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Gladiator Gone GlobalAlexei Yagudin April 8, 2007 Kathleen: On vacation last summer you visited some famous islands. Which one did you enjoy the most? Alexei: On Anton's advice we went to Greece, to the island of Mykonos, although on the boat ride over our guide sort of advised us against it. It turned out to not be my favorite destination. I stayed at one of the best hotels on the island, but the place I really loved was Malaysia. I went to Singapore and Bali. I prefer a place in nature, that looks like it came from back in time. Bali was wonderful. I didn't leave the hotel. The service was amazing. Sometimes the European people can treat you sort of hard, except in Italy. But in Malaysia, just like in Asia, they really understand service. The people treat you so well, I would definitely go there on vacation again. Kathleen: What are you going to do after the Russian tour ends this summer? Alexei: I'll finally move into my new apartment, in downtown St. Petersburg. I had like two days to pick everything for the remodeling. I'm also in the middle of negotiating a large land purchase about a half-hour outside of the city and I plan on building a large home there. Kathleen: For this year's upcoming skating with celebrities TV show, are you going to skate, host or judge? Alexei: (Laughing) Stay tuned and find out! Kathleen: What would motivate you to start something new? Alexei: I need more time. I need to still get used to being away from the different life I grew up on. It took a couple years to transition out of eligible figure skating. I need maybe another year or two and I will figure out something to absorb my interest. With a little more time I will find what it is that I'm searching for. I'm in a period of my life where I'm still involved with skating, but it's sort of fifty-fifty right now. Kathleen: If you could wave a magic wand and have success in any other endeavor - anything at all - what would it be, television? You seem to like having an audience. Alexei: Yes, I think something with TV would definitely interest me, but not because of the audience. Actually, I'm a shy person. I would say I'm really shy. Kathleen: Tell me about this alternatingly crazy and hysterical television show you did in which I watched you, via You Tube, getting charged at by a bull, and jumping for enormous dangling sausages while dressed in a giant ostrich suit. Alexei: (Laughing) That show is called "The Big Race". It airs in Russia but is always filmed in France, close to the city of Nice. There is both a Russian and a French host depending on where it airs. It's a fun and games type show, a lot like what you see in Japan. There were other athletes too, famous hockey players, on the show. I had to do the first part of the games in the water, which I was really good at, the next part in the ring with a bull, and the last part was the thing in the ostrich costume. The bull part wasn't really that exciting because they were going to have me run around the bull and try to score goals into a net, but they changed that because it was my first time and instead put me to the side. I guess the day before somebody got their eye injured by the bull and had to be taken to the hospital, so there were some casualties with that and they decided not to take too many chances with me. While I was inside of the giant ostrich suit and trying to run and jump for those sausages, the circular platform I had to stand on was rotating one direction, while the outer platform went in the opposite direction, making it really hard. I thought it was strange when I noticed that all of the people getting dressed into the same costumes next to me were like twice as tall as me. I'm saying, "Something is wrong here!" and they were telling me, "No, no – it's okay!" Of course there was no way I was going to be able to jump high enough to reach them, and it was so hot in the costume. After I fell a couple of times I realized it wasn't going to work, so I stopped trying. Kathleen: Did you at any time think, "What am I doing dressed in an ostrich suit on national television?" Alexei: The only thing I thought was that I wanted that episode to finish because they were rotating the platforms faster and faster. They have to make the show interesting and funny, so they were lifting the sausages higher and higher. I remember my teammates had told me that if I couldn't get the sausages, then to try and block the other people from getting them. I was trying to hold them so they would fall. I was relieved when that part was over (laughs). I actually filmed that show while I was on vacation in Greece. They flew me over for two days, and then I went back. Kathleen: In addition to some talk shows, and an improv-comedy show, you also appeared on the Russian version of the popular TV game show, "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire". Alexei: I was nervous to go on that show, but it was for charity so I think that made it a little bit easier. Kathleen: Last fall you made a big time commitment to a TV craze that seems to be sweeping the world in one form or the other: "Stars On Ice" – Russia's version of skating with celebrities. Alexei: It was very difficult in the beginning. I didn't get along with my partner (TV host and former gymnast Oksana Pushkina) because she would attempt to tell me how the skating should be done. Another challenge was the age difference: I was the youngest skater on the show, and she was the oldest celebrity. She would bring me the old Artur Dmitriev or the Gordeeva & Grinkov videotapes and want to try and copy some of their elements. Of course I would laugh and say, "You can barely stand on the ice, how are you going to do this?" But we worked hard and found elements that she learned to do, and with the right costumes and music you create ways to cover the weaknesses. Out of thirteen teams we finished in sixth. By the end she was very brave and did a great job. It also helped when she realized that maybe I knew a little bit more about figure skating. Kathleen: Did you learn anything that changed your perception about ice dance or pairs skating from the work you did on the show? Alexei: I learned that pairs is hard because you're responsible for your partner. But you also get more time to rest. I was the only men's singles skater on the show, and I'd spent my career looking out only for myself. We were doing like three or four pairs lifts in every program while some of the top teams sometimes didn't even do a lift. We went to the top for what we could accomplish and I'm happy with that. Kathleen: In February you flew to Russia during a break from the US Stars On Ice tour to take part in a televised birthday tribute show to honor your longtime coach Tatiana Tarasova. Nikolai Morozov, the now world famous choreographer and coach who helped create your masterpiece program "Winter" was also there. Talk about what happened. Alexei: For years we weren't close friends anymore, but we weren't enemies either. After the Salt Lake Olympics we went in two different directions. We saw each other briefly at Tatiana's birthday show in Moscow and talked for a few minutes for the first time in a long time. The next morning we were both flying back to the United States and he was taking Aeroflot and I was on Delta. But there was that huge snowstorm in New York, and our flights were delayed, and from my seat in the plane I could see Aeroflot at the gate. I called him on the cell phone and said, "Hey, I can see your plane." His flight actually got to the US before mine, so when I landed he called and said if I needed anything or a place to stay, because of the storm, that I could come to his home in New Jersey. Kathleen: Did either one of you apologize to the other? Alexei: There is nothing to be sorry about. Kathleen: Can you remember the last time that you cried? Alexei: Last year, when I had to break up a romance with someone. Now I try never to cry because I don't think anyone deserves my tears, if you know what I mean. Kathleen: Right now you're the most slender I've ever seen you. Is this weight loss intentional or a result of your incredibly busy schedule? Alexei: Since about last Christmas, I've seriously taken on a healthier approach to my life, to pace myself as an athlete. And I'm more mature, older. I look after myself now, which didn't always happen before - some might say the opposite (laughs).
Kathleen: You haven't competed in the eligible world in over four years, since Skate America in October of 2002. So much has happened since then: a new men's Olympic champion was crowned in Torino, the 6.0 system was scrapped for Code of Points, and in your personal and professional life many big changes. With so much behind you, do you ever still miss competing? Do you ever relive the past in your mind and long for the days that you were the champion? Alexei: You know, it's funny. I don't even follow the results that much anymore except for Euros, the Worlds, and of course the Olympics. Otherwise, I don't know who the new kids are or much about what is going on in the eligible world. Yet, when I go to sleep at night it seems I cannot escape it. Sometimes the competitions come to me, as a dream, and they are so vivid, and I am back on the ice, in the middle of a big event. In my dreams I am still always fighting for the gold, and I love it.
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