Happy birthday to a great coach and a woman, to the one who revolutionised figure skating and keeps amazing me with her strategic mind. There were a lot of mistakes along the road but nobody's perfect and as humans we have to forgive. I hope Eteri has a great party with her family and friends
And I wanted to congratulate Alina on her 1st anniversary since the Olympics. Those were my first Olympics that I actually was following, especially in figure skating, and they have a special place in my heart. I still remember getting up at 4am to watch the competitions and then heading up to work at 7am. It was a wild week
After setting a WR with her SP, I knew Alina would win the gold. I'll be honest and say that I was utterly sad for Evgenia because she was my top lady. But at the same time, my certainty for Alina's win, even before the FS took place, was also an indication to me that it was clear how strong Alina was. She was perfectly clean with her 2 amazing programs, having the highest technical difficulty and also very good presentation. There were a lot of people who fell in love with her skating by watching the DQ routine, but my personal favourite is her Swan Lake! I still watch it occasionally. That to me was her best work - choreographically, technically and artistically. If there's one thing I wish for Alina (except good health) it would be to get a similar program one day, where she can show her full artistic potential.
