The 2020 European figure skating champion, Russian athlete Alena Kostornaya explained why she decided to leave coach Eteri Tutberidze to the Evgeni Plushenko Academy. She told about this to reporters on Saturday, September 12.
One of the reasons that was possible was the last straw, the skater called the need to skate on the same ice with children born in 2010. According to her, the girls need to somehow be explained that adult athletes “will not give you any favors” and should not interfere with them.
“It was always like that in my childhood. I was taken out on the adult ice, if you interfere with someone, you will leave here, “RIA Novosti quotes Kostornaya.
The athlete added that she had complained and asked to do it differently. But they did not go to meet her.
The figure skater made the decision to leave on July 17. Before the next training session, she recalls, “I realized that there were problems in relationships, misunderstanding, loss of connect.” After that, the champion called Sergey Rozanov (the coach who switched from Tutberidze to Plushenko in May together with Alexandra Trusova) and asked about the transfer to Plushenko.
Alena also admitted that her opinion was not always listened to when staging programs. So, for example, the short program for the new season, which they managed to stage at Tutberidze, she did not like at all. In “Angels Plushenko”, as Kostornaya said, a completely different approach.
At the same time, the skater expressed her gratitude to the previous coaching staff.
The fact that 16-year-old Kostornaya is moving from Tutberidze, with whom she trained since 2017, to Evgeni Plushenko, became known on July 31. The skater declined to comment on her decision.
In May, another ward, the bronze medalist of the European Championship, Alexandra Trusova, passed from Tutberidze to Plushenko. She thanked Tutberidze for her cooperation and said that the new coach for her is “not only a great athlete, but above all an outstanding personality and a real person who took all the challenges, withstood and won.”