On August 29, all of Moscow was looking for the 16-year-old figure skater Alina Gorbacheva, who disappeared the night before. She left training and did not return to the rink or home. The most terrible versions were worked out — search engines combed the park near the skating rink, divers explored the bottom of the Moscow River. A criminal case was opened on the murder — a formality necessary to increase the effectiveness of searches. The worst-case scenarios were not confirmed, fortunately. Alina was found alive and unharmed in the mall's cinema. All this time, alone with the phone turned off, she hid on the stairs of one of the houses and sat in the dark hall of the cinema.
Alive and unharmed — this is only, in clerical terms, from the point of view of the absence of illegal actions during the absence. Not killed, not raped — hurrah! Meanwhile, safety is not only about the integrity of the physical shell. There is also a soul. Moral and psychological state. And here there are many questions that the Investigative Committee and, ideally, the Russian Figure Skating Federation should now understand.
Let us immediately indicate that the situation around Alina Gorbacheva is too complicated for unambiguous conclusions and decisions. At the most primitive glance, everything looks like a teenager banally kicked up. He created a mountain of trouble for parents, coaches and hundreds of people who were looking for. Now she must be scolded, locked up in a skating rink, or simply whipped, depending on the radical methods of those who offer a solution. Get the crap out of your head, keep busy and keep it strict. In general, to return back to where Alina tried to escape. A deeper look suggests that Gorbacheva's situation is close to tragic. With a lot of people around her, a thousand reposts on the Internet about the loss and smart comments from all and sundry, there really is practically no one to help.
For the past six years, the girl has been living with her coach Sofia Fedchenko, having a difficult relationship with her mother. For various reasons, her mother participates little in her life. There are no friends to whom one could go, trust them. The safest places that Alina found for herself in a huge metropolis in a moment of despair are a cinema and an entrance. Hiding from everyone, she could not help but understand that they would look for her. And that running away would only add to the problems. But she obviously couldn't stand it anymore.
The fact that Alina has been living with a coach since the age of 10, which means that she completely depends on the person to whom she must obey in terms of subordination, is initially a pathological situation. She has no one to seek help or even understanding from. At the rink — a coach, ready to knock out the result at any cost. At home — the same coach. If you leave, you will have nowhere to live. And she is not old enough to provide for herself.
Mom seems to be in Moscow, an hour away, but she does not share her daughter's attachment to figure skating. Close contact with her is lost. In an interview six months ago, Alina said that her mother did not believe in her possible success and that was why she let her live with the coach. To come to the mother with problems, according to the logic of the child, means to admit defeat. Accept that she was right.
In addition, only a person who is aware of value, both personal and professional, can decide to ask for help. If you hear about your own insignificance for many years, try on all the voiced insults and understand that no matter how well you work, you will never deserve at least respect, then there is no need to save yourself.
The outbreak at the end of August fits smoothly into the outline of circumstances. Last season, Alina won the junior championship of Russia. In the spring, she was injured, which seriously complicated the preparation for the new season. There are three weeks left until the test skates. All difficulties seem to have grown to the size of the Pacific Ocean, and she does not have the strength to swim across it. And there seems to be no way out either. But a person cannot live without seeing nearby a luminous sign with saving green block letters. He tries to find it in any way. Fortunately, this time Alina went to the cinema, and not to the overgrown river bank near the Chkalov Arena. Where the divers were looking for her.
When the girl was found, the question arose of what to do with her now. And that turned out to be the hardest part. It is more common for society to find a child dead than alive, but with big internal problems.
There is no maniac in this situation — one could habitually write off all the troubles on him. There is no suicide — an extreme point at which nothing can be changed. There is only the monstrous system of our modern figure skating, in which the function of a child is reduced to the work of a prospector in the mines. Stand in the icy water and wash your gray pebbles to find grains of gold if you're lucky. There are many overseers, they are all inhumanly cruel. But since the children did not see themselves treated differently, these sadistic overseers are also their favorite for them.
Alina spent the last night with her mother and coaches in the Investigative Committee, from where they all left together. Of course, we cannot know the details of the conversations there. And in the morning, a post appeared on social networks, in which, on behalf of the girl, it was written that her disappearance was not related to figure skating. She will continue to train with her «favorite coach» and will delight us with success. In general, a solid idyll. But in her reality, given the circumstances, I can not believe at all. the abyss continues to open. Her one-day escape is a silent and unaddressed cry for help that mom needs to hear now. Whatever was between her and her daughter before, there will be no better moment to improve relations. Moreover, all that Alina needs right now is safety, love and care.