Recently, Evgeni Plushenko was in Volgograd. He was driving by Sports Palace were he took his first steps on the ice and he was puzzled. The Palace is closed now, and inside is the warehouse that stores wine and vodka. Q: Zhenya, is that possible? Evgeni: Unfortunately. It looks like the local goverment is trying to make a little money that way. It’s unlikely I could do something about it now, but when my career is over and I have a free time, I’ll try. This palace should be returned to the athletes. Q: Lately, our skaters have various troubles in USA and Canada. I’ve heard about an attempt to stop you from going to the Worlds in Washington Evgeni: That was something. I was stopped by the customs in the airport. We were going to stay near Washington with our close friend Rashid Kadyrkaev, a skater. I didn’t know his address and put the address of the rink where the competitions was held as the address where I would live. The customs officer said, “What is this address, I’m not satisfied with it.” I realized I had to call Rashid to find out his address, but how? You can’t use the cell phone in the neutral zone, we were warned on the plane. Like if the police see someone with the phone, they’ll take the phone away and you’ll have to pay a fee. You can use the pay phone, but you need a coin, and how should you get it? I said to the officer, “I don’t have a quarter!” and he answered, “It’s not my problem”. As a result, I hid from police in the bathroom, and sitting on the toilet, called on my cell to find out the address. That solved the problem. Q: You were born at BAM. What do you remember from your childhood? Evgeni: I practically have no memories about a life at BAM where my parents worked at the time. I was little then. I know we were constantly eating red caviar. There are tons of salmon type fish over there, and my dad is a big fisherman, so he was fishing non-stop. My mom’s memories of BAM are less happy. I was constantly sick and at the end caught pneumonia. When I was discharged from the hospital, my parents had to go back to Volgograd. True, I kept getting sick very often over there too, I was constantly getting nosebleeds, couldn’t ride further then three stops on the trolley because I was getting nauseous. Q: They probably sent you figure skating so you would be stronger Evgeni: My parents wanted it very much, and when I was four, my mom took me and my older sister Lena to the rink. I was watching the kids through the hockey net for a while, and said, “Mom, I want to learn too.” I was admitted to the group, and for some reason they didn’t take my sister. In three months, I went to my first competition, and was 7th out 16 skaters. That was a very good result. I was crying often when I couldn’t do something, and my first coach, Tatiana Skala was comforting me. She picked me up, circled the rink with me, saying, “Zhenechka, you are the best. Be patient, skate, and everything will be fine.” Fortunately she was right. What’s important is that when I started skating, I stopped getting sick. Q: You trained in Volgograd until you were 11, and then suddenly moved to St. Petersburg. Why? Evgeni: What was I supposed to do when skating school in Volgograd closed? I couldn’t do without practice. My muscles hurt if I didn’t skate for 2-3 days. My coach Mikhail Makoveev offered to move to St. Petersburg. That’s when Mishin’s name came up for the first time. Of course, I knew who he was. It was hard to believe that I could get into his group – he was well known in the country. But that happened, I went to St. Petersburg alone, without my dad and mom. Comparing to Volgograd, St. Petersburg seemed huge and it was pressuring. I was little, I was afraid to get lost and missed my parents very much. I had to buy food and cook on my own. I remember how I took the subway for free moving the turnstile to the side. After a year or so, my mom came and my dad staid home to make money so we could rent a room in the communal apartment. When I recall those times, I start shivering… Q: Do you remember what you bought with your first prize money? Evgeni: Of course. At 13, I was 6th at Jr. Worlds in Australia and received $1,500. I bought TV and a suit for my mom. Q: You don’t live in the communal apartment anymore. Evgeni: Yes, we have an excellent four-room apartment in a good neighborhood. Several days ago I bough a house in suburbs. I was dreaming about that for a long time, but either the price or the location wasn’t good. Suddenly we found an adorable little house located in the little cottage community that has security. So we bought it. Q: The new skating season has started. How are you going to make you fans happy? Evgeni: I want to reconstruct another quad. I don’t think I’ll do it in the near future, my injuries are bothering me. Last year, I set a figure skating record – won all events in both short and free program, but my achievement weren’t noticed somehow. I want to repeat that this season. Q: The newspapers are actively discussing you upcoming wedding to Uliana. Are you really getting married. Evgeni: I won’t have a wedding any time soon. I’m not against having a family, and I will definitely have children, minimum two – a boy and a girl, and if I’m lucky, maybe three. For now, I don’t even want to think about it. It will distract me from skating. I want to win an Olympic gold . This is the only medal I don’t have. I definitely won’t retire before 2006.   Translation by Trinity