Nina Mozer: Tarasova – Morozov continue to compete because of one goal – Olympic Games

Interview with Nina Mozer about Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov.

by Anatoli Samokhvalov for rsport.ria.ru dd. 25th February 2020

– Training, development, competitions – it’s all Zueva. It seems to me that Marina doesn’t need help. She is a smart strategist who consults with many specialists, takes good note, but does what is necessary for the guys. Their technique has not changed much and will not change much, because they are established skaters. They had technique, they did not have consistency. So new work is aimed primarily at improving their consistency at competitions.

Why Marina, if, first of all, it was necessary to improve the level of consistency?

– She is a Russian person, and mentality is very important. After the World Championships in Saitama, we had a conversation with Zhenya and Volodya, and they asked me if I could continue working with them. But I said that in the new season I definitely wouldn’t get involved before important competitions, as it was before. It is impossible to stay in the lead without changing anything. They continue to compete because of one goal – Olympic Games.

Someone says that Marina has not trained pairs for a long time. But, you know, the experience of pair skating is needed when you are raising juniors, but two-time European champions and three-time world medalists do not need a coach who will teach them basics. To win a medal, you need to do the work according to your plan, but to take gold, you need to take risks. And risk can be brought by a new person. The idea about Marina arose last season, but the guys wanted to try to work with Maxim Trankov. And I only support all their suggestions.

After the last European Championships, we decided that I still need to get involved in preparation for the Worlds in Japan. I had one condition: we work as before, do the job without questioning my orders. They said they were ready for it. We have been preparing together for a month. This year I said that I did not want to repeat the same route. I want to look at their development from the side. Help them, but not train them. By helping I mean to help them survive in a situation that could unfold within the country. Here they can face all kinds of problems, since we have a well-known practice of division of a gold medal, which leads to the fact that in the international arena we are left without a medal. The competition can ve different, including behind the scenes.

Where there threats can come from?

– In pair skating there are people who for some reason all the time need to prove me something. But I’m not interested. But it is important for me that Zhenya and Volodya do not waste their nerves on that.

Maxim Trankov said that Tarasova / Morozov’s task is not to fight with Alexandra Boikova and Dmitri Kozlovski, but rather looked up to the Chinese Sui Wenjing and Cong Han.

– Maxim said rightly, our goals are not limited to this season, and we understand that in order to achieve the desired result, we need to work a lot, and not to make global conclusions after each competitions.

Tarasova and Morozov needed an injection in the form of new approach, or maybe you were considering the option to give the pair to Vladislav Zhovnirsky, Philip Tarasov and Arina Ushakova?

– Initially, there were three options – Marina Zueva, Richard Gauthier and Vlad Zhovnirsky. The option with Zhovnirsky wasn’t suitable, because if Zhenya and Volodya worked at our rink, then I would be in a constant process. And most of the arguments in a specific situation with a specific pair of Tarasova / Morozov were in favor of Marina. Vlad, Philip and Arina do their job very well. They work by modern concepts of pair skating for the future, and Tarasova / Morozov is a completely different approach and other tasks related to the momentary result with a desire to change.

I myself really do not want to constantly exist on the rink, I have many projects in pair skating that give me the pleasure that the daily coaching routine no longer gives. You know, one of the most talented young American pair skaters once talked to me, began to share his story, and with each new story I opened my eyes wider and wider. God, I think this is the life of Maxim Trankov! How can it be that on the other side of the globe lives the person with the same fate? I turn to my son Nikita and say: “Is this a clone?” In the end, I asked one question: “If I help this American boy, will he get Trankov’s career?” Such is my life now, I get a lot of pleasure from training camps, from periodic work with completely different pairs, from new ideas, like a show that we will have together with the group of Eteri Tutberidze.

Are you not bored without everyday work when you bring athletes to competitions and when you are directly responsible for the result?

– Not at all. In our training camps, there are talents of different nationalities. Europeans tend to absorb information like sponges. And I am pleased. In our figure skating there is so much negativity, no one smiles, no one rejoices at the success of others. There, psychologists teach not to cry over spilled milk after the defeat, and we lynch for it. There you feel like a man, here like a blotting paper.

Related topics: Evgenia Tarasova Vladimir Morozov, Nina Mozer