bother to sort it out and went back to my phone. Then this man kicked me quite unpleasantly on the knee. Then I took off my headphones and asked him: “Grandfather, are you okay?” I couldn’t make out his answer to me because I couldn’t hear him well. I decided that it would be better to continue to ignore it, so as not to lead the situation to a conflict (I got stuck on my phone again).
As we approached the station where I needed to get off, this man found himself standing in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his hands approaching my neck. In my right hand I managed to see a shiny object very similar to a knife,” the skater said.
The figure skating world was shocked by the incident. As Honored Coach of the USSR Tatyana Tarasova noted, she was very worried about Dikidzhi.
“Lucky they didn’t do more to him! I really love this athlete and his coach, who wrote today that everything is fine. Vlad is a nice boy. But I can’t understand how this happens in broad daylight? How to be attacked in public?
I suffer over this. It’s terrible that this is happening in St. Petersburg. We all shout about crimes, that they have a city of contrasts. We ourselves are a city of contrasts, since this happens. We shouldn’t write about others, but should make sure that this doesn’t happen to us,” the Match TV specialist quotes.
According to the honored coach of Russia Alexander Zhulin, he does not know how he would behave in such a situation.
“I think Vlad will survive this blow. The quadruple lutz is still more difficult. If he's a normal guy, he can handle it. Of course it's scary. I can’t even imagine if some bastard put a knife to my throat right now. My athletes and I have never had such situations,” said Zhulin.
At the same time, according to World Championship bronze medalist Elena Radionova, there should be no psychological trauma due to this situation.
“I hope that the culprit will be punished. The main thing is that everything is fine with Vlad, he is safe and sound. He is a strong and athletic boy. His loved ones are with him, everything should be fine,” the specialist emphasized.
Sports psychologist Elizaveta Kozhevnikova, in turn, noted that the incident can either pass without a trace or lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It depends on the resources of the athlete’s nervous system and his current stress load. The psyche is capable of processing this kind of experience itself. If after about a month an athlete notices that his condition has worsened - he experiences severe anxiety, experiences flashbacks, is afraid to face trigger stimuli - this means that traumatic stress has entered a self-sustaining cycle and a specialist needs to be involved. Otherwise, it can affect motivation, sleep, the ability to regulate emotions, fine coordination, etc.,” Kozhevnikova concluded.