Why coach Tatyana Tarasova threw her most famous ice stars Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Tatiana Tarasova has trained many famous figure skaters who won first places in competitions at various levels. But Irina Moiseeva and Andrey Minenkov were special for her. It was this pair that brought Tatyana Anatolyevna the first major victories. She brought them from the youth category to champion titles. And then she offered Moiseeva and Minenkov to switch to another coach. Skaters for a long time could not forgive the fact that Tatyana Tarasova refused them.

From youth to championship titles

When Igor Kabanov offered Tatyana Tarasova to take his pair Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov, she wanted to refuse. She already had her own large group of athletes and did not want to take new ones. At that time, she herself was still a young coach and there were no serious victories behind her students. But Igor Aleksandrovich was very persistent, convincing Tatyana Tarasova that good athletes would emerge from thirteen-year-olds who still did not really know how to skate. And the coach agreed.

Irina and Andrey demonstrated a truly athletic character already in the first lessons. They were desperately tired, rubbed their feet in blood, but continued to work hard twice a day. At the general physical training camp, this couple, unlike their peers, never tried to sit out in a picturesque clearing in the forest instead of a cross, and in the classroom, where athletes learned dances on the floor, they devoted themselves to training without a trace. Even when Irina's ankle hurt, she independently practiced on one leg.

It was important for them to earn the recognition of their coach, young Irina and Andrey were ready to overcome themselves every day. Tatiana Anatolyevna was initially very pleased with her athletes. They unconditionally fulfilled her requirements, took part in her creative experiments with pleasure, won the junior championship, later became prize-winners of the USSR championship, and then went to the European championship in Germany. Difficulties for the couple were caused only by the obligatory dances, they were simply bored with practicing the same movements a million times in a row.

Nevertheless, Moiseeva and Minenkov stubbornly walked towards their goal. Already at that time, Tatyana Tarasova noticed how sympathy between her pupils began to develop into deeper feelings. Then they seemed to be in love not only with each other, but also with their coach, with sports, with their teammates, with life itself.

And then there was the World Championship in Colorado Springs in 1975, from where Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov returned as champions. And another one, held in Tokyo in 1977, where the couple again took gold. There, in Tokyo, Irina asked her coach to help her choose a wedding dress. And on their wedding day, Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov drove to the Kristall skating rink in Luzhniki, which showed how important sports are for them.

Changing course

After that there were other competitions and victories, but there were some changes in the attitude of the champion pair to training in general and to their coach in particular. They began to spend too much time on sorting out the relationship in a couple, challenged every decision of Tatyana Tarasova and completely ceased to understand her.

The coach was still trying to return them to their usual training regime, but the guys, according to Tatyana Anatolyevna's recollections, seemed to have taken a bite at the bit. They argued about and without, and the constant psychological stress during training had a very bad effect both on the process itself and on the athletes' athletic form. The work on the compulsory dances turned into a real torment, and Tatyana Tarasova was even accused of poor preparation of the couple.

The coach herself could no longer find the strength to adapt to the mood of her students. They transferred all family troubles and disputes to the rink, sometimes they could spend the entire training session on a showdown. Then Tatyana Tarasova warned the guys: either they pull themselves together, or she will simply pass them on to another coach. But they didn't take her threat seriously. At that time, Bestemyanova and Bukin were already training with her, Irina Moiseeva was so annoyed by the trainer's love for newcomers that she could not even hide her own displeasure. This caused even more tension in the group.

Then Tatyana Anatolyevna went to the Sports Committee and announced her desire to transfer the duet to another coach, not forgetting to mention that they are her beloved children, but, as their teacher, she simply cannot give them anything else. A month before the 1979 World Cup, Lyudmila Pakhomova began to train the couple with Tatyana Tarasova, and after the competition she already worked with Moiseeva and Minenkov herself. True, not even a year and a half had passed when the athletes stopped cooperating with Lyudmila Pakhomova. The only person who stayed with them until the very end of their sports career was choreographer Elena Matveeva.

Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov, of course, were offended by Tatyana Tarasova. And in 1983, when the couple was seen off from big sport, they never once mentioned the coach who led them to the championship title. Tatyana Anatolyevna reacted to this with understanding and was not even offended. They still remained her beloved children, despite all the disagreements and conflicts. Of all the students that she had during her coaching work, Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov are the most expensive.

Over the years, athletes understood the motives of their coach's actions and were able to accept her point of view. Now they are happy to communicate with each other, however, they bypass figure skating issues. Not because it still hurts, but because now they have different points of contact. Tatyana Tarasova asks the pets about their family affairs, about the successes of her daughter Elena, who was born in 1984. Irina and Andrey inquire about Tatyana Anatolyevna's health, they visit the grave of her father Anatoly Tarasov.

But the coach herself, for whom Irina and Andrei became the first champions, looking back at the past, admits: if she had a chance to return to the time when she made the difficult decision to part with her star couple, she would have acted differently. I would have found levers of influence on them and would never have let go of myself … But, unfortunately, history does not know the subjunctive mood.

Tatyana Tarasova has long been a legend, she raised many talented students and was incredibly happy in her family life. A fortune teller predicted her meeting with her future husband when Tatyana Tarasova was 31 years old. The prophecy came true on the same day, followed by 33 years of strong family happiness. In their life there were many partings, hungry times, ups and downs. Only their feelings remained unchanged, which made it possible to keep the family in spite of everything.