Reporter | Liu Zixiang
Edit |
1
Since 2013, the world of women's figure skating has been dominated by a group of Russian girls. They all trained with the same coach at a school in Moscow called Sambo-70.
The coach, Eteri Tutberidze, single-handedly created the Russian figure skating dynasty, but rarely gave interviews and was mysterious. But it's no secret that she made the girls so successful — devilish training. This method of training has put her reputation at a fever pitch. Her most proud disciple of the year, Vallieva, is deeply involved in the "ban on drugs", which triggers fair competition and the thinking behind harsh training methods.
The "Red Army" trained by the devil
Tutberidze's most well-known student is None other than Vallieva, who is known to Chinese fans who love her as k-po. Although she only made her debut on the international stage 5 months ago, she has been hailed as a generation of geniuses. She combines difficult technique and elegance to capture countless fans.
Figure skating women's singles champion Tara Lipinski at the 1998 Winter Olympics called her technique "pure perfection", with every frame of aerial gesture being textbook-level. However, she was only one of many "geniuses" in the Tutberidze dynasty.
Tutberizer's first successful "work" was Lipnitskaya. At the 2014 Winter Olympics, when she helped Russia win a team gold medal, everyone remembered the 15-year-old girl in red. Four years later, at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the "little girl in red" was replaced by Zagitova and Medvedeva.
At this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, under the spotlight is another group of "little girls in red". In the women's singles free skating final on the evening of February 17, Trusso and Serbakova danced for four consecutive weeks with super difficulty, coupled with The already famous Vallieva, the performance of Russia's "three sets of dolls" quickly appeared on the Weibo hot search list. Without exception, they were all from Tutberizer.
Figure skating students in the Kazan region of Russia cheer for "K Bao". Source: Visual China
Why is it always the girl from Tutt Berryes who wins? The secret is not even a secret in competitive sports circles: encouraging internal competition while also ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities, and "very hard training", or more precisely "devil" training.
Devil training is accompanied by paying close attention to weight and "not letting puberty come". In an interview with The Charm of Russia, Zagitova revealed that she is sometimes not even allowed to drink water during training. They have daily public weighing sessions, and in order to lose weight, they try to eat only "powdered nutrients" or take an adolescent blocker called Lupron. Because girls before puberty weigh less, it is easier to do their "unique skills" to jump around.
Girls who already have gold medals are not privileged either. Again and again, Tutberize told them that the only way to go further was to train as hard as before, walk off the podium and be nothing until the next time you get on the podium to prove yourself again. She believes that only hard training can make the fight easy, "if you are two heads above your opponent, you will never be affected by unfair referees." 」 ”
However, the "flowering period" of this devil-trained player is very short. These girls who shone briefly often retired around the age of 18 and were left with an injury. When Lipnitskaya retired at the age of 19, she revealed that she had been battling anorexia. Zagitova retired at the age of 17. Medvedeva suffered a fractured foot at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Three months later, she left Tot berize for Canada to train with another coach, who she said wanted to work with "a friend-like coach."
A girl who is "rejected" by her father
If you look back at your childhood, you may explain why Tutberidze was so harsh.
She was born in Moscow during the Soviet era to Georgian parents. In a rare interview with RBTH, a newspaper owned by the newspaper Rossé, Tutberidze recalled visiting Moscow when she was 4 years old. A relative asked her father how many children she had, and the father replied "one son". Tut Berryesser patted his father on the shoulder and said, "Dad, we have 5 of us. However, her father told her to walk away and said, "My son's surname is Tutberize... You are girls, you don't count. ”
Tutberidze said in the interview: "So I've always wanted to prove him wrong. ”
She started skating at an early age, dreaming of becoming a famous professional athlete, but later due to injury, she could not realize her dream. In 1995, the 20-year-old Tutberidze followed the Russian Ice Ballet on a tour of the United States, but was hit by a terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.
At the time, Tutberider was living in a church dormitory opposite the bombing building, and after the explosion, she escaped from the rubble "with a toothbrush in her hand." As a survivor, she received $1,200 in compensation from the U.S. government and later settled in the United States. During this time, she gained her first coaching experience – teaching amateur skating.
However, after living in the United States for 6 years, she returned to Russia. When she explained her decision to return to Russia after she became famous, she said that she actually lived a very comfortable and quiet life in the United States, and also had a good circle of people. But this comfortable life lacks a gap for her, "if there is no suffering to set off, you can't appreciate what happiness is." ”
This philosophy also applies to her coaching style – success always requires tough times. After becoming famous, along with the controversy, she did receive industry praise. In 2020, she won the first ISU "Best Coach" award. When National Broadcasting Company figure skating commentator Johnny Weir visited sambo-70 school, he was as excited as if he had finally come true to visit DreamWorks, praising it as "the most iconic school in the world".
Behind the "anti-drug storm"
The once unseen Tot Berryes and her girls have long since stood on the world stage, enjoying the spotlights and being scrutinized in all directions.
Before the "drug ban storm", everyone praised Vallieva as a talented girl, and the Winter Olympic gold medal was like a bag for her. The turning point took place on February 8. On this day, Vallieva's urine test results at the Russian Figure Skating Championships last December were released, and the banned drug trimetazil, a drug for the treatment of angina in the elderly, was detected in the sample.
After a ban and appeal, Valieva was allowed to continue to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics. In the women's singles free skating final on the evening of the 17th, she was once considered the biggest favorite to win gold, and she fell down many times, and finally ranked fourth and missed the medal.
In an interview with Russian television, Tutberidze said, "Absolutely convinced that Vallieva is innocent and clean." "Public opinion generally believes that the child may be innocent, but the adults around her should be responsible for it." At present, an investigation into the "auxiliary personnel" around Vallieva is underway.
Outside of professional institutional investigations, IOC President Bach slammed the "extreme apathy" of those around Valyeva. On the 18th, Bach said at a press conference that seeing Vallieva was extremely uneasy during the game, "every action reveals a huge mental pressure, maybe she would rather leave the ice rink." And he noticed the way the people around Vallieva treated her, "it seemed to be an extreme coldness, and it was creepy to see it." ”
This remark drew a counterattack from the Russian side. Russia's deputy prime minister responded with deep disappointment: "An IOC president fictionalizes the feelings of our athletes and then makes it public with the voice of the IOC." ”
Vallieva is embroiled in the "ban on drugs". Source: Visual China
Vallieva's "anti-drug storm" is indeed the focus of attention. The Article by FiveThirtyEight, a well-known Sports Data News Network in North America, said that the more profound meaning behind the incident should be seen, and it is not only about "doping and fair competition".
Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Russian Anti-Doping Laboratory, once wrote in the book that it should be noted that the athletes' exhaustion training programs harm them far more than most stimulants, "The real purpose of doping is not to strengthen muscles, but to help the body recover from competition, or survive in harsh training." ”
In other words, it's a trade-off. "When the potential harm of overtraining exceeds the potential harm of drug use, athletes start to use stimulants." To this extent, stimulants can be seen as a fig leaf that masks the cost of strenuous training — bone-crushing training, starvation, delayed puberty. And "what happens in the Sambo-70 school differs only to the extent that what happens at many other ice rinks around the world."
There has been a lot of media coverage of Tut Berize's training method over the past eight years. But different people have different understandings of it. Some see it as a "cruel culture of child abuse", while others see it as just a harsh gold-picking path.
Before the establishment of the "Tut Berryeser Dynasty", for figure skaters, the three-week jump was only a move that individual top athletes could try, and now, the Tut Berryeser girls can almost perfectly win the four-week jump, achieving "two heads above the opponent".
Someday, Tut Berry and her "dynasty" will retire from the stage or be replaced, but what she left behind has changed the sport.