Elena Ilinykh: “I couldn’t grasp the term “disposable skaters.” Then I realized that these girls are made disposable by the system that isn’t designed to give them a chance to get through puberty, injuries.”
Elena Ilinykh about diets in sports, doping and children in sport being driven by their parent’s ambitions.
original source: RT dd. 4th September by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya
In the Interview with RT Elena Ilinykh talks about diets in sports, doping, Swan Lake program, relationships in pair and children in sport being driven by their parent’s ambitions. Here’s a translation of her comments related to figure skating.
“Elena Ilinykh: I’ve always believed that it’s essential to address critical issues related to one’s profession. In figure skating, and in ballet for that matter, one such issue is diet pills. It’s a genuinely big problem. However, now when it’s brought up by someone from the skating community, I sometimes think that addressing it might be pointless. At best, journalists will call Tatiana Tarasova, who will say that this problem doesn’t exist in the sport. It turns out that the person who dared to speak up about the issue was actually deceiving everyone. So, why discuss anything at all? Although, for me, this is a bit strange.
Q: I have always believed that banned pharmacology in figure skating is nonsense, yet now we’re starting to get used to the fact that from time to time, some skaters get caught using diuretics. Are you surprised by this?
Elena Ilinykh: Actually, yes. It seems to me that from childhood, we are ingrained with the idea that diuretics are the most dangerous and foolish thing there is. Although the same can’t be said for laxatives, which are allowed, and if one person uses them, others might follow their example. You can’t eat meat from China because it might contain banned hormones. So, it seems like no one systematically talks about this or reminds us, but all figure skaters have certain rules ingrained in their minds. Similarly, it’s an unspoken rule that when you go for medical examinations, you must claim you have no pain! Because otherwise, there’s a good chance you won’t be allowed to compete. I believe there are no real-life instances where a skater went to a doctor, got prescribed pills, and actually started taking them.
Q: Is ballet just as harsh?
Elena Ilinykh: It’s a bit different. In this profession, people with issues regarding excess weight or discipline are weeded out quite early, it seems. Although, there’s a topic that Sergei and I often discuss at home. Imagine: a child has been kept in ballet for many years, praised by their teachers as talented, worked hard, danced well, everyone was satisfied… But then suddenly at 15 or 16 years old, they’re told: here’s a week, if you don’t lose weight, you can go away. Does this mean that any talented person is worthless just because they didn’t lose the required amount of weight in a week? I think this problem exists in sports too and it’s really big.
Back when discussions about women’s singles skating began, I couldn’t grasp the term “disposable skaters”. I wondered: why are they disposable? Everyone starts skating very early, works hard for many years before achieving any titles. Then it dawned on me that these girls are made disposable by the system. A system that isn’t designed to deal with someone, to give them a chance to get through puberty, some injuries.
Q: Unfortunately, although I still personally want to see Kamila Valieva back on the ice after a four-year disqualification. By the way, I wanted to ask: How strict was the doping control within your team before the Sochi Games?
Elena Ilinykh: In our case, the control was incredibly harsh. Like all other athletes, I recorded every move in the ADAMS system, but an interesting situation happened once. International doping officers arrived in Russia unexpectedly and called me from Novogorsk saying, according to the computer system, you should be at the base, but we can’t find you here.
I was terrified. I started apologizing and explained that our training schedule had changed, resulting in an unplanned day off, so I went to Moscow and was at a tea house on Tverskaya Street. I was told, “Stay there, we’ll come to you.”
After some time, two doping officers, a woman and a man, arrived and right there in the tea house, I went with them to the restroom to provide a sample.
Q: I can imagine the reaction of those around you.
Elena Ilinykh: Actually, everything was very calm and respectful; nobody tried to catch me out, even though the officers had every right to flag me for not being in Novogorsk. I wasn’t worried about the test result at all since I’ve never taken any pills, not even painkillers. My body generally reacts very poorly to any kind of pharmacology, experiencing swellings or other disturbances.
Q: Frankly, you quite surprised me with your recent and emotionally warm tribute to the former president of the figure skating federation, Valentin Piseev, when he passed away. Throughout the years I’ve been involved in figure skating, I’ve heard either disapproval or fear towards this leader, but never affection. And sports officials were never particularly fond of you either. What exactly influenced your attitude?
Elena Ilinykh: First of all, no one is obliged to love anyone in sports. But Valentin Nikolaevich always supported me — I could feel it. His wife Alla Shekhovtsova, who judged all our competitions for many years, on the other hand, was always very strict with us and Nikita [Katsalapov], made many remarks, and I know many people believed that Shekhovtsova favored another pair in the dance events. In the Olympic season, we had just choreographed “Swan Lake,” and all sports officials came to watch us. Vitaly Mutko, his deputy Yuri Nagornykh, the leadership of the figure skating federation — everyone was competing in praising how amazing and marvelous it was, not just a performance but pure delight.
Some time later, Alla Shekhovtsova came to our training. She watched the dance, called us over, took out a notebook, and said, “So, your lift lasts more than ten seconds, you need to either shorten it or redo it entirely.” And similar comments followed for every part of our program.
Later, I realized that if we had left the dance in its original form, we surely would have lost a lot of points. There wouldn’t have been a third place in the individual event, and perhaps, Nikita and I wouldn’t have been performing in the team event. I puzzled over it: if Alla Shekhovtsova didn’t really like us, she could have chosen not to give any feedback at all, right? It turns out that it’s not a matter of love or dislike, but primarily of professionalism.
Q: In Russian dance over the last two years, so many pairs have split up that it makes one wonder whether the issues within a partnership can be so overwhelming that it’s easier to part ways?
Elena Ilinykh: For some, parting may indeed be the only right decision. Nikita and I had many situations where we could have split up. I was often wrong, there were times when he was wrong, but we forgave each other a lot because we understood we were skating for the Olympics.
Now, I feel that most of the time people subconsciously believe that with another partner, or another coach, things will be better. And they start looking around. It’s the same in life: quite a few people are always trying to find some ideal they have built in their minds, not realizing that perfection doesn’t exist.
Another thing is that I truly see no topic for discussion when it comes to the current state of Russian ice dance because among those searching for a better life, there isn’t a single pair I would genuinely want to discuss.
Q: How often do you find yourself involved in extreme projects like the one in Alaska, where you filmed a music video with Australian singer Sia?
Elena Ilinykh: It happened like this: I really liked one of Sia’s songs, I mentioned it to Sergey, and started dancing to it at home. My husband saw it and said, “What’s the problem? Let’s do it!” We couldn’t just take the song. If you’re making a video and want to post it on YouTube, getting permission to use the music isn’t enough; you also have to pay royalties. Nonetheless, I informed the agent of our intentions, and sometime later, I was told all formalities were settled, and I could choose any of five songs for the video. Eventually, Sia herself posted about the video on her channel, but we couldn’t start implementing this idea since I was expecting our second child.
Several months after the birth of our second son, we flew to America and revisited the project—we began looking for a place where we could find ice in March. That’s how we ended up considering Alaska and its stunningly beautiful caves.
Q: What do these projects offer you besides the thrill? Do the expenses pay off?
Elena Ilinykh: Of course not. It’s just pleasure. But, if you think about it, much of our life is built on emotions. They are remembered for a long time, which is what makes them valuable. On the other hand, I probably would never have been able to pull off a project like this myself — I would agonize myself with doubts. My husband is built quite differently: if he wants to do something, he believes it must be done! He is truly the creative driver in our family.
Q: Your partner in “The Master and Margarita” ballet, Igor Mirkurbanov, admitted that he can’t take his eyes off you when you’re on stage. Do you feel a sense of your own magnetism?
Elena Ilinykh: I definitely felt it in sports. It wasn’t so much that everyone was watching me, so I had to perform well, but rather the opposite: I tried to skate in such a way that everyone, absolutely everyone, would watch me. That was true in competitions, during the six-minute warm-up before performing, and even just in training. That’s not the case in the theater, although in “The Master and Margarita,” a significant part of the second act has me alone on stage and obviously everyone in the audience watches me. Perhaps, I still lack stage experience. Plus, in any new field, I’m always very critical of myself. Mostly, I’m thinking about what I need to do and making a lot of effort to do everything well, which creates totally different feelings.
Q: One coach once said that a professional skater can’t truly immerse themselves in a character, because they need to be focused primarily on the technique of the elements.
Elena Ilinykh: The same is true on stage. Of course, you emotionally immerse yourself in the role, trying to live it, but at the same time, you constantly keep in mind: here’s a lift, here you need to exit and immediately catch the rhythm, and so on. It’s just a bit easier for me now than it was in sports. In that sense, working with a partner, I don’t have to be focused also on performing a step or twizzle that judges will score.
Q: Evgeni Plushenko and Yana Rudkovskaya were heavily criticized for involving their son Gnome Gnomych (Alexander Plushenko) in their numerous projects. Do you envisage a moment when you might start involving your own children in performances?
Elena Ilinykh: First about Sasha Plushenko, since I’ve seen him on the ice many times. He loves skating and performing, and he’s truly excellent, so any talk that the child has no childhood falls under the category of “let them talk.” And what exactly means “no childhood”? Who can explain? In my understanding, a great childhood is when a child is engaged in what they like, and their parents support them in everything.
I’ve noticed that in figure skating, as in ballet, children constantly cry. If an element is not achieved or something else goes wrong, but everyone is in tears. And you constantly live in it, having no opportunity to step outside this circle.
Now, I think, athletes have more options to distract themselves, but in our time, besides training, there was nothing else. I still remember going to the movies with my mom. Three times throughout my entire childhood. You don’t have friends because it’s just not feasible in sports. Understandably, there are exceptions, but in most cases, it’s like that.
Q: I know the words of Alexei Mishin that parents “do not love their children well” when they don’t try hard enough in training deeply hurt you.
Elena Ilinykh: But it’s indeed true. And you constantly live with this feeling that no one loves you. You can’t complain, you can’t speak out, not to mention finding sympathy. You are constantly told: “Work! Everything else will come later.” Pleasure, free time, movies, restaurants, personal life, happiness — everything. And then sports end and you realize that the life you were accustomed to and knew is left in the past and you have no other life. No one prepared you for it, no one explained that things could be different.
In Mishin’s words, I sensed this very deep undercurrent.
Q: It’s a very challenging topic — sports children and their parents, who live out their own ambitions through their child.
Elena Ilinykh: I often think about it, especially when small children are asked what they want to be, and they, spun up by their own parents, respond: “An Olympic champion.” Makes you want to ask: “What do you know about it? Have you even seen a single performance of an Olympic champion, do you know what it takes to achieve that?” And mainly, being an Olympic champion and being happy are completely different things. Even if you win, few genuinely feel a sense of happiness at the moment of victory. More likely, a sense of emptiness and bewilderment: “What now?”
Somehow now, when I have become a mother myself, I often remember how you told me that you gave your younger daughter the chance to decide what she wants, and she quit the gymnasium and went to the art school she had dreamed of for many years and fully realized herself in that field. Although, probably at that moment you must have been disappointed in your child as well.
Q: Honestly, the disappointment was strong at first.
Elena Ilinykh: But you gave her that chance, right? Just as in our case. We definitely won’t involve our children in performances just because we do it ourselves. Although Mir loves to come on stage when the curtains are closed. He dances and performs tricks. And if someday he wants to make the stage his profession — why not?”
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Elena is living her best life! Performing in dance, marriage, motherhood. But I miss seeing her on the ice.