A few weeks ago, a television documentary – The Tutberidze Method – was released in Russia, celebrating her track record in training medal winners.
Two of Tutberidze’s skaters have won women’s gold and silver medals at the past two Olympics, but both were amid drama.
As the Valieva saga played out, Beijing 2022 champion Anna Shcherbakova was left barely celebrating victory – later saying she felt “emptiness” – while silver medallist Alexandra Trusova was so disappointed to miss out on gold that she said before the medal ceremony that she never wanted to skate again.
Four years before that, in 2018, favourite Evgenia Medvedeva was sobbing after being upstaged by 15-year-old training partner Alina Zagitova.
In the run-up to those two Games, Tutberidze’s skaters had been hot favourites, dominating the World Championships and European Championships.
Little has been seen of Petrosian recently on the international stage because of Russia’s ban from competition. The only real sighting of her was at September’s qualifying event in Beijing, where she won gold, but not all the top skaters were there.
Petrosian has also won the past three national championships – making it 11 years in a row for Tutberidze skaters – and she is the first woman to land a quadruple loop in competition, but she was injured last year and has struggled with errors this season.
Following the Valieva episode, the minimum age for competitors was raised from 15 to 17, an age that has not been far off retirement age for some of Tutberidze’s skaters in the past because of a combination of injury and a drop in technical skills.
It has been reported that her training model centres around female skaters peaking before they hit puberty., external
Italian Daniel Grassl, who went to work with Tutberidze in Moscow in 2023, described her as a “very good” coach, adding: “She can be a little bit cold but she was warm with us, and was supporting us.”
