[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYS]
[RINK ANNOUNCER SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
[RINK ANNOUNCER]
Next young lady on the ice,
from Russia, Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
[MAN] Honestly, I couldn't tell you
at what point it went wrong.
And, yes, maybe some people
could have helped more
or done this more, or, you know...
I don't know, I don't want
to blame anyone.
I guess a lot of people were like,
"Oh, how could you not, like,
see any of this?" You know?
Like, "You should have, like, done this
and you should have done that,"
and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES]
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
End of the day,
they can all go f*ck themselves
because no one was there,
so no one really knows the full story
besides me... and Katya.
["EXIT IN DARKNESS" PLAYING]
I need you to know
You make me whole
And I can't let you
Be alone
[INDISTINCT RINK ANNOUNCEMENTS ECHOING]
[RINK ANNOUNCER]
First in the free program...
[BOY] And today, I'm going to be
making my famous egg flip.
And I'm gonna be drinking it raw.
And I'm gonna be cracking one egg...
[MAN] There's kind of two stories
that resonate with readers.
One is winners,
everyone loves the winners.
The other ones are
the human interest stories, okay?
These are the ones that
weren't born with a silver spoon
in their mouth,
who have defied the odds
and gone on and represented Australia.
Um, the importance of having good tucker
is very important
for your health and for your diet.
[WOMAN] So, why do you have this
high... high-nutritional diet?
Well, I skate a lot.
Katya and Harley was one of
the easiest feel-good stories
that you could possibly imagine.
Tastes very nice as well.
Well, he never really thought about
skating or... or anything like that
until he was about, I think,
eight years old,
when him and his mother drove past
an ice rink at Blacktown.
And they went in,
got on the ice, and away he went.
This place, it's more than
just a skate rink.
It's a place for these kids to come along,
get fit and enjoy the ice.
[WOMAN] I could see Harley
zipping across the ice,
back and forwards, back and forwards.
And I called him over and I said to him,
"Harley, I didn't know
you could ice-skate."
He said, "I didn't know
I could either, Mum."
[HARLEY] Once you're out on the ice
and you're, like, in the zone, it's...
you get a massive rush of just,
like, sort of freedom
and the cold air blowing on your face,
and you feel free across the ice
and you sort of can do, you know,
basically whatever you want.
[PETER] You don't know at the time,
but there's coaches there watching,
and they come up and approach the parents,
and, "Oh, that's your son.
How long has he been skating?"
"Oh, first time." [LAUGHS]
[JOSIE] He flew through skate school
and he was already competing
at a competition that year.
[APPLAUSE]
[PETER] It was his passion, you know,
just to keep going.
Didn't worry about his mates and that,
just wanted to ice-skate.
[INDISTINCT CROWD CHATTER]
[REPORTER] Midnight in Moscow.
Happy New Year, Peter,
and to all of you folks back home.
[WOMAN IN RUSSIAN]
Katya was born and raised in Moscow.
[IN RUSSIAN] This was in 2000.
She was born January 1st, 2000.
[IN RUSSIAN] Mum had a dream.
We had an ice skating rink open nearby.
[IN RUSSIAN] Mum thought,
"I should take her there."
[IN RUSSIAN] I started skating
at the age of, like, four and a half.
[WOMAN IN RUSSIAN] She was so tiny,
small even for her young age.
[IN RUSSIAN] I took a closer look at her.
[IN RUSSIAN] This girl was amazing
right from the start.
[IN RUSSIAN] She was so swift,
with her little feet...
[IN RUSSIAN] An absolutely
fearless little person.
[IN RUSSIAN] She was always smiling,
always in good spirits. Very joyful.
[IN RUSSIAN] Katya was probably
[IN RUSSIAN] the most positive
person I've ever known.
[IN RUSSIAN] I've never seen her upset.
[IN RUSSIAN] She was a very strong person.
[IN RUSSIAN] Katya was adventurous.
[INNA IN RUSSIAN]
The girl was very courageous.
[IN RUSSIAN] She loved to win.
[IN RUSSIAN] I remember
my first competition.
[IN RUSSIAN] I took second place
because I fell doing my triple jump.
[LAUGHING]
[IN RUSSIAN] If I hadn't fallen
on that triple, I would have been first.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
[JOSIE] Morning, Harley.
Merry Christmas, Harl.
[HARLEY] I used to get up really early,
ride my bike
from home to Rooty Hill Train Station,
catch the 4:45 train,
stand up the whole way,
you know into Redfern,
change at Redfern, Canterbury,
then ride my bike into the ice rink.
[PETER] You got the coaching fees
and... and the boots
and the uniforms and that.
It was expensive, but...
we seen how Harley, like, over the time,
as he got better and better at it,
we seen his potential and that,
we... we just always stuck by him.
We're probably the only parents
in the ice skating fraternity
don't have a background in ice skating.
If Harley's doing a jump now,
I still don't know what it's called.
I don't even know what it is.
So, Harley grew up
in Rooty Hill area of Western Sydney.
Very big Aboriginal community
in Mount Druitt,
so always involved in
Aboriginal community,
very natural dancer as well.
[CLAPSTICKS CLACKING RHYTHMICALLY]
Harley is Ngemba Weilwan
on our maternal side of the family.
Harley's dad is Kamilaroi from Moree.
Even before ice skating,
he was always very keen
to give anything a go, really,
and just get into it.
[DIDGERIDOO PLAYS]
I don't think we ever looked
at any of the obstacles,
none of us, really.
We just support each other
and just go for it.
Mum, this is mine! Mum, look.
This is mine.
[HARLEY] Oh! Rollerblades!
[BOY] I got a bike at home.
Yay! Just what I wanted, rollerblades.
[KISSING BOX LOUDLY]
I think it's the dream
of every young athlete,
in no matter what the sport,
you know, "Mummy, Daddy,
I'm gonna go to the Olympics one day."
[LIGHT, CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING]
But there are funded sports
and there are unfunded sports,
and Ice Skating Australia
is an unfunded sport.
There's not a huge amount of sponsorship
for anybody really,
unless you're right, right at the top.
Costumes and flights and all that,
trying to get to competition.
Buying new boots, blades,
training gear, you know,
the travel cost of going
back and forth to the ice rink.
[GREG] You're paying
all those costs yourself.
It's an expensive hobby at that stage
and most of us are working
day-to-day to help pay for it.
Within Australia,
there's a three-tier system.
So we have the clubs that are based
within each ice rink.
Each ice rink will have an
in-house figure-skating club,
which then feeds onto
our state association...
...the state bodies...
And then they feed through to our...
[BELINDA] ...national federation,
Ice Skating Australia.
The administration is all volunteer-based.
...is run by volunteers.
...all volunteers, including myself.
We have a board of seven.
And then above them in Australia, we have...
Olympic Winter Institute of Australia.
- Olympic Winter Institute.
- [GREG] OWIA.
[MAN] It was set up by the
Australian Olympic Committee.
...in 1998.
Sort of an overriding body
for a lot of winter sports.
...to achieve success at the Olympic Games.
...prospective Olympic skaters...
The one per cent.
...at the top of the tree.
[LYNCH] Beyond Ice Skating
Australia, there's...
[LYNCH AND BELINDA]
...the International Skating Union...
which runs the sport around the world.
And that's affiliated to
the International Olympic Committee.
[LIGHT, CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING]
I personally don't think
it's that complicated.
That doesn't happen
in some other countries.
They get identified as early
as seven years of age.
[CLASSICAL BALLET MUSIC PLAYING]
[MAN IN RUSSIAN] When kids are accepted
into these clubs, it's no longer a hobby.
[IN RUSSIAN] Ice rinks and gyms
are very expensive.
[IN RUSSIAN] The government
pays for it all.
[IN RUSSIAN] Many of these kids are being
trained to become champions.
[IN RUSSIAN] At about age ten
is when most children get dropped.
[IN RUSSIAN] And those
who conquer these milestones
[IN RUSSIAN] can then try
to compete and strive for the top.
[IN RUSSIAN] Competition within
the national teams is always very strong.
[IN RUSSIAN] The athletes I've coached
have won over 100 gold medals
[IN RUSSIAN] at World and European
championships and Olympic Games.
[ANDREY IN RUSSIAN] And for those
who make it, skating is a ticket
[IN RUSSIAN]
to fame and fortune.
- [SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY]
- [CROWD APPLAUDS]
[CLASSICAL MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
[MUSIC CRESCENDOS, ENDS]
[ANDREY IN RUSSIAN] Katya's mum brought
her here for a professional career.
[INTERVIEWER IN RUSSIAN]
Who was your partner in Moscow?
[IN RUSSIAN] Aleksandr Epifanov.
[IN RUSSIAN] But we didn't get anywhere.
[IN RUSSIAN] Competing for sixth place
in a Russian Cup series,
[IN RUSSIAN]
it's not something...
[IN RUSSIAN] At the time,
[IN RUSSIAN]
Katya did not have a Russian partner
[IN RUSSIAN]
who could take her to the podium.
[IN RUSSIAN]
It all depends on finding a partner
[IN RUSSIAN]
with whom you can become successful.
[IN RUSSIAN] Andrey Khekalo supported me
during challenging times.
[IN RUSSIAN] When you are a teenager,
you are happy one minute,
[IN RUSSIAN] and the next minute,
you want to jump off the balcony.
[KATYA LAUGHS]
[HARLEY] Australian coaches is...
it's a completely different world,
skating here.
Most of them don't know
what they're doing at all.
I think his first coach
could only take Harley so far.
So that's, you know,
when Galina and Andrei
came on the scene.
And we could see that difference
in their style of skating.
They were Russian.
[BELINDA] After the break-up
of the Soviet Union,
a lot of Russians went to
a lot of different countries.
[GALINA] Myself and my husband,
we're both pair skaters.
Like, former Russian pair skaters.
And we already did make a few
pair teams in Australia,
and one of them were competing
in Junior Worlds as well.
[TENSE, UNSETTLING MUSIC PLAYING]
[SKATES SCRAPING]
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
[HARLEY] They're very passionate coaches,
but they're very driven
for results as well.
They're always sort of looking for
the next pairs team to bring up.
[TENSE, UNSETTLING MUSIC
CONTINUES PLAYING]
Galina, she was like my second
mum. [LAUGHS]
I saw her more than my own mother
for, like, ages, you know?
I was always at the rink.
She was the one that sort of got me from
doing two double jumps to triples.
Harley going from singles to pairs I think
was always on the cards,
being under Galina and Andrei.
[ANDREI SHOUTING INSTRUCTIONS
INDISTINCTLY]
[ANDREI] Careful!
[HARLEY] You know, I wanted to compete,
and, honestly, at the time,
there was no one really... that good.
[JOSIE] There was one young girl,
when Harley would throw her up in the air,
she was so scared coming down
because he'd throw her up too high.
So she pulled out.
Then somebody else pulled out,
and then somebody else pulled out.
[WOMAN SHOUTS INSTRUCTIONS INDISTINCTLY]
Eight!
Don't be sausage!
Nine!
[HARLEY] You know,
after a certain while of just
nothing's working,
nothing's working, nothing's working,
you kind of just lose that flame.
[ANDREI] Look.
[GALINA] You know, in pairs
it's very difficult to find
matching partners.
- It's very difficult.
- [JESSICA] Yeah.
[GALINA] Sometimes trying, not one or two
or three, could be more than that.
Until you find one... which one's matching,
or you never find one.
We decided to look overseas
because my husband was
in Moscow that time,
and he came to look at the girls.
[CAR ALARM CHIRPS]
[HARLEY] Andrei called me up at, like,
three o'clock in the morning
and was like, "If you still
want to skate in pairs,
then you need to come to Russia."
I was like, "f*ck it,"
a week and a half later,
I was on a plane to Moscow.
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]
[ANDREY IN RUSSIAN]
This is how it happened.
[IN RUSSIAN] A coach from Australia,
also Russian, Andrei Pachin,
[IN RUSSIAN] came to our ice skating rink
during his trip to Russia
[IN RUSSIAN] with a boy named Harley.
[HARLEY] Andrei and I arrived
to the ice rink.
And he was like,
"Okay, just put your skates on,
warm up a little bit,
and we'll just come out on the ice
and just see what happens."
[SOFT MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
There was Katya.
[SOFT MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
I didn't speak any Russian at all
and she didn't speak any English.
And they kind of just
put us together and said,
"You two are partners."
Wow, this is, like, super good.
We didn't have to kind of awkwardly try
and match each other,
it was kind of just comfortable.
[IN RUSSIAN] I went to the Figure Skating
Federation of Russia and said,
[IN RUSSIAN]
"Guys, I have a good pair. Let's try."
[IN RUSSIAN] I was told, "Oh please!
We have plenty of our own athletes.
[IN RUSSIAN] An Australian?
What are you talking about!?"
[IN RUSSIAN] And I said, "We need to let
the girl go so they can compete together."
[IN RUSSIAN] "No problem at all."
[IN RUSSIAN]
And they were very nonchalant about it.
[WOMAN IN RUSSIAN] It is easier
to represent another country.
[IN RUSSIAN] All doors are open to you.
[IN RUSSIAN] I must admit,
I was scared to go to Australia.
[IN RUSSIAN] At first,
I didn't even understand.
- It's Australia? It is Austria?
- [OTHER WOMAN LAUGHS]
[IN RUSSIAN] Mum and I
took two days to think it over.
[IN RUSSIAN] We decided it was
worth giving it a try.
The process of transfer,
it's primarily paperwork.
Ekaterina wanted to be released
from the Russian Federation
so that they could represent Australia.
We started the visa process.
I don't know much about that,
but Galina and Andrei were sorting that.
[GALINA] Because of the visa regulations
because Katya and Harley are
from two different countries,
and we invited Katya
to come over to Australia
to train with Harley for three months.
January 2016,
I get a call from Galina Pachin,
"We've found a partner for Harley
and she's here in Australia."
Do I want to come and watch them?
Part of my role with the OWIA
was to assess who would be
capable of making it
onto Olympic winter teams.
I could not believe what I was looking at.
They are amazing.
They're, like, world-level now.
The first thing I saw
was the similarity in technique.
Their split twist was so new
and so high and so well ex*cuted.
Watching them skate together
was like they'd been together
for two or three years.
It was mind-blowing.
He was a transformed young man.
But I had questions.
"Tell me about this girl. She's only 16?"
"What are your plans?
She's staying with you?"
"Then what? How's this work?"
"How much is this gonna cost?"
[GALINA] She had no money, obviously.
In Russia, they get paid
for their ice time and everything.
- Most of them get paid by government.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- By Russian Federation.
Australia's, like,
different way of coaching,
different payments,
different arrangements.
Everything is different.
[BELINDA] I have no idea
what the arrangement was
other than she had this
three-month tourist visa
and she was staying at
Andrei and Galina's house.
[GALINA] We offered her to live
in our house for free
because we have a big house
and she could have her own
bedroom and her own bathroom,
and she was attached to us.
She was... became, like,
a part of our family.
Obviously, you don't want to, like,
stay with your coach 24/7.
But at the time, like,
both of us had no money
and it was, like,
just something we had to do.
[WOMAN IN RUSSIAN]
It's hard living with your coach.
[IN RUSSIAN] Because my coach, well,
you know. It's just hard, you know.
[IN RUSSIAN] When you come
home from practice,
[IN RUSSIAN]
you try and take a break from training.
[IN RUSSIAN] And here he is...
Yeah, it's hard, it's hard.
[BELINDA] I wanted her to be able
to get English lessons
so that she could communicate,
so she could start expressing herself,
so that she could lead her life.
[KATYA IN RUSSIAN] The language, yes,
it's hard. It's hard to learn
[IN RUSSIAN] when you are in
a Russian-speaking environment.
[IN RUSSIAN] The coach is Russian
and will translate, explain everything.
[IN RUSSIAN] There is no need
to learn the language.
Clearly, they needed organisational help,
they needed planning help,
but most of all, they needed money.
[RINK ANNOUNCER] Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya
and Harley Windsor.
[BELINDA] To get funding,
they needed to compete.
[COMMENTATOR] Ekaterina is
16 years old, born in Moscow.
Harley is 19, born in Penrith.
They're coached and choreographed
by Andrei Pachin.
This is their first
Junior Grand Prix season.
[SOULFUL VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYING]
Our first ever Junior Grand Prix,
we got eighth place or something.
[COMMENTATOR] I'm not sure they
know how good they could be.
They're big, they're strong, they're fast,
but they're also a little rough,
or unrefined, in some areas.
[BELL DINGS]
[HARLEY] It wasn't that great.
We went back to Moscow
and we were training,
like, day in, day out,
drilling ourselves every single day.
Three weeks later, we got first
at our second Junior Grand Prix.
[BELLS RINGING]
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
Improvement in those three weeks
was, like, huge.
And I think a lot of people were like...
[COMMENTATOR] From Australia,
Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya,
Harley Windsor.
[APPLAUSE]
[COMPERE] Here in Tallinn
with the pairs champions from Australia.
First gold medal ever
in the Junior Grand Prix
for Australia in any discipline.
Congratulations.
We have Ekaterina, Harley,
and Andrei, the coach.
[HARLEY] A few days
after our first Junior Grand Prix,
we were at our first, like, senior event.
We were just, like,
thrown straight into the deep end.
One after the other,
bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
The more comps we did, the better we got.
Together, this... this team can...
can actually place.
- And also, that's not...
- Not just participate, place.
[BOTH] Yeah.
What it showed Australians is that
it's not just the rest of the world
that can win these championships,
you can actually do it
if you're an Australian skater.
[COMMENTATOR] You know,
we were in Tallinn, and they won
the very first gold medal for Australia.
[BELINDA] It had been a magnificent season
with all of these wins.
They were on a golden wave.
[COMMENTATOR] First in the free program.
A 173.85,
and that's first overall.
[GALINA] Well, she was really
determined young lady.
She was determined.
She wanted to do well.
She wanted to succeed.
She wanted to work hard
and there was, like,
discipline, no question.
You tell her do and she will do it.
[IN RUSSIAN] You realize that
for the best results, it's better
[IN RUSSIAN] when the child comes
from a disadvantaged family.
[IN RUSSIAN]
When the family is worse off financially,
[IN RUSSIAN] the child is ready to work
tirelessly to succeed.
[INNA IN RUSSIAN] Katya lived with
her mum and dad as a two-parent family.
[IN RUSSIAN] The father took on the
responsibility of providing for them.
[IN RUSSIAN] He was working.
[IN RUSSIAN]
Dmitry, Katya's father, d*ed suddenly.
[IN RUSSIAN] To say that they were
devastated is saying nothing.
[IN RUSSIAN] It was like they were
cut off from their roots.
[IN RUSSIAN] Her mum had to go to work.
[IN RUSSIAN] Katya had to take on
certain responsibilities too,
[IN RUSSIAN]
including supporting her mother.
[ANDREY IN RUSSIAN]
She often thought of him.
[IN RUSSIAN] I remember how she would
sometimes think of him and cry.
[IN RUSSIAN] She would say,
[IN RUSSIAN] "If Dad were here,
everything would have been different."
[BELINDA] I think that probably
those early months
must have been very difficult for her.
You know, she was an only child
who's in a strange country
whose father has passed away.
She told me this story.
"It was the one-year anniversary
of my father's death.
That was the worst day of my life.
It was the day that, you know, we give,
you know, our coaches a gift.
I had a bottle of vodka
and I was so upset about my father,
my best friend and I,
we took the bottle and drank it all."
She felt like she'd dishonoured her father
and dishonoured her coach,
and let herself down.
And she said, "And the next day...
is the best day of my life,
when I met Harley."
[PETER] Harley was driven,
but I think Katya did push him
a bit too, you know.
They don't speak each other's language,
they come from a different culture,
so what is the only thing that
they have in common?
And that's the desire
for success in figure skating.
The young elite Russian skater
we had with us
expected these results.
But she also expected
the best from Harley.
So if he made a mistake...
she would be telling him, like,
in no uncertain terms.
Yeah, all was not bad, not perfect.
We can much better.
Yeah, there's always room for improvement,
but, you know, it's the best what
we could do today and we're happy with it.
Not best. It's not best what we
can do today, we can do better.
You can always do better,
I can understand.
Did Katya and I like each other?
Not really.
In the first year, absolutely not,
not at all.
I think the language barrier
kind of helps us a little bit.
Um, you know, when we do get
quite angry at each other
on the ice and stuff, it sort of
stops us from being too verbal, I guess.
Katya more expl*sive.
Harley a little bit, uh, more gentleman.
And so that's, like, little
Katya more rough
and he is more softer.
[GALINA] She tried to adjust to the
condition in life where she was.
She would never whinge,
she would never say:
"Oh, I miss my mum,
I miss, like, this and this."
She would never say that.
Harley would say,
"Oh, she's just really angry."
And I would say to Harley,
"She's young, she's left her country
to come to Australia.
She has no family. She has no friends.
Like, maybe there's a reason
why she's angry,
and we need to help her."
[BELINDA] That's when it's really
in the hands of the coaches
who are working with them
to look after each other,
to trust each other,
to respect each other as people.
[GALINA] My husband,
he was with them every session,
every competition,
day in and day out, all the time.
Travelling,
even sometimes, like,
sharing room together
because... to save money.
The coaches can only watch the kids
to a certain degree,
and then I think they all sort of
run off throughout the hotel
and go a little bit wild
after the competition
to celebrate a little bit.
I would ask Katya,
"Where did everyone go? Where's Harley?"
"Oh, he's gone with his friends."
"And where's Andrei?" "I don't know."
Yeah, well, I always told Harley,
"Be nice to her."
You know, "She's only young.
Look after her."
[SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
[COMMENTATOR] Quite a journey
for all these junior athletes.
During the Junior Grand Prix season,
we visited seven nations
and now it comes down to six
intensely-determined, young paired teams.
[HARLEY] We went there for that Worlds
literally just for experience.
The Russians are, like, top of their game.
We just were, like, go out there
and skate what we can.
We skated first in the last group, and...
So, you know, we looked at it,
and we're, like, sitting in fourth place.
The team after us skated
and they did a few mistakes,
and we were like, "Oh my God, like, wow,
we've got, like, third place already."
There's still teams to skate,
but they were, like, strong Russian teams.
Lifts, jumps, throws, death spirals.
There were, like,
a few mistakes here and there.
And I'm like, "Oh my God," you know,
"We got second place at Junior Worlds."
Scores came up...
[ANNOUNCER] Ladies and gentlemen,
we will now...
[HARLEY] ...and we were still in first.
And I was like, "Oh,
when's the last team skating?"
Then we realised the event's finished,
and I looked at, like, Katya
and I looked at Andrei,
and we were like, "Did we just win?"
[APPLAUSE]
[ANDREI] Russian Vice-President
was talking quite loud
with the Russian coach.
"You b*at by Australian already,
like, what you talking about?"
Yeah, the Russian Federation
wasn't too happy
that we did well at that competition,
to be honest.
[IN RUSSIAN] I was told,
"From now on, we are not letting
[IN RUSSIAN] any of your athletes
represent another country."
[IN RUSSIAN] I was like, "Guys, I told you
[IN RUSSIAN] they were going to be
a good pair, but you didn't listen."
[SHARON] For Katya to come to Australia,
compete for Australia
and then to go back and b*at them,
that was achievement for her.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
And they were like, "Okay, you know,
you've shown that you, like, can do it,
so here's, like, the funding
to back everything you need."
[BELINDA] When they got OWIA gear
for the first time,
you know, the jackets and, oh...
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[BELINDA] Katya was in seventh heaven.
And so was Galina.
They loved it, you know,
and it was just joyous.
[SHARON] It changed a lot of things.
They were able to just focus,
not worry about
where the funds were going to come from.
It was quite a relief for them
to be able to just concentrate
on what they wanted to do.
[HARLEY] Winning the Junior Worlds
changed our mentality.
We started to, like,
know each other a bit better
and we were like, "Okay, we can actually,
like, probably go somewhere with this.
We're, like, junior world champions now.
We need to act like
professional athletes."
I could feel that she was
putting everything,
like, all of her trust into me.
[BELINDA] They had a strong opportunity
of having a long, successful career.
There was no doubt in my mind
that they should go to the Olympics.
So now it was time for them
to start planning the next four years.
I rang Andrei,
trying to piece together the plan.
He said, "I came without a dream,"
said Andrei,
"I came without dream.
All the time dreaming now.
All the time I listened to Katya.
Now I know Katya has to follow orders.
We don't expect you to just participate,
we expect top result."
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[BELINDA] I wasn't a fan of
Andrei Pachin's style of coaching
because he would yell a lot.
Katya felt that
she knew more than Andrei did.
I think that that's when
it started going south.
She just said he was angry all the time.
[SHOUTING, SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[GREG] What exactly was being said,
I can't tell you.
It's not even the fact that
it was, like, the yelling,
there was, like, this air
of disappointment.
But anybody that hears negativity yelled
knows the intent of it.
They hear the intent of it.
And the yelling about
faster, faster, faster,
that's definitely in English
and very loud.
He's a coach, he's not, like, a parent.
Is he meant to be a coach,
is he meant to be a parent?
Is he like... He can't be both.
Honestly, for me, it's what I needed.
You know, if someone has
a whip to me constantly,
then it's, like,
it pushes me more and more
and more and more and more.
And, you know, if they tell me
I can't do it, then I'm like,
"Okay, well, watch me,
I'll prove you wrong."
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
I was, like, physically, like, shaking.
My legs were weak.
And I remember turning to Andrei
and I was like, "Andrei, I can't skate."
I didn't watch it.
All Harley's competitions, I don't watch.
The morning practice was probably
the single worst practice
that we've ever had in our lives.
Like, it was, shocking.
Because I think it's just that I thought,
"Oh, are they gonna fall?
Are they gonna stuff something up?"
We were standing there holding hands,
like, shaking together.
They were like, "Okay, last group,
please step to the ice,"
and it was really strange,
the second I stepped foot on the ice,
it just... [SNAPS FINGERS]
[SOULFUL VIOLIN AND PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
All those hours of training
just, like, turned on.
She knew exactly what she had to do,
I knew what I had to do,
and we were just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
We ended up doing, like,
the best program we've ever done.
Like, perfect, clean program.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
[APPLAUSE]
[ANNOUNCER SPEAKING GERMAN]
[ANNOUNCER 2] A final total
of 125.80 points for the free skate,
giving them a new season's best.
With a combined total of 190.31,
they are currently in first place.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
He rang me.
"Dad, I'm going to the Olympics."
[LAUGHS]
Mm, he was over the moon.
I was too. [LAUGHS]
He said, "Did you watch it?" I said,
"Yeah, fantastic skate," you know.
[LAUGHS]
I... I did watch it afterwards.
Wow, he's actually done it.
He'd done what he said he was going to do.
And he fought and he fought
and he got there.
And not just him,
they both worked hard
to really achieve that.
And both having really difficult
backgrounds to deal with,
they just fought really hard to do that.
[YOUNG HARLEY] Merry Christmas, Mum.
Merry Christmas, Mum.
Merry Christmas, Harley.
[YOUNG HARLEY] Merry Christmas, Fifi.
Merry Christmas, Fifi.
- Merry Christmas, Dad.
- Merry Christmas, everybody.
- What about Boris?
- Merry Christmas, Boris.
[JOSIE] This is one of Harley's costumes
that he wore at
the New South Wales Championships.
It was made on a $5 budget.
Skated a couple times in it.
As you can see, an Aboriginal design,
that's the rainbow serpent.
And that's the back of it.
[PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING]
[SHARON] It's taken a lot of people,
not just one person,
to be able to support his journey.
We were, you know,
a struggling Aboriginal family...
doing what we could to support each other.
[HARLEY] Sharon's been looking after me
since I was literally born.
Um, she would, you know,
change my nappies,
and, like, if my parents were
working at the time,
Sharon would be looking after me.
She's always been super, super supportive,
both emotionally, financially,
with my skating, with my life,
and I wouldn't be where I am
today without her.
[MAN] That's right.
[SHARON] Being proud
of who we are and our culture,
our beliefs, our spirituality...
not only for our people,
but for all young people
to go, "Wow, this kid went through a lot."
He... he grew up in Western Sydney.
[CLAPSTICKS b*ating RHYTHMICALLY]
There's kind of been lots of
trauma in our lives
that has caused lots of... lots of distress.
[ALL SHOUT]
I've wanted to try and break that cycle
because it's not their trauma
to carry in life.
So you try and protect them from it, so...
It goes back further than that.
Me and my sibling,
my elder sisters and that,
we grew up on a mission
in the Stolen Generation era.
That's where Harley's ancestors are.
[INDISTINCT CHILDREN'S CHATTER]
I put myself through uni to be educated,
to pay for my children
to get through life.
And I always said to him,
"I want you to do what you want to do.
I'll be there to support you, me and Dad."
We would support him anyhow, you know,
no matter how much it cost.
[ANNOUNCER]
...division at the New South Wales
Amateur Figure Skating Championships...
[HARLEY] Instead of having to
worry about, you know,
I can't go to the rink, or, you know,
because there's not enough money
or we can't really afford it
sort of thing like that.
[ANNOUNCER] Okay, I'll hand
over the mic back to...
My parents did a really good job of, like,
keeping that side away from me.
We had to deal with other things
before he got on the ice.
He did cop that a lot.
Like, "No, you're not...
you're not Indigenous."
"No. Why say you're Indigenous?" You know?
Look at you, you're fair-skinned."
[JOSIE] Even any sort of funding
that come up for Harley,
that he needed to apply for,
he would never allow me
to apply for it.
Because I think that he was worried
about the stigma attached to it.
Harley just pushed it aside.
You know, "No, this is what I want to do
and I'm going to do it.
I don't care what you say."
Oh, wow.
Oh my.
"My dream is to go to the Olympic Games
and get a gold medal in figure skating."
I've not seen this one for a long time.
[LAUGHS]
We can get a bit of a comparison there.
We weren't 100% sure
that we were even going to go
to the Games, to be honest,
because at the time,
Katya still didn't have
Australian citizenship.
The next part of that process,
which was always well in hand
by that stage,
was Katya becoming an Australian citizen.
There is an opportunity
for skaters from one country
to transfer to another.
And it's not just in skating,
it happens across all sports.
And I wrote a letter of support
for their application
to the Minister,
and the Minister used their discretion
to approve the speeding up of the process.
That's what it is,
the process is still the same,
it just short-tracks it,
if I can put it that way.
We have been opening the doors
and giving visas to athletes
from foreign countries
for a considerable amount of time.
And she got the same red carpet treatment.
I pledge my loyalty
to Australia and its people.
[KATYA] I pledge my loyalty to Australia...
Wait.
- Australia and its people.
- And its people.
Whose democratic beliefs I share.
Whose democratic beliefs I share.
Whose rights and liberties I respect.
- Whose rights and liberties I...
- I respect.
- I respect.
- Yep.
And whose laws I will uphold and obey.
- And whose laws I'll uphold and obey.
- Obey.
[KATYA IN RUSSIAN]
I had to sit a citizenship test.
[IN RUSSIAN]
The history of the country, etc.
[IN RUSSIAN] I don't know why,
but I was told I didn't need to.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
I got this email saying,
you know, come on down
to the Australian Olympic Committee House,
which is down...
down at Circular Quay.
I went along
not really knowing what to expect.
Sun was shining, perfect day,
and they kind of
rolled these young athletes out.
And...
and I remember them asking, asking Harley,
this big, strong guy,
to sort of pick...
pick Katya up and sort of hold her
above, ah, head.
And one of the photographers
missed out on the photo
and sort of came running back
out onto the balcony and said,
"Listen, can you pick her up again?"
It was almost like Katya was a prop
rather than a person.
[REPORTER] The Russian-born skater
only became Australian in October,
happy to leave
her doping-plagued homeland behind.
[WOMAN] You two have only been
together for two years.
Yeah. Two years and...
It works well?
Yeah, it works and I like skate with him,
and we... good pair.
Good. And it's a short time to
be together to go into a...
into a Games.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, not just to go into...
Every interview,
they never, never bothered
to get an interpreter.
And I'd say to Harley,
"Harley, can't you tell them, son,
to get an interpreter for her?"
He said, "Mum, I tell them."
Katya, how have you found
your partnership here with Harley?
Ah... can you say slowly?
- Question again.
- Slowly.
Slowly. You're skating with Harley.
How have you found skating with...
Harley Windsor!
[ALL CHEER]
2018 will also see
our first Indigenous Winter Olympian
compete: Harley Windsor.
Our first Australian
Indigenous Winter Olympian,
from figure skating, Harley Windsor.
[REPORTER] The first Aboriginal athlete
to compete at a Winter Games.
You know, I didn't really believe it.
I thought, I just assumed
that there'd been other
Indigenous winter athletes before.
Most of the questions were,
like, just directed at me.
You know, like and, again,
the same questions.
I was running out of ways to, like, say
the same answer in a different way.
So, like, I didn't know
what people wanted me to say.
[REPORTER] The 21-year-old
believes his achievements
can inspire other Indigenous athletes
to strive for the Winter Games.
[REPORTER 2] ...use his achievements
to inspire other Indigenous Aussies.
[REPORTER 3] Do you feel like
something of a role model
to inspire other Indigenous kids
that are coming through
that might take up the sport?
I didn't think he was,
you know, prepared for
the kind of onslaught of the media
and talking about things
that he hadn't really
spoken about before.
I guess they had, like,
their sort of vision
of what they wanted the answers to be.
I didn't really know what
to take of it at the time
because we were so focused
on preparing and training.
Yes, he's an Aboriginal person,
but, you know, at that moment,
he's focusing on being an Olympic athlete.
Well, the hardworking mum of Australia's
first Indigenous Winter Olympian
has received the surprise of a lifetime.
You're going to Korea.
Aw, Peter!
Peter!
[REPORTER] A wish comes true.
[JOSIE] You know why I sang out "Peter"?
'Cause I thought they were
going to give him one.
[REPORTER] Josie Windsor
has spent everything
on her son's Olympic dream.
Today, some help to fund her own.
She'll be there as Harley enters history.
When they ambushed Harley at the gates,
and then I jumped on Zoom
and telling him that I was coming,
they were standing there
telling me what to say.
[REPORTER] And we connected him to Mum.
I'm coming over to you, son.
Oh, that's exciting.
[REPORTER] How are you feeling, Harley?
So, Mum is going to come over
and be here with you.
[REPORTER] A moment Channel 7
helped make possible
when Josie revealed she simply
couldn't afford to come.
There were lots of people going,
"Well, if they're going to do that
for them people,
why aren't they doing it for
all the athletes' parents?"
And, "Why are they getting
treated special?"
Negative comments on social media.
There was lots of r*cist comments
and people saying,
"Oh, there must be..."
"He," you know, "He's so white,
that there must be something in it
for him to say that he's Aboriginal.
It must be money."
He knows who he is.
His family knows who he is.
His community knows who he is,
so he doesn't have to answer
to anybody else.
[KATYA IN RUSSIAN] When we came into
the stadium it was unforgettable.
[IN RUSSIAN] So cool.
[IN RUSSIAN] Besides,
I was almost in the first row.
[IN RUSSIAN] In all the photographs
there were close-ups of me.
[IN RUSSIAN] Most important for us
[IN RUSSIAN] is to have
a clean performance in both programs.
[IN RUSSIAN] Try not to make errors
and get in the top 12.
You know, I walked up into that stadium
with the flag hanging over my shoulders.
I think I pretty much cried
the whole time.
It was all sorts of emotions.
It was happy, proud.
I get all these flashbacks,
all those big moments in life
that could have easily
prevented all of that.
Just the fact that he was there
and I was there watching and...
Yeah, lots and lots of emotions.
Canterbury Ice Rink had a screen set up
so the community there were all watching.
People were just so proud,
the fact that they were both there.
And they knew what the struggles were
and how hard it was for them to get there.
Regardless of what happened there,
for them they were... they were superstars.
[COMMENTATOR] Well done, Australia.
Well done, Harley and Katya. Look at you.
[COMMENTATOR 2]
You can breathe now. [LAUGHS]
A good score, 61.55. They might
have been looking for more.
[REPORTER] A clean performance,
it just fell short of progression,
finishing 18th.
We made our debut, and it's...
it was a good program.
You know, obviously, the results
weren't what we wanted,
but, you know, we can't be upset.
[REPORTER] What can we expect, Katya?
What can we expect?
Ah, what again?
- Sorry?
- What can we expect?
[BELINDA] So it was a disappointment,
but it happens.
You know, they'd had a golden wave
and they'd made it to the Olympics,
they skated great.
They did well.
Hey!
[PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING]
[WOMAN IN RUSSIAN]
Who came over to support you?
[KATYA IN RUSSIAN]
No one from the family came, no one came.
[IN RUSSIAN] It's too far away.
[IN RUSSIAN]
The flights are very expensive.
[IN RUSSIAN] Maybe they will come
to the next Olympics.
[BELINDA] From a media point of view
and from a government point of view,
your value is where you place.
The big story was them getting there.
What they did there wasn't
necessarily a big story,
so you move on very quickly.
The story was done, you know, when they...
When their competition finished,
you know, that was the end
of the road for their story.
[IN RUSSIAN] This was not a failure as
I saw them say in the newspapers.
[IN RUSSIAN] Failure?
[IN RUSSIAN] Don't you understand that
these guys are just newly-fledged?
[IN RUSSIAN]
They have just graduated from juniors.
[IN RUSSIAN]
And you are already saying it's a failure?
[BELINDA] After PyeongChang,
they were due for a big break,
and that's really advised for
after Olympics.
It's such a big emotional build-up,
it takes it out of the skaters big-time.
[HARLEY] You've got all the stress,
all of the strain on your body.
You know, I feel like a lot
of athletes, they try and...
get to a point where it's like perfection.
And, you know, it's hard
for us to stomach that
when it's not perfect.
[BELINDA] There are some coaches think
that you can just keep doing that
the next month and the month
and the month after that.
Andrei is...
Andrei's repetition,
repetition, repetition.
Don't go home until it's perfect.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
Protective gear was definitely not...
not on the list of things to be used.
Even though the sport had sort of gotten
faster, higher, bigger.
[SOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES]
[SHARON] She couldn't confide in Harley
probably as much as she wanted to.
[GALINA] When we were training
Olympic season,
she had, like, a little seizure.
Collapsed unconscious.
I thought, "It's the diet."
She's trying not to eat
because she wants
before competition, look good,
lose a couple of kilos.
She had another seizure.
That time I said, "Katya, look.
You know, we have to go to hospital."
They said probably dehydrated,
very low potassium.
So, I said, "Katya, look.
Now, every single time you're eating,
you are eating in front of my eyes.
There was talk about her being on, um...
weight-loss tablets,
you know, fluid-retention tablets,
and stuff like that, and drinking.
No way I could be a pair girl.
Like, that is terrifying to me.
Like, the idea of that is, like, insane.
You know, I'm very happy
staying on the ground.
[SOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES]
[CLASSICAL, SOULFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
You need to have 100% trust
in your partner.
If you hesitate for a split second...
[COMMENTATORS EXCLAIM]
[HARLEY] You know, I'm six foot one.
They're, like, nine feet in the air,
and if they come down,
they're falling directly on their head
from nine feet.
And it's, you know, it's ice
and it's not soft, it's hard.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
[JESSICA] I mean, did she ever hit her
head or anything like that?
[GALINA] Of course,
in pairs, you do knock your head.
- [JESSICA] Mm-hmm?
- I had four concussions myself.
Not very heavy concussions.
- But just the lighter concussions.
- [JESSICA] Yeah.
[GALINA] But I don't know what happened.
Maybe she did before.
- [JESSICA] Yeah.
- [GALINA] I have no idea.
I asked her, she said, "Oh, I did have
another concussion once
but I don't know how heavy."
I asked her if she's okay,
and she just said,
"Oh, I have a headache.
I just have a headache."
[FIREWORKS EXPLODE]
[KATYA IN RUSSIAN] January 1st
is my birthday and I want to be home.
[IN RUSSIAN] Because it's hard for me
to be alone in Australia.
[IN RUSSIAN] Without my mum,
without my beloved dog.
[IN RUSSIAN] I just want to go home
to feel the New Year.
[IN RUSSIAN] I don't care if there is
slush and mud, I just want that feeling.
[IN RUSSIAN] It will give me
an emotional boost at least.
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
[KEYBOARD CLACKING]
[BELINDA] When I finally did
broach it with Katya,
she said she was angry that
she couldn't afford to go home
for her 18th birthday,
so she told me that she drank his beers.
[IN RUSSIAN] She didn't like Andrei
because, "He is always yelling."
[IN RUSSIAN] I said to her, "Katya,
he must be yelling because,
[IN RUSSIAN] because he wants
to get the most from you."
[IN RUSSIAN] You know,
breaking discipline in sport
[IN RUSSIAN]
is strictly prohibited.
[IN RUSSIAN] And she was doing that.
Katya was saying things like,
"I hate Andrei.
I don't want him to be my coach
and I won't skate."
She didn't go into a lot of detail,
except for things like
she's sick of him yelling and screaming
and saying nasty things to her,
and she didn't want to do it anymore.
He was quite happy to keep
training under Andrei,
but for some reason,
Katya just got sick of it.
He said, "What can I do?"
He said, "I had to go with her."
Because he wouldn't have had a partner.
He didn't fight Katya over it.
He didn't say, "No, listen,
let's try and work this out."
He didn't say nothing like that,
he just went with it.
It was a bit of a sh*t show.
But we sort of said it to Galina, but we
didn't have a chance to say it to Andrei.
[RINGING TONE]
[BELINDA] Harley and Katya rang me to say...
"We will not ever be with Andrei Pachin
ever again. Ever."
[PHONE RINGING]
[ANDREI] I would like to let you know
about coaching ethics.
Harley can't sign any contract
at the moment
until he pay me money.
He owe me 52 weeks. 52 weeks.
For two and a half years.
52 weeks he owe me.
When he will be winning money
in a competition
he will be paying me back.
Like Katya did.
But we spent a lot of money
to continue them skating.
You understand that?
He has to pay money first
and after he is free.
Ringing over and over and over
and leaving messages.
[ANDREI] We win in Worlds without you,
without Belinda, without your help,
we win in Worlds
without any choreographer,
without anything.
Soon as you started to help,
it ruined everything.
And tell me if you understood everything
about alcohol problem?
If something happens, you will be guilty.
Make sure you inform Geoff Lipshut
about all these problems.
About how well we did it
without your help.
[DIAL TONE BEEPS]
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]
[BELINDA] A plan and a budget
was prepared by the OWIA
for Harley and Katya
with the first year in Montreal.
[ANDREI IN RUSSIAN]
So, they went to Canada
[IN RUSSIAN] because they were
promised more money there.
[IN RUSSIAN]
They didn't need me anymore.
[IN RUSSIAN]
I was a burden when it came to money.
[IN RUSSIAN] So they left.
[SHARON] Canada would provide
them with more stability
to be coached at a different level
to further their career to the next level.
[LIGHT MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
[HARLEY] We had a few friends there,
but it was, like,
we were pretty much there on our own.
She lived about a five-minute drive
away from me.
And she kind of just had her own place
and I had my own place.
We were kind of just pushed there
and, like, kind of...
Like, that sort of thing,
and we were like,
"Well... what do we do?"
There might have been enough money
to pay coaches and for accommodation
and to pay the ice and the travel,
but there wasn't enough money
to eat properly
because if you can't earn money,
where do you get it from?
You know, if your parents don't have money
and you're in another country...
Most people have an impression that
because we see them marching in
at Olympic stadiums,
that these kids are all rolling
in the big bucks, okay?
They're not.
Our athletes in this country
are on minimum wage.
They're struggling.
[HARLEY] It's, like, just little things
that can help, I feel.
You know, it's even if it's just, like,
a phone call, like, once a week.
Like, "Oh, hey, how's it going?"
Like, "What's happening?"
Like, "How's training?"
You know, we've got you these,
I don't know, protein bars,
or something like that,
you know, just, like, little things
that can make, like,
such a big difference, I feel.
I mean, the conditions
may be good for other people
and the training styles good
for other people,
but the way we learnt, the Russian style,
it was, like, completely different.
I couldn't see
the progress myself in training,
so I couldn't see the progress
even being possible in a competition.
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
We had, like, a shocking season and, like,
we weren't ready for any
of those comps whatsoever.
That was the first season that we had,
like, Senior Grand Prix,
and, you know, we had, like,
a name for ourselves
and we, like, did nothing with it.
[IN RUSSIAN] When they were skating here,
they had decent scores.
[IN RUSSIAN] When they left,
they could hardly score 90 points.
[BELINDA] They didn't cope there
well enough by themselves.
They needed a grandma there
that they could go to,
or an aunty, you know, that sort of thing.
[HARLEY] That season was a sh*t show.
We were like, "Look,
Canada's not going to work, so..."
[AIRPLANE ENGINE ROARING]
[SHARON] Katya started working
at the ice rink
to be able to start earning some money.
I think she went to two other
different parents' houses
at this time,
and they were teaching her
some English as well.
[BELINDA] Having a job, having
self-respect, having confidence,
having her own friends,
these were important goals as well.
I don't think things were going perfectly,
but there was, you know...
I was looking after them
in Australia while they sort of sorted out
who they were going to go
and be coached by.
Harley had made a few comments to me
about some weird goings-on,
but the days where she'd be
at the ice rink and working,
she'd be in quite good form.
But then there were other days where
she was just struggling to do anything.
Yeah, I mean, she was definitely
drinking a little bit.
But, again, it's, like, super hard
for me to say because,
you know, on one hand,
there's like that, you know,
very typical 18-year-old phase
where, you know,
every 18-year-old's going to go out
and, you know, party and drink and stuff,
you know, it's... I did it myself.
I know every other 18-year-old
does the exact same thing.
There was definitely
a history of drinking.
I'd been told by people
who were at competition with her
that, like, when it was party time,
she'd go hard.
And I'm pretty sure that
the coaching team,
the first coaching team,
were well and truly aware of it.
[SHARON] Harley had told me that
she had drank quite a lot on the flight
and by the time they got there,
she could hardly stand up.
And Harley had to basically
carry Katya off the plane.
I think I remember a time where,
just after one of the comps,
Andrei had come back into the rink
and made comments about
how obliterated she was
getting onto an aeroplane.
[PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING]
[ANDREY IN RUSSIAN] When I came
to Australia, when I saw Katya,
[IN RUSSIAN]
I had never seen her like this before.
[IN RUSSIAN] I said to Belinda,
[IN RUSSIAN] "Let's face it, we can only
aim to get into the top 10.
[IN RUSSIAN] If we get into the top 10,
we are superstars."
[GREG] And then I had found out from
somebody that she'd been staying with
that some alcohol had been going missing.
That's when I sort of put
the call in to Belinda.
Because there were so many ups
and downs with those guys,
I think it was denial more than anything,
and I was, like, no, like,
there's definitely a lot more
going on here than...
than we know about.
[BELINDA] Greg thought that
he could smell alcohol in the morning.
We couldn't believe it.
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
And I made the decision
to go look in her skate bag.
I was shaking when I did it,
and I opened the drink bottle
and I could smell wine.
This is eight o'clock,
8:30 in the morning.
[HARLEY] This wasn't just like
a thing that happened
in, like, the last few weeks,
it accumulated over the last,
you know, year and a half.
[BELINDA] This required professional help.
[GREG] Basically just packed her up
to go get blood tests,
general health check stuff.
I think we thought we were going
to get a lot more resistance
from Katya than we did.
[BELINDA] I started seeking help
through OWIA,
the outreach programs,
and the professionals that
Sports Australia have on board
to deal with this.
It took weeks to get one appointment.
The OWIA wasn't aware
as much as your sources
might be telling you,
and that information
certainly wasn't passed up
to the OWIA chief executive,
nor to the board.
I can tell you that
because I sit on the OWIA board.
We have heard talk about that since,
but it's not something
that we were aware of
or ever reported to us.
[LAUGHS] Welcome...
welcome to minority sports.
[BELINDA] For weeks, you know,
we'd been working on
small plans with Greg,
you know, that were easy to achieve,
that were confidence-builders,
and they had targets to reach,
to keep their funding alive for this year.
And I thought, "Okay, that's fair enough."
So they had until May 30th
to achieve all of those goals,
yet I received this phone call on May 22...
pulling the plug.
And I think that they expected me
to tell them.
I said, "You ring. You tell them."
[OMINOUS DING]
I was so disgusted
that you could abandon kids
when they need you.
And I haven't spoken to them since.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
If Katya and Harley hadn't achieved
the success they did,
then there would be no funding.
You know, I'm saying, it's, like,
you don't get the funding
unless you're on track
to achieve something, yeah.
So many moving parts, like,
so many moving parts.
It's, like... [SIGHS]
My first instinct was to go,
"It should have come from
Harley and Katya."
Harley should have been like,
"No, like, we can't get on a plane."
But he only knows one thing.
He only knows to skate.
That should have come from me.
I should have said,
"You can't get on a plane,
it's the wrong choice."
But I'm an interim coach.
Then you've got the base of volunteers
who could have been like,
"No, you can't go."
But is that a realistic thing to expect?
Most things are preventable.
But...
I don't think anybody wanted
to feel like they were
the factor that ended something
that could have been great.
[ANNOUNCER] Representing Australia,
Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya
and Harley Windsor.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
[SOULFUL PIANO AND VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
[NO AUDIBLE DIALOG]
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY ON TV]
...Alexandrovskaya and Harley Windsor.
[FIREWORKS EXPLODE]
[HARLEY] We ended up going
back over to Russia
and we sort of scraped by, and, uh...
But then, at the time,
we didn't really have, like,
a proper training base, and it was still...
we were still trying to, like,
settle into everything, and...
then everything sort of went to sh*t.
Again.
[KATYA'S MUM IN RUSSIAN]
Dulcinea, Ducia, come here.
[BELINDA] She was going home.
She was excited for that because
she'd be home with her mother.
[IN RUSSIAN] After New Year's,
we resumed training.
[BELINDA] Harley and the coach
that they wanted,
you know, was there.
[ANDREY IN RUSSIAN]
It seemed to me that everything was fine.
[IN RUSSIAN] I told them,
"Don't expect it to happen right away.
[IN RUSSIAN] Do what you need to do
and everything will fall into place."
[BELINDA] But in January, she collapsed.
[DISTANT SIREN WAILS]
And they said she should
never skate again.
They told her she should
never skate again.
[SOMBRE AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYING]
It's your purpose every day,
like, the sport
and everything you put that energy into
is your daily purpose,
it's the reason you get up in the morning,
it's, you know, it's the reason
you go to bed early at night.
Um, it's... it's everything.
[BELINDA] This is all she'd known
since she was three.
[SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYING]
[HARLEY] There was only
so much I could do.
Like, what am I?
Like, I can't be, her, like, therapist,
her partner, her friend.
You know what I mean? I can't be
all those things and, like,
try and keep sane myself.
Yeah.
And Harley made the announcement.
[IN RUSSIAN] Katya said to me,
"Veronika, I will have to quit sports.
[IN RUSSIAN] I'll have to quit sports.
I am afraid of dying."
[IN RUSSIAN] She would ask,
"Veronika, what should I do?"
[IN RUSSIAN] And I would say,
[IN RUSSIAN] "Since you love
figure skating, go coach the kids."
[IN RUSSIAN] And she would be like,
"No! I will k*ll those kids.
[IN RUSSIAN] No way.
Anything but coaching."
I sent her messages,
and she kind of didn't reply.
She was communicating less and less,
like, isolating herself.
[SHARON] We sent some flowers
to her and just told her
that we were thinking about her,
and we send lots of love.
She sent me back a photo
of the flowers that she got,
just saying thank you with a love heart.
To have everything that
was worked for gone,
being told that
the health is as good as gone
if you don't make some
major, major changes...
feeling like a parent has already gone,
without somebody going in there
and doing, like,
a proper, like,
grab and hold onto and start to help,
of course it's gonna, like,
something's going to slip.
[VERONIKA IN RUSSIAN]
You can't focus on the sport only.
[IN RUSSIAN] Life doesn't end there.
[ANDREY IN RUSSIAN]
And, you know, the pandemic started.
[IN RUSSIAN]
This person who has been highly active
[IN RUSSIAN]
since the age of four is now isolated.
[IN RUSSIAN]
She was always in the midst of things.
[IN RUSSIAN]
There was always something happening.
[IN RUSSIAN] Practice, competitions,
training camps all this time.
[IN RUSSIAN] And now suddenly...
[MUSIC ABRUPTLY ENDS]
[IN RUSSIAN] ...silence.
If she wished us to know,
then, yes, we certainly could have
provided services, yes.
Simply if we'd been appro... or she...
Well, it's important for
the athlete, or the Olympian,
to... to wish to do that.
Now, it's only relatively new, I think,
and probably wasn't in place,
sadly, for Katya
because it's only come in
the last couple of years.
It was there, it's improved,
it's in a better space now.
[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING]
[HARLEY] We'd split up
and my visa ran out.
[JULIAN] I'd kind of, you know,
lost track of where they were,
and completely out of nowhere,
I spotted this story out of Moscow.
Harley was here and he got the message.
And he rang me.
I was over at me mate's place, and I had
all these missed calls from Harley.
And I just... I rang him back and said,
"Yeah, what's up?"
And he was in tears.
Then he told me.
I got a message
from some friend of her mum's.
[JULIAN] We were right on deadline,
and I rang the Sunday editor
and I said, "Listen, I really think
this is an important story.
We need to get something
in tomorrow's paper."
[HARLEY] And I remember
trying to call Katya.
[PHONE VIBRATES]
No answer. Try to call her mum, no answer.
So the details are very, very thin
at this stage, but, um...
I remember... I remember this girl, and...
Katya Alexandrovskaya has been found dead
by Russian police in Moscow.
[NEWSREADER 2] Police say
the circumstances are not suspicious.
[NEWSREADER 3]
The 20-year-old Russian-born...
[NEWSREADER 4] The Olympic pair skater
fell from a sixth-storey window.
[NEWSREADER 5] ...paired in
the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics
with skating partner Harley Windsor.
[NEWS STORIES FADING UNDER
HOLLOW RINGING SOUND]
[INTERVIEWER] What do you wish that
you could say to Katya now,
if you could say something to her?
"I love you. Here is a ticket. Come home."
"Come back."
"Here's the money,
here's a ticket. Come back."
I think about that a lot.
It wasn't real at first.
Like, it didn't seem real.
So, it was, uh...
It was hard.
[INTERVIEWER] Do you need
to, ah, take a minute?
Yeah, if I could.
[SNIFFLES]
[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING]
[SHARON] He went to the ice rink,
to Canterbury a couple of times,
and he said they cleared
the ice rink for him.
He went to get on the ice
and he ended up just sitting
on the ice and crying.
He would do a turn or something
and think that she was going to be there,
and she just wasn't there.
["WHAT WE DO NOW" PLAYING]
Look at me floating
Floating on nothing
I am the echo
Of your love
Like when you named me
A storm on a white sea
The dream falls apart
We became quite under pressure
from the media point of view,
questioning the credibility of the ISU.
How come that you allowed
such young skaters to compete
under this emotional pressure?
This should not be allowed.
And this is what happened with
one of the pair skaters
who was Russian, and Australian then.
When she was told that
she cannot skate anymore,
and she didn't know what to do,
and this is what lead to
the tragic consequence.
I pose the question,
is a medal worth risking the health
of a child or a young athlete?
The most important thing here
is the health
of the children and the young people.
They need to be able to develop
both physiologically,
their skills in skating,
the passion that they love,
but also psychologically
to be able to deal with
the pressures of skating
but also the pressures
of being an adolescent,
and being able to carry on
in their careers
and their lives.
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC ENDS]
Harley & Katya (2022)
Moderator: Maskath3