Eteri Tutberidze, the sulphurous Russian skating coach

The announcement, Friday, February 11, of the positive control of the young skater Kamila Valieva, at the end of December 2021 with trimetazidine, a prohibited substance, again brought discredit to Russian sport. Eight years after the resounding state doping scandal that erupted after the Sochi Olympics, history seems to be repeating itself.

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But the Valieva affair also sheds harsh light on the controversial methods of a woman, Eteri Tutberidze, a sulphurous trainer whose skating school in Moscow has produced a number of champions. Kamila Valieva, 15, is just the latest nugget. Before her, Alina Zagitova, 2018 Olympic champion and 2019 world champion; Evgenia Medvedeva, 2018 Olympic vice-champion and double world champion (2016 and 2017), or Yulia Lipnitskaïa, European champion and 2014 world vice-champion, have also passed between the walls of the Sambo-70, the Tutberidze school.

“Eteri Tutberidze? She is an emblematic character, one of the greatest coaches in Russian skating, she dominates almost all women’s competitions.poses Romain Haguenauer, the trainer of French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron. “In Russia, skating is almost a national sport. The best talents in the country all end up in the school of Eteri »continues the former skater, who, if he admits never having gone to see a training session at the Sambo-70, knows, by reputation, the iron discipline.

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After glory, the descent into hell

The trajectory of Yulia Lipnitskaïa perfectly illustrates the excesses and formatting enterprise of Eteri Tutberidze. The young girl is crowned at the age of 15 Olympic team champion at the Sochi Olympics after having moved the public thanks to a free program performed on the music of the film Schindler’s List. This is the time of glory and honours. What follows will only be a descent into hell. The teenager plunged into the rankings, left the Tuberidze school at the end of 2015, chained injuries before hanging up her skates in the summer of 2017, at only 19 years old, plagued by anorexia.

But, à la Sambo-70, one prodigy quickly replaces another; Evgenia Medvedeva becomes Tutberidze’s protege. The new star dazzles ice rinks around the world but is overshadowed by Alina Zagitova just before the Pyeonchang 2018 Games, where the latter will be crowned Olympic champion. The triumph will be short-lived. Zagitova was pushed into retirement two years later, at only 18, by a young trio who pushed the limits of acrobatic figures: Anna Chtcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova and Kamila Valieva, precisely the three skaters that Eteri Tutberidze coached at the Olympic Games. Beijing.

At Sambo-70, the school of Eteri Tutberidze, one prodigy quickly replaces another, no room for feelings

A former skater herself, the 47-year-old Russian coach of Georgian origin has revolutionized the discipline for women. Under his guidance, his students were the first to compete in quadruple jumps, “quads”, which French Surya Bonaly had tried – without success – in the 1990s. ice cream is only possible with a light body, preferably that of a teenager or even a child.

After puberty, it becomes difficult for girls to pass a “quad”. They are then put on the sidelines, replaced by younger than them. And, on such frail bodies, the repetition of jumps is not without damage. This is how many girls who went through Sambo-70 came out hurt, depressed, crushed. No student remained there at the age of majority.

Yulia Lipnitskaïa clung to it, going so far as to deprive herself of eating to remain “competitive” against the young shoots of the school. Today, Evgenia Medvedeva, who retired from the rinks in 2021, is unable to take a jump without excruciating back pain. Because for Tutberidze, there is no room for feelings, only work and international titles count. The coach has complete control over her students’ bodies, diet included.

“Crying kids” in training

“In training, we often see the kids in tears, explains Romain Haguenauer. We hear about many things, but without proof. But from what is said, the training is relatively abusive. With us, it would be impossible; in Canada [Gabriella Papadakis et Guillaume Cizeron s’entraînent à Montréal]we are governed by very strict rules”, recalls the French coach, who has already worked in the past with Russians. “It’s true that they have always kept this way of “to train well, you have to train hard”, there is something cultural. »

A former student of Eteri Tutberidze, Polina Shuboderova, testified two years ago about the military methods at work at Sambo-70. She then explained that it was forbidden to complain. “If you’re tired or injured, you still go on the ice and work. Even if you have two broken toes, you do the same thing a hundred times a day. Two hundred times, if necessary,” she told a Russian site.

Olympic ice dancing champion in 2002 with Gwendal Peizerat, Marina Anissina refutes the accusations lent to Etéri Tutberidze. She knows her well, the two women skated together in Moscow schools. “I find that Etéri has done a colossal job. If you’re not demanding, and sometimes a little hard, it’s difficult to have such good results. For me, it’s normal: discipline, rigor, and motivation of course are the keys to success », advances the former skater. She adds : “I don’t see this champion factory side, because Eteri loves his students. She is demanding on the ice, but very close to them off it. »

The sulfurous Russian coach imagined doing the triple on the podium, Thursday, February 17, during the individual women with her three nuggets: Anna Chtcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova and Kamila Valieva. The participation of the latter is however suspended to a decision, expected Monday, February 14, of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, seized by the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Etéri Tutberidze defended his athlete on Saturday, assuring that she was “absolutely certain that Valieva was clean and innocent”, according to Reuters. But for Romain Haguenauer, suspicion also now hangs over the other two skaters: “If this kid took medicine, she probably didn’t take it alone. »

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