“Talalaikina was an excellent figure skater before moving to Italy” – Leonova

Figure skater Maria Talalaikina made a mistake moving to Italy to train, says Alena Leonova, silver medalist at the 2012 World Championships in women’s individual skating.

Talalaikina, who turns 22 in July, told earlier in April that she was retiring from her sporting career. In the fall of 2021, Talalaikina moved to Italy to train under Angelina Turenko. Last season she returned to St. Petersburg and studied in Evgeniy Rukavitsyn’s group. At the Russian Championships in Chelyabinsk, the figure skater took 17th place.

— What do you think Talalaikina lacked in her sports career? Did you expect more from her?

– A little wisdom, perhaps. I always think that trying in the same style as she did – for another country and so on… Well, the whole mistake, in fact, was there. Masha was an excellent figure skater before she decided to change her life, try something new and compete on the international stage. Yes, everyone wanted the latter. But she did something ugly. In the end, it didn’t work and it really broke her. Yes, she wanted to come back, she waded as best she could, climbed up and something happened. But the Masha we had seen before leaving for Italy was no longer there. If she hadn’t left, she would have achieved excellent results. Masha is very different, sociable in terms of images, something interesting could have happened if she had not left.

When she returned, she had to decide: either go all-in, bet everything on her career and leave with a bang, or not try at all. She offered a sort of middle option. And from what I understand, things didn’t go very well. It was probably worth trying again, not to end my career, but to try to return to the old Masha that was then and try to achieve something more. I am very sorry that we will not see such a bright and original athlete on the Russian stage,” Leonova told .