What would you wish for Eteri Tutberidze to represent the United States ? Just for fun !

[el henry]

Just for the fun of it, I'd love to see the the verbal contortions of some guys here once an Eteri-coached US lady starts winning all the shiny gold medals they have been craving for for so long ...

I don't think so, Tim

"Craving gold medals for so long": I think you must have American fans confused with others, who maybe prize those shiny medals above all else? Besides, Nathan Chen has shown you can win gold and be happy, healthy, have a life outside the rink, not practice 12 hours a day, and not be humiliated by a coach's words. So American fans are doing just fine.

And, compared to the health, welfare and psychological well being of skaters, a gold medal. Pffft. Health welfare and psychological well being wins.

Every. Single. Time.

 

[el henry]

Surprise surprise. She is already doing some "informal" consultations while she is still in the US.

Some people here are going to stroke out.

You mean the people who love Eteri because she brings such pride and success to Russia will stroke out if she actually does manage to find a few novices whose parents in the US will let them train with her? Because now it will be "Go USA"

I hope Eteri's fans are her true fans, and not just tied to country, so that they do not stroke out.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

I would be completely shocked and at a loss for words to ever see Isabeau Levito or Lindsay Thorngren leaving their coaches for Eteri hell.

 

[lariko]

Just for the fun of it, I'd love to see the the verbal contortions of some guys here once an Eteri-coached US lady starts winning all the shiny gold medals they have been craving for for so long ...

yeah, me too. It would be hilarious

 

[MiraiFan]

Maybe it's me but I don't understand what you are asking at all. I for one hope to hell she goes back to Russia and stays there, same for her daughter.

 

[arewhyaen]

Theoretically, where politics is concerned Tutberidze actually can deal imo. Japanese influence in judging increased rather shamelessly last year, so she can trade in judges loyal to her. And States need it without Chen and to solidify positions of their pairs and women in Russians’ absence. Figure Skating world is a snake pit of friends so unsavoury people stayed afloat forever… that’s what politics is, after all, the art of holding one’s nose for advantage and profit. As for parents… parents who are willing to deal with the likes of her are everywhere.

Is there precedent for soviet/russian coaches who moved to the US and were still able to have the same political sway? I only ask cause whose to say that the eastern bloc wouldn't keep Eteri's American pupils down out of vindictiveness for Eteri turning her back on Russia.

 

[lariko]

Is there precedent for soviet/russian coaches who moved to the US and were still able to have the same political sway? I only ask cause whose to say that the eastern bloc wouldn't keep Eteri's American pupils down out of vindictiveness for Eteri turning her back on Russia.

Why do you need a precedent? Tutberidze is like a queen of quid pro quo. She makes her own rules.

 

[lariko]

I just wanted to add that what she had done already doesn’t make it okay if she’s obeying more regulations in States. It would just be the normal myopic attitude and dismissing how much cruelty, toxicity and bodily harm she had unleashed. Her or her daughter benefitting from Tutberidze’s plowing under Russian junior and senior ice dance, from her abusing teens and establishing a bullying hive to trash teenage athletes is wrong. It’s really, really, really not okay to have her benefit because of her citizenship and her scheming when honest Russians in figure skating are destroyed. It’s just wrong and would be so hypocritical, it’s just mind boggling. Tutberidze and her likes shouldn’t be acceptable in the sport, period, no matter which country they covered with shame for accepting her behaviour.

If sports’ officials are fast on the trigger to cancel the entire Russian skating, but embrace from all people Tutberidze… I have no words.

After what was put together during the Olympics, I just can’t believe anyone can stand being near her. Have you read the accounts? Have you seen Russians going #ShameTutberidze and begging for her to be held accountable?

Have you read this?

Just for fun, you know? (It’s translated in English)

https://twitter.com/tvsmlove/status/1492670562837188610?s=21&t=NnmJbriZBePTjkBidgL3PQ

 

[el henry]

Eteri may be the teflon queen of Russian skating, I don't know, she has certainly had success and that seems to be what is prized primarily by those who count where she coaches.

I still maintain she will be just another coach, if she does coach, in the US. Her politicking value in the US right now is zero, so why would any skater affiliate themselves with her?

And what if a SafeSport complaint is lodged (and I have no idea if one will be, I am not predicting that), and it hits the media and newspapers? SafeSport complaints can be lodged by anyone with knowledge, people just observing in the rink with no relation to the skater and the coach.

Politicking value hits infinite zero.

 

[lariko]

Eteri may be the teflon queen of Russian skating, I don't know, she has certainly had success and that seems to be what is prized primarily by those who count where she coaches.

I still maintain she will be just another coach, if she does coach, in the US. Her politicking value in the US right now is zero, so why would any skater affiliate themselves with her?

And what if a SafeSport complaint is lodged (and I have no idea if one will be, I am not predicting that), and it hits the media and newspapers? SafeSport complaints can be lodged by anyone with knowledge, people just observing in the rink with no relation to the skater and the coach.

Politicking value hits infinite zero.

Keep telling yourself that. But then again, according to you Davis has ‘the right’ to be in the States, when it’s an outrageous unfairness. Citizenship or not, she shouldn’t be embraced. Anyone who wishes a modicum of clean sport should be up in arms against Tutberidze and Davis anywhere near competitions. Drugs are not the only way to cheat.

 

[el henry]

Keep telling yourself that. But then again, according to you Davis has ‘the right’ to be in the States, when it’s an outrageous unfairness. Citizenship or not, she shouldn’t be embraced. Anyone who wishes a modicum of clean sport should be up in arms against Tutberidze and Davis anywhere near competitions. Drugs are not the only way to cheat.

I hope I did not give the impression that I approve of what I know about Eteri's methods. From what I know, I do not.

I have read articles about young teens weighing grams of food and starving themselves and being told lies like this is the only way to train for quads because you will injure yourself otherwise. What poppycock and what a way to set up for future eating disorders. ETA: Of mocking a skater with a serious injury and wanting her to train on it. It saddens me greatly.

But, as I have also said, I do not follow the Russian ladies (or any ladies in great detail) and maybe the articles are wrong. I cannot read Russian, so maybe the translations are wrong. I know you do, so if you say they are correct, then I believe that.

*IF* they are right about her methods, there is no politicking that will allow her to have a coaching career in the US. She can't use those methods without someone reporting her. If using those methods and reported, she won't get the students (at least not North American students) to get the shiny gold. Not because some parents wouldn't be so obsessed, but because the USFS will not tolerate the bad publicity. Not in this day and age.

It is a much different reward system in the USFed, that is all I was trying to say.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

I hope Eteri's fans are her true fans,

Besides diehard Russian ladies skating fans, who exactly are Eteri's fans? Ted Barton and who else?

 

[lariko]

But, as I have also said, I do not follow the Russian ladies (or any ladies in great detail) and maybe the articles are wrong. I cannot read Russian, so maybe the translations are wrong. I know you do, so if you say they are correct, then I believe that.

Twits I posted are translated accurately. She did shoot Pitkeev with morphine and put him on ice to skate RusNats where he skated according to him in black out state falling until he fractured his spine.

 

[BlissfulSynergy]

the USFS will not tolerate the bad publicity. Not in this day and age.

Ummm. Well, Eteri and her methods have existed just fine in this day and age for a very long time, albeit under Russian fed representation. But ISU judges and other officials haven't had any problems with Eteri either. Eteri's skaters and thus indirectly her methods have been rewarded for years. It took an unnecessary scandal during the huge spotlight of the Olympics before more attention and questioning has been placed upon the methods Eteri utilizes. Her skaters won, at huge costs to their physical and emotional health, but the sport, as usual, preferred to look the other way until a significant scandal forced them to address at least part of the situation. Mind you, they aren't actually investigating Eteri that I'm aware of.

As far as U.S. figure skating, they are notorious about not acting when needed. They, similar to the ISU, tend to bury their heads in the sand, or look the other way regarding controversial issues, and complicated problems that need to be addressed, but are never faced until festering into huge public scandals.

The ISU has performatively changed the age rules, mainly for the optics. If the ISU actually bravely intended to benefit the health and well-being of the athletes, they would have convened a panel of experts to truly examine this a long time ago. Or better yet, they may have been able to put rules in place with better advisement from the very beginning. Instead, they bop around with their rulings from one cycle to the next, from one extreme to the next, based on public scandals that threaten the sport's credibility with the IOC. It's also problematic that speed skating is combined in one union with figure skating. These are two separate sports, and figure skating always gets the short end of the stick, while bringing in most of the revenue.

As far as the age rule changes, there are a lot of different sides to this issue. The rules changes will not fix the doping problems, and the coaching abuses across the sport. While it might be a good idea to raise the age limit to at least 16, I think it's problematic to make a blanket age rule, when athletes mature and have varying levels of strengths and abilities at different points in their career development within the sport. Other measures need to be taken in conjunction with this age rule change. As well, there are numerous other pressing problems that the sport tends to bury its head in the sand about. Business as usual in figure skating.

 

[lariko]

Exactly. If ISU can ban all Russians summarily for actions precipitated by Putin on some long-shot notion they help in propaganda, they sure should ban Tutberidze for systematic abuse of athletes that she speaks about openly on camera and the judging system. This woman is a criminal, plain and simple, and for her or her daughter to be an exempt is outrageous.

 

[elbkup]

Twits I posted are translated accurately. She did shoot Pitkeev with morphine and put him on ice to skate RusNats where he skated according to him in black out state falling until he fractured his spine.

Oh my Good Lord is that what happened to him!? I loved him and was heartbroken when he disappeared and I didn’t know why other than he was injured. The woman gives me the creeps.. Yulia and Aliona rebelled for good reason I guess..

 

[lariko]

Oh my Good Lord is that what happened to him!? I loved him and was heartbroken when he disappeared and I didn’t know why other than he was injured. The woman gives me the creeps.. Yulia and Aliona rebelled for good reason I guess..

Read that Twitter thread, people put it together from skaters’ and Tutberidze’s own interviews during the Olympics. And it doesn’t even have the hounding of Trusova while she was with Plushenko to which we all had front row seats. All those ‘lazy, hysterical’ teens she has to motivate and then blackens in her interviews once she is done with them. Samoilov is speaking more and more openly now that he is in Italy. If you read the interviews, those brands of courage and athletic spirit starts to look scary. That school is a chop shop that grinds through the most talented kids in Russia with a medieval brutality.

There are traumas in sport, obviously, but this is different. This is systematic and psychological abuse and cyber character assassination is just horrid, precipitated by adults against teens.

I don’t know why it should be pointed to the ISU that I a coach shouldn’t be putting kids into dumpster cans and making them say they’re trash, so they go into trash.

 

[Lurker11]

Who are all these Eteri skaters retiring before they are 18 or having eating disorders?

 

[DreamSkates]

NO. Why would anyone want a drug-pushing coach to represent the US or any other country?

 

[elbkup]

Read that Twitter thread, people put it together from skaters’ and Tutberidze’s own interviews during the Olympics. And it doesn’t even have the hounding of Trusova while she was with Plushenko to which we all had front row seats. All those ‘lazy, hysterical’ teens she has to motivate and then blackens in her interviews once she is done with them. Samoilov is speaking more and more openly now that he is in Italy. If you read the interviews, those brands of courage and athletic spirit starts to look scary. That school is a chop shop that grinds through the most talented kids in Russia with a medieval brutality.

There are traumas in sport, obviously, but this is different. This is systematic and psychological abuse and cyber character assassination is just horrid, precipitated by adults against teens.

I don’t know why it should be pointed to the ISU that I a coach shouldn’t be putting kids into dumpster cans and making them say they’re trash, so they go into trash.

I was aware of most of this but knew nothing about Aiden…
I actually feel sorry for Eteri’s daughter..
there was an Instagram post in the FF of Diana with her father which I thought was lovely.. not knowing anything about him but knowing about Eteri, i almost wish he had gained custody of her..