Misha's children's figure skating coach. Alexey Mishin: “Doctor of Ice Sciences. Elena Vaitsekhovskaya's interlocutors

Alexey Mishin. Biography

Master of Sports Alexey Mishin was born in the city of Sevastopol on March 8, 1941. Alexei's family had to go through difficult times, during which they experienced both hunger and illness. They moved around a lot, but in the end, the Mishins finally settled in Leningrad, where they transferred their father for work.

The character, abilities and craving for creativity in little Alyosha were developed by his parents. The boy had more than enough interests. One of his hobbies was electronics, to which he wanted to devote his future becoming an engineer.

How Alexei Mishin's career began

Alexey Mishin became acquainted with ice skating in childhood, when his father, who loved figure skating, took him and his sister to the skating rink. He skated on rented skates until his sister Lyudmila gave him the first snow maiden skates, attached to felt boots. In them future champion, hooked onto a truck, rolled through the streets of Leningrad. Even then, Alyosha won the recognition of the boys by performing all sorts of funny and complex movements.

Having learned about their son’s dangerous amusements, his parents, at the age of 15, decided to send him to a more reliable place - the Leningrad Figure Skating Center. Nina Vasilievna Leplinskaya became Alexei Mishin’s first coach. It was too late to start a sports career, but the teenager’s talent compensated for this shortcoming.

Path to glory

In parallel with his training, Alexey Mishin studied at the Electromechanical Institute, little by little moving towards his childhood dream of becoming an engineer. He successfully graduated, but figure skating still became his life calling.

At first, figure skater Alexei Mishin skated alone, but soon he was paired with a talented skater, Tamara Moskvina, with whom he began to win his first awards. True, at first it was only silver, but gradually hard work and great talent nevertheless brought them to the European champions in 1969, leaving behind the legendary Protopopov and Belousova. That same year they won gold at the World Championships.

Sports are behind us - the beginning of Alexei Mishin's coaching career

Having honestly admitted to themselves that they could no longer achieve more, Alexey and Tamara, at 28 years old, decided to leave big sport, doing coaching work. Figure skater Alexei Mishin does not regret anything, because time passes and so does life, so he decided to devote time outside of sports to his family, home and his favorite job. Fame and success are the prerogative of youth, and maturity understands what you should really spend your life on so that at the end of your days there is nothing to regret.

Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, Honored Coach of Russia, Honored Worker of Physical Culture of Russia, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Coach of the Russian national team figure skating

Born on March 8, 1941 in Sevastopol. Father - Mishin Nikolai Ivanovich. Mother - Delyukina Tatyana Valentinovna. Wife: Tatyana Oleneva, figure skating coach. Sons: Mishin Andrey Alekseevich, Mishin Nikolai Alekseevich - tennis players.

“The origins of my professional creativity are in the origins of my biography,” says A.N. Mishin. “These sources for me were and remain, first of all, my parents, who had a great influence on the formation of my character and education, creativity and professionalism.”

Parents of A.N. The Mishins have known each other since childhood. In Smolensk they lived on neighboring streets, then studied together at Smolensk University, where they listened to lectures by famous professors who often came from Moscow. They played in the theater together.

After graduating from the university, Nikolai Ivanovich was sent to work in the village of Gusino, and Tatyana Valentinovna was assigned to a large city in another region as a technical school teacher. But when she arrived there, it turned out that the place was already taken. Returning to Smolensk, she learned from neighbors that Kolya Mishin had come from Gusino and had places there. So they both ended up in Gusino, where they got married in 1930. In 1932, their daughter Lyudmila was born.

At this time, Nikolai Ivanovich received an invitation to graduate school at Leningrad University. After completing his graduate studies, he was sent as a teacher to the Higher Naval School named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky, and the family moved to Leningrad. This is how the fate of Nikolai Ivanovich changed - he became a military man. Soon he was transferred to Sevastopol, to a new naval school. Tatyana Valentinovna also taught at the school. Here, in Sevastopol, a few months before the start of the Great Patriotic War, their son Alexei was born.

At the beginning of July 1941, the officers of the school were recommended to take their families out of the city. All the Mishins’ relatives remained in Smolensk, where a difficult battle unfolded. There was nowhere to leave Sevastopol. Then a friend of Nikolai Ivanovich advised him to go to his parents in Ulyanovsk. Despite the fact that in Ulyanovsk, in someone else’s house, Tatyana Valentinovna and her children were received warmly and cordially, they barely survived this first year of evacuation. Even my mother’s beautiful crepe de Chine dresses, which were sold at the market at a high price, could not be saved... There was nothing to feed the children. As a result, Alexey developed rickets and the boy might not have survived if not for his mother. In the yard, right in the stones, she knocked out holes, brought soil from the bank of the Volga, poured it into the holes and planted tomatoes. And with these tomatoes I cured my son.

Meanwhile, my father, along with other teachers of the Sevastopol School, was sent to marines. In the fall of 1941, he was transferred to Moscow, and from there to the North-Western Front, where he mainly fought. Then Nikolai Ivanovich was sent as a senior teacher to Solovki, to the cabin school, where, by the way, the future writer Valentin Pikul studied. At the end of the war, he was transferred to Tbilisi, to the newly opened 2nd (after Leningrad) Nakhimov Naval School. My father brought his wife and children from evacuation here. They were accommodated in a broken, cold hotel "Colchis". Soon the Mishins received a nice three-room apartment on a quiet street with small courtyards covered with grapes. But they didn’t live there long - their father was transferred to Leningrad, where they were given a room in a communal apartment on Ruzovskaya Street.

Alexei Mishin's childhood occurred in the harsh post-war years. He grew up as a very dynamic child and spent a lot of time outside.

Father loved to skate and often took Lyudmila and Alexey with him to the skating rink, borrowing skates for them from his friend. Lyudmila, who studied at the university, once received a scholarship and gave her brother “snow maidens.” From that moment on, figure skating entered his life.

Having fastened his snow boots to his felt boots, Alexey walked to the corner of Zagorodny Prospekt and waited for some truck to turn onto their Ruzovskaya street. Clinging to the back, he rolled along with the truck, making arcs and semicircles, avoiding bumps in the road, not thinking at all about what could happen if he didn’t unhook from the truck in time...

One day, passing by the Anichkov Palace, his father saw children skating around a flowerbed. It was there, around this flowerbed, that figure skating appeared in Leningrad immediately after the war, and began its sports career Belousova, Protopopov, Stanislav Zhuk. Nikolai Ivanovich liked it, and he had the idea to send his son to the figure skating section, where wonderful athletes, a whole galaxy of future champions, trained.

After school, Alexey Mishin also became interested in electronics and wanted to become an engineer; in 1964 he graduated from the Leningrad Electromechanical Institute named after V.I. Lenin. But life turned out differently - my passion for figure skating grew into a profession.

Alexey began figure skating in 1956. At that time, this sport became one of the most striking, noticeable phenomena in the life of the country. The Soviet figure skaters faced the question: isn’t it time to try their hand at the international arena?
Alexei Mishin’s first coach was Nina Vasilievna Leplinskaya, a talented teacher, student of the legendary Nikolai Panin, the first Russian Olympic champion. Under her leadership, Alexey quickly mastered the basics of figure skating, and he did it very quickly. At this time, Maya Borisovna Belenkaya, the partner of Igor Borisovich Moskvin, organized her own group at the Iskra stadium, where Mishin was also invited. Tamara Moskvina trained at the same skating rink. And pretty soon they were paired up.

The sports careers of Mishin and Moskvina were successful. They won the USSR Championship (1969), became silver medalists at the World Championship (1969) and the European Championship (1968) - the championship was then firmly held by Belousov and Protopopov. Mishin and Moskvina took part in many competitions, literally stepping on the heels of the famous duet, but they have not yet managed to surpass him. The moment when Mishin and Moskvina beat Belousova and Protopopov for the first time is one of the most striking in their sports life. Then they left the legendary duo behind twice more at other competitions.

Soviet figure skaters achieved remarkable success in 1969: at the European and World Championships they won the entire podium in pair skating for the first time. At the European Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov won gold medals for the first time, followed by Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov and the duet of Alexey Mishin and Tamara Moskvina. In Colorado Springs at the World Championships, Mishin and Moskvina swapped places with the duet Belousov - Protopopov (“golden” again were Irina Rodnina and Alexey Ulanov).

“Tamara Moskvina and I could, of course, stay in the top three for a few more years, but that wouldn’t add anything,” says A.N. Mishin. - And we decided to leave. We ended our career without any of the painful phenomena that happen to an athlete when he leaves big sport.”

Having left sports, A. Mishin and T. Moskvina took up coaching activities. In 1969 they performed last season. And already in 1975, student A.N. Mishina Yuri Ovchinnikov became champion Soviet Union. His group gathered a whole cohort of strong young athletes: Zhanna Ilyina, Lenya Kazankov, Vitalik Egorov (world champion among juniors). To A.N. Mishin came to train and his future wife Tatyana Oleneva, who became the champion of the Soviet Union, competed at the European Championships.
Women's figure skating in the USSR at that time lagged far behind other types of figure skating. To strengthen this sport, special groups for gifted girls were organized in Moscow and Leningrad on the basis of trade unions. The Sports Committee asked A.N. Mishin to lead the Leningrad group. And he, in turn, invited Tatyana Oleneva to work together, telling her that it was time to think about the future. They soon got married, and a year later their first son, Andrei, was born. Tatyana Oleneva took coaching seriously, and in 1979 her students took 2nd and 3rd places at the World Junior Championships.

Before the Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Alexei Mishin, who by that time was the coach of the USSR national team, was surprised to learn that he had become “restricted from traveling abroad.” The book he handed over to Lenizdat the day before and was already printed “ Figure skating for everyone" (50 thousand copies) was destroyed (three years later the book was published). There were no official explanations (according to rumors, someone wrote a denunciation against him). The intrigue continued. Mishin was no longer shown on television. But training was not prohibited. He remained the coach of the USSR national team. His students competed at the European and World Championships, and he found out about everything only by phone. For three years (1976–1978) no one received him; they were afraid to talk to him, not knowing what to answer...

Everything was decided by one call. Mishin made an appointment with the head of Soviet sports, Sergei Pavlov, and told him about his misadventures. Pavlov asked his secretary to connect him with Boris Ivanovich Aristov, the first secretary of the city committee... When Mishin returned from Moscow to Leningrad, his “case” had already been removed from the “black cabinet”.

“Why did I take the collapse of the Soviet empire positively? – writes A.N. Mishin in his autobiographical story “About Time and About Myself.” – Because we received freedom that our parents did not have. Freedom is a constructive principle; it predetermines progress and pushes people forward.”

At A.N. Mishina has begun new era in life, a new generation of talented students, among them Olympic champion(1994), European champion, repeated champion of Russia Alexey Urmanov; Alexey Yagudin – Olympic champion (2002), four-time world champion, three-time European champion, multiple medalist of Russian championships; Evgeni Plushenko is a two-time Olympic champion (2006, 2014), three-time world champion (2001, 2003, 2004), seven-time European champion (2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012), ten-time Russian champion and many others. “A coach who has trained at least one Olympic champion can believe that it was not in vain that he was born and that he became a coach for a reason,” says Alexey Nikolaevich.

A.N. Mishin is convinced that creative searches in figure skating have no limits. “Where they end, the talent of the coach ends. In figure skating, it is quite stupid to live by nostalgia, since everything that is created in movement quickly becomes outdated. The most important and terrible mistake of a trainer is when he begins to teach a student “to suit himself.” Because no matter how outstanding an athlete you are, a year or two after you finish skating, figure skating will move forward. And teaching “for yourself” is a grave mistake. We must teach for the future, for the future, to see the direction of development... We must teach as no one has ever taught, and then you will be a champion.” In this search, he not only used all his knowledge and many years of experience. Possessing some exceptional sense of the future tense, A.N. Mishin developed and theoretically substantiated a completely new technique for figure skater multi-rotation jumps, and created a new technique of execution. The result exceeded all expectations. His students continue to charm the hearts of more and more fans of this sport, remaining in the memory of spectators for many, many years.

Alexey Nikolaevich heads the department of speed skating and figure skating at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Physical Culture named after P.F. Lesgafta. He is the author of a textbook on figure skating for universities and several books.

A.N. Mishin - Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1969), Honored Coach of the USSR, Russia, Ukrainian SSR, Honored Worker of Physical Culture of Russia (2002), Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences (1973), Professor (1990), Member of the Coaching Council of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, coach Russian national figure skating team. He was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, and the honorary badge of Merit for St. Petersburg.

Alexey Nikolaevich likes to spend his free time outside the city. Hobbies include cooking, fishing, construction, and gardening. He loves dogs - he has two Asian Shepherds at home.
Lives and works in St. Petersburg.

Alexey Mishin: Zhenya Medvedeva showed herself to be a real fighter

Honored Coach of the USSR and Russia Alexei Mishin, whose student Elizaveta Tuktamysheva won the Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Canada, shared his impressions of the tournament.

- Let's start with the short program. Thanks to her, Elizabeth created a good foundation.
- This was one of the best short programs Lisa has ever done, and that anyone has ever done in women's skating. Because no one performs such an axel.

Paradoxically, in free program Lisa was interrupted large stock, created after the short program. She said that she did not want to miss the victory. But after the tournament she said that my friends should not hope that I would skate the free program like that a second time.

- Elizaveta admitted that she was very worried before the free program. What words does a coach need to find in order to somehow reduce this anxiety?
- If I tell you these words, they will stop working.

- Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova called the judges thieves, you also expressed dissatisfaction with the judging. What is the essence of your complaints?
- Perhaps the judges who worked for Skate Canada have never seen such a good axel in their lives as was performed by Liza Tuktamysheva. But at the same time they gave him a minus 1. They see the world record with their own eyes, but evaluate it negatively. An athlete who has such an element in her program is an athlete from another era. In her winning season, Lisa also did this axel; she was already from a different era. Hundreds of people do triple jumps, but only a few do triple axels.

- And another Japanese woman, 15-year-old Mako Yamashita, showed her worth in Canada and took second place. How would you characterize her?
“There’s nothing amazing about her skating, but Yamashita is an excellent all-rounder - she has all the elements at a very good level.

- Evgenia Medvedeva skated unsuccessfully short program, but brilliantly - free, which allowed her to take third place.
- Write that way - Zhenya showed that she wonderful fighter.

source: " Soviet sport»

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Alexey Nikolaevich Mishin. Born on March 8, 1941 in Sevastopol. Soviet figure skater, performed in pairs skating with Tamara Moskvina, silver medalist of the World and European Championships, champion of the USSR. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1969). Honored Coach of the USSR. Honored Trainer of Russia. Honored Trainer of the Ukrainian SSR. Honored Worker of Physical Culture Russian Federation (2002).

Father - Nikolai Ivanovich Mishin, military sailor, teacher at the naval school.

Mother - Tatyana Valentinovna Delyukina.

Older sister - Lyudmila.

After the end of the war, the family lived in Tbilisi and then in Leningrad, where Alexey grew up.

He was put on skates by his father, who himself loved to skate and often took his children to the skating rink.

He started figure skating late - in 1956. His father sent him to the section at the Palace of Pioneers to keep his son off the streets. The first coach was Nina Vasilievna Leplinskaya.

Then he studied with Maya Petrovna Belenkaya. The latter recalled: “By that time, his peers - Kurenbin, Fomin - were already performing in the masters, and Lesha only had the second adult category. He understood well that the kids there were much stronger, they were ready to compete at the Union championship, and he was lagging behind them ". Mom and dad brought him to me... As a coach, I was not at all interested in this. How much work with him does it take for him to create a name for the coach! “Okay,” I say, “I’ll take it.” Just let me first check what he can do." And when Alexey demonstrated his jumps, the coach realized that she had talent in front of her. Belenkaya said: "I was stunned. I say: “Lyosha! Where have you been? You should have come sooner, you would have reached such heights now, international competitions traveled. And now I can’t guarantee anything, you missed the time.”

Alexey Mishin quickly began to show good results and catch up with peers. He completed the first category, went to the Union championship as a candidate master, and competed with adults.

Mishin's strong point was almost ballet stretching and excellent jumping ability. Alexey had outstanding figures for figure skating, but due to the fact that he came to the sport late, he was unable to achieve outstanding results in it as a single skater. His best achievement was 3rd place at the 1964 USSR Championship.

Then there was bronze at the European Championship and silver at the World Championship.

After the 1969 season, Moskvina and Mishin left the sport.

In 1969 he graduated from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute named after. V. I. Ulyanova (Lenin), Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering.

I became interested in the theoretical development of rotational movements in figure skating techniques and began to study these processes from the standpoint of biomechanics. His father, a specialist in theoretical mechanics, pushed him to this. Alexey began to think about how to combine theoretical mechanics and figure skating.

Since 1973, he worked as a teacher at the GDOIFK named after P.F. Lesgafta. He graduated from graduate school at the Leningrad State Twice Order-Bearing Institute of Physical Education named after. P. F. Lesgaft (GDOIFC named after P. F. Lesgaft). Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences (1973). He combined his coaching work with teaching at the St. Petersburg Academy of Physical Culture - head of the department of speed skating and figure skating at the St. Petersburg State Academy of Physical Culture. P. F. Lesgaft. Professor (1990).

At first coaching career Trained in the USA with Carlo Fassi, in Germany with Jutta Müller, he mastered the most complex elements and skating techniques and training methods by studying with such masters as Stanislav Zhuk, Igor Moskvin.

As I was engaged in coaching work, a unique technique Mishina - the theory was introduced into practice in classes with students. Alexey Nikolaevich managed to create his own school of figure skating, in which he successfully applies his scientific developments.

There were many difficult moments in the life of Alexei Mishin. So, in the mid-1970s, a denunciation was written against him. In 1976, Mishin was blocked from traveling abroad. A ban was imposed on mentioning his name in the press, and his book, which had just been printed in 50 thousand copies, was put under the knife. The disgrace lasted almost three years.

Mishin's students won the most high places at the Olympics, World and European Championships.

Among the students of Alexei Mishin: Alexander Mayorov, Marina Serova, Anna Antonova (silver medalist of the USSR championship), Vitaly Egorov (world champion among juniors), Tatyana Oleneva (USSR champion), Yuri Ovchinnikov (USSR champion, bronze medalist of the European championship), (Olympic champion, European champion, multiple champion of Russia), Oleg Tataurov (repeated winner of Russian championships), Ruslan Novoseltsev (winner Winter Universiade), Tatyana Basova (bronze medalist of the Russian championship), (Olympic champion, four-time world champion, three-time European champion, multiple medalist of the Russian championships), (two-time Olympic champion, three-time world champion, seven-time European champion and ten-time Russian champion), Andrey Lutai ( multiple winner of the Russian Championships), Ksenia Doronina (two-time Russian champion), Katarina Gerboldt (bronze medalist of the Russian Championship), Artur Gachinsky (bronze medalist of the World Championship, silver medalist of the European Championship), (world champion, European champion, winner of the Grand Prix Final, champion of Russia, champion of the 1st Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck), Alexander Petrov (bronze medalist of the Grand Prix final among juniors), Carolina Kostner (bronze medalist of the Olympic Games, world champion, five-time champion Europe, eight-time champion of Italy), (European champion 2019).

Alexey Mishin himself said about his work: “I myself only realized over time that a strong coach is not one who has very strong sides, but one who has no weaknesses. If there is a gaping hole somewhere in an athlete’s preparation, then in an extreme situation everything that has been accumulated over the years can easily fall into this hole. I have seen examples many times. When I started working myself, the most difficult thing was to weigh the proportional importance of different components: how many lifts, steps, rotations there should be. How much attention should be paid to the purity of edge skating in compulsory figures, and how much to the geometry of the figures themselves. Finding this balance is not so easy... You don’t have to be famous - people intuitively feel if a coach has a spark of God. The students begin to “float” themselves. And only then, in this oversaturated student’s solution, crystals and crystals inevitably begin to appear.”.

Has numerous awards: Order of Friendship of Peoples (April 22, 1994) - for high sporting achievements at the XVII Winter Olympic Games 1994; Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (2002); Honorary Diploma of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (2002); Badge of Honor of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (2003); Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (October 21, 2010) - for the successful preparation of athletes who achieved high sporting achievements at the XXI Olympic Games winter games ah 2010 in Vancouver (Canada); Honorary Badge “For Services to St. Petersburg” (2011); Certificate of Honor from the President of the Russian Federation (2011) - for achieved labor successes, many years of conscientious work and active social activities; Honorary title “Best in Sports of St. Petersburg” (2006 and 2012, Government of St. Petersburg); Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (March 24, 2014) - for great contribution to the organization of preparation and conduct XXII Olympic and the XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi and ensuring the successful performance of Russian national teams.

Personal life of Alexey Mishin:

Married. Wife - Tatyana Nikolaevna Mishina (nee Oleneva; born June 16, 1954), figure skater, 1973 USSR champion in women's single skating, Master of Sports of the USSR. She was a student of Mishin. For several years he sought Tatyana's attention. Then they got married. Since 1975 they have been working in tandem.

The marriage produced two sons: Andrei (born in 1977) and Nikolai (born in 1983).

Sports achivments Alexey Mishin:

World Championships: silver (1969) - pair skating
European Championships: silver (1968), bronze (1969) - pair skating
USSR Championships: gold (1969), silver (1967, 1968) - pair skating
Winter Universiade: bronze (1966) - pair skating

Filmography of Alexey Mishin:

1967 - Patterns on Ice (documentary)
1969 - Patterns on Ice (documentary)
1971 - This Amazing Sport (documentary)
1976 - Meetings on Medeo (uncredited)
1977 - The most important moments (documentary)
2007 - Tamara Moskvina’s captivity on ice (documentary)
2011 - Alexey Mishin. Torn between the stars (documentary)

Bibliography of Alexey Mishin:

1971 - Kinematic structure of some skater movements
1972 - Basic elements of the figure skater’s multi-turn jump technique
1973 - On the parameters of the rotational movement of the figure skater’s body
1976 - Jumping in figure skating
1979 - Figure skating school
1981 - Biomechanics of figure skater movements
1985 - Mandatory exercises in figure skating
2007 - Figure skating in Russia. Facts, events, destinies

Our conversation took place at the Yubileiny Palace, where in just a couple of days the Russian Figure Skating Championships will be held. It will be he who will determine the selection of the squad for the Olympics. For the right to go to South Korea Two wards of Alexey Nikolaevich will fight - Alena Leonova and world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. Over many decades of work, the coach trained more than one generation of great Russian figure skaters - Alexei Urmanov, Alexei Yagudin, Evgeni Plushenko. Between the three of them they took four Olympic gold medals.

In his office after training, Alexey Nikolaevich bent over an unusual vest, more like a fencing vest - there were a bunch of sensors and wires on the clothes. This is the so-called magic vest of Mishin - the development of the trainer himself:

During jumps, the speed of rotation depends on the correct grouping. The sensors are located on the vest in such a way that if you close the contacts with your hands correctly, a sound occurs. Sometimes a coach, as in the Eastern proverb, says “sugar” a hundred times, but it doesn’t get any sweeter in the mouth. He says group up, but he doesn’t group up. And here you can immediately see the work of the skater. Everything ingenious is simple. Only our vest is torn, now we’ll have to look for a new one or figure out how to fix it.

Despite the annoyance of such a loss, Alexey Nikolaevich agrees to talk about the upcoming Russian Championship and figure skating in general:

What do you think about the Russian Championship, which starts here on December 21? There are a large number of applicants in all types, but there are few tickets to Korea, including in women's singles.

If we talk about crazy competition, it exists more among those who did not go through a difficult period of growing up. In the ordinary human understanding, the competition between girls is not so great.

- Your ward Elizaveta Tuktamysheva has not shined so far this season. What's wrong? What will you take?

Recent competitions have shown that the inclusion of a triple axel when it is not stable enough is fraught with a violation of the entire integrity of the program. This is a very risky undertaking. At the Russian Championship we will think about whether to include him in both programs or just one. Depending on the specific condition of the athlete before the start. We are aware of the magnitude of the risks and that competition is really high.

As a coach of an athlete who may go to the Olympics, how do you feel about calls to boycott this competition?

In this matter, we can proceed from sporting, political considerations, or from universal human considerations, which our constitution tells us. She needs to be guided. And it says that for us the highest value is man. And not a federation, a union of figure skaters or tankers. If the highest value is a person, that person in the form of an athlete must take precedence over any other consideration.

- Someone should be responsible for the fact that we will perform in Pyeongchang without a flag?

The question is natural. But now I would not concentrate on the punishments, not on who, successfully or unsuccessfully, legally or illegally, tried to contribute to the success of our team. For me, as an old-timer of the Olympics - I competed back in 1968 - this will be half a century in Olympic movement. So I’ll tell you an anecdote from those times when boycotts were real.

When the 1980 Olympics were held in Moscow, Sergei Pavlovich Pavlov was the chairman of the Council for physical culture and Sports under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol Committee. A person of very high status.

Before the Olympics, a hairdresser came to him and constantly asked: “What will happen after the Olympics? What will happen, Sergei Pavlovich?” Then the official got tired of it, and he asked: “Why did you constantly ask me about this?” And he answers him: “You see, after this question your hair stood on end so well that it was convenient to cut it.”

In general, it seems to me that we should not concentrate on punishments. The main thought of the sports community should be aimed at the development of clean sports. We need to look for new approaches to training, training athletes, and promote the growth of popularity.

Figure skating seems to be even popular here now, the ratings are high, various shows are held. Compared to many other winter species, isn't this a success?

I think changes are needed, but not revolutionary, but evolutionary. We need to achieve greater popularity; in St. Petersburg, for example, I can’t say that there is a flow of children into schools, this is not the case.

- Do you see a galaxy of coaches of the next generation behind you?

I see, but this is not a line, but a sparse chain. It is necessary to improve methods and equip the regions with advanced training tools. This is the weak link in our physical education and figure movement. We draw talent from the regions, but they themselves suffer from a weak level of organization and infrastructure. The future progress of our sport depends on the regions.

Full list of participants:

Men:

Mikhail Kolyada, Maxim Kovtun, Alexander Samarin, Andrey Lazukin, Anton Shulepov, Dmitry Aliev, Alexey Erokhov, Vladimir Samoilov, Roman Savosin, Andrey Zuber, Alexander Petrov, Arthur Dmitriev, Egor Murashov, Konstantin Milyukov, Artyom Lezheev, Murad Kurbanov, Makar Ignatov , Sergey Voronov.

Women:

Evgenia Medvedeva, Alina Zagitova, Alena Kostornaya, Maria Sotskova, Elena Radionova, Lidia Yakovleva, Valeria Mikhailova, Anna Tarusina, Anastasia Gulyakova, Alena Leonova, Serafima Sakhanovich, Alisa Fedichkina, Stanislava Konstantinova, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Sofia Samodurova, Daria Panenkova, Polina Ts Urskaya , Anastasia Gubanova.

Pairs:

Ksenia Stolbova - Fyodor Klimov, Evgenia Tarasova - Vladimir Morozov, Natalya Zabiyako - Alexander Enbert, Alexandra Boykova - Dmitry Kozlovsky, Anastasia Poluyanova - Dmitry Sopot, Bogdana Lukashevich - Alexander Stepanov, Tatyana Lyyrova - Maxim Selkin, Apollinaria Panfilova - Dmitry Rylov, Anastasia Mishina - Alexander Gallyamov, Alisa Efimova - Alexander Korovin, Kristina Astakhova - Alexey Rogonov, Daria Pavlyuchenko - Denis Khodykin.

Dancing on Ice:

Ekaterina Bobrova - Dmitry Solovyov, Betina Popova - Sergei Mozgov, Sofya Evdokimova - Egor Bazin, Alexandra Stepanova - Ivan Bukin, Victoria Sinitsina - Nikita Katsalapov, Annabelle Morozova - Andrey Bagin, Alla Loboda - Pavel Drozd, Tiffany Zagorski - Jonathan Gureiro, Vlada Solovyova - Yuri Vlasenko, Ekaterina Luchina - Mikhail Bragin, Lyudmila Sosnitskaya - Pavel Golovishnikov, Anastasia Safronova - Ilya Zimin, Margarita Shestakova - Savely Ugryumov.