Now that the Olympics are in the past, you probably can look at it from some distance. What has changed in your perception and what do you remember the most vividly?
A: The Olympic Games were over so quickly. I waited for them for so long, and I’ve spent so much nervous energy trying to make the Olympic team, and for me it was over in a blink. I have tears in my eyes when I remember it, when I watch videos of my skating, I am still in shock and cannot believe I skated so well. I am very happy I could get myself together when I needed it the most and did my best for my country. I still cry happy tears when I watch myself skating at the Olympics.
Q: It was indeed very beautiful and victorious skating. Was it a difficult or a happy moment for you?
A: I think it was both. It was definitely a happy – actually, it was the happiest moment in my life – and it was so difficult going into the Olympics, I was one step away from a nervous breakdown.
Q: You are a unique person: five years ago, you promised the President that you would win the Olympic Games. And you knew that no other Russian female skater in history has ever done that…
A: To be honest, when I told him I would win, – “you will see”, I said – after that, I completely forgot it. I had other things to do, I had to bring my skating back to the competitive level, and I forgot about it. But then, when I was at the Olympics, my mother reminded me: “Do you remember you once said that you promised…”, and was like: “Yeah, really, I did, oh my gosh, what made me do that?” But then I decided simply to not think about it. And then, when everything was over, when I was at the doping control, [the Russian Minister of Sports] Mutko came, and I told him: “Do you remember I saidI was going to win this?” and he said, yeah, well done. Because I promised him, I promised Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]…
Q: Yes, you've made many promises. Did you promise your parents too?
A: Yes. When I won the Junior World championships, it was 2010-11, I think – I told my mother: “You will see, I will be the first Olympic champion”.
Q: Weren’t you afraid to make such big promises?
A: I felt so confident at that time, I wasn’t afraid at all.
Q: Was there any moment in all that time, when you were preparing for the Olympics, that you thought that you wouldn’t be able to do it?
A: Of course. Million times. When something didn’t work, when for two years I couldn’t get myself together – well, I did in the second part of the season, but the first was not good. I about to quit many times, I told myself: "That’s it, I will go to the practice tomorrow and I will say I quit." But something always stopped me, I was thinking to myself: what, am I weak? I wanted to prove to myself, to others that it was too early to write me off. It happened during the Olympic season too, when in the Grand Prix I skated well only one program and messed another one up. I told my mother that was it, that I didn’t want any Olympics any more, that I perhaps simply couldn’t skate two programs equally well, because it was like that for three years straight, and it didn’t help that I skated just divine at practices – clean, without any mistakes. It was a question number one for me why I couldn’t skate like that in competitions. But then I thought that I didn’t want to give up my place on the team, because in Russia, there are many contenders, and they are just waiting for you to give up.
Q: So were you able to overcome it on your own or did someone work with you?
A: Yes, many people did, my parents, my coaches… Of course, there was a moment, it was afther the Grand Prix Final where I skated the short program flawlessly, and again messed up the free, and Elena Germanovna [Buyanova] told me: just think what you really need, do you need this at all. She wanted to get me to understand if I needed to stand cowering down behind the boards or to go out on the ice and do everything.
Q: Adelina, during the Olympic Games, especially after the team event where you didn’t skate, people were comparing you to Yulia Lipnitskaya…
A: Actually, they didn’t, because during the team event everyone simply forgot I existed, that there were two girls on the team. No one paid me any mind.
Q: Did it hurt you?
A: Honestly, it did. I don’t want to recall that, because it’s in the past and I am grateful in part because it made me angry and I did deliver where it mattered the most, but I was hurt and it wasn’t pleasant. After all, I won national championships, I skated rather well at the Euros… well, not that bad as to make them consider replacing me, at least. But anyway, I am grateful, I got what I wanted, I am the first Olympic champion.
Q: Everything is for the best?
A: Yes.
Q: Your victory was a subject of heated discussions. Before, you were compared to Yulia Lipnitskaya. After, people were saying that Yuna Kim was robbed of the win. How did you feel about that?
A: As for Lipnitskaya comparisons, I actually stopped caring about that, because we are very different. Our skating is different, our elements, the way we move. You can’t compare that, everyone has their own style and idea of skating and how the audience relates to that. But people see something in common and try to compare – I don’t understand that and I don’t want to talk about that.
And after, honestly, I didn’t even care. I had a medal, I was happy, it wasn’t my business anymore, so I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening – the complaint – the judges had made their decision, I thought "whatever happens, I am not giving anything away".
Q: Success is never blamed. And when it was over, when you were back home, what did you feel – happiness or exhaustion?
A: I guess I have cried out all my tears after the free, because when I came back I felt empty. Immediately after the free, I was ready to go out on the ice and skate it once again, I felt so elated and energetic. And the next day, I couldn’t even make myself get up and out of the bed. But I quickly get myself together and the gala went very well. And after I was back, I was so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling for at least a week. Firstly, I couldn’t believe it, and everything went so quickly and it was already over… And now it starts all over again.
Q: By the way, where do you find the energy for that, to start preparing not just for a new season, but for a new Olympic cycle?
A: It’s hard, to be honest. It’s like starting from scratch again, and there is so much work, and I think sometimes that after all, I already did all I could, so why… But no.
Q: No one makes you.
A: No, no one makes me. I’ve got many invitations, actually, to participate in different shows, to sit out a year or two, but no, I will fight till the end.
Q: What end?
A: As long as I have it, as long as it lasts, I want to compete. It is my sport, I like it…
Q: Is it competing for the sake of competing or do you set goals for each competition?
A: Of course, I set goals every time, but it’s not every time that I achieve them [laughs], but that’s alright, now I will try to achieve everything I haven’t in the past.
Q: What is your next goal?
A: The next competition is Grand Prix, so it’s to win the Grand Prix event. I’ve never won a senior Grand Prix before, I only once was third in the short and first in the free, and second overall, in France.
Q: So you have an unorthodox career, most athletes win Grand Prix events, then other championships, and step by step they go up, and if they are lucky they win Olympic Games.
A: And I’m the opposite, I won the Olympics, and now I will try to win smaller events to have a grand slam.
Q: Do you feel any change after the Olympics?
A: Yes. First of all, I cannot simply go out because people recognize me, they approach me, ask for pictures…
Q: By the way, is the attention, especially of the media, flattering or is it bothering you?
A: There is a line, of course. First of all, the journalists always ask the same questions – I am not talking about you, but other interviewers always ask the same questions and want to hear the same answers, and it almost annoys me sometimes when the same interview comes out in two different magazines, just slightly different wording.
Q: Do you feel any stardom sickness, or the opposite…
A: I never had it, I am always very open, well not open, there is another word, I am friendly and approachable.
Q: I cannot not to ask: every Olympic champion starts somewhere. How did you begin skating and what made you keep doing it?
A: I started skating at 4 or 3.5. My mother and I went for a walk, and there is a skating rink in Biryulevo where I live – it was such an orange building, and I like bright colours, so it caught my eye. At first my mother thought it was a swimming pool, we went inside and we were told that there was figure skating club, and ice hockey, I think. I asked: “what is figure skating?” – I’ve never seen it before, and they let us to the ice, I saw children skating, and I wanted to try. My mother tried to sign me for the skating lessons, and they told her that it was too late! Age four was considered too late, but they let me in us an exception. And when I came to the first lesson – I don’t know, maybe my mother somehow missed the information – but I didn’t even have skates! She couldn’t imagine that they would let such small children on ice, she thought we would start off-ice training first. So my coach found me some old skates, and I started skating.
Q: Did you like that from the very beginning?
A: Actually, I don’t remember! [laughs] But my mother says that at first I was stomping on the ice, not gliding, but just stomping, and falling a lot. And she thought I would start crying and we would have to leave, but I was quite happy. Other children cried, but I didn’t, and the coach offered to continue our lessons, not just two times a week, but more.
Q: Was figure skating your hobby or a serious job?
A: At first it wasn’t a job, I just liked it. I skated in Biryulevo until I was eight, and I didn’t want to switch to CSKA and start skating seriously. I had a choice, at age 5, maybe, between figure skating and rhythmic gymnastics, and I chose figure skating – I don’t know why, I adore ballet, I adore rhythmic gymnastics, and when I now watch the gymnasts in Novogorsk – we know each other, they are my friends – I soooo wish I was a gymnast too. But I don’t have any regrets, I love this sport.
Q: Your parents had probably something to do with your choice? Do they often influence your decisions?
A: No. Never. I thought about it: I like it, I like the ice, because it’s cool, it’s unusual – it’s like 3-in-1: rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatics, and high jump, I think, because we also have to jump, and rotate, and do spirals, spins with splits, Bielmann spins… I guess that’s what sold me. That, and my ability to skate on ice, because not everyone can do it.
Q: How do you motivate an eight year old child to get up early every morning, to go to the opposite side of the city, to train and to come back and go to school, and many years like that? No one made you do that, did they?
A: No, no one did. It was all me. I got tired of that, because it was really exhausting, I had to get up so early, at six a.m. we had to leave already because first practice started at 8 a.m. And once, when I couldn’t get up, my mother said: “Maybe you can skip practice today, I will call and tell you’re sick”, and I said: “No. [without opening my eyes] I will go.” And I did. I was late, though, but that was alright [laughs].
Q: During all those years, did you have any idols in figure skating?
A: I did. And I do. Well, of course I want to have my own style, but I cannot not to mention Carolina Kostner. Because her skating is really beautiful. She feels every note, and even if her elements are not the most difficult, her skating is mesmerizing. And I want to skate like that too, with harder elements, of course.
And Mao Asada. Her determination.
Q: For me, an idol is someone unreachable. You name your competitors, maybe friends, but someone we have already defeated. You are already above them, do you realize that?
A: Yes, I do, but I still look up to them, see some qualities that I would like to have, to become a better skater.
Q: Do you have friends among your competitors? Have anything changed after you won?
A: I see Mao only when we do shows together, we are on friendly terms. And with Carolina, too. She said at the European championships when we finished second and third: “You will see, everything will be different at the Olympics”. And I said: “Yes, at the Olympics we will do everything properly” [laughs]. And I remembered her words. We always supported each other when we were together at competitions. And Mao… We are not as close off-ice as with Carolina, but she came up to me and congratulated me on my victory. I remember her skating in CSKA when I was I was like this, and I watched her with eyes wide open…
Q: And now you are an idol for many-many girls, and boys, the athletes. How do you feel about that?
A: It’s a very nice feeling, actually, that people strive to achieve something like I did.
Q: You achieved the biggest goal in sports. Do you have any goals that are not related to figure skating? Or is your life completely dedicated to your sport?
A: No, it isn’t. I have many ideas right now, I would like to became an actress, I would like to start my own company, I would like to make clothes, bags… But it’s in the future. Now I will be skating and maybe trying to make some of my dreams come true.
Q: “Now” meaning the next four years?
A: Hopefully, yes.
Q: You have to be studying somewhere, right?
A: I study at the Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sports, and Tourism. To become a coach.
Q: Do you have one goal in sports that you can achieve and then be done with it?
A: Honestly, I don’t have any such goal now, the only thing I know is that I have to win World championships, European championships, and Grand Prix in the next four years.
Q: So you will go ticking off the boxes.
A: Yes.
Q; Good luck with that.
just a brief summary
