‘She had her own list of non-grata skaters’: Eteri Tutberidze announces split with European champ Alena Kostornaia
The season of shocking splits in figure skating continues to gain momentum as yet another top-class athlete, Alena Kostornaia, has decided to leave her coach Eteri Tutberidze under bizarre circumstances.
The world-famous coach Tutberidze took to social media to announce the shocking news, expressing frustration over the new runaway tendency which has affected her camp over the past few months.
“Those kind and cute girls come to us with wide eyes full of determination to win and show big results. We work hard reaching phenomenal results. And then … it seems like the outside world affects our kind and beautiful skaters. They start setting new conditions to continue our
cooperation,” Tutberidze wrote.
“Once Yulia [Lipnitskaya] demanded that she not share the ice with Zhenya [Evgenia Medvedeva]. We attempted to meet her requirements, but it didn’t help much. Then Zhenya refused to skate together with Alina [Zagitova].And, now, we’ve received a long list of non-grata skaters from Alena. This is where our partnership ended.
Will we change anything in how we work with skaters? No. We do everything right. I’m sure we have devoted and strong skaters who are resistant to external distractions,” the coach added.
Kostornaia has become the first skater to part ways with Tutberidze despite demonstrating splendid results on the international circuit.
The 16-year-old, known worldwide for her gorgeous triple axel, won all major events last season, including the ISU Grand Prix Finland and the European championship.
In May Russia’s quad-jumping sensation Alexandra Trusova left Tutberidze and joined Evgeni Plushenko’s academy, stressing that she wants to be coached by a specialist who himself landed quads during his career.
