Tutberidze showed off her impressive colleague. New coach of champions – who is he?

br>

At the stage in Moscow, Eteri Tutberidze’s team presented a new coach to the general public. At the side, next to Tutberidze herself and Sergei Dudakov, stood a young man in a black hoodie and large-framed glasses. The fans panicked: where is Daniil Gleikhengauz? Did Tutberidze exchange one young choreographer for another? Is there any conflict within the headquarters? tells who brought Olympic champion Kamila Valieva onto the ice along with the masters Tutberidze and Dudakov.

The new coach's name is Georgy Pokhilyuk, and he is only 23 years old. But he can be considered new only from a media point of view – in fact, he has been part of the Khrustalny team for three years already.

It is interesting that, being a singles skater, Georgy himself trained with Tutberidze for some time. After unsuccessful attempts to master ultra-difficult jumps, he went to try his luck with Denis Samokhin in ice dancing – he skated together with Anastasia Panina and Yana Buga. Since the latter, Pokhilyuk played for the Azerbaijani national team, reaching the junior Grand Prix series and the World Junior Championships in 2018.

The duo did not have much success, so as the skater grew older, the natural question arose of where to move next. In the summer of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was raging, Pokhilyuk received an offer to become a coach at Khrustalny. At the same time as Georgy, the team was joined by Polina Tsurskaya and Artemy Punin. They were entrusted to work with Khrustalny's own reserve – the youngest group of future champions, and were introduced to the public on social networks.

The injection of new blood into Tutberidze's team was justified for several reasons. Firstly, the flow of people wanting to join the group grew day by day. Secondly, Daniil Gleikhengauz clearly needed to be relieved of his workload in terms of production work, at least with the kids. In addition, Sergei Rozanov, who was responsible for training the younger ones for several years in a row, left the group with a scandal. That is, we needed coaching hands, eyes and heads. Ideally, with the same DNA that is already in the team. In this regard, former students of Eteri Tutberidze fit in perfectly.

The work of a coach, especially if he is responsible for the younger generation, is a rather routine thing. This is a lot of hours at the rink and in the gym with almost zero media coverage, because top coaches take adults to competitions, and children’s tournaments are not very widely covered. Therefore, for several years, only the most devoted fans and personal fans of Tutberidze’s headquarters knew Georgy Pokhilyuk by sight and name.

The young choreographer began to be widely discussed after he choreographed programs for Daria Sadkova in 2021. By the way, they discussed it in a critical manner. Already in the short program, from the point of view of the idea, the headquarters went ahead, as they say, on their feet – they chose the song Be Italian performed by the singer Fergie. Rhythmic tempo music, convenient for skating, but it was impossible to perceive it in isolation from the meaning of the song. And the meaning translated from English is as follows: “Do this, spank me on the butt. If you want to pinch, pinch something soft. Pluck my flower! Be a poet, be a lover, be an Italian.”

Let's not be puritans – teenagers sometimes listen to much more adult songs than Be Italian, and in general they really want to grow up as soon as possible. But whether it was worth offering an image for such a vulgar song to a 13-year-old girl who looks like 10 is an open question. Despite the criticism, they did not change the program – fortunately, there were not very many starts that season. Georgy coped successfully with criticism and generally examining his work under a magnifying glass. Passed the fire test – water and copper pipes, I think, are somewhere ahead.

In addition to Sadkova, Pokhilyuk also works with Alisa Dvoeglazova, and with Margarita Bazylyuk – all the young students of the group pass through his hands in one way or another.

But now, unofficially, we can admit that Georgy’s role in the team has reached a new level. His first after Sergei Rozanov was shown to a wide audience, and how – right next to the main star of the group, Kamila Valieva.

Yes, this happened because Daniil Gleikhengauz went to Japan with Nika Egadze – he stands for Georgia and, unlike his teammates, has the right to compete at the international level. But before, in such situations, Tutberidze’s headquarters simply stood at the side in the minority. Now the puzzle seems to have finally come together. While the Russian national team is suspended from international competitions, Pokhilyuk, as a coach, is gaining experience in the domestic Grand Prix series, but already on “cats” on a grand scale.