Coach of the Maleina-Samokhin duo: “If you register for many tournaments, you will be overloaded. We take care of students”

Marina Chernyshova-Melnik. Maria Borovikova, coach of the dance duet Elizaveta Maleina/Matvey Samokhin, said in an interview with that due to the difficult age, it is necessary to regulate the load at all times.

In February, at the Russian Junior Championships in Saransk, Maleina and Samokhin took fifth place. In March last year, figure skaters became winners of the Russian Senior Championships of pairs dance competitions. Previously, they participated in tournaments with other partners: Maleina with Grigory Rodin and Samokhin with Alisa Ovsyankina.

– You have a new couple – Elizaveta Maleina and Matvey Samokhin. How and when was it formed?

— In December 2022. In other words, they have been skating together for a little over a year. It so happened that we broke up with Alisa Ovsyankina, and around the same time Lisa separated from her partner. She literally skated alone for several days and then Lisa’s mom called us and asked to watch. They came, tried to ride with Matvey – and we immediately saw the prospects.

— Why did Lisa and Matvey only participate in three tournaments during the season?

“They are currently going through a difficult age: they are both growing up and having to constantly adjust their workloads. Each tournament is preceded by serious preparation, high loads, and then you need to recover to start preparing for the next tournament. In addition, children are in the final year (ninth grade), preparing for the Unified State Exam and attend many classes with tutors every evening. In the fall, there was unease in this context, so there were few tournaments. But they performed well everywhere. We decided that for now there is no possibility of going to international competitions, let Matvey and Lisa take part in the main national competitions, and that is enough for now. If you register for many tournaments, you will be overloaded. We care about the health of athletes because we want their career on the ice to be long and successful. So we take care of the students so that they are ready and healthy at the right time,” Borovikova told .