Honored Coach of Russia Eteri Tutberidze spoke candidly in an interview on the YouTube channel “Tinkov.”
“I don’t think our team and methods are harsh or brutal. That’s why I would rate them a three out of ten. Our approach remains a form of guidance. The experience we’ve gathered lets us determine which tasks to assign and which plans to build. Any athlete has the right to refuse a task, both once and on a continuing basis,” she explained.
Eteri Tutberidze has worked with a string of notable skaters, including two-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva, Olympic gold medalists Yulia Lipnitskaya, Alina Zagitova and Anna Shcherbakova, as well as vice world champion Elisabeth Tursynbayeva, and European champions Alena Kostornaya, Sergey Voronov, Maurice Kvitelashvili, and Alexandra Trusova.
In 2020, Tutberidze was recognized as the best coach by the International Skating Union (ISU), a distinction that underscored her influence on modern figure skating coaching practices.
Notes about Tutberidze’s public persona have circulated at times, with discussions about how she is perceived in society and among peers. She has often been described as a decisive, results-focused coach who emphasizes discipline and measurable progress in training outcomes.