Maxim Kovtun is a promising Russian figure skater. Maxim Kovtun: sporting achievements and biography Figure skating Kovtun
In an interview with RIA Novosti special correspondent Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, he spoke about what the failed Olympic season taught him, explained why he returned to his former coach, and admitted that he regrets nothing.
Pragmatic calculation
Two and a half years ago, I talked with your coach Elena Buyanova, not yet knowing that you would leave her at the end of the season, and she said the following phrase: “I know for sure that in a year or two Max will probably begin to understand a lot of what which he refuses to understand now.” It turns out that the coach was right, since you returned back after working for a year and a half with Inna Goncharenko at CSKA and a few more months with her at Evgeni Plushenko’s academy? What explained these throwings?
I wouldn't call it throwing. After Inna Germanovna left the club for Plushenko’s academy in January of this year, I simply followed her. At that moment I had absolutely no choice. More precisely, I was in no position to choose anything. I never treated sports as a business, but at that moment I reasoned very simply: perhaps I still have a chance. And if it really is there, why not try to grab onto it? To do this, there must be people nearby who can give me everything I need in order to achieve results.
- Why then did you have to leave Buyanova? To then return, as they say, with a guilty head?
Shortly before I decided to go to Goncharenko, somewhere in the depths of my soul there was an understanding that Elena Germanovna and I just needed to talk openly about a lot of things. But somewhere I was too proud and stubborn; in my understanding, Elena Germanovna should have paid attention to some things, and since she didn’t, it began to seem to me that she was not interested in me at all. Now time has simply passed, and all these things have become obvious. In general, it seems to me that I have matured a lot, and Elena Germanovna began to treat me somehow differently. In any case, I like the way our relationship is developing now and the work is going on.
- As far as I know, you parted with Goncharenko on good terms. What about Plushenko?
Zhenya and I discussed everything calmly and in a businesslike manner. In fact, I am very grateful to him for supporting me at that moment when I had already actually decided to end the sport and did not think that anyone would be able to return me to my previous course. Plushenko understood my mood, my desire to realize myself in this life, to show my maximum, which, if you look at it, I never showed, despite the fact that some performances were not bad. As for leaving, in general it was, as I said, an absolutely business conversation, with a minimum of emotions. There were too many reasons that prompted me to take this step.
- What became that click in your head, when you heard it you realized: hop! We need to go back!
You formulated it very precisely - it was just a click. Hop - and the picture came together clearly. I clearly realized that I was in the wrong place, and in such cases it was not in my nature to waste extra time on further reflection. So ten minutes later I was in action.
- Weren’t you afraid that you would come to the coach to ask to return to the group, but she wouldn’t accept you?
It turned out that Elena Germanovna first agreed, and only then it dawned on me that she really could not accept me - there were much more prerequisites for this than reasons for consent. I don’t know why, but when I went to the conversation, I didn’t even think that Buyanova would drive me away. Maybe this is just our fate? But I'm glad everything turned out this way. I think that now our alliance with the coach will play even stronger than before.
- What has changed in your relationship?
What plays a big role here, first of all, is that I myself have changed. I began to approach work differently. When I first came to Buyanova in 2012, that was the case, I reasoned like this: okay, I’ll ride for a while, then I’ll finish with the sport, I’ll be able to get a job everywhere, everything will be great. Then, when different life circumstances made me a little , let's say, "pushed to the ground", I began to understand that not everything in life is so simple. That you need to constantly fight for your place in the sun. For example, there are moments at work that could easily have disrupted a workout before. Or I'll calculate, Let's say that Elena Germanovna said something to me in the wrong tone, or I get offended by something else, I freak out, I say whatever I want in response to the coach, I stop doing the elements. Now I don't even notice such situations. That is, they have become so important to me insignificant... Such a thing that I would allow all my training work to go to zero just because I’m in some kind of wrong mood cannot happen even theoretically. Probably, I’ve just become much more mature. And the coach already treats me as more to an adult. The main thing is that there is mutual understanding - I think you yourself have noticed this.
"Carmen" and Plushenko
In your training, do you already have the feeling that you are moving forward, or is it still necessary to restore the condition that you once had?
I can say for sure that I have never achieved such a form as now in my life.
Can you decipher what this means? In higher quality jumps, in higher difficulty or in something else?
I don’t want to reveal any technical aspects of our work yet, but it is very important for me that there are almost no mistakes in skating. I learned to consciously create discomfort for myself and deal with it. I need this to grow, to become stronger, to go to the start line in any condition and skate as if nothing had happened.
- Did you already have any thoughts about future programs when you returned to Buyanova?
No, we staged both programs from scratch with Pyotr Chernyshev. He also suggested music for the short program - such a light American style, jazz. Performed by Nat King Cole, "L-O-V-E". And Sing, Sing, Sing. And my free program is “Carmen” by Rodion Shchedrin. It turned out interesting. In any case, she did not leave a single person indifferent from those who saw her live.
Can you explain why Carmen is so attractive to skaters? Sometimes it seems that there is not a person in figure skating who does not skate “Carmen” or does not dream of this program.
Well, this will be my first time riding her. I don’t know what the attraction is, I can’t explain it. I myself ignored this music for a long time. That’s probably why it didn’t even occur to me that she was somehow hackneyed.
- So it was your personal choice?
It happened like this: I was working with Chernyshev at the skating rink, it was already the dead of night. At some point we stopped at the side, and I asked Petya if he remembered Plushenko’s program, which he skated in 2002, and whether it was even possible to take it, what if there were some restrictions on this? Somehow I get the feeling that no one has used this version of Carmen since the Salt Lake City Olympics. Naturally, I couldn’t check this while standing on the ice in the middle of the night.
Petya thought for a moment and replied that he also wouldn’t remember whether anyone took this particular music, but said that he was ready to try to make a program. To be more sure, we decided to call Tarasova directly from the ice - she was in America then. Tatyana Anatolyevna immediately picked up the phone, I remember I was even surprised at such a quick response. Accordingly, I began to tell her that I really like this music, that I am ready to listen to it all day, but I don’t know if I can take it. She replies: “Son, I set programs for my dancers to this music. Take it and don’t think about doubting anything, I’m in favor with both hands.”
Elena Germanovna, when she learned about our choice, was also interested. In general, somehow suddenly everyone became very interested. Everyone thought Carmen was a good idea. And we started working... It’s interesting that before that we sorted through a bunch of music, shoveled it, and nothing worked. And “Carmen” came right away. You know how it happens: you start driving around the rink, making some movements, and everything fits perfectly. In short, this year I am more pleased than ever with both programs. I really like the work we did.
- What changes have your programs undergone from a technical point of view?
Productions in general have certainly become more complex, but we paid the greatest attention not to complexity as such, but to the quality of the elements, their accuracy. From the point of view of the new rules, this is a fundamental issue. Together with cool programs, I think it will be very good to play.
"Work, son! There will be money..."
-Are you now losing more weight than usual or is it just me?
I've just been on a good, healthy diet for a long time. During my downtime, I gained fifteen extra pounds, which I had to lose when I returned to sports. He was still a bun. And I can honestly admit that it was very difficult to put myself in order.
- Who helped develop the nutrition program?
My friend from Chelyabinsk. He is a qualified fitness trainer, boxing coach and creates nutrition programs for his clients. Personally, I really like the way it works in this regard. He draws up a diet for me every day, describes in detail what I should eat, what vitamins I should get with what foods, and I eat exactly as he tells me. I’m not particularly hungry, I just don’t have any excesses. That is, every time I leave the table with a slight feeling of hunger, and satiety comes in a few minutes. It’s not like I sit on lettuce leaves and suffer around the clock because of this. It’s just that if someone dips meat in sauce, then I eat it without any seasonings. I can eat buckwheat with mushrooms, in the evening a fish steak with vegetables, if suddenly I’m not full, I can always add a bowl of rice and avocado. Plus a big mug of tea. I feel simply wonderful. Much better than after I allow myself a kind of fasting day, when I eat something for pleasure.
- Do you mean a fasting day in the opposite sense of the word?
Well, yes. When you constantly eat right, sometimes you really want to swallow some nasty thing like fast food. I feel bad every time after this. That is, in contrast, I have already felt that I like living the way I live now. Simple and no frills.
- Did you have to rebuild the muscles again?
Absolutely. From scratch. And not only muscles, but also all other qualities.
- How did you withstand all this?
I have already partially answered you. I just became different, rethought a lot. There are many things that are pushing me forward now. They are like endless fuel. And I hope they will continue to push me until I go all the way to the end. Of course, I don’t always succeed, sometimes my muscles hurt completely unbearably, but even in these cases I constantly think that with every failure I still move forward. And I am sure that everything should work out.
Is it important to you how you will look at the beginning of autumn, when you appear on the ice again? Or is the goal a December selection for the main competitions?
Of course, I would like to look decent right away. I don’t have any Grand Prix stages this season, and I kind of find myself in a position where all the autumn starts are a kind of preparation for the December Russian Championship. This is the main tournament of the year for me this season. Before this, there will be either some internal Russian competitions such as the stages of the Russian Cup, plus some series “B” tournaments. Possibly Finlandia Trophy. There are other goals, but they are not designed for one or two seasons. This is a long-term strategy for the next four years. There is no such thing that the result is needed at any cost immediately, here and now. Everything has its time.
But there is also a purely everyday side: the Grand Prix stages are a good opportunity to earn some money. How sad is it for you to lose this chance?
You know, Tatyana Anatolyevna likes to repeat this phrase: “You, son, work, and the money will come.” So I try to stick to this rule. I still have my own home, I have a place to train, and this is the main thing. My main task now is to achieve my goals. And then everything else will come on its own. As for the Grand Prix, I didn’t really count on them.
- Did you realize that you didn’t work?
Well, where could I earn money? I haven't skated for about a year and a half. It’s also not easy to start training after such a serious break. Therefore, the very fact that I am skating now, and skating well, I also consider it an achievement.
- Do you regret anything that has happened in your life over the past four years?
I don’t regret anything at all. I remember how you came to our training some time ago, and then told me in a cafe that absolutely everything in my life has now come together in order to achieve results. This is really true: my age allows me to skate for many more years, there is a coach with whom we understand each other, there are people who are ready to help professionally, and most importantly, I have come to understand what and why I am doing on the ice. But it turns out that everything that happened to me before, even mistakes, led me to this state. All this has borne fruit. If so, then I have absolutely nothing to regret.
Maxim Kovtun is an outstanding Russian figure skater, star of men's singles skating.
Maxim Pavlovich Kovtun is a native of Yekaterinburg. He was born on June 18, 1995 into a family of athletes. Dad Pavel Alekseevich devoted his whole life to figure skating: in his youth he went on the ice in pairs, and later became a coach at the Lokomotiv children's sports school. Mom Elena Alekseevna completely devoted herself to her children and their sports careers: Maxim has two older brothers who are figure skaters.
VK GroupThe first time Maxim set foot on professional ice was when the boy was barely 4 years old. Following his older brothers, his mother brought him to the stadium of the Lokomotiv Youth Sports School and sent him to Marina Voitsekhovskaya’s section.
It is noteworthy that figure skating was not the only goal of the younger Kovtun. On the contrary, as a child he dreamed of a hockey career. However, by the age of 10, having felt his potential as a skater, he had finally made his decision.
VK Group Around that time, truly intense training began - the boy spent all his free time on the ice with a coach, getting what he needed from his father’s training sessions. And success was not long in coming: at the age of 12, Maxim Kovtun won an unconditional victory in the Crystal Horse competition.
Figure skating
The second significant award for the young skater was the Russian Cup 2009 (first place among youth). Immediately following her was a silver medal at the European Olympic Festival in 2010. And in the spring of 2011, the family decided to move to Moscow. There Maxim began training under the guidance of Nikolai Morozov.
VK Group The period 2011/2012 was marked for the Ural athlete with a victory at the Junior Grand Prix in Romania. At the stage in Estonia, Maxim took silver, and by the end of the competition he took 4th place. Already at this time, a tendency towards “uneven” performances began to emerge: taking first places in some competitions, the skater found himself among the last in others.
This happened in 2012, when the “bronze” won at the Russian Championship was replaced by twelfth place at the World Team Trophy in Japan. Not seeing a reliable, stable athlete in his ward, Nikolai Morozov expelled Kovtun from his group. However, the famous Elena Vodorezova immediately took him under her wing.
Ura.ru With her, Maxim achieved great success:
- mastered the most complex cascades;
- took 5th place at the Russian championship in December 2012;
- was among the winners at the European Championships in Zagreb.
It is worth noting that it was at this time that he was noticed, who later actively became involved in the athlete’s preparation for the Sochi Olympics.
Experts noticed obvious progress in Maxim’s skating in November 2013. In two programs, Kovtun masterfully performed four difficult quadruple jumps. This gave him the opportunity to take 2nd place at the Grand Prix stage in China, win the short program at the stage in Moscow and reach the final. Since our skaters had not shown similar results 9 years before, the achievement was considered a great success.
Gazeta.ru But the real sensation was the performance of Maxim Kovtun at the end of 2013 - at the Russian championship he took 1st place, beating out the champion who had held the championship since 2003. However, this did not in any way affect the Federation’s decision to send Plushenko to the Sochi Olympics, and Kovtun went as a reserve.
During 2014, Maxim's skating was again unstable. It was even compared to the controversial speeches of a fellow countrywoman: one school - only problems.
VK Group Obvious failures and setbacks were followed by successes and outstanding performances:
- at the Chinese stage of the Grand Prix, Kovtun took first place;
- at the stage in Bordeaux he made two serious mistakes and ended up in sixth place;
- took fourth place in the Grand Prix final;
- won a gold medal at the championship of his country and silver at the European Championship;
- shared third place at the Barcelona Grand Prix with Sergei Voronov;
- dropped to 7th place at the championship in Shanghai.
All this time, Kovtun trained under the guidance of Elena Vodorezova and was considered Tatyana Tarasova’s ward.
Change of coach
The 2015-2016 season started quite successfully for Maxim. The first success was victory at the tournament in Saransk, the second was silver at the Grand Prix in France. Kovtun also skated brilliantly in his small homeland - he won the national championship in Yekaterinburg, performing 5 quadruple jumps.
SportsReview Failure befell the athlete in April 2016, when he uncertainly took only 18th place at the world championship in Boston. And already on May 16, all the news was full of news that Kovtun had changed his coach. Having left Vodorezova, who once believed in him, Maxim asked to join Inna Goncharenko’s group.
The popular skater did not even reveal the reason for his departure to his Instagram subscribers, although it is with them that he most often shares his thoughts and plans. The only thing he noted was the need for further growth.
Army
On May 19, 2014, Maxim Kovtun was drafted into the army. He was to serve in Balashikha, near Moscow, where the sports company was stationed.
The popular athlete's first Twitter posts on this matter were full of optimism: he wrote that he was extremely interested in how the service in sports companies proceeds. However, later the optimism disappeared. In his interviews, the recruit often complained about high workloads.
Interfax Kovtun spent several weeks in the army, completing a crash course as a young fighter. He was later released to continue training.
Maxim Kovtun now
With Inna Goncharenko, Maxim prepared for the Finlandia Trophy, where he took 3rd place and became the best in the short program. The next competition was the American Grand Prix stage, where Kovtun fell in the free program and ended up seventh. And at the very end of 2016, he won a bronze medal at the next national championship.
Personal life
For the first time they started talking about Maxim’s personal life in 2012. Then he was noticed in connection with 19-year-old figure skater Ekaterina Puskash. The young people dated for quite a long time, and Maxim’s mother even said that her son considered Katya a bride. But the couple was not destined to stay together. The reason was distance - Puskás decided to train in the USA.
Risport More recently, pictures appeared on the Internet where Maxim was captured with the Olympic champion. It turned out that young people relax together, go to ski resorts, and celebrate birthdays. Numerous rumors were not long in coming. Fans' fantasies quickly grew to an imminent wedding.
However, this information is categorically denied by both the skaters themselves and their parents. According to them, Maxim and Adeline have known each other since childhood, often crossed paths at various competitions and now simply maintain warm, friendly relations.
Instagram Now his girlfriend is gymnast Chilita Baggi. There are rumors that he not only devotes all his free time to her, but also sacrifices training for meetings. Whether this is true or not, we can only guess, but on the skater’s microblog you can find many joint photographs taken at different times of the day.
Maxim Pavlovich Kovtun is a Russian athlete engaged in single figure skating, two-time winner of the Russian National Championship in 2014 and 2015.In 2015, he won his first international medal - a silver medal at the European Championship, and was second in the World Team Trophy team competition. Maxim has also repeatedly won the Grand Prix finals, annual tournaments among the best figure skaters on the planet according to the ISU International Skating Union rankings, where at the beginning of 2015 he was in seventh place.
The childhood of Maxim Kovtun
Kovtun was born in Yekaterinburg on June 18, 1995. The boy’s future, to some extent, was initially predetermined, since his father and two older brothers were athletes and showed promise as figure skaters. Later, Pavel Alekseevich became a coach, Alexander and Dmitry became ice ballet dancers.For the first time, the father brought his youngest son to the skating rink of the city's leading figure skating school at the Lokomotiv stadium in 1999. There, 4-year-old Kovtun became a student of coach Marina Voitsekhovskaya. He also trained young hockey players, but at the age of 10 he preferred figure skating.
From that moment on, the formation of the future successful figure skater, prize-winner of international championships began. After school, he often came to his father for training and attended training sessions with his coach.
His first major success came to him at the age of 12. It was a victory in the Crystal Horse competition. Therefore, later the skater did not regret at all that he did not become a hockey player. He understood that for a further career, he needed to move to Moscow or St. Petersburg.
The beginning of the sports career of Maxim Kovtun
In 2010, the young athlete mastered a difficult skating element - the triple axel jump. And, after a number of victories, including 2nd place at the 2011 European Winter Olympics for juniors, he moved to the capital. There he joined the group of one of the most sought-after mentors, Nikolai Morozov, and began training in the USA. In the 2011/2012 season, he won gold at the Junior Grand Prix of the International Skating Union in Romania and silver in Estonia. In the final of this competition he ended up in 4th position. 
At the National Championships in 2012, Kovnun took 12th place and in the same year won bronze at the Junior level. He then represented the country in Japan at the World Team Trophy as part of the Russian team, where they finished 12th. Subsequently, the figure skater’s sports career was replete with both steep climbs and disastrous performances.
Maxim Kovtun and change of coach
In the summer of 2012, the skater was expelled from Morozov’s students, returned to Moscow and moved to the group of Elena Buyanova (Vodorezova). The promising young man was mentored by Tatyana Tarasova herself, a famous mentor who trained many world and Olympic champions. 
The joint efforts of the skater and his eminent coaches led to the fact that Maxim began his 2012/2013 performances by winning the Junior Grand Prix in Croatia and Germany. At the JGP Final in Sochi, he won gold, 11 points ahead of silver medalist Joshua Farris.
In 2012, having won 5th position at the domestic Championship, by decision of the coaching council he was sent to his debut adult European championship. Despite the fact that only athletes who take three prize positions are guaranteed to be sent to such competitions. And the skater justified the trust of the management, performing more successfully than our other skaters.
Maxim Kovtun - Free program at the Russian Championships 2014, Sochi
In the short program he was seventh, and in the free program he was 4th. As a result, Kovtun took 5th place in the standings. Then, at the 2013 World Championships in London, Canada, the athlete could only rise to 17th place.
Maxim Kovtun today
In 2013, he successfully debuted at the Grand Prix in China, where he presented a very complex performance program and deservedly won silver. In December, he became the national champion, ahead of the three-time Olympic medalist himself. Evgenia Plushenko. But at the 2014 European Championships in the capital of Hungary, the athlete again skated the program not entirely successfully, becoming fifth. At the same time, other Russian singles players turned out to be more successful: Voronov took silver, Menshov took bronze. 
As a result, the council of the Russian Figure Skating Federation decided to send not Maxim, but Plushenko to the Sochi Olympics, who subsequently, due to injury, withdrew his candidacy from the singles tournament at the very last moment, which did not allow the reserve skater, that is, Kovtun, to compete in his place.
Later, at the World Championships in the Japanese city of Saitama (part of Greater Tokyo), Maxim performed well and took 4th place. Then in May 2014 he was drafted into the Russian army. And he served in the CSKA sports company in Balashikha near Moscow. This allowed him to stay focused on training and keep himself in the right shape. In the sports company, no one gave him any concessions. Maxim noted that it was difficult, but he liked the change of environment after a busy season.
He started the 2014/2015 season with a victory at the Cup of China Tournament - the third stage of the Grand Prix, where he was ahead of Sochi Olympic champion Japanese Yuzuru Hanyu and American Richard Dornbusch. He also finished the next stage of the competition in France as a winner. Then in the final, Maxim took 4th place (following his teammate Sergei Voronov, the bronze medalist).
Maxim Kovtun - Chinese Grand Prix, free program
By participating in the 2015 Russian Championship, he won his second national title of gold winner and the right to represent the country at international tournaments. At the European competitions in Stockholm, the athlete won a silver medal. However, in China at the World Cup he was only able to take 7th position. At the team World Championships in Japan, the athlete again performed inconsistently - weakly in one part of the performance and successful in another, free. He returned to Russia with a silver award.
Personal life of Maxim Kovtun
The athlete is not married. While in the USA, he had an affair with figure skater Ekaterina Puskas. The athlete’s mother, Elena Alekseevna, noted that her 16-year-old son then called his 19-year-old girlfriend his bride. However, the lovers were separated by distance - in 2012 he returned home, and Katya remained in the USA, where she skated together with Jonathan Gureiro. 
Then Maxim’s chosen one became gymnast Chilita Bagdzhi, who previously had close relationships with hockey player Igor Shesterkin and football player Artur Yusupov. Maxim allegedly gifts the brunette beauty with any flowers, peonies. According to some experts and the media, it was violations of the regime due to love affairs that became the reason for the young man’s unsuccessful trips to the ice.
Maxim has very warm and friendly relations with Adelina Sotnikova, with whom they study together at the CSKA school and relax.
The skater is seriously interested in music. In particular, at the end of 2014, he posted on the Internet the first album “Neglyants” of his group “Dirty Thoughts”. Tarasova approves of the student’s hobby, rightly believing that music has never harmed anyone.
Russian athlete, figure skater, performs in men's singles skating.
Maxim Pavlovich Kovtun born in the summer of 1995 in Yekaterinburg. The father brought the four-year-old boy to the skating rink for a reason: he himself was a figure skating coach at the Lokomotiv Youth Sports School, and by that time he had put his two older sons on skates.
Career of Maxim Kovtun / Maksim Kovtun
Under the leadership of Marina Voitsekhovskaya Maxim Kovtun became the winner of the Crystal Horse competition in 2007, two years later he passed the first stage of the Russian Cup, which took place in Perm.
In 2010, Maxim Kovtun already confidently demonstrated a triple Axel. He won a silver medal at the European Youth Olympic Festival, moved to Moscow and mastered the quadruple sheepskin coat.
In 2011 Maxim Kovtun won the first stage of the Grand Prix in Brasov among juniors, and in the spring of 2012 the skater joined the Russian team at competitions in Tokyo, where the World Team Championship was held.
Maxim Kovtun trained under the guidance of Marina Voitsekhovskaya and Nikolai Morozov, but in the summer of 2012 the talented skater was expelled from the group. He moved to coach Elena Vodorezova at the CSKA Sports School for Youth, where Tatyana Tarasova herself noticed him. Such patronage benefited the young athlete: Maxim Kovtun took fifth place at the European Championships in Zagreb, performing two quadruple sheepskin coats, and performed for the first time at the World Championships.
In the 2012-2013 season Maxim Kovtun won the Grand Prix final among juniors, the following year he received the title of Russian champion, the rank of international master of sports.
The world was waiting for the opening of the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014, and Maxim Kovtun expected to take the only place for the representative of men's single skating in the Russian team. His free and short programs consisted of a very difficult element: five quadruple jumps.
As part of the Grand Prix stage of the Cup of China Maxim Kovtun received a silver medal, won the Russian Championship in 2013, but the following year at the European Championships in Budapest he was in fifth place.
On the eve of the start of the Olympic Games in Sochi, Maxim Kovtun found himself at the epicenter of a scandal: he was supposed to represent Russia in the men's single figure skating competition, but at the last moment the leadership of the federation made a bet on the legendary figure skater Evgeni Plushenko.
As a result, due to an injury, Plushenko was forced to withdraw from the competition during the athletes’ warm-up. Maxim Kovtun commented on this situation:
Let's leave the topic of Sochi. I have been silent for a long time, but headlines with my name still appear. This is, of course, normal, part of the profession, I understand everything. But, as Ilya Averbukh correctly said: “Everyone knows Kovtun, but not many have seen him.” Let's better prove it on the ice. Plushenko and I are not friends and do not communicate. Unless: “Hello, bye, how are you” - no more. Lesha Yagudin is a completely different matter. I can visit him and come home if I’m suddenly bored.
Two-time Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko did not remain in debt. He stated that the future of figure skating belongs to Japan, in particular, to figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu. Maxim Kovtun he also did not ignore:
Everyone is screaming about one athlete - screaming and shouting that it’s about to happen. But so far I don’t see his great skating and technique. This is a good average athlete. Let's see what he shows in the future.
In the spring of 2014 it became known that Maxim Kovtun will take a place in the ranks of the Russian army. He was called up to serve in the Balashikha sports company. Valentin Piseev, General Director of the Figure Skating Federation, commented on the information:
Maxim Kovtun will be called up for a short period of time, about a week. The timing was agreed upon with both the skater and his coach and was chosen so as not to interfere with his preparation for the competition. Therefore there can be no concern.
Maxim Kovtun trains under the guidance of Elena Buyanova, who also trains with Adelina Sotnikova, Olympic champion in women's single figure skating.
