Tutberidze has the longest vacation in the United States in recent times. Can’t she really go back to Russia?

Eteri Tutberidze went on vacation to the United States after the end of her show “Champions on Ice”. She does it every year and overall, of course, there’s nothing unusual about it. His daughter Diana Davis lives and trains in the United States, performing ice dancing in tandem with Gleb Smolkin, and Eteri Georgievna will visit them in the offseason. This time she flew exactly for the staging of the couple’s new programs with choreographer Benoit Richaud and has been staying there for a month and a half.

This may be Tutberidze’s longest trip to the United States in recent years. For comparison, in the pandemic year 2020 she returned to Russia on June 1, and the next day she was in Novogorsk at training camp. This year, his team started preparing for the season on June 6 – this time the time spent without Eteri Georgievna increased significantly.

In principle, one cannot say that the temporary absence of Tutberidze in Novogorsk is such a terrible problem. Eteri Georgievna built the team on the principle that all coaches are equally capable of performing all features – from working on technique to setting up programs. For example, Maya Khromykh told me that in the absence of a choreographer, a technical trainer Sergey Dudakov could well perform a rollout for athletes, and Daniil Gleikhengauz, theoretically a choreographer, worked with a pair of Evgenia Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov to correct The version.

Now the two specialists are in Novogorsk with the skaters. For a time, they are quite capable of coping with the group, given that the first part of the camp is usually devoted to physical fitness – a trivial task usually for experienced trainers. Then the mass production of programs will begin, and here, without Tutberidze, difficulties will certainly arise.

It is quite possible to control the drives via video link or according to the reports of other specialists. I heard that Eteri Georgievna did exactly that while he was away, and regularly. But when creating new productions, his full-time presence at the rink is of crucial importance, although Gleichengauz takes on most of the work.

Recently, Tutberidze is less and less engaged in single productions, but at the same time, in one form or another, she took part in almost all programs of the best adult team. She even took part in creating numbers for Tarasova / Morozov – in total, four coaches were involved in their programs, but Tutberidze’s word was always decisive in many areas.

On the one hand, Gleichengauz will certainly pull through. On the other hand, after Eteri Georgievna’s return to Russia, some programs will almost certainly have to be adjusted in accordance with his recommendations.

If she comes back, of course. At the moment there are no serious reasons to believe that this will not happen, but there are not many claims to the contrary. American blogger Dave Leese wrote that Tutberidze herself allegedly told someone (source unidentified) that she wouldn’t mind training in the United States – under current conditions, that’s a Guaranteed decision, because living in two countries is now problematic as much as possible. Eteri Georgievna, however, denied all this, but from my own experience I can definitely say that in figure skating such information rarely arises like this.

However, we will find out the truth very soon. One of the first steps Eteri Georgievna must take to move to the United States is to quit her job. Until September 1 this year, Renat Laishev, the leader of Sambo-70, remains one of his direct supervisors. And he certainly should have known if Tutberidze was going to leave. Considering the new season actually starts in two and a half months, she has to make the final decision now. It will then be too late – not for her, but for her skaters.

If we hypothetically assume that Tutberidze is still moving to the United States, she will certainly not be short of work. Most likely, given the unstable situation in the world, at first the best skaters will approach it with caution. But it will still not be difficult to ensure a constantly high income – it will be enough to regularly conduct one-on-one training with those who want it, which will certainly be in abundance.

But so far, these arguments don’t make much sense. On the eve of Laishev in an interview with informedwho expects Tutberidze to return to Russia “in the near future”. And for our sport, this is really very good news. Because the departure of Eteri Georgievna would be fatal for the Russian figure.