Gurgen Vardanyan: “I have never seen coach Yulia Shebeshtien raise his hand to a child”

Former sports director of the Hungarian Figure Skating Federation Gurgen Vardanyan said in an interview with that he had never seen cruel methods in the work of coach Yulia Shebeshtien.

Szebeštien is the first Hungarian European champion and now works as a coach within the national federation. It was reported that the athletes’ parents complained about the specialist’s working methods.

— You worked with Ioulia Shebeshtien for around twenty years. Today, the Hungarian press accuses him of child abuse. Is there any truth in all this?

“I’ve seen what the press has written about her lately, and it continues now. She is accused of cruelty. Now it has become fashionable. Parents whose children have not reached height try to blame everything on the coach. Parents have understood that they can write unpleasant things and try to appear rich in the eyes of their children. This is bad behavior, a serious mistake.

Yulia is a strict trainer, but she knows how to work, I have seen many of her workouts and I have never seen her raise her hand to a child, I think this is fiction, because there is no no evidence yet,” Vardanyan said in an interview with “

Vardanyan left his post in May last year, preceded by scandals: parents of local skaters complained that the manager was giving places in the team to Russian-speaking athletes.