Students Evgenia Plushenko have already ceased to be newcomers to Russian figure skating. In juniors and seniors, they are already in the national team. And all the time we see that the coach is ready to protect them not only by working on the rink, but also outside of it. He defended their interests, built houses for figure skaters on the territory of the academy, and helps them find sponsors. Sometimes he hinted at the strange assessments of his students, but he never spoke precisely and sharply.
At the Russian championship, Plushenko might not pass by the evaluation of his skaters and gave a powerful speech for journalists. Not only regarding this tournament, but also regarding the situation in Russian figure skating in general.
I have the following statement. For some reason, my athletes who do ultra-si are given lower points. For some reason, lower, but the jumps are excellent. If someone else did such jumps, they would give completely different points. It is obvious. It can be seen, I looked at the printouts. Mine, if there are any ribs, they will immediately see. What’s happened? And this has been for several years.
I spoke with the judges, with the federation, why are you judging me severely? Judge everyone equally. Are we for justice? For justice. If, the girl who makes the butterfly gets +2 and mine goes, makes the butterfly and gets -4. Why? What’s the prejudice? Where’s the justice? For the second year, I have been talking regarding this with my athletes. I say, I warn you before the competition. The Federation says everything is fine, everything is great. Well, I endured. And today we talked with athletes, with parents. Most likely, there will be a transition to other countries. Many athletes, those who are judged unfairly. Fight for the guys… And I also for justice… I’m already tired. If the federation does not need us, our figure skating, then we will go where we are needed.
It’s not the first season… it’s been building up for a very long time. If you look now, people win with one quadruple. But to compare 4 ultra-c and 1 – are we once more doing what happened with Lysacek and me? Where is he now? Who is he? Trusova lost the Olympics. Dvigala (figure skating), skated with me. Did 4 ultra-si. But we don’t need it, we need ballet. I understand that you need to skate and spin beautifully. But take the same Nika – she skates steadily this year, she did several quads. And according to Titova, the same thing – three ultra-si. There is indeed a gap in scores. But evaluate each athlete fairly. They saw my rib – put it, no problem. And for some reason you see an edge in the other one, but you don’t put it. Here is a girl on the podium today with two quads. But they are unfinished! They go to hell. Yes, you have one ticked off. And the second you did not see for some reason! Here it is the difference between the third and fourth places. And I’m offended too. And my athlete, and parents. On other athletes, the eyes close, and on mine they open.
And separately regarding the jumping tournament.
We will take it so as not to go far – we ride a jumping tournament. I have Veronica losing to a girl who falls from a jump. How can this be? During the tournament, they see that one team is not catching up, they come up to me and say “we are changing the rules.” I say: “Are you stunned at all?”. In the end, whoever wins the last round wins, that’s how we wanted it! Of course, we didn’t know beforehand. Rules are rules, but for some reason they constantly change. And they change once morest. If we remember the jumping tournament, then my team’s lead was very significant. Here the federation says that they are changing the rules so that there is no such gap. Well, Christmas trees. Maybe someone does not want to say it, they are afraid, but I love justice, I love the truth. I will fight for her. I am forced, since I have embarked on this path of a coach, manager, I finance them, help, train them. I have to defend the interests of my athletes. These are top athletes. No need to tell me that the gap was short. All this can be won back with our refereeing system. If you do not want to see my team in the first positions, then I’m sorry, we are not on the way.
These words greatly excited the public. Indeed, none of the coaches spoke so sharply regarding refereeing before. It is logical that experts and people from the world of figure skating do not support Plushenko’s opinion. But the audience reacted differently, although they also do not particularly agree with this statement.
In fact, such a speech did not grow out of the blue. Indeed, there are problems with refereeing, and it is stupid to deny it. Not only in Russia, but throughout the world, there are heated discussions of protocols at every start. All athletes always say very streamlined regarding judging “my job is to skate, and the judges give marks.” We cannot expect more from the skaters themselves. Say something loud, and next time you will be pressed even harder in the grades. But Evgeni Plushenko got tired of being silent, and he spoke out. And he certainly has the right to do so. He did not even have to be asked separately – he himself took the floor and gave out such a powerful speech. And you should definitely listen to it if we want changes for the better, the appearance of objective assessments. Otherwise, the skaters will continue to score points only for the fact that they represent the “correct” school, and the motivation of everyone else will simply fade away.
The coach’s reaction is understandable and the words he chose reflected his fatigue and despair very well. Sometimes, in order to somehow solve a problem, it is necessary to speak loudly and harshly regarding it. Evgeni Plushenko understood this and chose this tactic. He protects his athletes as best he can. It is worth respecting the coach for not being afraid to express his position, the main thing is that this does not affect the skaters in any way. And, as we know from experience, too loud statements in the direction of some kind of injustice do not like the federation, which they do not hesitate to show. But in this case, the harsh words of the two-time Olympic champion regarding the transfer of athletes under another flag can become a reality. This definitely shouldn’t be allowed.
