Evgenia Medvedeva: “I won the Worlds twice. And both times the pattern from the coaches was the same: You are nobody. Leave your medal over there, shove it up your ass. What, a star? No damn star. You have the Olympics ahead, go work.”
Evgenia Medvedeva about coaches’ actions to prevent star fewer.
original source: Evgenia Medvedeva Youtube show “No Comments”
In her Youtube show Evgenia Medvedeva discussed the coaching methods used to counteract star fever among their skaters. Here’s a translation of her comments.
“I won the World Championship twice. And both times the pattern was the same: you win – on that day you’re happy; the next day you perform in exhibitions – you’re happy; you come home, the coach puts you on the ice and says: ‘You are nobody. You’re just nobody. You’re an athlete. Leave your medal over there, shove it up your ass. What, a star? No damn star. You have the Olympics ahead, go work.’
And this ‘you are nobody, you are nobody, you are nobody’… You know, how hurtful, how painful it was at that moment? What do you mean ‘I am nobody’? But I have a medal! A world record! How can you even say that? What ingratitude?
Years pass. And I see athletes who were told ‘you are a champion’, ‘you are this’, ‘you are golden’. Now, there’s a difference in how I grew up and how other athletes grew up. Not all, absolutely. Usually, everyone is grounded, but there are those who think ‘we are all that’.
Only now do I begin to understand that back then, I was being told the right thing. It didn’t mean I was nobody. It meant that if I understood what to do with it, I could become someone in the future,” shared the two-time World Figure Skating Champion Medvedeva on the show “Bes Komentariev” (No Comments).
Related topics: Evgenia Medvedeva
Actually, what the coaches did was extremely effective, you can’t let them succumb to stardom with the first medal they win, otherwise they won’t be motivated, and will pout when they don’t get a medal. Tutberidze said that both Medvedeva and Trusova chased after medals…You can’t let your guard down in this sport, or you will vanish as quick as warm breath on a cold day.
This girl really drank the kool-aid didn’t she. There must be better ways to motivate & ground a person than treat like that.