As Alexei Yagudin once said, skaters are happy for those minutes and seconds when they stand on a pedestal. After all, this is the purpose of life, for the sake of which they cross a line, step over themselves, doing the impossible. The skater Yulia Antipova crossed this line when she began to lose weight when she heard the coach’s sentence: “Either you lose weight or you don’t ride.”
Chronicle of sports life
Antipova Julia Valerievna was born in Zelenograd in 1997. Basic skills as a skater Julia acquired in Zelenograd sports school. She completely devoted herself to figure skating, and this is everyday intense training. Julia, speaking as a lone skater, had five high tournament awards in her arsenal - three Russian cups, a medal of the Bavarian Open tournament and a medal from the open championship in St. Petersburg. Julia achieved these results at her young age thanks to incredible willpower, and such zeal could not be unnoticed.
In 2012, coach
Natalya Pavlova invited the girl to her team, where she got the opportunity to rise to a new level of skill, working in tandem with Nodari Maisuradze. Riding with a partner was easy, because there was a mutual understanding in the pair, and a fairly good knowledge of technique and plastic.
Budding couple
Experienced Nodari Maisuradze with a new partner trained under the guidance of two coaches: Natalya Evgenievna Pavlova and Arthur Valerievich Dmitriev. The couple made a pretty successful debut at the Russian Cup in 2013. And already next year, at the Russian Championship in Sochi, the couple got the opportunity to participate in the 2014 World Figure Skating Championships. It was held in March in the Japanese city of Saitama, a member of the metropolitan area of Greater Tokyo. It was here that the pair of Antipova-Maisuradze attracted attention, taking the honorable eighth place in the top ten pairs of the championship. In their free program, there were many interesting elements, and it was rolled back in one go.
Julia's disease
The couple did not get into the next sports season. Julia’s disease changed all plans. In mid-September, information appeared in the media about the illness of the skater Yulia Antipova. She first went to the clinic of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency, and then to the Schneider Children's Medical Center in Tel Aviv. Treatment, of course, is not free. The Russian Figure Skating Federation did everything to help the athlete. The director of the federation, Alexander Kogan, agreed with his parents the amount that the federation could allocate for treatment. She amounted to $ 175 thousand.
The cause of Julia’s illness is her sharp weight loss. After the 2014 World Cup at the next training camp in Sochi, Julia weighed 30 kg. With signs of anorexia, she got to the clinic. The disease is psychological. Having got into pair skating, Julia knew that the weight of a partner is a serious topic, but she did not suspect that she would have to sit on a diet constantly, afraid to gain extra pounds.
What led to the disease
The trainer Natalya Pavlova constantly reminded that each kilogram gained is a burden for a partner who can lose balance during support or drop it on the ice.
The second trainer, Arthur Dmitriyev, drew up a diet in which there were recommendations for the day: tea, cottage cheese, some meat, vegetables. But when the load on the body goes not to 100, but to all 150 percent, such food is clearly not enough to restore strength. With such a diet and exercise, not only fat goes away, but also muscles and strength ...
But kilograms were not gained by her will. It’s just that the girl turned into a girl, her breasts grew, her forms were rounded, the hormonal background changed. It is at this time, if you forcefully intervene in what nature does, the body malfunctions. This is exactly what happened with Julia. After all, anorexia is both psychology and physiology.
In the medical center "Schneider"
Once in the children's medical center, figure skater Yulia Antipova received a special program aimed at restoring weight and normalizing the functions of all systems of the young body. The program includes six levels. A 16-year-old girl began treatment when her weight was 25 kilograms. Gradually, she went through all six stages.
It was difficult at the beginning of treatment, when there was absolutely no desire to eat, but it was necessary to get food for the body. At first it was a forced infusion of nutrient solutions, then a smooth transition to 8 meals a day. If something was not eaten from the portion, the patient was deprived of a meeting with relatives. These are the treatment conditions. There were also restrictions on the use of the Internet. Work was done with psychologists.
At first, Julia did not even want to remember talking about skating, about returning to the ice. As weight gain (at discharge, it was equal to 50 kg) as a result, a change in mood occurred. The girl yearned for Moscow, on snow and ice skates.
Future plans
In early October, Julia arrived in her hometown of Zelenograd and, appearing at an amateur skating rink, scared his administration when she completed the rotation. At an amateur skating rink professional elements are forbidden to be performed, she knew this, but she wanted to do so. Her soul missed the ice and the grinding of skates. It was here that she felt that ice was attracting her and she wanted to return to figure skating.
In December 2015, figure skater Yulia Antipova announced that she was returning to sports, to her favorite figure skating. She said that she did not yet know who she would train with, until it came first. She believes that you need to find the optimal partner, restore your technique and glide, then you can talk about the coach.
Returning to pair skating is a serious goal. Julia believes that at least there are two more Olympic cycles. And, perhaps, the goals and tasks of the girl will seem fantastic to someone, for her they are actually quite real and doable.