Sof'ya Akat'yeva " I cannot be weak and betray my dream "
Despite her young age, our heroine already knows the price of great victories and crushing defeats. She believes in a dream and fell in love with ice at first sight. She knows how hot this ice can be and how lots of hard work needs to be done to reach her goal. Figure skater from the younger group of the famous coach Eteri Tutberidze, 11-year-old Sof'ya Akat'yeva, who has become famous not only in the world of figure skating, but also to ordinary spectators of the show “ Channel One: Ice Age. Kids ”, today tells us about what is in her sports arsenal, which allows her to adequately and reliably continue the line of our future champions. Without a doubt, it is in such talented and purposeful children that the continuation of our great sports history is anchored!
-- Sonya, you are only 11 years old, and you are already a famous figure skater. How is this possible? Thanks to whom or what? Or despite of?
- I have been practicing figure skating since I was four years old. I was lucky, I ride in a group with real champions, they are an example for me in sliding, jumping, hard work, efficient work, will, in the desire to win. Every new day I try to work hard and be better than yesterday. I really love the business I'm doing, and I hope that all my main victories are still ahead. I am very grateful to the team of my trainers for their daily work with me. I try my best not to let them down.
-- Before we start talking about your great successes, tell me how figure skating appeared in your life?
- At 3.5 years old, I saw the Olympic Games in Vancouver, I really liked the performances of the skaters, I asked my mother to buy me skates and take me to the ice rink - so I got to the Khrustalniy ice palace. My first trainers were Oksana Mikhailovna Bulycheva and Yuliya Aleksandrovna Krasinskaya, and at the beginning of 2017 I moved to the group of Eteri Tutberidze, where I am training now.
I remember that when I came to the rink for the first time, I immediately got up on the ice and went. The ice was huge, as it seemed to me then, but very beautiful, directly I was dazzled. I didn’t want to leave anymore, I asked my mother: “Let's go to training again!”
-- Love at first sight?
- Yes. Exactly.
-- Last year, you took part in the television project “Ice Age, Kids ”and even became a finalist. Was it your desire to participate in it?
- Eteri Georgiyevna invited me to go through a casting to participate in this project. Upon learning that I was selected for participation, I felt great joy. Participation in “Ice Age” gave me vivid emotions, new images, interesting stories, beautiful dresses, new friends. It was a real holiday for me.
-- Did you enjoy participating in it? What, besides even greater fame, did this project give you?
- Participation in a television project for an athlete is, first of all, an experience that, I think, will be very useful to me in my life. I would love to take part in the ice show at the end of the season, but for now, first of all, training and competition.
-- How did you work in the team of Roman Kostomarov? What valuable advice did he give you for the future?
- Roman Kostomarov is a very kind and interesting person, I was very pleased to work with him. He taught me to show more emotions in skating, to work to the camera in an unusual environment for an athlete, in front of a large audience and not be shy about it.
-- But initially you wanted to get into the team of Tat'yana Navka. Why?
- I wanted to get to Tat'yana Navka's, because she is a very feminine and beautiful skater, I always liked her numbers in the project “Ice Age” among adults.
-- And who are your favourite skaters?
- My favorite male figure skater is Shoma Uno. I like his jumps, soft glide, presentation of programs. I also really like the dancing couple Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron - with their unforgettable ability to tell a story on ice and incredible skating.
-- What set of jumps is now in your arsenal?
- I am master over all triple jumps, in cascades with a triple Toeloop and triple Rittberger.
-- What is your level right now?
- I am currently in my First Sports category.
I CAN’T BE WEAK AND BETRAY MY DREAM.
-- Do you learn the jumps that made a lot of noise this season, such as the triple Axel and the quadruples?
- Yes, I learn multi-turn jumps, in particular the triple Axel and the quadruple Toeloop. Every day in training, I see how the girls from our group jump quads, of course, I also want to be like them and experience this amazing feeling of flying in a jump.
My training in such jumps takes place under the strict guidance of Sergey Viktorovich Dudakov and Sergey Alexandrovich Rozanov. First, I jump in the harness as insurance, then I make independent attempts. So far it turns out differently. I hope by the end of the season to come closer to their deployment and show them at the competitions next season.
-- When watching your programs, you involuntarily pay attention to the beautiful sliding, good speed and vivid presentation of the programs. What do you like more: jump or slide and spin?
- I work on all of the components of the program, because figure skating is an aesthetic sport. For gliding and beautiful programs, special thanks to my choreographer - Lyudmila Borisovna Shalashova. Everything should be beautiful and technically correct. But most of all I still like to jump.
-- Which of your programs do you like the most and why?
- I like both of my programs, but more I like the short program to the music of singer Björk - It's Oh So Quiet: this is a program about a cheerful dancing girl, it is very suitable for my mood. I also like my costumes, which designer Olga Ryabenko has created for me for many years.
-- In what image and to what kind of music would you like be staged yourself?
- Throughout hier career, a skater is constantly evolving, learning something new, including in the presentation of programs. The programs are staged for me by Eteri Georgiyevna and Daniil Markovich, who select music and an image for each athlete individually, in the next season I would like to try some kind of romantic image. I really love the beautiful fairy tale story of the young Assol from Alexander Greene’s book “Scarlet Sails”.
-- You are a student of the famous star trainer Eteri Tutberidze. How does it feel to skate in a group where every child is a champion? Does it stimulate you somehow?
- Riding in the group of Eteri Georgievna is not only a great honour for me, but above all a huge responsibility. Working in a group with eminent athletes, of course, stimulates me to work that should be done at the maximum, struggle against myself, and study new elements. We have a very good, kind and friendly atmosphere in the group. We communicate well with each other, always congratulate each other on holidays. Well, we become rivals only in competitions.
-- What Eteri Georgievna mean to you personally?
- Eteri Georgievna for me is a very purposeful and hardworking person, madly in love with her work. She is a fair person who does not tolerate laziness. She has some incredible, inexhaustible supply of ideas and energy.
-- What is your goal for the competition? Raise a personal record? Perform the most complex elements or even skate out without error?
- My goal in any competition is to complete the task set by the trainers in the form of a great skating of my two programs.
-- Do you have these momentary lapses when you want to quit this figure skating and do something else? Stop healing bruises from training, stop proving to everyone in the competition that you are the best, get enough sleep, finally?
- No! Something like this I have never have, even when it is very difficult. Figure skating is my life, and everything that I have now is connected with it. Yes, to work for many hours at a high level training every day is not easy. It is very responsible. But this is a struggle with your fears and desires, for example, to eat, sleep and just do nothing. But I can’t be weak and betray my dream.
FIGURE SKATING IS AN AESTHETIC SPORT. EVERYTHING SHOULD BE BEAUTIFUL AND TECHNICALLY CORRECT.
-- How are you doing at school? Do you have time to study?
- I study at school No. 17, I try to keep up. In the morning every day I go to school, it turns out, however, to attend only three lessons. Then I’m going to the rink. In between workouts, I do my homework and practice with tutors. And I spend the day off from training at school - I am writing tests and handing over humanitarian subjects. Teachers and classmates at school support me and help me in every way.
-- What do you like to do in your spare time?
- I like to read. Now I'm reading Harry Potter. I love playing different board games. I like to walk and ride down hills. I try to go to the pool in my free time, embroider, I like to draw and keep a diary.
-- The achievements of children are always largely due to the merits of their parents. Tell us a little about your family.
- Family for me are those people who are with me every day, day and night, who always support me, give the necessary advice and help in every possible way in situations that arise. I am very grateful to them for this.
-- Is your brother proud to have such a famous sister?
- I am close with my younger brother Aleksander. He is nine years old. He is focused on studies, plays basketball and chess, and skates on weekends. We support and help each other in everything, we try to bring something new to everyone’s life, for example, he taught me how to play chess, and I teach him how to jump on skates.
-- Which of you is the best student of each other?
- Sasha is better at teaching me how to play chess.
-- Do you have pets?
- No, unfortunately, I do not have animals. We had rats, but it turned out that one of our family members was allergic. And the rats had to be given to friends of the family.
-- Who is your best friend? Mother?
- Yes. Mom is my best friend. She is always there, helps me, takes me to training and competitions, sits in training, with my mother I can talk about everything in the world, I see her support in everything. I am very grateful to my mom for everything that she does.
-- When will we see you in Juniors?
- It is not that simple. In order to get to the Junior level, I still have to work a lot, learn new elements, go through serious competitive stages, test skating sessions in front of the Federation, get confidence, but I hope that everything goes well.
-- What is your biggest dream?
- My dream, like any athlete's, is the Olympic Games. I work a lot and will work to achieve my dream. I dream of cleanly skating my programs, winning competitions, developing in my profession, which I have chosen for myself, and not standing still. And also, like, probably, all the girls are always dreaming about before the holidays, I dream of beautiful dresses, new dolls and soft toys, which I really love.
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https://www.babyer-magazine.ru/hero/sofya-akateva/
Really nice interview with the bright Sof'ya.
The interview is probably from mid/late 2018, since Sof'ya is 12 now (born June 2007), has improved in technique, and has mastered the triple Axel and quad Toeloop sufficiently to be able to compete it.
In 2019, Sof'ya won both her stages in Younger Age Russian Cup, won the Moscow Championships and became second in Younger Age Russian Nationals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8EHdJKo9Hs 2nd? stage SP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3lOKEZZjkc 2nd? stage LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gFTFHKib1U 1st? stage LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OXZj4VVgoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkGOu6-zllo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfdI728yCq4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrAOcVI7um8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRRGZQbHuX0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v4O2Cbuf-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdcH8H7dOg0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJmbixpMvcA
She will skate Januari 18,19 in the Cup of Moscow in order to qualify for Candidate Master of Sports next season, together with her team mates Adeliya Petrosyan and Alisa Dvoyeglazova and fellow contestants from CSKA Sof'ya Samodelkina, Liza Berestovskaya.
Then there is Russian Cup in the Younger Age, "Memorial S.A. Zhuk" in Tver and the Final of Winter Spartakiad in Krasnoyarsk where Sof'ya and her friends may compete before closing their season.
Here are Sof'ya's competition rounds in "Ice Age, Kids" from 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X96LyyuW57o Casting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5qgYJhAZSc "The Matrix"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7-i7-HN10Q "Secrets", her best routine in the show and IMO of the whole first season of the show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mey85klBOtg "Carmen"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0sTJeIUKjc "Gladiator", the finals with her costly mistakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwftSWi-caA "Tu-La-La", her gala performance
To prove that Sof'ya isn't weak at all, after a borked exhibition routine in the Rostelekom Gala, she happily participated in the skills battle with her rink mates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G08T6iR88w
And sometimes Evgenia trains at CKSA, so maybe she can have a nice conversation with her there.
