“Being a 14-year-old athlete I was told to pad my costume because I doesn’t have breasts so how are we supposed to earn points for the components?” Evgenia Medvedeva about sexualization of sports
Evgenia Medvedeva about sexualization of sports.
original source: Ksenia Sobchak Youtube channel / text version Sports
In the interview for Youtube Channel, Evgenia Medvedeva spoke about sexualization of sports and her photoshoot for Maxim magazine. Here’s a translation of her comments.
“Q: Have you ever been harassed? Or is that too personal?
Evgenia Medvedeva: There were no extreme cases, but I always say that figure skating is a special kind of sport.
Q: Can you give specific examples of what you personally encountered?
Evgenia Medvedeva: There were many such moments, but in our sport, they are probably considered the norm. Personally, I never took certain phrases and discussions about me too harshly because I roughly understood what was what. It’s not that it traumatized me significantly, I would rather just state the facts.
For instance, I’m slim and at 14, I was practically a skeleton. To tell a 14-year-old athlete to pad her costume because she doesn’t have breasts so how are we supposed to earn points for the components? Yes, I’ve heard comments directed at me like, ‘pad yourself up, are you a girl or what? You have no breasts?’ And similar remarks were quite constant.
Q: Were there any advances, harassment of that sort?
Evgenia Medvedeva: In my case, there was no harassment. No unwanted attention either.
Q: But have you seen something like that or maybe heard stories?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I haven’t seen anything with my own eyes, honestly.
Q: But is it a common thing or not?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I believe in figure skating, we still maintain some distance and subordination, because neither have I seen anything with my own eyes nor have I experienced any such actions. Only verbal stuff, conditionally, for the sake of the cause, yes, like padding for higher component scores, but that’s about it.”
In the spring of 2022, the figure skater participated in a photoshoot for Maxim magazine.
“Q: Did you enjoy posing in such an erotic, glamorous look?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I really needed that at the time. To prove to myself that I am sexy.
Q: Have doubts?
Evgenia Medvedeva: Yes, of course. Of course. I was uncomfortable during the shoot.
Q: Were you embarrassed?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I didn’t know if what I was doing was right. But it turned out that I did everything right for myself. I looked at the photos: I was tense. I didn’t like that, and I think: I need to do something about this and somehow develop myself. But I realized that I don’t want to venture into vulgarity. I tried it – that was more than enough for me.
Q: Do you think it was vulgar?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I just felt that it’s not my direction. I don’t think my shoot was super mega revealing.
Q: Did anyone scold you? For instance, your mother.
Evgenia Medvedeva: Absolutely not. My requirement for the shoot was that it had to be done in a sporty style. And the conditions of the shoot didn’t allow me to fully relax, because it was 5 AM – to make sure there was no one else in the pool. The water was freezing, and I was sleepy.”
Related topics: Evgenia Medvedeva
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