training under eteri

when one girl leaves, the next comes

-may 7, 2018-

i walked into the rink ready to skate, when i saw eteri angrily yelling on the phone, near the boards
" она не может просто уйти? сейчас середина сезона."
( she can't just walk away? it's the middle of the season.)
" она никогда не говорила со мной об этом. как она могла так поступить? после всех лет и трудов, которые я вложил в нее? я сделал ее спортсменкой, которой она является сейчас, и вот как она меня благодарит?"
( she never talked to me about it. how could she do that? after all the years and hard work i put into her?i made her the athlete she is now, and this is how she thanks me?)
" что происходит? о ком она говорит?"
( what's going on? who is she taking about?) aliona asks.
" я понятия не имею, но звучит это не очень хорошо."
( i have no idea, but it doesn't sound good.) daria says.

eteri ended up leaving the rink 10 minutes later and not returning that day. everyone was confused so we tried to bribe daniil, dudakov and sergei rozanov, but they refused.

—

after an exhausting 10 hours of practice, sasha and i were waking to the front area of the rink to meet our moms,
where we saw dasha and sofia (akatevia, a novice skater at the time, same level as dasha, and soon kamila) were staring at a tv on the wall.
" что происходит?"
( what's going on?) i asked.
" это евгения. она переезжает в канаду."
( it's evgenia. she's moving to canada.) sofia responded, without taking her eyes off the tv.
" что? не может быть. она никому не сказала?"
( what? no way. she didn't tell anyone?) sasha asked while sitting down on the couch next to sofia.
" нет. я думаю, что никто не знал, даже федерация."
( no. i don't think anyone knew, not even the federation.) sofia responds.
" о боже, саша. так вот почему она спрашивала меня про английский!"
( oh my gosh, sasha! that's why she asked me about english!) i said in a surprising tone.

we continued to watch the 4 hour long broadcast while our parents went to get food.
this broadcast included all of zhenia and eteris history, which i knew most of, since i had been skating with her for 6 years.

when i first started skating here, evgenia was the nicest to me.
yulia was also pretty sweet, but eteri was the hardest on her at that time. there was a few other girls who also trained at the rink, but they didn't talk to me much because i was so young and we had very little in common.
when i joined the team in 2012, zhenia was 13. although she was 5 years older than me, we spent the most time together. on our days off, we would go get our nails done, go to the spa, etc. she helped me feel comfortable in the new rink, and completely new environment.

i also think my friendship with zhenia, worked very week in my favor. zhenia was eteris obvious favorites, so our friendship helped paint me in a positive light.

when i first found out zhenia had moved, my feeling were pretty hurt. we had always been fairly open with eachother, but i understood it aswell.

—

the next day after practice, zhenia had called me from the toronto airport. she tried speaking english, but i could tell it was a challenge, so we just spoke russian.
she explained show she was moving to brian orsers rink,
( he has trained many high level athletes. and olympic athletes such as yuna kim, yuzuru hanyu, adam rippon...., jason brown, etc..).
" вы рассказали этери или кому-нибудь еще?"
( did you tell eteri or anyone else?) i asked
" нет. только моя мама, бабушка и брайан знали."
( no. only my mom, grandma and brian knew.)
we talked for about an hour, and after our conversation, she had gained enough courage to call eteri.
—
once evgenia had been gone for a while, the dynamic was completely different. alina zagitova was never the favorite of eteri, in 2013 she joined at 11 years old, and a few months later, eteri had kicked her out since she was "lazy", but after a while she was allowed to come back.

once evgenia was gone permanently, alina was the punching bag for all of the coaches. 6/10 times eteri yelled at someone, it was alina. for some reason, alina never took offense to it, or tried talking back, which sasha or aliona would have been fighting at. alina and kamila ( and anna irl) are very quiet and complacent, while sasha and aliona are very abrasive, and i fall somewhere in the middle. when i was 10-11, i started acting similarly to aliona, and sasha, but quickly learned that eteri did not like when i acted that way, so i was forced to do two hour workouts on top of training every day.
i'm not quite sure why sasha and aliona don't have the same consequences, but maybe it's because eteri has trained me for longer.

we could visually see alina breaking down each day. with the increasing negativity and scrutiny around her skating and recent performances, she was starting to turn into a shell of a human.
she no longer smiled, or showed any emotion other than sad and crying or spacey and distant.
it was sad to see her like this, but it seemed like i was the only who cared, or even noticed.
—

later on in the month eteri needed a replacement for evgenia, and she brought in kamila valieva and later on in that year maiia khromykh. at first, i didn't find either girl too threatening, but as time went on, kamila was number one on my radar.

at the rink every coach had their favorite skater:
eteri: evgenia, sometimes me? and some times sasha?
dudakov: sasha and i
gleik: alina zag ( and anna in real life)
rozanov: sasha, aliona kosto and i

,but now in eteris favorite skater hierarchie kamila took the spot. technically, i should have been next in line, or sasha, but she was the shiny new girl.
kami came into the camp with all her triples, and triple+double combos, but, she wanted to quit the sport.
she had frequently told us in the locker room that after a while she didn't like the sport anymore, and doesn't think she will do it next season.
her confession gave me a little hope, because kamis talent just radiates off of her.
she has so much confidence and passion, similar to aliona.

kamila was a year younger than us ( same age group as daria and maiia) but would join the senior category in 2022, just in time for the olympics, if she doesn't quit before that.

i guess time will tell....