Mother of figure skater Kostyleva explains daughter's 9th place

From January 16 to 22, a figure skating competition in memory of Petr Grushman was held in St. Petersburg. This was the first tournament in several months for 14-year-old Voronezh figure skater Elena Kostyleva. She did not perform very well: she only took ninth place.

After the results were announced, the media published reports claiming that the skater«s mother, Irina Kostyleva, had commented obscenely on her daughter»s falls during the performance. The publications referred to a post from the Telegram channel «irinakostyileva Irina Kostyleva.» However, the reaction of the elder Kostyleva was completely different, and the channel that the publications referred to was fake.

In her real channel, «Irina Kostyleva. Fan. Channel,» Lena«s mother only praised her daughter and her old-new coach Evgeni Plushenko. The elder Kostyleva stressed that Lena had been injured for several months, then didn»t train at all, then there was a scandal involving changing coaches for three weeks and returning to Plushenko. As a result, she had only 10 days of serious training.

«What great work they did. Lena and her coach. To restore three ultra-C elements (jumps of the highest difficulty) in 10 days. And to land them in the program. Bravo, Lena. And, of course, without her coach, Lena would not have managed them in such a short time,» Irina wrote.

She also noted that Lena simply didn«t have enough strength for part of the skate — likely referring to the free program, in which the young skater fell three times.

«Both I and the coach knew that Lena would not deliver the free program at 100%. I said that. But neither I nor Evgeni Viktorovich expected such a perfect first part of the free skate, with three ultra-C elements. Well done. The goal set for this start has been achieved,» the elder Kostyleva noted.

Evgeni Plushenko, whom the skater«s mother had recently accused of almost every sin imaginable, she now only praises. And she does so both in posts for the channel itself and in messages in the channel»s chat.

«The fact that, after nine days starting from zero fitness, the athlete went to the start and jumped perfectly, the most beautiful four ultra-C elements… Lena is a huge talent, and Plushenko is a genius. He managed to find the key to this »flying doll.« <…> I ask the members of our respected Figure Skating Federation of Russia to pay attention to the fact that they have a young athlete in Russia who, on her own internal reserves, without chemical preparations, restores three different ultra-C elements in 10 days under the guidance of her coach,» says one of the elder Kostyleva«s posts.

Evgeni Plushenko himself, by the way, also noted Lena Kostyleva«s weak form before the competition in St. Petersburg. And he promised to return the skater to her best form for the Russian Championships — which will be held in early February.

«Unfortunately, Lena is in very poor shape now. There is little time left before the Russian Championships, but we will try to do all the necessary work. The skater»s potential is enormous, and it needs to be demonstrated one hundred percent,« the coach told the RIA Novosti news agency.

The scandals around Lena have been going on for months, and the main driver of the conflict has been the skater«s mother, Irina Kostyleva. The first warning signs were in the summer, but the conflict between the woman and her daughter»s coach erupted in November of last year. Plushenko and his wife, Yana Rudkovskaya, accused the elder Kostyleva of abusing her daughter; a video even appeared allegedly showing Irina hitting her daughter. The skater«s mother, in turn, denied the beating allegations and claimed that Lena»s career was being ruined and that her parents were being forced to sign a terrible contract. At the peak of the conflict, the Kostylevs left Moscow for Voronezh due to the young skater«s illness. By the end of the year, Irina announced that her daughter was switching to another coach — Sofia Fedchenko.

However, Kostyleva stayed with Fedchenko for less than a month. The would-be coach explained the skater«s rapid departure as due to a »lack of discipline,« a »habit of partying,« and »disruption of peace« from Lena»s mother. In January, Kostyleva returned to Evgeni Plushenko.