“I don’t see any disaster in sports, but I see a disaster in health” Plushenko about Kostornaia’s performance at the Russian Cup Final
Evgeni Plushenko about Alena Kostornaia’s short program at the Russian Cup Final.
Evgeni Viktorovich, there is an official mark for Alena’s performance – 70.14. What is your?
Evgeni Plushenko: I want to say that Alena still cannot recover after covid, but she still decided to compete. I wanted to withdraw her, but she said that she would perform till the end. She went to compete, to fight. To date, what she has shown these are the consequences of covid. But well done that she decided to compete anyway. She wants to fight, go to the World championships. Tomorrow is another day, she will do her best. And those scores that are given – it means that she deserved them. This is not her best skating. Everyone has covid in his own way, she has such consequences.
At the beginning of the year, you said that the recovery seemed to be successful. After all, did it turn out no?
Evgeni Plushenko: Yes, it still affects. She had a severe sore throat after covid and was treated again. It turns out she can’t restore her former shape for now. She had angina three weeks ago.
Alena skated a new program, it seemed that it was rough. Have you started skating it recently?
Evgeni Plushenko: Yes, the program is new, we choreographed it right after the covid. But it seems to me that this is not the point here. The new program is great, the old one too. She’s just not able to because of her health. Hopefully, we will survive all this, fight it over. Therefore, tomorrow there is one more day, you need to perform, to show what you are capable of. No competitions is a road to nowhere.
But the free program is longer than the short one. Are there any concerns?
Evgeni Plushenko: This is a big problem. Therefore, we will discuss with Alena how she feels. She wants to go all the way, so she says. We discussed this with Seryozha Rozanov, I suggested maybe skipping this season completely, but she replied: “I will finish it, I will fight.” We agreed with her decision.
In your opinion does she stay in the mix?
Evgeni Plushenko: Of course! Seven points can be won back. Whether she can skate the program is the question. Yes, there were run-throughs in training, she skated the entire program. If we had seen that she couldn’t do this, we would have withdrawn her from the competition. But she can do this. But competition is competition, and training is training. We understand everything perfectly well. But such a trouble happened, Alena got sick very badly.
source: sport-express.ru dd. 27th February 2021 by Dmitri Kuznetsov
Evgeni Plushenko: Alena still can’t recover from the coronavirus. And after covid she had a strong sore throat, her immune system was completely compromised.
She will fight in the free program. It will be very difficult for her, physically, but she can do it. And we can only wish her good luck and patience.
All athletes have failures, so there is no need to “bury” Alena. Whole life is ahead. Now the main thing for her is to recover, finish this event and move on.
I don’t see any disaster in sports, but I see disaster in health. Because there is a real complication to immunity after covid. We will not leave Alena, we are together, as they say, in joy and sorrow. We are always there for her.
source: rsport.ria.ru dd. 27th February 2021
Related topics: Alena Kostornaia, Evgeni Plushenko
Agreed – In the case of Alena’s recent disappointing performance, it is not Coach Plushenko’s problem at all. By shifting back and forth between coaches, one seems to point the blaming finger of their failure only at the coaches, which is not fair. If the skater is not matured enough to realize this, then the adults around her who either make or support these decisions for her need to be aware that these moves are doing her career and reputation a disservice.
What I wrote above- please no mistake!!
I must add: Professor Myshin is also in my opinion an excellent, a (the) God-blessed coach. H e is of course not the mediocre- this was not my meaning. It was the statement of himself. As a coach I think – all can bow their head in front of him.
No- Aljona is at the moment not ill. She
h a d and has problems of motivation too (she w a s seriously ill, yes, there were lacks of teeining), but now she
c o u l d and wanted to fight. Who will forbid this? She had to see the athmosphere of a competition in her own country this year a n d she had to see, were her place is- now! It was not a coaching propblem. And when she came too late to the training here- it was no illness, it was a lack of motivation. How was professor Myshin saying: An excellent coach and a mediocre (or not enough motivated)pupil brings nothing, a mediocre coach and a high talented, motivated pupil is all! I’m happy for Lisa!
As much as I respect Alena’s will to fight, it was not a wise decision to go out to give a subpar show, knowing she was not ready. Hopefully Alena will take this experience as lesson-learned and move on. As a fan, I did expect to see her back to her level in 2019 at this competition and I have to say I was disappointed, not only for her performance but also her work attitude- I noticed she was the last one to come to the preparation room for both days of the competition, even her coaches arrived earlier. Perhaps this was due to her health situation…Once her health condition improves, hope she can work as hard as possible to restore her 3A and levels of other elements. She might even need to go an extra mile to learn a quad jump, in order to be in the mix for consideration of competing at Olympics representing Russia. And all these, means serious and hard work, which is the key for consistency. She is such a beautiful and talented skater and it would be a mighty shame and tragedy that she will never be able to show us anything same or better than her performance at 2019 Grand Prix Final.
Well team Tutberidze did exactly the same with Anna at Russian Nationals…
It’s the choice of the athlete after all. Alena isn’t a small child.
This time. it doesn’t matter what Alena thinks. A true athlete -or his/her brain- will always fight to the end; however it is the responsibility of the coach to educate and to take the right decision. There could be a miracle and Alena scores high, but allowing her to run the FP is irresponsible. Did you listen Plushenko” IRRESPONSIBLE !!!