Aliona Kosto podcast interview April 2022 - Twitter summary

I'm watching this 1.5hr long interview/podcast thing with Aliona. I'm gonna make a thread of interesting/new info as i listen to it.


1. she hasn't skated for 16 weeks due to health reasons (broken arms, then covid)

2. when she first started to skate, at 4yrs old, she didn't like it and would often sneak out of the rink to sit in the changing room

3. she has always loved working on the public and playing with the judges during her performances

4. she has a hard time remembering which steps are which (t/n: same, aliona, same..).


she doesn't know when she started to develop her "trademark" skating skills. people used to tell her that she doesn't skate well at all.

5. at 10 she went to tryouts at CSKA, but they told her to come back later when she's a bit older. then she went to tryouts at Eteri's camp and they took her it.

6. (here's something that contradicts to what eteri has said in the past)


Aliona says that parents are welcome at the rink to look after their kids and to see for themselves how hard they are working and that her mom actively took part in her training process (cont)

she then tells a story about how once one of the parents sitting there were not paying attention to their kid and was on the phone and Daniil came up to them and asked if they saw what the skater did and

when they answered that they didn't see it Daniil told them "why are you on your phone during practice?"

7. Aliona's mom would give her a quota of combos/elements to do per training session, for example: 6 elements in a row from the FP x3, 5x/7x flip-toeloop combos, different combos of jump combos (lutz-toe-connecting steps-flip-toe). if she couldn't complete all of it her mom would

take her phone away. her mom would write down everything she would do at a training session and she couldn't go home until she met the quota, even if the staining session has ended. (t/n from my understanding she'd use it against her if she couldn't complete the quota per day).

the host asks her how old she was when her mom did that and she laughs and answers that she's did that even in the past season (the 21/22 szn), but then she added that she didn't take her phone away this season.

8. her mom's demands and her coaches' demands would often clash. her mom would tell her to do program rts (w/o stsqs and spins and no 3A) because she had stamina problems, but then her coaches would yell at her for not doing the 3A in the rts. then she'd start doing the 3A, but

then she couldn't finish the rt and then her mom would get angry at her.

9. the host asked if they discussed fs at home and she said that fs was discussed anywhere, anytime except for when she was asleep or studying, so she'd either sleep everywhere or always study.

10. she's 158cm now

11. about her independence.


at first this was taken not so well and at one point she and her mom had a very bad fight, so much that they didn't even talk to each other for 2 weeks, she wouldn't come into her room, when before she'd come in there every day to clean or sth

and one day Aliona came back home with boxes and her mom asked wtf was going on and she said that she's getting her things and moving out, to which her mom answered that "they could've discussed this" (t/n: she says that with a grimace, like an annoyed face)

in some way she was reprimanded for this. turns out that her family had an empty apartment and they didn't tell her for a while, she obviously had to pay rent for her appt., which was very expensive. then they sat down, discussed everything. now she lives in that apartment

their relationship is better now, there's less control and tension. sometimes she even jokes "what if i move back home" and her mom is like "don't you dare".

they're okay now, but before it was horrible (t/n: she uses the slang word "trash"). she moved out circa new years period

12. she knew that eteri would kick her out, 2 weeks after she broke her hand (first time) and she planned out some options in case it did happen. once eteri announced her decision to her, aliona called her mom her mom was like "excellent. now think what you're gonna do next".

this was when they gave her a full freedom of choice, because her mom tried to talk her out of moving to AOP, but she didn't listen to her, so now she gets to do whatever she wants and bear the responsibility for it. she was quite happy with it.

there was a huge "inner scandal" with aliona, her mom, eteri and the fed.

before Sasha's departure she would always be used as the "good example" and when she left, others (aliona uses the word "we" here, w/o specifying who) thought that finally their time has come and now

they would get some of the attention too, but then somebody new took Sasha's place and the conversation was always like "she did great, but YOU however..." (t/n: basically she hints on that whatever they did was never good enough) and at some point she had had enough.

at that point she decided to move to Sergei Rozanov under AOP, partially because she sought respectful attitude towards her, so that at least she wouldn't get totally humiliated in front of everybody. also she thought that since she would be the oldest one nobody would pester her

with examples of how good others were.

13. there were serious communication problems at Eteri's camp. The conversations were always "you against us" and only once did it resemble a mature convo when Daniil and Dudakov left and Eteri started asking questions "how come?" "why?" "what can be done to avert this?" but then

everything went back to how it was once Daniil and Dudakov came back after 5 mins - "we made you and this is how you thank us" she said "well, i also put effort in it and it was very hurtful to see my work being stripped of importance".

other than that, there were moments where in order to get you motivated to work they would make fun of the kids and laugh at them. Aliona didn't feel comfortable with this and she felt humiliated and she was fed up with it.

after Novogorsk they went to the fed (t/n: i guess to discuss the move?) and everyone was trying to talk her out of it, but at some point she couldn't take it anymore and called Eteri and told her that she wants to "try a different direction and method of training"

and eteri said "if that's how it's called now, ok then". her mom was VERY against it and told her that she's " wash?s her hands of the matter" and whenever she would have a bad comp or an injury, she'd hold it against Aliona and tell her "i told you so".

14. Aliona said that she was never perceived as #1 in the group, not even after the ECh title. she was thought of as the "bad seed" that would poison the group and they would always keep little kids away from her. she thinks that it was the flaw of other ppl's characters

when they would repeat after her, because what works for her might not work for others. everyone should think with their own heads.

15. Psychology & Psychologists.


She thinks that a psychologist is a necessity. sorting out the athletes' mental state isn't the coaches' job. She has been working with a psychologist for a while now, not only that she also studies psych in the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis

then the host says "to me it seems that you're contradicting yourself. first you say that during your winning seasons it was your mom and coaches' motivation that pushed you through, but now you say that athletes should live by their own motivation" to which Aliona answered

"and I always stood by it, however nobody would listen to me. they would always throw me onto things. they'd always beat me down 'you're not this', 'you're not that', 'you can't do combos', 'you can't do the 3A' " then the host interrupts her "however you had the results"

and Aliona answers "at what cost? i've been healing for 16 weeks without training. you started hearing about this only now that i've begun talking about it. you never knew what happened on the inside. nobody knew. and a lot happened when i didn't/couldn't train. (cont)

it was always like 'why aren't you doing this? everyone else is doing it, why aren't you? we can't adjust our work under you. you either do it or you sit at home' then you go onto the ice all beaten up and broken, on all sorts of pain killers and skate, because you know

if you don't go out there and jump, someone else will do it and take your place."


then the host asks her about her saying that sometimes coaches would have to keep her away from working, she says that this was during her AOP period. She says that the docs wouldn't clear her for

competitions and full workload and she couldn't accept that because psychologically she was wired to "work no matter what", despite people there telling her to let herself heal fully and that she'll be back on track in no time. she tried to go back to a full work load prematurely

because before (at eteri's) they would've killed her for not doing so.


then she emphasizes once again the importance of a psych, because once they finish skating they go onto the real world completely unprepared like pet bunnies that die in 3 days after going beyond their cage.

then she says how everything is being done for them and how lost and confused she felt when she had to gather some documents related to working, her transfer and etc.

she thinks that at 15-16 they should begin the "social adaptation into the society" (t/n: as in get them familiar with certain responsibilities).

16. Transfer back from AOP to Eteri


She couldn't get used to a male authority figure. all of her previous coaches were women and to her a man's opinion isn't as weighted as a woman's. she jokingly says that she has only been trained by "strong independent women" and that she was

always taught to be strong and independent. it's not like she didn't respect the male coaches tho.

it's a combination of trust, understanding and experience. she thinks that female coaches understand better (t/n: not sure if she means in general or towards her).


in her experience male coaches never had meaningful discussions with her, they would just shut her up and say

"i know what is correct and you don't even have enough experience, so do as i say" and when she'd express her own opinion she would get shut down again "why did you even open your mouth". but with female coaches she'd discuss things more.

17. She says that she would always say the truth, even if it would make others uncomfortable and even if she'll have to pay for it later.

18. CoR & 2 new programs


they decided to compete with new programs at CoR, because they were supposed to be for the next season and they wanted to test the public's reaction. at that point she was undecided about moving back. she said she came to that comp completely unprepared

that after getting covid, that was her 3rd full runthrough and they really wanted to WD her from the FP, but she insisted on competing.

19. after her come back they were more open to discussions, instead of stubbornly fighting with her and shouting at her.

20. re: Daniil's comments about her being lazy and not working enough.


that day Aliona and Daniil had a conflict. she couldn't do her 3A. she was skating her program the first 3A was almost fully rotated, the 2nd one wasn't clean & she messed up a combo at the end and bc of that

he turned off her music, which meant she had to go from the beginning again. until you can skate from the beginning to the end cleanly, you are not allowed to leave the ice. she got upset, that he turned it off, because she thought that she skated it through

(t/n: not sure if she means the program or the 3As/jumps). then she went for the 3A again and she couldn't do it, she cried a lot, but was adamant about the 3A and wanted to do a full rt with the 3A.

she couldn't do a full rt because of it.

then she stayed with the younger group, where the ice still has puddles and there are little kids there. she still couldn't do a full clean rt that day and then everyone complained about her (t/n: i guess by everyone she means coaches).

the next day she did everything from the 1st go. Eteri was very angry with Daniil because of that comment and fought with Daniil bc of it, told him it was very unprofessional of him to discuss problems during the training in the media.

21. She's not the one to work "like a machine" all the time. she thinks it's impossible to keep that up over a long period of time, especially in these conditions. there will always be ups and downs. you can keep it up for a year, two if you're really pushing it, but not 4 & 8yrs

22. the host mentions the differences between working with juniors and seniors, that at 14, probably up to 16, you can work like a robot and do what your coach tells you to do without any extra questions, but after that, after you've gained some experience you want them to listen

to you a little bit. the host assumed that this is what Aliona meant when she said they were discussing things more often, however Aliona corrects her by saying that they made it clear to her that nothing is going to change. yes, they would discuss things,but nothing would change

they told her that they don't plan on changing anything and that they are not going to adapt to her and other athletes. it did not matter to them if they're older, younger. absolutely nothing was going to change. then Aliona adds that at some point she realized that

she knows her body better than the other person and you should be able to voice an opinion and be heard and taken in and not fall on deaf ears.

23. re: Anna.

if Aliona would not let them (the coaches) upset her, Anna would always take it in and endure it to the end and that she was the one to get beaten down the most. (t/n: this would explain Aliona's frequent mentions of Anna's tough journey)

24. she and the girls found the ??? (TSchK) abbreviation ridiculous, because they are so different in everything, that it seemed ridiculous to view them as something whole, just because they debuted in the same season.

25. hobbies, books, movies, music etc.


1) she loves horseback riding, Show Jumping in particular

2) she loves logic quests (t/n: escape room?) and finds them very interesting. once she went with Dasha, Frolova, Mark K and Arthur D on a scary quest and they all were terrified

3) she loves to gamble and often does bets with her friends at the rink. but she says it's all well-contained.

then a host joked with her and says that it's because she has never played for a huge sum of money. and she answered:

"i have. for a very big sum of money. but i'll say it like this. in order not to lose the money, i ended up breaking my hand."


4) movies: fantasy genre is her fav. she loves GoT, Adventure Time, Rick and Morty. her mom loves Harry Potter and the Twilight series

she watched it with her mom on TV since her childhood.

5) she has read both HP and TW in English.

26. the idea for the Twilight program was born in her junior season. she once forgot her skating tights and had to skate in very thin white tights, in a white dress, but she did her eye make-up very dark and daniil told her she looks like a vampire. and that's how it began.

first they choreographed it as a gala, but it ended up being so cool that they used it as a program.

27. the cancellation of Wch20 and injury.


at that time she joked that she was at the peak of her downfall. she had an injury. she had it even before ECh. When they cancelled the worlds she wasn't upset.

before ECh her back began to bother her, she couldn't train for a week. she was doing a spin and at some moment she realized that she couldn't bend, sit, walk or do anything. she felt like she was a vegetable, that could only lie down, that the only position it didn't hurt

and for a few days her mom would take her to physiotherapy in this position. then a week later, she was at the rink just skating around and the fed officials came to visit and asked why she wasn't doing anything. turns out the coaches didn't tell them.

the fed asked why she didn't inform them, they would've helped with the treatment procedures, tests,etc. Aliona told them, she thought the coaches would inform them. she thinks that it was a miracle that she succeeded at ECh.she skated it out purely on muscle memory & adrenaline.

28. the 3A is a very comfortable jump for her. she could get her 3A back, even if she's unable to do a triple-triple combination.

29. about further motivation.


she says that she just loves this sport. she cannot live without the excitement that it adds to her life. she loves performing for an audience.

she will retire once she'll realize that she has lost any interest in this.

new programs, "plays" as she calls them, interests her very much, also working with new people, winning and getting medals overall.

30. Harley Quinn was her idea. the costume, music choice and some bits of the choreo was hers.

31. working with Radionova.


they joked that if she would get into the flow of music she and Elena looked like two clones moving side by side each other. Sokolovskaya would point at Elena and say to Aliona "see her? that's you."

she grew up looking up to Elena and Adelina

32. she loves to sing and soon she will release a song.

the text was written for her and she sang it. it's already in the process of development. she told the song writer what she wanted the song to be about, the concept and everything and they sent her some lyrics

she has taken 48 voice lessons so far and decided that she should try recording a song. she doesn't plan to make a career out of it, it's only a hobby to her. She loves karaoke, so she thought why not become good at it, instead of screaming at a mic and traumatizing people's ears

she loves her vocal coach, they've connected immediately and her lessons are always fun to her. she was supposed to sing Adele's Skyfall at a recital, but then they decided to switch to one of Ariana's songs & she was surprised by how well it went, but she had to miss the recital

33. once she's done with sports, she wants to enroll into the top medical university of Russia. she wants to be double board certified in Plastic Surgery and Neurosurgery. she will fill in any gaps she has with tutors for the exams.