MOSCOW, May 10. /TASS/. Russia’s two-time 2018 Olympic silver medalist in figure skating Yevgeniya Medvedeva is ‘amazing athlete’ and needed changes since she made a decision to switch mentors, her new Coach Brian Orser from Canada told TASS on Thursday.

The 18-year-old figure skater officially announced on Monday a decision to part with her Coach Eteri Tutberidze and start working with Canadian specialist Brian Orser.

It is a common practice for figure skaters to change coaches throughout their career, but Medvedeva’s turn to Orser took him by surprise, according to the Canadian specialist.

"I was surprised," Orser said in an interview with TASS. "Quite often after Olympic Games many skaters make some changes and this is not unusual. But I have to say that I didn’t know her very well and I am getting to know her now, but initially I was pretty surprised."

The Canadian coach said that Medvedeva was the first to contact him and it was during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang.

"She obviously got my contact information from somebody and sent me a text, which was pretty simple," Orser stated. "She knew that I was going to be in South Korea."

"She asked if I could have some time for a serious conversation," he said. "I figured out what it was about and we made arrangements about a private meeting."

"We had a long discussion about her goals, why she wanted to make a change, about her skating, her love for skating and the directions where she wanted to go," Orser said. "The thing that everybody should understand that she is an amazing athlete."

"I am excited for Yevgeniya, it was her decision for change," he said. "She is obviously not finished with skating, she loves to skate and she loves to compete. At this stage she is just taking a new direction."

Speaking to journalists on Monday in Moscow, Medvedeva said she decided to move to Canada and train there, but never planned to change her citizenship to continue performing under the national flag of Russia.

"I want to have a long career and this is why such changes are taking place in my life," Medvedeva told journalists earlier this week adding that one "cannot even imagine how upbeat I feel at the moment and I am motivated now like never before."

She also thanked for everything her previous coach Tutberidze, who trained the figure skater since 2007, and wished success in her future work.

At the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang, Medvedeva won two silver medals - in team’s competition and in women’s singles. She is also a two-time world champion, two-time European champion and two-time winner of ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating finals.

The figure skater achieved all of the mentioned above awards with her former Coach Eteri Tutberidze.

Canada’s Brian Orser 56, works with two-times Olympic champion in men's singles Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and two-times world champion Javier Hernandez of Spain, as well as with ladies' singles skaters Elizabeth Tursynbaeva of Kazakhstan and Sonia Lafuente of Spain.