Alina Zagitova is an Olympic champion, the only athlete in Russia who has won all the titles in world figure skating. It would seem that fans know everything about the idol from her, but there’s always a chance to learn something new when two legendary athletes meet for a heart-to-heart. Alina became a guest of Maxim Trankov on the Free Program podcast on Channel One. And she told a lot of interesting things.
FIGURE SKATE – MOTHER ZAGITOVA’S IDEA
Alina began her journey in a small town – Almetyevsk. Her mother took the girl to sports, but as Zagitova says, she herself did not particularly want this.
“I didn’t like figure skating at all, it was my mother’s idea. She said “come on go ride” and I sobbed close to her side and asked to be taken out of here she just made me. Then it started working, I joined and I realized that I like it.
Photo source: Alina Zagitova’s social network
As a child I was always close to the pedestal, always missing a hundredth of a point to climb the step. First, the third, then the second, and only Eteri Tutberidze began to take first place. Mom gave motivation in the form of gifts, asked: “You will have third place, what do you want?”.
First it was a hamster, then a rabbit, then a dog, then a cat. Alina did not think that she would be engaged in figure skating all her life. Coming to such important competitions (in the role of a spectator) as the Grand Prix, it seemed to her Zagitova that she would never get there. She always justified herself by saying that she was from a small town and that she loved to feel sorry for herself. She later she realized that she was beginning to burn with figure skating and she wanted to get to Moscow to Tutberidze.
HOW I GET TO TUTBERIDZA
“For three years I told my mother:” let’s go to Moscow, I want to train with Eteri Georgievna. A very serious step was to move for the family. My parents took a loan so that I could live in Moscow. I got to the competitions in the capital, it didn’t go very well, I was in the top twenty. We still had a little gap between the performance and the train. We met, found out the schedule, came to the gym where Eteri Georgievna trained, my mother talked with her. She watched the performance, in the end we agreed that they would see it on the ice, first a warm-up, and then all the stars, Medvedev, Lipnitskaya, Tarasenko, Voronov … I skated for about 30-40 minutes, they gave it a chance and said: “We’ll take you to see after the New Year.” But I’m already so happy! I almost missed the train. We jumped to the one that was already walking. I remember like yesterday. It was a lucky ticket.
Photo Source: Getty Images
Parents play a very important role, since they take loans without understanding why… now I understand that they still always believed in me. There was a time when Eteri Georgievna kicked me out because he was lazy. But it seemed to me that she was working hard, she was so tired that I fell asleep in the subway, later I already understood what it was like to work one hundred percent!
RUSSIA’S FIRST SALARY AND TEAM FORM
“It was in youth, in France, I got equipped, for me it was something significant, I wore this uniform with pride! After this start, she was on the beat, received her first salary, but her grandmother took part of it. And so I put it aside, saving for something on a large scale, now I keep saving too.”
OLYMPIC MEDAL
“She just hangs from a medallion. I barely touch it. It was at the Olympics that I only talked with coaches, I lived with Eteri Georgievna. I didn’t go anywhere except the gym. I was completely into sports. When they put the medal on me, I realized for just a second that I was an Olympic champion.”
Photo Source: Getty Images
HOBBIES
“Now, if there was no training that day, then I feel like a lazy person, even if there were shootings, other things, but when I arrive at night I have the feeling that I did nothing. And if there was training, then appeasement, a sense of achievement. In general, I try a lot of activities to find myself, to find my own business.
CAR ACCIDENT
“Yes, there was a car accident when we were driving from Izhevsk to Agryz for training. There I jumped into the “fishing rod”, it took me an hour to get there, there was a moment when we flew into a ditch, it was raining, my mother was scared, and when the truck flew towards the meeting, it rushed so fast that it ran over us. But everything went well. Turns out I was born with a happy shirt.
HATE AND REACTION TO HIM
“Haters often say: ‘yes, that’s what she’s on brands, what she’s allowed’. People don’t understand how difficult it is to make money with all that, but I confess that sometimes it’s even embarrassing to be on brands.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
I don’t like being called a star. We (athletes) are still people, we are the same as everyone else. Yes, we differ in that we got into the type of activity in which we perform. Yes, and this is luck, but of course you have to work. Sometimes I do not understand why they treat me like this, but rather they are offended people, people with complexes, maybe they do not like me visually, so they write such comments. I like Yagudin, who knows how to respond to all this hate. There were times when I cried over hurtful comments.”
