Zagitova will take part in the selection of the coaching staff of her school in Kazan

Olympic champion Alina Zagitova will participate in the selection of coaching staff for the new Kazan Sports Palace, where its figure skating school will be located, the Minister of Sports of Tatarstan told Vladimir Leonov.

In June, the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), discussed with Zagitova the plan to open a figure skating school in Kazan. Later, the region’s Sports Minister Leonov told that for the moment the Zagitova school would exist on the basis of the existing Sports Palace and later it could move to a separate facility. Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin, in turn, told that the city’s leadership is looking for a good place to build a sports palace, where the Zagitova figure skating school will be located.

— Is there any news from the Kazan Sports Palace?

— Technical specifications have been generated. Now we are already working on the project. I think we will try to force it: either by the end of the year or at the beginning of the next year we will already have the design and estimation documentation. And we will continue to try to build it.

— Are the deadlines now clear?

— As we already said, within a year. The only question is how the financial situation will develop and how much it will cost. As you can see, today everything is unfortunately becoming more expensive. Especially ice cream.

But we found a happy medium, you could say. We wanted more, so we optimized it a bit. The result will be a sort of issue price. We’ll even express it, no problem. Then we will think about how to proceed. Perhaps with the federal budget, or we will even attract investors into the arena. For now, we are going as planned.

— Will Alina be the face of the arena?

– No, not just your face. She takes care of it. We are in contact with her, she has a team of people who worked on the project with us. At the same time, we still assemble the circuit itself. For example, there are now certain visions for management staff. However, it is the main thing at school. Zagitova will. Maybe on some sort of rotation, but it will happen.

Initially, we agreed that she would delve into the process and not just give her name. In general, we have a good and constructive relationship so far,” Leonov told .

Zagitova won gold at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. The 21-year-old figure skater also achieved victories at the World Championships and European Championships. In 2019, she put her career on hold.