The Eteri Expirement

The start.

"i have been skating my whole life. i dont know what i would do without it, its become a part of me now." 

Reporter: Would you give us an example of what it's like having Eteri coaching you? 

"Yeah it's.. uhm, uh sorry i-" 

"OH MY GOD SOMEBODY GET THE AMBULANCE!" 

10 years before:

"Alexandra honey, Eteri Tutzbride has offered to coach you!" Mom said excitedly. I jumped around and smiled, I was so happy. God I wish I wasn't so happy to have her coach me. I remember going to the rink for my first day with Eteri. She manipulated me, made me think she was kind, and an amazing coach. I believed it of course, at the time. She tied my skates and watched me walk into the rink. 

"Do a waltz jump." Eteri said with no emotion behind that cold face.

I did the waltz jump with no problems. I was freezing from the cold, she wouldn't even let me warm up first! I skated around for a little bit while she was talking to one of her substitute coaches, they basically just help with little tasks like sharpening the blades on skates or making sure the right  music is picked out for performances.

"Alexandra." She said.

I skated over to her. "Yes?" I asked.

"Are you willing to commit, or to lack?"

I was eight at the time, I didn't understand half of what she was saying. "Commit" I said. She smiled and told me to do a double axel. I went to the centre of the rink then I skated around, gaining a little bit of speed then jumped in the air, crossed my arms to my shoulders, next thing i knew I was on the bench with an ice pack on my head. 

"Your technique,  it needs improvement Alexandra. 5 more minutes and you go back on the ice. You'll do a double axel until you can commit." Eteri said with her broken English. "Da.." I said which is Russian for yes. I skated back on the ice, gained a little speed, jumped then crossed my arms and landed,  I put one leg in the air behind me and put my hands out to my sides. I looked at eteri smiling, proud of myself but she had that cold, dark emotionless look on her face still. 

"Again." She said. 

At this point I was tired and I didn't want to do it again, but she was my coach and I wasn't going to have am attitude against her. So I did the jump and landed it again. After some time of repeating a double axel she finally let me go home.

And that's just a glimpse of what Eteri is like. Except I was 8 at that time, now I'm 18 and things are much, much worse. 

"Александра, хватит жаловаться, Этери не так уж и плоха, а теперь иди на каток и тренируйся, прежде чем я тебя заставлю!"                              (Translation)                               "Alexandra, stop complaining, Eteri is not that bad, now go to the skating rink and train before I force you!" Mom shouted. I didn't have the energy to talk back to her so I just nodded and picked up my skates.  

                

               My best friend Anna scherbakova came in her black Mercedes and drove me to the rink.

"Are you going to the olympia rink or the merlay rink?" Anna asked.

"Olympia." I added. She's training with me so I'm assuming she's going to the olympia too. She took a turn left and parked in the parking lot. We walked into the rink and were greeted by Ed. The receptionist.

"Hello Anna!" His face lit up when he saw us. 

              Anna laughed and said "Hello Ed! You busy?"  He was about to reply when he heard Eteri and continued with his work. What on earth, why was he so scared of Eteri? "Girls. Training room. Now." Eteri shouted. 

          I looked at Anna confused, she had the same look on her face. We passed Ed and followed Eteri down to the training room. "The Olympics are in 6 months and you have not even acknowledged that. Therefore I have chosen to be strict, cold and cruel for the next 6 months. You will do as I say. Start off with quads, then triple axels. Do not stop until I say." Eteri finished. 

God she was terrifying. I walked over to the corner of the room next to Chloé igor, one of the other figure skaters coached by Eteri but isn't going to the Olympics.  She smiled at me so I softly smiled. I began trying to land a quad, I leapt into the air, rotated four times, crossed my arms to my shoulders and landed I put my foot behind me and my arms out but I wobbled a little bit. I looked over  at eteri, at the front of the room talking to a substitute coach. 

"Alexandra."  She said. "идите сюда."                                                                                                                                                             (Translation)             "Come here."

 I walked over to her. I waited for her to say something. "The Olympics are in six months and you need to win gold. If you land 5 quads then I promise, you will win gold. That is why I want you landing your quads, this this all for you Alexandra. Do you understand why I'm doing this?" She slightly smiled and tilted her head.  "Da." I said. "But what if I don't win gold?" Eteri's face went to a cold, blank stare. "You will win gold."  I nodded my head and went back to my spot, where I  began landing more quads.

Authors note:

Hello! This is the first chapter and I hope you like it 💗 its a little short but the rest will be longer. Please comment! It helps alot <3