If you're a fan of Swedish men's figure skating... | Page 2 | Golden Skate

If you're a fan of Swedish men's figure skating...

siberia82

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I've been informed by one of my Swedish-speaking pals that the journalist uses a lot of idiomatic expressions, which is why I got stuck in a few places. No doubt the language in the article is beautiful for those can read it, but it's hell for a beginner to translate! :p



Page 42 (continued):

Kristoffer, who participated in international competitions, knew he was moving hopelessly against the wind. The Russians had been drilled since they were old enough to stand in a pair of skates. Similarly, the Americans and the Japanese had access to their own rinks which were fully customized for figure skating. Kristoffer had to settle for ice sessions that the Landvetter hockey club did not use.

Another problem was that he was so lonely. When he began competing at the senior Swedish Championships, he only had one opponent, which meant that the results never became official and no medals were awarded. At the Swedish Nationals, there were only two possible placements: first or last.

Kristoffer used to come first.

- I could miss the community one might get in other sports. But I travel to the USA or Moscow for training camps sometimes, and then of course you get to meet other figure skaters. I'm probably the kind of person who doesn't suffer much from being alone.

Although he was the best in Sweden, he had poor awareness of the best skaters, those who competed at the World Championships, Olympics and the major Grand Prix events. Since he started figure skating, he had deliberately made sure to keep a distance from the sport.

- When the last of the other guys left, I was shocked. We had trained together for so many years, and suddenly he was no longer there. I knew of course that it was odd to get involved with figure skating. I skated a lot, but I was determined not to be identified too much as a figure skater. I skated on hockey blades for a long time. Maybe I distanced myself from it to avoid being bullied, I don't know. It's strange that I began doing a sport where you compete and show off because I was really shy. I understood that others thought it was ridiculous and geeky. I thought so, too. Sometimes we had exercises where we could express ourselves, play theatre. I felt so deeply ashamed that it physically hurt. But hockey could not measure up to figure skating, where everything was free and one can skate with such speed.




Oh, poor Koffe. :( He seems to have a love/hate relationship with the sport. It's heartbreaking for me to read that he agreed with the general public's perception that figure skating is "ridiculous and geeky", though strangely enough this didn't discourage him from continuing. He could've very easily quit when he had no other friend to practice with, yet he still stuck to it. Considering that there were no role models in the sport he could look up to, the fact that he was able to get this far is truly amazing!
:clap:
 

siberia82

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Page 42 (continued):

Kristoffer's sole competitor in Sweden, Filip Stiller, was a real figure skating nerd who fully embraced the sport, and his childhood room is filled with videotapes of the best skaters. The first time Kristoffer and Filip had met, at the 2000 Swedish Championships*, Filip went first. He did a flawless skate and was so delighted afterwards that he fell down to his knees and kissed the ice. When Kristoffer saw this, he intensified his focus. He then went out and opened with a perfect triple Axel. No one had performed that jump in Sweden before. He became so excited that his body shook for the rest of the program, but he still managed to land a few more triples.

The time spent together at camps and competitions meant that Kristoffer's and Filip's rivalry eventually turned into friendship.

Filip Stiller: - I had severe anxiety for two weeks prior to each Swedish Championships. I was completely paralyzed. Outsiders cannot understand how much pressure it is to compete in figure skating. You are totally alone on the ice. You have no team to hide behind. You can miss a jump that you've nailed every time in training – knowing that a wrong edge can destroy everything is so psychologically stressful. If you fall, it defines your entire performance. When I competed, there was only one who could understand. Kristoffer was very shy, but at international competitions, we often shared a room, and naturally we began to chat. We became very close friends.

Despite his dominance at home, Kristoffer had difficulty asserting himself internationally. He was respected for his fine skating, but what separated him from the world's elite was that he, despite countless attempts and training hours, had never successfully landed a quadruple, a jump where one rotates four turns in the air. Kristoffer could do the four revolutions, but he always stumbled on the landing. He therefore never included a quad in his competitive programs – and was thus well behind the best skaters before the competition had even started.

To compensate for his technical shortcomings, he began to refine other parts of his skating instead. At a figure skating competition, the judges evaluate the technical elements – jumps, spins and footwork – but they also rated the "artistic" – choreography, costumes and interpretation of the theme. Kristoffer hired a professional dancer as a choreographer, worked on improving his facial expressions on the ice, and tried to find different themes and music selections.




* The author may have been referring to the 1999 Swedish Championships (as in the 1999/2000 season) because that was the first time Koffe had competed at the senior level. It should be noted that the official website for the 2010 Swedish Nationals (which took place in mid-December of last year) does list the event as SM 2010, but Berntsson is considered to be the 2011 Swedish national champion.
 

siberia82

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Whoa, I didn't realize that Adrian had such a violent temper... :eek: :jaw: I don't know much about his background, but was he always a troubled kid? That aggressive behaviour must come from somewhere...



Page 43 (no picture):

At the same time, he continued to be spurred on by Filip Stiller. Both saw that they inspired many young guys to start figure skating. At Filip's club, a promising lad arrived who was different from the others: he had been doing martial arts and played hockey, but stopped because he started fights too often on the ice. As a figure skater, Adrian Schultheiss impressed others with his explosive jumping, but he was still easily drawn into conflict. Like the other teenage boys who figure skated, he was occasionally mocked by the hockey guys at the rink, but he refused to accept any insult.

Filip Stiller: - It didn't matter how big they were. He would take on anyone. One day a guy called Adrian Schultheiss a "gay f***er". Adrian confronted him and didn't stop even when a friend tried to pull him away, or when one of the hockey players kicked Adrian in the head. "I don't take crap from anyone. S*** be s*** have," Adrian declared. He wasn't that disciplined, so one was surprised every time it went well for him at a competition. He did whatever he felt like doing, said what he wanted to say, and ate whatever he craved for.

After winning three junior gold medals, the 17-year-old Schultheiss competed against Filip and Kristoffer at the Swedish Championships in Karlskrona. The music abruptly ended in the middle of Adrian's long program. He faltered on a spin, became furious and began to quarrel with the organizers. After a few minutes, the music played where it had stopped, and Adrian completed his skate flawlessly.

On the podium, Kristoffer Berntsson had difficulty hiding his disappointment at being defeated by a cocky 17-year-old with a pierced lower lip. For five years*, the Swedish Nationals had been his tournament. Because these results determined who would be sent to the major international competitions, he was furthermore saddened for Filip Stiller, who finished third, and would not be joining him at the European Championships.

Filip decided to retire. While Kristoffer grew even more lonely, Filip encouraged him to try to become Sweden's best again.




* The journalist made a mistake when he wrote "Under fem år" (translation: For five years); Koffe didn't compete at the 2001 Swedish Nationals, and he was forced to withdraw after the SP in 2002 even though he did win that segment.
 
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snowflake

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Oh, Siberia, big project :eek: You are doing fine so far. The Filter journalist should have used you as his main research source :thumbsup:

I have read the article and find it odd in many ways :scratch: I think much of what the author writes is in his own mind. E.g. I don't think Kristoffer ever gave a damn about Adrian being pierced.

I admire Kristoffer and all the obstacles he had to overcome. If this is his last season I really hope there will be a big thank you-and-farewell ceremony for him at StockholmIce, April 2nd.

Just nine more pages…........... Shout if you need help :biggrin:
 

siberia82

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Page 43 (continued):

The following year, Kristoffer set a new personal record at the Swedish Nationals and qualified for the 2007 World Championships in Tokyo. There he was followed throughout the week by a camera crew from the PR agency Göteborg & Co. The next Worlds would be held in Gothenburg, and the city wanted to promote the event by highlighting the country's greatest figure skaters.

While Kristoffer took off his skate guards and walked out on the ice in a shiny silk shirt and imitation leather black pants, he had a stomach ache due to nervousness. But as soon as he began the Travolta-dance to the first notes of "Stayin' Alive", he heard cheering from the stands. When he nailed a perfect triple toe loop, he felt that he had something big going on. Television commentators Katarina Hultling and Lotta Falkenbäck reported home to the Swedish people, "What a skate!" "Fun and groovy!" "Oh so lovely!"

After he had completed his final spin, Kristoffer Berntsson stood with his left hand on his hip and the other stretched towards the ceiling. The audience in the packed arena gave him a standing ovation; flowers and teddy bears flew through the air and landed on to the ice. Kristoffer could not help but smile and applauded himself. He had never skated this well before. He smashed his personal record by 20 points and finished in ninth place – the best result for a Swedish man since Gillis Grafström's gold in 1929.

The 24-year-old Kristoffer Berntsson came home to Gothenburg as a star. People stopped him on the street to offer their congratulations. Moreover, his achievement meant that Sweden had two spots for the home World Championships.

Kristoffer then followed up this result with a seventh place finish at the European Championships in Zagreb – his best placement ever at an international competition. Naturally, everything should have felt fantastic – if it were not for the 18-year-old Adrian Schultheiss who finished sixth.

For figure skating fans all over the world, it seemed as if Sweden had something big happening. The country had no major presence on the international scene for nearly a century, and now it had two skaters among the top seven in Europe.
 

siberia82

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Oh, Siberia, big project. You are doing fine so far.

Thanks for saying so. :) Fortunately, there are two people on another FS forum who assist me with slang and idioms (Erik Almqvist seems to be fond of the latter), so I couldn't have gotten this far without their help. Still, I must be out of my mind to want to translate a fairly large body of text which is written in a language that I can't really "read". I'm beginning to pick up some common words, though! :cool:

The Filter journalist should have used you as his main research source

Mr. Almqvist should've used Wikipedia! :laugh:

I have read the article and find it odd in many ways. I think much of what the author writes is in his own mind. E.g. I don't think Kristoffer ever gave a damn about Adrian being pierced.

I have noticed that the author likes to describe Adrian as being "pierced"; it's as if he couldn't be bothered to inform us of Schultheiss' other traits. :rolleye: Adrian is obviously a lot more than just an "angry punk", but it looks like the journalist wanted to emphasize his antagonistic side. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Koffe's perception of his rival; it's just Mr. Almqvist's way of adding drama to the story.

I admire Kristoffer and all the obstacles he had to overcome. If this is his last season I really hope there will be a big thank you-and-farewell ceremony for him at StockholmIce, April 2nd.

I expect that he will retire (although the selfish fan in me hopes that he doesn't :p). If that is the case, your suggestion would be an incredibly sweet gesture.
 

siberia82

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Page 43 (continued):

For the first time, Kristoffer and Adrian experienced the true scent of the fine figure skating world, where the best athletes sign fat endorsement contracts and draw in millions of kronor in prize money. The most successful Russians were offered roles in television series, pen best-selling autobiographies, and have both groupies and stalkers.



Photo, page 44 (http://i52.tinypic.com/20koef4.jpg):

PREVENTION. After ice practice, Kristoffer rides the bus to the Athletics building for fitness training. "My body is not built for skating. I have almost no curvature in my lower back, so there is too much strain on the vertebra."



Page 45 (http://i52.tinypic.com/20koef4.jpg):

Kristoffer Berntsson: - It was hysteria in Tokyo. Ten thousand Japanese stood up and applauded me for my free skate. It was... a special feeling. There was a mass of fans outside the stadium, and they would take pictures, give me presents and ask for autographs. When I came back to the hotel, people were waiting for me there, too. I still receive stuffed animals and letters from Japan.

What the foreign fans didn’t know was that Kristoffer Berntsson and Adrian Schultheiss were as different as night and day. They lived and trained in the same city, but never socialized and did not talk to each other more than necessary. When Kristoffer wasn't training, he spent time with his girlfriend and was studying for a Master of Engineering degree at the Chalmers University of Technology. The pierced Adrian led a less orderly life. In an interview, he summarized his hobbies: "Reptiles, death metal and hip hop."

Days before the World Championships in Gothenburg, the newspapers' sports pages were filled with interviews of the hometown hopefuls. Aftonbladet visited their practices and described how they both trained to learn the quadruple jump – and thus break into the international elite. In an interview with Svenska Dagbladet, Adrian Schultheiss criticized the marketing of the World Championships, where posters of Kristoffer Berntsson were displayed on bus shelters and trams around Gothenburg. "As for the marketing department, they didn't use their whole heads," he opined. "Kristoffer has received a lot of undeserved attention. I still have beaten him several times." Shortly thereafter, he made an unsuccessful attempt to play down the rivalry with the comment: "We don't burn down each other's hotel rooms, of course."



Adrian's last statement is just :rofl:! I love his sense of humour!
 
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prettykeys

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Completely off-topic, but just wanted to thank siberia for sharing the link to the "Scandinavia and the World" comics in the Junior Worlds forum (I think that's where I saw it.) I had a blast reading a lot of them yesterday. :biggrin:
 

siberia82

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Page 45 (continued):

It was high time to wipe out Kristoffer's and the audience's expectations. While Adrian Schultheiss breezed through his long program, fans in the Scandinavium did the wave and chanted: "Adrian! Adrian! Adrian!" He closed the best skate of his life by moving down into a limbo position with his hands shaped like guns and fired at the judges. The gesture was not appreciated by all; Adrian finished at number 13 in the world, but he showed the audience that he had the potential to go further. Afterwards, he declared that he "will someday stand on the podium."

As for Kristoffer Berntsson, he could see that the future wasn't nearly as bright. His coach summed up his World Championships effort with the sentence: "It's about doing the best you can, and he didn't do that." The rest of the season was destroyed by a hip injury, and he was finally obligated to undergo surgery. When Kristoffer returned, he developed back problems. If he stood up for five minutes, he was forced to spend the rest of the day on the couch. He started to question whether figure skating was worth all the hard work and all the pain. It was the same steps, the same jumps, the same spins... 20 hours a week. He knew he had reached the age when a skater's body began to deteriorate. Backs worn down due to the extreme torsion caused by the rotations, battered groins, deformed ankles. Many suffer from asthma due to the cold, dry air at the ice rink, while others feel so horrible from the loneliness and the psychological stress that they develop alcohol problems.

After one and a half years of rehabilitation training, Kristoffer successfully came back to the 2009 Swedish Nationals. Since he had been away for so long, he knew that he not only had to win the event, but he also needed an impressive performance at the subsequent European Championships to convince the Swedish Olympic Committee to select him for the Olympics instead of Adrian.

The result was that Kristoffer decided to jump a little higher and go a bit faster instead of focusing on security in skating. At the Swedish Championships, it went well, and he was awarded victory over Adrian. In a Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå interview, Adrian argued that Kristoffer did not deserve the title: "I don't give a crap that he won Nationals. The judges in Sweden are biased, and it has been really corny lately. They give him high marks just for being him. When we have competed internationally, I have beaten him three times out of four."




I was aware of Koffe's hip surgery after the 2008 Worlds (and I even remember seeing a photo of him using crutches), but I didn't know that he also suffered from a painful back injury. That explains why he struggled so much with his "Dancing Robot" routine. I find it odd that the journalist seemed to suggest that Kris didn't compete during the 2008/2009 season and the fall of 2009. I suppose that his way of skipping over 1.5 years, but it's still misleading. :disapp:
 
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siberia82

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Completely off-topic, but just wanted to thank siberia for sharing the link to the "Scandinavia and the World" comics in the Junior Worlds forum (I think that's where I saw it.) I had a blast reading a lot of them yesterday. :biggrin:

You're very welcome, prettykeys! (Sorry for the late reply, but I was so focused on translating the article that I somehow I missed your post. :p) Not only is SATW funny and cute, but I also find it educational. I learned more about Northern Europe through this comic strip than I did during 18 years of schooling. :eek: (The Canadian education system obviously doesn't place much emphasis on Nordic countries.)
 
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siberia82

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Photo, pages 46-47 (http://i51.tinypic.com/15z5un4.jpg):

TOKYO MEMORIES. "I have sought a challenge and decided to take it as far as possible," Kristoffer says. "You can be happy if you get something that comes easily. But if you accomplish a difficult goal that you set for yourself – it's hard to top that."


Page 46:

During the European Championships, Kristoffer crashed twice, and the Swedish Olympic Committee chose to send Adrian Schultheiss to Vancouver. Despite the frustration, Kristoffer understood deep down the SOK's reasoning: he was 27 years old and was believed to have passed his best before date, while Adrian Schultheiss' career path still pointed upwards.

On the same day that Wayne Gretzky lit the Olympic flame at the Winter Games in Vancouver, Kristoffer Berntsson stopped reading the newspaper. He usually followed the major sporting events, but now he changed the channel on his TV when the sports broadcasting started, and kept silent whenever a friend talked about the Swedish skiers' successes. Every time he was accidentally exposed to the massive Olympic coverage, he could feel a stabbing sensation in his body.

The morning after the men's figure skating final, he could not hold it in any longer. As soon as he awoke, he opened his laptop in bed and logged on to the International Skating Union website. There was, he persuaded himself, a small chance that Adrian Schultheiss had made a fool of himself and did not make it among the top 25. In that case, Kristoffer may at least be chosen for the World Championships in Turin, one month after the Olympics.

The page loaded slowly. Kristoffer read: American Lysacek one, Plushenko second, Japanese Takahashi third. He scrolled down until he saw Adrian's name. 15th place. It was over.

The Swedes who sat in front of their TV sets had seen how Adrian had stepped on to the ice in Vancouver with a tattered straight jacket, his arms crossed over his chest, and performed an almost flawless skate to a potpourri of Cypress Hill's "Insane in the Brain" and Prodigy's "Smack My B**** Up."

As if that were not enough, the young Olympian had become the first Nordic skater to land a clean quadruple jump in competition.

When Adrian came in ninth place at the World Championships, after yet another perfect quad, Kristoffer Berntsson was done with figure skating.
 

siberia82

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I've discovered in this section that Koffe cares about the environment and has good taste in music (so he's not just smart, talented and cute ;)). Oh, be still, my foolish fangirl heart! ♥ ♥ ♥ :love:



Page 46 (continued):

Six months later, Kristoffer catches the express bus at Kungsportsplatsen in Gothenburg and sits down at his usual spot: the third seat on the right side. He sets aside his down jacket and hat on the adjacent seat, puts the iPhone headphones into his ears, and plays a track from the '90s group A Perfect Circle.

Since he firmly believes that city dwellers have no excuse to contribute to the greenhouse effect with a car, he spends two hours on public transport every day to travel between home, office and the Landvetter rink. He falls asleep quickly, as he always tries to do, to save energy.

Fifteen minutes later, just as the bus brakes outside of the rink, Kristoffer awakens and staggers off. He pushes past some snowball throwing school children and walks through the door with the peeling hockey club stickers.

The ice is full of scratches from the hockey team's practice.

- Oh, they didn’t rinse the surface? There is certainly no one here who can drive the Zamboni, either.


Page 47 (http://i51.tinypic.com/15z5un4.jpg):

After having searched for the janitor, he jogs a few lengths up and down the stands before he goes into the locker room to tape his right ankle, which is broken by too many sprains. Both feet have hard, bulging nodules after a lifetime of being in ice skates.

When Kristoffer Berntsson had quit figure skating, he initiated his Master's thesis at Chalmers and got a job at a consulting firm in Majorna. A few months later, he lay at home and watched the TV program Mästarnas mästare. On the show, Patrik Sjöberg spoke about the time after he had retired from the high jump, and explained that he had never found anything that gave him the same kick as competing. Kristoffer could already recognize himself in the description, and was afraid that it would worsen. He missed "going out on to the ice and entertaining the crowd," and judged that his body felt good from the rest. After discussing the matter thoroughly with his girlfriend, he decided to commit to the sport for one more season. The objective was obvious: to win the Swedish Nationals and thus secure a berth at the European Championships – which in turn will determine who gets to go to the World Championships in Tokyo one month later*. Sweden has two spots for both competitions. Three skaters, Kristoffer, Adrian and the promising Russian-born junior Alexander Majorov, will battle for them.




* I know I'm being nitpicky, but the text should have read "två månader" (translation: two months) and not "en månad".
 

siberia82

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Photo, pages 48-49 (http://i52.tinypic.com/jpww8z.jpg):

ALONE. "Adrian could never replace Filip for me. The nature of our rivalry was different. Filip and I had grown up together."



Page 48:

To get revenge on the tormentor Adrian Schultheiss and earn a good result in front of his fans in Tokyo would be the perfect end to a long career.

How it would be to finish third at the Swedish Nationals and once again sit at home while his rivals represent Sweden at the World Championships – he didn't even want to consider that possibility.

Kristoffer stuffs small, home-cut foam pieces into his skates to prevent chafing against his ankle, takes the CD with his program music from his bag and walks towards the ice.

I ask him if one can perform at the top level as a 28-year-old.

- We'll see. There is almost no one who has tried. It was a process to make the decision to continue, but it's now that I have a chance. I can't do this in three years.

During the summer, he almost nailed a quad during training, but since then, he has been forced to give priority to the stability of the easier jumps. Because he started late in the season, he didn't have enough time to practice the program so that "it goes on autopilot." But he is confident that it will be ready in the spring – when the European and World Championships take place.

- The problem is that if I don't get it together now, for the Swedish Nationals, I won't even get the chance to show it in the spring.



Page 49:

He takes off his skate guards and heads out on to the ice. After a few warm-ups with the easier spins, steps and jumps, he fetches his burned CD from the boards and places it in the PA system. The loudspeakers soon echo Yann Tiersen's "Comptine d'un autre été" from the film Amélie.





Well, we know how the story ends for Koffe this season... :cry:

Ugh, I resent the author's use of the word "tormentor" to describe Adrian. :sheesh: How much of it is actually Kris' perception of his rival, and how much of it is Erik Almqvist's imagination?
 

siberia82

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Page 49 (continued):

In the middle of the program, I hear a female voice from the hockey booth:

- Fine Kristoffer, your Lutz was great!

Andrea Dohany has coached Kristoffer since he began skating, but looks as if she would enjoy being at a ski hotel in Aspen more than in an empty, cold and sweat-smelling rink with puck marks on the boards. Her black hair is drawn back into a tight bun, and she wears pearl earrings, moon boots and a thin black jacket from Moncler.

"Smooth Criminal" thunders from the loudspeakers, and on the ice Kristoffer mixes his spins and jumps with hip movements and kicks from Michael Jackson's repertoire.

I ask Andrea what she thinks about his final Swedish Championships.

- Kristoffer can do everything fine. But sometimes, it gets crazy at a competition. If he doesn't get a lot of strange thoughts, it will go well.

Erik Almqvist: - Have you talked much about it?

- Yes, but unfortunately, he has made some poor performances in recent years. Earlier, I saw that he had such power, and it's a pity that it hasn't gotten better. But a lot depends on injuries. This is not a healthy sport. The older you become, the more you compensate with wrong movements for fear of getting hurt and injured again. That's why he's so weak with the jumps. A triple Axel cannot be done cautiously. There's a long procedure to get rid of that fear.

After an hour on the ice, Kristoffer glides around, hunched over with his hands on his knees. He grimaces, breathing heavily, and puts his hand around his right foot.

- The groin is thoroughly overexerted. I can't jump as much as I want.

Later, Kristoffer is sitting on the express bus that will take him to the Athletics building. While he tries to eat a plastic-wrapped sandwich without the bus driver seeing him, I ask how he views the rivalry with Adrian Schultheiss.

- Yes... well, it's more like... he probably still thinks that I receive too many points. But it's always like that when you compete. You want to win as well. Everyone is different. I can express it like this: he is much younger than me. When he arrived, he had a lot of talent. But I've never, how shall you put it... I wouldn't say the kind of things that he has to the media.





Wow, I actually finished translating the section which focuses on Koffe (which is the largest chapter within the article). :eek: This is nothing short of a miracle!!! :p Of course, I couldn't have gotten this far without the help of two people, so a BIG thank you to both of them for patiently answering my questions about the Swedish language. :clap: At my current reading skill level, I just might be able to challenge a 3-year-old Swedish child. :laugh:
 
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siberia82

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This is the first half Adrian's second chapter as translated by one of my assistants, with some minor changes done by me.



Page 49 (continued):

In his messy Gothenburg apartment, Adrian Schultheiss goes to the refrigerator and grabs a can of Power King – the food chain Willy's low price version of the energy drink Red Bull.

- I drink so many of these that I'm not sure whether they have an effect anymore. But when I do a really difficult jump, I can still feel a little bit of the slogan, "Red Bull gives you wings".

After meeting Adrian a couple of times, it is hard not to get the impression that things could have turned out really badly for him if he hadn't found this sport. Adrian says that he would like to develop "his aesthetic side," design clothes or paint.



Photo, pages 50-51 (http://i51.tinypic.com/33544d2.jpg):

RESTLESS. In the autumn, Adrian's beloved fish do not behave normally. He is afraid that they've become ill because he bought a used aquarium with a dirty pump.



Page 53 (http://i51.tinypic.com/2ilhc2e.jpg):

But a few days ago, when I asked him what he thought he would do if he didn’t have figure skating, he smiled and replied, "I probably would've been an alcoholic or something."

He then points to a little liqueur cabinet just outside the kitchen.

- I don't drink anymore. I started at a fairly early age and drank for a few years, like teenagers often do. But then my body began to protest against it. Afterwards, I lost two or three training days, every time.

When Adrian was 15, his family moved to Tibro. Adrian decided it was time for him to leave the parental home in order to continue his devotion to figure skating. He lived in a "rathole in Linnéplatsen," and then rented a room from "a nice elderly couple" before he found his current apartment three years ago.




Adrian's comment that he'd likely be an alcoholic without the sport really breaks my heart. :( This article is so sad that it makes me want to disintegrate into a pool of tears... Btw, isn't it highly unusual for someone to move out of the house when s/he's only 15? :unsure:
 

ing

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At 15 you finnish the 9 years compulsurary school, then almost everybody continue three years of shool that can prepare you for university or teach you a profesion some are sportsschool that makes it easier to combine your sport with school, if you want to go a school that's not close to home you might need to move. So I would say it's unusual but not highly unusual.
 

siberia82

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Here is the second half of Adrian's chapter as done by my acquaintance (with a little tweaking by yours truly).



Page 53 (continued):

The 22-year-old Adrian now lives on the 6000 SEK* per month that he receives from the Swedish Olympic Committee, which also pays for his coach and ice time. Adrian would like to work to supplement this income, but it's hard for him to find the time because he trains so much and travels to competitions every three weeks on average.

- I would've wanted something more in life, not just the money. I could do any kind of work, except maybe scrubbing toilets. But who would want to hire me? You see how I live! I have no car and it's a constant struggle. I've tried to get sponsors. You can't go for gold on your own. If I continue skating next year, I'll probably move to the USA. I want to make money on this. The top five at Grand Prix competitions earn prize money. I'm sixth, ninth, eleventh…

Adrian tosses his empty Power King can in one of the garbage bags and picks up his skating bag from the hall floor. While walking through a rain of wet snow to the bus stop, I ask him if Kristoffer Berntsson's success meant much to him when he was younger. Adrian responds that he has never cared much about other skaters and that he "didn't have an eye on him." However, he still thinks that Kristoffer is favoured by the judges in Sweden.

- I was robbed at the Swedish Championships last year. I skated well while he made three major mistakes. When I saw his score after the short program, I wanted to leave and withdraw from the competition. I keep fighting, but they never hand me points as they do with him.

Adrian is aware of that he should stop thinking about the duel that has dominated Swedish figure skating in recent years. Like Kristoffer Berntsson, he is surprised that neither of them has been the best skater in Sweden lately.




* The translator wanted to mention that 6000 kronor is equivalent to approximately $900 USD, a sum that is almost impossible to subsist on. The lowest paid full-time jobs in Sweden will give you about twice that amount after tax.


While I do agree that Adrian should've won the SP at the 2009 Swedish Nationals (I remember being flabbergasted that Koffe came out ahead by 0.02 points even though he made two errors while Adrian only had one :scratch:), Berntsson deserved to win the free skate IMHO. Each skater had one glitch in this segment, but Kris sold his program better. In fact, I was a bit surprised at how "flat" Schultheiss' LP was in comparison to what we saw at the Olympics and the 2010 Worlds.

Koffe also achieved higher levels on some elements during the event, so along with the slight PCS advantage that he has (which exists not only in Sweden, but at major ISU competitions as well), I believe he deserved to win the title. Still, the scoring for the SP was fishy, so there was definitely some favouritism going on there. :frown: (Btw, I do have the official DVD copy of the Senior Men's event, so the image quality and camera angle are much better than the home videos that are available on YouTube.)
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
Record Breaker
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Jun 18, 2008
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Page 53 (continued):

At a Luleå high school 1370 kilometers* from Gothenburg, Kristoffer's and Adrian's main competitor is leaning over his backpack in a corridor. He is waiting for math class to begin.

- Heeey Majorov!

A thin teenage boy with bushy, black hair walks over to Alexander, who introduces me.

- Oh hell, interview! So do you think we have hot girls here?

The guy smiles and lets his gaze sweep over the lockers in the empty corridor. He then tells Alexander that he really should be in religious studies class.

- But I can't keep up, so I said I had to go to the bathroom. Well, Buddhism, I don't get it. They believe in reincarnation. There I'm okay, but their goal is to reach Burma or whatever the hell it's called. You are reborn as something better each time until you get there. Still, one can become animals and stuff... I don't get it.



Photo, pages 54-55 (http://i52.tinypic.com/16jfp53.jpg):

ICE FAMILY. In order for cooperation to work, the Majorovs have decided to split their roles. "At home, I'm the mother, but at the rink, I just coach. We can't talk then when he is in pain, we do that once training is over."



Page 54:

Alexander looks at him and scratches his cap.

- Nah, I don't get it, either.

A few hours later, Alexander puts on a pair of very dirty socks in a locker room at the Coop Arena. He explains that he doesn't wash his skating socks. Clean socks slide downwards and move inside the skating boots, plus it's an old Russian figure skating superstition.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Alexander Majorov was born to be a figure skater. His father, also named Alexander Majorov, became a successful coach after his own skating career. Alexander's mother Irina is a former ballet dancer who specializes in helping figure skaters with their costumes and choreography.




* In case there are non-Swedes who have a copy of Filter and are wondering where I got that number, in Sweden, 1 mil = 10 km. The straight line distance between Luleå and Gothenburg is approximately 1024 km, but roads cannot be built through the mountains, so driving along the coast adds another 300 km to the journey.


My family comes from a Buddhist background, so I very much want to tell the ignorant kid that Sasha talked to that the state of enlightment is called "nirvana" and not Burma. :sheesh:
 
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