“I am neither mum nor dad. I’m a different person.” Sayutina, the daughter of famous skaters, explained why she quit figure skating

alexandra – the daughter of Olympic champion Svetlana Bazhanova and world championship medalist Vadim Sayutin – has been on the ice since childhood. But she started out as a figure skater and now she’s into speed skating.

– Alexandra, once we recorded an interview with Svetlana Valerievna at the rink where you were figure skating. I always wanted to ask why did you leave this company?

– It’s a long story. Lots of different subtleties. I left in the summer of 2017. It was when Anna Pogorilaya was preparing for the Olympics, she had back problems. She came, then she missed, the coach accumulated all that emotionally, pissed off, and it all came down to us. Our charges have increased so much that it has become impossible to get them out.

When I went to rest for a week in July, I thought that after returning it would be better, but on the contrary, everything only got worse. Someone started falling – someone has back problems, someone has knee problems. Mentally and physically, it was already becoming difficult to bear. And that day I went to the program, ripped off the jump, and heard, “Either three more skates in a row to the music, or you won’t practice anymore.” At that time, the situation was such that at each training session, I thought of leaving.

Usually, when the coach asked me to, I packed up my stuff and left. The coach wrote to my mom and dad that I was so bad and to blame for everything I didn’t want to work. I was 16 and the threat of parents in this case no longer works.

– 16 years for women’s figure skating is already a lot.

“But I was in one of my best shapes. We have already overcome the moment with the transitional age, when the weight changes and the brain at this moment already works differently. Everything started to improve, got in shape, was quite “dry”, and now everything went … I went, I sat on the playground, I thought, I weighed everything, I I called home and said to my father: “Take me away.” He is surprised: “So it’s only one o’clock in the afternoon.”

She got in the car and told him everything. He didn’t pressure me, he told me to mind his own business – “we’ll talk in the evening”. In the evening, he asked me if I wanted to change my coach, if I wanted to change my mind and come back, only the president of the federation was supposed to see Anya Pogorilaya, her availability … They were also looking at me, telling me , appreciate me. Mom also said about it: “Maybe you’ll ride another week, at least we’ll know what to start with after watching” … I said I wouldn’t come back, I was tired of this whole toxic situation.

– You talked about loads, but speed skating is a huge job…

“But it’s a completely different sport. And morally a little easier. There is a fee, we are not seated in the same place. There you are sitting on the same rink all the time, a few weeks off, and again on the same rink…

– And in speed skating they already consider you a daughter of Svetlana Bazhanova and Vadim Sayutin. Also extra pressure.

– It doesn’t matter at all. I have already been asked about this. No, it does not disturb me. Yes, I’m their daughter, but I’m not a mother or a father, I’m a completely different person. I don’t think it should be pressure.

– What is the priority for distances?

– More on the “one and a half”. Dad wants to take me out for another “troika”. Yes, and on the “five” … But this is already a very long distance. In terms of technique, 1500 and 3000m are even closer, I run everything, he thinks I can run everywhere too.

– After the figure and everything that happens around it, are you bored here?

– Not yet. I have been here for five years. Arrived at 16, he is considered too late. But still, she did not come from swimming, not from skiing. There is a feeling of ice.

– Can you compare the charges? Vanya Skobrev said that the workload of skaters should not be underestimated even in the context of skaters, and he performed only in the ice show.

Certainly not to be underestimated. It’s hard, it’s hard. Morally there is constant pressure – you still need to lose weight. They told me: you need to throw off a kilogram from each leg. And I usually choose, where exactly does that weight go?

Yes, the load is serious both moral and physical, but in figure skating, unlike speed skating, there is no “hitting the legs”, which turns them off and you can fall in the middle. There is work on stretching, the vestibular apparatus. It’s not great to twist for four hours, it’s just that the load is completely different. In skating you have two practices a day, in figure skating you have five, stretched out over time, but not as intense.

– Is the situation in speed skating calmer?

– At first I thought so, but sometimes it’s tense. When you go up to a higher class, you understand that it’s a sport, that it’s the same everywhere and everywhere you meet different people. There’s tension, something rushing you, but in general it’s probably calmer.