The departure of the European figure skating champion Alena Kostornaya from coach Eteri Tutberidze may be related to the athlete’s plans for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Honored coach of Russia Tatyana Tarasova stated this on Friday, July 31st.
“Each of the outstanding athletes Eteri wants to get as much attention from her as possible, because we are already talking about the Olympic Games, and now the last month when you can competently switch to another coach – no one goes anywhere in the Olympic season,” she told TASS … Tarasova added that Kostornaya’s decision was a surprise for her, because the season had already begun.
The departure of athletes from Tutberidze does not mean that she does not work well, Tarasova stressed.
“She is the best coach in the world, she works according to her own system and has the right not to change anything,” she said. According to her, a change of coach is a common thing and there are many examples of skaters switching to another specialist.
The fact that 16-year-old Kostornaya is moving from Tutberidze, with whom she trained since 2017, to Evgeni Plushenko, became known earlier on July 31. As reported by RIA Novosti, she declined to comment on her decision. It is known that the agreement on the transition was reached back in May.
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 accepted all the challenges, withstood and won”.