2012 World Championships silver medalist in women’s singles Alena Leonova In an interview with , she spoke about the motivation of Russian figure skaters after the international suspension.
Earlier, figure skater Dmitry Aliev, after a short program at the Spartakiad of the strongest, said that he lacks drive and spirit at domestic competitions.
— You actively watch Russian tournaments. Do you notice a decrease in motivation among athletes? The same case with Aliyev…
— As for Dima, I don’t know, he’s hard to understand, he’s such a creative person. Aliyev is a great athlete, from his performances there is no feeling of fatigue. Maybe he wanted to say something else, but we still didn’t understand what.
In general, I would not say that the motivation of Russian figure skaters has decreased. There is a natural selection, new ones come, old ones leave. Why did Samarin finish? I understood that I had already done everything, so what, should we wait for them to let us in? It does not make much sense. If he has the opportunity to please everyone at the ice shows, then why not?
— If we talk about Samarin, then even in the absence of an international ban, he would hardly have participated in foreign competitions.
— Objectively, yes.
— Let me return to the topic of money. In my opinion, financial conditions are now one of the main motivations for skaters skating in the Russian Federation.
– Well, let’s talk about Trusova, Zagitova for example… Nothing motivates them to take up sport again!
— Yes, because they are financially independent, they earn a lot of money from broadcasts, for example.
– Exactly. They already earn money from someone else. Figure skating has brought them a lot and now they are using it to the maximum, “Leonova told .
Russian and Belarusian figure skaters have been suspended from participating in international tournaments by decision of the ISU Council.
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Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
