Mom's death and suspicion of cancer: a dark streak in the life of Tatyana Totmyanina
Tatyana Totmyanina
Tatyana Totmyanina understood from childhood that it was impossible to achieve high goals without difficulty. Willpower and talent helped the athlete achieve success in her career, and with the appearance of Alexei Yagudin in her life, she found reliable support and support in her family.
On the path to personal happiness, Tatyana faced many trials. She lost her mother and was afraid that she would lose her second daughter when she was born prematurely. Totmyanin’s own health often failed him: constant fractures and head injuries were inevitable in figure skating. But those closest to her were especially worried about the athlete’s recent operation - in October, due to suspected cancer, her gallbladder was removed.
According to the figure skater’s husband, all the troubles are behind her, and now Tatyana feels great. Has the dark streak in the life of the ice show star ended forever? On November 2, Totmyanina turns 38, and we remember her difficult fate.
BRILLIANT CAREER
After leaving big sport, Tatyana Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin continued to perform together in the show
Tatyana was born in Perm, where she spent her childhood. The girl was often sick, so the doctors recommended sending her to a sports section to improve her health. Totmyanina’s mother, who loved figure skating, without thinking twice, bought skates for her child.
At the age of four, little Tanya mastered the basics of a difficult sport under the guidance of a former ballerina of the Perm Theater. However, it is unknown what the fate of the young figure skater would have been if not for family problems.
Tatyana Totmyanina: “My grandmother kicked me and my mother out of the apartment”
For a long time, the grandmother was considered the main person in Totmyanina’s house, deciding all important issues. Because of the woman’s tyranny, Tatiana’s father left the family, and the girl and her mother were forced to start life from scratch in St. Petersburg - without means of livelihood and friends.
“Three people live in an apartment, and then my grandmother got it into her head that we shouldn’t be here: “Go wherever you want!” That's why my father left us. I can’t wrap my head around how it’s possible to kill your daughter from the white light and try to physically destroy your daughter,” the skater shared in the “When Everyone Is Home” program.
Tatyana Totmyanina and Mikhail Gavrilov in the project “Ice Age”
Fortunately, her sporting achievements helped Tatyana continue training in the Northern capital at a higher level. In St. Petersburg, she managed to join the Russian national team, which provided her with a monthly salary, on which she managed to live alone with her mother.
In 1995, Totmyanina met Maxim Marinin and began performing together with him. Together, the skaters studied with Natalya Pavlova, and then with Oleg Vasiliev. Athletes conquered the European and Russian championships, and in 2006 Tatyana won the Olympics in Turin. After the triumph, she planned to return to big-time sports, but eventually ended her career and focused on working in ice shows.
Totmyanina often went on tour, and in 2007 she was invited to the “Ice Age” project. Nikita Malinin and Leonid Zakoshansky became the athlete’s partners. Tatyana clearly liked participating in the program, because a few years later she appeared there again together with Oscar Kuchera, Artur Smolyaninov and Molodezhka star Mikhail Gavrilov.
Tatyana Totmyanina suffered a severe attack on “Ice Age”
The successful figure skater had an impeccable reputation, but in 2007 she found herself in the midst of a scandal when she refused to participate in Evgeni Plushenko’s show “Golden Ice of Stradivarius”. At first, Tatyana and Maxim Marinin signed a contract with the organizers of the program, but soon moved to the “Ice Symphony” of Ilya Averbukh. The case could have ended in court, but Totmyanina and Marinin said that the organizers did not fulfill a number of terms of the agreement, and eventually reached a compromise with Plushenko.
PERSONAL LIFE
Tatyana was going to marry Oleg Vasiliev
Under the leadership of coach Oleg Vasiliev, Tatyana and Maxim Marinin became two-time world champions. Totmyanina gained fame, money and titles, what else could you dream of? Those around the skater whispered that they were only talking about a wedding with Vasiliev.
Despite the age difference of 22 years, serious feelings arose between the young pupil and the mentor. The couple’s friends had no doubt: Oleg and Tatyana would soon get married, especially since he had just settled all the issues with his previous family - he divorced his wife. It seemed that Vasiliev was ready to change his life and even started talking about finally moving from Chicago to St. Petersburg. But just as rumors about the athletes’ wedding grew stronger, the coach changed his mind about going to the registry office.
“I have already had two marriages, and both ended unsuccessfully. I don’t want to rush,” he explained. “And with Tatyana, I think we will still remain friends.”
A meeting with Alexei Yagudin changed the life of Tatyana Totmyanina
Tatyana Totmyanina's life turned upside down when she met Alexei Yagudin. But the couple’s relationship was not easy, because it turned out to be difficult for two strong personalities to become one. Alexei was afraid of losing his precious freedom, but his love for Tatyana convinced him to change his views. At the beginning of 2009, Yagudin proposed to his chosen one, but the wedding had to be postponed due to tragic events in the Totmyanina family.
On January 22, 2009, the figure skater’s mother got into an accident on the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway. The woman died due to severe brain damage. What happened became a huge grief for Tatyana, fortunately, Alexey Yagudin, who proved his readiness to be a support for his beloved, did not leave her one step.
Misfortunes alternated with joyful events, and in November of the same year, the athletes’ daughter Lisa was born. Despite the appearance of a common child, the couple was no longer in a hurry to get married. “As soon as we are ready, we will get married. In our family everything happens spontaneously. How, given our workload, can we make a wish? Today we are in Vorkuta, and tomorrow in Khabarovsk. And in general, the main thing is not the wedding, but the relationships within the family,” Alexey reasoned in a conversation with StarHit.
Tatyana Totmyanina's second child was born prematurely
Six years later, Tatyana gave Yagudin a second heiress, Michelle. The birth turned out to be difficult: the girl was born prematurely, and doctors immediately placed her in a special box, connecting her to an artificial respiration apparatus. Fortunately, after a week the baby’s condition returned to normal.
The daughter of Totmyanina and Yagudin was saved by doctors
A few months after the birth of Michelle, Yagudin and Totmyanina finally registered their marriage while on tour in Krasnoyarsk. The wedding was modest: neither the couple’s daughters nor relatives were present at the celebration, but only friends who were able to come to the city. Later, Tatyana joked that Alexey tried to persuade her to get married for nine years until she decided to take this important step.
FIGHT FOR HEALTH
Due to a fracture, Tatyana Totmyanina had to use a wheelchair while on vacation
Figure skating is a very dangerous sport. Tatyana fell on the ice more than once, including during major competitions. Once Maxim Marinin dropped Totmyanina so that she received a serious head injury. Even after retiring from her career, the artist continued to participate in shows where such incidents are inevitable.
At the end of 2017, Tatyana fell unsuccessfully during the screening of Ilya Averbukh’s “The Nutcracker” program and broke her leg. Alexey Yagudin assured fans that Totmyanina’s operation was successful. As a result, the skater underwent two more surgical interventions before she was able to return to training.
Tatyana Totmyanina underwent surgery
Perhaps Tatiana started work too early, because unbearable pain made her understand that recovery was not going as it should. During an examination at a German clinic, Totmyanina was informed that complications arose after the operation.
“I was told that all the operations performed previously had harmed a condition that should have been improving. Everything was getting worse. The current operation is the fifth, and it was performed in order to correct the mistakes of last year,” said the athlete.
Relatives assured that after the removal of the gallbladder, everything was fine with Tatyana Totmyanina
But problems with fractures turned out to be a drop in the ocean when more serious reasons for concern appeared on the horizon. Back in 2017, an examination showed that neoplasms had accumulated in the skater’s gall bladder, requiring observation. Last month she underwent surgery at the cancer center.
Tatyana Totmyanina was operated on at the oncology center
“For a month and a half, Tanya felt quite bad - this is the end of August, beginning of September. Returning to Moscow, she went to certain medical institutions because the doctors told her that there were concerns: “You need to remove the gallbladder, there are reasons that you have cancer,” Yagudin confessed.
It was impossible to accurately determine whether the tumor was malignant, so the athlete agreed to surgery. According to Alexey Yagudin, the procedure was successful, and now Tatyana’s health is not in danger. The whole family breathed a sigh of relief, and fans noted that they were already looking forward to the skater returning to the ice with a new program.
Based on materials from WDay, EG.ru.
Photo: Anatoly Lomokhov / Legion-Media, frame from the “Ice Age” program on Channel One, Instagram
Invitation to a duet
The girl grew, and so did her sports skills.
However, experts did not predict a great future for the Perm figure skater, who performed in single skating. At the 1995 Russian Championship, fourteen-year-old Tanya met eighteen-year-old Maxim Marinin. The young man was looking for a mate: not in terms of personal, but in terms of sports relationships. So the single figure skater received an offer to try herself in pair skating.
What would come out of this venture, no one could say then. But Tanya, after consulting with her mother, decided to move to St. Petersburg, where Marinin and Totmyanina began training with coach Natalya Pavlova.
The rented apartment in which three people lived - Maxim, Tanya and her mother - least of all resembled the home of future sports stars. Actually, no one gave generous advances to the couple, since even Pavlova’s young duet was on the sidelines.
And yet, at their first Russian championship in 1996, the new duo took sixth place: in conditions of fierce competition, this is a very good result.
