Daniil Glekhengauz: “People just don’t understand this. It’s not about age at all. A person won the Olympics at 15 years, achieving their biggest goal, their dream. After that, it was harder to find motivation.”
Daniil Glekhengauz about woman’s single skating, raise of age minimum, suspension of Russian athletes, Alexandra Trusova comeback and Valieva’s doping case.
original source: Sport24 dd. 25th September 2024 by Konstantin Lesik
In a interview with Sport24, Daniil Glekhengauz about moving to a new ice rink; adult skating; whether there’s a crisis in women’s singles skating; change of age minimum; working with Alexandra Ignatova (Trusova) and her performance in test skates; suspension of Russian athletes; Kamila Valieva’s doping case. Here’s a translation of his comments.
Q: We are talking in the new Eteri Tutberidze’s center. What has been the main benefit of moving?
Daniil Glekhengauz: I would call our previous rink “Khrustalny” a “cozy one-bedroom” – familiar but very small. The main difference? Now we can jump in the hall with our hands up. For many years, adult athletes couldn’t fit vertically: first Morisi Kvitelashvili, then Kamila Valieva would touch the ceiling.
Of course, “Khrustalny” is our beloved and familiar place, which everyone has grown accustomed to. It didn’t offer extraordinary conditions. But essentially, what do we need? Ice. And they took care of it as best they could; it was in good condition. It was harder with the hall, but it didn’t prevent us from working there all those years and participating in several Olympics. Now, we are in a huge modern facility.
Certainly, they say you get used to good things quickly. Here, there are more opportunities, multiple rooms, two rinks, which is also very important. Each season, Eteri Georgievna and I have June, July, and a little bit of August – it’s the time for choreographing new progams, we are on the ice approximately from ten to ten. Understandably, with breaks and rest, but our workday is very long.
To have the opportunity to skate so much and choreographed programs, we always went to Novogorsk. They provided evening ice, which was not possible at “Khrustalny.” This year, we didn’t have our traditional camp in Novogorsk because now we have enough ice.
Q: But in the records for the test skates, “Khrustalny” is still mentioned.
Daniil Glekhengauz: I think that it’s already incorrect to call us “Khrustalny” but we are so used to that name that, personally, I have no problem if our athlete is said to be from “Khrustalny.”
Q: This season you took on a group of adult skaters. Is it hard to work with them?
Daniil Glekhengauz: When I first started coaching at the public sessions, even in shopping centers, I worked a lot with adult skaters. There were those who were stepping onto the ice for the first time, and those who could skate. Therefore, it doesn’t cause difficulties for me, in some ways, it’s even a little breather — whatever you say is received with interest, every remark is listened to. Athletes get used to this, so the relationships with them are different, involving a lot of emotions.
In this group, there’s calm, sensible communication with adults who know what they want. They come to get this valuable information and comments from you: how to skate, how to push off, all the basic things in figure skating. The only difficulty is that the group includes people of different levels. Some have been skating for many years and know how to do triple jumps, stroking, etc., and some are literally coming for the first time. They just need to receive different tasks and switch between them, but otherwise, it’s quite comfortable. The enrollment is still open. If we have a lot of people, we will divide them into two groups.
Q: How far can someone go who starts figure skating after the age of 18?
Daniil Glekhengauz: I have met adult skaters who could jump all the double jumps, some even learned a double axel, so there really is no limit here. It’s just a matter of how much time you dedicate. Of course, it’s years of training, not just a couple of months. It takes from two to four years to reach such a level.
Q: Many athletes from your group performed at the test skates. How satisfied are you with how it went?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Definitely, I’m pleased with the performance of our pair — Sasha and Dima (Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitri Kozlovskii — ed. Sport24), because they presented both programs and technical elements. They trained well, prepared well, and showed very respectable skating. Our work was not in vain.
I have no questions about them; with the other guys, there are moments that we will now work on even more. In training, we discussed all the mistakes with everyone. You can always say that test skates are just the beginning of the season, that it’s not indicative. But still, we want to maintain the standard. There is a level below which we do not want the athlete to fall. We were disappointed with some moments, with the inability to show the work done. These are our emotions, possibly just mine because I’m a perfectionist.
When you work a lot, and the athlete trains a lot, even if these are “just test skates”, you still want to show the max. At such a moment, you forget that it’s just the beginning of the season, and there are still many competitions ahead, and everything can be improved. At that moment, you are still very upset if you couldn’t show what you had trained.
Q: Sasha and Dima are creative and active people. Does that make the work easier?
Daniil Glekhengauz: The main plus with this pair is that they know why they are doing this. They are already adult, established athletes, personalities. They understand why they come to training every day. This is their choice, their life’s work. As Dima says, he is now just enjoying figure skating. It’s unknown how many years the career will last, whether there will be international competitions, so you need to enjoy the process.
And when an athlete comes to you with this message, in any case, it results in good work. You don’t have to force anyone, there are no doubts about work, laziness. Yes, there can be a good day, there can be a bad day — it happens, but the work itself still goes on with immense pleasure because the athlete is also interested in this process. Of course, everyone has their problematic moments in training: Sasha is more emotional, Dima likes to lay everything out in order. And together they complement each other. They’ve formed a pair that’s been skating for many years because each with their character complements the other.
Q: Adelia Petrosian performed a triple axel at the test skates, but the quads in the free program didn’t work out. Does that reflect what happens in training?
Daniil Glekhengauz: In the short program, it’s logical, we haven’t yet skated it many times with a triple axel, it’s not yet consistent enough. It so happened that she emotionally and mentally invested everything in the triple axel, and it took a bit of her concentration away from the jump combination, which she never misses. The axel took that energy, and a small mistake appeared in the combination. Otherwise, in the program, there were times when speed was lacking, there were minor flaws in spins and step sequences. Overall, it was a respectable performance.
In the free skate, there were popped jumps. That’s bad, we were not satisfied. She understands this very well; Adelia is a smart girl. In training, we also forbid athletes to pop jumps but it’s still inevitable, everyone does it, I did it myself, including in competitions, which is why I wasn’t the highest-level athlete (laughs).
Now we will make a few adjustments to our work to try to fix these in the training process and mistakes specifically in skates. It happens that an athlete during a free skate falls or pops a jump and stops because they want a clean skate. The music turns off, the athlete starts again, and makes a clean skate. Everyone is happy, everything is great. But the first skate was bad, and it can show up in competitions, which is what happened. So we will try to correct this moment in the training process, so that the first skate is always clean.
Q: Does puberty affect mistakes?
Daniil Glekhengauz: I can’t say. We have a good relationship with Adelia, and the only thing that bothers her is increased emotionality. She knows this very well. Emotions that emerge when something does not work out greatly affect her. Instead of calmly stopping and listening to the coach, it becomes obvious that she is upset and distressed. We will also continue to work on this, we always talk about this, it’s just something that needs to be learned to control.
Q: Are you satisfied with Sofia Akatieva’s return after her break?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Naturally, Sonya missed a lot of training. It’s not without consequence. I attribute her mistake in the short program to nerves, because performances always vary slightly from training. I think she got extra nervous because of the break.
We choreographed this short program last year, and she’s already done a massive number of run-throughs over that period. I see the mistake in the jump combination as nothing but nerves.
She managed her nerves better in the free skating. Yes, there were spins that weren’t the best; we want to elevate the quality of those elements.
We haven’t started on ultra-c elements yet. We’re waiting for the athlete to say she’s ready for them. For now, we train them on the harness about two to three times a week. She enters both the axel and the toe loop. As soon as Sonya herself says she’s ready to jump without the harness, then we’ll start. Physically, she’s ready. But until she’s confident enough to overcome fear, it’s dangerous. Doubts lead to under-rotations and pops. Those attempts are the most dangerous. Sonya promised to get in the right mindset and try it soon. We’re waiting.
Q: Have you seen other coaches’ choreographies? Anyone you liked?
Daniil Glekhengauz: I haven’t seen everything yet. I watched Yuma Kagiya’s and Ilia Malinin’s performances, and I liked Yuma’s style in the free program — a modern Spain. I think if he works on it and polishes everything, it will look very good with a clean execution.
Ilia’s short program is absolutely in his style; he is organic in that music. And it’s captivating because you see that he enjoys what he’s doing. Yes, he doesn’t yet have his skating skills at the highest level, but the choreography has a lot of nuances that smooth it over.
Q: This season skaters are allowed to do back flips. Do you forbid or allow it?
Daniil Glekhengauz: We have never taught back flip before, so we haven’t gotten to that yet. You’d need to hire people who can oversee during training because it is very risky. Nika Egadze said he wants to learn it. I think by the end of this season, we will be looking for people who can teach him this element. If any of our kids want to learn, we certainly won’t hinder them, but we’re not at the point where we say “today, we’re learning back flips.”
Q: Did you manage to watch Sasha Ignatova (Trusova)? Were you surprised by her desire to compete at test skates?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Of course. Her return was broadly the most discussed topic at the test skates. It commands respect. It would be great if any of our girls who have shown the world their wonderful skating could participate in the test skates. That includes Alina Zagitova, Evgenia Medvedeva, Anya Shcherbakova, and Liza Tuktamysheva. If any of them would perform at the test skates, it would make a great event for the audience and the media — everyone. It doesn’t mean they then have to go through the whole season. After all, these are just test skates.
Sasha wanted to work, to get into shape, to perform. You could see that it was her own desire. She’s an athlete. She wanted to prepare and to show her programs — she did that. If any of our other girls have the same desire, I would be very pleased.
Q: When preparing Sasha’s program for the show, could you tell that she had changed and matured?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Because we have worked together for so many years, we already had a workflow and knew each other. Maybe because of this, we worked in roughly the same way as before. Of course, we asked Sasha: “What new things have you learned on your own? What other tricks do you have?” When we put together the program, we discussed what else we could include, apart from choreographic movements. So on the contrary, it felt like we were creating a program with her like in good old times, nothing had changed.
Q: Is there a sense that women’s figure skating is in crisis because of the raised age minimum?
Daniil Glekhengauz: It’s a complex topic. You can say both “yes, of course,” and “no, of course not.” It requires deeper reflection and looking at everything individually. Roughly speaking, if Adelia had jumped two quads in her free skate — there would be ultra-c elements, and it wouldn’t seem like there’s a crisis.
Take Sonya Akatieva — she missed a year, which is why she didn’t show ultra-c in the test skates at the moment. Veronika Zhilina didn’t perform, but we all know she jumps ultra-c. Sonya Muraviova didn’t perform a triple axel. Sasha Trusova tried a quad Lutz. Dasha Sadkova fell from a quad toe loop.
Roughly speaking, girls who have never jumped ultra-c have not been doing it. Nothing has changed here. But if we compare it with test skates in the Olympic year or even the pre-Olympic year, when Sasha, Anya, Alena, and Kamila were jumping their quads and triple axels… First of all, you could say that was a golden generation. And secondly, it was a pre-Olympic and Olympic season, international. Now we have no international competitions. Not being super ready by September is absolutely not necessary. No one goes to the usual “B events” or “Challengers” they used to participate in, no one is rushing their form.
There are many factors. You can assess each athlete individually. Some got injured, there was no Kamila Valieva, Liza is not performing now. Visually by the result of the test skates — yes, there was a feeling that the performances were generally unsuccessful. Slightly weaker than in other seasons. But to consider this as a trend… I don’t know, let’s see next year. If next year’s test skates don’t have a single ultra-c, then we can say something is failing. Honestly, I’m confident that the next test skates will feature a sufficient number of ultra-c elements.
Q: Was this reform with the age minimum necessary or not?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Everyone clearly understands what motivates those who introduced the reform. They talk about athlete health and long careers. But personally, in my opinion, it’s not related to age at all. People just don’t understand this. A person competed and won the Olympics at 15 years, achieving their biggest goal, their dream. After that, it was harder to find motivation.
Another person won at 18 and reached their most cherished wish, and then saw no reason to continue. They were of different ages, their careers varied. But it was about achieving a goal that you set for your life. Liza Tuktamysheva, unfortunately, didn’t make it to the Olympics and didn’t win. But look how many years she’s been skating. Maybe, to skate for a long time, you don’t need to win the Olympics (smiles). Obviously, that’s a joke — we all know multiple Olympic champions. What I mean is that it’s not about age but about the motivation and goals of the athlete themselve. In understanding what they want from life.
Somebody at the 2026 Olympics will be 17, someone else 18, another 20. A person comes out, wins the Olympics at 20, and stops. What, are we now going to raise the age limit to 21? It’s absolutely not about age.
Q: But about the fact that it’s difficult to withstand intense training loads for many years in a row?
Daniil Glekhengauz: You cannot train in this mode constantly. Of course, there should be a slight decline. It’s more about the fact that competition is very high in Russia. It’s not even about someone being younger. There was a significant transition when Alina and Zhenya won the Olympics in 2018, and then the next generation came with quadruple jumps. Here, of course, it was more difficult. You understand that you can’t learn the quadruple anymore. How do you compete with the next generation? It’s harder to explain to yourself why you need to continue, knowing that beating younger and more technical ones is almost impossible.
Everyone is now used to quadruple jumps or triple axels. The next generation is not much different from those who are already skating and winning. You jump quadruples – and those coming out of juniors also jump quadruples. You are absolutely on an equal footing.
We have a very big difference with Europe. There, a skater can be great in one season – a national champion, went to Europeans and Worlds, and the next one completely falls off, problems with weight, psyche, whatever. But… You are the only one in the country and again first at the National Championship. Well, or second. And you went again to European and World Championships. Yes, you performed badly so far. Three to four years passed, you found yourself again, at your peak – and continue to perform.
But here, if you drop, there are absolutely different girls who take and jump the same, appear instead of you in international competitions. And you have to find motivation in yourself. It is also a financial question. There is a choice.
If you take a typical international season, you went and won the World Championships. Next year you come to the Russian Nationals – fifth. The season ends for you, you don’t get to Europeans and Worlds, nowhere. You think: “Bad”.
The next season starts. God help you if you have enough rating for the Grand Prix, you performed somewhere there. The Russian Nationals comes – again, for example, you couldn’t get in. Already two seasons without Europeans and Worlds. And here it’s hard to find the motivation to continue. Whoever can get through this stays in sports. Here we just have a very big difference between Russia and other countries.
Q: Has the training of female athletes changed in connection with the age minimum? Or is it impossible?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Of course, you will not overload the athlete. On the other hand, Margarita (Baziluk – ed) jumps a quadruple toe loop and salchow. You’re not going to tell her: ‘Margarita, let’s not jump them for two years. It’s too early.’ That doesn’t work either. You can control the number of attempts, try to ensure that the person does not overjump. But you are already monitoring this, it does not depend on age.
Prohibit? In the junior group, a person skates and says: ‘Can I do a quadruple? I feel that I can.’ And you say: ‘No, it’s too early now.’ It’s kind of strange. Possibly, it may adjust over time. Globally, nothing has changed in the work because everyone is already jumping everything. To take and artificially roll back – I don’t understand how to do it.
Q: You attend international competitions. How do you interact with foreigners on a daily level? Are they waiting for us? Do they want to compete with us?
Daniil Glekhengauz: It’s all very individual. There are people who are sincerely glad to see you, with whom you communicate, and they say: ‘We miss you.’ But there are people who are absolutely happy that we are not there. They don’t even greet, they show complete disgust towards you.
Q: Which are there more of?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Hard to say. Either 50-50 or slightly more of those who are not waiting for us. They exist without us, everyone likes everything. They definitely don’t aim to bring us back. To say that they are jumping and tearing their hair out because we are not there would be a lie.
Q: So figure skating without Russia does not suffer?
Daniil Glekhengauz: I can’t say that it suffers, because small countries, especially European ones, are finally starting to get some places and medals. They are more satisfied than ever. I think Japan, America, Korea are winning most of the medals – they certainly have nothing to complain about. But I am sure that due to their significance and scale they understand that competition is good. As soon as they let us in, it will all go smoothly. But now it’s their medal festival. Because we come to the European Championships and take how many medals? 9-10 out of 12? Now at the European Championships Europeans are getting medals.
Q: Can you name the countries whose coaches do not greet you?
Daniil Glekhengauz: This is not a question of countries, this is a question of people. I never equate politics with countries, there are good people everywhere. And bad people exist in every country, educated or uneducated. A country cannot be bad.
Q: Over so many years of public life, have you developed immunity to haters and criticism?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Of course. There was a period when it affected me a lot and upset me, immersed me in some thoughts, it was hard to cope with something. Over time, I adapted to it. It’s very easy to distinguish comments where a person simply shares their impression, it may be negative. They may not like the program, athlete, but there’s some constructiveness there. You can even listen to this, think that it’s the right thought, work on it. This can be easily distinguished from pure hate, there’s no logic in it. You can laugh at it: “Let me guess what’s going to be in the third line”. There are comments on Sports.ru that you can laugh at. There’s a lot offensive, but sometimes very accurate.
Q: How much do you keep in touch with Kamila Valieva?
Daniil Glekhengauz: We, the coaching staff, had a dialogue with Kamila, I won’t tell more in detail. We are aware of her plans, her independent training process. Her fighting spirit is there, she will be restoring her form, we see it through her social media. We all know how talented she is. I would really like for her to come back and go through this difficult path, to be able to compete and please the audience. I think this is very important for her, too.
Q: You participated in the hearings on her case, how was it? Did you feel any bias?
Daniil Glekhengauz: It was online. I came to the law firm that led her case. By video link, I participated in the session. Honestly speaking, it was a nervous action. It was really scary, everything was so formal, ‘do you swear to tell only the truth’, etc.
Q: Did you answer in English?
Daniil Glekhengauz: There was a translator, I spoke in Russian. They asked questions. I’m not a stupid person, but it seemed to me that with each question they were leading to the answer they needed. It doesn’t matter what you answer. You were asked a question – you answered it. They ask you the same question, but in a different formulation. And so five minutes in a row. You sit there and don’t understand what they want from you. I told them everything as it is, there were no worries. My questions were quite simple: ‘Have you seen her grandfather?’. Yes, I saw, he brought us cucumbers. Talked with him in person. They didn’t ask me direct questions about doping. In terms of feelings, it didn’t matter to them that I’m a figure skating coach.
Q: Was it just once?
Daniil Glekhengauz: I went once. It wasn’t very long with me – about 30-40 minutes.
Q: So there was a feeling that everything is going in one direction?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Yes, there is their own specific version or direction. They need you to answer that way. If you don’t answer as needed, they just continue asking the same question.
Q: Did you see the award ceremony for the Americans and Japanese? Was it painful to watch?
Daniil Glekhengauz: I saw only the photos. The most painful thing was initially – the shock we experienced at the Olympics. After that were the consequences. I think, for Kamila and for us, and for the whole team.
Q: So, the shock in Beijing was stronger than when you learned the result?
Daniil Glekhengauz: Yes. Everything was already roughly clear. I’m actually surprised that they gave us third place. I was sure they would completely deprive us of everything.”
Related topics: Adeliia Petrosian, Alexandra Trusova, Daniil Gleichengauz, Kamila Valieva
Nice interview. Quite long but Gleikhengauz has an ok way of thinking, it seems to me. Doesn’t seem very biased or anything, he’s just sharing his thoughts. He doesn’t seem bitter or anything.
I disagree a bit with what Glekhengauz said about the harm coming to figure skating. He mentioned that the Russian girls perform at very high levels. This helps keep everybody on their toes, but when you don’t have adequate(international) competition, or motivation, you almost always see diminished results. I thinking excluding the Russians from competitions is doing figure skating as a whole a disfavor. It also encourages laziness, reduces quality and performance, and sets up sub par circumstances. Once a mediocre performance might get you to 5th or 6th, but now 3rd, or 2nd. Iron sharpens iron, but without it becomes dull