part 2:
- Journalists on long business trips take a second computer. Is it normal for you to take a second set of boots with you?
— No, I took it for the first time. Typically trips are three to five days long. And for such a period, with all the desire, no matter what happens, it will not work to replace the skates. And here - we were leaving for a training camp in Krasnoyarsk, then two weeks of training in Beijing, so a spare pair was needed. It was clear that something could happen in two or three weeks, and there would be time to somehow fix it. And you need to be ready for this.
- And the skates, which at the time of the short program were three days old, were not rolled out at all?
No, absolutely new.
Is that also normal? Are you dressing up and taking it easy?
- Well, not so calmly. I think it was clear from the training that some kind of process was underway. It was another surprise: in the new skates to go straight to the official training. At Khrustalny, I'm used to going out and starting to work - all the coaches are aware that I'm in new skates, but I try to do the full amount of work. And I have the opportunity to go on additional ice, that is, to skate for many hours in one day. And in Beijing, it turned out that I had literally thirty or forty minutes in training to roll them out. And at the same time, there was an official training, the inclusion of music, which, of course, was a bit stressful. Although I was ready for this and just calculated the time before the free program in order to get used to the skates. The first days everything was not going in the best way, but I knew that it would be so, it was important to bring everything back to normal for the free skate.
— Was it the first change of skates of the season?
- No, I change skates more often than I would like, so at the end of the season I will try another model. This is the problem of recent seasons: as soon as I started jumping more quadruple jumps, the shoes began to break more often, now I have to change them five or six times a season. This interferes, of course, with the training process, but during the Olympic season I did not experiment with the model.
- You came to Beijing at the peak of your form, did you realize this?
— I am always very attentive to my feelings. And I roughly imagined how I would get in shape, after each workout I noted to myself: how correctly I was moving towards the goal in order to show the maximum exactly.
- Anya, what if in the free program at the Olympic Games you had to perform three quadruple jumps?
I have no idea if it's necessary or not. I just considered my options.
- Not only steel, but also the right girl, this is the image. Is that a compliment too?
I don't like it when people exaggerate or idealize a person. I don't pretend to be anyone. And I do not try to seem like an angel or an absolutely perfect person. I don't try to make anyone out of myself. But at the same time, only from an interview, people cannot fully understand what kind of person I am. Moreover, at first I was generally embarrassed to give interviews.
- School ends this year, will you go somewhere?
- I plan to study as a coach and continue to skate, it is not so easy to combine studies and a sports career. I haven't decided on the future yet, but maybe it will come in handy for me. And then I'll try to find myself. Unfortunately, there are no clear preferences yet. I guess figure skating have so big place in my life that nothing else interests me so much.
- In Beijing, you unexpectedly told many people that you never set a goal to become an Olympic champion as a child. And emphasized that you speak honestly. I will ask a popular question: what - it was possible?
I've been thinking about this for a long time. And I don’t support it at all when children from an early age say that their goal is to win the Olympics. Sometimes this sincerely comes from a child, but more often from adults who inspire that the Olympic Games are the main goal of any athlete. A child listens, listens, and, say, at the age of three or four, sets a goal for himself, without even understanding what needs to be done to achieve it. What will it cost him? What will be his path? In my opinion, this is wrong.
Yes, there should always be goals. A child at this age may dream of winning the championship among his age. May dream of mastering a new jump - double. But he still cannot understand what is hidden behind the dream of becoming an Olympic champion. Goals must be realistic. What will happen to this child, no one knows. And how much pain and disappointment there will be from the fact that a childhood dream did not come true.
What is sport for you in general?
- If you do not say that this is my life ... Then this is my opportunity to realize myself. Because at the age of 17, not every person has the opportunity to realize their ambitions, potential, find a business in which he feels at ease. And not just to realize myself, but also to get the opportunity to show it to a huge audience that can follow performances, successes or defeats, my sports path.
- You say that you don’t come to the competitions feeling like a favorite, but you leave as a champion ...
So I'm doing everything right.
You're laughing, but you're right. And what many call the “skating of life”, you have managed more than once. And can you compare in emotions, for example, a phenomenal performance in Chelyabinsk at the Russian Championship and in Beijing at the Olympic Games?
No, I wouldn't compare. At the Russian Championship it turned out, I would say, such a cinematic dramatic story. And in the end, I could not believe that after those difficulties there could be a happy ending. After the end of the performance, there were incredible emotions that I did the impossible, there was some kind of unreality of everything that was happening.
And in Beijing, probably, everything just happened happily. There was no drama, I'm talking about myself personally, just a celebratory moment: day after day I worked in training, tried not to pay attention to the difficulties. I went on the rise, got in shape, and at the right time everything worked out. Rather, it is a happy story without drama. And after the performance, there were still other emotions - absolute happiness, joy.
- In "Crystal", as I heard, Dwen Dwens settled en masse?
— I tried to bring it to everyone who asked me. Yes, they gave, as they say, only one to each athlete, but there was a little secret. Figure skating is very popular in China, when we came, all the sellers asked for an autograph, a photo, and this was the right moment to beg for more mascots. Therefore, I scored the maximum number of Dwen Dwens that fit into the suitcase.
- The brightest impression is the outbreak of Beijing?
- Free skate and ... a few seconds after. The most unforgettable. Before leaving the ice.
