This Interview comes from: www.vremya.ru
For the Petersburg figure skater Evgeni Plushenko, this past season (2001/2002) became the most unsuccessful in his career, even though many considered him to be the rightful winner of the Olympic games. How does the figure skater himself explain his misfortunes? Svetlana Zhurova, his colleague in the Olympic team committee, spoke with him about this.
Q: Zhenya, how would you explain the fact that this season you won nothing but the Russian Nationals?
Evgeni: An athlete can have fallbacks, after all. It’s difficult to always win, even if one really wants to, and even if everything seems to be set up for it. Somehow, the season went badly for me from the very beginning - our first free program was not at all valued by the judges. We had to redo everything. At the same time I was bogged down by injuries and illnesses. Due to an inflammation of my knee bone, I could not even go to the World Championship in Nagano.
Q: Currently there are many discussions about "bad influence" on you from psychologist Rudolf Zagainov, who works with Alexei Yagudin.
Evgeni: He’s of no harm to me, and I, unlike journalists and other sympathizers, don’t spend much time thinking over it. I believe in my strengths. The win just didn’t work out! Why search for a reason and blame my own personal problems on others?
Q: Have you ever thought of working with a psychologist?
Evgeni: Everything is fine with my psyche. If Yagudin needs a psychologist, that’s his business. I don’t.
Q: So what, in your opinion, happened with the jump combination in the short program at the Olympic games?
Evgeni: The pressure was as usual. I tried to not think at all, that this was the Olympics. But after the third turn it seemed that I needed to start opening - and it didn’t work out. Later I thought about it a lot. Don’t know - it was as if someone bewitched me.
Q: Today your and Yagudin’s superiority to all the other men singles is undoubtable, but what will happen tomorrow? Are any of the other figure skaters capable of catching up to you?
Evgeni: Well, everyone! Practically any one of them! In sport you can’t relax and fall asleep.
Q: The season is over. What are your plans for the near future?
Evgeni: I am curing my injuries and going to exhibitions in America.
Q: What about the "prestigious shot" into Yagudin’s goal?
Evgeni: Alexei Nikolaevich Mishin and I already started preparing new programs. I said, you can’t go to sleep.
Q: Are you living up to the image that you create on the ice?
Evgeni: Naturally. This year I had a short program to Michael Jackson’s music. A part of it is lyrical, and the other part is very fast. In the lyrical part I have to suffer, that’s all clear, but in the fast part… Here I have to grimace a bit, there I have to wink. But for some reason I could not do that. We invited specialists - mimes, choreographers. But then I washed my hands and said, “I’ll do it all myself.” And I did! And about the free program “Carmen” - they simply turned on the music for me, and I knew what I had to do where.
Q: In your opinion, what makes a figure skater’s program memorable?
Evgeni: Last year Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze did an ideal program "Charley Chaplin." But the judges said, "This isn’t theatre. This is competition." They wanted to revolutionize pair skating, but they weren’t understood.
Q: Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze decided to temporarily stop performing competitively. Are you thinking of turning pro?
Evgeni: I remain in amateurs. I am 19 years old. I have the strength to skate and win World Championships and Olympic games. In addition, I have a goal to complete all the quadruple jumps and, if possible, to go down in the history of figure skating with, say, the quad lutz.
Q: Would you want to tie your name to that element?
Evgeni: Well, I have been doing many such elements already. For example, the combination consisting of a quadruple and two triple jumps. Or the Bielmann spin. No other man does those. And it isn’t all that easy, either.
Q: How did that happen, that you are able to do this "women’s" spin?
Evgeni: My mother saw a girl in Volgograd doing this spin, and suggested I try it. In a week I was already executing this element.
Q: How do you look upon fame?
Evgeni: Figure skating in Russia is now rising to a new level. In Petersburg about 18 thousand viewers come to competitions, and there is a full house for exhibitions. People have started recognizing me on the streets. I like it. Often they say nice things, but the opposite happens too. For instance, I go out on the ice in Russian Nationals, and some man from the audience yells, “Plushenko, you’re still worse than Yagudin!” I turn around and answer, “Ok, so you like Yagudin. Go ahead. But some people like Plushenko too.” What’s most interesting is that later this man comes up to me for an autograph.
Q: And what did you do?
Evgeni: I signed it! I can’t separate the audience into "good" and "bad."
Q: So you don’t have star fever?
Evgeni: Sometimes that phrase just kills me. I’m walking along Yubileyney after practice, tired, not noticing anyone just because there’s no more strength to recognize anyone, and the next day...not even the next day, in an hour there’s already a rumor "That’s it! Plushenko’s beyond us!"
Q: Do you try to prove this wrong?
Evgeni: Oh no. Only those who don’t like me say that anyway. My friends know who I really am.
Q: I know that you have many female fans. How do you deal with them all?
Evgeni: I am amazed at where they find my phone number, and call, and call. I try not to talk. I hope the girls don’t get hurt, but right now I really don’t have time for them.
Q: Why do you avoid journalists? For example, Yagudin willingly gives everyone interviews.
Evgeni: There were situations, when some correspondent comes to me and says, "Zhenechka, you are so wonderful, your skating is so awesome, let me interview you." We talk, then I open the newspaper, and there’s a story about how Plushenko runs away, how he’s such and such, and off it goes. Or they come to my house, we talk, and again it’s negative. That’s why I seldom speak with journalists. It’s just that they don’t write the truth about me. Not all of them, of course. I really don’t want to be a champion through rumors; I think it’s more important that I will be remembered as a great athlete.
Q: What sports are you interested in besides figure skating?
Evgeni: I want to learn how to mountain-ski. For now, I like tennis, soccer, target-shooting. I love fishing. On my free time I go to discotheques, but I don’t dance there. I like to watch others.
Q: And what would you like to do after finishing your sport career?
Evgeni: I’ll probably study. Actually, I like history.
Q: Have you ever thought of organizing your own ice show?
Evgeni: With pleasure, but for that one needs time and an offer from interested people. I wouldn’t be able to do it myself.
Translation by Elena
