What do you think?
Rate this book
Красавица и чудовище
Любой поклонник фигурного катания в России знает имя Татьяны Тарасовой - ведь почти все ее ученики стали звездами мирового класса. Количество золотых медалей, завоеванных ими на чемпионатах мира и Олимпийских играх, дает ей место в Книге рекордов Гиннесса, причем с огромным отрывом от коллег. Достаточно вспомнить вдохновенных Ирину Моисееву и Андрея Миненкова, легендарную пару Ирина Роднина - Александр Зайцев, уникальных фигуристов Илью Кулика и Алексея Ягудина, дуэт Наталья Бестемьянова - Андрей Букин, совершивший революцию в танцах на льду...
448 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
2 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 16, 2025
Tatyana Anatoliyevna Tarasova ("TAT") is an extra-ordinary person. Her father Anatoly Tarasov was a legendary ice-hockey coach, basically built the Soviet Ice Hockey program from scratch and also invented new training methods that were borrowed by other leading hockey countries - particularly Canada, that built a shrine for him in Toronto and treated him with more reverence than Soviet Union ever did.
His daughter followed his steps and tied her life with Ice - first she became a Pairs figure skater but at the age of 18 she tripped to a career-ending injury during the award ceremony of her first ever majour win and then was forced to retire and pressured by her father to become a coach.
She became quite a successful coach - her students stood on pedestals of the Olympic Games in ALL 4 figure skating disciplines, and the only discipline where her coached student never got an Olympic Gold Medal is Ladies (now Women's event). Some of the students she coached include: Grischuk-Platov (Ice Dance), Alexei Yagudin (Men), Mao Asada (Ladies), Rodnina-Zaitsev (Pairs) and many many more famous names that had stood on the Olympic Pedestal in Figure-Skating.
She was also a successful choreographer - there's no other choreographer that has so many interesting and medal-winning programs cross-discipline as she does. The only choreographer that can be compared to her is Marina Zueva - and Zueva primarily choreographs Ice Dance and sometimes Pairs, she has very interesting programs but she doesn't really do Singles (aka Men and Ladies/Women disciplines).
This book talks about the life and coaching/choreographing history of Tatiana Anatoliyevna Tarasova up to the Salt Lake City Olympics, and there were many things I didn't know about her.
I didn't know that she was a pioneer of ice-shows in Figure Skating. At one point of her career she stopped coaching - partially due to stress she experienced because of her skaters, partially due to the bad relationship she'd had with Soviet Ministry of Sports. During the break she started producing Ice Shows and by that she'd given livelihood to many ex-competing skaters and allowed them to earn money after the retirement - that was back in the day when most of the skaters would retire from sport and switch professions to things like manufacturing.
These sort of shows were a new concept and required a lot of work. She and her group even toured abroad - that was back when the Iron Curtain was still in place! TAT recalls that at one point, a few members of her skating team ran away and she was terrified to be put in prison when coming home - but when she and the remaining group returned to Russia, the leadership and the laws had changed so she got off easily.
Unfortunately, in the 00s she had to take care of her sick family members - life has not been kind to Tatiana, and when she found it in her to return, the Russian Figure Skating Federation has not been kind to her to provide her a consistent coaching camp. And there's a reason for that (next paragraph). But she is still a highly-valued member of the Figure Skating community - both in Russia and abroad. She still choreographs from time to time, she spends time at CSKA-figure skating camp (where her father was an Ice Hockey coach and where she coached for a few decades back in Soviet Union times), gives advice to younger coaches. She is a treasure to any FS-related program on TV - whether it's LIVE Sports-Commentary, or a Sports News-after-a-majour-tournament talk-show, or presence on a judging panel of the "Ice-Age" (a huge show in Russia similar to American DWTS but on Ice). She even visits annual Team Russia Test Skates and gives advice to every single athlete and their coach on how to improve their programs.
Anyone who has ever watched Figure Skating commentary in Russian, knows that TAT is an unapologetic person. The great, the legendary people usually are. She is very firm in her opinion and she's not afraid to voice it. She is never polite, always speaks what's on her mind. Quite a few of her one-liners are considered to be truly iconic and are known in the International Figure Skating community. She is not afraid to hurt an athlete's feelings and will say if she thinks that her favourite Russian skater was robbed - even if the winner is another Russian skater, even if she's commenting the Olympics on the biggest Russian Government-Sponsored Channel. She will tell you exactly what she thinks of you and of the podium.
Such frankness speaks to who TAT is as a person and it's not hard to imagine that she's had many problems with, first Soviet Ministry of Sports, and then with Russian Federation of Figure Skating. And yet, she might not have her own training camp and Federal Funding, Tatiana Anatoliyevna Tarasova is famous and will always be famous and remembered to be a legend that she is.
Truly a GOAT of this sport.
His daughter followed his steps and tied her life with Ice - first she became a Pairs figure skater but at the age of 18 she tripped to a career-ending injury during the award ceremony of her first ever majour win and then was forced to retire and pressured by her father to become a coach.
She became quite a successful coach - her students stood on pedestals of the Olympic Games in ALL 4 figure skating disciplines, and the only discipline where her coached student never got an Olympic Gold Medal is Ladies (now Women's event). Some of the students she coached include: Grischuk-Platov (Ice Dance), Alexei Yagudin (Men), Mao Asada (Ladies), Rodnina-Zaitsev (Pairs) and many many more famous names that had stood on the Olympic Pedestal in Figure-Skating.
She was also a successful choreographer - there's no other choreographer that has so many interesting and medal-winning programs cross-discipline as she does. The only choreographer that can be compared to her is Marina Zueva - and Zueva primarily choreographs Ice Dance and sometimes Pairs, she has very interesting programs but she doesn't really do Singles (aka Men and Ladies/Women disciplines).
This book talks about the life and coaching/choreographing history of Tatiana Anatoliyevna Tarasova up to the Salt Lake City Olympics, and there were many things I didn't know about her.
I didn't know that she was a pioneer of ice-shows in Figure Skating. At one point of her career she stopped coaching - partially due to stress she experienced because of her skaters, partially due to the bad relationship she'd had with Soviet Ministry of Sports. During the break she started producing Ice Shows and by that she'd given livelihood to many ex-competing skaters and allowed them to earn money after the retirement - that was back in the day when most of the skaters would retire from sport and switch professions to things like manufacturing.
These sort of shows were a new concept and required a lot of work. She and her group even toured abroad - that was back when the Iron Curtain was still in place! TAT recalls that at one point, a few members of her skating team ran away and she was terrified to be put in prison when coming home - but when she and the remaining group returned to Russia, the leadership and the laws had changed so she got off easily.
Unfortunately, in the 00s she had to take care of her sick family members - life has not been kind to Tatiana, and when she found it in her to return, the Russian Figure Skating Federation has not been kind to her to provide her a consistent coaching camp. And there's a reason for that (next paragraph). But she is still a highly-valued member of the Figure Skating community - both in Russia and abroad. She still choreographs from time to time, she spends time at CSKA-figure skating camp (where her father was an Ice Hockey coach and where she coached for a few decades back in Soviet Union times), gives advice to younger coaches. She is a treasure to any FS-related program on TV - whether it's LIVE Sports-Commentary, or a Sports News-after-a-majour-tournament talk-show, or presence on a judging panel of the "Ice-Age" (a huge show in Russia similar to American DWTS but on Ice). She even visits annual Team Russia Test Skates and gives advice to every single athlete and their coach on how to improve their programs.
Anyone who has ever watched Figure Skating commentary in Russian, knows that TAT is an unapologetic person. The great, the legendary people usually are. She is very firm in her opinion and she's not afraid to voice it. She is never polite, always speaks what's on her mind. Quite a few of her one-liners are considered to be truly iconic and are known in the International Figure Skating community. She is not afraid to hurt an athlete's feelings and will say if she thinks that her favourite Russian skater was robbed - even if the winner is another Russian skater, even if she's commenting the Olympics on the biggest Russian Government-Sponsored Channel. She will tell you exactly what she thinks of you and of the podium.
Such frankness speaks to who TAT is as a person and it's not hard to imagine that she's had many problems with, first Soviet Ministry of Sports, and then with Russian Federation of Figure Skating. And yet, she might not have her own training camp and Federal Funding, Tatiana Anatoliyevna Tarasova is famous and will always be famous and remembered to be a legend that she is.
Truly a GOAT of this sport.
November 28, 2015
Татьяна Тарасова, несомненно, выдающийся тренер. Но, судя по её собственной книге, невозможная в общении и немного сумасшедшая. Полный control freak, очень увлекающаяся и весьма бесцеремонная. Не представляю, каким характером и талантом нужно обладать, чтобы в 19 лет стать тренером, а в 30 вывести своих учеников в олимпийские чемпионы.
Читать её мемуары интересно: воспоминания о величайших фигуристах страны, прошедших её школу, да и просто размышления о тренерской жизни. Попадаются забавные байки, например, о том, как Тарасова буквально преследовала Гладкова, чтобы он записал для её спортсменов попурри из Бременских музыкантов. Некоторые моменты немного странные, например, пара не заплатила за постановку программы, но претензии предъявляются только партнерше.
Своеобразно предстает федерация фигурного катания: сначала советская, а затем российская. Если даже треть рассказаного Тарасовой - правда, то гадюшник в этой организации просто потрясающий.
Я этой книге очень благодарна хотя бы за то, что из-за неё я открыла для себя пару Бестимьянова-Букин, решив поискать видео спортсменов, которые упоминаются в книге, но которых я не застала. Удивительно, но в 70-80-хх годах танцы были гораздо интереснее и выразительнее, чем сейчас, после изменения правил.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews