Kostyleva's mother and Plushenko ease new conflict

Long months of calm in the conflict between the mother of Voronezh figure skater Yelena Kostyleva and her coach Yevgeny Plushenko nearly ended in another flare-up. Kostyleva«s mother had again begun claiming in the past week that Lena»s career is being ruined and that she is being driven into injuries. The criticism was prompted by the young athlete«s failure to make an international competition in China, as well as by posts from sports journalist Vladislav Zhukov. He accused the Kostylevs of taking their daughter to training sessions behind Plushenko»s back and worsening her injuries.

«Back at the beginning of July — at the time when Lena was supposed to be recovering in Voronezh, around the 5th or 6th — parents I know from the rink in Reutov write to me, saying the Kostylevs are here. What are they doing there? I call acquaintances at the Angels (Plushenko«s academy — Ed.), I say, where is Lena with you? They answer, in Voronezh. Well, I tell the parents, send a video — they send one. That day and the next. And then word got around that Lena, training ultra-c elements, had also been seen in Krasnogorsk. Lena is landing ultra-c elements. While officially on rest, on recovery — and in another city, too. Landing them not with her own coaches. Falling,» Zhukov wrote on his Telegram channel Lapidarnost.

Irina Kostyleva responded on the evening the post was published — 21 August. On her channel she said the videos published by the journalist had been filmed in mid-July.

«After not skating for more than 20 days [because of injuries], Lena came back from St. Petersburg and went out on her own ice, on «warm-up ice,» alone. To break in skates that had dried out over nearly a month. Lena barely crawled across the ice. On her own. I sat by the boards. Because an athlete cannot be on the ice without a coach. But Lena did not need a coach just to skate around a little. That video from the rink in Gorki was given to Zhukov and paid for a dirty article dousing me with the most terrible accusations,» the skater«s mother wrote.

Also, in the chat of her channel, Kostyleva«s mother said the training process for Lena under Plushenko is not being carried out at the proper level.

«A training process that leads to a monthly hell of recovering content. And to a shortfall in form for almost more than a year now. Since last spring and the hip injury. The hell that Lena experiences, each time forcing herself through it. And I helped her in that. By persuasion. By scandals. When Lena once again told me she did not want to and could not endure any more, that hell from muscle pain from recoveries and from falls while restoring jumps. Do you understand what you were doing to a child? She was simply being removed from the sport,» Irina Kostyleva wrote.

However, by the evening of 24 August the situation was resolved. The conflict was defused after a conversation with representatives of the figure skating federation, in which Yevgeny Plushenko also took part.

«Consensus and mutual understanding were reached. An assessment of the situation and of further actions was made. The main task now is to recover in a calm regime. Once again I became convinced how strong the thread between coach and athlete is. No failures or injuries can break it. Lena continues to work with her coach. Two training sessions were held on schedule at the Angels Plushenko base. Lena, under the guidance of her beloved coach — Yevgeny Viktorovich — has begun to recover. To regain form and prepare for future competitions. And we, the skater«s parents, need only one thing — that our Lenochka be looked after,» Kostyleva»s mother wrote after the conversation.

Recall that Lena missed the figure skating Grand Prix stage in China because of a gluteal muscle injury. At the beginning of August the young skater went on holiday to Egypt with her family, paid for by Plushenko and Yana Rudkovskaya. Irina Kostyleva thanked them for it separately in her latest post.