Betina Popova in an interview with Eurosport.ru spoke about the breakup with her husband, figure skater Denis Khodykin, as well as the jealousy of her partner, same-sex couples in figure skating and the conservatism of her sport. MK-Sport chose the main thing.
About breaking up with my husband
“I celebrated the New Year at home, more precisely, I didn’t celebrate at all: I went to bed at eight in the evening on the 31st and woke up on January 1 – slept, satisfied. Beautifully simple. I had many companies of skaters who hung out and called me, but somehow there was no mood – this is probably old age. And husband? We didn’t celebrate New Year’s together. He was just hanging out. We broke up, even before the Russian Grand Prix, a few months ago. We continue to work together, I continue to train their sports couple with Daria Pavlyuchenko, we continue to communicate closely. But this is how it happened.
We were together for two years, something like that. We had known each other for a long time, Seryoga (Popova’s former partner Sergey Morozov. – Ed.) was very friendly with him. Serega was his best friend at some point, we started talking, and somehow it happened.
Did you get bored together? Actually, yes. This is also possible. Because there was such a moment that we did everything absolutely together. We worked together: we go to work and leave together. And this is a permanent existence without any personal life, without any of its borders. Because all the time for an athlete is training, preparation for training, rest from training, again a trip to training. And all this, apparently, crushed, and it was hard.
About jealousy partner Morozov
“Sergey is now training, he works great with Svetlana Lyapina in the group: working with couples, small, junior. He works awesome, puts on cool programs – he’s done well.
I don’t know if he got married. Didn’t ask him about it. No, no, no, we do not communicate closely, we rest from each other. It’s just that now there is no reason to communicate, he has his own job, coaching. I have my own commentary activity. And there are no common themes to cross. Yes, there was a path passed together, we are grateful to each other. We met once at the birthday party of a mutual friend – we had a great conversation. But there is no such thing that we are just friends-friends so far. But even now, if Serega calls me and says: “Come”, I will come 100% and help. Zero questions.
Jealousy in the whole story with Morozov and Khodykin was present, let’s say. And Seryozha was not happy that I started a relationship with Denis. Moreover, Anzhelika Krylova, our coach, told me: it was just a shock for me, then I came to the training and was in shock. Denis escorted me to the skating rink one day, and she came up to me: “You can, please, not meet with Denis so that he doesn’t go with you, Serezha is unpleasant.”
I, a freedom-loving person, was so outraged! Just to the core. I didn’t understand at all what it was, how you could pry into someone else’s personal life so tactlessly. In general, some strange moment, for me is still incomprehensible. I suppose Sergei had a liking for me. Well, you could say I’ve always kept work and relationships separate. We had a very strong friendship, and in general it was enough for our work. Because I had previously had a relationship with a previous partner, and I knew that this was a deliberately losing story and completely useless.
About figure skating
“We have such a sport – it is very correct, sleek, conservative. We must have dresses, slicked hair. It’s ballroom dancing culture and I don’t really like it. Dance on the floor, we are moving away from classical dance, of course, it has advanced incredibly far – they are already dancing naked and with their hair down, a million manifestations of art. And we stayed a little step back – both in the culture of the movement and in the culture of presenting ourselves, we remained there.
I don’t want to face it. I really love my sport, skating. It can be beautiful and funny. There are moments in which I see development, but there are also moments in which it is not. Athletes who try to set the pace come with ideas – and they are simply told: “Quietly, and everything is fine, nothing new is needed.”
About debts
“In ice dancing, this is a normal story – there are always fewer partners than partners, and even fewer good partners. And very often, partners can support partners, fully provide for them, pay for their travel and accommodation, coaches and specialists, skates, music, program staging. It worked out like this: my first partner lived with me – it was a story with travel and food, sometimes with costumes. It was different with Morozov: when everything was bad, I helped him. Sometimes she gave money from her salary, sometimes her parents helped. The Federation also paid him, why did I lend it? After a while, I also ask this question.
About same-sex couples in figure skating
“After these words, more hats flew in than words of support. And I don’t understand why. I sincerely think so. Even at the Bolshoi Theater – this is ballet, this is a classic – you can see the dance of four knights or the dance of three girls. And it’s okay why we can’t see it on the ice. Purely physically, two men on the ice can make elements more technical than a boy and a girl. Everyone immediately thinks that this is propaganda of something that cannot be promoted. I’m neutral about same-sex marriage. There are gays and lesbians in my environment – these are wonderful people. I can’t say they are different.
Non-binary figure skater Timothy Leduc? It is worth noting that this non-binary skater is actually an awesome skater in general. His value in our sport is not that he claimed to be non-binary, but that he is generally very cool in his own right. As a skater, as a performer, as a skater. And it’s cool that he says this, it’s cool that he goes so openly, it’s cool that he has the opportunity to talk about it openly.
If he identifies himself that way, if he feels that way, then he has the right to call himself whatever he wants. This is his life, why doesn’t he have the right to call himself non-binary? I a
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