High altitude: Mishin and Co. get to work in Alps
Tuktamisheva, Plushenko among skaters at Courchevel training camp http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2016/07/21/191039614A special figure skating training camp recently descended on Courchevel, France: Coach Alexei Mishin of Russia brought his entire team -- including 2015 world champion Elizaveta Tuktamisheva and 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko -- to practice in the high-altitude resort town in the French Alps. Italian Olympic bronze medalist Carolina Kostner also joined for a few days.
Courchevel is a singular place for the sport of figure skating. The famous Alpine ski resort, which stands at 1,850 meters (6,000 feet) above sea level, hosted some events of the 1992 Olympic Winter Games. It has also played host to Junior Grand Prix (JGP) events on and off since 2002. Team USA's Ashley Wagner, and Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani have golden memories from their outings in Courchevel.
Mishin has often brought his team to summer training camps in Italy. This was his first camp in Courchevel.
"Everything surprised me -- not only the mountains but also the typical, maybe not French but German order. Everything here is working, and everything is clean: the dressing rooms and the rink, spa, sauna. Everything is perfect for figure skating work!"
"I love the mountains, and I love this country," Tuktamisheva said. "Courchevel is a really beautiful place, and we enjoy everything here. Courchevel is really the perfect place to practice at a high level. I could enjoy the quality of the ice rink, the fitness center, ballet (facility), sauna."
Courchevel normally entices its visitors to go hiking, dancing or dining in one of France's best restaurants. The summer camp, however, was quite intense.
"I don't balance between fun and work," Mishin said with his usual poise. "I do work, work, work. This is my fun, and the fun of my best skaters.
"Sessions like this should not move into one single direction," he said. "It should have multi-aimed sessions, like off-ice warmups and special off-ice exercises, on-ice training, physical fitness. If skaters want to move in only one direction, they will not come to the top of the mountains! Multi-purpose training is the right way to reach success."
The unusually high altitude of Courchevel plays a key role in improving conditioning and generating red blood cells.
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Plushenko did not jump much in Courchevel. Instead, he worked on choreography with the two choreographers Mishin brought along: Emanuel Sandhu, the 2003 Grand Prix Final champion (ahead of Plushenko himself!), and Benoît Richaud, a former French ice dancer who skated with France's Élodie Brouiller and Canada's Terra Findlay.
Plushenko maintains that he will try to compete at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in hopes of trying to win one more medal. He would become the only skater in history to win medals in five different Olympics. (He currently shares the record of four medals in four Olympics with Sweden's Gillis Grafström, who took gold in 1920, '24 and '28, and silver in '32.) If he doesn't, the Plushenko name may nonetheless remain on the ice: He took his 3-1/2-year-old son, Alexander, to the ice nearly every day.
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