Mutko: “The Sochi Olympics became a turning point for our figure skating. After that we were swept away. We understood what had to be done.”

Former Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko told that the 2014 Olympics in Sochi became a turning point for Russian figure skating.

The Sochi Games took place from February 7 to 23, 2014. During these Olympic Games, a team figure skating tournament took place for the first time. The Russian team, represented by Evgeny Plushenko, Yulia Lipnitskaya, Tatyana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov, Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov, Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitry Solovyov, Elena Ilyinykh/Nikita Katsalapov, won it.

— Our skaters had a very brilliant performance. But what was remembered more: the team gold, Lipnitskaya’s red dress or Plushenko’s drama?

— I really like figure skating. The Kingdom of Heaven to Alexander Georgievich Gorshkov, we became friends in Vancouver, we watched the skates a lot, he was so worried about the result!

We did a lot for figure skating: the ice was built especially for them in Novogorsk, so that no one would interfere at all. We separated them from short track racing – that’s very important. There had been no medals in women’s individual skating before. The Sochi Olympics were a turning point, after which we were carried away because we understood what needed to be done, for example, we created several groups. Eteri Georgievna (Tutberidze) had her own center, Nina Moser had a center. That is, we went to such centers, giving cells to national teams.

The “Teamman” in figure skating has already been tested during certain international tournaments. No other country in the world had such a large group of athletes – a clear ambition for a gold medal. In figure skating we had Lipnitskaya, a leader who won the European Championship. In pair skating – world champions Volosozhar and Trankov. We talked with Gorshkov, the coaches, the guys themselves, about how to build a team,” Mutko said in an interview with .