Olympic champion, figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya told why she left the sport at the age of 19. In an interview with the Russian Figure Skating Federation, the girl honestly spoke about her illness, failures, thoughts and plans for the future.
It was incredibly difficult to come to the decision to finish sports career. Seriously, every day I fell asleep and woke up with one thought about what would happen,” said Yulia Lipnitskaya. - While I was in the clinic, we worked a lot with psychologists, there are strong psychologists there, and they helped me create life priorities that related to health, for example. I had to seriously think about many questions, because I was sure that I would recover and return to figure skating. I was sure of this, and everyone was sure! Mom, coach, everything... when I returned home, for the first week I sat and thought: what next, how to start, and what to do? The unknown is a scary thing.
In August, the figure skater’s mother reported that Yulia was being treated at one of the clinics in Gemania for anorexia. The figure skater believes that she was not fulfilled in the sport. And 99% of the reason for this is illness.
After my diagnosis was announced, they began to write to me and ask why I did this? But even if I hadn’t said it myself, the information would still have leaked out. Anorexia is a disease of the 21st century, it occurs quite often. Unfortunately, not everyone can cope with it. I thought that there was nothing like that if I spoke openly about it. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t do this earlier, because everything went on for more than the first, second or third year... - admitted Lipnitskaya. After the Cup of Russia, I came home, put my skates in the closet and haven’t seen them since. I don't feel like going on the ice anymore. In January I went to the clinic. That's the whole story.
According to the athlete, the victory at the Olympics in Sochi “squeezed her out” greatly emotionally. The girl is not used to such attention and hype around her name.
After the Olympics, Julia wanted to try herself in ice dancing. But no one supported her.
I had this desire for several years, but it was perceived with hostility by many, and the idea immediately disappeared,” says Yulia.
Lenta 
Now the athlete is at a crossroads and is thinking about what to do next. As Yulia admits, she will not work as a coach.
Now I'm at a crossroads because there are a lot of offers, different options, projects... But I can’t and don’t want to come somewhere just to sit in the role of a wedding general. I want to participate myself, to do things that make me as interested as possible, but without studying this will not work. Therefore, now my first priority is study. I'm actively studying English language with tutors. In the near future I’ll focus on my studies, and we’ll see. They ask me if I will participate in the show? I can’t and don’t want to yet, although there are such proposals. Time will pass, and maybe something will change, it will take him to the ice, then we’ll see. But I know for sure that I won’t work as a coach,” said Lipnitskaya.
Yulia Lipnitskaya has gained many fans throughout her sports career. They are all waiting for news, where is the figure skater now, what is she doing, because in Lately Little is written about her in the media.
Eteri Tutberidze was previously the coach of Yulia Lipnitskaya. In one of her last interviews, she explained why the young athlete’s career ended.
Where is figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya now?
Very soon Yulia Lipnitskaya will take to the ice again. For the first time since the end of her sports career, the figure skater will again skate in front of the public. Yulia Lipnitskaya will participate in Evgeni Plushenko's show based on The Nutcracker.
20-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya was entrusted with a large role in the production, in which, by the way, 22-year-old Olympic gold medalist Adelina Sotnikova will also play.
- We for a long time kept it secret, but I think this information will be a pleasant surprise for fans and fans of figure skating,- said Evgeni Plushenko.
On the eve of the start of the new season, Adelina Sotnikova announced that she would still miss the next competitive year - this would be her third time missing. It is unknown whether she intends to retire from the sport. The Evgeni Plushenko show will take place from January 2 to January 8, 2019 in St. Petersburg.
Last year, on September 9, Yulia Lipnitskaya announced that she was leaving the Russian national team and wrote a corresponding statement. She was officially expelled from the Ministry of Sports. The figure skater said that she is now attracted to commentating activities. Fans noticed that the athlete does not adhere to healthy eating and gained noticeable weight. In February of this year, she opened her figure skating academy.
Eteri Tutberidze, who previously coached Yulia Lipnitskaya, told why she ended her sports career. In her words, the figure skater was influenced by the Network: many young athletes, reading numerous comments about themselves, take them to heart, become disappointed, and “lose spirit.”
— I realized from working with Lipnitskaya that you can’t protect athletes from the Internet, said Eteri Tutberidze.
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Name: Julia Lipnitskaya
Zodiac sign: Twins
Age: 20 years
Place of Birth: Yekaterinburg, Russia
Height: 160
Activity: Russian figure skater, Olympic champion
Family status: Single
Yulia Vyacheslavovna Lipnitskaya is a Russian figure skater, participant in competitions figure skating at the Olympics in Sochi (2014), receiving the title of team champion. He is an Honored Master of Sports of Russia (2014).
Russian figure skating star, Olympic champion Yulia Lipnitskaya was born on June 5, 1998 in the city of Yekaterinburg. The young athlete began her career when she was just 4 years old. IN early childhood, not being able to pronounce words correctly, she called herself “Olympic” instead of “Lipnitskaya,” which later turned out to be a kind of prediction of her own fate.
The mother raised the child herself, since the father left her before the birth of her daughter. Daniela Leonidovna brought the girl to the local school at the Lokomotiv Sports and Youth Sports School. Yulia’s first coaches, Elena Levkovets and Marina Voitsekhovskaya, not only became the girl’s idols and best teachers, but also gave her the opportunity to continue her journey in one of the most beautiful sports.
Mom Daniela Leonidovna, who chose figure skating for her daughter, could not even think what success her little daughter would achieve in the near future. Since the initial goal was to strengthen the child’s health and do something useful and exciting.
After 6 years, the Moscow stage of the biography of Yulia Lipnitskaya began. The athlete and her mother moved to Moscow. The reason for the move was the high hopes placed on the young skater. She learned everything that a girl could be taught in Yekaterinburg.
Yulia was assigned to the Moscow Sports School No. 37. She was in the group of the famous Eteri Grigorievna Tutberidze, who trains athletes in single skating. Igor Pashkevich also helped in preparing the aspiring athlete.
Yulia naturally has very good flexibility and excellent stretching. It was these qualities that allowed Lipnitskaya to perform the most complex elements that adult and experienced athletes have been honing for several years. By the end of 2009, she could perform all triple jumps “excellently.”
In the 2009-2010 season, the figure skater participated in the Russian Championship and was among the top 5 winners. The next season, in which Yulia participated as an adult athlete, also became significant for her: the girl ended up in 4th place.
In 2011-2012, the Russian woman attended the Grand Prix, which took place in Poland, and won it. After that, Julia began to win only prizes. And already in Italy the skater again received gold. Then there was a victory in Canada, where Yulia showed herself worthy and was able to significantly get ahead of her main rival.
Soon the Russian figure skater went to the Russian Championships with the main goal - to win. Julia did it. The athlete deservedly took silver at this championship. The next step was winning the World Junior Championships. Lipnitskaya managed to get gold medal and get ahead of the famous American, who was predicted to win.
Yulia began preparing for the Olympic Games in Sochi in advance. The first was a victory in the 2012-2013 season in a tournament that took place in Finland. After this, the skater achieved victory in China and in France at adult competitions.
The victory in Paris was double for Yulia: Lipnitskaya was able to not only get gold, but also get the maximum level. However, the girl did not compete in the Grand Prix final. The young athlete received an injury due to which she was unable to go on the ice. The figure skater missed not only the finals, but also the Russian Figure Skating Championships in 2013.
Only in the second half of the 2012-2013 season was the athlete able to take 5th position at the Russian Championship. This was the first exit after the injury. After this tournament, the stellar period in the biography of Yulia Lipnitskaya began, the athlete again began to take first places.
The World Championship was a prize for her. Julia took silver in Milan. Of course, after the injuries the athlete received, she needed certain time for rehabilitation. However, Lipnitskaya quickly regained her strength and entered the Olympic season again as a winner.
Competitions in Finland, which took place in the 2013-2014 season, brought the girl victory. Canada, Grand Prix - a new victory. In the Grand Prix final, the skater took 2nd place due to a small mistake she made in her program.
Yulia’s landmark victory was the gold medal at the European Championships in 2014. The girl was quite ahead of her main competitors. a large number of points. She skated the program perfectly and deserved the victory. It’s interesting that at this championship Yulia’s opponents were experienced colleagues who had won prizes many times. At the European Championships in 2014, Yulia was the youngest.
Young Lipnitskaya receives strong support from her mother, who accompanies the figure skater at all competitions. They are together when Julia wins and when she falls. For an athlete, a mother is the most important and main man, which Julia spoke about many times in her own interviews.
The fact that Yulia Lipnitskaya will represent Russia at the Olympics in Sochi was quite expected. The girl was able to achieve results that some athletes can only dream of. Lipnitskaya was the main hope of the Russian figure skating team.
IN team competitions in figure skating, which were held on February 6, 8 and 9 in Sochi, Yulia Lipnitskaya became the Olympic champion. She won and skated both programs perfectly. It was Lipnitskaya who received the largest number of points, which helped the Russian figure skating team. Yulia performed quite complex elements in her performance and received all possible bonuses. To date, Yulia Lipnitskaya is the youngest Olympic champion in Russia.
In February 2014, information appeared that Yulia Lipnitskaya was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of Russia. This event was a great incentive for the figure skater, when in the same month the girl competed in the women's short program figure skating competition. The Russian Federation was represented by 2 figure skaters - 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaya and 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova. After the short program, Yulia Lipnitskaya took 5th place because she fell while performing a flip.
On February 20, 2014, the decisive skate was held - the free program. Yulia Lipnitskaya performed to the music of the popular film “Schindler’s List”. The athlete made perfect jumps and unique spins, but a few moments before the final she fell.
As a result, the 15-year-old athlete took 5th place in the sum of both programs. Adeline unconditionally won those Olympic Games, giving the Russian Federation its first gold in modern history women's single skating.
Yulia Lipnitskaya, who was able to achieve incredible success, is a very young girl. Therefore, fans and fans of figure skating believed that more than one Olympics awaited Lipnitskaya.
After the Olympic Games in Sochi, Yulia Lipnitskaya did not rest on her laurels. The athlete began the next season at the Grand Prix stage in China, where she skated the short program and became a leader. But, alas, the day after the success there was an unfortunate fall: the girl’s free program failed. In total, the skater was able to gain a foothold in 2nd place.
Accumulated fatigue became the reason for the unfortunate defeat in Barcelona and the Russian Federation. In Yulia’s homeland based on the results free program ended up in 5th position and was not included in the team for the European Championship.
Yulia Lipnitskaya started the new season at the Finnish “Finlandia Trophy”, where she was able to take 2nd place. Two weeks later in Milwaukee, America, the Russian woman took 6th place at the Skate America Grand Prix series stage. At the national championships, luck turned against Yulia again: the skater ended up in the middle of the table. She was included in the Russian national team as a reserve.
In November 2015, Yulia Lipnitskaya replaced coach Eteri Tutberidze, and Alexey Urmanov began preparing the athlete for further competitions. The training took place in the city of Sochi.
No matter how the dark and light stripes alternated in the sports career of this wonderful figure skater, Yulia undoubtedly had to have a brilliant future. Not only the girl’s Russian fans were sure of this, but also foreign fans of the figure skater’s athletic talent. For example, The Guardian wrote about Yulia Lipnitskaya’s abilities. The publication called her an unusually gifted figure skater and a rising star who overshadowed even the famous Evgeni Plushenko with her skating.
But after the Olympics, the figure skater’s star began to gradually fade.
With the move to Sochi, where the athlete now trains under the leadership of Alexei Urmanov, changes occurred in the girl’s personal life. The girl escaped from the care of her mother and, as can be seen from the pictures on her Instagram page, now has time not only to prepare for further games, but also to rest.
Seventeen-year-old Yulia spent time with her colleague Vladislav Tarasenko when he came to Sochi. According to media information, the young athlete also wants to change his training location and move to a southern city.
At the end of 2015, information also appeared on the Internet about the relationship of the young figure skater with the athlete Maurice Kvitelashvili. The girl was introduced to the young man by her friend, figure skater Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, 2015 world champion.
While studying in Sochi, Yulia Lipnitskaya mastered the technique of makeup artistry, graduating from the Make-up ART Stylish beauty school. Professional figure skaters need this skill to independently prepare for competitions.
At home, the athlete has a cat, Chop, and a spitz, Peach, who was given to the girl by fans. Yulia also does not miss the opportunity to ride horses – the figure skater has loved loyal animals since childhood.
At the beginning of the year before last, Lipnitskaya performed at the Russian Championship, where she took 3rd place; in February of the year before last, Yulia received silver in the final of the Russian Cup, held in the city of Saransk. Luck smiled on the athlete in March 2016. Yulia Lipnitskaya received a gold medal in Innsbruck, Austria, at the Tyrol Cup.
But then an annoying dark streak followed again. In the pre-Olympic season in Bratislava at the Nepela Memorial, the performance of the Russian figure skater was not entirely successful. Typing for the short program maximum amount points, she performed a free program with blots. In the end, she ended up in 2nd place.
In October, it turned out that Yulia Lipnitskaya would not participate in the Grand Prix series in Chicago: the girl’s old back injury had worsened. Due to pain, the skater skated her program at the Rostelecom Cup, held in Moscow in the fall, with a long stop, as a result of which she lost points and became 12th on the list of participants. A collective decision was made to suspend the girl’s sports career to restore her health.
In the spring of this year, new photographs of the girl appeared on Lipnitskaya’s closed Instagram account, in which it was clearly noticeable that the girl had gained weight. Rumors about Julia's pregnancy began to spread on the Internet. In the comments, the girl categorically rejected the fans' speculations. As it turned out later, the skater recovered after treatment.
On August 28 of this year, the athlete’s mother said that Yulia Lipnitskaya had completed her sports career. The 19-year-old figure skater made this difficult decision immediately upon arriving from Europe, where she was undergoing treatment for anorexia.
Famous figure skater Tatyana Navka commented last news about Lipnitskaya’s decision, saying that there must be good reasons for this. Coach Alexey Mishin and figure skater Evgeni Plushenko spoke in support of Yulia’s choice, hoping that the skater will return to big sport with new forces.
Currently, Yulia Lipnitskaya and her mother are organizing a new apartment in the south-west of the capital in the Rasskazovo residential complex, which the athlete received as a gift from the founders of the Sezar Group holding.
Achievements
- 2011 – winner of the Junior Grand Prix final
- 2012 – world champion among juniors
- 2012, 2014 – silver medalist at Russian championships
- 2014 - European champion
- 2014 - silver medalist at the World Championships
- 2014 - Olympic champion
- 2013 - silver medalist of the Grand Prix final
Olympic champion of the team tournament in Sochi, figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya, has decided to retire. According to experts, this was not a spontaneous decision. The entire development of the young athlete’s career led to this.
Girl in a red coat
In 2014, Yulia Lipnitskaya became the Olympic champion in the team tournament. She performed a program based on music from Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List. The performance of the girl in the red coat was a revelation both for specialists and for those who had nothing to do with figure skating. Among them is the creator of “Schindler’s List” himself, Spielberg, who, after the Russian woman’s performance, told her in a letter that the whole family watched the screening with tears in their eyes.
On the official Olympic channel on YouTube alone, the video with her program, staged by the famous Russian choreographer Ilya Averbukh, was viewed by more than six million users.
IN personal tournament Things didn’t go well for the athlete - having made mistakes in the short program, Lipnitskaya became fifth, and sixth in the free program. The athlete finished her performance at the Olympics in fifth place, which did not prevent her from becoming the face of the Games in Sochi and one of the most beloved athletes in Russia and respected in the world.
Growing problems and old injuries
After the Games, Lipnitskaya had a hard time - her body “gifted” the hostess with all the growth problems.
Failures began to haunt her. Suffice it to say that at the post-Olympic Russian Championship in 2015 she became only ninth, not even being included in the team for the European Championship. The championship podium was then occupied by only Russians - Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Elena Radionova and Anna Pogorilaya.
In November 2015, the athlete decided to change her coach, leaving Tutberidze for Lillehammer Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov and moving from Moscow to Sochi. Unfortunately, there was no rapid progress. At the 2016 Russian Championships, the athlete was seventh, joining the team for the European Championships only as a reserve.
The pre-Olympic season also did not give the athlete much success - after winning the short program at the opening tournament in Bratislava, the skater felt the pain of an aggravated injury. Then - she missed the stage of the Grand Prix series in Chicago and the Moscow Grand Prix, where due to pain she had to stop performing in the free program.
Fight with overweight and deterioration of health
There were a lot of guesses about what could have happened. But the famous Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova suggested: it seems that the problems are associated with the athlete’s weight loss and, as a result, with a lack of potassium and magnesium, which are essential for the body.
The athlete’s constant struggle with excess weight led to Lipnitskaya being forced to undergo treatment for anorexia. After her failure at the Moscow Grand Prix, the athlete practically disappeared from the public space, occasionally posting posts on her pages on social networks.
In December, almost on the eve of the start of the Russian Championship, Lipnitskaya fell on the way from training, after which a decision was made to allow the skater to skip the Russian Championship, the qualifying start for the European Championship in Ostrava.
“Julia is a star. Some stars shine for a long time, while others flash like crazy and go out. But she illuminated everything. I want to wish her have a wonderful life, she deserves it, because she is a very good, very smart girl and very kind,” Tarasova commented on the figure skater’s decision to end her career.
In its turn Ilya Averbukh reacted to the news this way: “It’s very sad, because Yulia Lipnitskaya has a certain 25th frame that attracts you like a magnet to her performance: you cannot understand why her skating touches you, but it has just such an effect. You can call it charisma, talent, but Yulia has it, and it was especially evident at the Olympics,” Averbukh said. - It’s a pity that this was not developed - the technical side of the issue also played a role. I think that the demands of the coaches collided with our own ambitions, and we got the ending that was expected: after the Olympics, Yulia never made it to the European Championships or the World Championships.”
Biography of Yulia Lipnitskaya
Yulia Vyacheslavovna Lipnitskaya was born June 5, 1998 In Ekaterinburg. She was raised by her mother, Daniela Lipnitskaya, who gave her daughter her last name.
In 2002 Yulia Lipnitskaya began figure skating at the Yekaterinburg children's and youth school sports school"Locomotive". Specialization - single skating. Her first coach was Elena Levkovets.
In 2009 Together with her mother, she moved to Moscow, where she continued her figure skating classes at the Sambo-70 Sports and Education Center under the guidance of coach Eteri Tutberidze.
In December 2011 in Quebec (Canada) she won the final of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating among juniors of the 2011-2012 season.
In December 2011 and December 2013 became the silver medalist of the Russian championships, in both cases losing to Adelina Sotnikova.
In February 2012 became the champion of Russia among juniors. In the same year in Minsk (Belarus) she took first place at the World Junior Championships. In 2013 in Milan (Italy) she became the silver medalist of similar competitions, losing only to compatriot Elena Radionova.
In December 2013 in Fukuoka (Japan) she took second place in the final of the Grand Prix in Figure Skating of the 2013-2014 season. The Japanese Mao Asada won the competition.
January 17, 2014 In Budapest (Hungary), Yulia Lipnitskaya won the European Figure Skating Championship.
February 9, 2014 as part of the Russian national team won the XXII winter Olympic Games in Sochi (Krasnodar Territory) in team figure skating competitions. Lipnitskaya performed at the Games with a free program choreographed by Ilya Averbukh to music from Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List. She became the youngest Russian woman to win the highest award at the Winter Olympics: at the time of her performance, the figure skater was 15 years and 249 days old. Lipnitskaya beat the achievement of Ekaterina Gordeeva, who became the champion of the 1988 Games in Calgary (Canada) in pair skating with Sergei Grinkov. At the time of her victory, Gordeeva was 16 years 268 days old.
March 29, 2014 in Saitama (Japan) she became the silver medalist at the World Figure Skating Championships, losing only to Mao Asada.
In November 2015 Yulia Lipnitskaya left Eteri Tutberidze’s group, after which she began training under the guidance of Alexey Urmanov, moving from Moscow to Sochi. However, in December of the same year, at the Russian Championship, she became only seventh and joined the team for the 2016 European Championship as a reserve.
In December 2016 the figure skater missed the Russian championship due to injury hip joint caused by a fall on a slippery sidewalk.
Honored Master of Sports of Russia (2014).
Awarded the Order of Friendship (2014), the insignia “For Services to Sverdlovsk region» III degree (2014).
Essentially did the same thing; although three years ago it seemed that the heroines of Sochi 2014 were just beginning their journey in sports. Why did this path end so quickly for them? Andrey Simonenko, managing editor of the R-Sport agency, discusses this.
Scary word
This was perhaps the most emotionally powerful image of the Sochi Olympics - a little girl in a red coat standing on a huge empty ice. This is Yulia Lipnitskaya, who herself chose the complex theme of “Schindler’s List” and later received a letter from Steven Spielberg for accurately fitting the character. Not the most artistic figure skater, to be honest, thanks to the production genius of Ilya Averbukh, she conquered the whole country, becoming only one of those who forged the team gold of the Games, but according to the inexplicable laws of media, the most beloved.
Then it seemed that Lipnitskaya, casting a naively confused glance back in “Schindler’s List”, somewhere where her difficult childhood in Yekaterinburg and the most difficult period in Moscow remained, would take more than one gold into her collection. And, to the skater’s honor and praise, she did not go away to rest on her Olympic laurels, although she could have. I went to after Olympic champion at the world and won silver there, losing only to perhaps the main loser of Sochi, Mao Asada, who in her native Japanese ice They simply wouldn’t give anything less than gold as a consolation.
Lipnitskaya began to prepare for the next season, but then, as they say, things began to happen to her: age-related changes in the body, injuries, the inability to train 100 percent, withdrawal symptoms of a very difficult nature... Already by the winter of 2014/15 it was clear that It will be very difficult for Yulia to cope with all this, and ninth place at the first post-Olympic Russian Championship was confirmation of this.
Full trust in the coach could have helped, but at that moment the relationship between Lipnitskaya and Eteri Tutberidze had already cracked. The split came to a head in the fall of 2015, and at some point it even seemed that Alexey Urmanov, with whom the figure skater went to train, could re-ignite the fading star... But it didn’t work out. It's not the jumping's fault. Julia did not solve the main problem - how to deal with her own body. I tried to decide, but it would be better not to do it.
Because then everything happened that now resulted in the physical impossibility of skating further. The word “anorexia” was whispered by those who saw the condition in which Lipnitskaya entered the ice at the beginning of the 2016/17 season. After the Olympic champion, exhausted and simply stopped, after two minutes of her free program at the Moscow Grand Prix stage, it became clear that she needed to undergo treatment and, most likely, finish it - otherwise everything could have ended quite sadly. And now this terrible diagnosis was spoken out loud.
Who is to blame for the fact that the “girl in the red coat” disappeared into history so early? Perhaps the answer to this question is banal, but there is no alternative - life. A clash of characters, personalities, circumstances. Thanks to Lipnitskaya for being there in “Iceberg” and turning the memories of millions into a vivid video postcard for life.
Maybe she still wants it?
Adelina Sotnikova has a completely different story. Now it’s already forgotten, but the 2013/14 Olympic season for her was not just bad, but very bad. There are breakdowns at both stages of the Grand Prix. In the Grand Prix final - failure. A very rough European Championship, lost to Lipnitskaya. If someone at that moment, a month before Sochi, said that Sotnikova would become an Olympic champion, he would have been considered... well, let him be a great optimist.
But in “Iceberg” Adeline gave two performances of her life. She did, in fact, what she had never been able to do in all the pre-Olympic years - she performed two programs cleanly (a nonsense blot in the free program does not count). Golden olympic medal Sotnikova is a reward not only for the fantastic hard work, perseverance and character of this wonderful and very kind girl, but also, admittedly, for a happy occasion.
And therefore, even then, the question arose in many people’s minds: would Adeline want to again plunge into this atmosphere of suffering, both physical and moral, in order to risk her reputation as an Olympic champion? Lipnitskaya seemed at that moment a much better bet for the next four years. Sotnikova took a break immediately after the Olympics.
But I still tried to return. Although the futility of her attempt was, perhaps, predetermined by the fact that she, unlike Lipnitskaya, was completely immersed in social life. Only Maria Sharapova managed to combine business with pleasure throughout her entire career, and even then thanks to competent management. In the case of Adelina, alas, there was no need to talk about anything like that.
And yet, the Olympic champion performed in the first half of the 2015/16 season. The most striking was her skating at the Moscow Grand Prix stage. “If he wants, he can come back,” so many said, looking at the figure skater who had matured and learned to feel the music perfectly. But Sotnikova did not make it into the top three at the Russian Championships of the same season and did not qualify for the European and World Championships...
The key month, perhaps, was September 2016. Adeline performed at the test skates in Sochi with new programs. It may not have been technically ideal skating, but it was quite a decent foundation on which something could be built even that season. But Sotnikova, unfortunately, chose a different path - she went to the Ice Age, on television. Unfortunately for all those who consider figure skating a sport.
No, officially, according to coach Evgeni Plushenko, Adelina Sotnikova has not gone anywhere, but is simply missing the season. But the key point here is if you believe. All this has already happened. After the Olympics in Sochi, Plushenko himself missed season after season, continuing to be listed in the national team’s reserves. More and more medical procedures were performed on him, keeping his back, which had been operated on several times, in a condition sufficient to perform in the show. But it was clear to everyone that the two-time Olympic champion would no longer appear on the ice in competitions. There are different loads and different preparation. Everything was clear to everyone, but the federation extended his membership in the national team from season to season, until the great skater finally announced his decision to become a coach.
A very similar story is happening with Sotnikova. Officially, it's an injury. Really - for example, a show in mid-August in Italy. Although... let's still leave an ellipsis here. A very similar story does not mean the same.
“After the Olympics, I matured... I feel that I have a different attitude not only to sports, but also to life in general. I now look at my skating differently. I want the audience to understand that I am truly an Olympic champion, that this It’s not an accident that they put me there for a reason!” Adelina said in one of her post-Sochi interviews with R-Sport.
Maybe she really still wants it?
