NAVIGATION

Impressions - Questions from fans and the webmasters that cover a wide range of topics.  The interview was conducted by Tatiana Flade in fall 2000.

How many hours per day (and days per week) do you train?

Six days a week, 2 hours to 2,5 hours on ice plus 1,5 hours on the floor/choreography, gymnastics. We are training more in summer.

You train abroad in the summer months, which countries have you trained in?

We trained in Bulgaria, Sweden, France

Who has been your biggest influence in skating? What current skaters do you admire most?

MASHA: I admire Gordeeva/Grinkov, Usova/Zhulin, Berezhnaja/Sichuralidze, Drobiazko/Vanagas. I think that Gordeeva/Grinkov had the biggest influence on my skating, I like their style.

ALEXEI: Gordeeva/Grinkov, because I’ve even trained with them at a time in Moscow. I also admired Artur Dmitriev with his
partner Natalia Mishkutionok. The single skaters I admire most are Viktor Petrenko, Kurt Browning, Brian Boitano and Alexei
Urmanov

When you first started skating together, what were your first impressions of each other?

MASHA: It is diffucult to get an impression in the first moment. We really wanted to skate together, and we had to hurry, because there was not much time to get ready for the season. (They teamed up in July). The first and most important impression was the wish to skate together.

ALEXEI: It doesn’t happen so often that two people meet each other and know that they can skate as a couple. We were lucky, we felt right away that we can skate together. The feeling was there, right from the beginning. That’s why we achieved already a lot and hope to achieve more.

If you weren’t skating, what do you think you would be doing instead?

MASHA: I believe I would have pursued another sport. I just like to compete, that’s interesting.

ALEXEI: I don’t really know! I can’t imagine my life without skating, without that ice rink. I probably would have done another
sport, maybe a team sport, most likely ice hockey or basketball. My mother is a lawyer and my brother studied law, so maybe I
would have studied law as well if I wasn’t an athlete.


What do you think you will do when your competitive skating career is over? Do you plan to turn professional after the Olympics?

MASHA: First we have to wait for the Olympics, then we’ll see what happens. After my skating career, I’d like to coach, I think.

ALEXEI: If we retire after the Olympics, we want to skate as professionals. There are no rules and a lot of interesting things to try. I’m also thinking of becoming a coach, but I’m not completely sure about that – if I can do it or not. However, we plan to skate for a while.

Who chooses your music for your programs?

We are picking the music together. Nikolai Matveevitch (Velikov, husband of their coach Liudmila Velikova) suggests several musics, and we listen to it together and think about it. He has a great archive of all kinds of music. It doesn’t happen that we are forced to skate to some music our coach chooses and which we don’t like.

How did you create the idea for your exhibition to Verdi at 2000 World Championships – it was a very different type of program for you?

That is exactly what we wanted to do – to change our style. Liudmila Georgievna (Velikova) suggested it, let’s try this music. It was exciting for us to do something different. Not everyone liked it, but it was different.

How have your lives changed since winning gold at the 2000 World Championships?

MASHA: Actually life didn’t change. We came home and realized that we have to work now even harder. When you want to remain on the top, you can’t rest, but you have to develop further. It is one thing to win and another thing to remain on top.  

ALEXEI: It is very nice to call yourself World Champion! But it also means more responsibility, because you need to keep your level.


Of all the places you have competed which city is your favorite?

MASHA: I like French cities in general. I also like Prague, it has beautiful architecture. It was similar in Vienna, but I preferred Prague. I like Canada, because the people there love skating and receive us well. I like to come to Japan, because it is different.  It’s a long trip, though! But it is interesting to see this because it is totally different.