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Sochi Olympic Games bronze medalist Carolina Costner celebrates her birthday on February 8th. Sports talks about the role of Russia in the career of the legendary Italian figure skater.
Boyfriend's romances and doping
The organizers of the 2014 European Championship, held in the capital of Hungary, held a closing ceremony followed by a banquet in one of luxurious castles of Buda. It has long been noted that it is during such events that it is easiest to get skaters talking. The atmosphere is conducive to sincerity and frankness.
In Budapest, together with a colleague from a St. Petersburg newspaper, who speaks fluently in almost a dozen European languages, we decided to clarify with the bronze medalist Kostner the information that had been wandering from guide to guide at figure skating tournaments for many years. It was stated that Caroline's native language was Ladino. It was spoken in the Middle Ages by Jews who lived and were then expelled from Spain and scattered throughout the Mediterranean countries. Like Yiddish, which is a mixture of German and Hebrew, Ladino, which is a mixture of Hebrew and Castilian, is classified as an endangered language.
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"No, I don’t speak Ladino , said Costner in English. “Mom understood something, but didn’t say it either.” My native language is Italian, I am fluent in German and English, and French is a little worse.”
With a smile, Caroline added that she missed the opportunity to improve her French at one time. It was clear that she was hinting at a relationship with Stéphane Lambiel.
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The Swiss figure skater called the Italian his muse in 2005. The beautiful romance between the two stars was watched with interest by journalists from all over the world who write about figure skating. Adding piquancy was the fact that at the same time, Valentina Marchei, Costner’s competitor for often the only place in the Italian national team at the World Championships, was having an affair with Brian Joubert, a competitor not so much of Evgeni Plushenko as of Lambiel.
From questions of linguistics, the conversation with Caroline in Budapest turned to figure skating. “Guys, you’re from Russia!” Caroline remarked. “Why are you interested in an old lady like me? Here are Yulia and Adelina. I can’t compete with them.” Regarding the “old lady,” Costner, who was almost 27 at the time, was clearly flirtatious. Lipnitskaya and Sotnikova, who became Olympic champions in Sochi a few weeks later, did not “live” to Pyeongchang, and Kostner performed at the 2018 Olympics, showing memorable programs, some of the best in her career.
The Italian figure skater's track record includes four Olympics. At the age of 15, she was already the strongest in her country and successfully represented it at the World and European Championships. At the debut European Championships — 2003 in Malmo she stopped one step away from the podium, and at the World Championships of the same year in Washington she entered the top ten. Costner was favored by the then ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta. After a bronze medal at the 2005 world championships in Moscow, Carolina became Italy's Olympic hope. The whole of Turin in February 2006 was hung with banners with portraits of Costner, and at the opening ceremony of the Olympics she was entrusted with the honor of being the standard bearer of the Italian team. The 19-year-old figure skater could not cope with such pressure and responsibility, making mistakes in both the short and free programs.
Over the course of a long career, Costner alternated successful performances with outright failures. She became the world champion in 2012 in Nice (Alena Leonova won silver for the only time in her career), and won the European Championships five times. True, the press centers sneered: “Carolina’s ears should be narrower, like a rabbit’s.” They so openly pulled her onto a pedestal.
In Vancouver, Carolina failed again, but approached Sochi as one of the medal contenders. In the 2013/14 Olympic season, she had a brilliant free program choreographed by Laurie Nichol. One of the best Boleros in the history of figure skating.
Although in Budapest a few weeks before the Olympics, Costner assessed her prospects modestly. In addition to Yulia and Adeline, Kim Young Ah and Mao Assad performed in Sochi with two triple axels. And yet, it was at the 2014 Olympics that the Italian climbed to the Olympic podium. For the world champion, bronze in Sochi is the most significant achievement in her career.
After this, at the age of 27, Carolina was ready to end her career. After “office romances” with Lambiel and one of the main playboys of the 2000s in figure skating, Tomas Werner, she began a long relationship with Olympic race walking champion Alex Schwarzer. As Caroline admitted, she was thinking about marriage and was ready to have a child. The Italian press was full of photos of two athletes who were the pride of the country.
The doping story ruined everything. And not even the fact that Schwarzer hid prohibited drugs in the refrigerator in Carolina’s apartment and asked his beloved to confirm that she had the doping officers at the time of his visit. The betrayal against Costner was that Schwarzer, shielding himself, blamed everything on her.
As a result, the skater, who was never suspected of violating anti-doping rules, was disqualified for a year and four months. Moreover, he was removed from the sports bet in the Italian gendarmerie unit. They also didn’t forget about the ban on training. It is interesting that neither the IOC nor the ISU at this moment raised the question of removing Italian athletes associated with security forces from competitions and allowing the rest in a neutral status.
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>»All men are bastards!»
After this, Costner had to do paperwork in an ordinary Italian prison, and to keep in shape, come early in the morning to the skating rink in a shopping center. At the same time, Carolina did not lose heart, and she had no thoughts about ending her career. She even took ballet lessons.
After the expiration of a slightly shortened period of disqualification, Kostner decided to restart her career in St. Petersburg, asking to join Alexei Mishin’s group. Throughout her career, Carolina was easy-going. She could go to Oberstdorf to Mikael Huth or to California to Frank Carroll. And she didn’t hide the fact that she dreamed of working with Mishin. It so happened that in 2016 the Professor had no skaters on the Russian team — and everything coincided.
In the fall of 2016, I worked as a senior sports producer on a city channel in St. Petersburg. Having learned about Kostner’s arrival, he immediately agreed with Mishin and sent a team with an English-language correspondent to train at Yubileiny. For some reason, Alexei Nikolaevich himself was not in class. There were no Russian skaters, but Kostner worked all the allotted time from start to finish. After that, I willingly talked to our television crews.
She not only talked about her sports plans, but also complained about her difficult life as a girl. “I forgave Alexa a long time ago, but I don’t believe in the possibility of a new serious relationship,” stated Caroline. “All men are bastards!” It would be better if the last statement were said in Ladino. We did not dare to air this part of the story. Perhaps out of a sense of male solidarity. Not all men are bastards.
The collaboration between Mishin and Kostner turned out to be very fruitful, although the Professor in the Italian national team jacket at the competition looked somewhat extravagant. At the 2017 European Championships in Ostrava, Karolina became the bronze medalist after Evgenia Medvedeva and Anna Pogorila, and at the World Championships in Helsinki she finished in the top six. In the Olympic season, Nichol again choreographed two excellent programs for the Italian figure skater.
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"Free dance to music from Claude Debussy's ballet «The Afternoon of a Faun» in concept and depth, it claims to become one of the most significant singles programs in recent years,” stated Mishin.
The short program to the song made an even stronger impression Celine Dion «Don't Let Me Go» At the pre-Olympic European Championships 2018, Kostner, like four years ago, won bronze, and at her fourth Olympics, in Pyeongchang, she remained fifth. It was even more difficult to compete with the generation of Zhenya and Alina than with Yulia and Adelina in Sochi.
Carolina had the chance to put a real exclamation point on her career at the 2018 World Championships, held in Milan. Medvedeva did not come there, and instead of the Olympic champion Zagitova, her pale shadow performed there. It was in Milan that the student Eteri Tutberidze experienced a period of growing up. Kostner won the short program at the home championship, but during the free program, like 12 years ago in Turin, she could not control her nerves. The presence of the Professor at the side did not help either.
Even at 31 years old, the Italian figure skater did not announce her retirement. She only missed the 2018/19 season due to injuries, and then the pandemic began. Caroline did not sit idle. She was in demand on the show and launched her own clothing line. She is actively advertised on the figure skater’s official website. What’s interesting is that it is conducted not only in Italian and English, but also (no, not in Ladino) in Russian.
This season, the bronze medalist from Sochi made her debut at a serious level as a coach. Yuma Kagiyama, who recently won the Four Continents Tournament with a score exceeding 300 points, asked to see her. Although the Japanese’s content is no stronger than that of the winners and medalists of the last Russian championship: a quadruple Salchow and a quadruple toe loop in the short program and three quadruples in the free program. Moreover, Kagiyama performed the flip in Shanghai with an error. Although everyone noted that progress in terms of artistry, for which Costner was so valued, is visible in the champion of four continents.
As Mishin likes to tell journalists, those who went through his school can safely train anyone. Costner's first steps in the coaching field prove this. Foreign journalists also said that Caroline has seen positive changes in her personal life.
On February 8, Costner turns 37 years old, and in 12 days she will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sochi’s success. In the history of figure skating, she will forever remain as one of the most stylish athletes.
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