Alena Kostornaia | Page 237 | Golden Skate

Alena Kostornaia

patee

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
Country
Hungary
There is speculation on Russian boards - let me emphasize this is 100% speculation - that
Eteri threw her out, supposedly assuming she’d come back
, and when she didn’t, she made the Instagram post and this was the first Plushenko heard of it.

Their arguments for this:
1. Inconsistent timelines for Eteri and Daniil’s stories
2. Plushenko’s slow response, and not the most tactful one at that.
3. No response from Aliona at all
4. Federation said it didn’t have papers (it always says this) but then in an interview an official said something along the lines of “we won’t let the European champion be thrown out on the street”
5. Continued from number 4, Logan said she will still have to represent sambo even if she changes coaches, and the council won’t vote on it until September.

This is clearly a much bigger mess than it needs to be, and would have been, if it was planned back in May. Now the transfer can’t officially even happen to Angels of Plushenko until next year. There were claims that the Trusov family wasn’t aware of her transition until Friday either, and apparently tomorrow Aliona will train on the same ice as Stasya and Volkov’s group, but under Rozanov.

Again, this is all speculation. You can find it in Aliona’s threads on the Russian forum f s o.

I don’t know what to believe - except that we definitely do not know the whole story. That’s for sure. I will be supporting Aliona no matter what and hope she feels all our support during this hard time.

Why??? That is the always recurring question. There hadn't been any sign of tension between Aliona and EG or Aliona being dissatisfied with TT. She'd herself expressed her positive feelings about her new programs just a couple of weeks before EG's Insta announcement. And if it's true that the Trusov family weren't aware of Aliona's transition, well, they can't be honestly happy about it I guess, which might (or will) be a reason for conflict in the (near) future...
 

flanker

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Country
Czech-Republic
Why??? That is the always recurring question. There hadn't been any sign of tension between Aliona and EG or Aliona being dissatisfied with TT. She'd herself expressed her positive feelings about her new programs just a couple of weeks before EG's Insta announcement. And if it's true that the Trusov family weren't aware of Aliona's transition, well, they can't be honestly happy about it I guess, which might (or will) be a reason for conflict in the (near) future...

We say, "man didn't develop the speech to understand with others, man just need to spill his guts". That's how gossips come to light :biggrin:
 

SkateSkates

Medalist
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I just communicated what I’ve been reading. This is not necessarily my opinion.

In my personal opinion, there is a little bit of truth to what’s being said On all sides and what’s not being said (Reading between the lines). Like i stated above, the only thing I know for sure is we don’t know the full story.

And Flanker - I think Aliona might just want to be silent to try to have the news cycle move on. Yes, she can come out and say her side, to which there will be quotes from every Russian coach/former competitor/ federation official etc commenting on her comments. Maybe she just wants this to be over and train in peace. But maybe she also wants to say her side. We will see, but there are arguments either way. She is not very active on social media so it wouldn’t surprise me if she doesn’t make a statement. If she does it wouldn’t surprise me too. Either way, whatever decision she makes is the one she thinks is best for her. We don’t know how she’s feeling.
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
And in that case the age is no reason for me she should keep silent about it.

You‘re right. Professionalism would be the main reason to not reveal private conversations. Professionals shouldn’t do that to anyone, no matter the age. Aliona being 16 does make the whole matter worse, however, as she is a minor.

She‘s in a position of power compared to her athletes who thus have virtually no way to defend themselves against the accusations. Even if they deny them, it will always be their word against that of their former coaches. We have a grown woman intentionally subjecting teenagers to severe online bullying because they dared to be bratty/demanding at times. I struggle to see how anyone could ever see this kind of behavior and be like: “Yes, yes this is adequate and appropriate.“

Let's talk nice things now. I'm excited for new programs and I wish there was time for Lambiel to choreograph a program for her. And I want to see a picture with her bunny. If someone can upload one. I have a bunny and he is so funny. :)

Aliona with a Lambiel program would be so interesting! I‘d like Shae-Lynn too but I realise this is not feasible for this season, she‘s already under a lot of pressure time wise. She‘s starting later than anyone else. I hope they‘re starting the choreography process soon and we‘ll get to see some snippets...and for her to get the 3A back. I‘m so worried about this season lol even though I realise that the best time to struggle with adapting to a new team is now.

I don‘t have a picture of Aliona with her bunny but I think she showed it in the live stream she did with Anna a while back. Surely, some of her fan accounts on instagram will have recordings. :)
 

Yuna Luna

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 20, 2018
We are differing strongly in basic attitude to this. For me, if such things weren't said by skaters (I mean "leave Alina one more year in juniors" etc.), then of course Eteri has no right to lie. Though, in my point of view, if such things actually were said, she has full right to say how things happened and the thing that Aliona is 16 (and Zhenya was actually 18 already) doesn't change a thing on it to me. That is my attitude in everything, not just in figure skating. I admit that my experience with a school with very hard regime (when you deal with live ammunition and martial art techniques that can save your life there is not much space for discussion and democracy) had a strong impact on me and my view of life.

Though this probably doesn't belong to FF, so I'm sorry I've caused such discussion here.

My protest is that Eteri's comment is directly harmful to Alena. It's practically an invitation for toxic internet fans to hate on her. I browsed around on social media a bit after the news broke, and some comments I read about Aliona were very upsetting.

I also would like to add something, regarding the age of responsibility debate, which is sometimes glossed over. At 16-17 years old, a person is not a child and indeed responsible for their actions. However, it's a well-documented fact that teenagers in general are at the most hormonal and emotionally turbulent stage of their lives. This doesn't mean that they're not old enough to know better, but it does mean that they might impulsively say or do things which they will afterwards regret.

And you're right, Eteri has a right to say what she wants, but revealing sensitive information in this case appears pointless and did much more harm than good. Based on Danii G's video the coaches don't even know why Alena left, so as far as they know, the information Eteri decided to reveal might not have any relevance to the reason of Alena's departure. So why share it? It comes across like an angry, mean-spirited gossip to make Alena look bad.
 

McBibus

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 7, 2019
I said I don't want to take such conversation here. But if you insist, I will just repeat in other words: There are only two options. Either Eteri doesn't speak the truth or she does. If she doesn't, than probably Aliona will say I didn't have any such demands. Or she speaks the truth. And in that case the age is no reason for me she should keep silent about it.

As if the truth would be so easy to identify.
How much of the truth has been said?
How edulcarated it has been?
Are there some omissis?

Lawyers rarely lie.
They just carefully say part of the truth.
There are facts and there is the truth (even in full honesty one for each person telling the story)

Take the list for example and let's assume it is true that Aliona requested (most probably in a talk) not to share the ice with someone.
"A list" can range from 1 to half of the academy.
Technically a list is more than one, but why should I say "another skater" when a could say a list and let the speculation run wild?

There are at least two questions that are more important that how long was the list and who was in it.

1) Why did Aliona make a list of persona non grata? What was happening in the team? who is responsible of keeping the academy a safe work environment from everybody?
My reply is both staff and Skaters, with the person in charge coming first and the top skaters (Alina, Aliona, Anna) coming second... and no: Fedotov is not accountable on that :biggrin:

2) has the list anything to do with Aliona leaving? becasue if it's not, true or not, it's just trash talking

Anyway: what Julia and Zenya had to to with this mess?
As of Plushenko words are silver but silence is gold.

Plushenko is a skating legend and Eteri is the most effective female coach of the last 5 years who made sambo70 the paragon for any skatin academy.
I would expect them to act in a professional way not like drama queens in a soap opera.
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
As of Plushenko words are silver but silence is gold.

Yes, Plushenko‘s actions are just as bad. He directly hurt Aliona with that comment about her disliking her programs as people now call her a “two-faced liar“ and whatnot. Did he not realise or care about that? It’s plain unprofessional to criticize another coaching team’s work so harshly. But if he absolutely had to do that - wasn’t it enough to express his own dislike of Daniil‘s choreography? Did he have to rub it in that “Aliona dislikes them too and told me so“? If it’s even true, it’s AGAIN, a private conversation that‘s been exposed to the public.

I realise I‘m ranting but it just makes me so sad/angry that these young people in the most difficult phase of their life/career have no one on their coaching team (old or new) they can trust with their feelings for fear they‘ll eventually be used against them.
 

flanker

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Country
Czech-Republic
My protest is that Eteri's comment is directly harmful to Alena. It's practically an invitation for toxic internet fans to hate on her. I browsed around on social media a bit after the news broke, and some comments I read about Aliona were very upsetting.

I also would like to add something, regarding the age of responsibility debate, which is sometimes glossed over. At 16-17 years old, a person is not a child and indeed responsible for their actions. However, it's a well-documented fact that teenagers in general are at the most hormonal and emotionally turbulent stage of their lives. This doesn't mean that they're not old enough to know better, but it does mean that they might impulsively say or do things which they will afterwards regret.

And you're right, Eteri has a right to say what she wants, but revealing sensitive information in this case appears pointless and did much more harm than good. Based on Danii G's video the coaches don't even know why Alena left, so as far as they know, the information Eteri decided to reveal might not have any relevance to the reason of Alena's departure. So why share it? It comes across like an angry, mean-spirited gossip to make Alena look bad.

This is probably the key of disagreement. One thing would be revealing something like what was said the way "Eteri, I have a personal problem and I would like to talk about it in private", that would not be related to general conditions in the team. Disclosing such things would be inappropriate to me, but that's not the case. Again, I'm not suggesting whether it is true or not, but this particular thing for me is not a thing that would deserved to be kept secret if happened, because this is the thing that affects anyone, not just Aliona, it will affect others in the team (it's actually happening already), it affects the whole russian ladies skating. From the perspective of other skaters in the team, "did there happen something that affects me, is there something I should avoid or the other way, did I cause something" etc. And in the case such as this it exceeds the borders of the team, it affects parents who can start to make hasty decisions and many other outcomes. For such case to me it's much better to speak openly than using some empty phrases about "creative disagreements" etc.

And as for the russian ladies skating as a whole, well, this can have very serious impact. I know there are many true fans of Aliona here, but just for a moment let's leve those "I wish Aliona all the best" ohrases aside and honestly admit on how thin (and dangerous) ice this shifted. It would be different if that would be usual transfer between established teams during the transfer window, but again, admit this is not the case at all.
 

dhjh811

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 23, 2014
You aren't a psyghologist, and framing your response as just you been so hardened, and wow steely, my life has been at risk! doesn't make the argument you want. for one, you don't know the backgrounds of basically any of the posters here. secondly, sharing the internal workings of any organization is incredibly unprofessional. is 16 or 17 a mature age? sure. but Aliona is not the one airing laundry, here. it's two adults. Aliona has said nothing, so how is her response immature? we have no clue the conditions under which she left, so saying anything about the reasoning or speculating about how unprofessional her departure is has no place in the discourse. Eteri and Plushenko have completely opposing stories. so why do we trust that Aliona made a list? RusFed says that the transfer was never proposed in May so how can we say Aliona is unprofessional for getting new programs and then leaving? Why should Plushenko tell the world that Aliona hated her programs? Even if true that statement does nothing but make Aliona look bad, and hurts a coaching staff who has clearly contributed significantly to Aliona's career. Daniil is the only one who has said anything with any sort of dignity attached to it. It would be one thing to share a story: there was dissatisfaction with training philosophy, there were irreconcilable differences between students that could not be avoided by scheduling, etc. But airing things like "Zhenya wanted to keep Alina in juniors one more season" serves no purpose. For one, we have no idea the context. Upset people may speculate, may consider what ifs, may say things they don't mean or just grieve out loud, because they trust that those statements are understood by who they are telling as a matter of trust. When you break up with someone, do you share all the gory details with your instagram and facebook and twitter followers? No. We should expect that professional and working relationships are held to a higher standard. That starts with the leadership and coaching staff.

Let's just let him think what he wants to. Every rebuttal to his views he counters with "Eteri has right to tell what happened, age doesn't matter". Okay, let's say age doesn't matter. Should Eteri be doing any of this with an adult? Even that would be inappropriate. He refuses to acknowledge that 16-17 year olds are not fully mentally developed and crazy hormonal. What do his experiences have anything to do with Aliona's? Well, I guess he admitted that his experiences bias his views. He says Eteri has the right to tell the truth and that the post makes Aliona assume responsibility for her actions. Yet, we don't even know the true story. He did not once justify the necessity of Eteri's decision to include Yulia and Zhenya in the recent post. He simply says that Eteri publicly announcing that Zhenya asked why Alina couldn't remain in juniors is well within her rights, but, again, never gives a reason for why that comment was necessary. Not once does he acknowledge that Eteri uploading shady posts throwing her students under the bus makes her an immature person. What other reason is there for Eteri to be including those unnecessary details other than to get back at her ex-students and generate hate? He claims that he doesn't want all blame to be taken off Aliona, yet it sure seems like he's putting all the blame on Aliona by defending Eteri on pretty much everything. No one here was questioning Eteri's legal rights to upload that post - we are saying what Eteri uploading those posts spells about her character. Yet he ignores all this and goes on about how Eteri has the right to tell the truth. According to his own logic, Aliona had every right to do whatever she wanted. Yet, he thinks her receiving criticism because of the post is ok because she would be assuming responsibility for possible reckless behavior. But for Eteri there is "no reason she should keep silent about it". Well, aren't her actions every time a star student leaves her reckless and reflecting poor character? I think it is clear who he is biased towards. Hopefully, he stops now.
 

LuffyJackson

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 18, 2018
OK, I don't know how to put it in a decent way in her fan fest, but I'll try. I have posted here a couple of times, so judging from my posts, I don't think I can be accused of not being a true Aliona fan. She is my second fav skater and I can only highly speak about her (as always have here and anywhere else before). But now as I have expressed in my previous post, I'm very, very sad and disappointed. I just can't agree with her decision especially with the way she left TT. So when you say you can't bear to see the relationships she had built with her peers in Sambo crumbles just like that you should think about who is responsible for that in the first place??? And it drives me crazy when I read for the umpteenth time how ET threw her under the bus. Wait, who was really hurt in this story??? You can tell from DG's face how much he is hurt and disappointed by Aliona's inexplicable decision, so you can imagine how much EG must be heartbroken... And now don't come with the children-adult argument, because a 16 almost 17-year-old person is not a child anymore. He/she is responsible for their behaviour and acts. Especially in the world of competetive sport! If they are eligible to compete in the seniors field, they must be mature enough to be able to assess the consequences of their decisions. Of course, I still want and wish Aliona the best, but I feel she fell for the Siren's call and she has become a puppet of a bigger and very dark game between big powers. I can only hope it won't destroy her... :sad21:

I wanted to politely argue, but it seems meaningless as we're gonna be arguing on the base of our own assumptions and i think we have a very different moral stand here as you're saying it is acceptable for Eteri for posting her slander on Aliona on her social media because of "hurt", so i would like to say i disagree and move on...

Edit :

when i say this
i just can't bear to see the relationships she had build with her peers in Sambo crumbles just like that.

I have the perception of Aliona getting along with everybody in Sambo before the dreaded announcement or whatever incident Eteri insinuated in her post, whether or not it is the truth, that friendship will never be the same after that and I personally felt kinda sad. Disappointed? not really, but had everything handled professionally i think a friendly atmosphere (at least off ice) can actually remain.
 

sclloyd

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 20, 2019
Country
United-States
So here's an interview from Plushenko with English translation, which seems to be much more professional. He directly refuses to discuss the personal conversations he had with Aliona. TAKE. NOTES. TUT. Anyways, salt about her treatment of Aliona aside, here is the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1TQbKsDxn8

If I'm understanding correctly, he says that Aliona liked the previous music and has ideas about programs, but that the programs will change. This sounds much more realistic and fair, because I don't think Aliona would have let Daniil post a video of a program she was not yet satisfied with but also contradicts the previous rumors that she didn't-- was that a Plushenko quote directly, or a rumor? I never saw the original source.

I'm also interested in what Plushenko has to say about splitting the girls up if necessary. This seems like a far more respectable approach-- of course you would hope that your skaters get along, but that he is willing to accommodate for the undue mental and emotional stress that may negate any positives that come from training with such an intense competitor must certainly make not only Kostornaia happy (if that she gave a list to Eteri is true) but also Trusova. There is not only that Aliona and TT are affected, but also Trusova, who seemed as though she was hoping to get away from the hyper-competitive environment. In this way, he seems to respect both of his athletes. WHAT A CONCEPT. Contrasting this and Daniil's statements with Eteri's only serves to make her seem more childish. Which is unfortunate because she is clearly a top-level coach.
 

LuffyJackson

Rinkside
Joined
Dec 18, 2018
...
This is clearly a much bigger mess than it needs to be, and would have been, if it was planned back in May. Now the transfer can’t officially even happen to Angels of Plushenko until next year. There were claims that the Trusov family wasn’t aware of her transition until Friday either, and apparently tomorrow Aliona will train on the same ice as Stasya and Volkov’s group, but under Rozanov.

Is Aliona-still-representing-for Sambo-70-for-the-season news official now? if it is then Plush's timeline make the most sense, they had no contacts before the off season and only arranged things when the transfer window has passed (pushing early June) or even before the ISU award.

As for the Aliona being outed instead of left rumour, it would contradict strongly with Daniil's story, but make sense for the above possible timeline, maybe then Aliona's decision to go to Plush was Eteri's trigger for her IG post? because none of the press pick this up before her post.
 

Yuna Luna

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 20, 2018
This is probably the key of disagreement. One thing would be revealing something like what was said the way "Eteri, I have a personal problem and I would like to talk about it in private", that would not be related to general conditions in the team. Disclosing such things would be inappropriate to me, but that's not the case. Again, I'm not suggesting whether it is true or not, but this particular thing for me is not a thing that would deserved to be kept secret if happened, because this is the thing that affects anyone, not just Aliona, it will affect others in the team (it's actually happening already), it affects the whole russian ladies skating. From the perspective of other skaters in the team, "did there happen something that affects me, is there something I should avoid or the other way, did I cause something" etc. And in the case such as this it exceeds the borders of the team, it affects parents who can start to make hasty decisions and many other outcomes. For such case to me it's much better to speak openly than using some empty phrases about "creative disagreements" etc.

And as for the russian ladies skating as a whole, well, this can have very serious impact. I know there are many true fans of Aliona here, but just for a moment let's leve those "I wish Aliona all the best" ohrases aside and honestly admit on how thick (and dangerous) ice this shifted. It would be different if that would be usual transfer between established teams during the transfer window, but again, admit this is not the case at all.

I sort of understand what you're saying but I don't really understand how that justification can outweigh the negative effect on Alena. You need to consider the influence Eteri has when she says things on social media. Furthermore, if Eteri is passionate about the issue and its effect on ladies' skating, then she could have easily raised the issue on social media without naming anyone in particular.

If Alena requested not to skate with certain people, then that's really immature, but to me it seems extreme to publicly shame a teen to your enormous amount of followers, making her a target on the internet. I don't think you're understanding how damaging that can be to the psychological state of a young person, and in my opinion the "punishment" does not at all fit the "crime." I'm a teen in high school myself and I'm feeling angry & upset on behalf of Alena!

Also, I find it an far-fetched claim that Eteri makes these public comments because she's standing up for equal treatment. Her pupils so far have had the privilege of her confidentiality as long as they remain on the team. If that's not the case, then why didn't we hear about Evgenia's "keeping Alina in juniors" comment until after she left the team, a while after the comment was made? Why didn't we hear about Alena's bratty demands until after she told Eteri she was leaving? Do you think Eteri would have publicly shamed Alena and Evgenia for those things if they had stayed on her team? No way!
 

McBibus

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 7, 2019
Yes, Plushenko‘s actions are just as bad.

I don't know what got on is mind.
Eteri may be criticized but she's fighting for her work of a Life.
It's understandable.
She made such good work that her academy may have become to big to not spinoff in different realities.

Plushenko should just sit on the porch, sipping a cocktail and enjoying the gift that fell in in hands, thinking about how to make the best out of it.
He seems a bit too much in love with press and social media attention.
 

macy

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
My protest is that Eteri's comment is directly harmful to Alena. It's practically an invitation for toxic internet fans to hate on her. I browsed around on social media a bit after the news broke, and some comments I read about Aliona were very upsetting.

I also would like to add something, regarding the age of responsibility debate, which is sometimes glossed over. At 16-17 years old, a person is not a child and indeed responsible for their actions. However, it's a well-documented fact that teenagers in general are at the most hormonal and emotionally turbulent stage of their lives. This doesn't mean that they're not old enough to know better, but it does mean that they might impulsively say or do things which they will afterwards regret.

And you're right, Eteri has a right to say what she wants, but revealing sensitive information in this case appears pointless and did much more harm than good. Based on Danii G's video the coaches don't even know why Alena left, so as far as they know, the information Eteri decided to reveal might not have any relevance to the reason of Alena's departure. So why share it? It comes across like an angry, mean-spirited gossip to make Alena look bad.

i mean, that's exactly why she posted it. what other reason is there? and the fact she TAGGED Aliona in the picture speaks even louder. that woman was only looking to create drama where there could have been literally none. yet she CHOSE to write that post and share it to thousands of people across the world, knowing there are many out there who will believe anything she says. this is exactly what she wanted. i really hope her daughter and students know better. how embarrassing to have a bully as a mother.
 
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