If you're a fan of Swedish men's figure skating... | Page 3 | Golden Skate

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

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ :laugh: Well, Burma (in its current incarnation as Myanmar) is a pretty enlightened state. I believe that after the state of Burma is attained, the next level of enlightenment is the state of Singapore.
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
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I believe that after the state of Burma is attained, the next level of enlightenment is the state of Singapore.

:rofl: That's the funniest thing I've heard all week. Thanks for the belly laugh, Mathman!
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
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Page 54 (continued):

During the collapse of the Soviet Union, Alexander senior had arranged figure skating training camps in Luleå for Russian skaters. He had witnessed the chaos, red tape and queues at home, and thought in the future that there must be better places for people who want to become good figure skaters. When their son was a year old, the Majorov family moved to Sweden and has been running the Luleå figure skating club ever since.

Alexander's childhood was dominated by the sport. Papa Alexander had shown his son the goodies in his video library of skating competitions that he has recorded throughout the years. He recounted the time when he coached Alexei Yagudin, who later became one of the best skaters in history. He mentioned all the talented skaters that he has coached who, like himself, never quite managed to make it to the elite level. He also talked about those who, after their amateur careers, struggled to make a living by skating for their nouveau riche countrymen in roving ice shows onboard cruise ships with ice rinks. These days, most conversations around the dinner table are about the Luleå pupils' programs, costumes, choreography and development.

- Dad feels sad when someone doesn't do as he says. He sees the other students as his children, too. Sometimes I get pissed off when he talks too much about them. They have their own parents.

Alexander Majorov has been travelling to international competitions since he was 14. During the summers, he participated in training camps with the Russian national team in St. Petersburg.* After Kristoffer's and Adrian's strong results in 2008, the then 17-year-old Majorov was given the chance to compete as one of three Swedes at the 2009 European Championships.

- I had never competed with such a large audience and cameramen from Eurosport before. I was so nervous that I couldn't control my body. I made a fool of myself. After my third fall, I felt awful. After the fourth, I could barely finish my program. I will never forget how I was sitting in the changing room afterwards. I had done my worst performance ever in front of all those people when it really counted. I sat there all alone with my skates and costume for twenty minutes. I actually cried.




* A Swedish fan on another FS forum informed me that Sasha has not been able to go to Russia for some years now because he might be required to do military service. Apparently, he has applied to give back his Russian passport, but I don't know if he has succeeded yet.
 

siberia82

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Page 54 (continued):

Alexander has long shown that he possesses enormous potential. In training, he can achieve world-class level, but often fell apart in competitions. After the European Championships, he and his father worked on the mental aspects while Alexander gained more experience from major competitions. This year, he has done considerably better than his Swedish competitors at international events.


Page 55 (http://i52.tinypic.com/16jfp53.jpg):

Alexander and his ten-year-old brother Nikolai are gliding to the opera "Prince Igor." They are carving perfect eights while skating backwards on the ice. On each side of the CD player, their parents are leaning over the boards. Standing beside them is the grandmother, who is visiting from St. Petersburg. Although the Majorov family had to adapt to the Luleå hockey club's practice schedule, the training facilities here are unique. Nowhere else in Sweden can you find four indoor rinks with good ice that are adjacent to each other. Moreover, there are two other ice rinks within twenty kilometers.

The practice session is an exercise in discipline. Alexander Majorov moves easily and with precision in a tight, shiny sweater that highlights his muscular upper body. When he falls on a triple Axel, Alexander senior shakes his head and calls for his son. The father gives him some firm instructions while tapping the floor with his foot so that it echoes in the empty arena.

Alexander gains some speed again, jumps, does three turns* in the air, and lands softly.

"Now it was OK! Now it was OK!" his father says with his arms across his chest. "But do it once again with softer knees."




* I'm a little annoyed that the journalist doesn't seem to know that a triple Axel is actually 3.5 revolutions in the air. Non-figure skating fans who read this article won't realize that it's the most difficult triple jump (and thus the reason why Sasha had struggled with it).
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
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Page 56 (http://i51.tinypic.com/1io0v8.jpg):

Afterwards, his mother carefully goes through the choreography of his free program with him.

- You must be more relaxed. It's supposed to be theatre, but it needs to look natural. When you do the move where you scratch like a cat, you have to do it properly: "Grrrrrr." It's very important.

She starts the music over and over again and lets him work through the first part of the program, where he dances and flirts with the judges by stroking his upper body with his hands.

- That was OK, but don't forget to use your eyes. You must look the judges in the eyes, you shouldn't appear apologetic. You can be shy at school, but the ice has its own rules. Go again!

When Alexander steps off the ice, I ask him about his relationship with his two main competitors at the Swedish Championships.

- It's thanks to Kristoffer and Adrian that I have improved so much. I have been training to beat them. It has made me better. But I don't know them. They aren't approachable. Adrian doesn't want to talk to Kristoffer, and Kristoffer doesn't want to talk to me. Before, I used to hang out with Adrian at training camps. We used to tape the others to their beds as they slept, reset their alarm clocks, or spray shaving cream on their hands and tickle their faces. He was like me, a bit mischievous and not like the others, dressed in hip hop style. But when we became competitors, he stopped talking to me. It's a shame.

Soon the entire family is gathered in the locker room. Grandma is joking with Nikolai and Alexander pulls a heavy fleece sweater over the body-hugging red knitwear.

- My current world ranking is probably about 25th, but if I earn a really good result, I'd be able to show that I belong higher up. My first goal is to win the Swedish Championships.




I think it's unfortunate that Adrian cut off contact with Sasha once he realized that the youngster could challenge him. Maybe he wouldn't be as depressed if he had a skating buddy who understood him (sort of like Filip's friendship with Koffe).
 

siberia82

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Photo, page 56 (http://i51.tinypic.com/1io0v8.jpg):

SHIELDED. After his own performance in the finals, Adrian sits in the kiss and cry area where he follows Kristoffer's decisive skate on the screen.



Page 56 (continued):

The three national gold medal candidates have competed against each other throughout the season, but when they arrive at the Malmö ice stadium just over an hour before the short program, it is the first time that all three are at the same place. They handle this situation by staying as far from each other as possible.



Page 57 (http://i51.tinypic.com/1io0v8.jpg):

Adrian Schultheiss is reclined on a seat in the stands while his gaze seems lost in space. His green hat is pulled down over his eyebrows, and his cheeks are covered by the fur on his black down jacket. In a corridor at the other end of the arena, Kristoffer Berntsson's newly highlighted bangs sway across his forehead as he jogs back and forth with Iphone earphones in his ears. Further away, Alexander Majorov has distanced himself from his parents, who have his skates in a rolling luggage bag. Like other coaches, they always keep their skaters' equipment under supervision so that no one can sabotage anything.

Kristoffer, Adrian and Alexander don't even look at each other during the six-minute warm-up on the ice. After the two other skaters in the final group – who have virtually no chance of medalling – have skated, Adrian glides onto the ice again and assumes his start position near the blue line with his hands across his face. The ring in his lower lip and the sequins on his tight costume are glittering under the spotlight. He dances backwards, light on his feet, and nails a few difficult combinations*, but has a shaky landing on the triple Axel.

When Kristoffer Berntsson comes out on to the ice dressed as a pantomime artist, he hears the speaker announce Adrian's score: 69.67. He thinks he should be able to beat that if he does not make any mistakes.




* Someone needs to tell Mr. Almqvist that there is only one jump combination in the short program. :rolleye:
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
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Page 57 (continued):

Kristoffer starts with a clean triple Axel. He doesn't have the same ease as Adrian when he jumps. There is a thud on the ice when he lands, but he then performs a few practised jump combinations and gets 71.95 points.

From the kiss and cry – the area where the skaters sit while waiting for their scores – Kristoffer watches how a nervous Alexander Majorov begins with a challenging dance, but misses a triple Axel and a combination. After the short program, Majorov is third with 57.71 points.

Two days later, the competitors gather again at the Malmö ice stadium. Although they are staying at the same hotel, they have managed to avoid each other: they eat breakfast at different times and spend their practice-free hours in their rooms.

As Alexander Majorov walks on the ice in a homemade brown shirt with rivets and leather straps, Kristoffer is still jogging around in the corridor outside the changing room and listening to music. He doesn't see that Alexander is shivering when he takes his first steps on the ice, or that he stops by the boards and takes his father's hand to get some final instructions. When Kristoffer pulls the earphones out of his ears, he can hear Alexander receiving 129.13 points and realizes that he must have skated well, but the total will not be enough because he faltered in the short program.

While Adrian Schultheiss is standing by the boards, stomping his feet like an eager race horse, Kristoffer Berntsson is lacing up his skate boots in the changing room. He therefore doesn't see that Adrian's hair has been parted and fixed with hair spray in order to create a hairstyle that goes with the puffy-sleeved Romeo shirt. He doesn't need to look to know that Adrian has a planned quad toe loop as his first jump in the program. If he nails it, the final result will be more or less decided.
 

siberia82

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Page 57 (continued):

On the ice, Adrian opens his program with some spins. After 24 seconds, he speeds up, skates towards the boards and turns around. He takes two steps backwards and glides out on his right foot with his arms stretched out. After a turn, he bends his knees, does a final push and jumps up. One revolution. Two. Three. Four. A murmur is heard from the audience. But when Adrian's right skate hits the ice, he is leaning too much forwards. He falls and slides on his behind towards a City Gross advertisement on the boards before he gets up and lands five triple jumps.

When Kristoffer comes out of the changing room corridors and faces the spotlight in pinstriped pants and a matching vest, Adrian has just sat down in a chair in the kiss and cry area with his coaches.

"I missed it," he groans.

"Your weren't bad, Adrian," says coach Maria. "It was a good skate. The Lutz at the end was completely clean. And you looked happy. Calm."

The speaker announces that the judges agree with her: Adrian gets 129.20 points. This means that Kristoffer doesn't have room for any big mistakes.

He stands on the center circle with his hands shaped like guns against his cheek to resemble one of the gangsters in Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" video.


Page 58 (http://i55.tinypic.com/2zs7148.jpg):

Kristoffer begins to dance at the first pulsating beats of the song. He feels heavy in his movements, and after his second jump, a triple toe loop, he puts his hands on the ice and is forced to speed up to be on time for his next jump, a triple Axel. This one also goes badly. He now thinks it's all over, but soon pushes the thought away. He suddenly nails three triples in a row, and when the musical medley changes to "Dirty Diana," the whole audience is clapping. After a few hip movements and a successful sit spin, he skates up to the head judge, grabs her table, looks her in the eyes and tosses his bangs. She tries to look unbribably severe, but the corners of her mouth betray her. Kristoffer then ends his program with two perfect double Axels.
 

aemeraldrainc

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 31, 2004
Ha ha ha, since when did I become the "expert" on Sweden's top male skaters? :laugh: ;) Honestly, I don't think I know that much about them; I just happen to keep an eye out for articles and interviews (and I don't necessarily find all of them).

To answer your question, I've been told by other fans that Adrian does have a Facebook account. I've never tried to find him on that site, though, since I'm "old-fashioned" like Nadine and prefer to send snail mail.


I will be posting the paragraphs I've been working on later tonight, in case anyone was curious. :yes:

I found his fb fan club page for anyone who'd like to join.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11777750795&v=info#!/group.php?gid=11777750795&v=wall

I found his personal account as well, but I don't think he adds just anyone so I'm not even going to try asking. I'm shy. :cool::laugh:

Anybody try looking for his twitter? Just curious.
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
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Jun 18, 2008
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Canada
Page 58 (continued):

When he and Andrea are comfortably seated on each side of the little table with mandarins in the kiss and cry, the announcer says:

- The score for the last skater is ready. Kristoffer Berntsson from Landvetter figure skating club gets 132 points, giving him a total score of 205.31.

Kristoffer smiles and clenches his fists on his lap. The audience applauds and whistles. A bunch of screaming girls in pastel-coloured clothes is hanging over the rails with autograph books in their hands. A television team rushes up to him with a spotlight to interview the winner.

"It would be fantastic to go to Tokyo again and experience something like I did during the World Championships in 2007," says a panting Kristoffer into the microphone.

Behind the wall of the kiss and cry, Adrian Schultheiss is sitting on the floor with a can of Coca-Cola. Alexander Majorov comes up to him and shakes his head.

- It's impossible in Sweden. You should have won. Kristoffer didn't have a clean skate. He didn't do a tripe-triple combination.

I ask Adrian if he agrees.

- I wasn't flawless today, and then I don't care what score Kristoffer got. Within three weeks I've changed coaches, changed skates and been ill. I know I can beat him, but I'd rather do that when I've skated well myself. While watching him perform, I was thinking that he must shape up, he made a lot of small mistakes.

Adrian drinks a sip of Coke.

- Before, I used to skate rather badly and felt that it wasn't fun any more. I had two goals when I came here: to win and to have fun again. I actually accomplished the latter today.
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
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Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Almost there Siberia :clap:
Hopefully there will be a long follow up after worlds so that you have something useful to do in off season :p

* I'm a little annoyed that the journalist doesn't seem to know that a triple Axel is actually 3.5 revolutions in the air. Non-figure skating fans who read this article won't realize that it's the most difficult triple jump (and thus the reason why Sasha had struggled with it).

To compensate, in this article he does a quadruple axel. A proud Alexander says that the jump is filmed.

Journalist: "One of his main Swedish rivals, Adrian Schultheiss, does one, so now he is at the same level."

:rolleye: I suppose she means a quad toeloop. If so, good enough :thumbsup:

google translation
 

siberia82

Addicted to Canadian men's singles skating
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Joined
Jun 18, 2008
Country
Canada
Page 58 (continued):

Kristoffer doesn't hear this from the other side of the wall. He smiles broadly in his chair and is breathing heavily.

- I'm tired. I feel sick.

There's an empty gaze in his eyes as he puts his head between his legs. Having partly recovered after a minute or so, he says:

- Damn, this feels good! Now the trophy is going home to where it belongs. I honestly thought that last year was the last time.

The skaters are then called to the ice to receive their medals and listen to the national anthem. Afterwards, the chairwoman of the Swedish Figure Skating Association, Maria Meyer-Martins, announces that she wants to award a grant to a skater who has shown a great degree of development during the year.

- The grant goes to Alexander Majorov.

The 19-year-old, who has just become 7500 kronor richer, seems quite disappointed at still being regarded as "promising" when he skates over to receive his plaque.

Meyer-Martins goes on to present another award.

- We would also like to draw attention to those in Swedish figure skating who have performed especially well during the year.

She reads from her sheet:

- For his outstanding achievement during the Olympics where he became the first Nordic skater to ever land a quadruple jump, later followed by yet another strong result at the World Championships where he beat his personal record. The prize goes to Alexander Schultheiss.

Adrian stands immobile on the blue line next to Kristoffer, who is holding the trophy in his arms.

"Adrian!" he shouts. "My name is Adrian."



Photo, page 59 (http://i55.tinypic.com/2zs7148.jpg):

ANXIETY. When Majorov wasn't selected for the European Championships, he called the national team managers, "f***ing Swedish p*****s idiots n*****s" on Facebook. "F*** everyone!" After Aftonbladet picked up the story, the 19-year-old sent a text message to Filter reporter Erik Almqvist: "I feel so bad now because I really didn't mean any of it."




And that's everything, folks! :yes:
 

aemeraldrainc

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 31, 2004
Page 58 (continued):
......

Meyer-Martins goes on to present another award.

- We would also like to draw attention to those in Swedish figure skating who have performed especially well during the year.

She reads from her sheet:

- For his outstanding achievement during the Olympics where he became the first Nordic skater to ever land a quadruple jump, later followed by yet another strong result at the World Championships where he beat his personal record. The prize goes to Alexander Schultheiss.

Adrian stands immobile on the blue line next to Kristoffer, who is holding the trophy in his arms.

"Adrian!" he shouts. "My name is Adrian."

I know it sounds bad and I can imagine Adrian(I feel like I know him that I can just call him Adrian now. Perhaps, too presumptuous of me, but in the end, it's up to me. Even though, I don't think I would be able to call him just Adrian to his face. hehe. Hope that makes sense.) Anyhow, I can imagine him feeling frustrated at the confusion, but it IS kinda funny in a way. Would have liked to be there.

Finally got around to being on the computer(I love my itouch, hehe, but it's harder to post with it.)

But anyways, just wanted to add my 2 cents.
I wonder what the skaters' reaction was when they read the article (if they even read it)...
I hope it doesn't deter them from being open with media in the future..

Again, Siberia, you're awesome for taking the time to translate all of this for us. :clap: Thank you. It's appreciated. :thumbsup::rock:
 
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