Kostomarov's birthday
On February 7, Roman Kostomarov celebrated his 47th birthday. A year ago, the Olympic champion celebrated this holiday in intensive care, being between life and death, and now he was able to personally accept all the congratulations and good wishes, of which there were a great many. Thus, a post on a social network dedicated to the date collected more than 6.5 thousand comments. And the first to congratulate the former athlete, of course, was Oksana Domnina.
“My dear, dear, beloved. I am proud of you, proud of your strength, your enormous inner strength, which amazes more and more every day. I am happy to be next to you, to enjoy every day and even in the most difficult, difficult, uncomfortable moments in life to feel your breath, hear your smell, feel your incredible charisma and love. Love you, love our children, love life,” the athlete’s wife wrote.
She was joined by Tatyana Navka, who called her former partner a person with an unbending will and character.
“You did it, you were practically born again, you resisted the blow of fate and you are still boldly, decisively and firmly moving towards your goals! You won the most important fight in your life and became a new example of strength of spirit, will and desire for life,” the Olympic champion emphasized.
Meanwhile, on March 9, a documentary film about the life of the athlete “Roman Kostomarov: Born Twice”, which has been filming since the end of last year, will be released in wide release. As the figure skater said, if someone had previously talked about the trials that he had to overcome, he would not have believed it - he said that it was “some kind of movie.” Therefore, the idea was born to make a film and show through the eyes of the participants in the events what happened in those terrible months of last year.
“This is my journey almost from childhood to today. But the main roles here are not so much me, but my family - mother, wife, daughter - friends, colleagues, doctors. This includes their stories, how they went through it all and where they got their strength from. And this is such an opportunity to thank them for everything. <…> I haven’t seen what happened yet, we’ll evaluate it together,” the skater said in his Telegram channel.
Operation Plushenko
Evgeni Plushenko underwent yet another, already seventh, spinal surgery. Surgeons removed implants from the Olympic champion's back that were installed during one of the earlier interventions. In 2013, the skater, who returned to the sport after a long break, had his intervertebral disc replaced with an artificial one, and a complex support structure of four titanium screws was installed.
One of them broke in half during training at the Olympics in Sochi, which is why Plushenko was forced to withdraw from the singles competition. After the Games, doctors removed all the screws, but after almost ten years, Evgeniy’s back began to bother him again. As his wife Yana Rudkovskaya said in early January, in his last shows the skater went on the ice with painkillers. In the end, the decision was made to go back on the operating table.
“The third operation on the lower section. Let's remember the back again. All the implants were removed here, in Moscow, from the unique surgeon Dmitry Nikolaevich Dzukaev. Three hours after the operation, he got me back on my feet. Now recovery is underway,” Plushenko said about the intervention he underwent.
Meanwhile, on the tenth anniversary of the opening of the 2014 Games, many athletes and coaches recalled the events of the home Olympics, including the refusal of student Alexei Mishin to participate in the personal tournament. In particular, Irina Rodnina admitted that she still cannot decide for sure whether it was the right decision to take Plushenko to the national team instead of Maxim Kovtun, who won the national qualifying championship.
“I had certain doubts about Plushenko, because the athlete is old, will he be able to withstand such a big tournament with personal and team performances... This story is not the most beautiful page. On the one hand, Plushenko and the team received a gold medal, on the other hand, his strengths and capabilities in personal competitions were clearly not calculated,” Match TV quotes the three-time Olympic champion.
Evgeni Plushenko
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© Maxim Bogodvid
Goosebumps disease
Now, on the eve of the Spartakiad of the Strongest, Peter Gumennik faces a difficult choice. There were a few days left before the start of the figure skating tournament, and the athlete was knocked out of the training rhythm by a serious illness. During the St. Petersburg Championship, which took place on January 27-28, between the short and free programs the athlete felt unwell - as it turned out, he developed bilateral pneumonia. In addition, the test for coronavirus turned out to be positive. But during those competitions, Peter scored more than 300 points for both programs!
“It seems they didn’t realize then that he was so seriously ill, they underestimated the situation. Now my son is already recovering, his temperature is normal, his blood tests are excellent. True, I haven’t been on the ice yet,” said the skater’s mother Elena Gumennik.
According to coach Veronica Daineko, Peter still hopes to recover for the Spartakiad, because this is one of the most important starts of the season. But first he needs to wait for a negative Covid test. Theoretically, if his condition allows, the skater will be able to enter the tournament at the last moment: his place on the lists has not yet been taken by anyone. Another question is whether, after such a serious illness, he will be able to fully skate two programs.
Many people remember Tiffany Zagorski’s performance at the 2022 Championships. The figure skater entered the competition after suffering from meningitis and almost lost consciousness during a free dance. Jonathan Gureiro carried his partner off the ice in his arms. One can understand why Gumennik is eager to fight and is eager to take revenge for his defeat at the national championship to Evgeniy Semenenko and Vladislav Dikidzhi, but is it worth risking his health for this?
Another loss occurred in pairs skating. Alena Kostornaya decided to have surgery on her shoulder, which had been bothering her for a long time, so fans won’t see her and Georgy Kunitsa in Chelyabinsk either.
“Alena had pain in her shoulder for a long time, and the pain was constantly getting worse from exertion. An MRI study showed that there are indeed problems in the joint that could become critical without surgical intervention. Therefore, it was decided to carry out the operation in the near future,” the duo’s coach Sergei Roslyakov told RT.
Yablokov's transition to dancing
As you know, Alena Kostornaya switched to pair skating due to injuries that prevented her from jumping well. So Ilya Yablokov, apparently, was also tired of multiple injuries and decided not to test his body with multi-rotation jumps anymore. The winner of the Russian Junior Championship 2022 set off to conquer a new discipline - ice dancing.
As TASS reports, the skater is trying to pair up with Arina Ushakova under the guidance of Natalya Linichuk at the Evgeni Plushenko Academy. This season, Yablokov, who trained with Victoria Butsaeva, missed the Grand Prix in Moscow, and competed at the national championship with a crack in the fibula and took ninth place. In 2022, the skater underwent surgery after a torn meniscus.
Ilya Yablokov
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© Alexander Wilf
Meanwhile, the Linichuk group is gradually growing. In addition to Valery Angelopol and Alexandra Shinkarenko, 16-year-old Yaroslava Vorobyova and Georgy Tsymbalov train with her. They moved to “Angels” from Angelika Krylova.
“We are very grateful to Anzhelika Alekseevna for our joint work, but we decided to move on,” the partner commented on the change in headquarters.
Tuktamysheva’s thoughts on marriage
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva lifted the veil of secrecy about her personal life. It is known that for a long time the skater dated her colleague and partner in the coaching group Andrei Lazukin, but then the athletes broke up. Now in an interview on the Youtube channel “Discipline”, Elizabeth said that at the moment her heart is occupied, although she refused to reveal the name of the young man. Also, the figure skater did not admit whether her chosen one has anything to do with the world of sports.
“He’s a man, and let’s leave this topic at that,” the former world champion said with a laugh.
At the same time, the girl stated that she is not yet ready for family life and at this stage prefers career development.
“It even amuses me that someone wants me to get married as soon as possible. Or (they ask) “when are the children?” This doesn’t offend me or hurt me in any way. That is, I take such comments calmly,” Tuktamysheva shared.
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva
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© Alexander Wilf
Tutberidze's debut as a TV presenter
On the TV channel “Friday!” The first episode of the reality show about weight loss “Big Girls” was released, hosted by Eteri Tutberidze. The program involves 13 girls weighing more than 100 kg, who will have to undergo various physical and psychological tests and lose weight at the same time. Once a week, one of them, who will lose the least kilogram, will leave the site. The winner will receive a prize of 1 million rubles.
“One of the most successful figure skating coaches in the world. She trained a record number of Olympic champions. Eteri Georgievna Tutberidze. The whole world watches her methods of work, she is criticized and praised. But it is her signature style of work that guarantees the best result. The director of the weight loss base will control every kilogram, because in weight loss, as in sports, discipline determines the result,” this is how the famous specialist was introduced in the program.
The show's participants greeted Tutberidze's appearance in the program with great enthusiasm. For example, Amina Usmanilaeva admitted that she was delighted with the coach and her working methods.
“I swear, I watched all the videos with her. I know what a tough, strict, powerful woman she is. An ordinary person would not have produced so many Olympic champions. I love such tough people,” the girl said.
However, in the first issue Tutberidze did not show her severity and inexorability in any way. On the contrary, she supported the participants as best she could and twice during the series decided not to kick the girls out, although the rules required it.
CAS verdict in the Valieva case
While Tutberidze is trying himself in a new role, discussions in the world of figure skating continue to discuss the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the case of Kamila Valieva. Last week, the reasoning for the decision was published, which stirred up a new wave of questions and comments. Thus, the news that Eteri Georgievna did not personally participate in the CAS hearings, as well as her statement that she “does not control and does not discuss medications prescribed to athletes with the team doctors,” was received ambiguously. According to RT columnist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, these words sound immoral.
“I believe that if a coach works with children, then he must know what the person training with him is taking and for what reason. Because this is directly related to how to calculate the load, how to prepare a person. And for me this is such a very ugly moment in this whole story - such active attempts by the coach to withdraw himself, to generally remain on the sidelines,” said the Olympic champion.
In turn, TV commentator Yolanda Chen said that after everything that happened, trust in Tutberidze among numerous figure skating fans would be undermined.
“She has a huge army of fans, many people stand up for her. But any society is divided into two parts: one believes that Eteri is categorically right in everything, the other part believes that her share of adult guilt as a coach is there. <…> I believe that Tutberidze herself gained some experience from this situation. In the future, the team will truly monitor everything,” Chen is quoted as saying by Metaratings.ru.
And former Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said that the full text of the CAS decision left even more questions. He was especially surprised that CAS treated Valieva as an adult athlete and imposed a punishment without taking into account her status as a protected person.
“But she was only 15 years old, at that age few people understand everything. In this situation, adults should have been much more serious. At the same time, I admit that sabotage could have taken place; such cases have happened. I remember a story when one Italian fencer slipped a prohibited substance into another and he was eventually not allowed to participate in the Olympics. But we still need to prove this, but how to do this? I would really like to know what really happened. To figure out who is to blame, whether there was negligence,” RIA Novosti quotes Kolobkov.
Canadian claims
Meanwhile, the NOC of Canada stated that they intend to seek bronze medals for their team at the 2022 Olympics figure skating team tournament. According to them, the ISU made a mistake when redistributing awards after Valieva’s disqualification. According to Svetlana Zhurova, Canadians are simply ashamed that even without the results of a whole type of program, the Russian team beat them in terms of total points.
“And now they are winning bronze from us. This is completely unacceptable. I think that our Olympic Committee will even compete for a gold medal,” said the State Duma deputy.
Dmitry Guberniev noted that the Canadians are “strangled by a toad,” but the Russian side will still “punish” them in court. And Alexander Zhulin even stated that he does not care about the efforts of his rivals.
“Yes, let them get bronze, we still won’t get it. I do not mind. For us, we are still first, and I don’t care who gets what next after first place,” said the coach.
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© Alexander Wilf