TASS, May 6. Eteri Tutberidze, who has coached until most recently the Russian Olympic silver medalist in ladies' singles, Evgeniya Medvedeva, said on Sunday she had learned about Medvedeva's decision to opt out of her group and to take up training with a different coach from mass media reports.

"Rumors had been circulating, of course, and I had been writing Zhenya by that time but I hadn't received any answers to my texts and she wasn't answering my phone calls," Tutberidze told Channel One Russia. "That's why I realized Zhenya had left us when I heard it on Channel One news."

"I think trust in the coach and in the everyday results is involved here in some way," she said. "If Zhenya puts forward conditions, if she doesn't answer messages and phone calls, this can only mean she is showing unwillingness as an athlete and saying good-bye to her seems to be inevitable."

An official announcement about Medvedeva's departure came earlier from Renat Layshev, the director of Sambo'70 Center for Sports and Education where Tutberidze coaches female figure skaters.

Match TV channel said Brian Orser of Canada who is working with the two-times Olympic champion in men's singles Yuzuru Hanyu and two-times world champion Javier Hernandez, as well as with ladies' solo skaters Elizabeth Tursynbaeva of Kazakhstan and Sonia Lafuente of Spain, is one of the possible professionals to start coaching Medvedeva.

"In a certrain way, that's a challenge from Orser to me," Tutberidze said. "I think so because it was back in his interview he said [Alexandra] Trusova [Tutberidze's pupil, the winner of the Junior Grand Prix TASS] was a short-term phenomenon."

"Whatever the phenomenon, Trusova made history she did the skating and she made two squads," the coach said. "Didn't she deserve recognition and praise because she did it? That's why I have an impression now Orser is mounting a challenge".

Evgeniya Medvedeva is a double silver medalist at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang where she won the team competition and the solo tournament. She is also a two-time world-champion, a two-time Europe champion and a two-time winner of Grand Prix stages.