"Long trip not through deserts, but glaciers", that's how Povilas Vanagas describes his way to his beloved woman's heart and their rise to Europe's and world's best figure skating masters, while looking at his wife Margarita Drobiazko. It was getting dark, and from summer's rain we hid in the most popular ice dancers' car.

Specialists agree that in Salt Lake City's Olympics and at the world championship in Nagano, you've reached a very high technical and artistic level, and became the judges' victims just because you aren't big country's, strong federation's representatives. At the moment of disappointment don't you regret that you represent such a small country as Lithuania?

POVILAS: I won't lie - there were, are and will be various thoughts. Sometimes you consider: For an American it would be enough to get into the world's top 10, and different possibilities to incarnate his work would arise for him: to make millions, to take part in commercials, to be supported by powerful supporters. Of course, sometimes you regret that there are no such conditions in Lithuania. But a lot of big countries' sportsmen win high places only because they have a strong rear. Because one has confessed "if I didn't represent a big country, my place would be not 5 but 15". The fact that from 1992 we could represent Lithuania in Olympic Games after such a long interval was a balsam for my soul, and we'll remember it for all our lives.

While preparing for competitions you spillt rivers of sweat, and after that - lakes of tears. Did it hurt for a long time?

POVILAS: Margarita cried a lot. That day and the second one. I didn't have the time to cry, I had to comfort my wife, whose pain I saw, and I was worried for her. It could have been much worse if there hadn't been the big support from skaters and coaches. When the world championship was over we went to eat where only participants eat. A lot of different participants had already gathered. When we came in everyone stood and applaud for us. Rita was crying. After that the gathering of signatures began. The petition was given to the International Skating Federation, signed by skaters, coaches and representatives from federations.

MARGARITA:Povilas knows how to comfort. If not for him, his support through all these years, I don't know what would have happened to me. I could always lean on him. Every competition has stress. I would cry that we were 9th and not 8th, but when I cried for 4th not 3rd, I needed much more support.

You met 14 years ago. What was until then?

POVILAS: Until then I was many times Lithuania's champion, my mother's trainee and heir. From the age of 3 she would take me to her job, because I ate not well (and I stayed "thin"). The skating-rink in Kaunas was outside, so mother tried to keep me outdoors for as long as she could, so my appetite would arise. Then she gave me skates and a chair, that's how I learned to skate. When I was six I took place in my first championship. Later was a period when my parents almost with strength tried to keep my interest in the sport. I had to learn to work, to fight with my reluctances, needed to have free time, play basketball or football with my friends, because the skating-rink didn't attract me. But the results were quite good so I couldn't drop everything. When I was 17, I said to myself: enough sports. I began to study real hard. I tried to join Moscow's International Relationship Institute, but, unfortunately, I lacked 1 point.

Is it the truth that you were thinking about becoming a priest?

POVILAS: That hope was cherished for a long time. For some reasons I changed my mind. Not because I created a family. Thoughts about family came later. I was christened when I was 18. There was a time when I thought about it really seriously.

Do you think about it now, that there could have been another way?

POVILAS: Sometimes. But now it is as it is. Creating a family was a thoughtful thing. I made up my mind, when I said goodbye for good to the thought of becoming a priest.
What was your first meeting?

MARGARITA:I was 16, in this age pairs often change, you don't think about your partner. Povilas had to skate with another girl so I didn't examine him. Like a dancer he was not good-looking and I didn't like him.

POVILAS: When I didn't join, I got an invitation to the army. Coaches invited me to try myself at skating. So I decided to try. I came to Moscow for a short period, 2 years. Everything lasted for much more. Margarita was a good skater already. She suffered a lot while I reached her level.

Did the 16-year-old girl make fun of the 18-year-old boy who came from Lithuania and wasn't very good at skating?

MARGARITA: Well, he skated with simple skates on natural ice, while boys and girls his age already trained on artificial ice, so he couldn't compare. I didn't laugh, because it wasn't funny. It was sad. He had to learn what I already knew. It was hard for both, and Povilas didn't really want to skate. But soon he became better than the others.

Began by showing persistent industries and obstinacies, for example?

MARGARITA:I think he became better because I showed him my worst characteristics. I was very demanding. It was probably hard for him when I was ordering to him. We had a very good coach. He didn't allow us to fight. We had to work a lot. Povilas hated choreography but he was better at the technical part of the dance.

When did you begin to think of each other as man and woman?

POVILAS: It happens so unsuspected; suddenly. everything happens progressively, you couldn't say from when.

MARGARITA:I remember really well when he said "will you look at me once - I'm a man." I always thought of him as a friend, Povilas was the first who started to look at me differently.

POVILAS: Yes, I was the initiator of different relationship.

Because he was older, more active?

MARGARITA: No, I didn't lack of activity. Only that activity was pointed to others, not Povilas. I thought of him as a brother.

Was he shy?

MARGARITA:I wouldn't say like that. Of course his unshyness began to express after many years.

POVILAS: It's difficult to talk about it, because it isn't that way - you wake up one morning and realize that you feel something special for the girl you dance with. Through those years I began to know Rita very well as a person, I didn't think of her as someone you love because it wasn't like that. When everything became clearer and stronger I tried to assist her in any way I could.

Gave flowers? Wrote love letters?

POVILAS: I wrote notes; I didn't write letters because we were always together.

MARGARITA: He gave me a lot of flowers, and a lot of surprises.

Are our men, Lithuanians, good cavaliers?

MARGARITA:I don't know about your man, but mine is very good at assistance. He's very romantic. If I wake up in the morning and he's not beside me, I can be sure he went to buy me a flower. Returns with the prettiest buckeye.

Were you scared when Povilas confessed that he loved you?

MARGARITA: It was strange. I couldn't say anything to him. For many years you think of him as a friend, then suddenly he speaks to you. I asked to wait, I needed to think. I thought for a year. I had my life; I didn't wait until the age of 26 that Povilas will propose to me. There were boyfriends, friends, fiancés. Povilas knew that.

And suffered from that. It isn't easy - you have a partner everyday in your arms but as a girl she is slipping from your hands, right, Povilas? Insulted Lithuanian owners feeling?

POVILAS: Really, it had a meaning. (Laughs)

Margarita, why did you think for such a long time?

MARGARITA: Well, I needed time to get used to it, I couldn't just say to myself "now I will think of you not as a brother but as a fiancé and I will love you." I needed time. I needed to see how his confession reacts to me. If I had felt that I love him, I would have said that nothing would happen. But sometimes it happens: While a person doesn't show you any feelings, you don't either. But when he tells you that he loves you, you start to look at him differently, you realize that deep inside you love him too. That feeling existed, only you didn't let it come up.

After such a confession it becomes easier or more difficult to dance? While you don't have an answer the situation is a little nervous...

MARGARITA: It didn't bother me, because when you dance your personal questions are left behind.

POVILAS: How to say, did it matter. While I was waiting for your answer, when I was worried - if you said no, I didn't know, if we could still skate together. It would have been very painful for me and I don't know how I would have acted. To realize what I felt, helped me a thought that one day, when we are finished with skating, I will have to return to Lithuania. And I realized - I couldn't live without you! I thought: What is this weird feeling inside me? I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I realized - this isn't friendship it's love. If it was friendship, we could write letters and that would be enough. And when we started dating, I began to discipline myself. When you are with a partner you can fight and then say you're sorry, but when you're in love you try to keep away from negativism.

I imagine that Povilas patiently waited for an answer, pride didn't let him fasten things.

MARGARITA: Yes, he didn't question. Povilas invited and I went to dates. Everything slowly became as it is. One in Switzerland, in adressing room, a totally not romantic place, he suddenly asked me "when are we getting married?" Probably it was enough for him, didn't wait for a better moment.

Long and difficult was the road to this woman.

POVILAS: Yes, difficult. A long trip not through deserts, but glaciers. But I was persistent because I was in love. Until the wedding we had a lot of wonderful moments, the bronze medals, and our wedding in the summer. We went on a wonderful tour, we had a wonderful time in Spain, and we forgot everything.

POVILAS: Our honeymoon lasted for a very long time.

What's next?

POVILAS: We'll skate as long as we want. This season we have a lot of invitations. We also want to begin coaching.

Do you think about children?

MARGARITA: We want children very much, and soon we'll have to think about it. We only know how to skate. So we have 2 choices: to skate till the end, when we could still have children, but we wouldn't want to wait for a long time. Or to train. Now we are still very attracted by the ice. After a couple of years we'll see if we skate - or sit with children.

Maybe you would like to sit with children at home? You have given an icon to Povilas; maybe you'd start doing similar things?

MARGARITA: You, Povilas, told them about it?

POVILAS: No.

MARGARITA: This is the only thing I made by hands. I knew he'd love it, and if not for my injury I don't know how much time it would have taken to do it. I just can't imagine myself at home. I need activity. Even when we are on holiday and Povilas wants to lay by the sea, I push him - lets do something!

Was your meeting predetermined?

MARGARITA: Everything happened a little bit strangely. That girl, whom Povilas had to skate with, was quiet and I don't know if they would have made it. And the boy I had to skate with was more like me, so we would have only fought. And Povilas and I are a good couple, because we are different.

You are realists or fatalists?

POVILAS: When sports results depend on a couple of minutes and judging subjectiveness, you have to depend on luck, happiness, help from above. We work a lot, but we are - fatalists. The help of powers we don't know is important to us.

Margarita, how did your parents accept Povilas?

MARGARITA: My mother loves Povilas very much. When I was dating, she was very jealous of me, didn't want to share me with anyone. I'm her only joy, so if someone takes me away, she suffers a lot. Now she realized that she got a son. We live with my parents.

POVILAS: We gave her a cat as a replacement for her daughter, now they are so close that they don't pay attention to us.

MARGARITA: We gave it a risk and didn't suspect that you can love a cat so much. The cat loves my father more, so now mother is jealous. And when we come home and tell them that they gave her too much food, take offence - how can you talk like that about a girl!

Lilija Vanagiene sacrificed her life to a son, right?

MARGARITA: This is different! Povilas' mother always dreamt about her son's marriage. She wanted him to wed as soon as possible, so he would have a family. Lile - is ours saving. If not for her, there would be no talks about us as dancers! How much she did for us in Lithuania! Everyone thought that it would be better to have no result than have a Russian dance with a Lithuanian. Lilija helped me to get citizenship, so we could go to the Olympics, the European and world championships. She didn't sleep at nights, went from door to door, it's hard to believe that she made it.

POVILAS: It's one of the stories. Through our entire carrier there were millions like that. When we went to our first championship we didn't have money even for tickets, mother gathered the sum from friends. I felt sorry for her very often, she was exhausted physically and emotionally, I don't know where she found the strength to carry on.

What is now most important in your family?

MARGARITA: A lot of things. Love, children, home. I feel happy because I go to work which I like. We both are happy, because we work together, come home together. Now we are building a house, so straight from the airport we go to see how things are. Our first house - our dream, and we hope that we will always come home with such happiness as today. I don't know what I would pity for Povilas. When you love someone you could give everything to him. If he said - give me ten years of your life; I would do that without thinking. I was fixing my teeth, and jokingly asked Povilas "would you give me your teeth, at least hath of them" and he replied "take them". When you could give everything and sacrifice everything - it must be love.

POVILAS: It's difficult for me to tell what love is. It's too strong, too important and too deep to express with words. We know it and no one else will understand it better than us. And a woman, it changes everything. In a man's life there can come a moment when he will live all his life giving something to his beloved woman.