FORMER OLYMPIC STAR FINDING JOY IN COACHING NEXT GENERATION                            OF FIGURE SKATERS.                                                                                                            By Guy Cipriano. The Tribute-Review, January 2002.

The scene and the students are ideal for the coach. Her pupils are Taylor Toth (13) and Kylie Gleason (11) - one of the nation's top young pairs duos - and they're struggling to learn some new techniques. Both skaters have plunged to the ice multiple times during their 30-minute lesson. When they fall, they quickly get back on their skates and seek instruction from the coach.

The coach - 1984 Olympic gold-medalist Elena Valova - is smiling the entire time. She stands a few feet from the duo during the entire lesson. She doesn't yell when her star students fail. She just laughs. It's not a "I-can-do-this-and-you-can't laugh" that would humiliate some children. It's a "I'm-happy-to-be-here chuckle" that serves as a subtle sign of encouragement.

For the moment, there's no place Valova would rather be. She's teaching promising skaters at the Island Sports Center's Olympic Arena. A relaxing form of classical music fills the arena, while each half hour a new skater flocks to her for instruction. Hanging from the rink's walls are banners from every Winter Olympics since 1968. Coincidentally, when Valova takes her short breaks, she sometimes stands under the 1984 Sarajevo banner.

Not many people work in a place where they are reminded every day of their greatest feat. "I love teaching," Valova said. "This is the best thing in my life. Even when I was skating, I liked to help others." Valova has accomplished more in her sport than Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon, Steelers coach Bill Cower and Penguins coach Rick Kehoe have in their respective sports - combined.

"She is very highly respected amongst her peers," said Beth Sutton, skating director at Island Sports Center. "If you've been a Russian national, world and Olympic champion that says something for itself."

In 1984, Valova and her partner, Oleg Vasilliev, won a gold medal at the Sarajevo Olympics. For a pairs skater, there's no higher honor. Four years later, the team won a silver in Calgary. Valova and Vasilliev finished second to Yekatriena Gordeyeva and Sergei Grinkov, a team considered one of the greatest pairs duos ever. Valova and Vasilliev also claimed three world championships during their careers and four Russian titles. How many people living in western Pennsylvania have claimed a world championship in anything? How many have an opportunity to entrench their wisdom on local children?

"She won the Olympics in pairs. There aren't too many people that won the Olympics in pairs that can teach your child," said Suna Murray, Gleason's mom and a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic figure skating team.

Valova, 39, started teaching at the Island Sports Center in 1998. When the center was constructed, its owners made an effort to attract some high-profile instructors. Valova certainly fit such a description. At the time, Valova was looking for a job in the United States. Murray, also an instructor at the center, sent Valova a brochure with a sketch of the facility and a schedule of programs. Valova said she fell in love with the sketch, and she decided to give Pittsburgh a try. She has been living here with her husband, German, and 5 year-old son, Roma, ever since. "My family loves it," Valova said. "Everybody likes the nature and the people."

Whether its Sutton, Murray, Gleason, Toth or his parents Greg and Lynn, everybody smiles when discussing Valova and her coaching style.

"She works with you the entire time," Toth said. "She doesn't spend time talking on a cell phone when she's teaching. She's with you 100 percent of the time. It makes everything worth it when someone cares about you.

"With her going to the Olympics, she has experienced so much. Her coach taught her the right things, and everything she has learned can make you succeed. She has a way of teaching you can't describe." Sutton, who's also the director of skating at the rink at PPG Place, called Valova a "great" coach. "She is very dynamic and she's passionate about teaching the kids," Sutton said.

One of Valova's greatest assets as a coach is her approachability. It would be easy for Valova to strut around the Island Sports Center as if she was more important than anybody else, but she is easy to spot - especially when she wears her black fleece with her embroidered on it - and she acts like another instructor.

Similar to her students, Valova knows what it's like to struggle with learning a new move. Before she was an Olympic champion, she was in the same position many of her students find themselves in today. "When I sit in the cars with them, they think I'm a big star," Valova said, "and they don't think that I've had some of the same problems." One thing Valova has trouble understanding is the commitment level displayed by some of her students. She gives every one a rules sheet, and she demands her students to show up for lessons on time. Valova said the current generation of skaters she's coaching isn't wiling to make the same sacrifices her peers did.

"I think my generation was doing something in particular. Today, they're more interested in doing everything," Valova said. Valova said she doesn't notice a lot of skaters in Pittsburgh who make the needed sacrifices to skate at a high level. When she travels to Chicago, which is where Vassiliev teaches, she sees a little more dedication.

"He sees more people coming to the ice and skating for hours with or without a coach," Valova said. "Here, most of the skaters are coming for lessons.

Toth and Gleason are two of Valova's more dedicated skaters, and their success is an example of the impact she can have on young skaters.

In less than two years, Valova molded Toth and Gleason into champions. The duo won the juvenile pairs competition at the junior national champions contested in December. It was the first time in her career Valova had coached a team to a national title. "Sacrifice is everything," Valova said. "That's what we used to do to be a high-level skater. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice dates, movies and those type of things for skating. "I see the sacrifice in Kylie and Taylor. Other kids want to do a hundred other things. It's pretty difficult to be good at everything."

Sounds like words coming from a demanding and knowledgeable coach. They also could be the words of a proven champion. In this case, the words were coming from both.

The source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/sports/s_14444.html

Photo credit: Christopher Horner

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