In the past decades, Eteri Tuberitze has become one of the most popular coaching names in international figure skating. Her skaters include European champions, world champions, and Olympic gold athletes. She is most well known for coaching multiple female figure skating revolutionaries, including “Quad queen” Alexandra Trusova, “Miss Stability” Evgenia Medvedeva, and more. What sets her skaters apart is her introduction of the “Quad Revolution”, a considerable rise in four revolution jumps [1]. Eteri girls have set records such as the first woman to land a quad flip, a quad Lutz, and 5 quads in competition [7]. However, Tubertize skaters suffer another, less favorable trait: the “Eteri Expiration Date”.
Tuberitze’s training style is no secret: she requires young girls with light weight. Due to their high-point earning Triple C elements, it is imperative that skaters have the “proper frame” for extra rotations. Consequently, Tuberitze is known to force skaters into rigorous diets, such as only eating powdered nutrients, taking ‘Lupron’, a puberty blocker, not being able to drink water on competition days, and having daily “weigh-ins” [2]. This trend can be seen among her skaters for the past 5 years. In 2017, three years after winning an olympic gold, Yulia Lipniskaya retired at the age of 19, reporting her experience with anorexia. In one of her last performances, the 2016 Grand Prix of Russia, Lipniskaya was forced to stop skating midway through her performance due to leg cramps. She then went on to pull out of all competitions and spend a few months in an Israeli clinic [5]. Another one of Tuberitze’s star athletes, Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva, referred to her state while training for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics as “living half-starving” [6]. As each Eteri girl has begun retiring younger and younger (around age 17), fans have dubbed this the “Eteri Expiration Date”. Past Tuberitze’s dangerous diet tactics, her signature, point-scoring jumps also cause extreme damage to her skaters.
In order to accomplish their astonishing four revolution jumps, Tubertize skaters must complete almost a full rotation before leaving the ice. This pre-rotation evidently results in immense strain on the back. The most striking example of these injuries is the aforementioned Medvedeva. Earning the title of “Miss Stability”, Medvedeva was known for her outstanding ability to land all of her jumps. However, just 6 months before the 2018 Olympics, her body began to fall victim to the Eteri Expiration Date. Medvedeva had a fractured foot and later revealed the extent of her lower back injuries from these jumps. In a 2021 interview, she stated that she was unable to fully turn her back to her left side. She then revealed the few jumps she can still execute stating, “I only can safely jump salchow, maybe even a loop and then not always. Flip, lutz, I don’t really jump them: it doesn’t work for me, physically” [7].
In light of these patterns of abuse, many have demanded that the International Skating Union (ISU) raise skating age limits and increase authority over Russian doping. The difficulty in preventing these tactics is that Tubertize is certainly not the only coach who incorporates such rigorous training. She is, however, its greatest and most accomplished contributor, producing dozens of athletes that go on to rank in Europeans, Worlds, and Olympics. Her training is often referred to as a factory, going through girl after girl and winning awards back to back. In an interview, she infamously stated “there is nothing left to do except to work with the material that exists and to try to create our own product” [3]. Tubertize continues to be rewarded from this abusive system: the ISU named her best coach of 2020, and Putin himself spoke out about one of her skater’s hard work. With the support of both the Russian Federation and the International Skating Union, Tubertize’s figure skating strategy stands to remain successful.
[1] https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/alysa-liu-figure-skating-quad-revolution
[2] https://slate.com/culture/2022/02/kamila-valieva-coach-eteri-tutberidze-abuse-russia-doping.html
[3] https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/threads/simonenkos-interview-with-tutberidze-projecting-the-upbringing-on-the-sport-results-discipline.101210/
[4] https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figure-skating/olympic-champ-lipnitskaya-anorexia-1.4285781
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/sports/olympics/russia-womens-figure-skating.html
[6] https://www.youngausint.org.au/post/compete-don-t-eat
[7] https://olympics.com/en/news/evgenia-medvedeva-interview-difficult-time-mental-health-figure-skating