“I couldn’t understand why people were writing those things. What harm had a young girl, just doing her job and winning gold medals, done to anyone?” Adelina Sotnikova on criticism she faced as a child in the sport
Adelina Sotnikova on childhood criticism and the challenges of maintaining athletic form
original source: Championat / Championat
Olympic champion Adelina Sotnikova shared her experiences dealing with online criticism as a young skater and reflected on the discipline required to maintain her physical form after pregnancy while continuing her career in ice shows. Here’s a translation of her comments.
Adelina Sotnikova, the 2014 Sochi Olympic figure skating champion, opened up about the difficulties she faced with criticism as a child in the sport.
“What fears did I have? The fear of making a mistake, the fear of letting my team down, and the fear of stepping onto the ice knowing that a crowd of people was watching you and would later judge you. Whether my performance was bad or good, I knew they would say something negative. Those thoughts got stuck in my head, and it wasn’t easy to overcome.
When I was 13, back when there were many figure skating forums, I was competing in my first Grand Prix stages. I won every competition. One day, my mom went on the computer to watch one of my performances and, out of curiosity, we started reading the comments.
I wish I hadn’t read them. I ended up crying, saying I didn’t want to do the sport anymore. I couldn’t understand why people were writing those things. What harm had a young girl, just doing her job and winning gold medals, done to anyone? Why were people so cruel?
My mom stepped in and said, ‘That’s it, no more internet. We won’t read these anymore; we’ll just focus on doing our work.’”
Sotnikova also reflected on the challenges of maintaining her physical form, particularly after pregnancy.
“How do I manage to stay in shape? During pregnancy, I gained a lot of weight – I weighed 70 kilograms when I went into labor.
Is there a life hack for losing weight? Honestly, no. There’s no shortcut. It’s all about discipline. It requires hard work and patience. Of course, I wanted to eat tasty, rich, fatty, sweet food – I love sweets. And I adore salty snacks.
But I understood that if I wanted to continue my wonderful job – performing in ice shows where I currently love skating – then it would be uncomfortable to skate at such a weight, even at 60 kilograms. I would feel like a little barrel on the ice, really. You step out on the rink, see yourself in the mirror later, and tears fill your eyes.
So it comes down to this: either you take control of yourself, or you don’t,” said the Sochi 2014 Olympic champion.
Related topics: Adelina Sotnikova
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