Anna Pogorilaya: “I explain to my athletes that they shouldn’t show if they’re in pain that everyone doesn’t care, the judges don’t care. People go out and skate with broken legs.”
Anna Pogorilaya about painful falls in figure skating.
original source: Championat
At the Russian Jumping Championships, the 12-year-old Elena Kostyleva had a painful fall on a quadruple salchow, followed by another fall on a triple lutz. It was reported that the figure skater avoided serious injury.
Anna Pogorilaya (a former single skater and now a coach) and journalist Andrei Zhurankov disscussed the situation in the “Hod Konkom” podcast. Here’s a translation of their comments.
Zhurankov: Personally, it gave me a shudder when they quickly sprayed her (with a coolant spray) and let her jump again.
Pogorilaya: I look from a coaching standpoint, you shouldn’t show it at all if you’re in pain. I explain to my athletes that everyone doesn’t care, the judges don’t care. Of course, it’s a pity. But for some reason, I felt that it wasn’t so injury-prone there.
When athletes fall face down on the ice, something cracks, or like Semenenko fell headfirst in the show – that was scary. But here, it wasn’t that scary. I was a bit skeptical about it; in principle, it could have been frozen, a little shot of painkiller, and continue. I take a somewhat cold-blooded approach to this.
Zhurankov: Ruthless coaches you are.
Pogorilaya: I am very kind, I love my athletes, it’s just that judges don’t care if something hurts for you. People go out with broken legs, broken fingers. You shouldn’t see that something hurts there.
I’ll probably be hated in the comments, but nevertheless, I think any coach would say the same. Then she sat there and cheered for others; it wasn’t visible that there was anything serious. I hope she has nothing serious.
Related topics: Anna Pogorilaya
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