Anastasia Zinina
- Thread starter anonymoose_au
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
Happy Birthday Nastya! 
May it be full of friends and fun.
May it be full of friends and fun.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2022
Holding out hope that we'll see her attempt and land a 4T tomorrow in the Free. 
(And yes, I would be absolutely fine if it was a 4T< like the one posted today on AoP's Instagram page, as long as she doesn't fall - I really don't want her to develop a mental block like some other skaters.)
With a 14 point lead, she doesn't have a lot of pressure on her, so hopefully that will help her get through the Free as cleanly as possible.
(And yes, I would be absolutely fine if it was a 4T< like the one posted today on AoP's Instagram page, as long as she doesn't fall - I really don't want her to develop a mental block like some other skaters.)With a 14 point lead, she doesn't have a lot of pressure on her, so hopefully that will help her get through the Free as cleanly as possible.
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2021
According to Nastya 's telegram:Holding out hope that we'll see her attempt and land a 4T tomorrow in the Free.
Nastya defended a sports category (MS) at this competitions, she needed to skate cleanly for that, so no Ultra-C today.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
Congrats Nastya.According to Nastya 's telegram:
Nastya defended a sports category (MS) at this competitions, she needed to skate cleanly for that, so no Ultra-C today.
Skating cleanly is the most important thing at this point in her career.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2022
Well, if I had known that, I wouldn't have thought about her trying for the 4T.
It is probably also a good thing to take a break from an element that is not working out anyways, calm the nerves and reinstill confidence by delivering a few good performances without it and try to reinsert the 4T at a later date.I thought this would be a low-pressure competition for her (as we know now, that wasn't the case), and as a lot of her success with the 4T seems to come down to nerves, it would have been a good opportunity in that case.
Either way, I'm very happy with how she performed here these last 2 days - And I hope she is proud of herself as well.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
The medal ceremony at the Rusakov Memorial.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbPDAWWj6LJ - The giant
's are the beeeest!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbPDAWWj6LJ - The giant
's are the beeeest!
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
It's been an excellent end to Nastya's season as she picked up another gold at a Russian Competition "South Breeze" yesterday 
Here's her free: https://youtu.be/zrsIr88UIVsd
She fell on the quad but the most important thing is she didn't let it get to her and the rest of the program was a success!
The podium
Great to see Nastya smiling
Here's her free: https://youtu.be/zrsIr88UIVsd
She fell on the quad but the most important thing is she didn't let it get to her and the rest of the program was a success!
The podium
Great to see Nastya smiling
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2014
Did you ever see her medal award ceremony fun with SA and SS? They were dancing or something and it was really cute.It's been an excellent end to Nastya's season as she picked up another gold at a Russian Competition "South Breeze" yesterday
Here's her free: https://youtu.be/zrsIr88UIVsd
She fell on the quad but the most important thing is she didn't let it get to her and the rest of the program was a success!
The podium
Great to see Nastya smiling
Anastasias finish to the season was really good.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
Nastya has a exhibition program!
I'm not sure if it'll become an actual program later, but it's a fun one.
I'm not sure if it'll become an actual program later, but it's a fun one.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
Nastya's exhibition dress!
Purple is definitely her colour
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
Big interview:
rsport.ria.ru
Training, tutors, almost no free time. When do you have time to live, Nastya?
On Sunday. Today is a day off, I even slept. We start training at 6.45, you need to wake up at 5 in the morning, and I developed such a habit - even on the weekend I got up at half past seven. I couldn't close my eyes no matter how much I tried to force myself. Tutors were in the morning, and I also managed to go to the cinema with a friend. And just before the interview, I had an English tutor. So a day off is a day off from training, but not from tutors.
What did you watch in the cinema? The choice is not very large, as I understand it.
Yes, now only Russian cinema is on. We watched the comedy "Bulki". About the girl who bakes these same buns. She quarreled with her husband, went to Sri Lanka - in general, it was fun, all sorts of adventures. She ended up opening her own bakery.
Do you have any such dream? To open your own Beauty salon or coffee shop in fifteen years.
I didn’t think about that, to be honest. I don't know how life will turn out. I like to set a goal for a year or two ahead and still have some kind of global goal. There is such a large goal, which I aspire to. Everything else is in the background.
Is the big goal connected with the Olympics?
Yes, with the Olympics.
Do you have your own funny story about how you started figure skating?
My parents didn’t want to put me into any sport at all. Dad is a software developer, works in a good company, and they expected to promote me in the mental sphere. I was already thinking well at the age of three.
Everything worked out spontaneously with figure skating. In Rostov, there is a large Mega shopping center with a small skating rink where different people skate. And there is one girl of eight years old - she seemed big to me, because I was only four and a half years old - she taught a double axel. I stood spellbound and watched her jump-fall, jump-fall, jump-fall. At some point, she enters the jump and ... did it! She had such a smile on her face - apparently, this was her first resulting double axel. I so wanted to try it too! I thought how cool it is when you get something.
Did you immediately ask for skates?
We didn't buy skates, we rented them. I'm so cool, I think: now, when I go out on the ice, how will I show everyone! As a result, I get on the ice and immediately fall. “It was by accident, it shouldn't be like that. Oh, what to do? It turns out that it’s not so simple” — these were my thoughts. Then I asked my mother, and she took me to the sports section. At first I just went as a hobby after school, and at the age of 9 there was a conversation about moving from Rostov to Moscow. I said that I want to develop, and in Rostov it would be unrealistic to achieve such a level. We had to move to the capital.
It is difficult to understand how a child can seriously like the prospect of going out on cold ice every day, falling painfully and experiencing other “joys” of a skater’s life. What attracted you to it anyway?
I don't know how to answer, except that I just love figure skating. Someone likes to draw or write poetry. He is unlikely to be able to decompose into syllables, which he likes, how words form into rhymes, how a brush falls on a piece of paper. Just… just love this thing. And you can't imagine life without it. So I just liked to go out on the ice. I was very young, small, but I had a very beautiful pink vest. All in black, and I in pink - was different. My mother told me later that I was terribly diligent. With all my might, I tried to hold my hands, pull the leg.
You said that at the age of three you had some special intellectual abilities. Can you explain what exactly this was?
Yes, nothing special, just in everyday terms, I was very quick-witted. If my mother asked me to bring something, I quickly understood what she wanted and how to find it.
So, it's been 11 years since that commemorative ice rink at the mall. Do you think your parents never wanted to give up everything? Yet they didn't dream of becoming an athlete for you, and being the parent of an athlete is a very special way of life.
I can say that the turning point was the move. Dad is still working in Rostov, and mom is with me in Moscow. A year or two after the move was hard. Well, how: when everything works out in training, it was easy for us. And when it doesn’t work out or something worries, my mother was very worried: will I manage, will we be able to endure all this together - separation from dad, live in two cities. Now there are no such moments, because my mother trusts me. Now she doesn’t even watch my workouts, because she understands that if Nastya came to the ice, she will work, and there is no need for an evil policeman to follow me.
That is, the quality of diligence inherent in you at the age of five has been preserved to this day?
Yes, I just love to work long and hard on something and see how it bears fruit. As I get better, I skate the program better. That is, at first it is always difficult, but you have to endure - then it will become easier.
This description is perfect for working on quadruple jumps. You carve and carve a stone for a long time and stubbornly, and then once - a flower appears from it. Flower in four turns.
I tried the first quadruple jump ... I have to think about when, so as not to lie, otherwise I don’t really remember it already. I had an injury for a year and a half, it took me a long time to heal my back - we could not find the cause of the pain, so I did not perform for some time. Then I skated at the Junior Moscow Championship. And when I collected all the triple jumps, we began to try the quadruple toe loop - first on the lounge. It's not scary - such an auxiliary moral component. And then slowly began to “enter” without a lounge. Scary, multi-turn jump - you don't know when to open up. But every day I tried a little bit. Today I twisted half a turn, tomorrow with an error. I can say that I jumped the first quadruple toe loop already with Evgeny Viktorovich Plushenko. I came to him for trial workouts and did it at the second training session - it happened.
Did you want to prove yourself so much that the quad jumped right away?
I just got advice on where to put my hand, where to put my foot. I had bright technical mistakes that didn't let me jump. When Evgeny Viktorovich told me about these mistakes, I was able to correct everything.
When you moved from Rostov to Moscow, why did you start training with Svetlana Panova?
My parents only asked me where I want to train - in Moscow or in St. Petersburg. And then they asked if I liked this coach outwardly - already when we came to see Svetlana Vladimirovna (Panova). I don’t know how my mother decided - she agreed somehow, probably. Then she told me that she still wanted to take me to Eteri Georgievna (Tutberidze), but she thought that I was still too small. They usually come to her at 11-12 years old, and I was only 9. They could not take me. In addition, the training in Rostov was not so powerful, and against the background of the loads in Khrustalny, health problems could simply begin. It was Svetlana Vladimirovna who stood out with the totality of advantages in comparison with other options.
And outwardly you liked her, as I understand it.
Yes, and I especially liked her hair. (laughs) No matter how strange it sounds.
Oh, how I understand you. Her hair is really luxurious.
When I came to her in 2016, she had a beautiful fluffy golden tail. Very elastic hair. And she also had such a habit, when she liked something, she first did this - (Nastya runs her hand over her head and twists her imaginary high tail), - and then she said good words. I was fascinated when she did this.
Around the students of Panova there is a kind of halo of a boarding school for noble maidens. The girls are all like a match, with well-thought-out choreography, piece programs, in beautiful original dresses. You have seen from the inside how it is all created. Tell me.
I still don't understand how she does it. Absolutely diverse programs, there are no identical movements. Usually this happens, but in the "Snow Leopards" this is not. I agree that the choreography is on the level and the dresses are beautiful. Perhaps some role in this belongs to the choreographer Ilona Protasenya. She tries to work with everyone individually - both to be comfortable and look great.
What was the atmosphere in the group consisting of talented girls-competitors?
Very friendly. No intrigues were built (laughs). We were friends, played, especially in the summer - catching up, hide and seek.
It is customary to think about modern children that they are not as interesting to each other as they are interested in smartphones, and you have catch-ups and hide-and-seek. Wow.
We spend a lot of time on the ice in training. We don’t go to school, so we, of course, want to communicate. The phone is not the same.
You speak warmly of Svetlana Panova. Why in the end did you decide to go to Evgeni Plushenko?
I really wanted to jump quads. Leaving Svetlana Vladimirovna was something of a forced measure, because I realized that I wanted to develop, and no one in our group had jumped quads yet. Yevgeny Viktorovich already had many such athletes, and we considered that it was time to break into the highest sport.
For the sake of sparring left, it turns out?
Exactly.
Exactly one question about Evgeni Plushenko, as we agreed. Reveal firsthand the circumstances of your departure from the Angels, please.
Everyone says that we had a fight, something else. To be honest, we had a very warm relationship with Evgeny Viktorovich. After the Russian Championship, we rallied even more strongly and worked together. But there were some obstacles in my relationship with the second coach, because of which I had to leave the group.
Is the second coach Dmitry Mikhailov? Shall we elaborate on the reasons for the disagreement?
Yes, Dmitry Sergeevich. We will not be specific. It was and gone. And so ... we were working with Evgeny Viktorovich, they managed to put on two new programs for me, I even skated a short program on the show "Union of Champions". By the way, I really liked performing there, and in general, many thanks to Evgeny Viktorovich for all the shows, including the New Year ones. An extremely rewarding and enjoyable experience, although it was hard at times.
From the outside, it really seemed that you had very good relations with Evgeni Plushenko. It was all the more surprising that you parted ways.
It was surprising for everyone.
And what kind of injury that everyone was talking about?
There was no real injury. Just imagine that you were on vacation for a long time, and then you arrived and went to the gym for fitness, and the next day your whole body hurts. That's right, all the muscles! The same for me. There were two weeks of vacation, the muscles all rested, the entire volume decreased. In training, the load began. Accordingly, the legs and back hurt, the muscles have lost the habit of working, they do not have the opportunity to show all their power, which they were before the vacation. My right knee was especially sore because it was under stress when landing. Three weeks passed, almost everything returned to normal, and I adapted to the loads. There was nothing terrible, it’s just a feature of my body that after a vacation I get in shape for a long time, but while this is happening, everything hurts. Some people don't have it, but I do, I just take it for granted.
Everyone usually waits for a vacation with joy, and you must be wary - who knows how it will end.
I definitely jump on vacation, and do physical exercises, and run twice a day - before breakfast and after dinner. Otherwise, the weight immediately grows, because on vacation there is always a mood to eat something tasty. You have to work even on vacation, in general.
You thanked Evgeni Plushenko for the ice shows. What experience did they give you?
It's completely different, not like in competitions. In competitions we concentrate on jumping because it is the most difficult part of the program. And in the show, jumps put on easy ones that you can do with your eyes closed. Accordingly, the image is completely different. I had loose hair on the show - it’s hard to jump with them, by the way, because they twist around you.
There is another light, sometimes flashing, sometimes colored. And you perform without a six-minute session, without a warm-up - you just come out and skate right away. It was unusual - I had to warm up a lot on the floor in order to immediately ride 200 percent without screwing anything up. And there are more emotions, because the show is an entertainment program for the audience. It is important for them to show the story, image, bright poses. In the same plan, it’s hard, because you’re morally out of breath. Trying to wink, play with the audience.
How did you make the decision to choose a new coach after leaving the Plushenko Angels?
I came to training at the Angels, where we had a conversation with Evgeny Viktorovich. After that, I had to leave the training, and we immediately went to the “Figure Skating Army”. There somehow everything turned out like a puzzle, and I was accepted into a new team. We have already begun to work, and then my mother took more things and documents from the skating rink. That is, there was no thinking, we just took it and left.
What has changed now in training, loads?
We have already had a week of training camps, two more are ahead. At 6.45 the day begins with an hour of special physical training, then an hour - separate ice for sliding. They teach us to skate there, so that the transitions are much better than those of other athletes. Then rest for half an hour, then a warm-up and the main ice. There we no longer slide, but literally three minutes we skate and started jumping. I noticed that in this school we jump a lot, straight without stopping. We skate a lot of programs, two or three times. We didn't do that with Angels.
We skate either complex, or simple, or lightweight, or with triple axels - different variations. We do a lot of connecting elements. Usually we change the style of training - we skate a short program on the first ice, then a free program. This is done so that we also get used to skating the free program in the morning - in the afternoon, of course, it’s easier.
Then either jazz or rest. Then again the ice and jumping. There we learn quads and skate programs. And at the end, either general physical training - and very intensive, or choreography. It's such a hectic schedule right now. And during the rest we gather in the hall for choreography to eat or play games.
Do you eat in the choreography hall? Right in front of the ballet bars and mirrors? Ballerinas would now categorically condemn you, probably.
Oh, come on, I think they do that too (laughs).
What kind of games?
We are going in a circle, 12-13 people, we play Mafia, Uno, Imaginarium, I brought another new game. We can play for two hours without stopping during a big break. Also very friendly atmosphere. But then we don’t talk at all on the ice - everyone is focused on their work. We just can't talk.
And how do you feel about this new level of loads?
Even on a relieved day on Saturday, I realized that I could not sit on my legs. My legs hurt so much! Just beyond words. It's hard, because here we are forced to ride, sit down and jump with our legs. And when the legs are already tired in the free program, the coaches look so that we do not “nod” with the body in order to save the jump. They force you to sit on your legs, which you no longer feel by this moment. Aleksey Georgievich (Vasilevsky) explains that due to body nods, most of the load falls on the back, and it is weaker and can “break”. Therefore, we have to endure.
Sounds like the training of fighters in a special forces unit. Through mud, windbreak and a fight with a dozen opponents for the maroon beret.
(laughs) Some days when I finish the program, I don’t really have black spots in my eyes, but I just see double, I don’t feel my arms and legs, I feel dizzy. And here I am sliding on the ice, like a slightly tipsy person - barely. And they also tell me to perform connecting elements (laughs). But after some days nothing, you get involved. Yevgeny Viktorovich had slightly different training. Everything is more calm, for training only seventy jumps. And here we do two hundred jumps, and it's fine.
Suvorov once said that it is hard in teaching, easy in battle.
“That thought is the only thing that saves me. At some trainings, I even thought about why I endure and do all these mockeries of the body myself. And then I realized - this is for the result! So that later during the skating at the competition it would be easy. So that everyone just gasps when they see how I skate the program (laughs).
Many people think that mistakes at the starts are because the athlete is lazy, does not work out in training. But you, on the impression, work for four - you are clearly not one of the lazy ones. Do you have an understanding why it is not always possible to skate cleanly, although you try very hard?
Probably, it's the volume of skating. Because, to be honest, before the Grand Prix in Krasnoyarsk and open skating, we jumped more than, say, before the Russian Championship and the Championship. When you perform, from start to start, the confidence increases that you will succeed, you can - it's easier to cope with nerves. If something goes wrong in training, then it is more difficult to cope with the competition. Hopefully I'll be able to get my nerves under control over time.
How do you feel at the age of 15 about the fact of raising the age in figure skating? Adults, as it were, hide behind concern for adolescents, making such a decision. How is it perceived by teenagers themselves?
I think they did it because they noticed that many athletes and athletes stop skating at a fairly early age. I would like to ride longer, perform a lot, win. It is interesting that every year you become more experienced, your body, emotions and sensations change. I think it's good that they raised the age.
Finally, a couple of not very serious questions. Where does your passion for horse riding come from?
Oh, I have loved horses since childhood. Everyone had dolls, and I had horses. This is a completely different feeling - you are still dealing with a living being. Sometimes I had to be more persistent, because in the first few lessons I was very afraid to press him or somehow “pull him up” - what if he would be hurt? I thought about it all the time. But when he took me away a couple of times to the wrong place, I realized that this would not work. It is necessary to take over, after all, I am a rider. I love to ride - you seem to be flying, the wind blows your face.
A lot in common with figure skating, it turns out, and the view is even better. You can go to the mountains, in the field, along the sea ...
Before they let me go so far, I am not yet such an experienced rider. But one day I want to.
Vkontakte you have a photo with Mark Kondratyuk on the main page ...
Yes, then I took pictures with a lot of people - with Alena Kostorna, with Sasha Samarin, Sasha Trusova ... It was a rehearsal before the show in St. Petersburg, which took place in Angels.
Why was Mark put on the profile picture?
With the Olympic champion, of course, it was necessary to take a picture. We are not super close, but we communicated well in Novogorsk at junior skates. Who would have thought then that Mark would become an Olympic champion. I really like him, he's great at skating. Very easy to communicate and just a nice young man.
Слезы Тарасовой, восхищение Марком: интервью фигуристки, изгнанной Плющенко
Анастасия Зинина — 15-летняя перспективная фигуристка из России с внешностью юной Грейс Келли и рассудительностью чемпионки мира по шахматам. Настя родилась в... РИА Новости Спорт, 20.07.2022
rsport.ria.ru
Training, tutors, almost no free time. When do you have time to live, Nastya?
On Sunday. Today is a day off, I even slept. We start training at 6.45, you need to wake up at 5 in the morning, and I developed such a habit - even on the weekend I got up at half past seven. I couldn't close my eyes no matter how much I tried to force myself. Tutors were in the morning, and I also managed to go to the cinema with a friend. And just before the interview, I had an English tutor. So a day off is a day off from training, but not from tutors.
What did you watch in the cinema? The choice is not very large, as I understand it.
Yes, now only Russian cinema is on. We watched the comedy "Bulki". About the girl who bakes these same buns. She quarreled with her husband, went to Sri Lanka - in general, it was fun, all sorts of adventures. She ended up opening her own bakery.
Do you have any such dream? To open your own Beauty salon or coffee shop in fifteen years.
I didn’t think about that, to be honest. I don't know how life will turn out. I like to set a goal for a year or two ahead and still have some kind of global goal. There is such a large goal, which I aspire to. Everything else is in the background.
Is the big goal connected with the Olympics?
Yes, with the Olympics.
Do you have your own funny story about how you started figure skating?
My parents didn’t want to put me into any sport at all. Dad is a software developer, works in a good company, and they expected to promote me in the mental sphere. I was already thinking well at the age of three.
Everything worked out spontaneously with figure skating. In Rostov, there is a large Mega shopping center with a small skating rink where different people skate. And there is one girl of eight years old - she seemed big to me, because I was only four and a half years old - she taught a double axel. I stood spellbound and watched her jump-fall, jump-fall, jump-fall. At some point, she enters the jump and ... did it! She had such a smile on her face - apparently, this was her first resulting double axel. I so wanted to try it too! I thought how cool it is when you get something.
Did you immediately ask for skates?
We didn't buy skates, we rented them. I'm so cool, I think: now, when I go out on the ice, how will I show everyone! As a result, I get on the ice and immediately fall. “It was by accident, it shouldn't be like that. Oh, what to do? It turns out that it’s not so simple” — these were my thoughts. Then I asked my mother, and she took me to the sports section. At first I just went as a hobby after school, and at the age of 9 there was a conversation about moving from Rostov to Moscow. I said that I want to develop, and in Rostov it would be unrealistic to achieve such a level. We had to move to the capital.
It is difficult to understand how a child can seriously like the prospect of going out on cold ice every day, falling painfully and experiencing other “joys” of a skater’s life. What attracted you to it anyway?
I don't know how to answer, except that I just love figure skating. Someone likes to draw or write poetry. He is unlikely to be able to decompose into syllables, which he likes, how words form into rhymes, how a brush falls on a piece of paper. Just… just love this thing. And you can't imagine life without it. So I just liked to go out on the ice. I was very young, small, but I had a very beautiful pink vest. All in black, and I in pink - was different. My mother told me later that I was terribly diligent. With all my might, I tried to hold my hands, pull the leg.
You said that at the age of three you had some special intellectual abilities. Can you explain what exactly this was?
Yes, nothing special, just in everyday terms, I was very quick-witted. If my mother asked me to bring something, I quickly understood what she wanted and how to find it.
So, it's been 11 years since that commemorative ice rink at the mall. Do you think your parents never wanted to give up everything? Yet they didn't dream of becoming an athlete for you, and being the parent of an athlete is a very special way of life.
I can say that the turning point was the move. Dad is still working in Rostov, and mom is with me in Moscow. A year or two after the move was hard. Well, how: when everything works out in training, it was easy for us. And when it doesn’t work out or something worries, my mother was very worried: will I manage, will we be able to endure all this together - separation from dad, live in two cities. Now there are no such moments, because my mother trusts me. Now she doesn’t even watch my workouts, because she understands that if Nastya came to the ice, she will work, and there is no need for an evil policeman to follow me.
That is, the quality of diligence inherent in you at the age of five has been preserved to this day?
Yes, I just love to work long and hard on something and see how it bears fruit. As I get better, I skate the program better. That is, at first it is always difficult, but you have to endure - then it will become easier.
This description is perfect for working on quadruple jumps. You carve and carve a stone for a long time and stubbornly, and then once - a flower appears from it. Flower in four turns.
I tried the first quadruple jump ... I have to think about when, so as not to lie, otherwise I don’t really remember it already. I had an injury for a year and a half, it took me a long time to heal my back - we could not find the cause of the pain, so I did not perform for some time. Then I skated at the Junior Moscow Championship. And when I collected all the triple jumps, we began to try the quadruple toe loop - first on the lounge. It's not scary - such an auxiliary moral component. And then slowly began to “enter” without a lounge. Scary, multi-turn jump - you don't know when to open up. But every day I tried a little bit. Today I twisted half a turn, tomorrow with an error. I can say that I jumped the first quadruple toe loop already with Evgeny Viktorovich Plushenko. I came to him for trial workouts and did it at the second training session - it happened.
Did you want to prove yourself so much that the quad jumped right away?
I just got advice on where to put my hand, where to put my foot. I had bright technical mistakes that didn't let me jump. When Evgeny Viktorovich told me about these mistakes, I was able to correct everything.
When you moved from Rostov to Moscow, why did you start training with Svetlana Panova?
My parents only asked me where I want to train - in Moscow or in St. Petersburg. And then they asked if I liked this coach outwardly - already when we came to see Svetlana Vladimirovna (Panova). I don’t know how my mother decided - she agreed somehow, probably. Then she told me that she still wanted to take me to Eteri Georgievna (Tutberidze), but she thought that I was still too small. They usually come to her at 11-12 years old, and I was only 9. They could not take me. In addition, the training in Rostov was not so powerful, and against the background of the loads in Khrustalny, health problems could simply begin. It was Svetlana Vladimirovna who stood out with the totality of advantages in comparison with other options.
And outwardly you liked her, as I understand it.
Yes, and I especially liked her hair. (laughs) No matter how strange it sounds.
Oh, how I understand you. Her hair is really luxurious.
When I came to her in 2016, she had a beautiful fluffy golden tail. Very elastic hair. And she also had such a habit, when she liked something, she first did this - (Nastya runs her hand over her head and twists her imaginary high tail), - and then she said good words. I was fascinated when she did this.
Around the students of Panova there is a kind of halo of a boarding school for noble maidens. The girls are all like a match, with well-thought-out choreography, piece programs, in beautiful original dresses. You have seen from the inside how it is all created. Tell me.
I still don't understand how she does it. Absolutely diverse programs, there are no identical movements. Usually this happens, but in the "Snow Leopards" this is not. I agree that the choreography is on the level and the dresses are beautiful. Perhaps some role in this belongs to the choreographer Ilona Protasenya. She tries to work with everyone individually - both to be comfortable and look great.
What was the atmosphere in the group consisting of talented girls-competitors?
Very friendly. No intrigues were built (laughs). We were friends, played, especially in the summer - catching up, hide and seek.
It is customary to think about modern children that they are not as interesting to each other as they are interested in smartphones, and you have catch-ups and hide-and-seek. Wow.
We spend a lot of time on the ice in training. We don’t go to school, so we, of course, want to communicate. The phone is not the same.
You speak warmly of Svetlana Panova. Why in the end did you decide to go to Evgeni Plushenko?
I really wanted to jump quads. Leaving Svetlana Vladimirovna was something of a forced measure, because I realized that I wanted to develop, and no one in our group had jumped quads yet. Yevgeny Viktorovich already had many such athletes, and we considered that it was time to break into the highest sport.
For the sake of sparring left, it turns out?
Exactly.
Exactly one question about Evgeni Plushenko, as we agreed. Reveal firsthand the circumstances of your departure from the Angels, please.
Everyone says that we had a fight, something else. To be honest, we had a very warm relationship with Evgeny Viktorovich. After the Russian Championship, we rallied even more strongly and worked together. But there were some obstacles in my relationship with the second coach, because of which I had to leave the group.
Is the second coach Dmitry Mikhailov? Shall we elaborate on the reasons for the disagreement?
Yes, Dmitry Sergeevich. We will not be specific. It was and gone. And so ... we were working with Evgeny Viktorovich, they managed to put on two new programs for me, I even skated a short program on the show "Union of Champions". By the way, I really liked performing there, and in general, many thanks to Evgeny Viktorovich for all the shows, including the New Year ones. An extremely rewarding and enjoyable experience, although it was hard at times.
From the outside, it really seemed that you had very good relations with Evgeni Plushenko. It was all the more surprising that you parted ways.
It was surprising for everyone.
And what kind of injury that everyone was talking about?
There was no real injury. Just imagine that you were on vacation for a long time, and then you arrived and went to the gym for fitness, and the next day your whole body hurts. That's right, all the muscles! The same for me. There were two weeks of vacation, the muscles all rested, the entire volume decreased. In training, the load began. Accordingly, the legs and back hurt, the muscles have lost the habit of working, they do not have the opportunity to show all their power, which they were before the vacation. My right knee was especially sore because it was under stress when landing. Three weeks passed, almost everything returned to normal, and I adapted to the loads. There was nothing terrible, it’s just a feature of my body that after a vacation I get in shape for a long time, but while this is happening, everything hurts. Some people don't have it, but I do, I just take it for granted.
Everyone usually waits for a vacation with joy, and you must be wary - who knows how it will end.
I definitely jump on vacation, and do physical exercises, and run twice a day - before breakfast and after dinner. Otherwise, the weight immediately grows, because on vacation there is always a mood to eat something tasty. You have to work even on vacation, in general.
You thanked Evgeni Plushenko for the ice shows. What experience did they give you?
It's completely different, not like in competitions. In competitions we concentrate on jumping because it is the most difficult part of the program. And in the show, jumps put on easy ones that you can do with your eyes closed. Accordingly, the image is completely different. I had loose hair on the show - it’s hard to jump with them, by the way, because they twist around you.
There is another light, sometimes flashing, sometimes colored. And you perform without a six-minute session, without a warm-up - you just come out and skate right away. It was unusual - I had to warm up a lot on the floor in order to immediately ride 200 percent without screwing anything up. And there are more emotions, because the show is an entertainment program for the audience. It is important for them to show the story, image, bright poses. In the same plan, it’s hard, because you’re morally out of breath. Trying to wink, play with the audience.
How did you make the decision to choose a new coach after leaving the Plushenko Angels?
I came to training at the Angels, where we had a conversation with Evgeny Viktorovich. After that, I had to leave the training, and we immediately went to the “Figure Skating Army”. There somehow everything turned out like a puzzle, and I was accepted into a new team. We have already begun to work, and then my mother took more things and documents from the skating rink. That is, there was no thinking, we just took it and left.
What has changed now in training, loads?
We have already had a week of training camps, two more are ahead. At 6.45 the day begins with an hour of special physical training, then an hour - separate ice for sliding. They teach us to skate there, so that the transitions are much better than those of other athletes. Then rest for half an hour, then a warm-up and the main ice. There we no longer slide, but literally three minutes we skate and started jumping. I noticed that in this school we jump a lot, straight without stopping. We skate a lot of programs, two or three times. We didn't do that with Angels.
We skate either complex, or simple, or lightweight, or with triple axels - different variations. We do a lot of connecting elements. Usually we change the style of training - we skate a short program on the first ice, then a free program. This is done so that we also get used to skating the free program in the morning - in the afternoon, of course, it’s easier.
Then either jazz or rest. Then again the ice and jumping. There we learn quads and skate programs. And at the end, either general physical training - and very intensive, or choreography. It's such a hectic schedule right now. And during the rest we gather in the hall for choreography to eat or play games.
Do you eat in the choreography hall? Right in front of the ballet bars and mirrors? Ballerinas would now categorically condemn you, probably.
Oh, come on, I think they do that too (laughs).
What kind of games?
We are going in a circle, 12-13 people, we play Mafia, Uno, Imaginarium, I brought another new game. We can play for two hours without stopping during a big break. Also very friendly atmosphere. But then we don’t talk at all on the ice - everyone is focused on their work. We just can't talk.
And how do you feel about this new level of loads?
Even on a relieved day on Saturday, I realized that I could not sit on my legs. My legs hurt so much! Just beyond words. It's hard, because here we are forced to ride, sit down and jump with our legs. And when the legs are already tired in the free program, the coaches look so that we do not “nod” with the body in order to save the jump. They force you to sit on your legs, which you no longer feel by this moment. Aleksey Georgievich (Vasilevsky) explains that due to body nods, most of the load falls on the back, and it is weaker and can “break”. Therefore, we have to endure.
Sounds like the training of fighters in a special forces unit. Through mud, windbreak and a fight with a dozen opponents for the maroon beret.
(laughs) Some days when I finish the program, I don’t really have black spots in my eyes, but I just see double, I don’t feel my arms and legs, I feel dizzy. And here I am sliding on the ice, like a slightly tipsy person - barely. And they also tell me to perform connecting elements (laughs). But after some days nothing, you get involved. Yevgeny Viktorovich had slightly different training. Everything is more calm, for training only seventy jumps. And here we do two hundred jumps, and it's fine.
Suvorov once said that it is hard in teaching, easy in battle.
“That thought is the only thing that saves me. At some trainings, I even thought about why I endure and do all these mockeries of the body myself. And then I realized - this is for the result! So that later during the skating at the competition it would be easy. So that everyone just gasps when they see how I skate the program (laughs).
Many people think that mistakes at the starts are because the athlete is lazy, does not work out in training. But you, on the impression, work for four - you are clearly not one of the lazy ones. Do you have an understanding why it is not always possible to skate cleanly, although you try very hard?
Probably, it's the volume of skating. Because, to be honest, before the Grand Prix in Krasnoyarsk and open skating, we jumped more than, say, before the Russian Championship and the Championship. When you perform, from start to start, the confidence increases that you will succeed, you can - it's easier to cope with nerves. If something goes wrong in training, then it is more difficult to cope with the competition. Hopefully I'll be able to get my nerves under control over time.
How do you feel at the age of 15 about the fact of raising the age in figure skating? Adults, as it were, hide behind concern for adolescents, making such a decision. How is it perceived by teenagers themselves?
I think they did it because they noticed that many athletes and athletes stop skating at a fairly early age. I would like to ride longer, perform a lot, win. It is interesting that every year you become more experienced, your body, emotions and sensations change. I think it's good that they raised the age.
Finally, a couple of not very serious questions. Where does your passion for horse riding come from?
Oh, I have loved horses since childhood. Everyone had dolls, and I had horses. This is a completely different feeling - you are still dealing with a living being. Sometimes I had to be more persistent, because in the first few lessons I was very afraid to press him or somehow “pull him up” - what if he would be hurt? I thought about it all the time. But when he took me away a couple of times to the wrong place, I realized that this would not work. It is necessary to take over, after all, I am a rider. I love to ride - you seem to be flying, the wind blows your face.
A lot in common with figure skating, it turns out, and the view is even better. You can go to the mountains, in the field, along the sea ...
Before they let me go so far, I am not yet such an experienced rider. But one day I want to.
Vkontakte you have a photo with Mark Kondratyuk on the main page ...
Yes, then I took pictures with a lot of people - with Alena Kostorna, with Sasha Samarin, Sasha Trusova ... It was a rehearsal before the show in St. Petersburg, which took place in Angels.
Why was Mark put on the profile picture?
With the Olympic champion, of course, it was necessary to take a picture. We are not super close, but we communicated well in Novogorsk at junior skates. Who would have thought then that Mark would become an Olympic champion. I really like him, he's great at skating. Very easy to communicate and just a nice young man.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2018
Good interview. What I liked the most is this recall:
And there is one girl of eight years old - she seemed big to me, because I was only four and a half years old - she taught a double axel. I stood spellbound and watched her jump-fall, jump-fall, jump-fall. At some point, she enters the jump and ... did it! She had such a smile on her face - apparently, this was her first resulting double axel. I so wanted to try it too! I thought how cool it is when you get something.
Precisely those moments are what keeps athletes working, through sacrifice and pain.
And there is one girl of eight years old - she seemed big to me, because I was only four and a half years old - she taught a double axel. I stood spellbound and watched her jump-fall, jump-fall, jump-fall. At some point, she enters the jump and ... did it! She had such a smile on her face - apparently, this was her first resulting double axel. I so wanted to try it too! I thought how cool it is when you get something.
Precisely those moments are what keeps athletes working, through sacrifice and pain.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2014
