Elizabet Tursynbayeva: To perform at the Olympics, now I need to take care of my health

Elizabet Tursynbaeva told about the state of her health, preparation for the Olympic Games and relationships in the group of Eteri Tutberidze.

text version by Elena Lotsik for sports.ru dd. 10th February 2020, original video interview by QAZSPORT

About skipping competitions this season

Elizabet: This is due to the injury. I have problems with the lower back, and they started long time ago. There were questions why did I compete at the Shanghai Trophy if I had back problems?

Before this competitions, I already thought that everything would be fine. It was easier, at least I could train fully. I went to this competitions and after the performance in Shanghai, my condition worsened, because of this I could no longer participate in the Grand Prix.

Of course, this is a big loss for me, because Grand Prix is a very important competition for me. If there hadn’t been anything serious, I wouldn’t have missed them.

About whether she’s going to keep the programs for next season

Elizabet: I performed with these programs only once, I didn’t even have time to prepared them well. As I understand it, the fans liked these programs, especially the short program. Therefore, I think that it will be wrong to change them. I think we need to keep these programs.

About what is she doing now for the future Olympic Games

Elizabet: As I said, because of my injury I can’t train fully. For the Olympic Games and generally, in the near future I take care of my health. To perform at the Olympics, I need to take care about it now.

I will not tell all the details, but this is such an injury that manipulations, probably, cannot help, it rather needs rest. I recently spoke with a German doctor, he looked at my pictures and made such a conclusion.

About how the group of Tutberidze prepare for the Olympics. Is it true that they jump 200 jumps in training?

Elizabet: No, this is nonsense. This is not true, nothing like that. This is all the athlete’s desire – if he wants to prepare well for the competitions, he naturally starts jumping again and again to make sure that this jump is consistent, that he skates cleanly at competitions. Nobody forces anyone.

They are already preparing, it is such a long process – preparing for the Olympics. They participate in competitions, they win them, earn a ranking.

About relations in the group of Tutberidze

Elizabet: People who do not understand figure skating and watch from the side, for example a movie about figure skating, they often show it quite differently from reality. So much drama.

In fact, it’s not like that at all. Nobody breaks someone’s skates, nothing of such things can happen. This is a cultural sport. Everybody minds his own business, that’s all. They go to competitions, each skates his own program, then it up to the judges.

In our group – I won’t say that we’re all friends who go somewhere every day, for example, to the cinema. But we communicate well. Of course, we dress in the same locker room and talk all the time, we are not silent.

We have our own jokes, topics. Sometimes a conversation comes to such topics that we laugh our heads off. This is such a relaxing environment – before training, after training.

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