Ex-figure skater Loboda told how she decided to end her career

Winner of the World Junior Figure Skating Championship, now coach and choreographer of the Victory Skating Team Alla Loboda does not consider that she ended her sporting career prematurely.

Loboda, who danced on ice with Pavel Drozd, ended his athletic career aged 20 in 2019.

– First of all, I don’t think I had a premature end to my career. It seems to me that now my thoughts are no different from what they were 3-4 years ago, when I graduated. On my way, I met a lot of talented athletes who seemed to me to be the ones I couldn’t catch up with, and they finished much earlier, without achieving great results. It took me a long time to make my decision. Probably, a year before the end, I already thought about it, but then I decided to give myself a second chance, to try. For six months I was in disarray, but I decided to finish it anyway.

At the same time, figure skating has not disappeared from my life. I love this sport. Now I fell even more in love when I got to watch it from the other side. Of course, on the one hand it was scary to finish, because I know a lot of stories where someone didn’t end up after sports. And for the next year or two, I just had a period of my life devoted to finding myself. I tried a lot of things: I trained, I went on the show, studied to be a sports journalist, graduated from the institute. It was an endless search for oneself, it was very interesting, entertaining. After trying everything, I realized that I’m so proud to coach, to work with kids – when they transform from clumsy little ‘stompers’ to smooth, beautiful, plastic skaters. I love it (smile)! – says Loboda “Championship”.

Loboda, paired with Drozd, became a two-time winner of the world championships in juniors (2016, 2017) and won silver three times in the final of the Grand Prix in juniors.

Championship