"She's not well-mannered": The coach assessed the former Russian athlete who has relocated to Kazakhstan.

Former Russian figure skater Sofya Samodelkina, who will represent Kazakhstan starting in the summer of 2024, has completed her first training camp with renowned American coach Rafael Arutyunyan. The coach did not hold back and shared the complete truth about her prospects in the sport, as reported by Caravan.kz.

According to Arutyunyan, at this stage, Samodelkina must completely rethink her approach to training if she aims to achieve success in her sport.

“A radical change in her attitude towards work is required. It's one thing to work with a little girl who is just jumping around, and quite another to guide an adult athlete, whose mindset needs to be different. There’s also the issue that she hasn’t been conditioned to be a long-term athlete. A complete reset is necessary because her career was practically over – and suddenly, there’s this new twist. Now she needs to decide what to do next with her training and her body. Is she ready for this? Only she and her team know that,” Rafael Arutyunyan stated in an interview with Sports.ru.

Nevertheless, during the first training camp, the Olympic champions' coach provided the newly minted Kazakh athlete with initial recommendations, warning that achieving success under his guidance would not happen overnight but rather over several years.

“If her federation is willing to pursue this, we are open to collaboration; our doors are not closed. But if there are thoughts that Arutyunyan will quickly work some magic, it’s better not to pursue that,” Arutyunyan remarked.