Tatiana Tarasova: “At our Nationals, there were more fans than at the U.S. Nationals. We also outperform the Americans in programs, our compositions are better.”
Tatiana Tarasova believes that interest in figure skating has increased in Russia and compares the programs of Russian and American figure skaters.
Tatiana Tarasova discusses the growing interest in figure skating in Russia, compares Russian and American programs, and reflects on the strength of Russian coaching and audiences. Here’s a translation of her comments.
“At our National Championships, for example, there were more fans than at the U.S. Nationals. Of course, their arenas are huge, but even there, the lower sections were almost full. When I worked there and watched everything live, their arenas were packed. This means that their interest in figure skating has faded a bit, while ours, on the contrary, has grown.
And if there is interest, then there is an audience for whom to perform programs. For this wonderful public, which breathes together with you and allows you to breathe, just as it was at the Russian Nationals. It was amazing – the audience breathed with the athletes and helped them perform their programs,” said Tarasova.
“We outperform the Americans in programs. That’s for sure – in the free skates, in all of them. In my opinion, our compositions are better, if you compare the top six pairs from each country. And it’s very important to see this, right? To see and understand what we need to focus on next time, when we are allowed to compete internationally again.
Unfortunately, they are not in a hurry to let us return. We recently had a wonderful Russian Nationals, and it was strong in every discipline.
Now, both the younger generation of coaches and we, the specialists, are still active and not sitting silently. Everyone is working – Tamara Moskvina is working, Alexei Mishin is working, and I am working too.
I don’t coach anyone directly, but I can ask questions to each of the outstanding coaches. That’s a big deal, I think. I can talk with each of them about anything and watch their athletes’ performances,” said Tarasova.
Related topics: Russian Nationals, Tatiana Tarasova, US Nationals
We’ve all seen the wonderful Russian fans at the Sochi games. Booing non Russian skaters, cheering when they made mistakes, aggressively shouting, leaving in the middle of competition.. we remember.
Again, speaking about woman’s here, the programs are technically more challenging, artistically or regarding composition, they are not. Of course, whether a program touches you or not is still a personal individual thing, but there is no outperforming everyone else in composition happening here.