Alina Zagitova at the premiere of the musical “Sleeping Beauty. The Legend of Two Kingdoms." TASS / Vladimir Gerdo
Alina Zagitova became an Olympic champion at the age of 15, and a year later she announced the suspension of her professional activities. At the same time, she has been skating since she was four years old, and playing sports is her conscious decision. Perhaps Zagitova is a rare case when a child plays sports not under pressure and at the same time reaches unprecedented heights.
5-tv.ru found out what the girl’s path to the status of Olympic champion was, as well as why she wanted to quit the sport and what made the girl take up figure skating on a professional basis.
Childhood
Alina Ilnazovna Zagitova was born on May 18, 2002 in Izhevsk. The girl owes her interest in sports to her parents: her father Ilnaz Zagitov was a former professional figure skater, the girl’s mother, Leysan, always dreamed of figure skating, but it didn’t work out for her. Later, the woman will start her own business, and Ilnaz will become a coach. In addition to Alina, Sabina is growing up in the family. The girl is five years younger than her famous sister and also practices figure skating.
According to family legend, Alina Zagitova lived anonymously for a whole year. The parents couldn’t be happier with their first-born, so choosing a name for the child took them a lot of time. The situation was resolved by chance. Once, the parents of the future figure skater saw the performance of rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva on TV. The spouses found the athlete’s name so tender that they decided to name their daughter Alina. Having become a professional athlete, Alina Zagitova admits that if she had not chosen the path of figure skating, she would have taken up rhythmic gymnastics.
The girl was put on skates at the age of four. However, the parents did not force the child to play sports. In the future, Alina will tell her parents seven times that she wants to stop playing sports, but she will return to the ice every now and then. First - on the advice of parents. For the last – seventh time – the future Olympic champion will make her own decision about returning to figure skating. Having grown older, the girl admits that all her refusals from sports were childish. In addition, training took a lot of energy and time, when the girl wanted to have fun and hang out with friends.
Alina Zagitova in childhood. Instagram @azagitova
Natalya Antipina becomes Alina Zagitova's first coach. The mentor remembers the Olympic champion as a very thin and artistic girl. However, at that time she was not distinguished by her hard work and endurance. Willpower and talent appeared already during the child’s education. According to Antipina, the credit for this goes entirely to the athlete’s mother, who put her whole soul into her daughter’s career.
During this period, Alina Zagitova visited the Izhevsk Youth Sports School, where she received her first sports experience. However, real achievements await Zagitova ahead. The topic of the Olympics was already emerging then. The figure skater’s mother jokes something about the main sporting competition. At that moment it only brings a smile. Nobody knows that the girl doesn’t have to wait that long for the real Olympics.
At some point, Zagitova is among the leaders in figure skating in her city. It becomes obvious that further development of abilities requires competition. Then the girl and her grandmother move to Moscow.
Personal life of Alina Zagitova
Alina Zagitova lives in Moscow with her grandmother, while her parents and younger sister are in Izhevsk. Grandmother is not only the closest person to Alina at this point in her life, but also a strict critic professionally.
In the near future, the figure skater plans to obtain a higher education in the field of sports, and her far-reaching plans include running her own restaurant business of Japanese cuisine.
Young Zagitova actively uses social networks, regularly posting fresh photos from her vacation and training. And the number of her fans, who not only fully support her at sports competitions, but also dedicate poems and drawings to her, can be easily envied.
In terms of external style, the girl continues to find herself, boldly experimenting with makeup and colorful costumes for performances. One of its distinctive features is the spectacular black arrows on the eyes.
In the Tutberidze team
In 2015, Alina Zagitova went to the most successful coach of women's figure skating, Eteri Tutberidze. The year before, Yulia Lipnitskaya, her student, received a gold medal at the Olympics. So the choice of coach for Alina was obvious. In the Russian capital, Alina and her grandmother move into a modest apartment next to the Khrustalny skating rink. However, the relationship between coach and mentor is not going well. Three months later, Tutberidze excludes the girl from among his students.
In the future, Tutberidze will explain this decision by saying that Zagitova at some point stopped paying due attention to sports. According to the coach, the girl decided that she would become a star anyway, so why bother? The mentor did not like this approach and they broke up with the skater. According to other sources, Alina received a number of injuries during training with Tutberidze, due to which she was unable to perform some of the elements.
As for Zagitova, the girl admits that at that time she was very afraid of her mentor. The fear of Tutberidze, according to the athlete, will not leave her in the future. True, now they have found mutual understanding.
Alina's next coach is Anna Tsareva. During this period, the girl receives an injury - a broken arm. The last straw was a broken foot at the Spartakiad. After this, Zagitova plans to quit figure skating and return to her native Izhevsk. She goes to say goodbye to Eteri, but she invites her former pupil to try again. According to Zagitova, at that moment she felt butterflies fluttering inside - the proposal sounded so encouraging. In the future, the girl will call this episode the decisive moment in her career as a professional athlete.
Then followed a series of performances among juniors. In 2016, the girl will make her debut in the Russian junior team, where she will take ninth place. The skater won her first serious victory in the same year at the French Grand Prix.
Later, Zagitova takes second place at the Russian Figure Skating Championships. The championship goes to Evgenia Medvedeva. Soon the media will be full of headlines about the competition of female athletes and will begin to pit girls against each other in every new article. However, according to Zagitova herself, she and Zhenya have a good friendship off the ice. As for work, when speaking, Alina does not intend to prove anything to anyone. Everything she does on the ice is done out of love for the sport.
The athlete has a lot of new victories and achievements ahead of her. However, the most important thing will happen in the athlete’s life in 2020, when the whole world will watch Zagitova’s performance. Sports journalists will dub Alina the “Red Ballerina.”
Alina Zagitova: the girl who went against the rules
In December 2020, Alina Zagitova, champion of the Pyeongchang Olympics in single figure skating, announced the suspension of her sports career. Why did she make this decision? The media, coaches, skaters and fans of the 17-year-old athlete decided that a conflict had arisen between her and her coach Eteri Tutberidze.
However, Alina herself explained her action as follows: “I now have everything in life and there should always be something missing. I want my desire to return to the competitions to return.” To understand her words, it is important to know how the girl came to this sport.
“I didn’t like figure skating”
Ilnaz Nasikhovich Zagitov, the father of the future figure skating star and her younger sister Sabina, was the coach of the hockey team in Izhevsk. Leysan, Alina’s mother, dreamed of becoming famous, but she didn’t succeed. When the couple had a girl on May 18, 2002, they could not come to a common decision. For a whole year the girl lived without a name, and only when her parents saw the performance of the famous gymnast Alina Kabaeva, the question of “what to name their daughter” disappeared by itself.
By the way, many believe that it was Zagitova’s mother who decided to make her dream come true and make her daughter a champion, but this is not so. In fact, the girl was given complete freedom to find her passion. Until she was seven, she simply spent time on the ice on weekends. Alina gave up her skates several times, getting carried away either by drawing or dancing.
“As a child, I didn’t like going to figure skating - I cried. Naturally, the coaches helped. Of course, they didn’t say that I should love this sport, but they managed to make me love it. Yes, I walked on pointe shoes, but I settled on figure skating,” the girl recalled in an interview.
Alina’s first coaches were Larisa Sanina and Natalya Antipina, with whom she broke up only in 2020, moving to Eteri Tutberidze’s team. But even after moving to Moscow, Zagitova continued to correspond and call them.
Natalya Antipina explained why Alina endured the entire program and had all the most difficult jumps at the end of the routine. This is due in no small part to the specific approach of the coaches: “In Moscow they start jumping from a sheepskin coat or salchow, but here we start jumping from a loop. That’s why now everyone does cascades with a sheepskin coat, and Alina does it with it.”
Came, went, returned
Eteri accepted Alina into her team, but less than four months passed before Zagitova was expelled from the team. Tutberidze argued that the skater was unable to change her habits and start training on her own, without constant intervention from her mentor.
Alina, being in the department of the Sambo-70 CSO club in the Moscow branch of Khrustalny, moved to the group of Anna Vladimirovna Tsareva. Then two serious injuries happened at once: first she broke her arm, but, having barely recovered, she took part in the Spartakiad, where she injured her leg. The foot fracture was severe and there was no talk of performing for her anymore.
The parents, after consulting, decided to take the girl to Izhevsk, and Alina began to say goodbye to everyone she knew in Moscow. And at that moment, Eteri Tutberidze invited her to return to the team.
Alina Zagitova with Eteri Tutberidze
“Our greatest hopes are connected with Alina Zagitova. She is a pretty girl, interesting in skating,” noted Sergei Viktorovich Dudakov. By the way, this coach working with Eteri is considered to be the teacher who teaches the most difficult elements to figure skaters.
Comet Zagitova
From the moment of Tutberidze’s second inclusion in the team, a new stage of life began for Alina. She trained fanatically, and already at the beginning of 2020 she took ninth place at the Russian Junior Championships. Considering that after breaking her foot she had to recover for a very long time, then one can only imagine what a journey she had made in a short time.
Zagitova started off quickly and gained momentum: six months after the Russian championship, she took first place in the French Grand Prix, and in September in Slovenia she received a bronze medal. In the same year, at the Russian Championship, Alina stood on the second step of the podium. And already at the beginning of 2020, the figure skater defeated everyone at the Russian Junior Championships. And it’s only been a year!
In September 2020, Alina competed for the first time in the adult category at the Lombardy Cup and confidently won it. That same year she won gold in the Russian adult championship.
Another famous figure skater, Evgenia Medvedeva, trained in the same team of Eteri Tutberidze. She became world champion twice, but at the European Championships held in Moscow in 2020, she lost first place to Zagitova.
"Red Ballerina"
At the 2020 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, Alina competed only in the free program in the team event and won silver. But in the short program to music from the ballet “Don Quixote,” the figure skater set a new world record (82.92 points) and became the champion based on the total points.
For her performance in the free program, the 17-year-old athlete received the nickname “Red Ballerina.” Eteri Tutberidze admitted that she had been looking for a long time for a figure skater who would ideally “fit” this image.
Fatigue made itself felt, and a month later at the World Championships in Milan, Alina won silver after the short program: she lost to the Italian Caroline Kostner by only 0.76 points. In the free program, Zagitova fell three times, receiving only fifth place because of this.
Since September 2020, competition after competition has followed: gold in the Nebelhorn Trophy in Bavaria, then two stages of the Grand Prix in Helsinki and Moscow - and again first places. And at the Grand Prix final in Vancouver she took the second step of the podium. In December 2020, having won first place in the short program, she became only 12th in the free program. As it turned out later, Alina performed with a severe burn on her leg.
Alina Zagitova (left) and Diana Davis, daughter of Tutberidze (right)
January 2020 began with the European Championships in Minsk. And again Zagitova received silver. At the World Championships in Saitama, the figure skater gathered her strength and skated the program perfectly, winning the gold medal. In November 2019, Alina received silver and bronze in two stages of the Grand Prix, but in the final she took only fifth place. After which she announced the suspension of her career.
She flew away but promised to return
Alina took a break from participating in major competitions because she wanted to go to university.
“I have everything in life now and there must always be something missing. I want my desire to return to the competitions to return. I am not leaving big-time sports, but I will not participate in the Russian Championship in Krasnoyarsk. Without selection, I do not apply for participation in the European and World Championships, since I have always been selected on a sporting basis,” the figure skater said on Channel One.
Tutberidze told the media that the athlete did not suddenly abandon the competition. She went to this for quite a long time.
Eteri explained: “This decision, unfortunately, was not accidental; Alina had been voicing it for 1.5 years. These 1.5 years that she performed were difficult. The entire federation tried to persuade her to continue. She comes and works, we allowed Alina to make this decision so that she would get bored quickly and come back.”
After Alina left, Tutberidze had to explain for a long time what was happening. For example, she responded rather sharply to Evgeni Plushenko’s comment: “You failed to lure Alina to you, no matter how you tried to humiliate us in her eyes. We wish you to raise at least one of your own athletes.”
Alina did not leave her skates gathering dust in the closet. For the New Year, Olympic champion Tatyana Navka prepared the ice show “Sleeping Beauty” with the participation of another Olympic champion, Pyotr Chernyshov. Zagitova also took part in this ice ballet.
Alina Zagitova
Photo: East News, @azagitova, @tutberidze.eteri
On this topic: “Two stars”: Olympic champion Alina Zagitova showed a photo with her younger sister
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Red ballerina
At the age of 15, Zagitova is part of the Russian Olympic figure skating team. Venue: Pyeongchang, Korea. The short program brought Zagitova a new world record, and the free “Don Quixote” brought her a gold medal. However, the audience was impressed not only by the technical component of the performance. In addition to an excellent performance of ice dancing, Zagitova demonstrated artistry and, of course, was remembered for her beautiful costume. As part of Don Quixote, the girl will appear in a red tutu. The sports press will dub the figure skater the “Red Ballerina.”
On the podium, Alina Zagitova will take the highest step. Second place will go to Evgenia Medvedeva, third will go to Canadian Caitlin Osmond. Before that, when the results first appear on the scoreboard, Medvedev will immediately burst into tears. Alina simply won’t believe what’s happening. First of all, the girl will call her father, the coach of the Irbis hockey team. He, like no one else, understood the scale of what was happening. According to the athlete’s recollections, he literally shouted congratulations into the phone.
Alina Zagitova's performance at the Megasport sports complex in the image of the Red Ballerina. TASS / Mikhail Japaridze
There are ugly deeds in everyone's life, and the young athlete is no exception:
- In 2020, an administrative case was initiated against the girl. The reason for this was a video published on her Instagram page. It shows Alina demonstrating her driving skills, while still under the age of majority.
- Zagitova blamed Tatyana Anatolyevna Tarasova, well-known in the world of figure skating, for her “departure.” Many considered this an unacceptable insult towards the honored Soviet and Russian coach. However, Alina’s fans do not consider this an ugly act, remembering how Tarasova humiliated her in every possible way at the Olympics.
- Zagitova’s envious people and competitors claim that she purposefully continues to live in cramped conditions in order to get an apartment again, only not in Udmurtia, but in Moscow. Do you agree with this opinion? After all, Alina earns good money and is able to purchase not only a two-room apartment, but also a real mansion in the center of the capital.
Video about the life and victory of Alina Zagitova
Alina Zagitova in 2020
According to the girl, after winning the Olympics, she seemed to have burned out. Many adult athletes take years to achieve an Olympic medal. Zagitova received the main sports award at the age of 15.
A year later, in an interview with Channel One, Alina will announce the suspension of sports activities, and a week later she will send Tutberidze a message that she has missed training. Then the girl will declare that she never leaves, but will not participate in the upcoming Russian championship. However, the news of the temporary departure from the ice still excited the public. So, Tatyana Navka will call Zagitova’s decision wise and correct, adding that the girl needs to prepare for final exams.
Alina Zagitova in the show “Sleeping Beauty. The Legend of Two Kingdoms." Instagram @azagitova
As for choosing a university, in an interview with Glamor magazine, Zagitova admitted that for some time she wanted to become a doctor. However, to do this, she should not have missed classes, while she was often absent from class due to getting ready. Some teachers didn’t like this, but there were also those who were willing to meet the athlete halfway. They gave her additional homework assignments, which she successfully completed and received good grades. However, the girl no longer thinks about becoming a doctor.
At the moment, Alina Zagitova wants to enter a sports university. She considers working as a trainer as a further career development. However, despite preparing for the final exams, the girl was unable to completely leave the ice. In December 2019, the figure skater played the main role in Tatiana Navka’s show “Sleeping Beauty. The Legend of Two Kingdoms." The show received mixed reviews. Someone even considered Zagitova superfluous, allegedly the girl was invited solely for the purpose of making money, and not because of her unique abilities.
Alina Zagitova now
After winning the 2020 World Championships, Zagitova traveled to Japan and performed at the ice show The Ice along with local figure skating star Nathan Chen. The Japanese public loves the athlete; during her visits they constantly give her gifts and invite her to appear on television.
In May 2020, Alina managed to relax a little by going to the sea. The athlete delighted her Instagram followers with sunny photos in a swimsuit. Returning from the coast, Zagitova began preparations for the new 2019/2020 season. Daniil Gleikhengauz staged new programs, choosing the images of a passionate Spanish woman to the song Me Voy for the short and Cleopatra for the free.
In the fall of 2019, Alina’s last academic year at school began. In an interview, she admitted that she would like to become a coach in the future. In early October, the athlete again went to Japan for the Japan Open tournament, and in November she performed at the Grand Prix stages in France and Japan.
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A post shared by Alina Zagitova (@azagitova) on Oct 25, 2020 at 10:21am PDT
Alina Zagitova in life
At the end of 2020, Alina took part in Tatiana Navka’s ice show “Sleeping Beauty”. For the first time in her life, the figure skater had to demonstrate elements of pair skating on ice. According to Zagitova, the lifts were harder for her than the jumps, and the premiere show was marked by annoying mistakes, including a fall. According to fans, Alina, despite her artistry, turned out to be too technical to participate in the play: she skated so fast that the spotlight couldn’t keep up with her.
Before the New Year 2020, the athlete announced her intention to suspend her competitive career, clarifying that she was not retiring from the sport, but was only refusing to participate in the upcoming Russian Championship and some other championships in order to gain strength and learn new elements.
Some colleagues were skeptical that Alina was suspending her participation in competitions. Natalya Bestemyanova said that the missed season is a lot, and there will be no point in Zagitova returning, since she will fall far behind her rivals. Nevertheless, Alina is determined to “catch up and overtake.” The latest news from the figure skater’s life includes the resumption of intensive training in January 2020, as well as the announcement of her participation in demonstration performances of the Russian team.
A tool in the hands of producers
According to sports journalists, the point of Zagitova’s participation in the program was solely to attract attention to the project. Allegedly, any Russian champion could have handled the elements that she performed as part of the show. The reason why not just anyone but the winner of the Olympic gold medal was invited to this role is simple: the girl is popular. However, this does not diminish the shortcomings of the presentation.
Professional viewers noted the low technical component of the show. However, Tatyana Navka said that it was more important for her to show the image than the technique. Nevertheless, Zagitova falls already at the premiere of the show. And on the ice it moves so quickly that the spotlight simply cannot keep up with it. Nevertheless, the mass audience remains satisfied with the production.
Behavior among fans
What really confuses fans of the athlete is her behavior with fans. At the autograph session of the show “Sleeping Beauty. The Legend of Two Kingdoms,” the girl pushed away a fan who wanted to take a photo with her in an embrace. The video immediately went online, where users were divided into two camps. Some believe that the skater was simply arrogant. Others blame the obsessive fan for the incident, saying that she did not show due respect for the idol’s personal space. However, this case was not the only one.
After performing as Lara Croft in Dobrograd, Zagitova did not bother to go out to the audience to sign autographs. Initially, there was even a sign with her name on the table, but it was soon removed. According to rumors, the skater said that she did not want to communicate with anyone, even if the autograph session was written in the contract. Although some viewers bought a ticket just to see the champion live. However, the founder of Dobrograd, Vladimir Sedov, stood up for the girl.
Masaru Alina was presented by the Prime Minister of Japan. Instagram @azagitova
The man described Alina as a wonderful person and a professional in her field, whose life often depends on the decisions of the coaching staff or agent. Later it turned out that the schedule of performances changed during Alina’s preparation. It is assumed that the athlete was unable to meet the fans because she was already in a hurry to go to Switzerland for a rental. However, the figure skater’s personal life interests fans even more than her ice dancing.
Personal life
The girl is in no hurry to open up about her personal life. At the moment, sport comes first for her. However, there were moments when the skater was credited with a romantic relationship with one or another young man.
More often than others, the press chooses the choreographer of Tutberidze’s team, Daniil Gleikhengauz, as the athlete’s chosen one. It is believed that the young man will become a good passion for Alina. Not only does he have a pleasant appearance, he is also a creative person. However, they began to attribute an affair to these two after several joint photographs appeared online.
In addition, it was Zagitova who performed the dance, the plot of which was inspired by the death of Daniil’s mother. It is unlikely that the choreographer allowed his ordinary colleague to dance. Fans hope that the young people are still connected by something more than work.
Before performances, Alina even limits herself in water consumption. Instagram @azagitova
In addition to Daniel, Alina's chosen one was the American figure skater Nathan Chen, in whose company the girl is often spotted at all sorts of shows. Chen managed to post a photo with Zagitova, which he signed as fav people, that is, beloved, most important people. But these speculations were never confirmed.
The same thing happened with hockey player Kirill Kaprizov, whom Alina met at the Olympics in 2020. After the victory, the girl came into the spotlight. The press simply could not ignore the footage where Alina and Kirill were filmed together. However, the matter never went beyond general photographs. However, fans continue to tirelessly follow the life of their idol on social networks in the hope of catching at least something from the artist’s behind the scenes.
Victory
- Junior Grand Prix Series, 1st place, Saint-Germain, France, 2016.
- III stage of the Russian Cup, victory, Perm, Russia, 2020.
- IV stage of the Russian Cup, victory, Kazan, Russia, 2020.
- Final of the Junior Grand Prix Series, victory, Marseille, France, 2016.
- Russian Junior Figure Skating Championship, victory, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2020.
- European Youth Olympic Festival, victory, Erzurum, France, 2020.
- Junior World Championships, victory, Taipei, China, 2020.
- Lombardy Trophy tournament, victory, Bergamo, Italy, 2017.
- Grand Prix Series, victory, Beijing, China, 2020.
- Grand Prix Series, victory, Grenoble, France, 2020.
- Grand Prix Series Final, victory, Nagoya, Japan, 2020.
- Russian Figure Skating Championships, victory, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2020.
- European Figure Skating Championships, victory, Moscow, Russia, 2018.
- XXIII Olympic Games, team competition, silver medal, Pyeongchang, Korea, 2020.
- XXIII Olympic Games, free program, gold medal, Pyeongchang, Korea, 2020.
- Title of Honored Master of Sports, 2020.
