Anna Shcherbakova: “Tomorrow I’ll squeeze the maximum out of myself, then I’ll deal with health difficulties”
Anna Shcherbakova about her performance of the short program at the Russian Nationals and coronavirus she had.
Anna Shcherbakova: I feel … I am satisfied with the performance, because I feel not fully recovered yet. I tried to abstract from this and skate the best I can. It was a stupid mistake, but I’m happy anyway.
I was very focused and after the last jump, after the combination I decided to let myself go. And I simply lacked concentration on the spin – it happens. The disease is affecting, I haven’t fully recovered yet. There will be time to rest, to recover.
There should be enough strength for the free program – the main thing is to believe.
source: Channel 1, text version sports.ru
Anna Shcherbakova: I have not completely overcome my health difficulties, but there will be time after competitions. Tomorrow I’ll squeeze the maximum out of myself, then I’ll deal with them.
The skater also shared her opinion on the cancellation of international figure skating competitions due to the coronavirus.
Anna Shcherbakova: It cannot be said that this does not affect our motivation. When there is no competitions, we get upset.
We are lucky that we have competitions. Hope the World Championships will not be canceled.
source: tass.ru
Related topics: Anna Shcherbakova, Russian Nationals
Congratulations Anna. You are a delight to watch. So graceful, fluid, so natural. You make skating as you do look easy. You are one of the greatest of all time.
This is exactly the toxic approach the skating world is talking about. Being a teenager,skating is your entire world and “sacrificing” yourself is normal. Her coaches encourage that because they need victories. She will last 2 more seasons at most, is risking your health really that worth it?
“Her coaches encourage that because they need victories”
That makes me ask “But what about her parents?”
The fact that Anna won her third national championship today doesn’t change my view that she shouldn’t have been participating in this event.
Completely agree. It’s not Olympics, not qualifying for the Olympics, not even Worlds…There obviously will be other qualifying competitions to the national team and Worlds this season. Is such a risk really necessary now? Pneumonia is a serious illness and when it’s not cured properly could lead to serious complications(
As a figure skater who competed in in the US Nationals, a long time ago, I can see Anna’s point. It was more common 10-20 years ago to push skaters past their point of breaking…skating with stress fractures, foot knee, and hip impact injuries that never fully heal, which often leave them with more early osteoarthritc problems later in life….but was it worth it? To me it was and is. Remember too that sports medicine has become an integral part of any athletic routine these days, keeping us healthier. And the bottom line is that if Anna did not want to complete now for health reasons, she would not be unduly pressured to do so.
We skaters push ourselves past our limits because we WANT to. The feel of the ice under you, the seconds of flight in a jump, the most perfect alignment felt in a perfectly centered spin are more exhilarating than anyone who’s never been a top tier skater can even imagine!
I made the decision to skate against my parents and coaches’ worry after a bad break in my landing leg fibula. My orthopedic surgeon told me if I did this before it was completely healed that I may never skate again. But I did because I NEEDED to from deep in my soul. Not for worry of missing that year’s Jr. Nationals. And hey, guess what, I did no further damage to that leg much to my sports medicine doctor, my orthopedic surgeon, and my trainers and coaches fears.
Listen to other skaters from this season, no matter how much off Ice training they do, they will always crave the ice. The feel of it, though grueling at times as we push our own bodies to perfect that new jump, you always come back to that one and only feeling of gliding on a a thin edge that brings freedom and joy.
Let Anna fly free in this hurdle toward Worlds if that is what she wants and NEEDS in her soul. Believe me, it’s not her parents or even her coaches’ decisions when it comes down to that final decision. It’s her own spirit. She will have time to rest up and heal I her own time. No one who’s ever been an elite athlete will tell you the same.
I find it irresponsible on the part of Anna’s parents and her coaches that she was even skating at this event. You don’t recover from pneumonia this quickly. Even if Anna wins the Russian Nationals, what is she doing to her longer term health? Why jeopardise her participation in the Worlds, if it does in fact take place in March and that’s looking in doubt?