Here is, at last, another portion of the documentary's translation... It follows the piece that was
here.
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In December, 2010, at the national championship, Volosozhar and Trankov had a confident win over Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, the European champions. And that was after only six months of training together. But the main competition of their first season was supposed to be the World championship. Tatiana, Maxim and their coaches decided to go and train in Japan, where the championship was going to take place. They arrived in Tokyo on March, 11, 2011.
And several hours later, the media space of Russia was struck with terrible news.
[a glimpse of newscast about the earthquake in Japan]
Nina Mozer: And back in Russia, they were nearly mourning for us already... And an article appeared, literally entitled like "It could be their debut world championship"…
Now they are able to recollect it light-heartedly, but at that time everything was very serious. Because, when the skaters and the coaches were riding by train, the disastrous earthquake was raging in Japan. Journalists tried to phone them, but the mobile communications were off. And then it occurred to someone from the mass media to publish a front-page story – Volosozhar and Trankov are missing, possibly were the victims of the earthquake.
TV: They wrote that "It could be their first world championship", posted our photos there…
These scaring speculations were soon heard by their relatives, who also couldn't phone to Tatiana, Maxim or their coaches for several hours.
TV: My mum was sitting for two hours without any information… as she said, she was completely stunned, didn't know what to do…
Valentina Trankova: I came home, turned the television on – and there they were saying about the earthquake in Japan... And I had hysterics, naturally… And I was phoning to everyone else I could… in Moscow or anywhere… because their telephones didn't answer…
This terrible uncertainty lasted for the long five hours…. And all this time, Tanya, Maxim and their coaches were sitting in the train, having no idea of what had happened.
Nina Mozer: When we arrived in Osaka, the telephone switched on, and there were about forty text messages, about fifty missed calls and the phone was ringing non-stop… "how are you?" "where are you?" "are you okay?" Then Alexander Georgievich Gorshkov phoned me, and asked me in a trembling voice: "How are you?" And we hadn’t got a slightest idea, what was going on… how we were to know that there was an earthquake behind our backs?
They stayed in Japan for almost a week – until it was officially stated that there wouldn't be the World championship in Japan that year. Then Nina Mozer's team went home, to Russia. But very soon all the elite of the figure skating world followed them there – because a month later Moscow was holding the World championship, which had been cancelled in Japan.
All the five days of the event, the Megasport Ice Palace was full. The boom was great. The attention of the fans was locked on the Russian skaters. And under such conditions, Volosozhar and Trankov were to have their first international competition. Not an ordinary debut any more. Now it was more like "baptism by fire".
MT: We have never had such a scaring competition in our life, I think. And it was definitely a rehearsal of what was going to be in Sochi… When the whole hall was full of Russian flags, and the whole hall roaring "Russia, Russia"… that was such an experience, that I will never forget.
That's how it happened. They entered the ice to perform their short program – the dark horses, known only by their careers with the previous partners, but together absolutely unknown. The tension was enormous. How many skaters there have been in the history, which were a success with one partner, then teamed up with someone else – and disappeared forever…
Nina Mozer: That was the first time, when we were seen by anybody… The judges didn't know us, nobody knew us yet, in fact…
TV: There was such an adrenaline rush…the heart was hammering, and the legs felt rubbery… I'm very happy that we managed to cope with this nervousness then…
Their ultimate ambition at that competition was to be among the top six. But after their short program at their debut world championship Volosozhar and Trankov were third, and the best among the Russian pairs. Ahead of them were only the world champions from Germany and the Chinese pair, silver medalists of the Olympics a year before.
The tension was increasing. This was the practice before the long program. Volosozhar and Trankov, the debutants, were preparing to go to the ice in the strongest warm-up group. And the lot was not too kind for them - they were to perform the last in the group. Any skater knows what it means – at a strain of the nerves.
TV: I was sitting there, unlaced the skates, waiting for our time to go… I felt restless, was running to and fro… and there sat a security man, he said to me: "Now, why so nervous? Everything will be okay!" Big thanks to him – maybe, that really helped me to calm down a bit…
MT: We went to the ice, and the air itself was feeling tense… all this electricity in the air was felt… We understood that it was a 'make it or break it' moment…
And when we finished, it seemed that such a heavy burden had fallen from my mind… we finished, and I just exhaled, as if – I don't know, as if a heavy armour vest was taken off from me – because all this had been so hard, so nervous…
And we had hoped there to be, maybe, in the top six, or top five… and then we finished third after the short program, and there was a chance to get to the podium…
That the German pair Savchenko/Szolkowy were going to be champions, that was beyond all question. But what place the Russian skaters would take? Debutants are not normally scored too high at the world championships, not usually placed on the podium. But here Volosozhar and Trankov left no variants to the judges. The only question was, which medal they would take – bronze or silver.
MT: We didn't hope for the silver. When we performed well, we thought "oh, we are keeping the third place - that’s great" – and then it turned out that we had outrun the Chinese, who had been on the Olympic podium less than a year before…
At their debut World championship Volosozhar and Trankov took the second place. And they had a win over the defending champions and silver medalists of the Olympics in Vancouver – Qing Pang/Jian Tong. Now this Chinese pair is also in Sochi and in the pairs' event, which is to start on February, 11, they are among the favourites. But let's not run ahead, let's leave for a while Volosozhar and Trankov on their first podium of the world championships, and make a short excursus about their rivals…
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