Mostly Google Translate. Slightly beautified.
The finalist of the Grand Prix in figure skating Alina Zagitova in an exclusive interview with "Soviet Sport" - about the first senior season, the increased popularity, relations with Eteri Tutberidze, favorite TV shows, music, the most difficult moment in the career, hockey club "Izhsteel" and many other things.
"I HAVE THE BEST WORLD TRAINER"
- Alina, this is your first season at the adult level and you have three wins on three starts. Are you happy with the way things are going?
- I'm not very satisfied with the performance of the short program, but I'm happy with FP. If to speak in general, I really liked to skate at the adult Grand Prix.
- Were you worried before the first start?
- Yes, of course, especially before the Grand Prix stage in Beijing. On the eve of the Cup of Lombardy not so much.
- How did you deal with your nerves?
- Calmed myself with thoughts that I did it all at training, I have the best coach in the world. So I gradually came to the idea that there was no cause for worrying.
- What impression did the fans leave in the stands in Beijing and Grenoble?
- In China, figure skating is more popular than in France, so a lot of the people came. In Grenoble, there were fewer people in the stands. Of course, I would like to have a little more, but, anyway, support was felt.
- Is it important for you to feel the support of the stands?
- Yes, for me it is very important. When they are clapping in the stands, it turns you on.
- Is it only in the time of a greeting or during a perfomance?
- In both cases.
- After the high-profile successes at the Grand Prix stages, do you feel the increased popularity?
- Not yet. I got a little bit more subscribers that in instagram.
- What about private messages? Surely in all social networks began to write much more.
- Well, yes, they write a lot of warm words in support. It is very nice.
- Do you respond to the fans?
- Yes, I always say thank you to them for their support and answer them if they ask any questions. It is important for me to give feedback to people. Because earlier, if I wrote to some famous figure skaters or celebrities and they did not answer me, I was very upset. Well, when they answered, I was so glad!
- To whom was the last time you wrote? And what was it - letters or messages on the Internet?
- I already remember badly, because I was very small. I wrote both letters and messages in VKontakte.
- But surely there is a story left in the memory, when they were especially happy, having received an answer.
- I wrote to one famous skater, I will not tell her name. She was a foreign figure skater, and she answered me. And I still did not understand English very well, so I ran with joy in shouting: "Translator! Translator!" searching for it, to translate quickly. I was very happy.
- How is your English now?
- Well, now I know him a little better. For example, girls say that it is not necessary to purposefully learn it. They have a lot of experience, they traveled to various starts many times, communicated with foreigners and gradually learned words. It is much easier that way.
- Have you already become friends with some of your rivals?
- I probably did not manage to make friendship with anyone. But there is a dancing couple who used to compete for Russia, and now skates for another country, I communicate with them. However, I do not like noisy companies, so I communicate with everybody little by little.
- Do any of your relatives go with you to foreign starts?
- No, only coaches. Daniil Markovich (Gleikhauhaus - Ed.), Sergei Viktorovich (Dudakov - Ed.), Eteri Georgievna (Tutberidze - Ed.) - one of them, different every time.
- You said that you are not entirely satisfied with the short program. What's wrong?
- One combo does not work out. In FP, I perform it freely. Honestly, I do not understand yet what's the matter. Maybe it's all about psychology - I got it into my head that he does not work for me, that's why I can not cope. I need to revise something in myself.
- Maybe this is due to the fact that the program has a very complex image? It has transformation of the character - you turn from a white swan to black, and it's hard to reveal it by choreography.
- At first it was very hard, but the coaches told me the story, I watched the film and after that more or less began to understand what was required of me.
- What has changed in your training process when you move to the senior level?
- We began to focus on skating skills, presentation of programs. Of course, we also pay a lot attention to jumps. But still we concentrate a little more on skating skills, after all it's an senior level, here you have to skate in a different way.
- What did Etheri Tutberidze tell you before the first senior starts?
- Eteree Georgievna supported me, told me what mistakes to avoid and what needs to be done to skate a program well.
- How will you prepare for the Grand Prix final?
- I will train more and try to do everything in my power to avoid mistakes in the short program.
- You said that you psychologically relax by watching TV series. What was the last one you watched?
- Now came out the next series of "Hotel Eleon" - recently I watch it. This is a Russian comedy series.
- Name the three best series in your opinion.
- Well, I have started watching Sherlock, but I still do not understand the meaning of this show. I'll try to break through it. And the rest, I do not even know. Some cartoons .
- What about the super popular "Game of Thrones"?
- No, I somehow do not get into that. It happens, of course, I watch all sorts of horror stories sometimes. And so, what else do I have here? Zagitova looks into her phone. - I also watch my programs.
- Do you see any video bloggers?
- Yes, I watch some beauty bloggers. All sorts of educational videos - how to properly make-up, what cosmetics new appears, how to make different hairstyles. Mostly I prefer this direction, but Nikolai Sobolev and others I do not watch.
- The last song that played in your headphones today?
- The track " Nemesis " from the album " At least for now ", Natan Chen is skating to it. I just really liked this music, so I often listen to it.
- In the songs for you the main thing is lyric and meaning or music should rock?
- Music should rock.
- How do you feel about Russian rap, which is incredibly popular now?
- No, no, I do not listen to Russian rap. Only foreign performers.
- In that case, name the three best foreign performers in your opinion.
- Beyonce, Michael Jackson ... I also like to listen to Sia, especially the last album " This is acting ".
- From this year you study at the school "Sambo-70". What is your impressions?
- Firstly, it became easier to learn, because all teachers and school management make concessions to athletes. There is no such thing that they do not let you go to competitions or training. I study once a week all day long. Now I am preparing for the transfer exams in the tenth grade, which I chose. The Russian language and mathematics will be compulsory, and I will take the choice of geography and biology.
- Why such a choice?
- It will be necessary for me in the future, as I plan to receive higher education in the sports field.
- How do your classmates react to your sporting successes?
- I hardly talk with my classmates from Sambo-70, because I am engaged with teachers separately. I still do not really know my class, because I was recently transferred. But with the guys with whom she studied at the school in Izhevsk, I correspond.
- You were named after Alina Kabaeva, she is your idol. Why in this case did you choose figure skating
- Because my dad does hockey, and I'm not a boy, I could not go to hockey. But still it had to be connected with ice, so I was given to figure skating.
- Is there a good figure skating school in Izhevsk?
- Yes, there coaches put me on skates, there I started to perform my first triple jumps. Natalia Ogoreltseva, who won the Cup of Russia is a pupil of my first coach.
- How and when did you learn about Eteri Tutberidze?
- When Julia Lipnitskaya began to perform. I watched the video with her when she was still skatingat the junior level. I watched as Zhenya skates, and perfomances by Serafima Sakhanovich. Then I found out who their coach was, and I really wanted to get to her.
- Now it's hard to believe that you did not manage to get to it the first time. How did it happen?
- I did not understand how to train and that here nobody is being forced. If you want to work, then you work, and if you do not want - go. It's not like this: "Do it!" - there is no gendarme behind your back. The problem was that I didn't do enough in training.
- Is this the most difficult moment in your career?
- Yes, there was one more when I broke my arm and leg. It was complicated. I came to the Spartakiad with a broken arm and broke my leg in these competitions.
- Did you injure your arm during training?
- Yes, it happened because I constantly fell in training when I was learning jumps. At first I had just a big hematoma in the wrist area, and then I, apparently, somehow fell down badly, and there was a fracture. But now all the injuries are behind, I completely recovered.
- Did you immediately got used to demandingness and strictness of Tutberidze or did you needed time for adaptation?
- At first I was very afraid of her. Even now there is a little fear. If she went out on the ice, and I was already skating around at that time, my heart began to pound wildly. This I will remember for a lifetime. Although it is already calmer, of course. We began to communicate more, understand each other better.
- What was your impression of Moscow after moving from Izhevsk?
- Of course, there is such a feeling: "Moscow, wow!" But this city is too fussy. When I came to Izhevsk after Moscow, it seemed to me that everyone around was slow, as if in Matrix. But there I can rest from the mad Moscow rhythm.
- Your father (Ilnaz Zagitov - Editor's note) is now training the club of the Higher Hockey League "Izhsteel". Do you follow each other's success with your father?
- Of course, I always watch live broadcasts of Izhsteel matches. My dad constantly asks me: "Well, did you look?".
- In that case, for certain, remember how Dad played. It was not so long ago.
- Yes, I remember how my mother and I watched the matches, when Izhsteel played in the final of the HHL, we just jumped on our nerves, very worried.
- A match in the semifinals, where Izhstal and the THK whole teams fought, including coaches - Andrei Razin and Alexei Zhdahin, did you saw as well?
- Yes, I did. I think that, of course, coaches should not fight with each other. And so, at our ice palace hung the torn and bloody shirt of Andrey Razin.
- Have you ever tried to get out with a hockey stick on the ice?
- I always thought: "Well, what's there?" Sticks, well, you just play, nothing complicated. " And then my dad and my sister came out on the ice with sticks, puck, started throwing at the gate, I immediately fell to my knees, I tore everything up. Only after that I realized how difficult it is to play hockey.
- Do you follow other hockey leagues - KHL, NHL?
- When I was in Izhevsk, my dad and I always watched hockey. He explained the rules to me, told me what the "one-on-one way out" was, I asked him something. In general, now I will distinguish the throw from the face-off. And the most exciting in hockey is, of course, bullets.
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I have a feeling she'd be amazing in program like Libertango
Oh yes that’s very to know.
a really inventive concept. The program is designed entirely by Daniil and Eteri, probably without Alina's involvement. Her job is to execute it. 
