“Where are your people looking? And I have nothing to say.” Irina Rodnina criticized the bosses of the Russian figure

Three-time Olympic champion in pair skating Irina Rodnina, in an interview with , explained why she did not consider Yulia Lipnitskaya a full Olympic champion when Eteri Tutberidze’s victories were running out, and also why the management of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR), according to her, minding her own business.

– Irina Konstantinovna, what do you think about Kamila Valieva’s participation in the long tour of Tatiana Navka’s show?

– Navka – well done, gather all those of interest to the public. It’s hard for me to judge, I haven’t participated in tours (shows), but there is such a moment – you always have to ride in front of people, because you get used to the audience. Considering that there are no competitions now, we can consider this as one of the stages of preparation.

– For the season ?

– Maybe. Although I don’t know which season we can talk about now.

– In other words, you can’t put an end to Valieva’s career because of her participation in the show?

– Certainly not. Even in our time, after the World Championships, there were tours with demonstration performances through the International Skating Union (ISU). Another thing is that there are completely different prices – the fare is higher than at competitions, but there is less demand. The question of money is very difficult. The temptation is great.

But I think this issue has been discussed with the coaches and with the parents. So I don’t think Camila will definitely end because of that. Also, most likely, the ISU will decide to raise the age limit. Because all that’s happened with us is that some figure skaters come out in a year, and new ones come out the next season. Medvedeva just took a wing – a young Zagitova appeared. And now you will have to live to be 17. Therefore, figure skaters no longer have such a threat from young people.

– It seems to me, or have you now brought a longer age limit?

Well, we “fought” very diligently for that.

– At what diet?

— We have taken up this trend to rejuvenate the sport. We didn’t start – if you look closely, it all started with the Americans and, in particular, with Tara Lipinski. Because of her, the ISU changed the rules so that athletes who were at least 15 years old could participate in the world championships. And then we took that story in service and escalated it.

But the sport’s popularity has grown.

Each popularity has its pros and cons.

– What are the downsides of the current popularity of figure skating?

– Very precocious athletes progress to adult level, too soon. And in the end it turns out that by reaching, relatively speaking, 17-18 years old, we lose them. And if we count the cost of preparing our next wonderful girl… And all this for two, maximum three seasons. This is inappropriate.

– On the other hand, Sasha Trusova and Anya Shcherbakova skated in the Olympics when they were almost 18 years old. Maybe it’s not all so categorical after all?

– Well, maybe. But the general trends in the sport are as follows. And when everything turns into a treadmill, it starts to get annoying – not even in current realities, but in general. The current time has simply pushed for radical decisions, but it has already provoked a large number of questions from other federations. Let’s be frank, in most countries, of course, individual skating is developing more, and in particular women’s individual skating.

And if once only one federation relied on prospects in this form, then our girls appear and everyone wins, of course, they will not like it. Federations, after all, also live from the fact that certain stars ride for them, which popularize the sport, stimulate the flow of participants. And then we cut off their oxygen.

– And in response they cut off the oxygen.

“For every action, there is a reaction. Did you study physics?

– Has tried.

So why are we surprised? It’s a well-known theory in figure skating, we haven’t discovered it. And we knew perfectly well that sooner or later the time for accounts would come. And it will come very soon.

It has happened before. From the moment I stopped skating in 1980, we lost all the rules of pair skating that were beneficial to us. This was also done to reduce our influence. It all started with Belousova and Protopopov, then me and my partners. A mighty galaxy of athletes from St. Petersburg is gone. Of course, nobody likes that.

Fortunately, we quickly adapt to the rules. But not always. Because just as an athlete has a period when he is capable of great results – and this age is quite limited – so does a trainer. It also has a time limit, it cannot always produce a result.

– That is, Eteri Tutberidze, roughly speaking, will also lack a victorious fuse over time?

– Naturally. It ended in Jouk, in Tarasova, in Tchaikovsky.

– Mishin isn’t done yet.

– But he had a pretty big break in the results. And Mishin didn’t exactly have that galaxy. He had an athlete – he left, he appeared – he left. He had a trinity: Alexei Urmanov, Alexei Yagudin and Evgeni Plushenko, they walked in a row. And how did it all end? Urmanov finished, Yagudin moved to Tarasova, and only Evgeny stayed for a long time.

It’s different things – when you have a whole streak, a stream of champions. An athlete can train for a long time, but a galaxy… It’s much harder here. Wear is much higher.

– And how long do you think the fuse will last? Three Olympic cycles have passed under its domination.

“I wouldn’t say that. Do you think Yulia Lipnitskaya is an Olympic champion?

– Well, in command.

– You said it right – in the control room. And when Yulia started playing in a personal tournament, she made mistakes.

– It turns out that we don’t count the champion teams?

– It’s just that team and individual titles are different things. We can consider them as champions, but still. You know, in the Soviet Union, if you took first or second place in individual disciplines, you received an honored master of sports. In team competitions, such a title was not awarded for second place.

That doesn’t mean they’re somehow worse. It’s just a collective result, not your individual. Therefore, it is slightly less important than personal.

– So you propose to count the Tutberidze galaxy from Pyeongchang?

No, it started early. In my opinion, with Zhenya Medvedeva – since 2016. Well, about specific dates, I can not say here, of course.

— Do you have at least some positive hopes for the ISU Congress? Maybe they’ll let us in under a neutral flag?

No, I don’t have any good points. At least for now.

– So everything will fit in one door?

“It seems to me that they will still wait for the end of our operation. After all, they can make certain decisions after the convention. Congress is still not about admission to contests. These are the presidential elections, the members of the technical commissions, the main changes in the rules. Therefore, at the congress, of course, the question of Russia will be discussed, but this is not the most important.

On the other hand, if we do not speak anywhere, our representatives will not be elected to the organs of the ISU. They are nominated, yes, but who will vote for us? Of course, in the current circumstances, ours will not be elected.

Even if we are already suffering heavy losses. We lived in a deplorable state, and this is precisely the activity of the federation. Not in what place the athlete occupies. The work of the federation is the dissemination of the sport throughout the country, the training of coaches and judges and, above all, the expansion of the representation of the country in an international organization. And we have a minimum of our people in the technical committees.

Apparently, such tasks are not defined before our federation. No matter how I listen to their report, they talk about the results the athletes have achieved. But the work of athletes and coaches is paid for by the Ministry of Sports, that is, our country. The federation also has other functions.

– It turns out that you have questions about the activities of our federation?

Yes, and very large ones. There, on the presidium, people have been sitting since the days when I was skating. During this time, I managed to win three Olympics, gave birth to two children, worked for 10 years in the United States, was elected to the Duma for the fourth time and they sit all. I understand that the consistency is good, but not to this extent (laughs).

No, I have a good attitude towards all these people, I have known them almost all my life. But you know what they say: a good guy is not a job. The world is changing, figure skating is changing, but in our country… Maybe that’s why the problems I mentioned above arise?

We still cannot raise the young, we do it with great difficulty. We have a colossal galaxy of famous athletes who would be happy to be part of the refereeing, the technical committee and the presidium.

Maybe they don’t want to?

– Well how? After all, the request for arbitration must also come from the federation. It’s their job.

All competition is the engine of progress. And when she is not there, including in leadership positions… We have a large number of famous athletes, but we ourselves exclude them from this work. And the results at the World Championships and the Olympic Games are again the work of a coach and an athlete. It is not the federation that creates all the conditions necessary for training.

I’ve been telling everyone about it for several years, but I’m doing it alone. And not at all because I want to get ahead. I’m the same age as those people in the presidium (laughs).

Regarding the representation and promotion of their interests, here is an example for you. Everyone knew that Plushenko was coming back before the 2010 Olympics. It was known that he was doing a quadruple jump, that’s his asset, but according to the rules there is no difference between a triple axel and a quadruple . Could we not conditionally offer China, which also has jumpers, to make a proposal to increase the cost of quads? But that was not done, although we could clearly have found several federations that would support us. This is the work of the federation. After these Olympics, strangers came to me and said, “Where are your people looking, why didn’t they offer to change anything?” And I have nothing to say.

I think that our federation should review the work structure and the list of files for which it is responsible. And this, by the way, is not only about the figure skating federation.