Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin repeated their last year's success in St. Petersburg, winning the Russian championship for the second time in a row.
Contrary to the established tradition, we decided to talk with the skaters separately, giving each of the partners an opportunity to speak.
"After pneumonia, I felt that there were almost no working muscles left on my legs."
- With your free dance at the Russian Figure Skating Championship, you gave the audience some kind of indescribable delight. And what did you feel yourself?
- The emotions that the audience gave us are incredible.
We haven't heard this for a long time lately.
We looked at the faces of our coaches, Irina Vladimirovna Zhuk even burst into tears.
Probably, it was the audience who showed us that we won.
- A month ago, answering my question about your current state, the Beetle answered in one word: "We got out." What was the problem with entering the season so late? Is it only in the transferred coronavirus?
- Rather, everything came together.
Before the start of the season, my back injury worsened once again, and severely.
Even from small movements, it sometimes shot through so that the pain became impossible to endure.
The partner had to take me in his arms, carry me off the ice to the locker room, help remove the skates ...
- Three years ago, you already had to solve this problem?
- And two years ago too.
It turns out that for the third season I go to the same doctor in Germany.
We honestly tried to cure the back in Moscow, made blockades, but to no avail.
Not to mention, this is a very unpleasant procedure.
- It turns out that the opportunity to go to Germany was a salvation?
- Yes.
Fortunately, one injection given there is enough for me for the whole season.
The doctor injects a special fluid into the spine, which is distributed between the squeezed joints.
It turns out to be a kind of pillow, and I can work calmly.
When we went to this clinic for the first time, I didn’t believe in anything: I was engaged in physical therapy, and suffered blockades, and many other procedures had to be done - nothing helped.
And then the doctor laid me down on the couch, and calmly says: "If this is what I think about, everything will go away in half an hour."
- I can imagine your reaction.
“Then I felt both sad and funny at the same time.
I didn’t believe it at all.
Moreover, after half an hour the pain was still there.
But an hour and a half later, when I was already sitting at the airport and waiting for the flight to Moscow, I suddenly felt that very strange sensations arose in my back.
As if the bones begin to separate, and the spine moves more and more freely.
I was stunned, honestly.
The doctor said that the injection should be guaranteed to last for six months, but it turned out that it was enough for me for a whole season.
- But you and your partner missed the open September rentals not only for this reason?
- I was very ill the day before.
Bronchitis, pneumonia, then complications began.
When they thought that I was completely cured, and began to prepare with might and main for the first start, some strange jumps in temperature began.
As soon as the load was given to me, I immediately fell off.
It seems like I can withstand the workout, I feel pretty good, but by the evening my throat starts to hurt, and the next morning I have a thermometer of 38 with "kopecks".
But they also found a reason.
It turned out that two of the most vicious bacteria were stuck in the throat from some previous diseases at once, so the usual antibiotic simply did not take them.
- How hard was it for you and Ivan in the first stage of the Grand Prix?
- We were forced to miss not only the skates, but also the tournament in Finland, so before the trip to Turin a very strong desire prevailed just to show our programs.
The very fact that we were able to prepare for these stages, put together the programs, became a miracle.
Therefore, we simply did not pay attention to some kind of fatigue, heaviness.
- That stage left the feeling that you lack your usual speed a little.
- Due to the fact that I was sick for a long time, my muscles were noticeably sleeping.
When I went out on the ice for the first time, even Vanya said: "Sasha, you have no legs at all."
I myself felt that there were almost no working muscles left on my legs that allow the skate to press on the ice, pick up speed, and so on.
We seem to be dancing with the mood, everything is fun and good, but it feels like there is not enough power or speed.
- At the stage in Grenoble, the picture seemed to me different.
- In rhythm dance - yes.
It's just that the ratings for that rental were, unexpectedly for us, almost two points lower than in Turin.
Perhaps that is why the free dance turned out to be a little less emotional.
We drove better, but it was very difficult to force ourselves to think about the program, and not about how it will be evaluated.
- Are you very upset about this?
- It was so.
Moreover, we were competing with a Canadian pair, whom they had lost, probably, only once in their careers.
- How to stay motivated in such cases? Do not give up?
- To be honest, with age it becomes harder in this regard.
You involuntarily ask yourself questions: What is missing?
Why?
- That is why you decided to continue preparing for the main starts not only with your permanent coaches, but also with new specialists?
- Yes.
It so happened that all 15 years that we have been skating with Vanya, we only had experience with Irina Zhuk and Alexander Svinin.
They have done a truly titanic job this season, like our entire team, and there are a lot of very different specialists in it.
But, since the season is Olympic, we understand that we must use every opportunity to achieve the fastest possible progress.
Therefore, after the performance in Grenoble, we once again discussed everything together and decided to involve additional specialists in the work - Nikolai Morozov and Alexei Gorshkov.
And by joint efforts to bring the programs to full shine.
- In St. Petersburg, there was a lot of talk about the fact that Morozov brought a fresh look, a slightly different direction to your cooperation, but the very idea of the performances, the best, in my opinion, in your career, belongs to Zhuk and Pork.
- Yes it is. In all recent years, we have only twice contacted other directors. Three years ago, one program was directed by Pyotr Chernyshev, another - by Ilya Averbukh, and all the other productions were done by Irina Vladimirovna, for which she is very grateful. Honestly, in general, I consider it an outstanding merit of our coaches that throughout almost our entire career we walk four together and overcome all difficulties together.
By the way, the idea to seek help from Morozov and Gorshkov came from the coaches.
When you work hard and hard in a narrow circle, a fresh look is always useful.
Moreover, Nikolai himself perfectly owns the skate, he can immediately take all the steps for both the boy and the girl, he explains everything very clearly, knows absolutely all the nuances of sliding.
It is no coincidence that all the skaters to whom he ever staged programs or steps noted that Morozov relies on the convenience of skating.
It's very important for skaters to be comfortable.
When something in the program causes discomfort, a lot of energy is spent on overcoming it.
You start to move in an illogical way for yourself, the same is done by a partner who is forced to constantly adjust, but in general, it turns out not at all what we would like, and those who look at us from the outside.
- When you started working on the ice with Morozov, there was no internal protest that after so many years of work in the same, even very professional coaching hands, you have to adapt to a different format and other requirements?
- Rather, the opposite.
Moreover, both Pork and Zhuk have always been with both arms and legs for trying something new, for being able to learn something beyond what we already know how.
The only thing I would like to have a little more time to prepare for such an important season for us.
- Including to enhance physical qualities?
- Yes.
When we began to prepare for the Grand Prix stages, I had to devote a lot of time to working in the gym in order to restore my muscle condition.
As the muscles began to recover and strengthen, there was a feeling that I could afford a little more on the ice.
Accordingly, confidence came.
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Publication from Aleksandra Stepanova (@aleksandrastepanova)
- How close is the image of Juliet to you?
- From the very beginning I saw in this plot some deeper feelings than a walk in the meadow.
Not just falling in love, but an understanding of what you are ready to go for the sake of love, whether you are ready to fight for it and sacrifice the things that are most dear to a person.
Your family, for example.
I would even say that this program is much deeper than the productions that we have skated so far.
There is a huge palette of emotions that must be conveyed in four minutes.
It takes more energy to show her the way she should be, and with our new big team, we have been working for the last month just to emotionally tell this story.
- And you yourself could renounce the family for the sake of love?
- Fortunately, I was born into a family that is hardly capable of putting me in front of such a tough choice.
But I know of cases when the creation of a family was for people not so much a consequence of their own desires as an event predetermined by older people.
But you don't want to see calculation in love.
Another question is how happy a joint future can be ...
"You must tell the truth if you want to continue to treat you with respect."
- The first question does not differ from what I asked your partner: what are your impressions of the free program rental?
- The emotions are amazing.
At first it was nervous, then - joyful, and then devastation rolled over.
We need to breathe out, sleep, especially on the day of the competition we had a very early rise.
- All your training over the past month has been structured in such a way as to approach the Russian championship in maximum shape. At the same time, according to the results of the Grand Prix, you were the first substitutes for the final. If the tournament had not been canceled, and some of the finalists had refused to travel to Japan, would you have gone to Osaka?
- The Grand Prix Final is such a start where many people want to go.
It is always interesting to compete with the strongest.
- I agree. But it would probably not be too reasonable to interrupt work, to which several strong specialists are involved at once, and go to competitions with a high probability of being left behind rivals?
- I agree with this point of view.
But still I would like to compete once again.
I always have this desire.
In addition, when you understand that you have managed to improve your skating, and I think we have made noticeable progress by the beginning of December, you involuntarily want to show it to someone.
- On what basis did you think that you managed to become better? Did you go easier, faster, differently? What exactly has changed in sensations?
- Everything that you said has changed.
After the second stage of the Grand Prix in Grenoble and missing the final, we finally had time for minor technical work, which we did with coaches before, and with the involvement of new specialists, it became much more active.
We went easier, faster, and, of course, in a different way.
Therefore, this is how I reason: if Sasha and I managed to achieve quite tangible progress in less than a week, a few extra days of work before the start in Osaka, if the opportunity presented itself to go there, could change the picture even more noticeably.
On the other hand, there is a silver lining: without reaching the final, we concentrated one hundred percent on preparing for the national championship, not thinking about anything else.
- Sasha admitted, talking about the beginning of the season, that at first you, as a partner, had a very difficult time. At what point did the situation change for you?
- I can say for sure that it happened much faster than in 2020.
Last year I myself got sick like that.
This season, we began to work out some small pieces of programs, even when Sasha was taking antibiotics.
And when the serious workload began, we basically already understood what we needed to work on.
Only the first three training sessions of the entire program were really difficult.
That our skating was definitely not allowed to be shown to the audience.
But thank God, we managed to cope with it.
- I would like to clarify: does it bother you that you have to tell a journalist in such detail about injuries and illnesses?
- Why should it be so?
The only situation in which, probably, you shouldn't talk about sores if you went to the start.
There, no one cares about your injuries and illnesses.
We had a different story: we withdrew from the competition, did not take part in the open rentals.
In such cases, athletes, it seems to me, are simply obliged to explain the reason.
How else?
We are all public figures, we have fans, judges, after all.
To tell them all: sorry, we do not want to discuss anything with you - this, it seems to me, does not sound very worthy.
You have to tell the truth if you want to continue to treat you with respect.
Yes, there was a difficult moment, but we coped with it?
Now it is already in the past, and we are not returning to it.
- Why did you choose such a well-known theme as Romeo and Juliet for your free dance?
- Everything is very simple here.
Once Averbukh invited us to perform in his show and offered to make a number just for this music.
The production turned out to be very good and everyone liked it, so at the end of last season, the coaches and I decided that we should try to do a free dance on this base.
Since the topic suits us to such an extent.
The only thing I really wanted was to get away from the classical interpretation of images.
- Have you ever thought that “Romeo and Juliet” is a very insidious work? If you look at it, it draws a certain ideal of love, which, as many believe, simply does not and cannot exist in life. But many young people take this story as a model and are very disappointed when suddenly it does not work out in life.
- Even if this is a fictional story, it seems to me wonderful that two people can make such sacrifices for each other.
I don’t know how I myself would have acted in a situation where I cannot help myself and there are no real right decisions at the ready.
After all, at the age of 15-16, everyone had situations when he really blows his head, and everything fades into the background.
And this happened to me.
In this regard, Romeo and Juliet is not such an unreal story.
Although I would change the ending.
- How difficult is it to get used to the image of Romeo, setting yourself up for an arbitrary program?
- It always happens in about the same way: after the rhythm dance, you fall asleep with the thought that there is an arbitrary ahead.
You scroll through the upcoming rental in your head, mentally work through all the nuances, all the most insignificant little things.
And it turns out that the mood, entering a particular image, begins the day before the performance.
As the start draws nearer, concentration only intensifies.
- Many years ago I talked with Valentin Nikolaev, coach of Oksana Baiul. And he said: if a single skater allows himself to enter the image for a quadruple jump, he will get out of it, lying on his back. Dancing, it turns out, gives more room to keep yourself within the image?
- For singles, as in pair skating, it is much more difficult to think deeply about some kind of plot when you need to jump or perform a triple throw.
In this regard, we have a completely different story - without an image, you can not go out on the ice at all.
From the very first movement, you must, as it were, drive all your inner mood into a kind of energy cube and remain inside until the very end of the program, living the plot as deeply as possible.
It turns out this is different every time: somewhere stronger, somewhere softer, somewhere, on the contrary, harder.
But if at some point you lose this feeling, they just won't believe you.
Neither spectators nor judges ...