Russian figure skater Anastasia Skoptsovawho performed in ice dancing with Kirill Aleshinspoke regarding salaries in football and figure skating.
Skoptsova and Aleshin are world champions among juniors, bronze medalists of the Russian championship.
– If figure skating is so popular with us, why are many skaters poor? There is a top that is somewhere far above, but it is difficult for most.
– Agree. And with all due respect to other sports, our guys, including the world tops, do not get enough for what they sacrificed. I have close friends in tops. They don’t complain, but they deserve so much more.
– Are you in the red, if you take your entire career?
– If you count all the investments of my parents – then yes, of course. When you are in the national team, you have skates, suits, the Federation, Moskomsport pay the fees. They must be earned. I do not want to blame the federation now, it is doing a lot. Especially in comparison with what is abroad, where every minute is paid. Only wealthy people go there. We have children from families without income can break out into the people.
I will not dissemble, I have wealthy parents, but I know too well people who do not have opportunities. They literally earned their food by being skaters. And they were forced to eat doshiraki. The federation cannot sponsor everyone.
Money is important. Sitting and telling that they do not play a role is a childish attitude. We do not live in a tribe where it was possible to bring the carcass of an animal. And it causes dissonance in me why there is more money in such forms.
I feel sorry for the fact that I, not the greatest skater, but a good average, was in the top 30 of the world, I might never get as much as our football players or hockey players get. Yes, they have starts every other day, and we have eight a year. But our athletes are definitely not freebies.
Our competition starts a week before the start. We arrive in the city, acclimatize. Kirill and I flew in the first adult season to Canada, a million hours with ten transfers. And from there to Japan. Do you understand what it’s like to be an athlete? You still need to ride well in order to earn. And at their rink they change training a few days before the start in order to reach the peak.
In football, in 90 minutes you can make mistakes, but they can be corrected. In figure skating in 3.5 minutes you have no right to make a single mistake. You lose everything. I know how hard it is in hockey, I know professional athletes, how dead they are following games, insanely tired. But it’s not easy for skaters either.
Yes, in football you don’t need skates for 60 thousand, and now for 100, blades for the same amount, dresses for 100 thousand with rhinestones. Even for thin girls, skates break from quads almost every month. Figure skating is not a popular sport because it cannot be understood. In hockey, everything is clear – a goal, not a goal. This, apparently, is our burden – to receive less. We can’t ride every two days,” said Skoptsova.
