Beginners Guide to Team Tutberidze (drama) — Transcript

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1. 0:00So your friend loves figure skating but they're  always stressed about some Russians. Well I'm
2. 0:04here to tell you why they're always stressed, what  is it that these Russian coaches do, and what do
3. 0:08these Russian figure skaters have to go through  that's got me and your friend stressed 24/7.
4. 0:16Our story begins in 2014 a little-known coach  Eteri Tutberidze manages to get her star skater
5. 0:23Yulia Lipnitskaya all the way to the Olympics  where she does not win in her individual category.
6. 0:29But goes home with a gold medal through the team  event. Yulia's skate is so good that the clip goes
7. 0:35viral and Yulia ends up on the front cover of  time magazine Asia at the time she was only 16
8. 0:41years old and she went home with an Olympic gold through the team event and everyone thought what
9. 0:46a wonderful start to this amazing career of these  young athletes however just like the gymnastics
10. 0:52figure skating is a sport where the young and  most importantly the uninjured young bodies
11. 0:58are the ones who triumph. So when Yulia started  skating back home after the Olympics something
12. 1:05weird started to happen. Slowly but surely  Yulia's skating skills started to unravel
13. 1:10she started to fall in her jumps she was skating  slower and her technique was generally wavering
14. 1:16Yulia did everything she could to stay in the game  for longer she left her coach Eteri Tutberidze
15. 1:21after an alleged fight between her mother and  the coach but to no avail the girl in a red dress
16. 1:26as she had been named after the olympics due to  her iconic Olympic performance was on a downhill
17. 1:31trajectory and by the age of 19 Yulia Lipnitskaya  had announced her retirement from competitive
18. 1:37skating. By this point Eteri Tutberidze had  another rising star in Evgenia Medvedeva who
19. 1:43had already won everything in juniors and as soon  as she turned senior she did the exact same thing
20. 1:48for two years Evgenia went undefeated literally  for two seasons this girl was unbeatable she is
21. 1:54one of the few ones who started to win everything  in her senior debut she broke the world record 13
22. 2:00times and she was nicknamed "miss stability"  due to the fact that she very rarely fell
23. 2:06and almost always had a clean skate. If we're  comparing this to dance moms she was maddie
24. 2:11she was every week at the top of the pyramid.  However, in this case she was always at the
25. 2:16top of the podium in every competition. She was  also believed to many to be the favorite of her
26. 2:21scary coach so again she's the maddie in this  dance mom analogy. Evgenia Medvedeva won every
27. 2:28major international competition that she could  win the only medal that she was missing was the
28. 2:33Olympic gold and this dream was soon to become a  reality because 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics
29. 2:39was coming close and Evgenia Medvedeva didn't  really have any direct competition which could
30. 2:43throw her off the Olympic champion path or at  least that's what everybody believed. The woman
31. 2:50they've all been trying to beat since November  2015 Russia's unshakable world champion Evgenia
32. 2:57Medvedeva going for back-to-back world titles in  Helsinki watch this one and marvel at just 17. By
33. 3:08the time the Olympics rolled around Evgenia was 18  and her younger stronger and most importantly less
34. 3:14injured teammate Alina Zagitova turned 15 making  her eligible for senior competitions including the
35. 3:212018 Pyeongchang Olympics. At this point many  in the figure skating community have already
36. 3:26started to discuss how Eteri Tutberidze's coaching  style was only fit for athletes of a certain age
37. 3:32and maybe even of a certain gender because Eteri  has never been able to coach a boy most people in
38. 3:37the figure skating community say a Eteri breaks  boys which has proven to be true even in 2020.
39. 3:44And because of the intensity of her coaching style  athletes in Team Tutberidze as they have marketed
40. 3:49themselves have been given what is called the  Eteri "expiration date" which is 17 years old
41. 3:55after this age her athletes bodies begin to give  up since her technique is based on low body weight
42. 4:01rather than building muscle and strength for these  jumps. So pre-puberty is when her athletes peak
43. 4:07and as soon as they go through puberty and  become adults they lose their techniques and
44. 4:11their skating skills which are usually  underdeveloped are not enough to carry
45. 4:15them through a competition. This so  called Eteri "expiration date" came
46. 4:20right on time as almost six months before  the Olympics Evgenia got a fractured foot
47. 4:24which she still skated on in Europeans and  it was the first time that she was beaten
48. 4:29by anyone. And she was beaten by none other than  her teammate under the same coach Alina Zagitova
49. 4:38oh i don't think i've ever seen her fall i  think 2016 in france was the last time she fell
50. 4:47that's quite a while ago i fall getting out of  bed i mean that's impressive it's been that long
51. 5:02ah she can have a good chuckle at herself  oh that's new a mistake! 2018 Pyeongchang
52. 5:08Olympics began and everyone who once thought that  Evgenia had the gold medal in the bag was now
53. 5:14questioning it because of the injury and because  of her younger stronger teammate who had come
54. 5:20to cast her aside just like she did to her  old teammate Yulia Lipnitskaya 'You'll queen
55. 5:26for a time. And comes another younger LESS INJURED  to cast you down and take all you all dear'
56. 5:39Both Alina and Evgenia skated beautifully  at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics they gave
57. 5:44gold medal deserving performances however  there's only one gold medal to take home
58. 5:49so by one point literally 1.31 points Alina takes  the gold medal. As soon as Evgenia finishes her
59. 5:58last performance she burst into tears for the  first time ever crying in a competition. She still
60. 6:05didn't know that she had lost the gold but she  felt like she knew it was a very big possibility
61. 6:10and it became a reality when she saw the scores,  she lost. Evgenia is crying the commentator
62. 6:16Tatiana Tarasova who is a figurehead in the  world of Russian figure skating is also crying
63. 6:22Eteri's face just shows sheer disappointment  because her favorite student doesn't win. It's
64. 6:27literally a whole mess like it's literally just  a mess i don't know how else to explain it. After
65. 6:31losing out on gold rumors start swirling around  that Evgenia is leaving her coach of 11 years,
66. 6:38because that's the other thing, Evgenia is one of  the only students which Eteri has trained since
67. 6:43the very beginning. Alina had only come to Eteri  two years prior to the Olympics and technically
68. 6:48speaking because Alina had placed all of her  jumps in the second half of the program she got
69. 6:53extra points for that. Which allowed her  to win because it is more difficult to jump
70. 6:58in the second half even though it might make  your programs' first half a little bit boring.
71. 7:03The bonus points for all of her jumps in  the second half became controversial and
72. 7:08the federation actually enacted a rule which is  now called by many fans the 'Zagitova rule' where
73. 7:14skaters must have jumps in both halves. So both  Eteri and Evgenia are constantly being asked if
74. 7:20Evgenia is actually leaving Tuberidze and although  they both deny it by May of 2018 Evgenia herself
75. 7:28confirms and announces that yes she is leaving  for Canada to train under esteemed coach Brian
76. 7:34Orser. Who has trained stars like Yuna Kim,  Yuzuru Hanyu, and Javier Fernandez. This
77. 7:40unravels the craziness of the Russian fans  this is where Russian nationalism comes in.
78. 7:46And for the first time ever for the first time  ever really a Russian figure skater is being
79. 7:51trained by a non-Russian coach. Evgenia  is being called a traitor to the country,
80. 7:56crazy fans are using her Armenian name as a slur  because she's half Armenian, and they're also
81. 8:01insulting her soon-to-be coach Brian Orser calling  him fat and gay even though he's actually chubby
82. 8:07and gay but they're using it as an insult  because Russia is very famously homophobic.
83. 8:12It's just a whole circus. It's a mess. And  Eteri being the mature adult woman that she is
84. 8:18she decides to go on a smear campaign against her  previous student. And goes on like three national
85. 8:24shows and showcases her personal texts with  Evgenia Medvedeva showing how Evgenia ghosted her
86. 8:29for like a month and a half. And hadn't been  replying to her messages and talking about how she
87. 8:34found out about the transfer through the news and  television which is not true because a year later
88. 8:38the president of her previous school sambo-70 said  that all the paperwork had been done on time. So
89. 8:43she very well knew in advance before it came  out on the news. But the thing that she mostly
90. 8:48talks about is how ungrateful and treacherous it  is that her previous student Evgenia Medvedeva
91. 8:53did not come to her with a bouquet of flowers to  say thank you before leaving. This becomes a meme
92. 8:59in the figure skating fandom saying that if you're  ever going to leave your coach you better say
93. 9:03thank you with a bouquet unless you want a whole  smear campaign against you on national television.
94. 9:08Kind of a high price to pay because she didn't  bring a bouquet of flowers, but okay. Also Eteri
95. 9:14declares war on Brian Orser saying she feels  challenged specifically by him. Because one;
96. 9:19he took her skater and two; he had previously  talked about how these seasonal champions
97. 9:24these interchangeable champions that Eteri  creates are not good for the sport. And are
98. 9:29not sustainable for an athlete if they're trying  to truly have a long career. Which is all true
99. 9:35by the way but Eteri takes this as fighting  words and so she is determined to use Alina
100. 9:40Zagitova as ammunition number one to disprove  these claims. And also another skater Elizabet
101. 9:47who had left her, gone to Orser, and then back  to her. As ammunition number two to make sure
102. 9:52that she beats her ex-student Evgenia Mevedeva.  And sadly in Russia what Eteri wants Eteri gets
103. 10:01because world's 2019 podium is literally Alina  gold, Elizabet controversially silver, and Evgenia
104. 10:09bronze. However, I must note that Alina after  the Olympics had a very tough time. And it
105. 10:14seemed that she was even a little bit ahead on  the Eteri "expiration date" starting to lose her
106. 10:20skating skills at 16. She ended up fifth at the  worlds in 2018 right after winning Olympic gold
107. 10:26so it didn't really look good. But she slowly got  better in the 2019 season and ended up having the
108. 10:31skate of her life when it mattered most thereby  taking gold at the worlds. Meanwhile Evgenia went
109. 10:38through ups and downs both seasons but everyone  agreed that she made the comeback of the century
110. 10:42by medaling at worlds. However pushing Alina so  hard might have backfired on Eteri because almost
111. 10:50immediately after winning worlds 2019 and getting  that last final medal she announced that she was
112. 10:56going to take a quote-unquote pause in competitive  figure skating literally only being 17 years old
113. 11:02at the time of her announcement. Right on time  for the Eteri "expiration date". She cited that
114. 11:08the reason she was taking a pause was because she  no longer had motivation as she had literally won
115. 11:13every single major competition that she could win.  Which is true but it is also very suspicious that
116. 11:18right before turning 18 this happens again.  Eteri has yet to successfully train a student
117. 11:24that is over 18. In reality Alina probably had no  motivation because of Eteri's barbarian methods.
118. 11:31She literally weighs all her students multiple  times a day, she admitted it back in 2014
119. 11:36that Yulia was literally on a diet of only  powdered nutrients. Like the girl did not eat
120. 11:41a single tangible meal it was all just shakes  during Sochi 2014. And after leaving figure
121. 11:48skating at 19 she had to be hospitalized for three  months to battle her anorexia. Almost all of her
122. 11:54students have admitted that it is a fact that  on competition day they are not allowed to drink
123. 11:59water because supposedly every gram counts when  you're not using muscle but rather dangerously
124. 12:04low body weight to get such high jumps. Keep in  mind that these are strenuous skills which even
125. 12:11grown men practice timely and methodically because  it has such an impact on your knees back and hips.
126. 12:18These are children most of whom we're not even  talking about because we're only mentioning the
127. 12:22athletes who have succeeded in the sport. Kids  who have to constantly retire because their knees
128. 12:27their backs and their hips are giving in before  they even reach adulthood. At the same time the
129. 12:33sport which causes these injuries is not covering  for the long-term effects it can have on your body
130. 12:38which can only be solved through costly surgery  and physical therapy. For anyone wondering where
131. 12:44the child abuse was going to come in, first of  all how sick of you, but also second here it is.
132. 12:51ah. Now if you're thinking this just sounds  like old regular sports drama to me like what's
133. 12:56so crazy about these Russians? Well girl  let me tell you we're only getting started
134. 13:00I gotta take you back in time to introduce you  to some very key players. While all of this is
135. 13:04happening in the junior ranks Eteri has managed  to literally raise an army of tiny young girls
136. 13:11who are doing skills which haven't been seen  in ladies figure skating for a good 15 years.
137. 13:20and everything nice these were the ingredients  chosen to create the perfect little girl
138. 13:25but professor utonium accidentally added an  extra ingredient to the concoction chemical X
139. 13:35thus the powerpuff girls were born! Using  their ultra superpowers blossom bubbles
140. 13:41and buttercup have dedicated their lives  to fighting crime and the forces of evil!
141. 13:57they are Alexandra Trusova Anna  Scherbakova and Aliona Kostornaia
142. 14:02or as they're best known 3A because all of their  names start with an A. These girls are literally
143. 14:08winning every single competition in the juniors.  Taking over the podium every. single. time.
144. 14:14They're playing it like musical chairs on the  podium only losing to each other. I have never
145. 14:19seen anything like this in any individual sport  where one coach just takes over the podium for
146. 14:25an entire season. It's insane! All these girls are  turning senior at the same time. Alexandra Trusova
147. 14:33is the 'quad queen' she was packaged, this is a  term that is used to describe the marketing behind
148. 14:37an athlete, as the leader of the pack. Who was  going to take over as soon as they turned senior
149. 14:43this because she is accredited with the beginning  of the quad revolution in ladies skating.
150. 14:47Because she was the first of the Eteri girls to  start landing consistent quads in competition.
151. 14:52To put this in perspective at the last Olympics  only one woman had ever landed a quad in
152. 14:59competition. Eteri now has had four girls land  quads some of them very difficult ones that even
153. 15:05very few adult men do. It is because of Trusova  that all of her peers started to try and genuinely
154. 15:11learn quads and some even succeeded at it. One  of those people who succeeded in landing quads
155. 15:16consistently is her teammate Anna Scherbakova who  also lands quads but is the least talked about one
156. 15:23in the group. And then last but not least is who  is the artistic one with a triple axel no quads
157. 15:30but a triple axel and lots of stage presence.  She is definitely the sassiest of the three.
158. 15:37For all of you locals whose last interaction  with figure skating was watching "i Tonya"
159. 15:41the triple axel is a jump which Tonya talks about  in the movie. She was the first American woman
160. 15:46to land it in competition the first woman ever  to landed in competition was a Japanese lady.
161. 15:51But so this three took over the juniors and as  soon as they turned seniors which was towards
162. 15:56the end of 2019 since the seasons goes 2019/2020  as you can expect they started winning. However,
163. 16:03Trusova the 'quad queen' who had been marketed as  the leader of the pack who was going to continue
164. 16:08to revolutionize figure skating and take over. Is  not the one who's winning the most international
165. 16:14competitions it is instead her teammate, as it  always is with the Eteri girls it is always a
166. 16:19teammate, Aliona Kostornaia. The artistic one  without the quadruple jumps but the triple axel.
167. 16:25It turns out that international judges want  artistic skills paired with athleticism rather
168. 16:31than just pure raw athleticism which is what  Trusova was giving you when she would literally do
169. 16:36five quadruple jumps in a program when  most girls in the fields can't even land
170. 16:41one. Aliona Kostornaia was having such a season  such a successful season right now that most
171. 16:48people in the fandom agree that we're it not  covid-19 she would probably be world champion
172. 16:53right now. However, many things would  not have happened if not for covid
173. 16:58which brings us to the pettiness of these literal  adults. Back in 2019 the first of many instances
174. 17:07where adults were going to act like teenage girls  occurred. When Alina Zagitova announced that she
175. 17:12was going to take a quote-unquote break from  competitive figure skating most agree that it
176. 17:16was just a soft retirement. She didn't really  want to say retirement because of sponsors and
177. 17:21other political things. Many figureheads  in the figure skating world commented on
178. 17:25this quote-unquote break. Tatiana Trasova who  was essentially the Eteri of her day and is a
179. 17:33very big figure in Russian figure skating, is a  commentator on every international competition,
180. 17:38she said "it's a shame that Alina's career was  so short". Another Russian coach Mishin said
181. 17:44"good luck with your grandbabies" which is somehow  insulting and nonsensical at the same time. And
182. 17:49Evgeni Plushenko who is a legendary Russian figure  skater who recently turned coach suggested "Alina
183. 17:55should get a new coach" basically insinuating that  Alina should leave Eteri and join his brand new
184. 18:00academy. Eteri did not like any of this.  Specifically attacking Plushenko for being a fake
185. 18:05coach who doesn't actually teach but instead just  poaches, steals children, who already have the
186. 18:12skills. Keep this in mind because this will come  up later that she accused Plushenko of stealing
187. 18:18kids. This dumb scandal got so big a reporter  in the kremlin asked Putin's press secretary
188. 18:24if he had an opinion on the whole thing. And  he literally said "no I'm a [ __ ] politician".
189. 18:31And when asked to comment on a Eteri's clap back  Tatiana Tarasova just said "all of you go to
190. 18:36hell". Like I said this is literally bad reality  television and no one can convince me otherwise.
191. 18:42The only thing is that it's not reality  television is actually real life
192. 18:45and instead of dance moms it's like dance  moms on steroids because instead of random
193. 18:50kids in Philadelphia suburbs is literal  Olympic athletes and instead of moms
194. 18:55it is potentially abusive coaches. Like  what what is what is happening? However,
195. 19:00we are not even caught up yet because Covid  changed the game in Russian figure skating drama.
196. 19:05It was announced mid-quarantine in May that the  'quad queen' Alexandra Trusova herself was going
197. 19:11to be transferring to the Angels of Plushenko. Yes  that same douche Plushenko we just talked about.
198. 19:18Everybody was going crazy and couldn't believe it  although many understood why she might have wanted
199. 19:25to do it. Because she wasn't number one at the  camp in team tutberidze anymore Aliona was the one
200. 19:30winning the most competitions and Scherbakova and  Vallieva, Kamila Valieva, a junior skater at the
201. 19:36Eteri camp were being hailed as the 2022 Olympic  hopefuls. But what nobody saw coming though
202. 19:43even Eteri herself was when just a month  later Aliona Kostornaia announced that she
203. 19:48was following Alexandra Trusova to the Angels  of Plushenko. Leaving Eteri behind mid training
204. 19:53camp having already been given two new programs  for the season. Of course Eteri like the mature
205. 19:59adult woman that she is she did what she does  best talk [ __ ] about children on Instagram.
206. 20:04She wrote an entire post going down the list of  all the athletes who had left her. She talked
207. 20:10about how all these children were just ungrateful  and that as soon as they started winning medals
208. 20:15they started acting like divas making requests  about who can and can't be on the ice.
209. 20:20Essentially she said that it's all the children's  fault. She said that when Yulia started winning
210. 20:25she didn't want to train with Evgenia, after that  then Evgenia didn't want to train with Alina after
211. 20:30that, and then that Aliona Kostornaia had a whole  list of girls that she did not want to see on the
212. 20:34ice at the same time as her. She literally wrote  the words "i know i'm doing everything correctly
213. 20:41so nothing's going to change". Like that makes  you question if she has never stopped to think
214. 20:46that maybe she's the one who's creating an  environment that is so competitive and so toxic
215. 20:52that it's driving literally every star student  she has to run away from her. In this post she
216. 20:58used a picture of Aliona Kostornaia throwing the  jacket, her training jacket, in her face during
217. 21:03warm-ups which she actually did quite a lot and  it was very funny. But the most interesting thing
218. 21:07about this post was that there were a lot of  interesting things in the comments. There were
219. 21:12a lot of comments supporting Eteri because of  course it's her Instagram and Team Tutberidze
220. 21:16is a literal cult but there were also comments of  people like you and me who were fed up with the
221. 21:22children blaming. And one of these comments said  "once again it is only the children's fault". This
222. 21:28comment was liked not just by Yulia Lipnitskaya  but also by Evgenia Medvedeva. However,
223. 21:34if you think the reason that Aliona moved to the  Angels of Plushenko was because she wanted to be
224. 21:38with her dear friend Alexandra Trusova, then  you're wrong. Trusova initially moved to the
225. 21:44Angels of Plushenko because one; she wanted to be  number one in a camp and two; she didn't want to
226. 21:50skate with her main competition and specifically  she wanted all the attention from hot Sergei.
227. 21:56Hot Sergei is a coach who previously worked at  Eteri's camp but he got poached quote- unquote
228. 22:02probably by a bigger paycheck to move to the  Angels of Plushenko. This is another reason why
229. 22:08Plushenko and Eteri have added animosity because  hot Sergei was intricate in giving almost all
230. 22:14of 3A their jumps. Specifically Aliona and  Alexandra have talked about his influence in
231. 22:20him as a coach to get them to land her their  jumps. So when hot Sergei accepted Aliona's
232. 22:27call and told her to "yeah come over to  the Angels of Plushenko" it made Trusova
233. 22:32mad. It made Trusova's dad mad and it also made  it so Plushenko had to make a complete schedule
234. 22:38where neither girl shares the ice or even sees  each other leaving or entering the building.
235. 22:44And she had to get Alexandra  Trusova, I mean he had to get,
236. 22:48we can say she because Yana is involved in any  everything that's Plushenko's wife. But anyways,
237. 22:54they had to get Alexandra Trusova a new assistant  coach because after Sergei hot Sergei accepted
238. 22:59Aliona Kostornaia's call and told her to come  to the camp. She didn't want to work with him
239. 23:04anymore so now she works with a new guy called  Dima which is actually kind of cute. And Aliona
240. 23:09works with hot Sergei but if you thought  that the only thing covid was going to do
241. 23:14was break up the army that was 3A, then you are  wrong. Because it made the perfect storm to enable
242. 23:22probably the most scandalous coaching change in  figure skating since 2018 when Evgenia left Eteri.
243. 23:30Russian test skates are not actually a competition  they're more of a showcase for new programs
244. 23:35and this was the first time where all of the main  players were going to see each other again since
245. 23:39all the coaching changes. At test skates  the only athletes without a physical coach
246. 23:44there was Evgenia Medvedeva because Canada  closed borders indefinitely due to covid.
247. 23:49This made it so that she was stranded in Russia  without a coach and without the ability to train
248. 23:53in Canada with her coach. By the time test skates  rolled around she had already been training by
249. 23:59herself for about eight months. Having limited ice  time due to the fact that she didn't have her own
250. 24:04training rink but instead had to be invited as a  guest of Tatiana Tarasova to CSKA a famous rink in
251. 24:10Russia. And she would only get about 40 minutes  of zoom lessons with Brian Orser twice a week
252. 24:16and we all know how useless it is to try and learn  anything on zoom let alone figure skating. So her
253. 24:22performance at test skates to say the least was  not her best. One notable thing that did happen
254. 24:27though was that at the end of her performance  on camera you can see Eteri clapping at the
255. 24:32end of her performance. Their animosity is so  well-known that just the fact that Eteri clapped
256. 24:38politely at the end of Zhenya's performance  was enough to be the head titles of multiple
257. 24:43news sites. After the test skates during  the interviews Evgenia stated once again
258. 24:48that her main goal was to try and get back to  Canada somehow because Brian Orser was her coach,
259. 24:53the cricket club the skating rink where she trains  was her family, and she wanted to finish out the
260. 24:58rest of her career with them. So tell me why even  not even two days later it is announced on new
261. 25:07sites, five minutes later it is confirmed on both  Instagrams, and not even an hour later there is a
262. 25:12whole new segment news segment released confirming  it with video footage and everything, and even
263. 25:18interviews. That Evgenia Medvedeva was going to be  returning to her previous coach Eteri Tutberidze.
264. 25:26Oh my god. When I tell you figure skating  twitter almost broke. I am not kidding!
265. 25:33Nobody would have ever guessed this would happen.  At the beginning people thought it might be a
266. 25:39collaboration with Brian Orser or a wrong rumor  or there was just no way she was going to go back
267. 25:45fully to training with Eteri Tutberidze. And  then it was confirmed. Afterwards it came out
268. 25:52that she had been given options of multiple  skating schools in Russia that were offering
269. 25:57up their services because she obviously  needed an in-person coach. But apparently
270. 26:01her old-school Sambo 70 stepped in and vetoed  that possibility of her joining another school.
271. 26:07And together with the federation they essentially  cornered Evgenia and told her if you don't go back
272. 26:12to Sambo 70 and train specifically under Eteri  Tutberidze we will no longer fund your training,
273. 26:19allegedly. Because if you don't know most athletes  in Russia are state funded. So again I just want
274. 26:27to say this is all allegedly that she was cornered  and forced to go back to Eteri Tutberidze. But I
275. 26:32mean, come on! It literally took almost the end of  the world, a global pandemic, for this to happen.
276. 26:39Both Evgenia and Brian Orser told the media the  same thing; this would have never even been a
277. 26:44conversation had it not been for covid-19.  So this happened back in September a little
278. 26:50bit over a month ago and in test skates you  could already tell that Evegnia was injured.
279. 26:55Had some sort of injury something was wrong with  her back. Brian Orser confirmed this saying that
280. 27:00she had a flair up of old back injuries which  she got from training for 11 years under Eteri's
281. 27:08barbaric ways. And now that she's back under Eteri  she has already had to pull out from the first two
282. 27:14stages of the grand prix series which she was  originally supposed to perform at. Although she
283. 27:21is hopeful they will be able to compete at least  two of the next three stages available. And like
284. 27:26the world is on fire. Like I don't know how to end  this like this is just literally where we are now.
285. 27:31And I haven't even gone into detail about the  daily clownery that goes on in Russian figure
286. 27:36skating. Like all the fandom wars that happened  especially between the Medvedeva fans and the zagi
287. 27:42Zagitova fans that literally came to a boiling  point the other day when sambo-70 had its 50th
288. 27:47anniversary. And invited Evgenia to raise the flag  but didn't even invite their own Olympic champion
289. 27:53who has never left them or how literally Eteri  had a war of words through Instagram stories
290. 28:00with Plushenko's wife Yana where she accused them  of trying to steal away Alina. And in response
291. 28:06Yana called Eteri an illiterate crazy woman who  doesn't know that posting private dms without
292. 28:10consent is illegal. Or how there literally is an  Eteri bonus in competition where figure skaters
293. 28:17under her receive like 20 points  difference of their scores just
294. 28:22because they're training with Eteri making  it almost impossible for anyone that is not
295. 28:28with Eteri to beat them. Or how Plushenko's wife  Yana literally beat the mafia and stole a baby.
296. 28:35Like I don't even know how to explain that like  a bunch of memes were made out of her stealing
297. 28:40other figure skaters because she's been stealing  children since 2002. When she literally stole a
298. 28:45baby! We didn't even touch on the Russian doping  scandal of Sochi 2014 which I'm sure most of you
299. 28:51have heard about. Like this is just the tip of  the iceberg. Again explaining Russian figure
300. 28:55skating drama in the simplest terms possible.  So now I hope you understand and now the next
301. 29:02time your friend who likes figure skating is  stressed with these Russians give them a hug.
302. 29:07Buy them a cookie. Freaking make him a pancake ask  them what's wrong and let them vent out to you.
303. 29:13Because these Russians got me stressed! Sis  is tired. Sis needs a break. Sis is me. Is we