Russian figure skater Anastasia Skoptsovawith whom he performed in ice dancing Kirill Aleshinspoke about salaries in football and figure skating.
Skoptsova and Aleshin are world champions among juniors, bronze medalists of the Russian championship.
– If figure skating is so popular among us, why are many skaters poor? There’s a peak that’s somewhere far above, but it’s tough for the most part.
– Agree. And with all due respect to other sports, our kids, including the world’s tops, don’t have enough for what they’ve sacrificed. I have close friends at the top. They don’t complain, but they deserve so much more.
– Are you in the red, if you take your entire career?
– If you count all my parents’ investments, then yes, of course. When you’re in the national team, you have the skates, the tracksuits, the Federation, Moskomsport pays the taxes. They have to be earned. I don’t want to blame the federation now, they are doing a lot. Especially compared to what is abroad, where every minute is paid. Only wealthy people go there. We have children from families without income who can break into people.
I won’t dissemble, I have rich parents, but I know too well people who have no opportunities. They literally made their living by being skaters. And they were forced to eat doshiraki. The federation cannot sponsor everyone.
Money is important. To sit back and say they have no role is childish. We don’t live in a tribe where it was possible to bring an animal carcass. And it causes me dissonance why there is more money in such forms.
I am sorry that I, not the greatest skater, but a good average, was in the top 30 in the world, I could never achieve as much as our football or hockey players achieve. Yes, they start every other day and we have eight a year. But our athletes are definitely not freebies.
Our competition starts one week before the start. We arrive in the city, acclimatised. Kirill and I flew in the first adult season in Canada, a million hours with ten transfers. And from there to Japan. Do you understand what it’s like to be an athlete? You still have to drive well to make money. And on their track they change training a few days before the departure to reach the summit.
In football in 90 minutes you can make mistakes, but they can be corrected. In figure skating in 3.5 minutes you have no right to make a single mistake. You lose everything. I know how hard it is in hockey, I know professional athletes, how they died after matches, madly tired. But it’s not easy for skaters either.
Yes, in football you don’t need skates for 60 thousand, and now for 100, blades for the same amount, clothes for 100 thousand with rhinestones. Even for skinny girls, skates break off the quads almost every month. Figure skating is not a popular sport because it cannot be understood. In hockey, everything is clear – a goal, not a goal. This, it seems, is our burden – to receive less. We can’t ride every two days,” Skoptsova said.
