A dramatic story for Elena Berezhnaya's birthday. Elena careful biography
Personal life of Elena Berezhnaya, in contrast to the career of this talented figure skater, was less successful. Together with Anton Sikharulidze, Elena began performing after an accident that almost put an end to her sports career, and, possibly, her whole life. During one of the training sessions, when Berezhnaya’s partner was Oleg Shlyakhov, Elena received a terrible injury - Oleg, while spinning, hit his partner’s head with a skate, so much so that fragments of the skull bones damaged the membrane of the brain.
This terrible incident in the figure skater’s biography set a new benchmark in her life - after the operation, Elena learned again not only to walk, but also to speak. During this difficult period, Anton Sikharulidze found herself next to her, who had long felt sympathy for her - he did not leave Elena until she completely recovered, and when this happened, Anton became her new partner. It was obvious that Sikharulidze had more than just friendly feelings for Elena.
In the photo - Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze
Skating together, they became Russian champions four times and world and European champions twice, and took a prize-winning place at the 2002 Olympic Games, but after ten years of close communication, Sikharulidze ceased to be a part of Elena Berezhnaya’s personal life. After Anton left the sport, Elena tried to start performing in single skating, participated in various ice shows, and at one of them she met a new love in the person of the English figure skater Stephen Cousins. Their romance began in 2006 - almost immediately after breaking up with Anton Sikharulidze, and came as a complete surprise to everyone.
In the photo - Elena and Stephen
They met while participating in the ice show “Stars On Ice”, although before that they had met several times at various competitions. Long journeys as part of the “Stars On Ice” tour gradually brought them closer; they felt mutual sympathy, which later grew into a real feeling. At that time, Stephen was married, but continued to care for Elena. When the tour ended, they went in different directions, but a few months later they met again and never parted again.
They got married, Elena gave birth to Stephen two children - son Tristan and daughter Sofia-Diana, but a few years later Elena Berezhnaya's personal life began to crack. They continued to be husband and wife, but the relationship existed only on paper. The figure skater says that Stephen continues to see the children often and sometimes takes them with him. Perhaps their family life came to such a sad ending because Stephen could not move to Russia, because he did not see prospects for his career here, and Elena did not want to leave here.
Chapter 10.
Partner beat Elena Berezhnaya and took money
Taiwanese under the FBI's hood. - Brainless judges. - We embarrassed ourselves in front of Russia, but received a super contract. - More than love. - Stephen Cousins is in no hurry to get married.
The Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City turned out to be the most unpredictable and most scandalous. Nobody expected what would happen in pair skating.
Already during the warm-up before the free program, it was felt that the nerves of the main contenders for medals were taut like strings. Canadian figure skater Jamie Sale crashed into Anton Sikharulidze. Our athlete was performing another element and noticed the Canadian too late - they both fell on the ice. The fans, the lion's share of whom were Americans, booed with displeasure. When a fragile girl and a tall, healthy man fall after a collision, the audience involuntarily sympathizes with the weaker one.
But the judges' votes were distributed differently - 5:4 in favor of the Russians. A scandal broke out.
A rumor spread through the press center that the French referee Marie-Rene Le Gougne wrote an official letter to the ISU (International Skating Union), where she said that the president of the French Figure Skating Federation was putting pressure on her Didier Galage. Galage allegedly said: if she casts her vote for Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, then Russia promises to help the French duet in ice dancing Marina Anisina - Gwendal Peyzera. True, no one saw this letter. And later information appeared that he was not there at all. Already in Paris, Le Gun called a press conference and declared: ISU began to lobby the interests of Canadian
figure skaters since the 2000 World Championships. But she, Le Gun, judged at the Olympics only with her heart, and put the Russians higher because they showed a more creative and artistic program. In her opinion, the Canadians were inferior in this component.
Nevertheless, the flywheel spun. The North American electronic media launched an entire campaign in defense of Canadian skaters. Even the US Federal Bureau of Investigation got involved. FBI employees managed to intercept a recording of a telephone conversation between two Russian businessmen - Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov And Chevalier Nusuev. According to the intelligence services, Chevalier spoke with Tokhtakhunov about the exchange of medals - in pair skating and ice dancing. Moreover, Taiwanchik tried not so much for Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, but for the former Russian woman Marina Anisina, whom he knew for many years and looked after like a father. As a result, Tokhtakhunov went to prison. He was detained in July 2002 in Italy, where he then lived.
Chevalier Nusuev gave an interesting interview to a Russian newspaper in those days:
- I think they needed Taiwanchik for completely different reasons. But since there was an uproar at the Olympics due to the judging, they were able to make the scandal a reason for arrest. By the way, his phone was tapped for two years by order of the Americans. When they were asked to provide a recording of the conversation (and my voice can easily be determined without an examination), they did not provide anything. I have been involved with combat sports all my life. If I had been involved in a story involving bribery in such sports as freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling, I would still understand. But my name is being interfered with in figure skating. This is nonsense! It’s the same thing if I say: guys, come, I’ll be performing at the Bolshoi Theater tomorrow.
After the Salt Lake City Olympics, Mr. Nusuev noticed a strange pattern. He visited Italy, Spain, France, and other countries - and everywhere, when Chevalier left the hotel, they did not charge him for telephone calls.
- Why don't you give me my phone bill? - asked Nusuev. - I called Moscow several times.
“The computer did not record a single call of yours to Russia,” they politely answered him.
When Chevalier shared his concerns about wiretapping with his wife, she replied:
- Why is this necessary? Never mind.
And four days later Taiwanchik was arrested. Tokhtakhunov spent ten and a half months in an Italian prison. It was never possible to prove that he really influenced the distribution of medals at the Olympic Games. But Nusuev was not lucky. In August 2005, as he was leaving his restaurant, an unknown person fired several bullets at him. A businessman with a dubious reputation died in hospital.
In figure skating - an extremely subjective sport - a lot depends on the judges. The funny thing is that among the referees who decide the fates of world-class figure skaters, there are many people who have never skated themselves! There have been cases when an international judge could not independently determine which jump - triple or quadruple - the skater performed. And he had to turn to his neighbor at the table.
If we put aside the lyrics, all referees are divided into three categories. The first are those who do not understand any of the subtleties and make assessments at random. The second group of judges clearly carries out the order of their superiors, that is, their national federation. Well, the third category, the smallest, is objective, honest people, who, however, understand perfectly well that sometimes they harm themselves with their honesty. But you can also come to an agreement with them.
At the 2002 Olympics, Canadians Sale and Pelletier stood in a position of being offended because they lost. But there is no guarantee that their national federation or people close to it were not working with the judges to campaign for Canadians. Especially after Madame Le Gung's statement in Paris.
And then, in Salt Lake City, after the scandal broke out, the ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta made an unprecedented decision - to award gold medals to two sports couples at once. Russian and Canadian. When Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, after long consultations with the coach and the leadership of our federation, finally went to the re-award ceremony, many felt that it was not worth doing this. The Chinese refused to receive their bronze awards again Xiu Shen And Hongbo Zhao. But few people know that, having humbled their pride, Elena and Anton only won personally. There, in Salt Lake City, they signed a very lucrative contract to participate in the famous show “Stars on Ice”, and the culmination of this show for the whole season was a unique number - both competing couples, ours and the Canadian one, performed in it. If, after the loud scandal, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze had openly ignored their presumptuous rivals, only Canadians would have signed a contract with the American show.
As a child, Lena Berezhnaya considered herself unlucky. She grew up in Nevinnomyssk, 60 km from Stavropol. Her mother raised her alone, the family lived poorly, there was always not enough money. Lena had five brothers and sisters - two relatives and three cousins. My mother took in three nephews when they lost their parents after an accident. To get out of poverty and achieve something in life, Berezhnaya left home for Moscow at the age of 13. She was noticed and invited to the capital by the legendary coach Stanislav Zhuk. But soon the enemies destroyed the Soviet Union, and the talented couple of Elena Berezhnaya and Oleg Shlyakhov suddenly began to play for Latvia. In Russia, the competition among figure skaters is much higher, getting into the national team is incredibly difficult, so the young guys took the bait from the Latvians. In 1995, Elena and Oleg went to the adult world championship for the first time, showed off the goods, and were invited to her place in St. Petersburg Tamara Moskvina.
Alas, Berezhnaya was unlucky with her partner. Shlyakhov let his hands go, Lena often returned from training with traces of beatings on her body. The partner not only beat Lena, but also took away her prize money earned in competitions. And he also threatened: if you spill the beans, blame yourself.
And in January 1996, an emergency happened in Riga. Shlyakhov hit Berezhnaya in the temple with his skate. The result is damage to the lining of the brain. Lena was immediately taken to the hospital, she underwent a craniotomy. The doctors said: it’s better for the girl to forget about figure skating. Lena lost her speech, her vision began to deteriorate - she had to wear contact lenses. Newspapers then wrote that Shlyakhov accidentally touched the figure skater’s head with his skate, having incorrectly performed a parallel rotation. But Sikharulidze, who became Berezhnaya’s new partner, later said in a fit of frankness:
- This crazy guy just lost his temper. Broke it. In general, he treated Lenka monstrously. She was terrified of him. For what Shlyakhov did to her, she could have been put in prison.
Anton was riding with Masha Petrova, they won the World Junior Championships twice. But quarrels arose between the partners every now and then. And when, in the company of his friends, Anton suddenly began to appear not with Masha, but with Lena Berezhnaya, who was skating in St. Petersburg at the same skating rink, but with a different coach, the situation became even more tense. Petrova felt that Sikharulidze was about to leave. Intuition did not disappoint.
When Anton found out what happened to Berezhnaya in Riga, he rushed there. And before that I called Lyudmila Velikova, his coach, and said that he would not come to the skating rink again. What the hell is figure skating if something bad happened to the girl he liked so much? What Anton saw in the hospital horrified him. Lena had absolutely no hair on her head, a huge scar on the crown of her head... Could this really last her life? Berezhnaya was placed in a room where there were eight people, and her cot was located at the very entrance, in a draft. Lena lost terribly weight, she weighed about thirty kilograms, no more.
In Riga, Sikharulidze found Shlyakhov and punched him in the face.
When Berezhnaya saw Anton in the ward, she was surprised and happy, but could not express her gratitude. In order for her to regain her speech, doctors advised Lena to read aloud. And Anton spent all day reading books and fashion magazines to her. When Berezhnaya came to her senses a little, Sikharulidze, together with Tamara Moskvina, took her from the hospital and brought her home to his parents. To St. Petersburg.
- Mom, can Lena stay with us? - Anton stunned his mother Lyudmila Alekseevna.
At that time, he was 19 years old, and Elena was 18. The puzzled parents made a Solomon decision. His sister, Marina, will spend the night in the same room with Lena and Anton. Actually, there were no other options: in a two-room apartment there wasn’t much room for five people. The young skaters lived under the same roof for eight months.
Doctors did not guarantee that she would be able to return to the ice. But Lena, having overcome all her fears, decided to try. Anton invited her to ride together.
“I won’t hide it, we became very close then,” Berezhnaya admitted later. “It’s like I found a kindred spirit.” Anton was completely different from my previous partner. I looked forward to every new day with joy, ran to training with pleasure, and a warm and trusting relationship was established between us.
Tamara Moskvina warned Anton:
- You are now responsible for Lena. This girl must be protected like a crystal vase.
And Sikharulidze, we must give him his due, behaved as befits a horseman. More than anything else, he was afraid of dropping Lena while performing lifts. The concentration was extreme. But Berezhnaya - an amazing thing - was not at all afraid of falling from a height onto the ice.
“I think the worst of my life is behind me,” she explained.
Exactly a year after the terrible incident in Riga, Elena and Anton went to the European Championships. And they returned from there with bronze medals. Then there was silver at the Olympics in Nagano, two victories at the World and European Championships and, finally, Olympic gold in Salt Lake City. If in that Riga hospital where Berezhnaya was operated on, someone had predicted all her medals and titles, the person would probably have been considered mentally ill.
It seemed to many that Lena and Anton were about to get married. In 1999, Moskvina and her wards moved to America, to Hackensack (a suburb of New Jersey).
The guys rented one apartment for two, which cost more than a thousand dollars a month. Both bought themselves expensive cars - Lexuses. Lena furnished the family nest with antique furniture. They treated each other well, but in the end they realized: being together all the time - both at home and at work - is very difficult. The quarrels and arguments that arose between them on the ice soon began to spill over into their personal lives.
Sikharulidze himself, when asked why they did not become husband and wife, answered this:
- Lena and I are now like brother and sister. And this, in my opinion, is more than love.
Elena had several fleeting romances. In the summer of 2001, Berezhnaya met in Moscow with the then aspiring actor Peter Krasilov. This happened at a rehearsal of the play at the Youth Theater, where Petya played one of the main roles. According to the script, Krasilov’s hero fought effectively with swords. Berezhnaya, through her friend, asked Petya to teach her to fencing. He happily agreed. Then they went to a cafe together and spent time in the company of mutual friends. He spent the night with her several times. But when Lena found out that Krasilov had a common-law wife who was expecting a child from him, she immediately ended all relations.
Once in the Mosfilm pavilion she ran into a popular actor Alexander Domogarov. At the time he was going through a divorce from Natalia Gromushkina and decided to hit on the titled skater. Lena really liked Domogarov, especially after the series “Countess de Monsoreau”, she reciprocated, even confessed her love to him. However, in the life of a super actor appeared Marina Alexandrova, and Lena herself invited Alexander to remain friends.
Here's an English skater Stephen Cousins, a multiple British champion, really “hooked” her. At first, Lena did not attach importance to his advances. Firstly, a foreigner. Secondly, he is married.
- Lena, I have loved you for a long time. “I only want to be with you,” Stephen admitted.
- Do you love your wife too? - Berezhnaya asked, grinning. - We know you. Today with one, tomorrow with the other?
But the persistent Briton did not lag behind. He showered her with gifts, sent touching letters via email... But Lena stood her ground: first decide on your wife. And Stephen got divorced.
- We met at an international tournament back in 1994. Then I could not even imagine that this guy would become my destiny,” Elena recently admitted. “But we developed a close relationship with Steve only three years ago.
When Berezhnaya gave birth to Cousins’ son, she hinted that the wedding was just around the corner. However, the Englishman made the child, but did not take the girl to the registry office. Last summer there was an addition to the international family of figure skaters - little Tristan had a sister, Sonya. Berezhnaya's second pregnancy was difficult - the baby was born prematurely and she had to have a caesarean section. Fortunately, this did not affect the girl’s health.
According to Elena, she and Stephen now live in two houses - in St. Petersburg and in Chester, England, where Cousins has a job and an apartment. He insists that the family spend the lion's share of time in England. He failed to find a decent job in Russia.
“I’m tired of seeing my husband once a month,” says Elena. - Yes, and children need a real dad. So, most likely, I will leave Russia for a long time.
Berezhnaya is confident that they will formalize their relationship with Cousins before the end of 2009.
Today she has become another year older. Her mother dreamed that her daughter would become a first-class ballerina, but because of her height, the girl was not accepted into the studio... But there was a skating rink nearby. If it weren't for sports, She would have become an artist. And even as a child, she was very afraid of losing Yuri Nikulin...
Elena was born very small and weak - doctors even diagnosed her with dystrophy. Lena fell asleep solely thanks to energetic rocking to the song “Hostile Whirlwinds...” It is logical that from early childhood the mother tried to involve her daughter in any active actions. There was an attempt to send Lena to ballet, but due to her height and fragile physique she was not accepted. Just as they didn’t take me to other similar sections. Besides the skating rink...
The gutta-percha girl was taken under the wing of coach Nina Ruchkina, who moved with her family to Nevinnomyssk from the Moscow region. At that time, Lena was already 8 years old. Her career developed gradually - each new coach saw potential in her, but Elena’s partners (she was the ideal guy - small, light, nimble) came across, although dominant, but unpromising.
Somehow it turned out that life in Nevinnomyssk gave Berezhnaya a barracks-like attitude towards work: shouting, swearing, insults, jabs and slaps were not considered something out of the ordinary. Actually, training at CSKA Moscow was more like army training - hazing was terrible.
Only after moving to St. Petersburg did Lena learn that relationships between athletes can be different - friendly, welcoming... In general, normal human ones. There she met Anton Sikharulidze. Perhaps this is what gave Elena the strength to go against her then oppressive partner, Oleg Shlyakhov, who showed great promise and with whom not a single partner or coach could get along. But, in turn, this provoked him to respond...
Now it’s difficult to get to the bottom of the truth, and Elena herself considers everything that happened to be an accident... But during one of the training sessions, during a double rotation, Oleg’s skate hit Berezhnaya in the temple. The temporal bone was pierced... The fragments touched the brain, damaging the speech center. As a result, two urgent neurosurgical operations and long months of rehabilitation - I had to relearn how to walk, talk, and read. Perhaps it’s strange, but then Berezhnaya was happy - she finally got rid of Shlyakhov’s tyranny. True, there were consequences - when Elena is nervous, she is often speechless.
She managed to return to big-time sports. And this time Anton Sikharulidze became her partner... Not only on the ice, but also in life. This was her first great love. But it didn’t come to the wedding - at some point both realized that their feeling was more than just love, they became soul mates, like brother and sister. And best friends. “Eh, I should have gotten married right away,” said Anton. “And not ride together,” Elena continued to think. “Then everything would be fine.”
When there was a scandal at the Olympics in Salt Lake City - when at the pairs figure skating competition it was decided to award the second set to the Canadians - the Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze duo adequately withstood this test. They gave interviews and participated in talk shows (including Larry King). And not only did they not quarrel with the Canadian couple, but they even came up with a joint performance in the Stars on Ice show - in memory of that scandal.
After “breaking up” with Anton, Elena built a formula for herself according to which she would look for a husband: so that he was not married, not a foreigner, not a figure skater... And then she herself broke it.
Stephen Cousins often found himself in companies where Lena was. And when, of all the acquaintances whom Berezhnaya spontaneously invited to St. Petersburg, only he responded... She realized that something was brewing between them...
Now they have two children - son Tristan (this was the only acceptable name in the dictionary of names in Chester, where Lena gave birth) and daughter Sofia (long before Tristan appeared, Berezhnaya had a dream that she gave birth to a daughter and named her Sonechka). Both children also have middle names - Paul and Diana.
As a child, she treated her life quite evenly - she could jump with a parachute or from a bungee. I was only afraid that my mother would get sick and Yuri Nikulin would die - after all, without him the world would collapse! And now... Now she is afraid for the children, because she is responsible for them. And if suddenly she is offered to “go to the moon,” she will no longer answer the usual “no problem,” but will say: “Thank you, no need.” I am needed on Earth."
She is a Knight of the Order of Friendship - for outstanding achievements in sports, courage and heroism shown at the XVIII Winter Olympic Games in 1998. Knight of the Order of Honor - for his great contribution to the development of physical culture and sports, high sporting achievements at the Games of the XIX Olympiad 2002 in Salt Lake City. She is a regular at ice shows with stars. And since her regular partner Anton Sikharulidze decided to end his figure skating career, he is now trying his hand at single skating...
If the famous figure skater, Olympic champion Elena Berezhnaya had been told three years ago that she would fall in love with the English figure skater Stephen Cousins, give birth to his son Tristan, and even more so start skating on ice together with... singer Dima Bilan, she would simply laugh. It was impossible to believe this. But life sometimes throws out such pretzels that you can’t even describe them in a fairy tale!
Photo: Mark Steinbock
When Lena Berezhnaya found out that Bilan would be her partner in the Rossiya TV channel show “Star Ice,” her delight knew no bounds. "That's cool! - I thought. - After all, there is probably no more popular singer in Russia today! Then I became scared - when I saw Dima on the ice for the first time! He couldn't ride at all. I was horrified: how are we going to perform in the show with him?! But he turned out to be so hardworking and tenacious! And besides, he’s not afraid of anything.” Lena happily agreed to participate in this television project also because her common-law husband, English figure skater Stephen Cousins, was also invited to participate in it. He danced together with Lera Kudryavtseva. But he was forced to leave Star Ice because he could not cancel his tour performances planned under the contract... Lena and Steven’s romance began in 2006 and became a complete surprise in the world of figure skating.
The athletes met at the famous ice show “Stars On Ice”. Although we had seen each other several times before. “All the skaters know each other. At least in person,” Berezhnaya laughs. - We constantly meet at tournaments in different countries. I don’t even remember when and where I first saw Stephen. Most likely it was at the European Championships in 1993. But neither then nor years later could I even imagine that our paths would cross. Cousins was a single skater, I skated in pairs with Anton Sikharulidze. I never paid much attention to Steven: well, he’s a figure skater and a skater. We didn’t even say hello to him... And so we ended up on the same tour - we traveled around the cities of the United States for four months. Almost every day there are performances, travel, flights, new hotels...
Photo: Mark Steinbock
We traveled mainly by three buses. Russian skaters are always separate from others. In addition to Anton and me, Lesha Yagudin took part in the show, sometimes Katya Gordeeva also joined us, but the rest were foreigners. I loved to relax alone - separately from male society. Yagudin and Sikharulidze enthusiastically talked to each other, repeated the same jokes, discussed everyone, and at some point I thought: let them joke without me, discuss everyone without my ears. And then it so happened that I unexpectedly joined the American-Canadian crowd. The leader, the soul of this company, was Stephen. The fact is that he, an Englishman, eventually moved to live in Toronto. Stephen seemed to bring us all together. And he began to attract me: “Lena, come with us to the cinema, we’ll sit in a cafe.” Who would have thought how this would end!
Honored Master of Sports of Russia (2000), Olympic champion (2002).
Since 1996 she has performed in tandem with Anton Sikharulidze for St. Petersburg. Trained with Tamara Moskvina. She played for Dynamo St. Petersburg.
Member of the Duma of the Stavropol Territory from the A Just Russia party.
Since 2012, artistic director of the St. Petersburg State Ice Theater
Since 1993, Berezhnaya has been paired with Oleg Shlyakhov for Latvia. In 1996, during a training session, while performing a spin, a partner hit her in the head with a skate - the temporal bone was pierced, and fragments damaged the lining of the brain. Berezhnaya underwent two neurosurgical operations, after which she learned again not only to walk, but also to speak and read. She learned to skate again with a new partner - Anton Sikharulidze, who supported her throughout the postoperative period.
After sports
From 2002 to 2006, together with Anton Sikharulidze, they toured the USA with the show “Stars on Ice”. At the end of the contract, both returned to St. Petersburg.
In 2006, she took part in the show “Stars on Ice” on Channel One of Russian television, where she performed with actor Alexander Nosik. In 2008, she participated in a similar show on the RTR channel “Star Ice,” where she was paired with singer Dima Bilan.
Due to the fact that Anton Sikharulidze finally decided to stop performing, Elena, left without a partner, made attempts to start performing in professional ice shows as a single skater.
In 2009, she participated in the third season of the Channel One show “Ice Age” together with Mikhail Galustyan. In 2010 - in the Channel One show “Ice and Fire” together with Igor Ugolnikov. In 2011, he took part in the Canadian TV show “Battle of Blades” together with hockey player Curtis Leshyshin.
Personal life
On October 7, 2007, she gave birth to a son from English figure skater Stephen Cousins, who was named Tristan. On June 21, 2009, the couple had a daughter, Sofia-Diana. in 2012 the couple finally separated.
State awards
- Knight of the Order of Honor (2003) - for his great contribution to the development of physical culture and sports, high sporting achievements at the Games of the XIX Olympiad 2002 in Salt Lake City.
- Knight of the Order of Friendship (1998) - for outstanding achievements in sports, courage and heroism shown at the XVIII Winter Olympic Games in 1998.
Sports achivments
Results for Russia
(with A. Sikharulidze)
| Competitions | 1996-1997 | 1997-1998 | 1998-1999 | 1999-2000 | 2000-2001 | 2001-2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympic Games | 2 | 1 | ||||
| World Championships | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| European Championships | 3 | 1 | W.D. | DQ | 1 | |
| Russian Championships | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Grand Prix Finals | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| Skate America | 1 | 3 | ||||
| Skate Canada International | 1 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Nations Cup | 2 | |||||
| Trophee Lalique | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Cup of Russia | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| NHK Trophy | 1 |
WD = withdrew from competition; DQ = disqualified for doping
