“This is an absolutely logical move. None of Tutberidze’s girls won any medal on their second Olympics, none even performed there.” Yana Rudkovskaya on Alexandra Trusova’s decision to leave Tutberidze
Yana Rudkovskaya commented on Alexandra Trusova’s decision to leave the group of Eteri Tutberidze.
source: tass.ru. matchtv.ru
On Saturday it became known about the transfer of Trusova to coach Svetlana Sokolovskaya. The figure skater left Eteri Tutberidze’s group for the second time. For the first time, she moved to the academy of Evgeni Plushenko on May 6, 2020. In May 2021, Trusova returned to Tutberidze.
Yana Rudkovskaya: “Svetlana Sokolovskaya is an excellent coach, she has the first number of the national team Mark Kondratiuk in the group, one of the best juniors Sofia Samodelkina. What kind of retirement can we talk about? This is an absolutely logical move, after the Olympics it was clear that Sasha would leave.
Unfortunately, none of Eteri Georgievna’s girls won any medal on their second Olympics, none even performed there. She does not have long-livers in sport as Alexei Mishin has. Plushenko ended his career with four Olympic medals, Liza Tuktamysheva is now 24, and she has already survived three generations of the Tutberidze group – Yulia Lipnitskaya, Alina Zagitova, and Anna Shcherbakova. Also, last year Liza became vice world champion. She continues to skates and jumps triple axel.”
At the Beijing Olympics, Trusova reacted emotionally to her second place. In the free program, she performed a record five quadruple jumps, but due to mistakes in the short program, she could not bypass Shcherbakova in total points.
Yana Rudkovskaya: “It was expected that Sasha would go to another coach. I hope she will succeed in Svetlana’s group. My bets were Mishin or Sokolovskaya. Sasha has chosen Svetlana. And she done it late, I thought it would happen right after the Olympic Games.”
Trusova is 18 years old and she is a silver medalist at the Beijing 2022 Olympics in women’s singles, a bronze medalist at the 2021 World Championships and a two-time bronze medalist at the European Championships (2020, 2022). After the transfer to Sokolovskaya, there were suggestions among figure skating fans that the skater’s transfer meant the soon end of her career.
Yana Rudkovskaya: “Only couch experts who don’t understand anything in figure skating and don’t know the situation from the inside talk like that. Sasha’s career depends only on herself, and not on the coach. No matter what specialist Sasha goes to, everything will work out for her. It’s good if she has a motivation and health. Laziness is not about her, she is a fighter. No matter what coach Sasha had, she would still jumped five quads. She did them with Evgeni in Stockholm in training, however, unfortunately, she couldn’t perform them during my performance at the World Championships.
Sasha is a super talented girl, she is looking for new opportunities. I support her choice. She has done a master-move: she understands very well that this season she does not need to “kill” herself, especially since after the Olympic season all our top skaters from the Tutberidze group and who trained with her faced problems: Alena Kostornaia and Anna Shcherbakova – recover from surgeries, Kamila Valieva – without ultra-c, Maiia Khromykh and Daria Usacheva did not participate in the test skates. Why then is everyone waiting for five quads from Trusova? She is a human, not a robot.
I am friends with Sasha, her family, I have a very good relationship with her. This is an amazing girl. I know her well, she trained with Evgeni [Plushenko] for a year.
It is surprising that at first the girls moved to our coaching staff, then Alena (Kostornaia) and Sasha returned to Eteri Tutberidze. And they left again … I hope no one will say now that someone lured them away (laughs). It’s hard to comment on anything. I think that Sasha will not comment at all. Not her style. This is her decision, she is an adult athlete who knows what she’s doing.
After the World Championships in Stockholm, Sasha returned from us to Eteri Georgievna [Tutberidze] in excellent sports shape, and in super shape with Tutberidze’s staff she approached the Olympics. She became the bronze medalist of the World Championships with us, then won the silver of the Olympic Games in Beijing with Tutberidze’s group! But did this girl dream about this? I think no.
I wish her to realize all her sports dreams with Svetlana Sokolovskaya. Svetlana is a great coach and person. Both Mark Kondratiuk and Sasha Samarin are amazing guys! Sofia Samodelkina is an excellent sparring partner, this girl can jump quadruples. Sasha loves the strong persons around her.
She will have a difficult season, like many girls. I know about her back injury, but this is an athlete who is ready to pass all sports tests. She is not afraid of difficulties, she overcomes them with her unique, given by nature, perseverance. I am sure that she has not yet put an endpoint to the sport, she must continue her career and she will get a great shape. She will jump her five quads and get a well-deserved gold!
Will I root for her? Yes, of course, I will, because I sincerely admire her.
Related topics: Alexandra Trusova, Eteri Tutberidze, Yana Rudkovskaya
Sasha is not leaving Eteri in the first place. Perhaps her back issues require a rest. Yet, she’s first of all joining Mark. This season will be all about the shows anyway. There’s nothing wrong about having great relationships with most, if not all the former coaches – who can become the next coaches at any point. Svetlana Sokolovskaya is fantastic. Only Sasha herself knows what she needs right now.
Sasha will have a tough road no matter who is coaching her. Russia has a huge number of young, hungry girls (some of whom have the “Eteri Bonus”) looking to become the next stars of Russian skating. True, no one has the heart of a lion like Trusova & no one has her arsenal of jumps, but they have youth and are injury-free. And then there is LIZA, who just keeps getting better! That being said, I’d never bet against Sasha coming back and finally getting Gold medals, if and when Russian skaters are allowed to compete… and by the looks of things, Putin’s actions will have Russian skaters on the sidelines for years to come, so all of this will be a moot point.
LoL. Has any of theirs ever skate at JGPF ?
An expert has spoken…
How many non-Tutberidze girls even qualified to at least one olympics, not to mention winning a medal there, since Eteri’s team got among the top? After all multiple medalist from the olympics is pretty rare occupation among skating women all over the world. Rudkovskaya should start using her brain before speaking.