Athletistic / Figure skating. Legendary American figure skating coach Rafael Harutyunyan spoke about his collaboration with Russian Sofia Samodelkina, who now represents Kazakhstan. Earlier it became known that Samodelkina had left the Evgeni Plushenko Academy and would soon come to the United States to observe Harutyunyan.
“I can say that everyone is welcome here. Unless it’s the pre-Olympic season and you’re not a figure skater at the level of Sasha Trusova. Because we have too little time and too many responsibilities.
In Samodelkina’s case, the situation is as follows: this is not the first time that her representatives have contacted us with a request for an appointment, this time we agreed and invited her for a visit. First of all, they need to see what training in the United States looks like, because they have no idea about it yet.
We, in turn, will also look at them; there were no guarantees or promises. Anyone can come to us, but everything will depend on the athlete herself, how she will train and how seriously she herself will need it,” Harutyunyan said, as quoted by Sports.
Sofia Samodelkina changed her sports citizenship in August 2023. A year ago, she indicated that she was ready to compete for another country in order to have the opportunity to participate in major international competitions. She is a silver medalist at the Junior Grand Prix of Slovenia and has quadruple jumps in her arsenal.
In the 2022/2023 season, Sofia won the Russian Grand Prix in Samara and also took second place at the Sochi GP stage. At the Russian Championship, Samodelkina took 11th place.
Source: Sport
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