Alina Zagitova about working with Eteri Tutberidze: “At the very first training session, she tells me:” I’m kicking you out.

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Alina Zagitova, who won gold in the women’s singles tournament at the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, told the local publication about her journey – from the first training to career ups and downs. She got up on skates early, around the age of 5, in particular, thanks to her father, a hockey player, but she began to professionally figure skate only two years later, when her family settled in Izhevsk.

When Alina was 12 years old, she got into the team of Eteri Tutberidze. And contrary to established habits, the coach recommended her mother to go back to her place so as not to distract her daughter from training:

At the age of twelve, I ended up in the Tutberidze group. At first I went to Moscow with my mother, but then Eteri Georgievna said that my mother did not need to be near me so that she would not distract me from training, although this had never happened.

However, cooperation with Tutberidze did not work out at first, and after two injuries to her ward, the coach decided to abandon her:

Zagitova said that Tutberidze kicked her out of the group shortly after she was seriously injured. As Eteri Georgievna says, I was lazy. Until the age of 12, I was engaged in figure skating in Izhevsk – in the provinces, they didn’t demand so much from us there. And at the moment when I got into the Tutberidze group, it seemed to me that I was squeezing the maximum possible out of myself. But apparently this was not enough. I was not used to such loads yet, I did not understand what they wanted from me. But then I started to get some kind of triple jumps (I didn’t do them in Izhevsk).

And then in training, I broke my arm around the wrist. I went to the competitions with a special light splint, and broke my leg there. Time has passed. The cast was removed, I had a little practice in my hometown and went to Moscow. And at the very first training session, Eteri Georgievna told me: “I’m kicking you out.”

She was temporarily “sheltered” by another coach from the capital – Anna Tsareva. But soon her family decided that the girl should return to Izhevsk. And then a plot twist happened:

My grandmother and I bought a bouquet, came to Eteri Georgievna to give flowers, thank her and say goodbye, saying: “We are leaving Moscow, thank you for everything.” And she says: “Let’s try again,” says Alina “7 days”, adding that she does not know the reasons why Eteri changed her mind.

Now Alina Zagitova is studying at the RANEPA at the full-time department of the Faculty of Journalism, her whole family lives in Moscow. She herself temporarily does not take part in competitions, but tries herself as a presenter – her first experience was the television project “Ice Age”.