Here is an article from Kyodo News that features interview with Stephane Lambiel shortly before Men's event in Beijing. It's a bit eerie to read it now because it focuses on Shoma as possible winner of Olympic gold and we know that it didn't end exactly so, but still.
Excerpts from the article:
As Uno's coach and choreographer, Lambiel, a 2006 Turin Olympic silver medalist and two-time world champion, thinks the 24-year-old has a realistic chance of winning gold in Beijing, if only he can embrace his inner child.
According to Lambiel, Uno twisted his right ankle while landing a quad flip in December, but he has recovered to a point where he is well enough to go ahead with his planned two quads in his short program on Feb. 8 and five quads in his long program two days later.
"My biggest focus was to make him not focus so much on the result. For me it's important that when he comes to practice he has a challenge, and he's working toward that challenge, and the result doesn't really matter," Lambiel said.
"If he just remembers what happened to me in 2010, when I executed almost every element correctly but I was not free enough. [...] My problem was that I knew Vancouver was my last competition. So I had so much pressure and because of that I wanted to have a good result. That's why I was not able to perform freely."
"Skating is mathematics, and we do need to have a very specific strategy...If he lands all his jumps he will get a good score. But what I want is for him to be not only a good jumper, but a great figure skater,"
Clearly, there are some repercussions with Deniss' interview in the above post. Maybe, I shouldn't post this because we already knew?
Or, contrary: now it makes even more sense because it is not just about Deniss, or just about Shoma, or just about Stephane. It's about the philosophy of Champery.
Excerpts from the article:
As Uno's coach and choreographer, Lambiel, a 2006 Turin Olympic silver medalist and two-time world champion, thinks the 24-year-old has a realistic chance of winning gold in Beijing, if only he can embrace his inner child.
According to Lambiel, Uno twisted his right ankle while landing a quad flip in December, but he has recovered to a point where he is well enough to go ahead with his planned two quads in his short program on Feb. 8 and five quads in his long program two days later.
"My biggest focus was to make him not focus so much on the result. For me it's important that when he comes to practice he has a challenge, and he's working toward that challenge, and the result doesn't really matter," Lambiel said.
"If he just remembers what happened to me in 2010, when I executed almost every element correctly but I was not free enough. [...] My problem was that I knew Vancouver was my last competition. So I had so much pressure and because of that I wanted to have a good result. That's why I was not able to perform freely."
"Skating is mathematics, and we do need to have a very specific strategy...If he lands all his jumps he will get a good score. But what I want is for him to be not only a good jumper, but a great figure skater,"
Clearly, there are some repercussions with Deniss' interview in the above post. Maybe, I shouldn't post this because we already knew?
Or, contrary: now it makes even more sense because it is not just about Deniss, or just about Shoma, or just about Stephane. It's about the philosophy of Champery.
