- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
A fanpage link.
Evgenia Medvedeva
- Thread starter Totentanz
- Start date
A fanpage link.
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
she said:
"The last few days I have been actively studying telegram. I decided to add some interactivity and raffle off signed hoodies, tickets to the Ice Age and other prizes.
Check out my telegram. Participate in the game we have chosen for the contest. Link to my telegram in the profile header."
Translation of a long video I think to finish on Tuesday or Wednesday. There are many interesting places, but there are also not very interesting ones. For some reason, Zhenya is often asked some boring questions (about popularity on Instagram, etc.), as I notice.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
Unfortunately, Zhenya was unlucky in many ways. She started her career a little before the “quad revolution”, and when this revolution began, it was too late for her to relearn. Of course, injuries also played a negative role, but still the quads hit her harder.
She always had great charm and artistry, and therefore, in any case, the fans will not forget her. She does not want to be a coach yet (although she is quite capable of this job), but over time, everything can change.
I don't know if she would like to move somewhere else from Russia, but she never spoke about such plans. Even more than that - she has repeatedly mentioned that she would like to live permanently in her own country, and not in Canada or somewhere else.
And, I assure you, the government does not hold Medvedev hostage and will not take away her property in case of emigration. It is very strange for me to see such assumptions here.
She always had great charm and artistry, and therefore, in any case, the fans will not forget her. She does not want to be a coach yet (although she is quite capable of this job), but over time, everything can change.
I don't know if she would like to move somewhere else from Russia, but she never spoke about such plans. Even more than that - she has repeatedly mentioned that she would like to live permanently in her own country, and not in Canada or somewhere else.
And, I assure you, the government does not hold Medvedev hostage and will not take away her property in case of emigration. It is very strange for me to see such assumptions here.
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
Thank you for your posts.
And Evgenia still had an amazing career. I think if she was taught 4S at a young age, she definitely would have landed it. She still had an amazing career, 13 straight gold medals and 21 international gold medals.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
I am absolutely sure of this too. As you may have noticed in an interview with Shcherbakova, which I published on another site, the key to success in studying quadruple jumps for Anna was the perfect, "with a margin" possession of triple jumps. And Zhenya, no doubt, possessed these skills at the same age as Shcherbakova, and maybe even earlier.
It’s just that at that time it didn’t occur to anyone, including Eteri, to turn quadruple jumps from some exceptional trick into one of the elements of a long program.
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
So, the translation of the conversation with Zhenya Medvedeva
Conversation members:
Anastasia Myskina (AM), tennis player and coach.
Yana Batyrshina (YB), seven-time world champion in artistic gymnastics.
Mikhail Polenov (MP) - competition commentator (mainly soccer matches)
I start at 2:42
MP: Zhenya, let's start with your popularity. Do you know how many followers you currently have on Instagram?
Zhenya: One million two hundred thousand approximately. After a million, the exact number is no longer shown there. I see only this million and hundreds of thousands, and I do not specifically check.
AM: Tell me please, here's what - you don't know how many subscribers you have, but when I go to your Instagram, I see that this is some kind of advertising account that does not look like the accounts of your peers. Was it done on purpose?
Zhenya: No, but you understand - there is an account, there are offers [from advertising companies], demand creates supply. Therefore, if they offer good conditions (and now there are a lot of advertisements, and therefore the conditions are often good), I perceive this as part of my job. And in fact, people who have been supporting me for years and following my participation in competitions, my life from the very beginning of my career, that is, from the age of thirteen or fourteen, seeing so many advertisements only rejoice, they say: “It’s good that Zhenya earns money, we are so happy that she will finally be able to reap the fruits of her many years of efforts.
But people who follow my life relatively recently, two or three years ago, are often, on the contrary, dissatisfied and say: “What is this? Where is the content about her life? Why so many ads? But I believe that as many people as many opinions, and therefore my manager and I just do what we need. Because you need money to live.
YB: Is there a product that you will never advertise, that will never appear in your account?
Zhenya: There are segments that I don't really want to advertise yet. But it’s still better to follow the “never say never” rule. And I think that any product [can be advertised], depending on how you talk about it, how the advertisement will look. If this ad is well done, maybe if it's a veiled ad, and if it's acceptable content, then why not.
Now I will not name exactly those segments that we avoid to some extent. Some categories of goods are simply incompatible for us, for example, diapers (laughs) - this is not about me at all now.
MP: Better not promise...
Zhenya: That's why I say that I will never say never.
YB: Then it all starts - there are not only diapers, there - oh! Baby cereals, for example…
Zhenya: So far, this does not concern me in any way and, I hope, will not affect me in the coming years. This is not even in my plans.
YB: How much time does Instagram take you to create commercials? I see that all this is done very professionally.
Zhenya: We really work on this a lot, because requests for advertising come in like this: let Zhenya make Stories there, let her mom, dad or sister take a picture of her, and that will be quite enough. But we, on the contrary, even if such a proposal is received, we agree, but at the same time we turn to a professional team, which includes a videographer, a voiceover specialist, a lighting specialist ...
AM: This is a very serious approach.
Zhenya: Yes, that is, any advertisement is really work, it takes a lot of time, at least four or five hours per video. We immediately publish a post [on Instagram], Stories, perhaps a Tiktok entry. These are full shots. We decided that we would do this because there are really a lot of ads and we want people to ask why the quality of photos or videos is so bad when they visit the page. We want it to be really beautiful, interesting and lively.
AM: How important is it for you to be an example for the younger generation?
Zhenya: I just decided at some point that I want to be ... I want to become better for myself. You have to look in the mirror, analyze your life and understand that yes - this is what I wanted, this is what I was going to, or, on the contrary, something is wrong here. That is, I want to be able to evaluate myself correctly. And I think that if I evaluate myself correctly, see my pluses and minuses, then people will look at you correctly. I try to take life right. But it would be wrong to say that I want to be an idol or declare myself a role model. It would be immodest to say the least. Therefore, I try to control my life, treat myself calmly and critically, and evaluate myself accurately.
AM: When I was at work today, two girls, about the same age as you, upon learning that I was going to talk with Evgenia Medvedeva, reacted very violently and said that they would like to get an autograph. So after the program...
Zhenya: Okay...
MP: Speaking of autographs. I know that you almost never turn down someone who wants an autograph. In my opinion, this is very cool for such a status person like you. Did you have a case when you took someone's autograph, or maybe you wanted to get an autograph, but it didn't work out? Maybe you remember the first similar case?
Zhenya: It was like that ... I was probably ... I don’t want to lie, but I was so young. I started skating at CSKA, where I trained until I was seven years old. And then one day Evgeni Plushenko came to CSKA. I reacted to this like this: “Plushenko? And who is it?". I think I was only five years old. I was just a little girl with two ponytails on my head (shows). And my mother and grandmother told me: “Look, this is Zhenya Plushenko, the Olympic champion! Come on, go up to him, get his autograph." And I'm walking with this piece of paper and a pen...
MP: Have you been skating?
Zhenya: No, not on skates, just like that, in the crowd. And as far as I remember ... Here is a picture from childhood: Plushenko was sitting in a cafe, which was specially closed for him from other visitors so that he could eat in peace ...
YB: But you didn't let him eat...
Zhenya: And I resolutely went straight to this cafe, opened the door. They kicked me out of there, of course. Well, I waited, he still wrote something on my piece of paper. But where is this piece of paper now, I have no idea, I lost it many years ago.
YB: Does Plushenko himself remember this story and your meeting?
Zhenya: (shakes his head negatively) No, of course not.
AM: So, we will remind him of this someday if he comes to us.
Zhenya: I don't think he ever remembered it at all...
YB: You know, among your subscribers there are… It is clear, of course, that figure skating enthusiasts, your fans, ordinary people who follow you subscribe to you, but there are also stars, including those not from Russia. Here is an American actor, by the way, Mikhail's favorite actor ...
MP: Yes, I found out about it and was surprised, to be honest. Ansel Elgort.
Zhenya: Yes, yes!
MP: Who starred in Baby Driver with Kevin Spacey. Tell me how you met.
AM: We already understood how you met Plushenko…
Zhenya: He followed me on Instagram. And they started telling me about it. And I: “What? Who is this anyway?
MP: So you also have a question ...
Zhenya: Yes, I didn’t know who it was, but I checked and made sure that he was really subscribed to me, and I immediately saw that he had several million subscribers. I looked for information about him on Google - no, I haven’t seen the films, I don’t know. And he answered me in Stories. Well, I wrote him something like: "Thank you for subscribing, brother." Well, I don't know how to react to that. Just a couple of times I somehow corresponded with him in Direct, and that's it, in general, that's it. We have no common themes, no overlaps either.
YB: Do you generally reply to your fans if they write to you?
Zhenya: Rarely, but yes, I answer.
YB: Selectively?
Zhenya: Yes, selectively.
MP: Well, it's impossible to answer everyone, I guess.
Zhenya: Of course, you can't answer everyone.
AM: We were waiting for you here at the interview and also wondered whether you would answer us or not...
Zhenya: I won’t lie - in most cases I don’t answer, because ...
AM: They write a lot, I guess.
Zhenya: Yes, a lot, and a lot of empty messages, something like: "Hi, how are you?". Well, what can I answer? "Fine". But if the message talks about some real problem, or some important question is asked that I can answer, then I take a screenshot and send it to the manager so that the person can be helped. For example, there was some competition within the framework of cooperation with a certain brand. And if there are questions about this contest, but there are no answers either from this brand or from our side, then I take a screenshot, send it to the manager, and we discuss ways to solve the problem with him. That is, if I can provide some real help to people, if there are weighty questions, then I answer.
YB: And if they ask for financial assistance, or, say, advice, something like “my daughter is engaged in [figure skating], is it possible to get her somewhere” ...
Zhenya: This also happens ...
YB: Help with skates, maybe there is no money for skates, a uniform or a dress ...
Zhenya: There are really a lot of these too. As a rule, I do not respond to financial requests, because I already do charity work within the framework of various projects. I cooperate with the Khabensky Foundation, we have launched the Help app. That is, I really invest in charity.
And when they write to me: “It’s my mother’s birthday, I’m missing two thousand, throw off five thousand” ...
AM: Great math!
Zhenya: I just think that there are no hopeless situations, and if someone really needs five thousand, there are a lot of options in order to earn this money in a few days, you just need to try. Perhaps now they will condemn me, but, as it is fashionable to say, this is my personal opinion.
AM: Mikhail has your quote...
MP: Yes! Well, I am a journalist and such topics are close to me. Quote: “A couple of years ago, I probably would have answered that I was afraid to give live interviews. Sweaty palms, shifty eyes, tongue-tied tongue - I had it all. The fear has now been overcome. This is also a victory, although not a sporting one.” These words were spoken in 2017, and now it seems to me that this is either not about you at all, or from some other life.
Zhenya: I will say this: yesterday I was on a TV show with Maxim Galkin and there was a topic - oral stories. There had to be a story to be told. And a girl from Maxim’s team said: “When we invite athletes, we always worry, because these people are shy, afraid to talk about something, answer with stereotyped phrases that they have nothing to say, or they don’t want to talk, or that they they don’t have any interesting stories, but Zhenya took it and told it - it’s so great! The difference here is precisely that when an interview with a person goes along one line of sports, and when this person’s life consists of competitions, tournaments, the Olympic Games (and this is relevant right now) - this is one thing.
When there are many lines of interviews, when there is sports, but there is one direction, the second, the third, when he is on television, and many people see it, this is different. The horizon is expanding, and although I cannot call it freedom in the full sense of the word, but such a variety of directions gives freedom of thought, and as a result, when you relax, you are no longer afraid to say something superfluous ...
AM: In addition, experience appears, you begin to communicate more, talk more.
Zhenya: When you are in sports, it’s like barriers are set in your head - a step to the left or a step to the right - and execution, because there must be discipline, and you can only say what you are obliged to say. It is difficult for an active athlete to tell a story: “What if I say something wrong? What if I say something offensive about coaches or about journalists? Well, that is, there are such experiences, but when you relax a little, move away from sports - immediately - ufff!
AM: So you are free now and you can go to What Happened Next (comic Internet show)? Would you be able to go there, would you risk it?
Zhenya: I don't think it's some kind of risk. Firstly ... Well, let's look at "What happened next" - well, is the same Mr. Shcherbakov really going to play such a tough joke on me? That is, I will be there, a girl at the age of 22, and will he really express his own to my eyes ... Well, what we know. I have nothing against Shcherbakov, but he is sometimes tough. Therefore, I think that in my case there will still be some difference. If suddenly I go there, since we are talking about it, then the difference will still be. So why not?
AM: But in social networks, as you correctly said, there are many people, they have different opinions, someone loves you, someone does not love you. How do you deal with hate on social media?
Zhenya: Lately... Well, look - Tik-Tok. This is a fairly young social network. And my fans, people who follow my life, they downloaded Tik-Tok for themselves. There is something like an age barrier of 30+. That is, there are also adults on Tik-Tok, but they are there precisely in order to follow someone's content. And basically Tik-Tok's audience is young - from eight to seventeen or eighteen years old. They are the ones who are the most active. And so I recently encountered such a phenomenon ... It’s clear that this is baby talk, but I didn’t say the phrase: “this is purely my opinion” for nothing, I noticed this trend: they go under the video and write something like “Fu, yes you [expletive]”, and then in parentheses at the end, everyone writes – “don’t be offended, but this is my opinion.”
AM: So you borrowed this phrase from them?
Zhenya: Yes! (laughs) It's very funny - children think that they can cover up their little poop with "my opinion" - and everything will be OK. It is clear that these are children who are learning to live in society, but so far, unfortunately, they have a toxic society. I hope they lose it with age.
YB: Do you think there is some explanation here - well, children, what they might seem to have against you, why do they need this?
Zhenya: The fact of the matter is that they have nothing against me, and...
YB: They just want you to notice them, read their messages?
AM: And paid attention to them ...
Zhenya: I think so. I sat and thought about it for a long time. I don’t worry about my own moral state, but I sat and thought - why is this happening? Why are children so aggressive? And then, if you think about it - it's always been like that. It also happens at school that some children humiliate other children. This exists...
AM: We are facing something like this, it’s just that now it somehow intensified…
Zhenya: Now it just became more accessible and open…
AM: You know, in our past...
Zhenya: On the contrary, closed, not open. Because you can create a fake account.
MP: It's easy to hide behind a nickname and an avatar.
AM: Alexey Nemov was with us on the last program. I love him very much, we talked for a long time, discussed, among other things, the topic of different generations. Here we are one generation, you are another. How do senior figure skating comrades feel about your popularity and presence in the media? They never told you: “Go and train, why did you go again to appear in commercials” - was there such a thing?
Zhenya: No, not even once. In general, this has never happened, because adults just understand what an athlete’s career is for. That's why the world championships, the Olympic Games are won, what is all this for? It is clear that this is a bright culmination of the career of a figure skater, and indeed of any other athlete. But then after all the continuation is meant. And this is fame, presence in the media, advertising earnings. That is, a career simply opens doors for us, gives us new paths. And I think that the older generation, consisting of figure skaters such as, for example, Alexei Yagudin, of coaches such as Tatyana Tarasova, this generation is well aware that at some point the sport stops. Or rather, the sport continues, but in a different direction.
Thank God that in our sport there are, for example, ice shows, various projects. For example, during the New Year holidays these are productions for children, in the summer these are more serious productions, such as Anna Karenina. We have the development of not only sports, but also artistic careers. In any case, sport is not forever - and the older generation understands everything perfectly.
Conversation members:
Anastasia Myskina (AM), tennis player and coach.
Yana Batyrshina (YB), seven-time world champion in artistic gymnastics.
Mikhail Polenov (MP) - competition commentator (mainly soccer matches)
I start at 2:42
MP: Zhenya, let's start with your popularity. Do you know how many followers you currently have on Instagram?
Zhenya: One million two hundred thousand approximately. After a million, the exact number is no longer shown there. I see only this million and hundreds of thousands, and I do not specifically check.
AM: Tell me please, here's what - you don't know how many subscribers you have, but when I go to your Instagram, I see that this is some kind of advertising account that does not look like the accounts of your peers. Was it done on purpose?
Zhenya: No, but you understand - there is an account, there are offers [from advertising companies], demand creates supply. Therefore, if they offer good conditions (and now there are a lot of advertisements, and therefore the conditions are often good), I perceive this as part of my job. And in fact, people who have been supporting me for years and following my participation in competitions, my life from the very beginning of my career, that is, from the age of thirteen or fourteen, seeing so many advertisements only rejoice, they say: “It’s good that Zhenya earns money, we are so happy that she will finally be able to reap the fruits of her many years of efforts.
But people who follow my life relatively recently, two or three years ago, are often, on the contrary, dissatisfied and say: “What is this? Where is the content about her life? Why so many ads? But I believe that as many people as many opinions, and therefore my manager and I just do what we need. Because you need money to live.
YB: Is there a product that you will never advertise, that will never appear in your account?
Zhenya: There are segments that I don't really want to advertise yet. But it’s still better to follow the “never say never” rule. And I think that any product [can be advertised], depending on how you talk about it, how the advertisement will look. If this ad is well done, maybe if it's a veiled ad, and if it's acceptable content, then why not.
Now I will not name exactly those segments that we avoid to some extent. Some categories of goods are simply incompatible for us, for example, diapers (laughs) - this is not about me at all now.
MP: Better not promise...
Zhenya: That's why I say that I will never say never.
YB: Then it all starts - there are not only diapers, there - oh! Baby cereals, for example…
Zhenya: So far, this does not concern me in any way and, I hope, will not affect me in the coming years. This is not even in my plans.
YB: How much time does Instagram take you to create commercials? I see that all this is done very professionally.
Zhenya: We really work on this a lot, because requests for advertising come in like this: let Zhenya make Stories there, let her mom, dad or sister take a picture of her, and that will be quite enough. But we, on the contrary, even if such a proposal is received, we agree, but at the same time we turn to a professional team, which includes a videographer, a voiceover specialist, a lighting specialist ...
AM: This is a very serious approach.
Zhenya: Yes, that is, any advertisement is really work, it takes a lot of time, at least four or five hours per video. We immediately publish a post [on Instagram], Stories, perhaps a Tiktok entry. These are full shots. We decided that we would do this because there are really a lot of ads and we want people to ask why the quality of photos or videos is so bad when they visit the page. We want it to be really beautiful, interesting and lively.
AM: How important is it for you to be an example for the younger generation?
Zhenya: I just decided at some point that I want to be ... I want to become better for myself. You have to look in the mirror, analyze your life and understand that yes - this is what I wanted, this is what I was going to, or, on the contrary, something is wrong here. That is, I want to be able to evaluate myself correctly. And I think that if I evaluate myself correctly, see my pluses and minuses, then people will look at you correctly. I try to take life right. But it would be wrong to say that I want to be an idol or declare myself a role model. It would be immodest to say the least. Therefore, I try to control my life, treat myself calmly and critically, and evaluate myself accurately.
AM: When I was at work today, two girls, about the same age as you, upon learning that I was going to talk with Evgenia Medvedeva, reacted very violently and said that they would like to get an autograph. So after the program...
Zhenya: Okay...
MP: Speaking of autographs. I know that you almost never turn down someone who wants an autograph. In my opinion, this is very cool for such a status person like you. Did you have a case when you took someone's autograph, or maybe you wanted to get an autograph, but it didn't work out? Maybe you remember the first similar case?
Zhenya: It was like that ... I was probably ... I don’t want to lie, but I was so young. I started skating at CSKA, where I trained until I was seven years old. And then one day Evgeni Plushenko came to CSKA. I reacted to this like this: “Plushenko? And who is it?". I think I was only five years old. I was just a little girl with two ponytails on my head (shows). And my mother and grandmother told me: “Look, this is Zhenya Plushenko, the Olympic champion! Come on, go up to him, get his autograph." And I'm walking with this piece of paper and a pen...
MP: Have you been skating?
Zhenya: No, not on skates, just like that, in the crowd. And as far as I remember ... Here is a picture from childhood: Plushenko was sitting in a cafe, which was specially closed for him from other visitors so that he could eat in peace ...
YB: But you didn't let him eat...
Zhenya: And I resolutely went straight to this cafe, opened the door. They kicked me out of there, of course. Well, I waited, he still wrote something on my piece of paper. But where is this piece of paper now, I have no idea, I lost it many years ago.
YB: Does Plushenko himself remember this story and your meeting?
Zhenya: (shakes his head negatively) No, of course not.
AM: So, we will remind him of this someday if he comes to us.
Zhenya: I don't think he ever remembered it at all...
YB: You know, among your subscribers there are… It is clear, of course, that figure skating enthusiasts, your fans, ordinary people who follow you subscribe to you, but there are also stars, including those not from Russia. Here is an American actor, by the way, Mikhail's favorite actor ...
MP: Yes, I found out about it and was surprised, to be honest. Ansel Elgort.
Zhenya: Yes, yes!
MP: Who starred in Baby Driver with Kevin Spacey. Tell me how you met.
AM: We already understood how you met Plushenko…
Zhenya: He followed me on Instagram. And they started telling me about it. And I: “What? Who is this anyway?
MP: So you also have a question ...
Zhenya: Yes, I didn’t know who it was, but I checked and made sure that he was really subscribed to me, and I immediately saw that he had several million subscribers. I looked for information about him on Google - no, I haven’t seen the films, I don’t know. And he answered me in Stories. Well, I wrote him something like: "Thank you for subscribing, brother." Well, I don't know how to react to that. Just a couple of times I somehow corresponded with him in Direct, and that's it, in general, that's it. We have no common themes, no overlaps either.
YB: Do you generally reply to your fans if they write to you?
Zhenya: Rarely, but yes, I answer.
YB: Selectively?
Zhenya: Yes, selectively.
MP: Well, it's impossible to answer everyone, I guess.
Zhenya: Of course, you can't answer everyone.
AM: We were waiting for you here at the interview and also wondered whether you would answer us or not...
Zhenya: I won’t lie - in most cases I don’t answer, because ...
AM: They write a lot, I guess.
Zhenya: Yes, a lot, and a lot of empty messages, something like: "Hi, how are you?". Well, what can I answer? "Fine". But if the message talks about some real problem, or some important question is asked that I can answer, then I take a screenshot and send it to the manager so that the person can be helped. For example, there was some competition within the framework of cooperation with a certain brand. And if there are questions about this contest, but there are no answers either from this brand or from our side, then I take a screenshot, send it to the manager, and we discuss ways to solve the problem with him. That is, if I can provide some real help to people, if there are weighty questions, then I answer.
YB: And if they ask for financial assistance, or, say, advice, something like “my daughter is engaged in [figure skating], is it possible to get her somewhere” ...
Zhenya: This also happens ...
YB: Help with skates, maybe there is no money for skates, a uniform or a dress ...
Zhenya: There are really a lot of these too. As a rule, I do not respond to financial requests, because I already do charity work within the framework of various projects. I cooperate with the Khabensky Foundation, we have launched the Help app. That is, I really invest in charity.
And when they write to me: “It’s my mother’s birthday, I’m missing two thousand, throw off five thousand” ...
AM: Great math!
Zhenya: I just think that there are no hopeless situations, and if someone really needs five thousand, there are a lot of options in order to earn this money in a few days, you just need to try. Perhaps now they will condemn me, but, as it is fashionable to say, this is my personal opinion.
AM: Mikhail has your quote...
MP: Yes! Well, I am a journalist and such topics are close to me. Quote: “A couple of years ago, I probably would have answered that I was afraid to give live interviews. Sweaty palms, shifty eyes, tongue-tied tongue - I had it all. The fear has now been overcome. This is also a victory, although not a sporting one.” These words were spoken in 2017, and now it seems to me that this is either not about you at all, or from some other life.
Zhenya: I will say this: yesterday I was on a TV show with Maxim Galkin and there was a topic - oral stories. There had to be a story to be told. And a girl from Maxim’s team said: “When we invite athletes, we always worry, because these people are shy, afraid to talk about something, answer with stereotyped phrases that they have nothing to say, or they don’t want to talk, or that they they don’t have any interesting stories, but Zhenya took it and told it - it’s so great! The difference here is precisely that when an interview with a person goes along one line of sports, and when this person’s life consists of competitions, tournaments, the Olympic Games (and this is relevant right now) - this is one thing.
When there are many lines of interviews, when there is sports, but there is one direction, the second, the third, when he is on television, and many people see it, this is different. The horizon is expanding, and although I cannot call it freedom in the full sense of the word, but such a variety of directions gives freedom of thought, and as a result, when you relax, you are no longer afraid to say something superfluous ...
AM: In addition, experience appears, you begin to communicate more, talk more.
Zhenya: When you are in sports, it’s like barriers are set in your head - a step to the left or a step to the right - and execution, because there must be discipline, and you can only say what you are obliged to say. It is difficult for an active athlete to tell a story: “What if I say something wrong? What if I say something offensive about coaches or about journalists? Well, that is, there are such experiences, but when you relax a little, move away from sports - immediately - ufff!
AM: So you are free now and you can go to What Happened Next (comic Internet show)? Would you be able to go there, would you risk it?
Zhenya: I don't think it's some kind of risk. Firstly ... Well, let's look at "What happened next" - well, is the same Mr. Shcherbakov really going to play such a tough joke on me? That is, I will be there, a girl at the age of 22, and will he really express his own to my eyes ... Well, what we know. I have nothing against Shcherbakov, but he is sometimes tough. Therefore, I think that in my case there will still be some difference. If suddenly I go there, since we are talking about it, then the difference will still be. So why not?
AM: But in social networks, as you correctly said, there are many people, they have different opinions, someone loves you, someone does not love you. How do you deal with hate on social media?
Zhenya: Lately... Well, look - Tik-Tok. This is a fairly young social network. And my fans, people who follow my life, they downloaded Tik-Tok for themselves. There is something like an age barrier of 30+. That is, there are also adults on Tik-Tok, but they are there precisely in order to follow someone's content. And basically Tik-Tok's audience is young - from eight to seventeen or eighteen years old. They are the ones who are the most active. And so I recently encountered such a phenomenon ... It’s clear that this is baby talk, but I didn’t say the phrase: “this is purely my opinion” for nothing, I noticed this trend: they go under the video and write something like “Fu, yes you [expletive]”, and then in parentheses at the end, everyone writes – “don’t be offended, but this is my opinion.”
AM: So you borrowed this phrase from them?
Zhenya: Yes! (laughs) It's very funny - children think that they can cover up their little poop with "my opinion" - and everything will be OK. It is clear that these are children who are learning to live in society, but so far, unfortunately, they have a toxic society. I hope they lose it with age.
YB: Do you think there is some explanation here - well, children, what they might seem to have against you, why do they need this?
Zhenya: The fact of the matter is that they have nothing against me, and...
YB: They just want you to notice them, read their messages?
AM: And paid attention to them ...
Zhenya: I think so. I sat and thought about it for a long time. I don’t worry about my own moral state, but I sat and thought - why is this happening? Why are children so aggressive? And then, if you think about it - it's always been like that. It also happens at school that some children humiliate other children. This exists...
AM: We are facing something like this, it’s just that now it somehow intensified…
Zhenya: Now it just became more accessible and open…
AM: You know, in our past...
Zhenya: On the contrary, closed, not open. Because you can create a fake account.
MP: It's easy to hide behind a nickname and an avatar.
AM: Alexey Nemov was with us on the last program. I love him very much, we talked for a long time, discussed, among other things, the topic of different generations. Here we are one generation, you are another. How do senior figure skating comrades feel about your popularity and presence in the media? They never told you: “Go and train, why did you go again to appear in commercials” - was there such a thing?
Zhenya: No, not even once. In general, this has never happened, because adults just understand what an athlete’s career is for. That's why the world championships, the Olympic Games are won, what is all this for? It is clear that this is a bright culmination of the career of a figure skater, and indeed of any other athlete. But then after all the continuation is meant. And this is fame, presence in the media, advertising earnings. That is, a career simply opens doors for us, gives us new paths. And I think that the older generation, consisting of figure skaters such as, for example, Alexei Yagudin, of coaches such as Tatyana Tarasova, this generation is well aware that at some point the sport stops. Or rather, the sport continues, but in a different direction.
Thank God that in our sport there are, for example, ice shows, various projects. For example, during the New Year holidays these are productions for children, in the summer these are more serious productions, such as Anna Karenina. We have the development of not only sports, but also artistic careers. In any case, sport is not forever - and the older generation understands everything perfectly.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
part 2:
MP: Can I start a topic about Alexei Yagudin? He sometimes write in Stories ...
Zhenya: It is immediately clear that you are a journalist!
MP: Well, yes ... He sometimes has some frankly provocative publications. As far as I know, he does not hide the fact that he is an atheist, and he can also joke about this topic. In addition, there were jokes, or rather, not even jokes, but such harsh statements about gays. And then did you react to his remarks when you said something like “Guys, everything is fine, kisses to everyone”?
Zhenya: I don't understand...
AM: So you are more loyal to these trends?
MP: Firstly, more loyally, and secondly, is this the difference between generations?
Zhenya: Well, you know, I'll probably say this - we have different generations not in sports, but ordinary, that is, just usual generations. And we're not that big of a difference. Because Alexei also has two children - Lisa and Michel, and Lisa is older, and she is just the closest to me, closer than I am to Alexei. But in any case, he understands what kind of world we all live in at the moment. And my position is this: I do not condemn and do not approve. It is clear that each person has his own way of expressing himself and defending his point of view, or perhaps just a way to additionally attract attention to himself. I prefer not to comment [on Yagudin's words], because I disagree with many of his words and at the same time I don't think that aggression should be shown on social networks in this matter. But at the same time, I have no hostility towards Alexei, because personally he never did anything bad to me. So I remain neutral.
MP: Is that your opinion?
Zhenya: This is my opinion!
YB: Okay, tell me - now we have discussed your generation, the older generation to which Yagudin belongs, but now they are talking a lot about girls aged thirteen to fifteen. This is a new generation of figure skaters. Do you think they are different? What is the main difference from your generation?
Zhenya: Uh-huh. Now I will formulate. There is definitely a difference. And now even in social networks [it can be seen]. Just yesterday, I told my mother: I go to Instagram, I see a new publication by Kamila Valieva, Anna Shcherbakova, girls who are going to the Olympics - and I immediately remember how six months before the Olympics, the whole team stopped giving interviews, stopped publishing in in social networks. For example, I was not on social networks for exactly five months. The Olympics ended - and immediately, on the same evening after ...
YB: Was it your personal choice? Or so the coach decided - turn off the phones, do not answer anyone?
Zhenya: It was a common choice. So for me it was calmer, because if you give an interview, something will hurt me and will have a bad effect on me. So I'm saying - here you can see the difference between athletes who actively compete in major international competitions and those who no longer do this. There is always a fear that if you just go beyond, say something wrong, journalists will get hooked on it, inflate [scandal], and this will prevent you from achieving your goal.
YB: Do you think it distracts from the main goal?
Zhenya: It's distracting. That is, I was personally very distracted. And for me, the ideal sports form is not only a physical, but also a mental state. And in this regard, I have been very fragile all my life. I could easily be taken out of a normal psychological state during the training process. At competitions, my nerves became stronger than steel, it was impossible to break through me. But this is precisely the culmination of the work - when you are at the top, you become unusually hard. But on the way to the Olympic Games or the World Championships - as soon as some article appears, and thoughts immediately diverge in different directions, I start thinking about this article, and it immediately knocks me out of the right mood. Therefore, both I and the whole team decided to abandon social networks and not give interviews, not give reasons. And now times are different. And girls already have advertising contracts, and they need to fulfill obligations in order to earn money. And this means that it is necessary to make advertising publications, Stories and so on. So times have changed a bit in that sense. I am very happy for the girls, because I understand that sports should lead them somewhere. It's great that they have this opportunity.
AM: If we are discussing the topic not only of the Olympics, but of competitions in general, there will always be interesting topics for discussion. For example, non-binary figure skater Timothy LeDuc will perform at the upcoming Olympics. What do you think about this? In any case, this is the first such case that will be discussed, all aspects will be considered - and questions will be asked first of all to the skaters ...
YB: This is the first case in history.
Zhenya: Well, in fact, I was asked about this for the first time ...
AM: Victory! We are first.
YB: You are the first...
Zhenya: I'm a little confused, because I myself have not yet been able to form an opinion about this. Here and now, I will say this: as a person who has lived in Canada for almost three years, I am absolutely calm about this. I talked with people of non-traditional sexual orientation, with non-binary people, and I realized that they are ordinary people. And they are just as different from each other. Everyone has different characters - one person is compatible with me, and the other is not. If people can't connect with each other, that's fine. And there are people with whom you can exchange a few words - and that's it, you become best friends. And it does not depend on sexual orientation. It does not depend on self-perception, on gender, on belonging to one or another gender. We are all human and we need to remember this.
AM: And love each other...
Zhenya: We are not obliged to love each other, but we must respect our own choice and the choice of other people. I believe that if you condemn the choice of another person, this means that in some sense you do not respect your choice either. Each person has his own preferences, and if he calmly talks about these preferences, does not hesitate to publish information about it, this means that he is firmly convinced of this and we have no right to condemn him or call him some offensive words. Because the opposite situation may also arise: we condemn someone else's choice, and this means that we are dissatisfied with our own choice.
YB: I don’t have anything against LeDuc either, because he competes in pairs, and he fulfills his male mission, a male role, he didn’t change into a women’s dress and didn’t start competing in women’s single skating - otherwise it would be regarded completely differently. Just if you draw a parallel with my sport ... Zhenya, well, you probably know rhythmic gymnastics.
We have the Spanish direction of men's artistic gymnastics, and we have the Japanese direction. Here is the Japanese direction, when a man is dressed like an ordinary gymnast, and during the performance he shows quite “male” gymnastics, which differs from the female one in special types of sports equipment (hoops and maces), does not cause me objections. But I do not agree with when a man puts on a jumpsuit or swimsuit with rhinestones and does everything that women do
Zhenya: And in figure skating, how do boys look in overalls with rhinestones? Does not it confuse you?
YB: No, for some reason this does not bother me, I perceive them as ballet dancers ...
Zhenya: But ballet dancers also perform in tight jumpsuits with rhinestones.
YB: Yes, but it doesn't bother me, because it's normal. There is the feminine and there is the masculine. But here all the same ... I think that such rhythmic gymnastics, in which I and other girls were, and which men suddenly fit into, is ... To be honest, I just can’t look at it.
Zhenya: Well, I don’t even know ... I don’t want to enter into a discussion ...
MP: Let's change the subject.
Zhenya: Yes, I agree.
MP: Tell us about the upcoming Olympics and the role of the ambassador. Do you understand what is your responsibility, what you will need to do, what it is in general, what are your functions?
Zhenya: Okay, so I recently received an Olympic uniform and gave a video interview. After that, I saw the headline in large letters: "Medvedeva: I do not know what I will do as an ambassador." And everyone reacted - how does she not know?! She has direct responsibilities. And I said this in the sense that the Olympics are being held for the first time in such a regime - in a coronavirus, closed regime. And not only I do not know what will happen there, at the Olympics, with me - what will be possible to do, what will be prohibited. Only after arriving in Beijing will a plan be drawn up for each event, each link of the team ...
AM: That is, you will be able to understand this only after arriving at the Olympics?
Zhenya: Yes, even the athletes have no idea yet how everything will look like. I will say more: my position myself has not previously existed, there were no people who were appointed ambassador to the Olympics. In Tokyo, it turned out that I didn’t go because of the coronavirus, so I don’t have real experience. For the first time. In general, I understand what I will do, but I do not know how it will look like and how it will be implemented. Because I don't know what conditions the organizers will give us. That's the meaning I was talking about. I understand my duties very well, but I don't know what their fulfillment will look like.
AM: A small remark: Yesterday I spoke with a doctor of a hockey team, and he said that such a number of documents, as he collected for this Olympics, he had not collected in life. And according to him, the main goal is just to get to the Olympics so that everyone is not sent back straight from the airport.
YB: The main goal is not to get a positive test.
MP: Can I start a topic about Alexei Yagudin? He sometimes write in Stories ...
Zhenya: It is immediately clear that you are a journalist!
MP: Well, yes ... He sometimes has some frankly provocative publications. As far as I know, he does not hide the fact that he is an atheist, and he can also joke about this topic. In addition, there were jokes, or rather, not even jokes, but such harsh statements about gays. And then did you react to his remarks when you said something like “Guys, everything is fine, kisses to everyone”?
Zhenya: I don't understand...
AM: So you are more loyal to these trends?
MP: Firstly, more loyally, and secondly, is this the difference between generations?
Zhenya: Well, you know, I'll probably say this - we have different generations not in sports, but ordinary, that is, just usual generations. And we're not that big of a difference. Because Alexei also has two children - Lisa and Michel, and Lisa is older, and she is just the closest to me, closer than I am to Alexei. But in any case, he understands what kind of world we all live in at the moment. And my position is this: I do not condemn and do not approve. It is clear that each person has his own way of expressing himself and defending his point of view, or perhaps just a way to additionally attract attention to himself. I prefer not to comment [on Yagudin's words], because I disagree with many of his words and at the same time I don't think that aggression should be shown on social networks in this matter. But at the same time, I have no hostility towards Alexei, because personally he never did anything bad to me. So I remain neutral.
MP: Is that your opinion?
Zhenya: This is my opinion!
YB: Okay, tell me - now we have discussed your generation, the older generation to which Yagudin belongs, but now they are talking a lot about girls aged thirteen to fifteen. This is a new generation of figure skaters. Do you think they are different? What is the main difference from your generation?
Zhenya: Uh-huh. Now I will formulate. There is definitely a difference. And now even in social networks [it can be seen]. Just yesterday, I told my mother: I go to Instagram, I see a new publication by Kamila Valieva, Anna Shcherbakova, girls who are going to the Olympics - and I immediately remember how six months before the Olympics, the whole team stopped giving interviews, stopped publishing in in social networks. For example, I was not on social networks for exactly five months. The Olympics ended - and immediately, on the same evening after ...
YB: Was it your personal choice? Or so the coach decided - turn off the phones, do not answer anyone?
Zhenya: It was a common choice. So for me it was calmer, because if you give an interview, something will hurt me and will have a bad effect on me. So I'm saying - here you can see the difference between athletes who actively compete in major international competitions and those who no longer do this. There is always a fear that if you just go beyond, say something wrong, journalists will get hooked on it, inflate [scandal], and this will prevent you from achieving your goal.
YB: Do you think it distracts from the main goal?
Zhenya: It's distracting. That is, I was personally very distracted. And for me, the ideal sports form is not only a physical, but also a mental state. And in this regard, I have been very fragile all my life. I could easily be taken out of a normal psychological state during the training process. At competitions, my nerves became stronger than steel, it was impossible to break through me. But this is precisely the culmination of the work - when you are at the top, you become unusually hard. But on the way to the Olympic Games or the World Championships - as soon as some article appears, and thoughts immediately diverge in different directions, I start thinking about this article, and it immediately knocks me out of the right mood. Therefore, both I and the whole team decided to abandon social networks and not give interviews, not give reasons. And now times are different. And girls already have advertising contracts, and they need to fulfill obligations in order to earn money. And this means that it is necessary to make advertising publications, Stories and so on. So times have changed a bit in that sense. I am very happy for the girls, because I understand that sports should lead them somewhere. It's great that they have this opportunity.
AM: If we are discussing the topic not only of the Olympics, but of competitions in general, there will always be interesting topics for discussion. For example, non-binary figure skater Timothy LeDuc will perform at the upcoming Olympics. What do you think about this? In any case, this is the first such case that will be discussed, all aspects will be considered - and questions will be asked first of all to the skaters ...
YB: This is the first case in history.
Zhenya: Well, in fact, I was asked about this for the first time ...
AM: Victory! We are first.
YB: You are the first...
Zhenya: I'm a little confused, because I myself have not yet been able to form an opinion about this. Here and now, I will say this: as a person who has lived in Canada for almost three years, I am absolutely calm about this. I talked with people of non-traditional sexual orientation, with non-binary people, and I realized that they are ordinary people. And they are just as different from each other. Everyone has different characters - one person is compatible with me, and the other is not. If people can't connect with each other, that's fine. And there are people with whom you can exchange a few words - and that's it, you become best friends. And it does not depend on sexual orientation. It does not depend on self-perception, on gender, on belonging to one or another gender. We are all human and we need to remember this.
AM: And love each other...
Zhenya: We are not obliged to love each other, but we must respect our own choice and the choice of other people. I believe that if you condemn the choice of another person, this means that in some sense you do not respect your choice either. Each person has his own preferences, and if he calmly talks about these preferences, does not hesitate to publish information about it, this means that he is firmly convinced of this and we have no right to condemn him or call him some offensive words. Because the opposite situation may also arise: we condemn someone else's choice, and this means that we are dissatisfied with our own choice.
YB: I don’t have anything against LeDuc either, because he competes in pairs, and he fulfills his male mission, a male role, he didn’t change into a women’s dress and didn’t start competing in women’s single skating - otherwise it would be regarded completely differently. Just if you draw a parallel with my sport ... Zhenya, well, you probably know rhythmic gymnastics.
We have the Spanish direction of men's artistic gymnastics, and we have the Japanese direction. Here is the Japanese direction, when a man is dressed like an ordinary gymnast, and during the performance he shows quite “male” gymnastics, which differs from the female one in special types of sports equipment (hoops and maces), does not cause me objections. But I do not agree with when a man puts on a jumpsuit or swimsuit with rhinestones and does everything that women do
Zhenya: And in figure skating, how do boys look in overalls with rhinestones? Does not it confuse you?
YB: No, for some reason this does not bother me, I perceive them as ballet dancers ...
Zhenya: But ballet dancers also perform in tight jumpsuits with rhinestones.
YB: Yes, but it doesn't bother me, because it's normal. There is the feminine and there is the masculine. But here all the same ... I think that such rhythmic gymnastics, in which I and other girls were, and which men suddenly fit into, is ... To be honest, I just can’t look at it.
Zhenya: Well, I don’t even know ... I don’t want to enter into a discussion ...
MP: Let's change the subject.
Zhenya: Yes, I agree.
MP: Tell us about the upcoming Olympics and the role of the ambassador. Do you understand what is your responsibility, what you will need to do, what it is in general, what are your functions?
Zhenya: Okay, so I recently received an Olympic uniform and gave a video interview. After that, I saw the headline in large letters: "Medvedeva: I do not know what I will do as an ambassador." And everyone reacted - how does she not know?! She has direct responsibilities. And I said this in the sense that the Olympics are being held for the first time in such a regime - in a coronavirus, closed regime. And not only I do not know what will happen there, at the Olympics, with me - what will be possible to do, what will be prohibited. Only after arriving in Beijing will a plan be drawn up for each event, each link of the team ...
AM: That is, you will be able to understand this only after arriving at the Olympics?
Zhenya: Yes, even the athletes have no idea yet how everything will look like. I will say more: my position myself has not previously existed, there were no people who were appointed ambassador to the Olympics. In Tokyo, it turned out that I didn’t go because of the coronavirus, so I don’t have real experience. For the first time. In general, I understand what I will do, but I do not know how it will look like and how it will be implemented. Because I don't know what conditions the organizers will give us. That's the meaning I was talking about. I understand my duties very well, but I don't know what their fulfillment will look like.
AM: A small remark: Yesterday I spoke with a doctor of a hockey team, and he said that such a number of documents, as he collected for this Olympics, he had not collected in life. And according to him, the main goal is just to get to the Olympics so that everyone is not sent back straight from the airport.
YB: The main goal is not to get a positive test.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
part 3:
AM: We discussed the difference between generations of skaters. And now I want to talk about another topic. As you said yourself, you lived in Canada. And before you trained in Russia. What is the difference between the coaching mentality in these countries?
Zhenya: I'll put it this way: in Russia it's completely team work – from start to finish. The coach even knows what you do in your free time, he knows what you eat for breakfast, when you visit a doctor, what diagnoses this doctor makes - this goes without saying, he knows about all the extra classes. There should be constant contact with the coach, you always cross paths with him. In Canada, it's more of a personal job. That is, you have your own preferences. For example: “I have a training session on ice today. Do I want to take additional choreography classes, or do I not want to?”
AM: Wow...
Zhenya: I have separate funds from my personal budget. One part - for training on ice, the other - for additional classes ...
MP: So it's like an education system - you yourself add some additional elements?
Zhenya: Yes, for example, choreography is good, if you don’t want to go to choreography, it’s your choice.
AM: But I want to say that this is some kind of internal self-discipline that an athlete develops. In the same time…
MP: Responsibility is the most important thing...
AM: Yes, responsibility, but at the same time it is in America or Canada where a psychologist plays a very important role. Because in Russia they have only just begun to pay attention to this, but in our time there was less of it. Did you work with a psychologist there?
Zhenya: I tried to work with a psychologist in Canada. But there was a difference in mentality.
AM: Was it an English-speaking psychologist?
Zhenya: Yes. It was an English speaking woman. She is beautiful, even amazing, she said very right things to me, but it did not affect me. This method didn't work. Therefore, I dealt with moral and mental problems myself, just as always.
AM: Did you already know English when you left? Or did you leave with a small vocabulary, and only now, after returning, can you say that you speak this language fluently?
Zhenya: No, when I left, I already had pretty good knowledge, because before that I had already been on the international scene for about five years. There was a lot of communication, it was in English. So there was knowledge, but there was no special practice. And as a result, in the first weeks of my life in Canada, about two hours after the start of training, when someone spoke to me in English, I perfectly heard every word, but absolutely did not understand the meaning of the phrase. Then I took breaks, drank strong coffee with half a chocolate bar, it increased the level of sugar in my blood, and when I returned later, everything was already in order. That is, intense physical activity, combined with mental stress, caused a sharp drop in sugar levels - to such an extent that I just stared blankly at the wall and did not understand anything.
AM: This is also a kind of training ...
YB: You know, you just said that when you were training in Canada, you could choose for yourself. I had such a story - when I finished my sports career, it turned out that I broke up with my coach very badly. And I had a choice - to go abroad, and no longer play for Russia, to train with a foreign specialist. And it had to be on the same conditions that you talked about, that is, self-discipline was needed. You can do one thing, you can do another - all the more so, I already have experience, I have titles, that is, I had to choose myself. Nothing came of the very idea of leaving, but I managed to understand that I would not have been able to. Because I went through that school in which the coach makes all the decisions for you - what time to get up, what to eat, what time to come to training, how long this training should last, how long the rest should last, what time the second training will begin. And then suddenly you have the opportunity to choose - so I just wouldn’t choose anything, I wouldn’t do anything and I wouldn’t achieve anything. Because if I was given such freedom of choice, my results would begin to deteriorate, I would not cope with it. Don't you think the fact that we grew up in this Soviet or Russian school, in which everything is very strict, in which everything is decided for us, is an insurmountable obstacle, due to which we will not be able to train in the system where it is proposed to make a choice for ourselves ?
Zhenya: There is indeed a huge difference between these two systems, but it cannot be said that one of them is better and the other is worse. We can only say that these systems are very different and each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. Yes, all my main victories were here, within the framework of the Russian system. But at some point I needed a change of scenery. And although this change of scenery did not lead to victory, I still got bronze at the World Championships. I qualified for the World Championship twice, was selected the second time, and brought a medal to my country. Still, there is some result. Yes, it's hard to force yourself. It happens that you are lying on the bed in the morning, somewhere around eight o'clock, and you have the opportunity - just send the coach a message “not today”, but you get up and go.
AM: You know, there is another topic about figure skating - there are a lot of scandals in your sport. It seems to me that there is no such thing in football or in any other sport. And it's all inside. That is, it’s not just some journalist throwing in a topic, and then this topic is being promoted - no, these are conflicts of one coach with another, or one skater with another, and so on, we won’t name names ...
MP: Bots, bots exist...
AM: Why do you think? Or are you just not paying attention to it? Or is it... I have a question - why? Why are you guys scolding each other?
Zhenya: I probably won't be able to answer this question, because I don't participate in such debates.
AM: But you're watching from the side? Are you reading these messages?
Zhenya: I live in the world of figure skating, I'm not going anywhere from this. Naturally, I see, because I'm on social networks all the time, I see the news, I see what's happening. I will not comment on the behavior of other people, I will say to myself - I do not need to participate in scandals. Because I have more than enough of what they attribute to me, and they attribute to me what I have never done.
AM: When you read, do you think: “Damn, why are they doing this”, or something else? Does it shock you that these people are fighting so much with each other?
Zhenya: It's just there, it's always been. It used to be in newspapers, now it's happening on social media. Many people say that it has become too much, but this has always been the case. There was bullying at school, there were scandals in the newspapers. All the athletes and coaches said, "It doesn't matter what happened, it's important that it doesn't get in the papers." And now instead of a newspaper - this (claps on the smartphone). There are newspapers, and magazines, and ads - anything.
AM: Probably, it's still distracting?
Zhenya: No, it does not distract in any way, because this usually does not concern me.
YB: Is this due to the fact that competition has intensified sharply within the team? After all, before it was not like that ... Well, we had Butyrskaya, Slutskaya and all the others. And now, for example, the recent championship of Russia. This is probably the most important start for the skater now ...
Zhenya: Yes, it is.
YB: Not the European Championship, not the World Championship, not the Olympics, but the Russian Championship, where the selection takes place. And there, probably, each of the first ten athletes deserves to get into the top three and go to the Olympics. Perhaps it is precisely because of increased competition that these conflicts, scandals and intrigues arise?
Zhenya: Yes, probably so. But what is remarkable - for most of my career it was like this ... This is just an insert, this is not self-praise, this is based on facts ...
MP: Your opinion.
Zhenya: Well, really, guys, no offense ...
AM: This phrase is like the motto of today's meeting.
Zhenya: So this is the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships. Three of us arrived: me, Anna Pogorilaya and Elena Radionova. And we are always the three of us, at all competitions the three of us. And we usually have a pedestal formed like this: me, Anna and Elena, or me, Elena and Anna. And that's how it was all the time. Maybe this is the reason why there was much less controversy. Because the country was rooting for the three of us. All three were "our girls". And now the groups of fans began to separate - for Anya, for Kamila, for Sasha, and now clashes began. And the girls really just go out and work. And I hope that all these conflicts do not concern them in any way. I have already told how I feel about this - I could have been knocked down on the way to the goal with these scandals, information flows ... By the way, what was the question about, I forgot already?
YB: About competition, how do you feel about competition
Zhenya: Competition, yes.
YB: And we paid attention to the fact that everything is very calm in men's figure skating.
MP: Silence, complete silence compared to [women's figure skating].
YB: Everything is calm, as in ice dancing, as in sports couples - everything is quite calm. But in women's figure skating - well, it's just ...
AM: Women's team is always difficult.
YB: Tell me, just now you named the girls with whom you performed together. And were you friends with them, was it a sincere friendship, or were you nothing more than teammates? Is there really true friendship within the team?
Zhenya: You know, it exists. Here with Anna Pogorilaya we always, at all competitions, either lived together, or went shopping together. We went constantly, for example, in Bratislava it was. Of course, we were rivals, but our relationship has always been good, and now I'm interested in watching her. She has a beautiful daughter, she has a husband, she works as a coach, trains young skaters. Elena Radionova - I have a normal human level with her, when we competed, we always had good relations, we could discuss a lot together. I never lived with her and didn’t go to stores, we had different companies. But now that we are both older, we started talking a lot. So there is friendship...
AM: Moreover, when you go through a lot together, then ...
Zhenya: We really went through a lot together.
AM: Injuries, tragedies, losses, wins, it creates a special atmosphere.
YB: Not every team, and not all sports have this.
Zhenya: Well, at that time, when the three of us participated in all competitions, it was like that, peace and friendship reigned. Of course, there were some stuff about which one or the other of us is the best, but these questions were somehow resolved anyway, and in the end everything returned to normal.
AM: And at the same time, competition helps a lot ...
Zhenya: Yes, of course.
MP: But the current competition is a healthy or unhealthy phenomenon.
Zhenya: I have no idea, because I have nothing to do with the current competition.
AM: It seems to me that the competition itself is good. Another thing is that Zhenya speaks correctly - it is important how you feel about it. You can take the pluses and move yourself forward, or you can be offended by the whole world and think that no one loves you - and then start eating yourself.
AM: We discussed the difference between generations of skaters. And now I want to talk about another topic. As you said yourself, you lived in Canada. And before you trained in Russia. What is the difference between the coaching mentality in these countries?
Zhenya: I'll put it this way: in Russia it's completely team work – from start to finish. The coach even knows what you do in your free time, he knows what you eat for breakfast, when you visit a doctor, what diagnoses this doctor makes - this goes without saying, he knows about all the extra classes. There should be constant contact with the coach, you always cross paths with him. In Canada, it's more of a personal job. That is, you have your own preferences. For example: “I have a training session on ice today. Do I want to take additional choreography classes, or do I not want to?”
AM: Wow...
Zhenya: I have separate funds from my personal budget. One part - for training on ice, the other - for additional classes ...
MP: So it's like an education system - you yourself add some additional elements?
Zhenya: Yes, for example, choreography is good, if you don’t want to go to choreography, it’s your choice.
AM: But I want to say that this is some kind of internal self-discipline that an athlete develops. In the same time…
MP: Responsibility is the most important thing...
AM: Yes, responsibility, but at the same time it is in America or Canada where a psychologist plays a very important role. Because in Russia they have only just begun to pay attention to this, but in our time there was less of it. Did you work with a psychologist there?
Zhenya: I tried to work with a psychologist in Canada. But there was a difference in mentality.
AM: Was it an English-speaking psychologist?
Zhenya: Yes. It was an English speaking woman. She is beautiful, even amazing, she said very right things to me, but it did not affect me. This method didn't work. Therefore, I dealt with moral and mental problems myself, just as always.
AM: Did you already know English when you left? Or did you leave with a small vocabulary, and only now, after returning, can you say that you speak this language fluently?
Zhenya: No, when I left, I already had pretty good knowledge, because before that I had already been on the international scene for about five years. There was a lot of communication, it was in English. So there was knowledge, but there was no special practice. And as a result, in the first weeks of my life in Canada, about two hours after the start of training, when someone spoke to me in English, I perfectly heard every word, but absolutely did not understand the meaning of the phrase. Then I took breaks, drank strong coffee with half a chocolate bar, it increased the level of sugar in my blood, and when I returned later, everything was already in order. That is, intense physical activity, combined with mental stress, caused a sharp drop in sugar levels - to such an extent that I just stared blankly at the wall and did not understand anything.
AM: This is also a kind of training ...
YB: You know, you just said that when you were training in Canada, you could choose for yourself. I had such a story - when I finished my sports career, it turned out that I broke up with my coach very badly. And I had a choice - to go abroad, and no longer play for Russia, to train with a foreign specialist. And it had to be on the same conditions that you talked about, that is, self-discipline was needed. You can do one thing, you can do another - all the more so, I already have experience, I have titles, that is, I had to choose myself. Nothing came of the very idea of leaving, but I managed to understand that I would not have been able to. Because I went through that school in which the coach makes all the decisions for you - what time to get up, what to eat, what time to come to training, how long this training should last, how long the rest should last, what time the second training will begin. And then suddenly you have the opportunity to choose - so I just wouldn’t choose anything, I wouldn’t do anything and I wouldn’t achieve anything. Because if I was given such freedom of choice, my results would begin to deteriorate, I would not cope with it. Don't you think the fact that we grew up in this Soviet or Russian school, in which everything is very strict, in which everything is decided for us, is an insurmountable obstacle, due to which we will not be able to train in the system where it is proposed to make a choice for ourselves ?
Zhenya: There is indeed a huge difference between these two systems, but it cannot be said that one of them is better and the other is worse. We can only say that these systems are very different and each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. Yes, all my main victories were here, within the framework of the Russian system. But at some point I needed a change of scenery. And although this change of scenery did not lead to victory, I still got bronze at the World Championships. I qualified for the World Championship twice, was selected the second time, and brought a medal to my country. Still, there is some result. Yes, it's hard to force yourself. It happens that you are lying on the bed in the morning, somewhere around eight o'clock, and you have the opportunity - just send the coach a message “not today”, but you get up and go.
AM: You know, there is another topic about figure skating - there are a lot of scandals in your sport. It seems to me that there is no such thing in football or in any other sport. And it's all inside. That is, it’s not just some journalist throwing in a topic, and then this topic is being promoted - no, these are conflicts of one coach with another, or one skater with another, and so on, we won’t name names ...
MP: Bots, bots exist...
AM: Why do you think? Or are you just not paying attention to it? Or is it... I have a question - why? Why are you guys scolding each other?
Zhenya: I probably won't be able to answer this question, because I don't participate in such debates.
AM: But you're watching from the side? Are you reading these messages?
Zhenya: I live in the world of figure skating, I'm not going anywhere from this. Naturally, I see, because I'm on social networks all the time, I see the news, I see what's happening. I will not comment on the behavior of other people, I will say to myself - I do not need to participate in scandals. Because I have more than enough of what they attribute to me, and they attribute to me what I have never done.
AM: When you read, do you think: “Damn, why are they doing this”, or something else? Does it shock you that these people are fighting so much with each other?
Zhenya: It's just there, it's always been. It used to be in newspapers, now it's happening on social media. Many people say that it has become too much, but this has always been the case. There was bullying at school, there were scandals in the newspapers. All the athletes and coaches said, "It doesn't matter what happened, it's important that it doesn't get in the papers." And now instead of a newspaper - this (claps on the smartphone). There are newspapers, and magazines, and ads - anything.
AM: Probably, it's still distracting?
Zhenya: No, it does not distract in any way, because this usually does not concern me.
YB: Is this due to the fact that competition has intensified sharply within the team? After all, before it was not like that ... Well, we had Butyrskaya, Slutskaya and all the others. And now, for example, the recent championship of Russia. This is probably the most important start for the skater now ...
Zhenya: Yes, it is.
YB: Not the European Championship, not the World Championship, not the Olympics, but the Russian Championship, where the selection takes place. And there, probably, each of the first ten athletes deserves to get into the top three and go to the Olympics. Perhaps it is precisely because of increased competition that these conflicts, scandals and intrigues arise?
Zhenya: Yes, probably so. But what is remarkable - for most of my career it was like this ... This is just an insert, this is not self-praise, this is based on facts ...
MP: Your opinion.
Zhenya: Well, really, guys, no offense ...
AM: This phrase is like the motto of today's meeting.
Zhenya: So this is the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships. Three of us arrived: me, Anna Pogorilaya and Elena Radionova. And we are always the three of us, at all competitions the three of us. And we usually have a pedestal formed like this: me, Anna and Elena, or me, Elena and Anna. And that's how it was all the time. Maybe this is the reason why there was much less controversy. Because the country was rooting for the three of us. All three were "our girls". And now the groups of fans began to separate - for Anya, for Kamila, for Sasha, and now clashes began. And the girls really just go out and work. And I hope that all these conflicts do not concern them in any way. I have already told how I feel about this - I could have been knocked down on the way to the goal with these scandals, information flows ... By the way, what was the question about, I forgot already?
YB: About competition, how do you feel about competition
Zhenya: Competition, yes.
YB: And we paid attention to the fact that everything is very calm in men's figure skating.
MP: Silence, complete silence compared to [women's figure skating].
YB: Everything is calm, as in ice dancing, as in sports couples - everything is quite calm. But in women's figure skating - well, it's just ...
AM: Women's team is always difficult.
YB: Tell me, just now you named the girls with whom you performed together. And were you friends with them, was it a sincere friendship, or were you nothing more than teammates? Is there really true friendship within the team?
Zhenya: You know, it exists. Here with Anna Pogorilaya we always, at all competitions, either lived together, or went shopping together. We went constantly, for example, in Bratislava it was. Of course, we were rivals, but our relationship has always been good, and now I'm interested in watching her. She has a beautiful daughter, she has a husband, she works as a coach, trains young skaters. Elena Radionova - I have a normal human level with her, when we competed, we always had good relations, we could discuss a lot together. I never lived with her and didn’t go to stores, we had different companies. But now that we are both older, we started talking a lot. So there is friendship...
AM: Moreover, when you go through a lot together, then ...
Zhenya: We really went through a lot together.
AM: Injuries, tragedies, losses, wins, it creates a special atmosphere.
YB: Not every team, and not all sports have this.
Zhenya: Well, at that time, when the three of us participated in all competitions, it was like that, peace and friendship reigned. Of course, there were some stuff about which one or the other of us is the best, but these questions were somehow resolved anyway, and in the end everything returned to normal.
AM: And at the same time, competition helps a lot ...
Zhenya: Yes, of course.
MP: But the current competition is a healthy or unhealthy phenomenon.
Zhenya: I have no idea, because I have nothing to do with the current competition.
AM: It seems to me that the competition itself is good. Another thing is that Zhenya speaks correctly - it is important how you feel about it. You can take the pluses and move yourself forward, or you can be offended by the whole world and think that no one loves you - and then start eating yourself.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
part 4:
YB: Let's go back to the world you called friendly. Let's call this period your childhood.
Zhenya: In fact, yes, this is my childhood. I was 15 years old.
YB: But you once said that your childhood ended at the age of 12. How did it end, do you remember that?
Zhenya: Probably even 11 years old, 11. It was the adult championship of Russia, I have already talked about this very, very, very many times. It was the adult championship of Russia, and then there were no age restrictions. That is, at the age of 11, I could easily go to such a competition. I am at the stages of the Russian Cup (laughs, because I mispronounced the word “stages”, it turned out to be a word similar to “slippers”). At the stages of the Russian Cup, I was selected for the adult championship of Russia. I was the youngest there.
The point was that at the age of 11 I did two 3 + 3 combinations in the long program, which only a few skaters were capable of. And one of these cascades is in the second half of the program. Well, everyone reacted like that: “Oh God, what is this girl doing!”. And it would seem - who will be surprised by the 3 + 3 cascade. But then I did 3S + 3T in the second half, and everyone literally grabbed their heads. And then I took either sixth or seventh place, and this then became a powerful impetus for me. Because they immediately noticed me, they said: “Here, the girl is growing up, not bad, not bad,” Tatyana Tarasova said that I was a green fish, a spring, a jumper. That's when they noticed me. And although I didn’t shine very brightly, there was a response. Well, something changed in my head, because then I saw Alena Leonova, Ksenia Makarova, girls who were then selected at this competition to participate in international competitions - for the European Championship, for the World Championship. And that's when I realized that this is exactly why I skate - I want to be like them, I want to go there.
AM: I would like to know about your support that comes from childhood - about your grandmother and mother. That is, they immediately supported you - they clearly understood that you were moving towards your goal and that you needed to move along with you? Or did mom react calmly, in style - everything is fine, don’t be upset ...
Zhenya: No, both mother and grandmother, the kingdom of heaven to her ... Unfortunately, she died at the end of the previous year, right before the new year she went to another world. So, since childhood, both mother and grandmother have always been very objective. They knew not to praise me if I did something badly. And if I lose three or four elements in a free program, it is clear that this cannot be encouraged, because this will not give a result. But at the same time, they never went too far, it was always constructive criticism. Still, it's a sport. And the children - what do they want? They want candy or run to the playground. What child from eight to thirteen wants to work hard every day? Naturally, someone has to force, and my mother and grandmother took on this role - you must, then you must, get up and go. In the morning, my mother woke me up at eight in the morning, took me by the collar, put me in the car and drove me to the skating rink. You don't have a choice, girl. It is as it should be. Well, where it’s good, I was naturally encouraged. They said - if you jump a double axel, I'll buy you marmalade.
YB: So did with me.
AM: It was like that for everyone.
Zhenya: Yes, I jumped for marmalade.
MP: Please explain at what age do you begin to understand that what you do is your destiny, your duty, which you perform starting from Monday at seven o'clock in the morning? When do you start getting satisfaction from it? When you begin to understand that your classes are wonderful, is it right, are you doing it for a reason? When do you realize that this is not a load, but your life?
Zhenya: Thirteen years old. My very first Junior Grand Prix. I always liked to jump, I was always considered such a jumper. Here is this 3S+3T in the second half at 11 years old. And at that moment I thought: “Since people react like that, what will happen if I make a cascade not 3 + 3, but 3 + 3 + 3?”. And so I entered the international arena, and for me this is something for granted - to add two additional cascades to the free program, and one of them is not from two triple jumps, but from three or even four.
MP: Was it your idea or the coaches' idea?
Zhenya: The first push was from the coaches, but the continuation was mine. When I saw that I was succeeding, everything went by itself. Lutz-toe loop, Lutz-rittberger-toe loop, well, in general ... And here is the very first official training at the Grand Prix, and I saw the reaction of the audience. I remember there was such a training skating rink, and at the top there was a glassed-in cafe. At the beginning of the workout, there was no one in this cafe, and at the end there were a lot of people, pressing their faces against the glass and watching me jump. At that very moment, I realized that maybe there was something in me, maybe it was something special.
It is clear that these were 3 + 3 + 3 combinations, and I can do it, which means that I am doing something special that surprises people, something unusual.
YB: You were the first in the world to perform some elements?
Zhenya: No, I was not the first in the world. For example, Elena Radionova, who is a little older than me, she already performed at the adult stages of the Grand Prix, and she also did such cascades. Maybe not so often, but there are also videos. And I did such cascades in a row - one after another.
YB: You stamped them...
Zhenya: Yes, and at that moment I thought that there was something in me, and therefore I literally straightened my shoulders. But that season, unfortunately, I had an injury, my hip hurt. And at first I had gold, gold, gold, then an injury, and then I began to get bronze. But from the next season everything went as planned.
YB: Tell me, these are the forces that you are talking about, and the fact that you clearly knew where you need to go - maybe this is partly thanks to your mother, because your mother was also involved in figure skating, and if not for the injury, it would certainly have made significant progress. The fact that, apart from a coach, you also had a mother who understands figure skating, did it help you additionally? Or at home you wanted to say: “Mom, you don’t understand anything, I want to relax, sleep,” but ...
MP: But she just understands!
YB: But your mother understands and tells you - here you made a mistake, in this place you did something wrong, here you should have done it differently. Tell us about it.
Zhenya: As a child, it was ... My mother jumped all the triples. That is, she knows the technique of jumping. And she did cascades. Therefore, the fact of the matter is that she understands everything, and I saw that she knows better than I do. And I couldn’t object to her, because ... Well, for example, a girl whose mother did not go in for figure skating - she unties her skates, and her mother stands over her and says - now, it was all wrong, and the girl immediately answers: “Mom, leave me alone, you don’t understand anything about this.” And I sit and think: “But I can’t say that, she knows better than me how to skate.” So I didn’t say that to her, and I didn’t want to say that.
YB: That is, your mother is also an authority for you and you also obeyed her?
Zhenya: Well, of course, I obeyed her, of course.
YB: Is it true that your mother used to train at the same rink with Eteri Tutberidze as a child, although at different times? They say that your mother already noticed her then and thought: “Now, if my daughter is born, if she wants to become a figure skater, then I will give her only to Eteri.”
Zhenya: I don’t know such details…
AM: Probably, you will ask later.
YB: Ask your mom.
Zhenya (somewhere outside the camera's field of view): Mom, was it like that? (Pause) Says it didn't happen.
AM: Probably, journalists do not always write the truth...
YB: But that they trained at the same rink, although at different times - is that true?
Zhenya: Yes, it's true, it happened.
YB: Let's go back to the world you called friendly. Let's call this period your childhood.
Zhenya: In fact, yes, this is my childhood. I was 15 years old.
YB: But you once said that your childhood ended at the age of 12. How did it end, do you remember that?
Zhenya: Probably even 11 years old, 11. It was the adult championship of Russia, I have already talked about this very, very, very many times. It was the adult championship of Russia, and then there were no age restrictions. That is, at the age of 11, I could easily go to such a competition. I am at the stages of the Russian Cup (laughs, because I mispronounced the word “stages”, it turned out to be a word similar to “slippers”). At the stages of the Russian Cup, I was selected for the adult championship of Russia. I was the youngest there.
The point was that at the age of 11 I did two 3 + 3 combinations in the long program, which only a few skaters were capable of. And one of these cascades is in the second half of the program. Well, everyone reacted like that: “Oh God, what is this girl doing!”. And it would seem - who will be surprised by the 3 + 3 cascade. But then I did 3S + 3T in the second half, and everyone literally grabbed their heads. And then I took either sixth or seventh place, and this then became a powerful impetus for me. Because they immediately noticed me, they said: “Here, the girl is growing up, not bad, not bad,” Tatyana Tarasova said that I was a green fish, a spring, a jumper. That's when they noticed me. And although I didn’t shine very brightly, there was a response. Well, something changed in my head, because then I saw Alena Leonova, Ksenia Makarova, girls who were then selected at this competition to participate in international competitions - for the European Championship, for the World Championship. And that's when I realized that this is exactly why I skate - I want to be like them, I want to go there.
AM: I would like to know about your support that comes from childhood - about your grandmother and mother. That is, they immediately supported you - they clearly understood that you were moving towards your goal and that you needed to move along with you? Or did mom react calmly, in style - everything is fine, don’t be upset ...
Zhenya: No, both mother and grandmother, the kingdom of heaven to her ... Unfortunately, she died at the end of the previous year, right before the new year she went to another world. So, since childhood, both mother and grandmother have always been very objective. They knew not to praise me if I did something badly. And if I lose three or four elements in a free program, it is clear that this cannot be encouraged, because this will not give a result. But at the same time, they never went too far, it was always constructive criticism. Still, it's a sport. And the children - what do they want? They want candy or run to the playground. What child from eight to thirteen wants to work hard every day? Naturally, someone has to force, and my mother and grandmother took on this role - you must, then you must, get up and go. In the morning, my mother woke me up at eight in the morning, took me by the collar, put me in the car and drove me to the skating rink. You don't have a choice, girl. It is as it should be. Well, where it’s good, I was naturally encouraged. They said - if you jump a double axel, I'll buy you marmalade.
YB: So did with me.
AM: It was like that for everyone.
Zhenya: Yes, I jumped for marmalade.
MP: Please explain at what age do you begin to understand that what you do is your destiny, your duty, which you perform starting from Monday at seven o'clock in the morning? When do you start getting satisfaction from it? When you begin to understand that your classes are wonderful, is it right, are you doing it for a reason? When do you realize that this is not a load, but your life?
Zhenya: Thirteen years old. My very first Junior Grand Prix. I always liked to jump, I was always considered such a jumper. Here is this 3S+3T in the second half at 11 years old. And at that moment I thought: “Since people react like that, what will happen if I make a cascade not 3 + 3, but 3 + 3 + 3?”. And so I entered the international arena, and for me this is something for granted - to add two additional cascades to the free program, and one of them is not from two triple jumps, but from three or even four.
MP: Was it your idea or the coaches' idea?
Zhenya: The first push was from the coaches, but the continuation was mine. When I saw that I was succeeding, everything went by itself. Lutz-toe loop, Lutz-rittberger-toe loop, well, in general ... And here is the very first official training at the Grand Prix, and I saw the reaction of the audience. I remember there was such a training skating rink, and at the top there was a glassed-in cafe. At the beginning of the workout, there was no one in this cafe, and at the end there were a lot of people, pressing their faces against the glass and watching me jump. At that very moment, I realized that maybe there was something in me, maybe it was something special.
It is clear that these were 3 + 3 + 3 combinations, and I can do it, which means that I am doing something special that surprises people, something unusual.
YB: You were the first in the world to perform some elements?
Zhenya: No, I was not the first in the world. For example, Elena Radionova, who is a little older than me, she already performed at the adult stages of the Grand Prix, and she also did such cascades. Maybe not so often, but there are also videos. And I did such cascades in a row - one after another.
YB: You stamped them...
Zhenya: Yes, and at that moment I thought that there was something in me, and therefore I literally straightened my shoulders. But that season, unfortunately, I had an injury, my hip hurt. And at first I had gold, gold, gold, then an injury, and then I began to get bronze. But from the next season everything went as planned.
YB: Tell me, these are the forces that you are talking about, and the fact that you clearly knew where you need to go - maybe this is partly thanks to your mother, because your mother was also involved in figure skating, and if not for the injury, it would certainly have made significant progress. The fact that, apart from a coach, you also had a mother who understands figure skating, did it help you additionally? Or at home you wanted to say: “Mom, you don’t understand anything, I want to relax, sleep,” but ...
MP: But she just understands!
YB: But your mother understands and tells you - here you made a mistake, in this place you did something wrong, here you should have done it differently. Tell us about it.
Zhenya: As a child, it was ... My mother jumped all the triples. That is, she knows the technique of jumping. And she did cascades. Therefore, the fact of the matter is that she understands everything, and I saw that she knows better than I do. And I couldn’t object to her, because ... Well, for example, a girl whose mother did not go in for figure skating - she unties her skates, and her mother stands over her and says - now, it was all wrong, and the girl immediately answers: “Mom, leave me alone, you don’t understand anything about this.” And I sit and think: “But I can’t say that, she knows better than me how to skate.” So I didn’t say that to her, and I didn’t want to say that.
YB: That is, your mother is also an authority for you and you also obeyed her?
Zhenya: Well, of course, I obeyed her, of course.
YB: Is it true that your mother used to train at the same rink with Eteri Tutberidze as a child, although at different times? They say that your mother already noticed her then and thought: “Now, if my daughter is born, if she wants to become a figure skater, then I will give her only to Eteri.”
Zhenya: I don’t know such details…
AM: Probably, you will ask later.
YB: Ask your mom.
Zhenya (somewhere outside the camera's field of view): Mom, was it like that? (Pause) Says it didn't happen.
AM: Probably, journalists do not always write the truth...
YB: But that they trained at the same rink, although at different times - is that true?
Zhenya: Yes, it's true, it happened.
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
part 5:
AM: Were there any events in your childhood that shaped your character? Any highlights?
Zhenya: Influenced my psychology, right?
AM: Well, I remember, for example, how I realized that tennis is my job. Something clicked somewhere. This is not the moment when you start to enjoy skating - it's a little different, but when you realize that this is it, there is no other choice. It’s one thing when mom understands this, puts you in a car and takes you to training, and another thing when you yourself ...
Zhenya: That's when I realized that this was my job - it was quite late. Because I did everything, because I liked it, but I realized that this is my job, probably when I ran into difficulties. That is, I was already seventeen or eighteen years old. It's late.
Only now, from the height of the past years, I can say that I won two world championships, because I liked it, because I caught this feeling. There were no other serious injuries. Of course, I already had fractures, but they didn’t really bother me. They knocked the training rhythm off, but at the competitions it hardly bothered me, because there is adrenaline, courage, a lot of spectators - all this combined, and I succeeded, even world records. It doesn't matter if something hurts or not. Just went out - everything worked out.
And I began to understand that this is my job only after it stopped working out, when I had to strain to make it work. That is, when my autopilot turned off, and every movement had to be worked out in my head. That's when I felt that it was work, that you need to get up in the morning and bring yourself into the right state - yeah, I feel my fingers, I feel my arms, but my legs - I don’t feel my legs - I need to do something about it.
AM: The coach told me: if something hurts, then you are alive - get up and go to work.
YB: You just mentioned world records. In rhythmic gymnastics, last year at the World Championships, the world record was updated. Dina Averina became the eighteen-time world champion for the first time in history, overtaking Evgenia Kanaeva. And when they asked Dina if she knew that she became the world champion for the eighteenth time, she said: “Really? I didn't even consider it." During your career, you have broken world records for total points several times. Do you remember the exact number of these records?
Zhenya: Either eleven, or thirteen - I now find it difficult to answer.
YB: So it's always like this - when you set records, it doesn't matter to you?
Zhenya: I will say more - I had the same thing. At my first World Championships in the free program, I updated the world record for the sum of points. I was ahead of our greatest, absolute queen of ice, Korean Yuna Kim. And then journalists asked me with wide eyes: “For six years in figure skating, this record was held, you updated it.” I updated it by some hundredths of a point, or a point, I don’t remember anymore, it was a long time ago. And I stood and answered in surprise: “Really? How many points did I get? Well, that is, it was also such a reaction, like Averina, probably.
AM: Your mother was a figure skater. Do you think you will send your own children to figure skating too? For example, I didn’t send my children to tennis, I can say right away.
YB: And my eldest daughter did rhythmic gymnastics for a short time, but my youngest daughter was engaged in figure skating. And I can say that the most difficult thing for me was to lace up my shoes correctly. But I have learned to do it. It seems to me that if Zhenya is awakened at night, she will still do it correctly ...
AM: So you will send your children to figure skating? Will they follow your path?
Zhenya (shakes his head): If you do this, then you need to do it right ...
AM: Live the same life?
Zhenya: Yes, to live this life again. It’s not that I feel sorry for myself and don’t want to relive it all over again ...
AM: I feel sorry for myself...
Zhenya: I just want the children to be fine, everything worked out. And I understand that their fate, perhaps, will turn out completely differently than mine, even most likely it will be another way, because all paths are different and ...
YB: Well, if your child says, daughter or son: “Mom, I want to do figure skating, I want to, I dream,” will you say no?
Zhenya: It will depend on the situation in the family, because I don't have a husband yet. Therefore, it will depend on the situation in the family.
AM: But so far, first thoughts?
Zhenya: And it will depend on whether my opinion agrees with the opinion of my husband. Because the child will not only be mine. So we need to find compromises and understand what we want to do next. It will be a family project, I guess.
MP: You should also ask dad!
YB: I want to discuss one more topic with you. This topic is also, one might say, scandalous. This summer, at the ISU Congress, the issue of increasing the age limit in women's figure skating will be raised ...
Zhenya: I have answered this question many times.
YB: I heard different opinions from skaters. Mostly Russian, our skaters are categorically against it.
Zhenya: I will say this, I already have an answer, I know what you will continue to say, and I will immediately answer - I won my first world championship at the age of 15 - that's it. Here is the answer to the question.
MP: Under the new rules, you just wouldn't have made it to this competition, right?
Zhenya: Yes, they wouldn't let me in. I won at the age of 15, at 16, so… In 2015, my… That is, my birthday is in the middle of the season. That is, I won at the Grand Prix stages and in the Grand Prix final when I was still 15, I won the first World Championship after my birthday, that is, at the age of 16. I won the second world championship at the age of 17. At 18, I was at the Olympics, and that year I didn’t go to the World Championships due to an injury, and in 2019, at 19, I took bronze at the World Championships. That is, I took medals at one and at another age - I have different experience.
YB: But you understand that if this new rule were adopted now, then instead of Kamila Valieva, Liza Tuktamysheva would go to the Olympics. She is 25 years old. Of course, I have nothing against Camila, she is fantastic, but I feel so sorry for Lisa. She performed in your time, you were together, standing together on a pedestal. And so sorry for her, because she is worthy for her long, brilliant career ...
Zhenya: Absolutely!
YB: Worthy at least once to visit the Olympics. And we all understand that the next Olympics - well, that’s all, she won’t be there, she won’t train for another four years.
Zhenya: I will say this - I was at the Russian Championship, not as a participant, I just came out in demonstration performances at the invitation of the federation. In addition, I was acting as an employee of Channel One there. I did interviews, there were little tie-ins with me, and I watched the free skate. I did not come to the short program, I was not in St. Petersburg at that moment. But I came to the free program and watched. I will say that Lisa performed her program just like a queen. It was something amazing. But I'm sure that... I'll say this because it's still a sport, and I think if Lisa watches, she also understands that, unfortunately, you can't win in the short program. Short program can only lose. And Lisa did not succeed in the short program. We could continue the conversation about who went and who did not go to the Olympics in the event that everything turned out perfectly clean for her. But, unfortunately, there were mistakes. Unfortunately, this did not allow her to stand on the podium at the Russian Championship and get to the Olympics. Well, this is what happened.
YB: So you think that everything is absolutely correct? Do you think that the trio that goes to the Olympics, regardless of whether Lisa could or not, is the same trio that can win medals?
Zhenya: Absolutely!
YB: By the way, maybe for the first time in history there can be a purely Russian podium at the Olympics...
AM: Let's see, this is just about the future, and since we have touched on it, say: sport is rarely combined with a good education. You once said that you want to get a degree. Where are you looking, in what direction? What is interesting for you?
Zhenya: This, of course, is a sports education. This is RSUPC (Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sports, Youth and Tourism), a coach by profession. But I do not yet have the task of becoming a coach. I understand that... Perhaps someday I will want to, but so far this is not at all mine. I understand that I do not want, I do not want this. And I know that I have this ability to explain to an athlete, perhaps even a child, so that he goes and does it. But it takes a lot of energy from me. Maybe it's only for the moment because I don't have much experience and I invest a lot, and then I feel like a lemon squeezed out. And I understand - no, well, that's not it yet. For me, it's more like - I won't be afraid of the word - like an airbag. That is, I can become a coach at any time. This means that I will have a job anyway. And that's great.
You may like it or not, but it's there and it's great. The second education is a little more difficult now. I will not dissemble - here is Moscow State University, a specialty, to put it simply - producing. And this is more difficult, because, firstly, there is a lot of work now, the kind of work that I have to do. And secondly, it's a bit different.
AM: So you started to study it and realized that you want something different?
Zhenya: Yes. I tried it and realized that I didn't like it.
YB: What else is that?
Zhenya: I don't know yet.
MP: I can tell you that you have definitely become a great figure skating commentator. This is not my opinion, because it is very difficult for me to evaluate it, but here is Emma Gadzhieva, whom you probably know ...
Zhenya: Of course.
MP: I talked to her recently, and she said that Zhenya's comments are just great.
Zhenya: I hope so, because in this sense I am very self-critical and I perceive it like this: I hear something from myself and ... (makes facepalm) Why?! (Laughs).
YB: You know, it's nice to listen to you, you have a competent speech ...
Zhenya: I will say this... Well, I always have this phrase - "I will say this", I need to get rid of it. You see, I myself do not like what I say.
AM: We need to work on the speech.
Zhenya: Yes, I'm working on it. A real guru sits next to me in the commentary position. This is Sasha Grishin, who has been commenting on figure skating for more than ten years. He knows absolutely everything about every skater. There are such athletes whom I see for the first time, and I don’t know what to say about him. Yes, I study, I look on the Internet, who is doing what, who is training where, but Sasha is more in control of the facts. That is, here is some athlete, let's say he is 17 years old, he trains in St. Petersburg or Moscow - just one fact after another. And my duties are to explain whether the jump is well executed, whether I like it or not, that is, I must express my personal opinion.
MP: This is expertise.
Zhenya: Yes, expertise. But when Sasha fills in the voids in the air, when I have said everything, I fall silent, and Sasha begins to speak. He can talk using such epithets that my brain is tied in a knot. And I take off my headphones and say: “Sasha, how does this come to your mind?”
AM: I want to note that figure skating is also a theater. To be honest, I has been figure skating for a very long time, when I was four years old. I've been did it for exactly a year, it ended quickly. But for me the most difficult thing in your sport is to give the right emotions. We have in tennis as - concentrated, made a stern face - and forward. And here you need to smile and not forget what the tenth step should be. So, would you like to work in the theater?
Zhenya: I don't want to go to the theatre, I don't want to go to the cinema yet.
YB: By the way, here is the same Alexei Yagudin - he also acted in films and played in the theater.
Zhenya: Yes, he plays in the theater and I starred with him in the same series about figure skating (“The Last Axel”). For me, this is about the same as with the work of a coach - so far not mine. But at the same time, if I ... Well, I just played the role of myself there. But at the same time, if I am offered a role in some feature film, in a historical one, for example, or in a TV series, the role of some Zinaida Petrovna ...
MP: You mean, not yourself.
Zhenya: Not myself, yes. In this case, I agree, because I had no such experience. That is, I played only the role of myself, I didn’t get much pleasure from this, I thought - well, what kind of nonsense is this, I don’t understand. But if you really need to get used to the role, then perhaps I will agree. It is clear that this is serious work.
MP: This also needs to be learned.
Zhenya: Yes, you need to learn this, and I understand that the first attempt will most likely fail, but I would try to get used to some unusual role.
YB: Well, you know, if you look at your programs, it is clear that you can most likely show your acting skills in demonstration performances. This allows you to be more free, because there are no grades, no need to strive for some kind of prize. You go out on the ice, and your demonstration numbers have always been some kind of special show, goosebumps, and we recently learned that you have an unusual hobby - you like to listen to music recorded on vinyl records.
Zhenya: Yes. I got a turntable for my birthday.
YB: So you listen to music most often on vinyl now?
Zhenya: No, not most of the time. Still, I listen to music from the phone more often. But when I'm in the mood, I listen to vinyl. My favorite record is Ludovico Einaudi. And so I turn it on at full volume and sit, listen (shows).
YB: I hope that this record will also take its rightful place in your still small collection, especially since this record is directly related to you (takes out a record). It's a Henry Mancini record, it's actually...
Zhenya: I skated to his music when I was little!
YB: You probably know him. He is a conductor, he is a composer, he is a pianist with the London Symphony Orchestra, he has won a Grammy, an Oscar. The most important of his works is the music from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, Moon River. But what else does he have to do with you - the fact is that one of your last exhibition performances was to the music from the film The Thomas Crown Affair. And on this record there is this composition performed by Mancini himself. So this is a keepsake from us.
Zhenya: Thank you, this is a wonderful gift.
AM: But we are not letting you go yet. It's just that we appease you (everyone laughs). I want to read one of your quotes. You said: "If you want to achieve something global in your life, you must be able to tell people" No "".
Zhenya: Yes.
AM: When was the last time you said “No” to someone?
Zhenya: I constantly tell people “No”.
AM: So you learned? Or have you always done it?
Zhenya: No, not always able to. Learned probably two or three years ago. And now I constantly say “No” to people, and they, accordingly, do not like it. But it's still a matter of my comfort and goals.
MP: So I look at what you do in life, where you find yourself, for example, on Comedy (a popular TV show), in various competitions, you play a strange musical instrument ... I'm always afraid to mispronounce the name of this instrument. Ukulele, I think?
Zhenya: Right.
AM: Cool stuff.
MP: Well, yes. To be honest, it's so unexpected and unusual. In general, is show business the way of the future for you?
Zhenya: One of the ways. What is our show business? This is music. I'm not going to sing yet. And I can’t say that the path is open to me there, because ... Well, okay, I play the ukulele, so what? I can’t sing anything into the microphone and I don’t set myself such a task at the moment. Yes, I participated in the MuzTV awards, some kind of “breakthrough of the year” or something like that, I don’t remember. There are some moments when I appear here and there in show business. And in social networks, in records about show business, they discuss me, somehow they insert me there, I don’t understand how. Well, that is, there are talks about this, but then they subside. It happens in flashes and so far this is not the area in which I directly live. Still, today I am more of an athlete and figure skater who participates in ice shows and does her job.
YB: Well, your whole life is still figure skating. This show, these are various programs, one way or another connected with figure skating. But you know, it often happens with us that when they even talk about an athlete, only the sports world knows him anyway. And you entered another world, almost every person knows you, even those who are not interested in figure skating. Is it important to you, is it pleasant for you?
Zhenya: For me, it's probably nice. This is nice, because if a person is not interested in figure skating and still knows who Zhenya Medvedeva is, then this confirms the fact that people watch and immediately recognize me.
AM: I did that today by the way. I saw you in an ad.
Zhenya: And I joyfully shout: Mom, I'm on the TV screen!
MP; Tell me about anime, about your interest in anime.
YB: Even today you are dressed like that, yes…
AM: It's a hoodie, a beautiful hoodie.
MP: What kind of culture is it, why is it so interesting to you?
Zhenya: It all started with the Sailor Moon cartoon. My mother is not only a figure skater, but also a cartoonist. I asked her for advice on what anime to watch. She said - look at Sailor Moon, this is the most accessible. I started watching, and I was so hooked that I watched five seasons in a row, and then made a demonstration performance on this topic - I suggested it just like that, and they told me - why not. It was seen in Japan, and that's how it all started, I guess. It was probably in 2015.
MP: Okay, now blitz. Everything will be fast here.
Zhenya: Good.
AM: Your turn.
MP: My turn, huh? Money or happiness?
Zhenya: Happiness
MP: Olivier salad or crab salad?
Zhenya: Olivier.
MP: Would you rather go mushroom hunting or go fishing?
Zhenya: For mushrooms.
MP: Pushkin or Yesenin?
Zhenya: Yesenin.
MP: New bag or new shoes?
Zhenya: A bag.
MP: Tea or coffee?
Zhenya: Tea.
MP: Process or result?
Zhenya: Result.
MP: Feel or understand?
Zhenya: Understand
MP: Olympic silver or world championship gold?
Zhenya: (after a pause) Olympic silver.
AM: Wow.
YB: Like Zhenya, I would choose Olympic silver.
Zhenya: I'm just comparing from experience. I have both
YB: Me too...
Zhenya: Silver gave a stronger impetus. Not always in a pleasant way, but still the main result of my life was the silver of the Olympics.
AM: Thank you very much for coming!
Zhenya: Thank you!
MP: And good luck to you in Beijing, of course.
YB: Of course, and to all our athletes!
Zhenya: Yes, that's right...
AM: Were there any events in your childhood that shaped your character? Any highlights?
Zhenya: Influenced my psychology, right?
AM: Well, I remember, for example, how I realized that tennis is my job. Something clicked somewhere. This is not the moment when you start to enjoy skating - it's a little different, but when you realize that this is it, there is no other choice. It’s one thing when mom understands this, puts you in a car and takes you to training, and another thing when you yourself ...
Zhenya: That's when I realized that this was my job - it was quite late. Because I did everything, because I liked it, but I realized that this is my job, probably when I ran into difficulties. That is, I was already seventeen or eighteen years old. It's late.
Only now, from the height of the past years, I can say that I won two world championships, because I liked it, because I caught this feeling. There were no other serious injuries. Of course, I already had fractures, but they didn’t really bother me. They knocked the training rhythm off, but at the competitions it hardly bothered me, because there is adrenaline, courage, a lot of spectators - all this combined, and I succeeded, even world records. It doesn't matter if something hurts or not. Just went out - everything worked out.
And I began to understand that this is my job only after it stopped working out, when I had to strain to make it work. That is, when my autopilot turned off, and every movement had to be worked out in my head. That's when I felt that it was work, that you need to get up in the morning and bring yourself into the right state - yeah, I feel my fingers, I feel my arms, but my legs - I don’t feel my legs - I need to do something about it.
AM: The coach told me: if something hurts, then you are alive - get up and go to work.
YB: You just mentioned world records. In rhythmic gymnastics, last year at the World Championships, the world record was updated. Dina Averina became the eighteen-time world champion for the first time in history, overtaking Evgenia Kanaeva. And when they asked Dina if she knew that she became the world champion for the eighteenth time, she said: “Really? I didn't even consider it." During your career, you have broken world records for total points several times. Do you remember the exact number of these records?
Zhenya: Either eleven, or thirteen - I now find it difficult to answer.
YB: So it's always like this - when you set records, it doesn't matter to you?
Zhenya: I will say more - I had the same thing. At my first World Championships in the free program, I updated the world record for the sum of points. I was ahead of our greatest, absolute queen of ice, Korean Yuna Kim. And then journalists asked me with wide eyes: “For six years in figure skating, this record was held, you updated it.” I updated it by some hundredths of a point, or a point, I don’t remember anymore, it was a long time ago. And I stood and answered in surprise: “Really? How many points did I get? Well, that is, it was also such a reaction, like Averina, probably.
AM: Your mother was a figure skater. Do you think you will send your own children to figure skating too? For example, I didn’t send my children to tennis, I can say right away.
YB: And my eldest daughter did rhythmic gymnastics for a short time, but my youngest daughter was engaged in figure skating. And I can say that the most difficult thing for me was to lace up my shoes correctly. But I have learned to do it. It seems to me that if Zhenya is awakened at night, she will still do it correctly ...
AM: So you will send your children to figure skating? Will they follow your path?
Zhenya (shakes his head): If you do this, then you need to do it right ...
AM: Live the same life?
Zhenya: Yes, to live this life again. It’s not that I feel sorry for myself and don’t want to relive it all over again ...
AM: I feel sorry for myself...
Zhenya: I just want the children to be fine, everything worked out. And I understand that their fate, perhaps, will turn out completely differently than mine, even most likely it will be another way, because all paths are different and ...
YB: Well, if your child says, daughter or son: “Mom, I want to do figure skating, I want to, I dream,” will you say no?
Zhenya: It will depend on the situation in the family, because I don't have a husband yet. Therefore, it will depend on the situation in the family.
AM: But so far, first thoughts?
Zhenya: And it will depend on whether my opinion agrees with the opinion of my husband. Because the child will not only be mine. So we need to find compromises and understand what we want to do next. It will be a family project, I guess.
MP: You should also ask dad!
YB: I want to discuss one more topic with you. This topic is also, one might say, scandalous. This summer, at the ISU Congress, the issue of increasing the age limit in women's figure skating will be raised ...
Zhenya: I have answered this question many times.
YB: I heard different opinions from skaters. Mostly Russian, our skaters are categorically against it.
Zhenya: I will say this, I already have an answer, I know what you will continue to say, and I will immediately answer - I won my first world championship at the age of 15 - that's it. Here is the answer to the question.
MP: Under the new rules, you just wouldn't have made it to this competition, right?
Zhenya: Yes, they wouldn't let me in. I won at the age of 15, at 16, so… In 2015, my… That is, my birthday is in the middle of the season. That is, I won at the Grand Prix stages and in the Grand Prix final when I was still 15, I won the first World Championship after my birthday, that is, at the age of 16. I won the second world championship at the age of 17. At 18, I was at the Olympics, and that year I didn’t go to the World Championships due to an injury, and in 2019, at 19, I took bronze at the World Championships. That is, I took medals at one and at another age - I have different experience.
YB: But you understand that if this new rule were adopted now, then instead of Kamila Valieva, Liza Tuktamysheva would go to the Olympics. She is 25 years old. Of course, I have nothing against Camila, she is fantastic, but I feel so sorry for Lisa. She performed in your time, you were together, standing together on a pedestal. And so sorry for her, because she is worthy for her long, brilliant career ...
Zhenya: Absolutely!
YB: Worthy at least once to visit the Olympics. And we all understand that the next Olympics - well, that’s all, she won’t be there, she won’t train for another four years.
Zhenya: I will say this - I was at the Russian Championship, not as a participant, I just came out in demonstration performances at the invitation of the federation. In addition, I was acting as an employee of Channel One there. I did interviews, there were little tie-ins with me, and I watched the free skate. I did not come to the short program, I was not in St. Petersburg at that moment. But I came to the free program and watched. I will say that Lisa performed her program just like a queen. It was something amazing. But I'm sure that... I'll say this because it's still a sport, and I think if Lisa watches, she also understands that, unfortunately, you can't win in the short program. Short program can only lose. And Lisa did not succeed in the short program. We could continue the conversation about who went and who did not go to the Olympics in the event that everything turned out perfectly clean for her. But, unfortunately, there were mistakes. Unfortunately, this did not allow her to stand on the podium at the Russian Championship and get to the Olympics. Well, this is what happened.
YB: So you think that everything is absolutely correct? Do you think that the trio that goes to the Olympics, regardless of whether Lisa could or not, is the same trio that can win medals?
Zhenya: Absolutely!
YB: By the way, maybe for the first time in history there can be a purely Russian podium at the Olympics...
AM: Let's see, this is just about the future, and since we have touched on it, say: sport is rarely combined with a good education. You once said that you want to get a degree. Where are you looking, in what direction? What is interesting for you?
Zhenya: This, of course, is a sports education. This is RSUPC (Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sports, Youth and Tourism), a coach by profession. But I do not yet have the task of becoming a coach. I understand that... Perhaps someday I will want to, but so far this is not at all mine. I understand that I do not want, I do not want this. And I know that I have this ability to explain to an athlete, perhaps even a child, so that he goes and does it. But it takes a lot of energy from me. Maybe it's only for the moment because I don't have much experience and I invest a lot, and then I feel like a lemon squeezed out. And I understand - no, well, that's not it yet. For me, it's more like - I won't be afraid of the word - like an airbag. That is, I can become a coach at any time. This means that I will have a job anyway. And that's great.
You may like it or not, but it's there and it's great. The second education is a little more difficult now. I will not dissemble - here is Moscow State University, a specialty, to put it simply - producing. And this is more difficult, because, firstly, there is a lot of work now, the kind of work that I have to do. And secondly, it's a bit different.
AM: So you started to study it and realized that you want something different?
Zhenya: Yes. I tried it and realized that I didn't like it.
YB: What else is that?
Zhenya: I don't know yet.
MP: I can tell you that you have definitely become a great figure skating commentator. This is not my opinion, because it is very difficult for me to evaluate it, but here is Emma Gadzhieva, whom you probably know ...
Zhenya: Of course.
MP: I talked to her recently, and she said that Zhenya's comments are just great.
Zhenya: I hope so, because in this sense I am very self-critical and I perceive it like this: I hear something from myself and ... (makes facepalm) Why?! (Laughs).
YB: You know, it's nice to listen to you, you have a competent speech ...
Zhenya: I will say this... Well, I always have this phrase - "I will say this", I need to get rid of it. You see, I myself do not like what I say.
AM: We need to work on the speech.
Zhenya: Yes, I'm working on it. A real guru sits next to me in the commentary position. This is Sasha Grishin, who has been commenting on figure skating for more than ten years. He knows absolutely everything about every skater. There are such athletes whom I see for the first time, and I don’t know what to say about him. Yes, I study, I look on the Internet, who is doing what, who is training where, but Sasha is more in control of the facts. That is, here is some athlete, let's say he is 17 years old, he trains in St. Petersburg or Moscow - just one fact after another. And my duties are to explain whether the jump is well executed, whether I like it or not, that is, I must express my personal opinion.
MP: This is expertise.
Zhenya: Yes, expertise. But when Sasha fills in the voids in the air, when I have said everything, I fall silent, and Sasha begins to speak. He can talk using such epithets that my brain is tied in a knot. And I take off my headphones and say: “Sasha, how does this come to your mind?”
AM: I want to note that figure skating is also a theater. To be honest, I has been figure skating for a very long time, when I was four years old. I've been did it for exactly a year, it ended quickly. But for me the most difficult thing in your sport is to give the right emotions. We have in tennis as - concentrated, made a stern face - and forward. And here you need to smile and not forget what the tenth step should be. So, would you like to work in the theater?
Zhenya: I don't want to go to the theatre, I don't want to go to the cinema yet.
YB: By the way, here is the same Alexei Yagudin - he also acted in films and played in the theater.
Zhenya: Yes, he plays in the theater and I starred with him in the same series about figure skating (“The Last Axel”). For me, this is about the same as with the work of a coach - so far not mine. But at the same time, if I ... Well, I just played the role of myself there. But at the same time, if I am offered a role in some feature film, in a historical one, for example, or in a TV series, the role of some Zinaida Petrovna ...
MP: You mean, not yourself.
Zhenya: Not myself, yes. In this case, I agree, because I had no such experience. That is, I played only the role of myself, I didn’t get much pleasure from this, I thought - well, what kind of nonsense is this, I don’t understand. But if you really need to get used to the role, then perhaps I will agree. It is clear that this is serious work.
MP: This also needs to be learned.
Zhenya: Yes, you need to learn this, and I understand that the first attempt will most likely fail, but I would try to get used to some unusual role.
YB: Well, you know, if you look at your programs, it is clear that you can most likely show your acting skills in demonstration performances. This allows you to be more free, because there are no grades, no need to strive for some kind of prize. You go out on the ice, and your demonstration numbers have always been some kind of special show, goosebumps, and we recently learned that you have an unusual hobby - you like to listen to music recorded on vinyl records.
Zhenya: Yes. I got a turntable for my birthday.
YB: So you listen to music most often on vinyl now?
Zhenya: No, not most of the time. Still, I listen to music from the phone more often. But when I'm in the mood, I listen to vinyl. My favorite record is Ludovico Einaudi. And so I turn it on at full volume and sit, listen (shows).
YB: I hope that this record will also take its rightful place in your still small collection, especially since this record is directly related to you (takes out a record). It's a Henry Mancini record, it's actually...
Zhenya: I skated to his music when I was little!
YB: You probably know him. He is a conductor, he is a composer, he is a pianist with the London Symphony Orchestra, he has won a Grammy, an Oscar. The most important of his works is the music from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, Moon River. But what else does he have to do with you - the fact is that one of your last exhibition performances was to the music from the film The Thomas Crown Affair. And on this record there is this composition performed by Mancini himself. So this is a keepsake from us.
Zhenya: Thank you, this is a wonderful gift.
AM: But we are not letting you go yet. It's just that we appease you (everyone laughs). I want to read one of your quotes. You said: "If you want to achieve something global in your life, you must be able to tell people" No "".
Zhenya: Yes.
AM: When was the last time you said “No” to someone?
Zhenya: I constantly tell people “No”.
AM: So you learned? Or have you always done it?
Zhenya: No, not always able to. Learned probably two or three years ago. And now I constantly say “No” to people, and they, accordingly, do not like it. But it's still a matter of my comfort and goals.
MP: So I look at what you do in life, where you find yourself, for example, on Comedy (a popular TV show), in various competitions, you play a strange musical instrument ... I'm always afraid to mispronounce the name of this instrument. Ukulele, I think?
Zhenya: Right.
AM: Cool stuff.
MP: Well, yes. To be honest, it's so unexpected and unusual. In general, is show business the way of the future for you?
Zhenya: One of the ways. What is our show business? This is music. I'm not going to sing yet. And I can’t say that the path is open to me there, because ... Well, okay, I play the ukulele, so what? I can’t sing anything into the microphone and I don’t set myself such a task at the moment. Yes, I participated in the MuzTV awards, some kind of “breakthrough of the year” or something like that, I don’t remember. There are some moments when I appear here and there in show business. And in social networks, in records about show business, they discuss me, somehow they insert me there, I don’t understand how. Well, that is, there are talks about this, but then they subside. It happens in flashes and so far this is not the area in which I directly live. Still, today I am more of an athlete and figure skater who participates in ice shows and does her job.
YB: Well, your whole life is still figure skating. This show, these are various programs, one way or another connected with figure skating. But you know, it often happens with us that when they even talk about an athlete, only the sports world knows him anyway. And you entered another world, almost every person knows you, even those who are not interested in figure skating. Is it important to you, is it pleasant for you?
Zhenya: For me, it's probably nice. This is nice, because if a person is not interested in figure skating and still knows who Zhenya Medvedeva is, then this confirms the fact that people watch and immediately recognize me.
AM: I did that today by the way. I saw you in an ad.
Zhenya: And I joyfully shout: Mom, I'm on the TV screen!
MP; Tell me about anime, about your interest in anime.
YB: Even today you are dressed like that, yes…
AM: It's a hoodie, a beautiful hoodie.
MP: What kind of culture is it, why is it so interesting to you?
Zhenya: It all started with the Sailor Moon cartoon. My mother is not only a figure skater, but also a cartoonist. I asked her for advice on what anime to watch. She said - look at Sailor Moon, this is the most accessible. I started watching, and I was so hooked that I watched five seasons in a row, and then made a demonstration performance on this topic - I suggested it just like that, and they told me - why not. It was seen in Japan, and that's how it all started, I guess. It was probably in 2015.
MP: Okay, now blitz. Everything will be fast here.
Zhenya: Good.
AM: Your turn.
MP: My turn, huh? Money or happiness?
Zhenya: Happiness
MP: Olivier salad or crab salad?
Zhenya: Olivier.
MP: Would you rather go mushroom hunting or go fishing?
Zhenya: For mushrooms.
MP: Pushkin or Yesenin?
Zhenya: Yesenin.
MP: New bag or new shoes?
Zhenya: A bag.
MP: Tea or coffee?
Zhenya: Tea.
MP: Process or result?
Zhenya: Result.
MP: Feel or understand?
Zhenya: Understand
MP: Olympic silver or world championship gold?
Zhenya: (after a pause) Olympic silver.
AM: Wow.
YB: Like Zhenya, I would choose Olympic silver.
Zhenya: I'm just comparing from experience. I have both
YB: Me too...
Zhenya: Silver gave a stronger impetus. Not always in a pleasant way, but still the main result of my life was the silver of the Olympics.
AM: Thank you very much for coming!
Zhenya: Thank you!
MP: And good luck to you in Beijing, of course.
YB: Of course, and to all our athletes!
Zhenya: Yes, that's right...
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
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Here is the victory ceremony at Nepal's Memorial 2015. Maria Artemevia won the bronze, but missed the ceremony. Anna and Evgenia were so cute together. And you can see her grandmother in the background. Plus this competition is when she met Jason.
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2018
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Here is the victory ceremony at Nepal's Memorial 2015. Maria Artemevia won the bronze, but missed the ceremony. Anna and Evgenia were so cute together. And you can see her grandmother in the background. Plus this competition is when she met Jason.
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2017
Zhenya with a fan. Evgenia has such great fashion.
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2021
I'm a little confused, it wasn't eteri who refused to teach her quads? with Alina they tried but they stopped trying after a year.
Anyway, I will say in my upopular opinión I think quads look somewhat ugly and cumbersome, with pre-rotation and everything, I believe in men like yuzuru, for example, they look better and more organic. I assume it's bad technique because I liked Zhilina's quads lutz.
Thanks for the translation
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2021
I have thought exactly that that Evgenia has no plans to leave Russia, there is her mother, friends and her job opportunities for future. I will support her, I wish her the best always, if she becomes a coach or a show host I'm sure it will be successful, with the networks blocked, she is surely thinking about her next hit, she is like the phoenix always emerging from the ashes.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
I assume (based, in particular, on the interview given by Gleikhengauz and Shcherbakova) that events unfolded something like this:
1. Medvedeva was Eteri's first figure skater, whom it was decided to seriously train to perform complex cascades and transfer important elements to the second half of the program. Then, after the Sochi Olympics, this was the most achievable path to success.
2. A little later, the preparation of Zagitova began, in which the same principle was brought to the absolute. That is, relatively speaking - Medvedev is the most advanced prototype, and Zagitova is an example of the same technology already brought to perfection.
3. Experiments with quads began in the 2016-2017 season. The first who successfully land such a jump was Anna Shcherbakova. This happened in April 2017. A little later, Sasha Trusova achieved the same.
4. Zhenya in April 2017 was already a two-time world champion, the next season is the Olympics. Theoretically, seeing the clear successes of Shcherbakova and Trusova, the coaches at that moment could have tried to transfer the new technique to Medvedeva and Zagitova, but did not do this. There are many reasons, but the main one, probably, is the well-known saying in Russia "The best is the enemy of the good." In other words, the study of quads could distract Zhenya and Alina from their "usual", but very succesfull programs, and no one guaranteed a successful transition to new jumps.
5. After the 2018 Olympics, Zagitova, according to Eteri, “relaxed” (I think there is some truth in this), and Zhenya left for Canada. With all due respect to Orser, he did not have the technology that just then, in 2018-2019, was being developed at Khrustalny. In addition, Zhenya's health problems were growing. In 2019, she reported that she was training 4S, but apparently it was too difficult to achieve this goal in those conditions - and then the coronavirus and so on. All in all, time was lost.
And in 2020, Eteri has two "advanced prototypes" at once, but of a new level, and Valieva - a model that was simply brought to perfection before our eyes. And even if Zhenya did not have her injuries, catching up with new stars would be an almost impossible feat for her. Meanwhile, the very idea of using quadruple jumps could well have appeared earlier, it was a matter of chance, in general. If Zhenya, for example, joined the experiments of Gleikhengauz and Dudakov right away, she could well get several quads, not only 4S.
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