- For you, the current European Championship is second, and you again won a medal on it. True, it’s not bronze, but gold. Can you compare these two tournaments, or are they completely different?
Dmitry Kozlovsky: To some extent, these competitions are similar. It’s just that our first European Championship was held in Belarus and was almost perceived as homely: with the usual atmosphere, with our spectators. The medal was won in a rather difficult fight, despite the fact that a year ago we were not even considered close favorites. Until the last second it was not clear whether we would have this medal or not - everything was decided by hundredths of a point.
“So you're just lucky?”
D.K .: The advantage could have developed both in one direction and in the other. But I would not say that the performance was given to us without effort. We tried very hard. Perfectly skated a short program. In arbitrary, I made a mistake uncharacteristic for myself, on which we lost a fairly large number of points, but fortunately still remained on the podium. Tamara Nikolaevna (Moskvina. - RT ) told us after the competition that these 0.14 points in our favor were actually very “working” because they reflected our entire training process. And then we trained very well, I still remember the whole process.
Alexandra Boykova: A year ago, it was easier for us to speak, because nobody expected anything from us. There was less tension, we went to the start with a light soul. Today, the pleasure of performing is much stronger.
- Many skaters come to the European Championship with the confidence that they still have ahead. At the same time, Moskvina’s pairs were always aimed only at the maximum result. Are you specially taught this?
D.K .: Such things are not voiced during training, but all this hangs in the air. Tamara Nikolaevna generally does not like to delay the preparation process. Remember her first couple - Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev. A year of work, and immediately a sharp rise: European Championship, world, Olympics ... Oksana Kazakova and Arthur Dmitriev had a similar situation when they just stepped in and immediately won the continental championship.
Moskvina, it seems to me, has no habit at all of waiting too long. She used to take her here and now. And we - just an object through which she broadcasts her coaching position to the world. Invests in us the maximum that is currently possible. So our task is go out on the ice and show what we can do.
- The need to constantly live up to expectations, but in fact - to jump above your head, doesn’t you bother?
A. B .: It seems to me that coaches are better aware of our capabilities. What we are ready for and what not.
D.K .: To the extent of these opportunities, we are working. The history of sports, after all, knows a lot of examples when, by the degree of talent, people were ready to become Olympic champions, but in fact did not win anything. Therefore, it seems to me very important to fully trust the professionalism of the coach, not to doubt him. This helps withstand any load.
“Most loners desperately resist any attempts to pair them, and as far as I know, you were no exception.” Why?
A.B .: I didn’t resist, I don’t remember that at all.
D.K .: This is not resistance. Rather - very difficult decision. Leaving from single skating to doubles, you radically change your life. And above all, you stop depending on yourself. Now, for example, I can definitely say that training a couple is much more difficult than an individual athlete. Likewise, it’s more difficult to be a paired athlete. Even purely mental.
- This is understandable: a successful loner simply must be an inveterate egoist and think only about himself.
D.K . : You are right. When you ride alone, it gives you quite a lot of freedom. You can change the order of the elements, the direction of movement, you can make an additional pause. And here you not only solve your own problems, but you must constantly help your partner, be alert if he suddenly starts to make mistakes. Relatively speaking, there should be an internal readiness at any time to take a partner by the scruff of his neck if something suddenly goes wrong, and tell him: “Calm, everything is in order! Let's move on! ” Only you do all this without words. This is the essence of the pair. It is understood that we should work in a 50 to 50 mode. But if one is able to give only 30%, the other is obliged to take on 70 to maintain balance.
- Sasha, what a feeling it is when you are raised for the first time in your life in support?
A. B .: The very first support I did not do with Dima, but with our coach Arthur Leonidovich (Minchuk. - RT ), so it was not too scary, although I am afraid of heights. When I began to make support with Dima, it became really scary, because he is higher.
D.K .: It was not that I was tall. At that moment, I simply lacked the skills of pair skating. There was no experience interacting with the body of the partner. We have, of course, all sorts of devices such as stuffed scarecrows, but when you work with a living person, with live weight, all the sensations are completely different.
A.B .: I always felt when Dima's hands were trembling.
D.K .: My hands never shook!
A. B .: Trembling, trembling. At first support, they were just shaking! I was very scared then.
D.K . : I think that Sasha is exaggerating everything a little, but the point is that at first, when you start to ride in a couple, everything is psychologically very difficult.
- Before, an unspoken rule reigned if suddenly something went wrong in support, the partner is obliged to secure the partner as much as possible - up to the point that in the event of a fall, lie under it on the ice.
D.K .: This is true now. It is clear that everything depends on specific people, but I can say for myself: if I ride with a girl, then, as a man, I bear full responsibility for her, if only because if I fall from support I will land on ice from a height of my own height, and she’s from almost three meters. Frankly: I could hardly be a partner. Because in my understanding, this is a colossal risk of entrusting yourself to some other person, so that it is not clear where you threw and lifted you. There must be tremendous trust. And if Sasha gives me this trust, I simply have to justify it. He is obliged to do everything possible to ensure its safety.
A. B .: From the side of the partner, there must also be help. In the sense that if something happens in the same support, you should not hang like macaroni, but do everything possible so as not to injure your partner. The harder the girl holds herself upstairs, the easier it is for her partner.
D.K .: It’s very comfortable to work with Sasha in this regard. In support, if everything is done correctly, I just rest. I can restore my breathing, I can relax, because Sasha’s weight, as it were, passes through my body and does not give a feeling of heaviness. Some transitions between elements take a lot more power.
- Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky
- RIA News
- © Alexander Wilf
- At least once you were really scared in the support?
D.K .: At first, it is always scary for both. Especially when you have to learn the uncontrolled descent from the support behind. You omit the partner and do not really understand where.
“But in the same twists, it’s also quite problematic to catch a partner without getting an elbow or knee from her.”
D.K .: This is not about Sasha. She is always very neat in the air.
A. B .: Probably for the whole time of performances only two or three times Dima hit his nose with his elbow.
D.K .: The main thing is not this. And the fact that Sasha, in whatever mood she may be, never does anything in vain. In the same way, I will never allow myself in my life to throw her into an ejection so that she falls.
- You want to say that this happens in pair skating?
D.K .: I think so. There is such a topic when partners take out anger on each other not just with words, but with some actions in the elements. From my point of view, this is just licentiousness and disrespect.
- Tamara Moskvina has always been distinguished by the fact that she taught her athletes not only to ride and win, but also to the so-called business behavior. Do you feel like that on yourself?
D.K .: If we talk about Moskvina, we must first understand: she is not just a coach. She is a great teacher, producer, strategist and statesman all rolled into one. Napoleon figure skating. He always sees what will be, sees how it will be, and knows how to make it so that he is ready for it. But I don’t remember Moskvina imposing some kind of behavior on us. Rather, it simply creates some situations in which you unwittingly begin to behave in such a way that it helps the result.
“Or warns against mistakes?”
A. B .: Oh, yes. Favorite topic of Tamara Nikolaevna - it is "dress warmer." She is sure that all sores arise from the fact that we dress insufficiently warmly. But it's not always the case. Personally, I travel a lot by public transport, I study at school every day, there are a lot of viruses around, you can get sick no matter how warmly you are dressed.
D.K .: In fact, in training it often happens that we don’t immediately listen to some words of the coach, and then we only realize that Moskvina was right. At such moments, you very clearly understand that you need to be a fool in order not to use such a grand experience of a person who has been in all situations that are only possible in sports. And not just been, but also won. Although, all the same, we have situations when we want to argue, disagree.
- In your life, you often do what you want, or what you should?
A. B .: That which they must.
“Aren't you tired of this?”
D.K .: This is our job. Do not consider it nice words, but we regard our career very simply: we came to the coaches, entrusted our lives to them, deciding that we ourselves want this. Therefore, no matter how hard it is, we understand that we must fulfill our obligations. Should make a double rental - it means there will be a double rental. The logic is simple: which of us wants to succeed more? At a minimum, we want it equally badly. So they should work.
- Alexandra Boykova and Dmitry Kozlovsky
- RIA News
- © Alexander Wilf
- The beginning of your adult career was in the period when the rules of pair skating provoke athletes not on complexity, but on the quality of the elements. It makes life easier or still makes you regret that you may never have the opportunity to do something truly unique. For example, a quadruple surge.
A.B .: For a long time I want to make it, by the way. At the lounge I already tried this outburst and constantly persuade the trainers to let me do this element without insurance. It's just that the rules don't really encourage excessive complexity yet.
D.K .: Here, after all, elementary mathematics: if the quadruple ejection cost 10-11 points, it would make sense to think about it. Now it turns out that any triple outburst performed at “+5” immediately gives such an amount that no quadruple can be killed.
- And Lisa Tuktamysheva at the age of 23 began to teach the quadruple salchow.
D.K .: This is another topic. For too many years in figure skating, it was believed that quadruple jumps were only for boys. But then the girls came and showed that all this can be done. That there are vast empty lands that are not occupied by anyone. So why not take them first, especially since the same triple lutz costs 5.90, and the quadruple 11.50? So here the question is not at all why you are doing this - you just go on this jump. In pair skating, the grading of grades is slightly different, so the meaning is lost.
- What do you most want when the season ends?
A. B .: Relax. I try to leave St. Petersburg somewhere, to change the situation. During the season we are usually on the road, but at the very end, when preparations begin for the next year, we are very tired of the fact that for two months you are in the same walls.
D.K . : I agree. Figure skating anyway takes 95% of our time from Monday to Saturday. Simply put, we are constantly at the rink. And I really want to reboot when there is such an opportunity.
“What can't you afford?”
A. B .: Get better. I am gaining weight very quickly.
D.K .: To play football. In the game it is very easy to get injured, and legs are our bread, as well as the whole body. Perhaps our life in this regard can be compared with the life of opera singers, who in any weather wrap their throats and try to avoid smoky rooms, because the vocal cords suffer from this.
- By the way, were you affected by the epidemic of broken shoes this season?
D.K .: Shoes one way or another break down at all and always - the load is crazy. And such a breakdown always happens all of a sudden: it seems that everything was just fine, but one movement - and everything is in shock.
- Do you have any special shoes, or a general party?
A. B .: It happens in different ways. Risport recently changed its lineup, and their new model does not suit me. I still couldn’t roll it out, so they make an old model for me to order. I know that some of the guys in our team have exactly the same situation.
D.K .: Everything also depends on the size. When I just started to seriously ride, I tried different shoes, but they just washed my legs in blood. But the one mentioned by Sasha sat down on his leg right away. Moreover, any shoe of this company, even of mass production, is ideal for me, although the company makes shoes for me by individual standards. I don’t need a lot of time to roll these skates - one or two trainings are enough.
- What do you consider to be your strongest sides in the rivalry with the current world leaders?
A. B .: We have a very good team. A lot of specialists who help us.
D.K .: To be completely honest, I would say that the main advantage is our age. The only opponent of a man who can never be defeated is time. Therefore, you need to take your own as soon as possible.