KIRPU Erika

General
TRAINING IN ITALY
In 2016 she moved to Italy to train with coach Andrea Candiani. The partnership ended the following year and she began working with Angelo Mazzoni. "I couldn't adapt to the eminent Italian coach Andrea Candiani. A year later, I started working with Mazzoni, who had just left the Russian Federation. I called him and asked to train with him. After that, I didn't get any more coaching from my dad [Victor Kirpu]. I completely trusted my new coach. Angelo Mazzoni is a very positive person, but it was still difficult to understand him, and it was difficult to adjust to each other. It's only been in the last year that we have begun to understand each other. He has a completely different concept of combat. He wants more creativity from me, more decisions on the piste. For him, there is no 'point, step, lunge, now I'll go and I will stab 15 times like that.' He wants creation. I have to build these creative moments, build on a logical chain. This is very interesting, and I just recently [speaking in 2020] began to understand it. It is necessary to be prepared for everything." (Instagram profile, 01 Feb 2021; Betsafe Baltimaad YouTube channel, 13 Jan 2021; academyoffencingmasters.com, 23 Jul 2020)

COACHED BY DAD
She was coached by her father Victor Kirpu during her junior and cadet years. In 2018 he passed away from lung cancer. "Though my childhood was cool, I still remember myself as being nervous and always unsatisfied. I don't even know why. Maybe it was because I didn't win. All of my life, I focused on the result. When I didn't win, everything seemed wrong to me. I drew my attention to all of the little things. Finally I started to show results in the cadets and juniors. My dad was the head coach of the Estonian junior and cadet teams and it was a great time for me, I call it my 'golden era'. We won many medals at the European championships, and once we even won the world junior championships in a team in 2010. It was a great period when I looked up to him all the time. He was an authority for me. In our club, he was an authority for everyone. This continued until about 2012, when I tried to qualify for the Olympic Games in London. I didn't qualify, but moved to senior level. When I told him that I probably needed something else, he understood and agreed with me. He said, 'That's all I can give you, and I don't mind if you want more.' My dad never left the role of a coach. It was impossible to pull him apart from this role in any way." (Betsafe Baltimaad YouTube channel, 13 Jan 2021; academyoffencingmasters.com, 23 Jul 2020; sport.err.ee, 11 Oct 2018)

OCCUPATION
In 2019 she began working as a communications specialist at a Swiss digital marketing company. "I think I've been lucky, I've found a job, and I can work from home. I want to have some fallback so that my income doesn't fully depend on fencing." (Betsafe Baltimaad YouTube channel, 13 Jan 2021; LinkedIn profile, 05 Oct 2020)