Rodnina on why she kept her kids away from figure skating: “that cesspit”

Irina Rodnina is known for being direct, and she has done it again. The three-time Olympic champion explained why her children never went into figure skating. Her answer was blunt.

What did she say?

Rodnina said her kids played sports, just not figure skating. "I definitely wouldn't have sent them into that cesspit," she said. It was her own decision.

Her reason was personal. She didn't want people discussing her children the way they discussed her. There was no internet back then, she said, but all that gossip was already thriving.

What about the skaters' kids?

Rodnina also looked at the next generation. "Which of the skaters' children is really talented?" she asked. In her view, almost all of them compete as juniors, and she finds that level uninteresting. Watching it, she said, is like peeling potatoes in the kitchen when you could simply sit down and eat.

Some stars of Russian skating do have grown-up children now, she noted, but their results are hard to call outstanding.

And Diana Davis?

She singled out Diana Davis, daughter of Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze. Davis skates ice dance with Gleb Smolkin for Georgia's national team.

Rodnina said the pair take podium places at Challenger events (a mid-level international circuit), but that isn't a very serious level for her. She isn't sure they have achieved much. At the Olympics in Milan they finished in the second ten, 13th by our count, she said. For her, a normal result is a place in the top eight.

A bit of background

Rodnina knows what top results look like. She and Alexander Zaitsev won Olympic pairs gold at Lake Placid in 1980, her third Olympic title in a row.