WHERE ARE THEY NOW? LIVING LEGACY
PAIRS GREAT FINDS SAME LOVE FOR SKATING AS A COACH by LOIS ELFMAN
Elena Valova said she doesn’t often think about her place in skating history. It rarely enters her mind that she’s a two-time Olympic medalist — gold in 1984 and silver in 1988 — three-time World champion, three-time European champi- on and part of a great line of Russian and Soviet pairs with partner Oleg Vasiliev. A hard-working coach, who teaches skaters
of all ages, Valova and husband German Galusha live a quiet life in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, where they moved in 1998. It is where they raised their son, Roman, now 18 and fi nish- ing his freshman year at Penn State University, where he’s studying computer science. “I fell in love with Pittsburgh,” Valova, 52, said. “I like the people here. I really like the fa- cility I’m teaching at (Robert Morris University Island Sports Center). “T e city has a lot of rivers and bridges,
which remind me of my native city of St. Peters- burg,” she added. “I like that people live outside the city. It’s like living in a village, but with mod- ern comfort. I like that we have deer, squirrels, bunnies, raccoons and a lot of birds on our prop- erty. We just like it.” While Valova doesn’t dwell on her accom- references her own
plishments, she certainly
competitive experience, especially when teach- ing young skaters. It starts with technique and includes her knowledge of how to physically and mentally prepare a skater for competition. “Every person is diff erent, so the coaches are
trying to fi nd the key for each person,” she said. “Some people have to be alone before the com- petition. Some people need to be talked to. Some
Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev earn the Olympic silver medal in Calgary.
people we have to entertain. Everyone is diff erent. “Sometimes, when kids are starting to com-
pete, they don’t know how to behave, what to do. So we are learning from competition to competi- tion what is the best for the kids or for adults.” Valova takes great pleasure in coaching adult
skaters, who certainly take their skating seriously, but also place priority on having fun with it. She fi nds adult skaters grateful for their lessons. Valova and Galusha, who have become U.S.
citizens, don’t get home to Russia often and miss their parents and other relatives who still live there. To keep a sense of home, Galusha cooks popular Russian dishes, such as borscht and a special salad that is traditional for holidays. With a long and beautiful list of medals,
there are many great moments to refl ect upon. One that stands out for Valova is her fi nal ama- teur competition with Vasiliev, the 1988 World Figure Skating Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in which they won gold. She had spent three weeks in the hospital with a foot in- jury during the season, and they’d only had one month to train for the Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. “We put all our eff ort and extra to get
ready,” she said. “We were almost ready for the Olympic Games, but we were probably 120 per- cent ready for the Worlds, which were in another month. We skated the best ever and it was so nice that we fi nished our career with such a nice swan song.”
T at season’s free skate was also her favorite
program. It was a time of change for the Soviet Union,
and Valova and Vasiliev were able to skate profes- sionally, including competing at the World Pro- fessional Championships, before each of them moved into coaching. While there is a vibrant skating community
in Pittsburgh, it is not an elite training center, so young skaters tend to train be- fore and after the school day. When there has been in- terest, Valova has worked with pairs teams, includ- ing Kylie Gleason and Taylor Toth, the 2002 U.S. juvenile pairs cham- pions and 2003 intermedi- ate pairs champions. Valova often calls upon the skills and knowledge
Elena Valova shows off her medals, which she actually keeps in a makeup bag.
8 MAY 2015
instilled in her by her former coach, the legend- ary Tamara Moskvina. “I have so much respect for her,” Valova
said. “I always respected her, but now when I teach myself, I am amazed how much eff ort, how much patience, how much creativity she put into students.” Noting Valova and Vasiliev’s singles skills,
Moskvina created programs that showcased their ability to do side-by-side triple jumps. T ey were the fi rst pairs team to win a World title that in- cluded side-by-side triple toe loops in the free skate.
“We were the fi rst strong singles skaters
starting to skate together,” she said. “We were above the level for singles skills in pairs. Soon, the other couples were thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we should work on triple jumps, too.’ It started a new era in pairs skating.” T ey knew what was expected of them, but it was always put in the context of putting out the best possible performances. “Yes, we were getting a lot of pressure, like,
‘Come on, you will do the best. Yes, you will win,’ but it wasn’t the priority,” she said. “We knew what we had to do technically and artistically to win. It wasn’t like we have to do it for Russia. Yes, whenev- er you are standing on the podium you are proud of your country. You feel that you did everything for the country to be proud of you, but it’s not the fi rst thing on your mind when you’re competing. It actually never occurred to me.” She thoroughly enjoyed watching Tatiana
Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov’s performances from Sochi. Valova has also developed a deeper interest in ladies skating. Prior to the Olympics in Sochi, a reporter
from Russian television paid her a visit to fi lm footage for a tribute to the 30th anniversary of her gold medal. In his notes, it was written to take a shot of her trophy room. She laughed and showed him her makeup bag, where she keeps her medals. Today, there is family, work, students and a sense of satisfaction, but no big references to medals and trophies. “T ere are more important things on my agenda than being proud of achieving so many titles in my past,” she said. Still, she shares memories when asked, laughs at talk of Moskvina’s great storytelling — there were an inordinate number of stories involving bathrooms — and gladly shows her medals to young skaters, who fi nd them inspir- ing. While she’s living in a world very diff erent from the one she grew up in, she still feels the universal love of skating. “It doesn’t matter what kind of competition;
you step on the ice, you see the audience, you see the judges, and that’s it,” Valova said. “You don’t really think where you’re competing. You are do- ing your program and trying to do your best.”
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