Maxim Trankov: As soon as Medvedeva wins another World or European Championships, she will be loved again

Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov about shows, coaching and Evgenia Medvedeva.

You left the big sport, now you skate in ice shows. These performances are interesting to the viewer. But how the Olympic champions can have excitement of such performances?

Tatiana: I like the opportunity to grow in an emotional and acting manner. You can play many different roles. Even competed in  championships and Olympic Games first of all I competed with myself. So I get the needed adrenaline now. It seems that you can make mistakes on the ice now, but I want to show, first of all myself, that I am skating perfectly. I still want to perform more and more often.

Maxim: I did not have thoughts to return to the big sport, or to perform at the Olympics. Because I achieved the goal I set for myself – Tanya and I won the Olympic gold medal. I had nothing more to say on the competitive ice, I need to develop further.

Coaching?

Tatiana: I’m not interested in this.

Maxim: I now began to coach Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov. In 2015, they started the season with me, but then it was a test of the pen, I was recovering from the injury and helped the guys a little. As a result, that season was successful for them, probably that’s why they asked me again.

They are European champions, silver medalists of the Olympics in Korea. Now their goal is an Olympic medal?

Maxim: There are four years till the Olympics, of course, this is the main goal. We agreed with the guys to try to work together for one season, and then we will decide whether to continue or not.

They say that coaches earn a little. Is this really a problem?

Maxim: In figure skating, the main problem now is the lack of coaching staff. Many athletes would like to work as coaches, but they can not afford it. Coaches in figure skating are real altruists and heroes. I agreed to this work not because of money, for me it is a challenge. I decided to take it and see what happens.

Did they offer you to go abroad?

Maxim: There were offers from the US and other countries to supervise pairs or to develop pair skating. For me and Tanya it’s easy to pack and move to another country, but for now I feel that I’m needed in Russia. I’m not going anywhere.

Tatiana: We have here not only work, but also our mothers.

Now the most discussed topic in your sport is Evgenia Medvedeva, who broke up with her coach Eteri Tutberidze and moved to Canada. Why do people attack her?

Maxim: Because for many years people have seen an ideal picture of Eteri Georgievna’s relations with Zhenya Medvedeva, their result of work. But any athlete wants to develop after the achieved result, then you have to make some decisions. Sometimes they are connected with the change of coach. If Zhenya loses, then she will lose this duel with the fans. But as soon as Zhenya wins another World or European championships, she will be loved again. Criticism will end after the first big victory. We, athletes, are used to the fact that Russian fans are evil and demanding. Therefore, we treat them with respect, but we try not to react to provocations.

Did you face many provocations?

Maxim: Different things have happened. Our book “Two sides of the coin” will be published soon. At one time I liked the autobiography of tennis player Andre Agassi because of his frankness: he was not afraid to lose advertising contracts and told about his relations with drugs, tennis federation. In this book, I also tried to be frank. For example, for the first time I tell how my friends in St. Petersburg tried drugs and how I resisted temptation.

by Inna Fedotova for teleprogramma.pro

Related topics: Evgenia Medvedeva, interview, Tatiana Volosozhar Maxim Trankov