br>
The correspondent discusses how violence against young athletes has become part of figure skating, who is most affected by it is suffering, and is it possible to somehow protect children by reversing the terrible trend.
Our sports culture has historically developed as if figure skating coaches were given a secret license to use violence. It is caused by inhumanly difficult elements that children begin to learn from the age of five. And already 15-year-olds are expected to perform at the highest level they can. That is, athletes have catastrophically little time and only one career to become great. Therefore, they themselves, and often their families, are ready for anything. Such sacrifice attracts people who want to exploit it — aggressors. They can be both coaches and parents.
The problem is both the childishness of figure skating and its mega-popularity. A child, and then a teenager, who grew up under the influence of a always right coach, simply cannot stand up for himself if he suddenly crosses the line. To hit back, to snap back, to run away — such luxury of choice is not available to an athlete.
Sometimes someone complains to their parents. Occasionally they support him and somehow solve the problem — for example, they tell the coach that the chaos does not suit them, and then they look for another coach or take the child out of the sport altogether.
The most severe cases usually do not occur in the top groups — they are still in plain sight, which forces coaches to think about the adequacy of the methods. Although they often still feel impunity.
Groups with ordinary children from the category of hopefuls — this is where the worst things happen. Trainers, with the support of parents who smell gold and expect the quick monetization of their investments, can stop at nothing.
Thus, the mother of figure skater Lev Lelekov, in an interview with Sport, told how, in the presence of other parents at skate skates, the coach threw the girl overboard, and from behind the board her mother threw her back onto the ice.
One famous figure skater’s mother regularly hit with covers in the locker room. A very successful coach slapped a famous student, and this did not come as a surprise to anyone from the environment.
Dads are also getting involved in the process, and at times it looks scary. The blogger and part-time father of the young figure skater Mira Lebedeva included in his video blog the moment of dragging a child across the locker room floor. Then he had to justify himself to the indignant part of the public, but, naturally, his father did not admit any guilt. In general, his attitude towards children (his second daughter is also involved in figure skating) is as lazy repeat offenders, accustomed to working on fear and punishment.
Like other abusers, would-be mentors of future champions usually hide their actions. Almost no one will hit on camera, swear during competitions or simply in the presence of people who can talk about it widely. Everything happens behind closed locker room doors or even at home if parents are involved.
This is how one amazing metamorphosis with violence in figure skating turns out. Judging by the statements of leading athletes and coaches, it seems that it does not exist. No one is beaten or insulted, and if they suddenly beat and insult, it is for their own good. And as you wanted, this is not the junior group of a kindergarten — quite popular rhetoric both among the participants in the action and among the spectators.
But if you talk to some athletes off the record, talk to the parents of the most ordinary little skaters, the picture will change radically.
In figure skating people beat and humiliate — that's a fact. Not only coaches, but also parents. These cases are not universal, but they are common enough to be considered a large part of the system. A system that has no right to justification and existence. Because beating and humiliating people (adults or children, it doesn’t matter) is unacceptable. Never. Under no circumstances. There are no exceptions.
Violence will live as long as there are defenders of cruel methods of influence. Adherents of the faith — “You have at least one medal so that you teach coaches to train” — love to destroy the arguments of children's rights defenders through reductio ad absurdum. The usual dialogue with them sounds like this:
— Children should not be beaten, called names and dragged by the scruff of the neck. It is necessary to choose pedagogically and humanly acceptable methods.
— Is it really necessary to kiss them on the top of the head all the time and feed them pies instead of general physical training? They will all be lazy and fat. That's how, you know, victories are not forged. By the way, do you have at least one gold medal?
But an adult who distinguishes good from evil in its unconditional manifestations does not need a medal to understand for sure: not a single gold in the world will wash away cruelty . And it will not make it acceptable.
Devaluing the problem of violence seems to deny its existence. Therefore, in the system itself, blows, slaps, swearing and humiliation continue to be considered normal. Many people still don’t know how to work differently.
How to reforge this evil, how to break the system? We don't have many ways. We need to talk and write about violence, make every dubious case public, dissect it publicly and blow all the trumpets.
On the one hand, the publication of individual episodes will force the participants to sweep the dirt back under the carpet even more strongly. On the other hand, a violent negative reaction from society will still make them think that they are doing something wrong.
Since this text concerns children and is dedicated to them, such a children's a reference in the finale would probably be appropriate. In Agnia Barto’s poem “The Ignorant Bear,” when the bear father, tired of his son’s pranks, decides to spank him, there are the lines:
“
"But the she-bear whines, don’t touch her son commands:
"Beating children is unacceptable! My soul hurts!'
Even the animals in the ironic poem understand that violence against a child is a so-so solution. Speaking badly about the one who accepted him, and not about the one who is going to be raised in this way.
True, the bears did not come to Barto It’s in my head to teach my bear son to ride a bicycle, like in the circus. Or go ice skating. But still, I don’t want to think that the bear in this case would have taken the covers in her heavy clawed paw.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the position of the editors.