I think I haven’t told you about the competitions yet. To tell the truth, waiting for them to start was very wearying. Ksenia and I had been quite ready to skate three days before they began, so when the first day came we were just happy. That day we had a rather early practice at the training rink. A morning is never good, they say. I can’t say I skated awfully, I just couldn’t do everything well. And if I could, it was not on the first try. Anyway, I forgot about this practice as soon as I returned to the hotel. There was about 4 hours left before I was to come to the ice, so I had enough time to take a walk and to fix myself up. After the walk Ksenia and I had a great chance to hold Oksana Domnina’s medal for luck. The medal was very heavy. We soaked up its energy and went on to prepare ourselves for the performance. Alla Yakovlevna, as always, was the one to set my hair. While doing it, she was trying to cheer me up. And, just fancy, she succeeded! I was making up my face in high feather. It turned out that time ran fast, and when I was almost ready I looked at my watch and realized that Ksenia had already skated her short program. How interesting, I was still in the village, while half the participants had already skated.

I came to the rink just in time. My limbering-up on the floor was not as intensive as usual, because I was to skate last in my group, and after the warm-up on the ice I would have about half an hour to get ready to perform. By the way, all the girls in my group were very strong. Just imagine how hard it was for me to skate after them! But I was not at all scared, of course. On the contrary, I got mentally ready to show good skating to look decent among them. The warm-up was good, I even had 1.5 minutes to just skate leisurely and, of course, to get accustomed to the light and the huge audience, of which I could see less than a half. After the warm-up I quickly took off my skates, so that my feet didn’t become numb, sat on a chair and closed my eyes. I tried to think of something pleasant, but through my thoughts I still was hearing the audience applauding the girls who skated before me. The more motivated I got, though. I had to skate clean.

Then came the time to put on my skates and move towards the exit. Near the curtain from behind which we come out I saw Tatiana Tarasova, she wished me good skating. I breathed out and went on. The moment I came to the ice I was thinking about lots and lots of people watching their TVs throughout Russia. Then I heard the speaker announcing the previous skater’s score. I skated to Alla Yakovlevna, and she, as always, gave me her last instructions. The audience began applauding the Japanese skater’s score, and soon after that I heard my name announced. I smiled and went on. In fact, I was in a very serious mood, but made no sign of it. With the first notes of the music the audience began to clap in time with it. After the first element I looked at Alla Yakovlevna, she nodded me and I went on to do my Lutz. I had been worrying about this jump the most. I cannot remember how I did it, the only thing I remember I landed it well. On realizing it I open my mouth with wonder – and rest of the program went with a swing. After I finished I was wild with joy, and so was Alla Yakovlevna. When I approached her, she said: ‘Well done, that’s a good girl!’ I was happy to see my score as well, I hadn’t expected they would give me such high points, as I hadn’t been that perfect in landing my jumps. But when I saw the print-out of the detailed judges scores, I jumped over the moon! All my elements got the highest levels! It was very satisfying for me, because the time between Europeans and Olympics I spent mostly working on my spins, spirals and steps. I also felt very happy for Ksenia. When we met we started congratulating each other and telling each other what good girls we were to have skated clean. And on top of all I was glad that we had a day of rest between the two programs. I didn’t think I could skate my free program well if I was to do it on the next day, because I had given too much energy and emotions. Ksenia agreed with me)

Next morning started with a practice. On the whole, everything was fine, but towards the end my notorious Lutz let me down. I turned my ankle on it when taking off. For the rest of the practice my Achilles tendon was aching naggingly, which, of course, upset me. After the practice I applied ice to my ankle, and later, in the village, they acupunctured me. It made the pain abate a little. Well, let’s not dwell on things like that. After all the medical procedures Ksenia and I went to the wonderful recovery house. Ksenia visited it for the first time and liked it a lot. This time they gave us broth and delicious meat. I spent the rest of the day lying by in our room, while Ksenia was taking a walk with her parents.

Next morning my ankle was a little better, but as soon as I came to the ice and tried flip and Lutz, it started aching again, and it made me afraid of jumping. It was the worst of all, of course. I let my tears flow, Alla Yakovlevna got nervous, too. I had to jump through the pain. After the practice I cried again, applying ice to my ankle. I could hardly imagine how I would skate my free program. Our physician promised to give me an anesthetic injection, Alla Yakovlevna pitied me, and I composed myself a little. Riding on the bus to the village, I was in high spirits again. When I got there, I talked with my mother via Skype. She told me to forget about my foot and to skate for myself, as always. Then I once again got acupunctured, after which Ksenia and I decided to take a walk and were lucky to run into Vyacheslav Bykov and a group of hockey players in an elevator. It had been heartbreaking to watch our team play with Canadians. But we still worked up our courage and asked Bykov if we could have our photo taken together with him. Fortunately, he didn’t turn our request down.

Having returned from our walk, we went to the canteen. I took a substantial roast, sat at a table and at that very moment saw Vladislav Tretiak. I pushed my flatware aside, took my notepad and pen and run to him to take his autograph. Wow! Another positive emotion! After that I even found that the roast was quite delicious. So, I refreshed myself and proceeded to preening feathers.

This time my hair was being set with four hands and two hairdryers by Alla Yakovlevna and our massage therapist Tamara Grigorievna, and they were coping with it very neat-handedly. Then I had trouble making up, but it turned out fine in the end.

When I came to the rink, I had to start limbering up immediately. This time I was doing it quite intensively, because I was to skate first in my group. Our physician had told me that he would fix my ankle with a tape, so I wasn’t afraid. I was the first to dress for the warm-up and even felt a bit sorry that I couldn’t start warming up earlier, because everything, as always, had been scheduled with pinpoint accuracy.

And then it was a few seconds left before coming to the ice… Hardly had the thought of it stricken me, when we were invited to the warm-up. I was warming up very arduously, because I needed to reserve the last minute for relaxing. And indeed, during the last minute I was just skating and breathing. As always, I put on a smile when skating to Alla Yakovlevna, and she, as always, told me that I could do it and that everything would be allright. Two more deep breathings in and out, and… "On the ice, representing Russia... Alena Leonova". Standing in my starting position, I was feeling 100% confident. The main thing was to start well. Skating towards my first combination, I was repeating to myself Tarasova’s words. I did the first triple toeloop, then the second one, and landed it! I nearly whooped with joy. Then I had to concentrate on doing the other jumps. The more so, as I was still worrying about my sore ankle-joint, and it was the reason why I did both my Lutz and double Axel with slip-ups. After that came the loop, another difficult jump. I did it, and the 3F-2A combination as well, and then performed an awful spin. During the step sequence my head was just switched off, and my legs were doing their work by themselves. Then I did my three-jump combination, after which I could think only about how important it was not to fall on the last jump. It could kill the impression of the whole program ) And I landed the flip, however clumsily, but landed! While doing my last spin, I could hardly believe that I had done all the difficult things. Then the final position came, and… ‘Yes!’ was the only thing I exclaimed after I finished.

For about half a minute I was trying to come to my senses and crying with happiness. Alla Yakovlevna was very happy, too, and all the people in the stands were shouting and applauding me. I can’t quite remember what Alla Yakovlevna told me after she embraced me. Then we came to the K&C and watched the slow motion replay. It was fun to watch my face from the beginning to the end of the program. The score more than satisfied us. From the K&C I went to the mixed zone, where reporters kept me for quite a while. When finally I reached the locker-room, I was congratulated by our physicians. Frankly speaking, I had a downright fit of hysterics: first I burst into tears, then started to laugh, then cried when speaking with my mom on the telephone, and then laughed again.

I watched the other girls from my group skate on the TV, and during Ksenia’s performance I accompanied by Johnny Weir. We were very nervous. Johnny was nearly doing all the jumps along with her. Ksenia skated very well, and knowing her and the Georgian skater’s scores, I calculated my result. The 9th place was a very decent result for me.

Then I came to the stands to watch the last group in Alla Yakovlevna’s company. But before that I met Ksenia, and we told each other how happy we were for each other’s success. All the skaters in the last group skated very well, especially Yu-Na. She was faultless. I even got on my feet when applauding her. After the competitions we were to wait for the doping test draw. But it turned out that neither Ksenia nor I had to pass the test, so we ran to the bus.

We got to the village feeling very tired, and I think you already know what we did. Yes, we came out to the balcony and started to scream! We felt such a great relief that we wanted to share our happiness with the whole Vancouver! After releasing our last emotions we spoke with our relatives and friends. We came to bed early, because we wanted to spend the next day with Ksenia’s parents and their friends Olia, Alexei and Petya.

Well, I’ve told you about the most interesting things that happened to me in Vancouver at my first Olympics. Just a few hours later I will fly to Torino via Munich to participate in the World Championships. Cheer for me and wait for the news!) Bye!)