Figure skater Adelina Sotnikova became famous for winning the gold medal at the Sochi Olympics and becoming the first champion in women's single skating in Russian history.
Photo: DR
After this victory, her life changed a lot. Adeline talked to OK about her dreams, disappointments, growing up, as well as about her role in the ice show "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King"!
Adelina Sotnikova is an incredibly sweet and fragile girl. And although she herself assures that fragility has nothing to do with her, it is difficult to agree with this. “My parents tend to be overweight, of course, I also need to take care of myself,” says Adelina. - If a person wants, he will do everything to please himself and others. If this requires not eating, he will not eat. " And this self-discipline is felt in Sotnikova all the time. For example, she is never late and calls herself “time-person”. And Adeline really doesn't like being offended at her. “I am such a person that I always need to be good for everyone. I always try to help everyone, to prompt ... But this is not appreciated in our world, ”Sotnikova says.
And how do you react to negativity?
I used to pay attention, I was very worried. Now - apparently, having matured, - she began to understand that there will always be a negative. Probably overgrown with thick skin. ( Smiles.) After the Olympics, they wrote both good and bad, but I didn't care - I had Olympic gold in my hands, I achieved my goal.
After the victory, there was no moral devastation?
Definitely it was. And I wanted to leave the sport. But these are momentary impulses. In the Olympic season, there was such an episode: at one of the competitions of the Grand Prix series, due to absent-mindedness, I failed a free program. After that I came home, sat down and said to my parents: “Maybe that's it? It's not a fact that I'll get to Sochi for the Olympics. After all, the Russian championship and the European championship, what if I can't stand it? "
My parents never try to persuade me. And then they said: “If you feel this way, then what can we say? Don't come out. " I sit, tears in my eyes, I do not know what to do. In the end, I decided: I'll give myself one more chance. And then everything worked out.
A year ago, you were seriously injured, but you still continued to go to the rink in a cast. What for?
I lacked ice and the usual way of life. Literally a week before the Grand Prix stage in training, I tore my right ankle ligament. Naturally, they put a plaster cast on me. Complete peace was needed. But I understood: if I want to play sports further, I must keep fit, train under any circumstances. Moreover, I had an example to follow: before we had a boy who broke his leg and came to the rink in a cast every day. Literally two months later, he went to the competition. Therefore, when they put a plaster cast on me, I also continued to come to the rink, coached little kids and terribly missed the times when I skated myself. Despite this, it was still difficult to return to the big ice. There has been no competition for too long. It was a very serious injury for me.
Adelina, who instilled in you a love of figure skating?
I do not know. There were no athletes in our family. Only my father's grandfather was a master of sports in freestyle wrestling. Probably, from him all the strong-willed qualities of character were passed on to me. ( He laughs.) Parents did not even think about giving me to sports. They wanted their daughter to receive a musical education, but figure skating was delayed earlier.
How did you first get to the rink?
When I was four, my parents took me to the Penguins skating rink, which was located not far from our house in Biryulyovo. Of course, I don't remember my first time on the ice, but I was told that I got on skates and walked. The coach was very surprised that the child falls, rises and continues to move on, and said that it was necessary to practice. I really liked it there.
It so happened that I went to the same kindergarten with the child of the CSKA coach, who was friends with my mother. She somehow saw me skate and recommended that they take me to a more serious sports school. And that's how she lured us to her. I studied with her for a year, and then I came to my coach Vodorezova-Buyanova. Elena Germanovna liked me, she took me to her group. The first years I did not set high goals for myself, but all the time I tried to please her.
And did you succeed?
Not right away. She was hooked by my tenacity. She saw that I always do what I am told and never argue.
They say that children who are professionally involved in sports have no childhood. This is true?
I will not say that we have no childhood. It is there, but we spend it with those children who, like us, go in for sports. In between trainings, we raged, played tag, catch-up, robber Cossacks, jumped with girls in rubber bands. You fall, you crash - your problems.
Did your parents follow you closely?
Yes, until I was fourteen, my mom and dad took me to training. The whole family was involved in my sports life. My parents have dedicated their entire lives to me and my younger sister Masha. She is a disabled child, in medical language her disease is called "Treacher Collins syndrome" ... A terrible disease! Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova helped us. If not for her, they probably would not have dared to take radical steps. Tatyana Anatolyevna went to Chulpan Khamatova, and thanks to this actress, we were allocated money for treatment. Several years ago Masha underwent three operations, and now she is a completely different, cheerful person. She wants to see everything, to know ... Masha is my angel, and more than anything in the world I want to help her.
Adeline, you mentioned that the coach paid attention to you because you worked so hard. Do you think you need talent or practice hard enough to be successful?
Talent is born with perseverance. If a person is stubborn, he will move mountains. I just know from myself: if I want, I will do anything. When I won the adult championship of Russia at the age of twelve, I felt that I wanted something more. If I had not won then in Kazan, maybe I would have already left the sport.
How were you, just a child, allowed to compete with adult athletes?
An exception was made. We saw that the girl is small, but does complex elements, so they were allowed to participate in the Russian championship. I won it and repeated the achievement of my coach Elena Vodorezova-Buyanova, who at the same age became the champion of the USSR.
Adeline, do you consider yourself strong?
Oh sure. When my mother and I talk about relationships with boys, she says all the time: "A girl must be weak." But how can you be weak when you have been doing everything yourself all your life?
They scold me all the time for not behaving like a girl. For example, my partner in the "Ice Age" Alexander Sokolovsky every time tries to open the door for me when we go to the rink, and I keep forgetting about it. Then he is indignant: “You got me already! Enough, be a girl. " I say: “Well, I can’t. I don't know what it means to be a girl.
But what about your confession that after the Olympics you became feminine, started wearing dresses and high-heeled shoes?
This is true. I used to wear jeans, hooded sweatshirts, jackets, now - dresses and coats. His style appeared. I associate this with the victory. Without her, it might have happened, but much later. Well, probably, age has affected. ( Smiles.) It feels like I'm not twenty years old, but already under forty. ( He laughs.) So much was in my life ...
And how much more will be! I read that you are going to become an actress. This is true?
Yes, since the ninth grade I have dreamed of going to GITIS. At some point, I even began to prepare, but then I realized that it was either a theater university or the Olympics, and, of course, I chose a sport. GITIS will not run away anywhere - I can become an actress at any time, and sport is not eternal for me. Therefore, first you need to finish your sports career beautifully, and then think about the next step in your life.
But what about your participation in the "Nutcracker and the Mouse King" ice show?
After the Ice Age, Ilya Averbukh invited me to play the role of Queen Myshilda in his ice show, and I agreed. First of all, this is a performance, and in it the focus is on the game. But the elements will certainly be complex! Of course, this is interesting to me, but I plan to return to big sport, to get to the Olympic Games in 2018. These shows are just temporary pleasure. They are needed to cool down, recover and return to sports with a cool head and please everyone with their performances.
Text: Yulia Krasnovskaya. Photo: Anya Kozlenko. Style: Polina Shabelnikova
Makeup: Elizaveta Ilyina. Hairstyles: Danila Mileev / Kérastase
Adelina Sotnikova was rightfully called a "prodigy", because already at the age of 13, the girl performed two extremely complex cascades in one program: triple lutz - triple rittberger and triple salchow - triple rittberger.
2. Almost a record
She won her first international tournament, the stage of the junior series Grand Prix 2010 - 2011 in Austria, ahead of her closest rival, American Christina Gao, by more than 10 points. Moreover, her score, 178.97 points, was only 0.27 less than the highest ever received by a single skater in junior competitions.
3. The student has surpassed the teacher
The coach of Adelina Sotnikova is the famous former figure skater Elena Buyanova, nee Vodorezova. At one time, she won the first bronze in women's single skating for the Soviet Union. Elena immediately began to treat Adeline as a daughter. “She knows me by heart, she sees what I need - to scream at me or, conversely, praise me, poke around with me so that everything will be fine,” Adelina Sotnikova told Vesti on Saturday in an interview. - Elena Germanovna knows what I need at different moments. Sometimes I need to get yelled at. "
4. Passed school exams as an external student
Adeline is 17 years old and now she should be in the 10th grade. But last year, Sotnikova passed all the exams as an external student, left school and entered the Russian State University of Physical Culture, where she is now studying to be a coach.
5. All life is a tight schedule
Today, Adelina's whole life is devoted to sports, and all her friends are athletes with whom Sotnikova likes to go to the movies or sit in a cafe in her free time (of which she has little). The athlete is very close to her mother and believes that she has a wonderful family, to which she, unfortunately, cannot pay as much attention as she wants.
6. Adeline devotes all victories to her sister
Adeline has a younger sister, Maria. Unfortunately, the girl was born with a congenital disease. Over the past few years, Masha has undergone three expensive surgeries in Germany. All the money earned at the competitions Adeline gives to the treatment of her sister, and she devotes all the victories, including the victory at the Olympics in Sochi, to her. “I love my little sister very much. And, having won my first major tournament - the European Youth Championship, I help her. My sister is a heroic person, with whom I take an example. Now she took up dancing, and this is also an act, "the athlete said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
7. Resentment helped win the Olympics
Adeline was very upset when she was not taken to the team competition. It was a real tragedy for her. Coaches took her out of depression for a long time. “It was a shame when I was not taken to the team tournament. I was very angry, because it was clear that we would have a medal there, ”Sotnikova said in an interview with Vechernyaya Moskva. - After that I promised myself that in personal competitions I would do everything to win gold. Russians, if they set a goal, always achieve it. "
8. Adeline rides for people.
In an interview with Izvestia, which Adelina Sotnikova gave after winning the Olympics, the athlete admitted that she skates not for awards and titles, but to please people. “First of all, I ride for people, not for the result. I want them to like it. I was filled with good emotions and convinced myself that I could do everything well. Get out and skate high. I wanted to show that my skating has become more mature, better quality. "
9. Koreans protested victory
After Adelina Sotnikova won gold, the representatives of South Korea sent a protest to the International Skating Union (ISU), believing that the refereeing was biased, their athlete, figure skater Kim Yoo Na, who took second place, should have received gold. The protest was rejected. “I learned that the ISU rejected the protest of the South Koreans, and this is logical,” the honored coach of Russia told ITAR-TASS. - ISU trusts its judges, the Olympic team was absolutely qualified. As for Adeline, her result was quite fair. Yes, she hit the ice with her foot, and for this she got a 0.9 point deduction. But Sotnikova in the second half of the program did an axel in two and a half turns with a triple sheepskin coat, which Kim Yoo Na did not do. For this, the Russian woman received several points more. "
10. Today Adelina Sotnikova was awarded the Order of Friendship
Today Russian President Vladimir Putin met with members of the Russian national team - champions and prize-winners of the Olympic Games in Sochi and handed them well-deserved awards. Adeline, and with her other athletes, were awarded the honorary Order of Friendship.
If not for my sister, maybe I would have abandoned everything a long time ago. I understood that I could achieve a result that is important for the family. It's nice to feel like a wet nurse at thirteen. My parents were proud of me, and I knew it ...
It can be seen from afar. The facade of the CSKA training rink is decorated with a poster of a smiling Adelina Sotnikova.
The first Olympic champion in figure skating among women in the history of Russian sports. The army club is very proud of the pupil. Even on the ice, on which the seventeen-year-old athlete is perfecting a new program day after day, after the victory in Sochi, they imprinted the inscription: "ADELINA". The old-timers of the skating rink will not remember that anyone was honored with such an honor in the old days ...
- Have you had time, Adeline, to feel what they are, pipes? Copper.
Are you talking about the test of glory? Everything is going well, there is no dizziness. Yes, the fans have increased, the interest of journalists has grown ... Although, to be honest, I myself have not yet fully realized what happened. It all happened too fast to believe in reality.
Like a snap of fingers ... I have been waiting for the Olympics for a very long time, I prepared hard for it, and it flew by in an instant. I endlessly review the videos of my performances in Sochi and every time I think: why did it all end so quickly ?! Not fair! I would like to return to that state, again to plunge into the atmosphere of the holiday. I am rarely satisfied with how I manage to skate in competitions, but here I liked everything: both the short program and the free program. There is nothing to complain about. This has not happened with me for three years - since the junior world championship in Korea, where I also won.
- But the Olympics began for you with a bummer ...
Yes it's true. I was seriously tuned in to perform in the team tournament of figure skaters, but I was not included in the composition.
Photo: from the personal archive of A. Sotnikova
These competitions were included in the program of the Winter Games for the first time, and it was immediately clear that the Russian team should win a medal: in the worst case, a bronze medal, and if everything goes well, a gold one. It was planned that single women in our team would be represented by Yulia Lipnitskaya and me. But about a week before the start, the choice was made in favor of Yulia. And they left me as a spare.
When Elena Germanovna Buyanova (Vodorezova), my coach, announced her decision, I suddenly felt like something broke inside. It was a huge blow. I did not expect him and was terribly upset. To tears. Everything that I had been gaining over the years, what I was striving for, instantly went away, went to hell. Emotions, strengths disappeared, I plunged into emptiness.
I returned home and burst into tears. I couldn't stop for two days. Mom tried to calm her down, but I didn't hear her. I went to training without any mood, on the ice I did not understand what I was doing and why. There was some kind of knocked down.
Elena Germanovna, Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova, choreographers Irina Anvarovna Tagaeva and Pyotr Chernyshev tried to persuade them to throw out bad thoughts, forget about the team tournament, as if there was no trace of it, and prepare for personal competitions.
It was not immediately possible to pull myself together. I rode mechanically, jumped, but still felt nothing in my soul. Then I flew to Sochi for a day - that's what the rules demanded, just in case. What if you need a replacement? Although everyone understood perfectly well: this is an empty formality.
“I need to focus on myself. It is important not to cheat yourself and approach the starts with a cool head. It's easier for me when superfluous information does not reach me and I do not know what is happening outside the ice rink. When Yulia skated during the team competition, the audience simply squealed with delight. I sat and realized that I was beginning to shake myself. Then I think: I myself will soon have to go out on the ice, I need to calm down and get high. After all, the audience cheers for you, and you need to skate with it. And my task is to catch this courage during the personal championship, ”Adelina told us two days before the start of the competition. As time has shown, she managed to catch such courage that not a single competitor was left nearby.
How did Yu-Na skate? - Adeline asked the journalists in the mixed zone immediately after her rental.
- It's clean.
When the grades are already announced, the future Olympic champion continued to find a place for herself.
The fact is that in the zone of communication of athletes with the media, televisions were installed, where the competition was broadcast live, and on one of them it was possible to track the judges' marks even before they were displayed on the screens. Finally, the moment of truth has arrived.
First! - the Russian voice rushed through the mixed zone.
- I was never worried even during the performances! I do not believe! When will there be official confirmation ?!
Official confirmation followed a few seconds later, and Adeline was speechless, and when she recovered a little, she immediately asked the journalists to let her go to the coach, promising to return soon. They let go. The whole country saw the race of the Olympic champion. Then there was a flower ceremony, after which the Russian figure skater still reached the media representatives.
- When did you believe that you could compete for an Olympic medal?
- I went to the start with such thoughts. Before, when something didn't work out for me, I didn't believe in myself. I didn’t believe that I could achieve success. Everything changed this season when I managed to show good results. I realized that I am deeply mistaken in myself. And today I proved it.
- It seemed that when the music ended, you already understood that you will be an Olympic champion?
- I thought I would get into the top three. After all, Yu-Na is very strong. Therefore, when I saw the grades, I simply did not believe it. I still don’t believe it. I am grateful to my coaches. Thanks to Peter Chernyshev, who was involved in staging these wonderful programs.
- Peter said that you found the music for the program?
- Together with the coach we listened to music, and then we told Peter about it. He liked her very much too. I am very comfortable skating to this music.
- What can you say about your coach - Elena Buyanov?
- Thank her very much. She sees right through me. It's great to have such a person next to you. She listens and helps me. The most important thing: Elena Germanovna does it with all her heart. After the European Championships, we paid much attention to the second part of the free program. We wanted to add speed and emotion. We followed every finger. I am grateful to all my team. This is their medal too.
- Did you go out to hold silver or fight for gold?
- Fight for gold. The gap was very small, and I understood that if I skate cleanly, everything is possible. But when I was skating, I didn’t think about gold, but was focused on completing the elements.
Was it helped by the fact that in Russia all the attention was focused on Yulia Lipnitskaya, and you could calmly prepare for the start?
- I always fight only with myself and do not pay attention to others. I was not able to compete in the team competition, so I really wanted to win a medal in the individual championship.
- Have you ever experienced such emotions?
- When I won the Russian championship at the age of 10, I was also very happy. After that, I still had victories. I was very happy when I got to the Olympic Games. I set myself such a goal before Vancouver. Even then I understood that I would have a chance to qualify for Sochi and I had to use it. My first dream was to get to the Olympics, and my second dream was to win it. They both came true - these are indescribable feelings.
- At the end of your performance, you have already started playing with the audience.
- The audience helped me a lot, so my emotions were off the charts. I wanted people to like my skating. Hope they enjoyed it. I got a kick out of performing here. Honestly, I didn't believe my assessments. I thought that I would just get into the prize-winners, but I became a champion. I am insanely happy about it.
Russian figure skater Adelina Sotnikova, who became the Olympic champion at the Sochi Olympics, spoke about her performance in the free program.
“This is my happiest moment in my life. But there was no excitement before the rental at all. I went out and realized that I really love my job, that I can skate very well.
I walked to the Olympic gold medal for a very long time. Even though I am only 17 years old, I have long dreamed of getting to the Olympics and winning at least some medal. "
A year ago, then 16-year-old Adelina told in an interview with Sports.ru about the preparations for the Sochi Olympics and about her dreams:
Adeline, many have noticed that you were unhappy with your second place.
- Not at all. My goal was to skate cleanly in both programs, to show what I can. Unfortunately, not everything worked out at this competition. I am unhappy with the free skate because I didn’t do what I had to. Judging by my training, I'm ready for the season. But if we take specifically the start in Oberstdorf, then the performance was not very successful. Some elements that I usually do with my eyes closed did not work out this time.
"There is no such thing that I rejoice in other people's failures"
Admit it, how did you feel last season when you beat Makarova, Leonova, Korobeinikova, but did not participate in the main tournaments due to the age limit?
- Well, how to say ... When Alena, Ksyusha and Polina (Leonova, Makarova and Korobeinikova - comment Sports.ru) performed, I was desperately rooting for them, because this is, first of all, our Russian team, and the girls had to perform well ... I was very happy when they succeeded. There is no such thing that I rejoice in other people's failures. Although, of course, if this year I go to Europe and the world, I will fight for myself.
Does high competition in the national team help or hinder?
- Of course it helps. You just need to be responsible for yourself, go out on the ice and do everything to the maximum.
In recent years, a lot of television shows related to figure skating have taken place in Russia. Did you follow them?
- Sometimes I looked, although, of course, it was impossible to keep track of everything at once. It's interesting, I really like it - you just look and the eye rejoices.
Wouldn't you like to participate?
- Maybe in the future, yes ... But so far I have not thought about it.
You have been called the figure skating prodigy for a long time. Tell me, did you come to this sport deliberately or is it more a matter of chance?
- Honestly, it just happened - my parents sent me to the figure skating section, and I liked it. Actually, I had a choice between figure skating and rhythmic gymnastics. True, it was in childhood, maybe then I still did not fully understand what was what ... But I chose figure skating.
You probably watch your rivals. Do you notice anything with them?
- I always try to analyze skates in my head, to highlight the best for myself. Although at competitions I usually do not follow others, except that if I skate in one of the first warm-ups, then I watch the remaining skates.
“I had a choice between figure skating and rhythmic gymnastics”
Tell me who chooses the music for your programs?
- My coach is Elena Buyanova and Tatiana Anatolyevna Tarasova. Although, of course, we are discussing everything. For example, we listen to some melody, and if I like it, then I say that it could be used, say, for a short one, and some other - for an arbitrary one. Then we try to stage something and are already looking to keep this music or change it to something else.
Is this music very different from what you listen to in life?
- In my free time, I most often listen to English-language music, and the style, of course, is very different from the music that I skate to - it happens that I listen to rap, for example.
Would you like to make a program to some modern melody?
- Well, this year we put on the program to the music from the Burlesque movie. In general, I always wanted to skate to Burlesque, and as soon as Tatyana Anatolyevna gave me this melody to listen to, I immediately said: I want to!
How do you manage to combine training and competition with study?
- I have now moved to the 11th grade, I will take the Unified State Exam this year. Of course, it is not easy to study and train at the same time, but I do a lot of extra work in order to pass the exams well. Threes are not my grades, I want fives and fours.
Have you already thought about whom you will apply for?
- Yes, the coach, as always I wanted. Maybe in the future I will also go to study as a judge.
Do you follow the changes in the rules?
- I trust the coach, but at the same time I follow myself. This year, we have seriously complicated the rotation and put a choreographic spiral after the tracks, and this is difficult to roll out. Now, of course, I'm already used to it, but earlier it was possible to make a spiral wherever you want, but now I have to think, find a place to rest, I had enough strength for the rest of the elements.
"This year we have seriously complicated the spins and put a spiral after the tracks."
And the problem, accordingly, is the new judicial system?
- I don’t know, it has been used for a long time, many are used to it. Of course, with this electronic system, the pros and cons and shooting on camera, it became much more difficult for athletes. Earlier, for example, you almost tightened the jump, but the judge did not notice - everything is clean. And now without indulgences, although you get used to it over time ... Now I don't even think about it.
What is the most difficult thing for you in figure skating?
- Well, for me there is no such thing (laughs).
But if we talk not about the elements, but, for example, about psychology, motivation, or getting up early for the sake of training?
- Yes, I'm used to everything, so early waking up does not scare me. Probably the most difficult thing for every athlete is preparing for the competition. It happens = that in training you perform absolutely everything, but nothing happens in competitions. Sometimes I don’t understand how it’s like that - it’s like you go out calmly, you don’t worry, but then once - and everything is not so.
Last year, this happened to Yuzuru Hanyu in Oberstdorf. For all the trainings, he jumped forty-four, and fell from two - in the short and in the free.
- Yes, it happens, although Yuzuru skates, I'm not afraid of this word, just awesome and literally churns out quads. He and I performed together at demonstrations in Japan, and in the final of the show, already bowing, he suddenly jumped a quadruple toe loop-jump-triple axel.
They say there are two methods of working - the stick and the carrot. Do you need to be scolded or praised in training?
- It's difficult ... I need to scold and praise.
What do you think, is it difficult to train Adelina Sotnikova at all?
- Coaching me is not difficult: I do not argue, I obey the coach, I do what I am told. Of course, I do not always succeed in everything in competitions, and I usually get very upset. In the end, the coach will get something for the athlete, and this is very insulting to me.
Is the attention of the press very distracting?
- Somewhere in the way, of course. I prefer to give interviews after all the competitions, but if I have to answer questions immediately after a short one - at the Grand Prix stages, for example - there is nothing to be done, I humbly stand in front of the recorders.
“Sometimes you read your interview and think:“ Did I say that? I don't remember something like that ... "
Do you follow what they write about you?
- Sometimes I do, yes. It's funny, sometimes you read and think: “Did I say that? I don’t remember something like that… ”.
Do they recognize you on the subway or on the street?
- No. And don't (laughs). I don't like being recognized at all. At competitions, of course, it's another matter, but I just don't want to be on the street.
The press is very fond of mentioning your confrontation with other skaters, be it Liza Tuktamysheva or Polina Shelepen. Nevertheless me you and Polina watched some of the training sessions in Oberstdorf together. Do you manage to be friends despite the competition?
- Well, firstly, Polina this year moved to CSKA to Svetlana Vladimirovna (Sokolovskaya - Sports.ru comment). We all communicate with each other, and the girls in our team are very friendly. It is always a big plus when everyone in the team understands and supports each other.
Athletes are often psychologically much older than their age. Do you manage to communicate with your peers or are you no longer interested in them?
- Most of my friends are of the same age. There are, of course, exceptions - for example, Katya Bobrova, with whom we understand each other very well, despite the fact that she is older than me - she is 22, and I am 16. Thank her for having her.
