Tamara Moskvina: “If you compare the top pairs, there isn’t much difference in terms of technical content. Russian athletes have a certain advantage in musicality, program presentation, and overall artistic impression.”

Interview with Tamara Moskvina.

original source: RT dd. April 3d. by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya

In an interview with RT, Tamara Moskvina speaks about the admission of Russian skaters to the Olympic qualifying event, Aleksandr Galliamov’s injury and competition with Totberidze. Here’s a translation.

Interesting remark from the interviewer: “We initially planned to reschedule the interview, despite having a prior agreement. Moskvina openly admitted that she was dealing with a combination of things: her busy schedule, accumulated fatigue at the end of the week, and the injury of one of her athletes, which wasn’t helping her mood. But a few minutes later, phone buzzed again. “Change of plans. I thought it would be entirely wrong on my part to cancel the interview, so I told myself: ‘Tamara, you’re losing your form…'”

“Q: This season didn’t end as you might have hoped for your group — I’m referring to Aleksandr Galliamov’s injury. Was it just an unfortunate accident, or a failure within the body?

Tamara Moskvina: I would call it a coincidence. As they say, you’re walking down the street, and suddenly a brick falls on your head. Does that kind of thing happen?

Q: You’re forcing me to quote Mikhail Bulgakov: “A brick will never just fall on someone’s head out of nowhere.”

Tamara Moskvina: Very rarely, but such things do happen. Another question is whether certain circumstances may lead to this, and we could talk for a long time about that. But I don’t want to analyze what has already happened — it feels like a waste of time. The focus should be on finding a way out of this situation with minimal losses, ensuring that the athlete recovers as well and as quickly as possible.

Q: What are you occupied with at the moment? Are you planning new programs or strategies?

Tamara Moskvina: I’m always doing that, not just at the end of each season. Typically, a year before the Olympics, you start thinking not only about those Games but also what comes afterward — who you’ll prepare by then and who you’ll continue working with.

Q: The news that Russian figure skaters might be allowed to compete in Olympic qualifiers and, subsequently, at the Milan Games caused quite a buzz among many. How did you react?

Tamara Moskvina: Even during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent suspension of Russian figure skaters from international competitions, our preparation honestly didn’t change. Just as the suspension was unexpected, reinstatement could happen unexpectedly as well. From the start, I maintained the position that my athletes should always be prepared to compete, even if the competition were to happen tomorrow. That’s the first point. Secondly, domestic competitions have continued. There’s still competition, there are competitors who also want to win. And lastly, there are spectators who want to see good skating.

Q: So there’s no reason to give up hope?

Tamara Moskvina: Exactly. The task of athletes is, no matter what, to entertain people with their skating. At the same time, they must show that it’s possible to strive for the best and continue improving, even under challenging circumstances.

Q: What is your opinion on skaters becoming more media-active during isolation, posting more on social media? Does this hinder their progress?

Tamara Moskvina: It’s probably understandable. Everyone wants to be known not just for their profession but to increase their overall recognition. Who knows, some private sponsors or organizations might notice them and consider future collaborations?

Q: But you do realize that the strongest driver of an athlete’s media presence is their results, correct?

Tamara Moskvina: Not necessarily. For example, in figure skating, women’s singles has always been the most media-attractive discipline.

Q: Even during periods when Russia wasn’t winning much?

Tamara Moskvina: Perhaps not in Russia, but in the United States, yes. From an advertising perspective, female figure skating is inherently more appealing. It connects with industries like cars, cosmetics, clothing, jewelry, plastic surgery, tourism, active lifestyle, health preservation, and so forth.

What can pair skaters advertise? The first image that might come to mind would be a billboard showing the male partner holding the female partner in a lift with some words about reliability or confidence. And frankly, it’s generally easier to remember a single name rather than recalling who skated with whom in pairs, especially over time.

Q: In your group, is the process of developing Olympic programs more of a collective brainstorming session or do you make the major decisions independently?

Tamara Moskvina: I never try to act authoritarian. My preference is to guide people toward the decision I believe to be correct. The logic here is simple: How many World Championships and other competitions have my athletes seen in their lifetimes? How many programs have they created in their careers, and how many have I overseen during the nearly 50 years I’ve been in this profession? Rejecting such experience wouldn’t be particularly wise.

Q: You often invite different choreographers. What guides your decisions when choosing who to work with?

Tamara Moskvina: It’s a fairly simple calculation. Who will be the most comfortable to work with, who is available, and who will be the most effective at fulfilling the tasks we set for ourselves? It’s purely a practical decision.

No matter how brilliant the choreographer, their work will always be adjusted by the coach. For exhibition programs, you can choreograph anything. But in competitions, the athletic factor takes precedence — compliance with the rules, achieving a certain level of difficulty to ensure the best score through flawless execution. Accordingly, the program needs to be designed to minimize the risk of mistakes. It must stand out from others while simultaneously creating the impression of a choreographic masterpiece.

What’s important is that I don’t try to make all of my students fit the same mold. I strive to ensure that all pairs are unique. My primary task is to prepare athletes who can contend for higher positions in the nation’s sporting hierarchy. At the same time, we always look at what’s happening worldwide and consider how our skaters can compare. To put it simply, our motto is to do excellently, no matter the circumstances.

Q: How significant, in your opinion, is the gap between Russian pairs and those who competed at the last World Championships?

Tamara Moskvina: If you compare the top pairs, there isn’t much difference in terms of technical content. Our athletes have a certain advantage in musicality, program presentation, and overall artistic impression. But whether international judges will recognize and appreciate that when we return remains to be seen.

Q: Deanna Stellato-Dudek, at 40 years old, won last year’s World Championships with Maxime Deschamps and continues to compete. Is this an anomaly in pair skating, or is the sport evolving to favor longevity?

Tamara Moskvina: I wouldn’t call it an anomaly. In earlier times, it was common to leave amateur sports earlier, but all our champions continued participating in various professional shows for a fairly long time. If those shows had required jumps or other elements, I’m confident they would have done them. At 40 years old, if you stay in shape and train appropriately, why not?

Q: So you and Alexei Mishin could have extended your skating careers by another decade?

Tamara Moskvina: I retired at 29, but not because I was out of shape. I simply thought, “We could win another medal or receive another award, but if there’s a risk of losing the chance to have children or delaying their birth, the choice seems obvious.” Also, I wanted to have my thesis defence, which I had already prepared but needed to formalize properly.

Q: Did Mishin support you in this decision right away?

Tamara Moskvina: He thought about such things too — the only difference being that as a man, he could afford to start a family later. A career in sports, regardless of the level at which you compete, is finite.

Q: Does the coaching profession also have a time limit?

Tamara Moskvina: It does, if you lack a constant source of inspiring ideas or motivation that drives you toward your goals, regardless of age.

Q: What inspires you?

Tamara Moskvina: Probably the drive to find a training method that ensures each of my pairs can captivate both a broad audience and professionals alike.

Q: You’ve said before that coaching is not about inspiration but about craftsmanship. Do you still believe that?

Tamara Moskvina: Yes, I still think that way.

Q: Don’t you get tired of the repetitive nature of this craft, where you know each step and have to repeat them over and over again?

Tamara Moskvina: Not at all, because athletes change. Every new student requires a unique approach and framework. People have different psychologies, and every pair has a unique dynamic, which means I’m always searching for something new. That process is never boring.

But most importantly, being part of the sports world and working as a coach serves as an excellent fitness club for me. It’s a way to maintain physical health, intellectual sharpness, and emotional well-being. Coaching presents incredibly engaging challenges: how to overcome the difficulties of the profession, how not to let those challenges affect you, how to deal with monotony, and how to find motivation and inspiration techniques to make the work as enjoyable as possible for yourself.

Finally, it’s about discovering and organizing external specialists from whom I can borrow new ideas or gain additional excitement for the job.

Q: You speak about this with such passion, but when you’re asked about a rivalry with Eteri Tutberidze, to whom Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii moved from your group, you always respond that there’s no rivalry.

Tamara Moskvina: I’m not competing with Eteri. I respect her, as I do all my colleagues, and I want Mishina and Galliamov to remain strong regardless of their opponents. Besides, we’re not involved in hand-to-hand combat — it’s not about winning by knockout. In other words, we don’t pit athletes against each other. Instead, we focus them on refining the quality of their element execution. Each athlete is essentially competing with themselves at the start, trying to implement what they’ve learned and mastered during training.

It’s not entirely a “black box” for the athletes, as we coaches also put effort into achieving results, but it’s somewhat similar. A performance might turn out brilliant, or it might not. That doesn’t always depend solely on the readiness of the skaters themselves but also on the flow of the season, the nuances of their preparation, their health condition, any illnesses or injuries they’ve dealt with, and their dynamics as a pair.

Q: Fans of your pair, and others as well, are concerned about when Galliamov will be able to return to full training.

Tamara Moskvina: I told one of your colleagues this: as soon as his body says it’s ready to work. Right now, we’re fully engaged in the recovery period.

Q: If I understand correctly, there’s a strong likelihood that Mishina and Galliamov will compete in the qualification event in Beijing, meaning they need to be competition-ready by September. How much time do they typically need to reach decent competitive form?

Tamara Moskvina: A month and a half. Nastya and Sasha generally gain form very quickly. At first, they might take their time to get going, but as soon as a competition approaches, they quickly put everything together. In this regard, they’re very easy to work with. I’d even say there are no issues working with them. Before joining our group, they trained for many years with Nikolai and Lyudmila Velikov, who always had a large roster of skaters. They became accustomed to working not only under constant coaching supervision but also independently refining elements while their coaches focused on other pairs. On the other hand, I try to work with each of my pairs on a very personal, targeted level.

Q: Doesn’t that spoil the skaters?

Tamara Moskvina: It does.

Q: And how do you deal with that issue?

Tamara Moskvina: Why fight it? My responsibility is not to raise or discipline them. My responsibility is to train my students so that they are better than others.”

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