Figure skating: Aljona Savchenko describes bad training methods

Olympic figure skating champion Aliona Savchenko has shared her own experiences amid the fall of Russian figure skating teenager Kamila Valiyeva at the Beijing Winter Games. According to her own words, she has experienced brutal training methods firsthand. In one, the native Ukrainian reported on Saturday about beatings, deprivation of food and being forced to train.

“I’ve had trainers who would hit me on the head with pads if I did any element badly. I’ve had trainers who would shoot water pistols in the cold ice rink. I’d have trainers who wouldn’t give us much food,” he said Savchenko in the interview. The 15-year-old Valiewa, who is being investigated because of a positive doping test, finished fourth after a botched freestyle and was not comforted by her trainer afterwards, but criticized.

Starving for a skating career

The 38-year-old said it was sometimes like a punishment: “Get up in the morning, first weigh yourself, then eat a little, have a salad for lunch, and nothing in the evening. There were courses where we were hungry. We were in the canteen secretly asked for food, stole something from us here and there and ate in hiding.”

She also had a trainer who forced her to train, even though her body couldn’t do it. At a course in Russia, a trainer asked her to lose weight by putting two fingers in her mouth after eating and throwing up, Savchenko also reported.

According to Savchenko, Kamila Valiyeva is too young

Savchenko, who won Olympic gold for Germany in 2018 with her French partner Bruno Massot, advocated a minimum age for participants. “From 16, 17, 18 it would be justifiable. At 15 you’re still too young. At 17 or 18 you approach the matter with different thoughts and maybe you can decide for yourself: Do I do it or not?”, said Savchenko.

DPA.