Interesting interview with Adelina Sotnikova | Golden Skate

Interesting interview with Adelina Sotnikova

TryMeLater

On the Ice
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Mar 31, 2013
It was posted in her fan fest, but I thought it was worth a discussion here.
https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/threads/vaytsekhovskayas-interview-with-sotnikova.103618/

A few highlights:
EV: How harsh was your diet at that moment?
AS: Very harsh. But my diet consisted, at the very least, of real food. I never took any pills or smoothies, though I know these methods exist to prevent puberty. Our puberty is slowed down anyway - from all the hard work and the 7 hours a day practices. If you are not eating at the same time - how will your body hold?

EV: Would you want the rules changed? Not being allowed to put all the jumps in the 2nd part of the programme or some other limitations?
AS: The main thing I want to see in figure skating is juniors competing with the juniors and the seniors with the seniors. The juniors skating is a different sport, a different set of mind and different abilities. So all is set to what the kids can do, which is mainly the jumps. I don't think anyone wants to see the robots who can do a 4/3/3/3/3/3... don't know how many. The senior can show the elements and the programme the way the kid would not be able to.
 

karne

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This was an outstanding interview. What a thoughtful, mature young lady she is.

Her injuries were horribly unlucky. I hope she's able to make the comeback she wants.
 
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Joined
Dec 9, 2017
Interesting interview! I did like her style of skating for what it was, and would take it over most of what we see in Ladies' today. If she comes back, that would be something to look forward to.
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
I never understand this obsession with the harsh diet. I was so happy to see videos of preparing Yuzuru's meals in Olympics which included normal and reasonable portions of rice, meat, potatoes, ... He even mentioned he goes to McDonals quite often and he eat potato chips a lot. There was a video of a Yakisoba restaurant in Sendai where he visited and as he is an athlete the owners were pondering if they had to bring him just water/tea and to their surprise he replied "Coke please". And we all know how thin he is. I know people have different metabolisms but I can't accept that all these young girls have a slow metabolism and they have to starve to be in shape.

On a personal note, I'm a female and till the age of 24 I was never beyond 53 kilos while based on these absurd standards I used to eat as much as two/three men. For example for a lunch in Subways I used to get a 12" sandwich and ask for another 12" bread to wrap it around the first one. I would have that double layer sandwich plus soup and drink for lunch and of course full breakfast and dinner every day, never beyond 53. I was also a professional athlete, martial arts, with at least 4 hours a day nonstop fighting training. So even if someone comes up with a scientific explanation for this starvation procedure, which I doubt, I can never ever accept it based on my personal experience :confused2:

I just feel so bad for these young girls, you put a kid through a process and make her 4,5-year-old mind believe that's the right thing to do and when she is a teenager, she has already believed that it was her own decision and continues. At the moment I'm so angry with all the adults in the world :curse:
 

plushyfan

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I don't think Yuzuru is a good example.. Probably he is genetically incredible thin man with great musles on his legs and he is very lucky with it.
 

tjb

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Aug 22, 2017
This was an outstanding interview. What a thoughtful, mature young lady she is.

Her injuries were horribly unlucky. I hope she's able to make the comeback she wants.

a person who won senior russian nationals at the age of 12 and finished career at 17 wants to raise senior age to 18. what a thoughtful, mature lady indeed:laugh:
 
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I don't think Yuzuru is a good example.. Probably he is genetically incredible thin man with great musles on his legs and he is very lucky with it.

Based on some short glimpses that we had on his mother and also once his father in the airport none of them are thin and tall, so I'm not sure if we can say it's just the genetics :scratch2:
 

plushyfan

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Based on some short glimpses that we had on his mother and also once his father in the airport none of them are thin and tall, so I'm not sure if we can say it's just the genetics :scratch2:

Oh, I understand. Maybe he is lucky he can eat but he doesn't gain weight.
 

TryMeLater

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Mar 31, 2013
whole post

There's a massive difference between men and women regarding this part. Men need to control their weight but they don't gain breasts or a menstrual cycle in puberty which can largely affect weight and muscle distribution.
The Russian are surprisingly more open about weight being a factor - for man and woman - Tat's comments on TV regarding weight and there's always Raf with his elephant analogy.
 

cruzceleste

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Feb 23, 2014
I don't think Yuzuru is a good example.. Probably he is genetically incredible thin man with great musles on his legs and he is very lucky with it.
This, he has increase as much 3 pounds since Sochi to Pyeongchang and grow up 1 cm. He can´t be compared to other athletes.

For what I have seen (never have seen a picture of his father), his mother is rather skinny even after having 2 children and being in her 40s

There's a massive difference between men and women regarding this part. Men need to control their weight but they don't gain breasts or a menstrual cycle in puberty which can largely affect weight and muscle distribution.
The Russian are surprisingly more open about weight being a factor - for man and woman - Tat's comments on TV regarding weight and there's always Raf with his elephant analogy.
Women, can increase almost 5 pounds during their periods, also is normal that you feel less energy during this time and even affects your emotionally state, so is normal to think that women have a much difficult time adjusting.

My swimming coach use to joke about getting a calendar timing to when our periods, me and my female teammates, would arrive, so he can be able to time the ideals moments for us to compete...
 
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Please ladies, different anatomy of a woman body does not justify prescribing pills and smoothies as a diet. The whole point is that putting young girls into these unnatural starvation procedures and making them believe that it's the right path for them is ethically wrong and inhumane.
 

TryMeLater

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Mar 31, 2013
Please ladies, different anatomy of a woman body does not justify prescribing pills and smoothies as a diet. The whole point is that putting young girls into these unnatural starvation procedures and making them believe that it's the right path for them is ethically wrong and inhumane.

I agree...In one of the fluff pieces/documentaries for the Olympics there's a scene in which Zagitova and Medvedeva are weighing themselves, while one is hiding the other from the camera - so the camera can't catch the weight.
Then, Medvedva explains that even 300 grams (0.6 pounds) are important because it can hurt the "aerodynamics of the jump".
 

yume

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Hanyu still fit perfectly in his 15, 16, 17yo costumes.

Please ladies, different anatomy of a woman body does not justify prescribing pills and smoothies as a diet. The whole point is that putting young girls into these unnatural starvation procedures and making them believe that it's the right path for them is ethically wrong and inhumane.

I can't imagine how hard it must be to train with no real food.
 

tjb

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Aug 22, 2017
Please ladies, different anatomy of a woman body does not justify prescribing pills and smoothies as a diet. The whole point is that putting young girls into these unnatural starvation procedures and making them believe that it's the right path for them is ethically wrong and inhumane.

and who is justifying this? i only see people speculating about this without any proofs. like people who never visited eteri's rink and never been at her practicies are calling her methods inhumane.
or generalasing all russian coaches as a whole, like there is specifically russian training system, which is bacilly a torturing and can't by applied in the US, because US coaches have higher moral ground. i see articles like this all over western media, from people who never been in russia and know nothing about russian figure skating
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
and who is justifying this? i only see people speculating about this without any proofs. like people who never visited eteri's rink and never been at her practicies are calling her methods inhumane.
or generalasing all russian coaches as a whole, like there is specifically russian training system, which is bacilly a torturing and can't by applied in the US, because US coaches have higher moral ground. i see articles like this all over western media, from people who never been in russia and know nothing about figure skating

I'm sorry, but who is talking about Eteri or Russian coaches? Just because this interview comes from a Russian athlete and I'm commenting on it, you think I'm attacking Russians? That's not a right assumption my friend :noshake:

I'm against any form of child abuse in sport that can happen in any country and I never mentioned Russians or Eteri, it just happened that the person giving this interview is a Russian athlete, am I to be blamed for that?
 

tjb

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I'm sorry, but who is talking about Eteri or Russian coaches? Just because this interview comes from a Russian athlete and I'm commenting on it, you think I'm attacking Russians? That's not a right assumption my friend :noshake:

i'm not saying that it was you, there is other people.
but i'm actually interested, who are those people you are talking about. who are putting young girls into starvation procedures and making them believe that it's amazing. you know some other coaches who are doing this, and they are not russians?
 
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
i'm not saying that it was you, there is other people.
but i'm actually interested, who are those people you are talking about. who are putting young girls into starvation procedures and making them believe that it's amazing. you know some other coaches who are doing this, and they are russians?

I don't get your way of logic because with this sentence you are actually accusing Russian coaches yourself. Anyways, as an example, there is a famous US coach that actually says to young athletes "You either eat or compete". I don't name the person because as I said the whole point is being against any form of child abuse in sport in any country not just US or Russia or Canada or Japan or ...
 

madison

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May 2, 2015
I don't know why so much controversy on the diets.
Figure skating is a sport in which every 100 g matter, so obviously athletes and especially girls, cause they are more prone to gain weight during puberty, have to watch their diet. It depends much on the genetics of each skater, but they should be careful what they eat. I mean even normal people - those that aren't professional athletes - keep diets. It's just normal to be careful with what you eat,drink and at what hours you eat.
I am against unhealthy nutritional regimes, but there are many diets which are healthy.
 

tjb

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Aug 22, 2017
I don't get your way of logic because with this sentence you are actually accusing Russian coaches yourself. Anyways, as an example, there is a famous US coach that actually says to young athletes "You either eat or compete". I don't name the person because as I said the whole point is being against any form of child abuse in sport in any country not just US or Russia or Canada or Japan or ...

i'm just used to the russian coaches accusations. i've never seen on this forum that someone other than russian coach was actually accused in this kind of things.
anyway, i don't see nothing wrong in a sports diet. all high level athletes are doing this.
 

TryMeLater

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Mar 31, 2013
and who is justifying this? i only see people speculating about this without any proofs. like people who never visited eteri's rink and never been at her practicies are calling her methods inhumane.
or generalasing all russian coaches as a whole, like there is specifically russian training system, which is bacilly a torturing and can't by applied in the US, because US coaches have higher moral ground. i see articles like this all over western media, from people who never been in russia and know nothing about russian figure skating

I think you are misreading the comments.
The Russians are more open about it - it's not that it doesn't happen in other countries, it's just that you don't hear talk about it in other countries.
And you are right, we don't know if it happens it Russia, but here you have a top Russian skater admitting to hearing "rumors".
 
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