Interview with Medvedeva after Worlds

Original: https://www.sport-express.ru/figure...oe-intervyu-evgenii-medvedevoy-1526418/?ua=dt
Translated by me

- Is there a release, an ease after it is all over?

- Not exactly a release. There is certainty that I can, that nothing is lost, that I am still the same Evgenia Medvedeva, who is able to fight. For me, this competition was important to show a good result under pressure. It was huge - controversy, everything that happened around. I kept away from this, but thoughts still interfered. I felt that people view me under a magnifying glass, try to find something its not there, and even find it. For me, this competition was important, to have the strength to go further. I have it.
I said no to social networks. It helps. I recommend, I don’t watch TV out of principle, it’s such a zombie box [russian negative name for TV]. On the Internet, you can find something interesting - you go to Google, ask a question, get an answer, learn something new, become smarter. And on TV you see some kind of reptilian invasion and believe in it. People believe in everything that announcers on television say. Therefore, I have no TV in the room for the last five years.

- And the invitation to the TV?

- It is interesting to look at people who work in another field. I really love working with professionals. As it is known, speed, attention, and organization are important in TV industry. Shooting, time is limited - I like the way people work, the kind of shots they get. I love the camera, I love to act in commercials. It is true that the camera does not always love me.

- Did you manage to figure out what happened to you over the last year?

- Yesterday I was able to understand what it was. During the season there was a strange feeling - you enter the ice, turn around. And there are different people standing. Not that you're upset, it's just different. And this was seen by both Tracy Wilson and Brian Orser. It was just that both me and them needed time to get used to it. At the first competitions, they took me out differently than they do now. We found a common language. During the season there was a feeling that I was like an adopted child - they love me, take care of me, but something is not right. "Mom, dad, am I adopted?"

But now this feeling is gone, we have a strong figureskating family called "Cricket Club". Of course, for me this competition was simply amazing - I turned around and saw near the border the people whom I had long wanted to see next to me. At this moment those are the best coaches for me, best friend and choreographer. This something unimaginable, this feeling of real human support. I am grateful to Misha Ge - he was next to me during all the competitions. Everyone knows that we have been friends for a long time. For me it was priceless that he was near.

All the guys from our team have very different characters. Jason Brown is cheerful, always happy, positive - I have never met such people. Loud Debbie Galiman [spellt like this in the interview, not sure if she said it like this or it is a type] who attracts attention, Katyusha Kurakova - absolutely tiky, but already an adult girl. How it fits together in one person is completely incomprehensible. Lilian from Moldova - I can not explain how amazing he is. There are many such people, we are like relatives to each other, we often go out together.

- You got a North American intonation.

- I hope this is a compliment.

- Not in the language, in the way you present yourself. Has life in Canada contributed?

- I think this is more my personal story. My mentality will not change, my character will not change - nothing can be done about it, and I do not want to do anything with it. I am Russian, and I am proud of it. Yes, there are positive people, it affects the quality of life, the level of endorphins in the blood. But now I feel much more confident as a person. I know that I am going in the right direction.

- You said after the skate that you changed your diet among other things.

- Now I made a choice in favor of vegetables - for about two months I have not eaten meat. These are the changes that I wanted, but could not yet speak in Veliky Novgorod at the Russian Cup final. It’s just that a little more time passed since that moment when I made this decision. I do not eat meat, do not eat milk protein, but this does not mean that I limit myself very strictly - my diet is very rich, there are a lot of cereals, nuts and butter. If something is missing, there are vitamins. For me, this is important, I feel more happy. I understand that at the same time I care about myself, about my mind, about my body, about my career and the environment. And this is awesome.

- So you are now a vegetarian?

- Basically - yes. But I still interact with dairy products, I bake cookies for myself. In Canada, it is much easier to avoid animal protein — there is a substitute for almost everything. You can even buy vegan mayonnaise, but this is absolute nonsense, it is unhealthy. Perhaps I will return to the meat. But I have now changed this in my life and I feel comfortable, I feel good. If something goes wrong, I will not force myself, I will return to the diet I have been used to during my whole life.

And let's be honest - it’s so much easier to maintain weight. The ratio of body weight and fat - this is what I rely on now. Weight, of course, is also important - plus or minus three kilograms is harmful. But I now pay less attention to the scales.

- What will you do after the World Cup?

- I will stay here in Japan, but nothing concrete.

- There are places where you would like to go?

- To Nagano. I was there once and just fell in love. I was not at Mount Fuji. Would you get up? Yes, but not on my own.

- What makes Japan interesting?

- Its calm, composure and balance in solving complex issues and affairs. For the people who live here, there are no small things. Everything is clear, neat, beautiful - this is a feature of this nation. But sometimes it seems that the rules are too strict. There was a case when I was walking with a suitcase to get a bus - I showed my accreditation, I put my foot up and suddenly the door closes in my face. The controller shows 12:30 - time to leave. But I was almost in? Sorry, we have rules. Okay. People do their jobs.

- Do you like the changes that are happening to you? Including in terms of appearance.

- Now I like myself much more without makeup. Perhaps I am surrounded by people who believe that I am beautiful. I hear - you're rested, you look great. I am a girl, it is important for me to hear this. I feel confident like a woman, and it also makes me happier. I used to wake up, look in the mirror and think - oh god, where is my concealer? Today I can wake up, go wash my face, comb my hair, look at myself in the mirror and say to myself - I am rested. And I started to think that my fingers are long, and I stopped having complexes about my hands. Complexes go away. We all need good and a couple of compliments, then people flourish.

Thank you for the translation, Moriel. But can I ask what is a “tonal”? Is it a make up or just skin color?

Also, a vegetarian athlete at a high level like Zhenya!

ETA: and she has Meagan D. nearby for advice

el henry said:

Thank you for the translation, Moriel. But can I ask what is a “tonal”? Is it a make up or just skin color?

Also, a vegetarian athlete at a high level like Zhenya!

ETA: and she has Meagan D. nearby for advice

Click to expand...

Fixed, concealer. Kinda translated too much today, for some reason i was convinced its same in english :dummy:

moriel said:

Fixed, concealer. Kinda translated too much today, for some reason i was convinced its same in english :dummy:

Click to expand...

Thank you, and it was such a minor question, I was just curious.

Translations like these take time and are not easy, I am sure that all posters, like I am, are grateful for your work

el henry said:

Thank you, and it was such a minor question, I was just curious.

Translations like these take time and are not easy, I am sure that all posters, like I am, are grateful for your work

Click to expand...

I am a hater of sorts but we got to keep the information fair.

el henry said:

Thank you, and it was such a minor question, I was just curious.

Translations like these take time and are not easy, I am sure that all posters, like I am, are grateful for your work

Click to expand...

Another translator translated it as 'foundation'

This is such an insightful interview, thank you so much for translating it, this in particular stood out to me a lot;

"- Now I like myself much more without makeup. Perhaps I am surrounded by people who believe that I am beautiful. I hear - you're rested, you look great. I am a girl, it is important for me to hear this. I feel confident like a woman, and it also makes me happier. I used to wake up, look in the mirror and think - oh god, where is my concealer? Today I can wake up, go wash my face, comb my hair, look at myself in the mirror and say to myself - I am rested. And I started to think that my fingers are long, and I stopped having complexes about my hands. Complexes go away. We all need good and a couple of compliments, then people flourish."

I can't help but notice that Eteri's girls use a lot of makeup, there's nothing wrong with that and I never thought much about it, but now I hope it's not something enforced by her, being told you need to wear makeup from a young age it's not healthy for the mind.

... the camera does not always love me.

Click to expand...

Yes it does. :yes:

(Just saying...)

Thanks for the translation, Moriel. Great interview.

Her interview to rsport
https://rsport.ria.ru/20190323/1552048816.html

Medvedeva: For difficult jumps, my body should be like a mashine. And it will be!

Two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva, who won the bronze medal in ladies singles skating at the 2019 World Championships in Saitama, gave an exclusive interview to Elena Vaytsehovskaya, in which she openly told about what she was most afraid of after moving from Russia to Canada, explained why it was necessary to switch to "the beast" insude her, and admitted that there is a television project in which she really wanted to be.


No one other than Evgenia

- The intensity of women's competitions in Saitama was felt at the stands incredibly sharply. And how did you perceive what was happening, and, in particular, your skate, yourself?

- It somehow ended very quickly. I skated first in the warm-up group, which is somewhat unusual for me. I was much more used to skate later. After the draw, to be honest, I was even a little upset about this and was very worried about how everything would turn out. And then I realized that the first starting number was an advantage to me. Because at the six-minute warm-up before the skate, I practically did not warm up anything at all - it was very painful.

- Did an injury happen?

- I did not understand myself what had happened. We have not yet consulted with the doctors, but, since today I feel much better, I concluded that nothing serious had happened. Just before the free skate, my leg suddenly started hurt a lot. To such an extent that I had to "turn on the beast" - to gather all the fighting qualities that I was given from nature thanks to mom and dad. But I would not say that the performance in the free program turned out to be somehow insanely difficult for me. Physically, yes, because it was really hard to endure the pain.

- It seemed to me that the reason for your only mistake, an underrotation on a solo double axel, was too much speed.

- I don't know. I didn’t particularly think during my skate. I tried to just surrender to the sensations.

- Would you say that you skated on an autopilot?

- It was not exactly that way. I controlled every movement, but “control” and “think” are completely different things. It's one thing to control your body: how to turn your head, or hold your hand. And quite another thing is to think about speed: is it great? And if great, what will it give? And what will happen if ... Such thoughts are it, the end. You can stop and do not go anywhere else.

- When it finally became clear that you returned to the podium, one of the Russian coaches said: "No one, except Zhenya herself, believed that she would be able to do it." Did you feel the disbelief strongly?

- I admit that there must have been people who did not believe in me, but it does not hurt me at all. I know that I have Brian (Orser), there is Tracy (Wilson), there is a team from Cricket Club, there is Jason Brown, who has become for me a true friend and support in so many ways. There are a lot of absolutely amazing people around me now.

- I would say that this is rare for your sport.


- Very rare! I'm actually a happy person. I was really very lucky that my life after the Olympic Games changed so abruptly and that such people appeared in it. I am extremely grateful to Misha Ge, who I knew for a long time. In general, I felt very confident in these competitions. It is very important to feel not only coaching support, but also human. Those people who do not need anything from you, but you know that they are with you.

Easy way to the goal

- In Russia, for many years you grew up in a very tough environment. Was it strange to learn, after moving to Canada, that figure skating can be completely different?

- Of course it was. There was, for example, a period when I was really frightened that it was possible to vary the load on my own, to choose the path by which you go to the goal. I was very afraid to choose the easy way.

- Was there any temptation?

- There was, I will be frank. A man is arranged by nature that he always subconsciously chooses the path that is simpler. Even in school, it is taught to connect two points on the map in the shortest way - a straight line. There were moments when I was going soft on myself.

- Do you mean the gained kilograms?

- Kilograms, and it was not always possible to control myself in training, although it was simpler: after all, I'm used to work hard in training. It took time for me to understand that there is nothing to fear. Because, firstly, I am surrounded by people who always tell me if something suddenly went wrong, and, secondly, I myself am not the same person who can take everything halfway down.

- During this time, were there periods when your belief that everything will work out, weakened?

- Honestly? Yes. After a short program at the championship of Russia, for example. After the stage of the Grand Prix in France. A big disappointment was the short program at the Canadian stage (Grand Prix) - then it was really very difficult to set yourself up to continue the competition. I did not sleep all night and during that time, as it turned out, I lost two and a half kilograms. But all this, apparently, hardened my order.

- And it was not scary after the Russian Cup, when a trip to the World Cup has become a reality for you? Surely you understood that after so many failures during the season, there was no longer any room for error?

- Of course I understood it all. But I was not scared, rather I had confidence. And a very high concentration. We worked too hard for this World Championship with our entire team. If you only knew how much Jason (Brown), Cha Jun (Hwan), Yuzu (Hanuy) worked - it’s really necessary to see at least once how fanatically people train. Bad performances after such work simply can not happen.
Another question is that, all the same, all the athletes, deep down, doubt some things. After all, none of us fully knows what he is capable of. Therefore, there is no absolute certainty in the result. The only thing I was not even afraid of, but constantly kept under control, so as not to let my nerves down at the crucial moment.

Everyone has his own victory


- Does the fact that your medal turned out to be bronze, and not silver, hurt you in any way?

- Not at all. I stood on the podium and thought that I actually won a tremendous victory over myself. The girls, who standed higher, they are just great, and I’m quite able to appreciate what great work Alina (Zagitova) and Liza (Tursynbaeva) have done. So, both of them are now moving our sport forward - this is amazing.
Just for me, the world championship became a tournament, where there was no point at all to somehow relate my result to how others performed. In the same way as to compare these competitions with those that were during the season. These are generally incomparable things. And I'm really proud of myself.

- Are you sincere now?

- Absolutely. I understood, as it seems to me, a very important thing. Each athlete goes to the competition with the idea of winning. This is normal and correct. Just the "victory" is always individual for each of us, depending on the circumstances. Given my circumstances, I definitely won. The World Championship had a special meaning for me, and the color of the medal does not matter here. It is very important.

- When, in the middle of the season, you decided to abandon the short program that Sandra Besic and David Wilson gave you, did you feel awkward about these specialists?

- We made the decision to change the program together, the entire coaching team. Sandra is always very supportive of me, David too. And both of them, probably, had understood before me that that program required too drastic changes from me, for which I was internally not quite ready. It was really difficult for me to cope with all the tasks at the same time. No offense about this was definitely not.

- In the press center after the women's tournament, the phrase “Zhenya returned!” was constantly heard. Do you share the opinion that you really returned to the state when you were competing without worrying about the result at all?

- This state has become quite different. I'm still learning to control it. In this regard, the Worlds has become for me a kind of reference point. I am sure that now everything will go only upwards. We already know with Brian and Tracy how to communicate with each other, how to work, how to achieve our goals. Yes, I have changed a lot internally, but at the same time I have remained myself, this is all mine. And I will not say that I am somehow nostalgic for what happened. I used to go to every competition absolutely the same.

- Opened the cage - and go?

- Something like this. Now everything has become much bigger and richer. There is some kind of versatility in sensations. Perhaps, there are still some situations when I still do not fully understand what to expect from myself, but I like to go in this direction, like to learn, to grow. And all this happens very consciously. This actually happened in the final. If I had not become angry with the free program, if I had not consciously turned on all my internal energy, there would be no such result.

How difficult was it to skate in Saitama with a 13-hour difference from the usual time?

- What's wrong with that? Did Kaetlyn Osmond take third place at the Pyonchang Olympic Games? And she performed there with the same difference.

- The Olympics still give the athlete more time to acclimatize.

- I don’t think that it bothers anyone. One thing is important: how do you skate when you go to the competition. All the rest is secondary. From my own experience I can say for sure: acclimatization begins to create problems for me only when I start to think excessively about it. And it is bad to sleep and wake up early in Canada.

- How relevant is weight control for you now?

- I constantly control what I eat - I began to think about it a year ago, after the Olympic Games. Before that, there was no system at all: it could happen that I ate only one small chocolate bar per day. I had a constant fear that I would now stand on the scales, and a hundred grams of excess would appear. Now I constantly work with a nutritionist whom Orcer has found for me, and I do not even rely on what the scales show, but on the percentage ratio of muscle and fat. Even at the Russian Cup in Novgorod, many said to me that they noticed changes in my body, that I began to look very athletic. Although I myself still do not think so.

- In what sense?

- This is not yet the body that I want to have. To study more complex jumps, the body should be like a machine. And I will have it. It just takes time and patience. Melissa, my nutritionist, has extensive experience working with Canadian ballet dancers. During the time that we cooperate with her, my fat content has decreased, and my muscles have increased. Weight while remained within the limits of the previous norm.

- Did you have complexes after the Olympics when you began to gain weight?

- I understood that I can cure all my complexes about food in only one way - by allowing myself to eat. When you keep yourself on a very rigid diet for many years, and in fact you live half starving, you need time to understand: if there is food in the refrigerator, you don’t have to cram it all at once. It is not going anywhere from this refrigerator. As soon as I put all this in my head, the weight began to return to normal.
I have never loved bread, a plate of blueberries is much tastier. And it is useful for ligaments, and the mood improves, and two hundred calories per bag, as they say. I can not say that now I constantly count calories, but almost completely switched to a balanced diet. All changes with my body, to which people pay attention, were largely due to this.

- What period was the most difficult for you in terms of weight control?

- Olympic season. I understood that I should be as "dry" as possible. My weight in Pyonchang was one and a half kilograms less than a year before the Games at the World Championships in Helsinki. It was a difficult period, but I had no other choice. Otherwise, I would simply not skate my programs. At that time I didn’t have much muscle, and in this case the body retains water very much. You become heavy and swollen. Therefore, everything was really very tough and quite big damage was done to the body. Now, fortunately, all these problems are in the past.

Get knowledge of music, do not hammer brains!

- You, I think, know better than me how quickly female figure skating is changing and what needs to be done to adapt to these changes. Any ideas on this already?

- Of course. We talked a lot on this subject with both Brian and Tracy. My statements that I intend to skate for a long time do not mean that I will skate my short program with a "flip-toe loop" combo until I get old. I will complicate the jumps, increase the overall complexity, improve in other things.

- And more specifically?

- I would not want to specify. Why hurry?

- How big is your activity in social networks?

- It has become significantly smaller. I taught myself to go there much less often, and it played a very good role in my life. I stopped scribbling my brain with all sorts of nonsense, I stopped worrying about what others think about me. And really stopped responding to other people's opinions. Of course, there are things that can hurt me, but this definitely does not apply to what is written on the Internet. Before - yes, I paid attention to it. Not now. Those people who post comments on Instagram have never decided my fate, and they will not decide it.

- What acquaintance that happened during the year out of sports was the most unusual in your life?

- I immersed myself in music very much after the Olympics. At first, I met Chris Kostov - we were filmed together at Channel One. I also met Yura Pak, who performs under the pseudonym Haru, that is, singers and musicians appeared in my circle. It was actually great, because I was downright stuck in K-pop for some time, I listened to Korean music exclusively.
Now among my favorite songs there is, for example, Shallow performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, that is, the musical horizons began to expand greatly. Now I even can participate in a conversation about music.

- Famous athletes are often invited to popular television projects. You also took part in some of them. Is there a project you would very much like to be in?

- The most attractive project for me in this regard, with the widest television coverage, is the Olympic Games-2022. Any more significant thing in my life simply does not exist.

Ulrica said:

This is such an insightful interview, thank you so much for translating it, this in particular stood out to me a lot;

"- Now I like myself much more without makeup. Perhaps I am surrounded by people who believe that I am beautiful. I hear - you're rested, you look great. I am a girl, it is important for me to hear this. I feel confident like a woman, and it also makes me happier. I used to wake up, look in the mirror and think - oh god, where is my concealer? Today I can wake up, go wash my face, comb my hair, look at myself in the mirror and say to myself - I am rested. And I started to think that my fingers are long, and I stopped having complexes about my hands. Complexes go away. We all need good and a couple of compliments, then people flourish."

I can't help but notice that Eteri's girls use a lot of makeup, there's nothing wrong with that and I never thought much about it, but now I hope it's not something enforced by her, being told you need to wear makeup from a young age it's not healthy for the mind.

Click to expand...

I think its more about Russia in general. Not sure about NA, but overall russians wear WAY more makeup than brazillian and european women. Its stuff like that, you go to the grocery store close to your home, and all the ladies there are dressed up, makeup on.
Imho, this story of russian women being the most beautiful comes partially from this custom and corresponding social pressure to dress up wherever you go, so they are always well dressed and always have make up on, even if minor. As a person who loves crawling out of the bed in PJs to go buy some coffee nearby, i felt enormous social pressure for not bothering to look 100% for such tasks (also, the same people who complained about my PJ pants and lack of makeup, also complained about me wearing sport shoes to go shopping in a town of 10000 people and dirt streets, instead of wearing heels. Because a real woman would put a dress and heels on, war paint on her face, and go through dirt and mosquitoes to buy some bread, looking stunning).

el henry said:

Thank you for the translation, Moriel. But can I ask what is a “tonal”? Is it a make up or just skin color?

Also, a vegetarian athlete at a high level like Zhenya!

ETA: and she has Meagan D. nearby for advice

Click to expand...

Good to hear it! It is fortunately becoming ever less uncommon for top athletes. Besides Meagan Duhamel (10 yrs a vegan), there are plenty of others, Venus and Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, Novak Djokovic (runs a vegan restaurant in Monaco), Vickie Pendleton, Ed Moses, David Haye, Hannah Teter, Lewis Hamilton, Fiona Oakes, Heather Mills, etc. etc. Scott Jurek, for some "the greatest ultramarathon runner of all time" has multiple 100+ miler marathon records as a vegan (20 yrs now).

Giltedge said:

Good to hear it! It is fortunately becoming ever less uncommon for top athletes. Besides Meagan Duhamel (10 yrs a vegan), there are plenty of others, Venus and Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, Novak Djokovic (runs a vegan restaurant in Monaco), Vickie Pendleton, Ed Moses, David Haye, Hannah Teter, Lewis Hamilton, Fiona Oakes, Heather Mills, etc. etc. Scott Jurek, for some "the greatest ultramarathon runner of all time" has multiple 100+ miler marathon records as a vegan (20 yrs now).

Click to expand...

I suppose it will take a while to have more top athletes vegetarian/vegan. Its a bit harder to balance out your diet, considering the high intensity training, as with any dietary restrictions.
Also traveling can be a huge paaaaaaaain, because sometimes you just have no options to eat out. And athletes travel a lot.

Me currently not vegetarian, but with heavy food restrictions so any trip I got to stay in a place where i can cook myself, usually either rent a flat or stay in a hostel, because looking for food that doesnt have ingridients A, B, C, D... is a quest, and if you dont know the local language very well, asking for them to remove those from your dish in a restaurant may be also a challenge, since not everybody speaks english, and when they do, they dont necessarely know the specific words for the products you want to avoid.

moriel said:

I hear - you're rested, you look great. I am a girl, it is important for me to hear this. I feel confident like a woman, and it also makes me happier. I used to wake up, look in the mirror and think - oh god, where is my concealer? Today I can wake up, go wash my face, comb my hair, look at myself in the mirror and say to myself - I am rested. And I started to think that my fingers are long, and I stopped having complexes about my hands. Complexes go away. We all need good and a couple of compliments, then people flourish.

Click to expand...

This I will say, while the consistency of her performance may not be there as it once used to be, and understandably so, the move to Canada certainly does seem to have made her appearance more heathy looking. Before, she used to look like someone who had been missing few days' sleep, with much noticeable eyebags for someone so young. I'm glad she feels healthy because she certainly does look healthy too.

moriel said:

I suppose it will take a while to have more top athletes vegetarian/vegan. Its a bit harder to balance out your diet, considering the high intensity training, as with any dietary restrictions.
Also traveling can be a huge paaaaaaaain, because sometimes you just have no options to eat out. And athletes travel a lot.

Me currently not vegetarian, but with heavy food restrictions so any trip I got to stay in a place where i can cook myself, usually either rent a flat or stay in a hostel, because looking for food that doesnt have ingridients A, B, C, D... is a quest, and if you dont know the local language very well, asking for them to remove those from your dish in a restaurant may be also a challenge, since not everybody speaks english, and when they do, they dont necessarely know the specific words for the products you want to avoid.

Click to expand...

There are high level vegan/vegetarian athletes as @Giltedge noted, but you need to do it correctly, to fuel your body and not just to lose weight.

I agree it is difficult when traveling. I am vegetarian, and even in the US, when I traveled to rural West Virginia where the closest restaurant is the "Road Kill Cafe", (and don't get me wrong, West Virginia is a beautiful state, and I loved it) it's not easy.

It is very important to feel not only coaching support, but also human. Those people who do not need anything from you, but you know that they are with you.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the translation, Skatingfan200.

- I constantly control what I eat - I began to think about it a year ago, after the Olympic Games. Before that, there was no system at all: it could happen that I ate only one small chocolate bar per day. I had a constant fear that I would now stand on the scales, and a hundred grams of excess would appear. Now I constantly work with a nutritionist whom Orcer has found for me, and I do not even rely on what the scales show, but on the percentage ratio of muscle and fat. Even at the Russian Cup in Novgorod, many said to me that they noticed changes in my body, that I began to look very athletic. Although I myself still do not think so.

Click to expand...

The way she talks about her weight is concerning. She seemed to be really close to developing full fledged eating disorder.

Good she found much healthier approach. That is worth far more than all the gold medals in the world.

Ulrica said:

I can't help but notice that Eteri's girls use a lot of makeup, there's nothing wrong with that and I never thought much about it, but now I hope it's not something enforced by her, being told you need to wear makeup from a young age it's not healthy for the mind.

Click to expand...

"But" is a denial of what was said previously...

flanker said:

"But" is a denial of what was said previously...

Click to expand...

As i said, its more of a russian thing than specifically eteri thing. russian society is much more stricter about looks, weight, clothes and so on, and does more pressure on girls to always look good.
Cant say it is good, but its not something to be blamed on Eteri.

VenusHalley said:

The way she talks about her weight is concerning. She seemed to be really close to developing full fledged eating disorder.

Good she found much healthier approach. That is worth far more than all the gold medals in the world.

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Yeah, as a recovered anorexic and current psychologist, there are several aspects of the figure skating world that worry me, and the way disordered eating is accepted, considered normal and even encouraged is so alarming. I understand that there is a delicate balance between diet and weight in figure skating, however there is soooooo much more to health that needs to be considered than the number on the scale. I appreciate how Evgenia talks about now focusing on body fat to muscle ratios, and rationalising her thoughts about food, and taking a much more balanced and moderation-based approach. All things that you learn and develop in treatment for EDs. I will say that several of the young Russian Quadsters worry me in how frail they look, and whilst they are only young and yes some people are genetically small-framed, I don't think that is true of all of them - you only have to look at how much Zagitova has developed over the last year to see that she was very likely trying to suppress puberty. Some amazing and world-level skaters have been strong and powerful (examples that spring to mind are Kaetlyn Osmond, Wakaba Higuchi, Liza Tuktamysheva, even Tessa Virtue was generally much more athletic than other female ice dancers). Restriction and being chronically underweight may work for these girls in their teens, but I worry so much about the health implications- believe me having Osteoporosis in your spine in your early 20s is not fun!!!
But I digress, I'm glad that the move to Canada/Orser has produced such positive changes in Med, and I hope she continues to develop healthily in both body and mind!

VenusHalley said:

The way she talks about her weight is concerning. She seemed to be really close to developing full fledged eating disorder.

Good she found much healthier approach. That is worth far more than all the gold medals in the world.

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I agree. I was actually a bit shocked when I first read these parts of the interview. I mean, I knew she was too thin last year but still... sometimes only eating a chocolate bar a day and having no system at all, just trying to keep her weight as low as possible...?

“I understood that I can cure all my complexes about food in only one way - by allowing myself to eat. When you keep yourself on a very rigid diet for many years, and in fact you live half starving, you need time to understand: if there is food in the refrigerator, you don’t have to cram it all at once.“

This sounds dangerous. It‘s good that she seems to be on the right path now, though. Starving is never the way to go. In figure skating there’s often the idea that being as thin as possible will be the way to reach one’s goal but it’s not true. Instead, it’s possible to eat but eat healthily and focus on having a lot of muscles but low body fat percentage. Weight is actually a secondary factor and if you ONLY go by this, it will never work.

She seems to have got this message and I‘m glad Brian found her a nutritionist who‘s focusing primarily on developing muscles and strength and only secondarily looks at the scale and her weight. I‘m sure it takes some time getting used to this if you’ve lived with a mindset like this for most of your life but in the end, it‘s way healthier and definitely the right decision.