“When I’m 80, I’ll remember how I fooled around in my youth”: Dikiji - about TikTok and breakdancing, backflips and coordination on ice

If right now Russia needed to nominate a singles skater to participate in international competitions, I would probably choose Vladislav Dikidzhi.

Just like that, out of pure hooliganism.

The world has already seen how Mark Kondratyuk or Evgeniy Semenenko can skate.

And then suddenly - a 19-year-old newcomer who jumped out this season like a jack-in-the-box.

He is stable, won medals in all four tournaments in which he participated, winning two of them, has the most difficult jumps and excellent technique, plus millions of views on TikTok.

Vladislav responded to a request for an interview with a short message: “I’m working today, tomorrow at 15:15 I’ll be 100% ready.”

This prompted the first question.

— Does the word “work” mean making tackles on the ice?

- Yes.

I work with little kids for an hour a day.

At first it was not easy to combine this with my own training, but then my body adapted.

So I look at it as a kind of additional training.

I develop endurance and physical strength.

- Plus - financial independence from parents?

- And this too.

It’s especially nice to understand that now I can help them, just as they helped me before.

— You started this season very vigorously, winning two stages of the Russian Grand Prix, and the Russian Championship, as it seemed to me, was held with similar courage without any great responsibility.

When you were preparing for the Spartakiad of the Strongest, having a certain number of fairly significant titles, did the responsibility change?

“It’s always there one way or another.”

My coach and I prepared quite seriously for the Spartakiad.

I just personally had more worries.

In general, it’s hard for me to perform, at any start.

And here, after everything I’ve done this season, I didn’t want to let anyone down or upset anyone.

I wanted my parents, Oleg Stanislavovich (Tataurov), and everyone who believes in me and supports me to be satisfied with the clean results.

So that I myself am satisfied.

This really put pressure.

— Is a bronze medal at the Spartakiad a success, or could it have been better?

“Of course, I could have skated better, but I’m very pleased with even this result, in fact.”

— Before arriving in Magnitogorsk, you performed quadruple jumps 15 times at competitions without failing a single one.

To be honest, I didn’t even think that during the main start of the season you might not be able to do your signature quadruple lutz, for which you scored more than 15 points during the season.

“You won’t believe it, but I didn’t allow it either.”

This knocked me down a little, of course.

I am always afraid of not doing the first element, because in this case it becomes mentally very difficult to skate the rest of the program.

When the mistake happened, fear, panic, and some kind of misunderstanding arose in my head: how is it even possible to not make the jump at the most necessary moment?

But somehow I overcame myself and forced myself.

I mentally said to myself: it’s okay, the main thing is that I didn’t sit on the ice.

So keep working, keep fighting.

— What did you manage to do in terms of training in the month and a half between the December national championship and the Spartakiad?

“I tried to gain more speed and not crawl on the ice.”

He added more hand work and looked up.

I devoted even more time to this than to jumping, although for the first half of the season I mainly worked on them.

I can’t say that the performance in Magnitogorsk was really easy, but I was glad that I didn’t die at the end of the program.

It was no longer the second level that he received for the step sequence in the free program, but the third.

— The current European champion Luna Hendricks once said in an interview that off the ice she has no coordination at all.

That is, a person, having taken off his skates, is simply not able to control his body as well as on ice.

In my opinion, you have a diametrically opposite situation: you dance beautifully on the floor, but from the outside it seems that you are not yet able to transfer these skills to the ice.

Is this really true?

- Yes, and, to be honest, I’m surprised by this.

I am aware that I move quite well when I dance, but as soon as I go out on the ice, for some reason I stiffen.

Most likely, this comes from strong excitement.

It turns out that I’m shackling myself with thoughts that things might somehow go wrong.

Although I can roll out in a variety of steps.

If I want, I’ll do this, if I want, I’ll do that.

— What takes more physical effort, rehearsing dance videos that you post on the Internet, or practicing tracks on ice?

— On ice everything is much more complicated.

Dancing is still not my main activity, so I take it more calmly, I don’t put too much effort into pleasing someone.

I try, of course, but it can’t be compared to training on ice.

— Have you tried breakdancing?

- It happened.

I didn’t go to classes, it seemed to work, but then I stopped.

I don’t remember for what reason.

Either my main training schedule changed, or the person who trained me had other plans.

But I wanted to, yes.

— Which figure skater in your opinion is the absolute top in terms of skating skills?

— I have always noted that my idol, both in terms of technique and in terms of skating, is Nathan Chen.

Before him, I really liked Florent Amodio.

He was amazing on the ice.

I remember once typing his name into a search engine, I came across a program for Michael Jackson, and I still love watching it.

— That program, if I’m not mistaken, was directed by Nikolai Morozov for Florent.

He also came up with the hip-hop production of Swan Lake for Daisuke Takahashi.

I think a similar style might suit you too.

Would you like to work with such a director?

— In terms of performances, I always listen to my coach.

Whoever he says to work with is the one I will work with.

I don’t have any personal preferences in this regard yet.

So I obey Oleg Stanislavovich.

He knows better.

— When the coach says “turn off the computer and stop hanging out on social networks,” do you also obey unquestioningly?

— Oleg Stanislavovich doesn’t tell me that.

I limit myself during competitions.

- Why does this bother you?

“I don’t want anything to distract me from the main task.”

I have to concentrate on the performance, for this I need to have my head in the right place.

— When Ilya Malinin jumped the quadruple axel, many said: they say, this guy is so unique by nature that you simply cannot find another skater like him.

Is such a predisposition to jumping something special about the structure of the body, muscles, ligaments, or does it all come primarily from the head?

- I think everything you listed matters here.

Both body structure and predisposition to a given sport, roughly speaking, talent.

Plus work.

By the way, I won’t say that the quadruple axel is a jump for which there is some kind of barrier in my head.

I saw Arthur Dmitriev try to do it at demonstration performances.

He was a little short, in fact.

I remember looking at these attempts and realizing that, of course, you can go four and a half turns if you set yourself such a goal.

— Do you have this jump in your thoughts in the same way as many current singles skaters?

- No, actually.

Firstly, training such an element takes a lot of time and effort.

Secondly, the quad axel is somewhat underrated.

It’s easier to add another quad to the program and with a high probability of getting higher grades.

Not to mention the fact that the risk of falling off the axel and losing a bunch of points is not so small.

— I’ve heard many times from figure skaters that an axel is a jump from which you can land almost on your head.

It turns out that falls from different jumps are also different?

- For me - no.

A fall is just a fall.

It's just that sometimes it's not very successful.

—Have you ever had a big fall?

- Certainly.

I think everyone who learns quadruple jumps falls hard.

And probably triples too.

— Apparently, this is why there are training shorts with foam rubber that protect the hip joints?

- I didn’t wear these.

You can't wear them at competitions.

That’s why I didn’t consider it necessary to get used to it.

— Doesn’t your head get tired from a lot of jumping during training?

- Head - no, body - yes.

It all depends on which quantity is considered large.

For example, my quadruple jumps are now more or less stable, so it is often enough to do three or four repetitions during the preparatory period before a competition.

But before, when the process of learning quadruples was just beginning, I jumped a lot.

In general, he was stubborn in this regard.

I could try 17, 20 times.

I really wanted to start doing these jumps as soon as possible.

— Do you know how to do a backflip?

-Only on the floor.

Once upon a time, a friend and I set out to learn this element - well, that’s how we learned it, on the very first day.

— Many skaters perform excellent backflips on the ice, and from time to time I hear that someday the International Skating Union may move to legalize it in competition programs.

- Well, this is indeed a dangerous element in my understanding.

I've heard from others that it's quite easy to do a somersault, but I have no idea how you can ride on ice, push off a prong and lean back.

This is actually something incredible - I would never try it in my life.

It's very scary.

— How long will the boots last at your current jumping load?

— I rode the previous pair for two years.

Now I think I will have to change it once a year.

Firstly, I grew up, gained weight, and secondly, we began to perform much more complex jumps, the same quadruple lutz, and accordingly, creases appear on the boots faster.

Therefore, it is better not to risk it and replace them with new ones every season.

One couple simply cannot survive two seasons.

— As your height and weight began to increase, it became more difficult to cope with complex elements, or vice versa?

— Honestly, I didn’t notice.

Didn't pay any attention to it at all.

Well, it grew and grew.

But then, when I grew to my current height of 177 centimeters, everything stabilized and it became easier to jump.

— If you have a completely free day, will you go somewhere to hang out, or will you lie in bed?

— I often spend my free days with my parents.

I like to sit at home in the evening, my mother will cook something delicious, and then we’ll play board games with the whole family.

This is probably the ideal option for me.

- Do you have any shortcomings?

— Previously, it was because I was too lazy.

But it was a long time ago.

I probably still have some shortcomings, like any other person, but in general I won’t say that this creates any problems.

— Is TikTok an absolute fan for you, or is it a business project?

- Just a hobby.

I didn’t even think about turning it into a business.

— What about the example of Dani Milokhin?

Look, you wouldn’t even have to do tackles.

— Theoretically, this can be done.

But it's hard.

You need to constantly shoot videos, travel somewhere, arrange meetings, attend all sorts of events.

I have a main activity that I like much more than anything else.

Therefore, at the current stage of my life, I choose figure skating.

And TikTok is just for the soul.

To keep it as a keepsake.

When I’m 80 years old, I’ll remember how I fooled around in my youth.