Just a year ago Alena Leonova was known only to specialists and some keen figure skating fans. But after she had sensationally won the Junior World title (surpassing very strong contenders from the USA) and all but reached the podium at the 2009 European Championships, Alla Piatova’s pupil became the talk of the town.
Alexei Dudin, Inflight Review, specially for Figurnoye Kataniye
The 18-year-old has succeeded in gaining her position as the undeniable leader of the national team in a very short time, and now it’s hard to believe that a few years ago she was considered absolutely non-promising. Once they even told her to join a pair skating group (it’s a well-known fact that unsuccessful single skaters often end up in pair skating) but after a week’s trial she was rejected even there with the same verdict. And there’s hardly anyone who could reasonably explain what happened next. Was it a fairy godmother with her magic wand who turned the yesterday’s Cinderella into a princess? The answer is wrapped in mystery...
Oleg Ovsyannikov as Santa Claus
Q: Alena, have you recalled the Cinderella fairy tale often during the season?
A: Not really (laughs). It rather felt like being a dark horse that no one stakes on. And then the horse suddenly proves itself…
Q: Had you expected things to turn out this way?
A: No, I hadn’t expected that fabulous much. I thought this season would be by far harder for me than the previous ones, but I couldn’t even imagine everything that was in store for me: the injury, the failure at Russian Nationals, and then something unbelievable at Europeans and Worlds…
Q: I’ve heard that you got injured all of a sudden, when you least expected that someting like that could happen.
A: Yes, it happened when I worked through a step sequence in a summer camp. Now it seems ridiculous, but then…
Q: Were you overcome with bitter thoughts?
A: Yes I was. And then I didn’t have time to recover completely by the start of the season. I returned to the ice a month later.
Q: Do you still feel the after-effects of that injury?
A: Just a little bit. I’ll have time to fully recover between the seasons.
Q: I guess that after the failure at Russian Nationals, when you quite unexpectedly didn’t even medal, you had a very hard moment, didn’t you?
A: You’re right. I wanted to give everything up. The season was over for me though it had just begun. No Europeans, no Worlds, nothing of the kind. At best I could expect to enter one or two second-rate events.
And then all of a sudden I was told not to despair too soon: the Federation hadn’t yet decided who would be sent to Helsinki and there still was a hope... So, I was given the right to enter the European Championships as an unexpected New Year’s present. It was Oleg Ovsyannikov who told me the news. He came up to me and said: ‘Get ready!’ And on the first of January I began practicing with all my might.
Q: I’d like to admit that when I was watching your free program at Europeans I suddenly found myself not worrying at all. I wasn’t afraid that you would fail in this or that, I just enjoyed your skating and felt happy. What had caused such a great advance in your skills, consistency, self-reliance? What’s the secret? I know that the previous season wasn’t bad for you, too, but this one… It’s something incredible.
A: To tell the truth, I’ve been lucky this year (smiles).
Q: So you think that only luck accounts for all of your achievements?
A: Yes. It was mere luck.
Q: But it can’t be so. Luck may allow you to succeed once, but not in several big events in a row. To be able to do this one must at least possess a proper technical basis.
A: Maybe the main thing is consistency. I grew more confident with every event. And then again, each time I came to the ice I was very calm and collected. It helps me a lot. Whatever happens. Whatever I am told before.
Q: You mean somebody could say something nasty?
A: Yes, it happened once or twice.
Q: Was it your rivals trying to ruffle your temper?
A: No. It was a friend’s blurt. By the way, in senior competitions all the contenders are very reserved and talk to no one. In junior competitions things are quite different, everybody is cheerful and relaxed. There’s hardly any strain in the air. It feels like you’ve returned to childhood. It’s so nice!
Q: You’ve mentioned that after the failure at Nationals you wanted to give up. Did you mean that you were ready to give up figure skating?
A: I thought I’d rather stop being so anxious about my results in competitions. It seemed to be too late. I’d been expected to win the Nationals and didn’t even get a medal. I’ve already participated in the Russian Championships three times, and each time it was a failure.
Q: Maybe you shouldn’t be so upset about it. Things like these sometimes happen even to really outstanding athletes. It is a well-known fact that Alexei Yagudin never won Russian Nationals... And had you ever wanted to give up figure skating before that?
A: No, just that once. Even in the hardest moments I never regret that I’ve chosen this life. I say to myself that I just need a little rest to summon up fresh energy.
Oh no, not the Dying Swan!
Q: If I’m not mistaken, you started skating at the age of three…
A: I was almost four then.
Q: Don’t you think it’s too early?
A: I didn’t understand much at that age… My mother read an announcement for figure skating classes and decided to sign me up. The skating rink was located far from our home, so she used to take me there by tram. And she also carried a pram with her, because my sister was only one year old then. Later my father bought a car. By the way, practices ended at 10 p.m., so on the way back home I used to drop off right in the car. Late practice is an ordeal for a five-year-old. I never attended a kindergarten, because all the nurses there were bad-tempered. I was raised at home.
Q: When did it occur to you that you might succeed as a skater?
A: It was when I’ve already started practicing at the Yubileyniy. I was 11 then. It was a hard time for me, because I started from scratch. They began upon changing my technique completely. When they tried to teach me new steps, I just couldn’t understand what they wanted me to do. I was yelled at all the time. But I managed it. I adapted myself. I watched videos to learn how to do everything right.
Q: Did you try the so called ‘Mishin’s vest”?
A: No, but I tried a corde pareille and flew in the air…
Q: I bet it was interesting.
A: It was wonderful. The feeling is inexpressible. After that I began to understand circus artists. And they perform at such a giddy height!
Q: Do you go to circus frequently?
A: Yes, when there are especially interesting performances. But I’ve never attended the famous show of the Cirque du Soleil.
Q: I’ve heard that your idol is Irina Slutskaya…
A: Yes she is. But she became my idol only as recently as three years ago, when I was allowed to participate in big national events. Before that I admired absolutely all female skaters. I watched each one skate agape with delight! (laughs) They skated so wonderful. When there was a figure skating broadcast, even late at night, nothing could tear me away from the TV set. And if the broadcast was repeated in the morning, I watched it again. My parents encouraged my interest. On the whole, I am much obliged to them. They helped me a lot to become a figure skater.
Q: It was your parents who helped you to overcome the nervous breakdown after the Nationals, wasn’t it?
A: It was my mother. She soothed me. She began attending my practices. I was worried and she was worried about me… My school was a great help, too. And my coach Alla Piatova. And Svetlana Korol, my choreographer. All of them together helped me to recover my peace of mind.
Q: Is it easier or harder for you to skate when your parents are in the stands?
A: They very seldom are, because they worry about me too much and get very nervous. They even don’t watch live broadcasts of international events when I compete. During Worlds, when live broadcasts started far into the night, my father once jumped into his car and drove somewhere to repair the tires, just to avoid the temptation to switch on the TV.
Q: Tell me please, if it’s not a secret, how the duties in your team are distributed. Who does select the music, for instance? Do you search for it yourself?
A: It was me who found the music for this season’s short program. That is, nearly. I liked one tune from a CD and took it to Svetlana Alexandrovna (Korol). She listened to the whole CD and asked me, ‘Don’t you like that other melody?’ To tell the truth, I hadn’t listened to it thoroughly enough. Then I tried it on the ice. I mean I wanted to hear how it sounded in a large space, not in headphones. I liked it very much and we finally decided to choose this one.
As for the free program, which I skated two seasons, the music (La Leyenda del Beso by Raul Di Blasio) was chosen by Svetlana Alexandrovna. Marina Yeltsova and Andrey Bushkov skated by a melody by this composer in 1996 and won the world title.
Q: Which reminds me of this… Marina Yeltsova once said that when it came to approving a music choice, she was often forced to do it against her will. She never liked the melodies that were suggested for her consideration. Then all the team members – Andrey Bushkov, coach Natalia Pavlova and choreographer Svetlana Korol – set to persuading her. And finally it always turned out that the music was not only good, but fitted the pair perfectly. How often do Piatova and Korol have to make you change your mind?
A: Never. After all those years my coach and choreographer have come to know me inside out, so they have the clearest idea of what suits me the best. But if I am suggested to skate, say, to the Dying Swan, I will die myself. On the spot! (laughs)
Q: What kind of music do you like, both on and off the ice?
A: I prefer something cheerful. If I like the music, it gives me the drive. And then everything goes well on the ice.
Q: There is a new craze among figure skating fans: they search for music for their idols to skate to…
A: Yes. They bring CDs to us, too, and I’d like to thank them for that very much. However, my ‘Olympic’ music wasn’t suggested by fans. It was chosen by me and Alla Yakovlevna.
Q: Now that the talk turned to your coach, I’d like to ask you a delicate question. What do you appreciate the most about her?
A: Her indefatigable industry. Alla Yakovlevna loves her job and completely devotes herself to it. Even when she is ill she comes to the rink nonetheless. And she is a very exacting coach, too.
Q: And have you ever told her something like ‘Alla Yakovlevna, since you are ill today, you’d better go home, I will do everything on my own’?
A: No, I haven’t. In fact, I can’t do without her assistance. I need to be watched over and prompted.
Q: When Yeltsova and Bushkov worked with Svetlana Korol, they told me that she was a wonderful psychologist. She could always clear the air.
A: Oh yes, it’s the same with our team. She is the one who puts me in the right mood before competitions. She can ask me, for instance, ‘Do you want to have a car?’ I say ‘Yes, I do’. ‘Do you want to have an apartment? Do you want to buy a fur coat?’ ‘Yes, I do!’ ‘Go on and work then! What are you waiting for?’ (laughs)
She really knows how to make herself heard. When something goes wrong in practice and I start idling near the board, she gets at me, saying ‘Go on and skate! Stop pitying yourself!’
Q: By the way, how good are the conditions under which you practice? Doesn’t the ice get too crowded sometimes?
A: No. Everything’s all right. Some people write on the message boards in the Internet that the ice at the Figure Skating Academy is so overcrowded that I have to evade other skaters all the time. It isn’t so.
Q: Do you read the message boards often?
A: Yes. And everybody at home do. But I never write there. I take into consideration all positive things and ignore negative remarks, which are luckily few and far between.
‘I’m scared of skating last’
Q: Do you ever get scared of coming to the ice?
A: Yes. It happens when I skate last. It’s very hard. And that was exactly the case at Nationals. I just burned out. What is more, I knew how the others, including my main rivals, had performed. It was very hard to get in the right mood. Then again, my muscles had already cooled after the warm-up.
I get nervous when there is a heavy load of responsibility on my mind, when I am expected to achieve very ambitious objects. I was very nervous at Europeans, just before the short program. And I was really jittery at the Cup of China. Everybody noticed it. Somebody said to me afterwards that I came to the ice goggling like a mad cow (laughs). But I wasn’t nervous at all during the last three events. Maybe I had calmed down by that time. Maybe I had burned out all my nerves so there was none of them left. Anyway, I was calm and I enjoyed my skating.
Q: By the way, what was your reaction when you learned that after the Worlds you were to enter yet another big event instead of taking a long-awaited holiday?
A: (laughs) Well… To tell the truth, I had learned about the World Team Trophy before the Worlds began. So I kept in mind that I would very likely go there. But then I was told that it depended on how I would perform in Los Angeles. After the decision had been finally made I said ‘Very well. Let’s go there. I’ve never been to Japan’. Everybody kept on asking me whether I was exhausted or not, and I answered that I could manage one more event. But only one. My back began to trouble me because of fatigue, as well my legs. But I endured it.
Q: Did you feel any difference between the WTT and the Worlds? I mean the atmosphere of the competitions. Was there any distinction?
A: Yes, there was. During the WTT it felt like a show, like an exhibition gala, only with full light and in the presence of judges. The Japanese had thought of every detail and arranged everything excellently. For example, those stands for the teams. Then all the team members went down to the K&C to cheer their teammates… I liked it very much. Everybody was so light-hearted compared to Worlds. There was no pressure and we could just enjoy our skating.
Me and my teammates really had fun together. The thing is we seldom meet. Even those who live in St. Petersburg practice at different rinks. On the whole, it was exciting to be there. Then again, we visited the Disneyland...
Q: Let’s return to Slutskaya. This season you sure have been told more than once that you resemble her, haven’t you?
A: Yes, I have. And I think that there is a resemblance between us indeed. I am as resolved, energetic and cheerful as she is.
Q: Have you ever met her?
A: No, I’ve only met her mother. She came up to me at the Cup of Russia. She said that I should win the National title (smiles). Unfortunately, I failed her. I remembered her immediately after the free skating. I think it was she, not my mother or father or coach, whom I thought about first.
Q: Last year your birthday coincided with the day on which the Cup of Russia’s gala was held…
A: Yes, it was a double holiday. I love galas. I relish them. If they were held every day, I would perform every day, too.
Q: You’ve been to lots of places already. Where it was the most interesting and unforgettable?
A: I think it was in the USA at the World Championships. Before going to Los Angeles we had a camp in Detroit and went to some other places, too. It felt like we had come there on an excursion, not to compete at Worlds. The more so, as ladies competed last, as usual.
Finally I got tired of waiting for the competition. I had enough time to visit Hollywood, then Beverly Hills. Each day I went to the Staples Center to cheer my teammates. So I said to myself, ‘Well, it seems like I’ve come here as a fan’ (laughs).
And in the end I skated well myself. Yes, I think it was the most unforgettable event. Then again, it was my first senior Worlds.
Q: Whom did you support the most?
A: Yana Khokhlova. I like her very much. Last season we happened to enter the same events and became friends. Yana and Sergey are very nice and friendly people. They are European champions but there isn’t a bit of conceit in them. They are very easy and pleasant to communicate with.
Q: It is usual with skaters to be friends with athletes representing other branches of figure skating. But do you think that nowadays single lady skaters can be friends? Or else they can be only rivals?
A: We are rivals in competition only. Apart from that, me and my female teammates communicate in a very friendly manner.
Q: Which aspects of figure skating do you like and dislike the most?
A: The greatest pleasure for me is to perform before an audience. People say I bring them joy with my performances. It is a very important thing for me.
And as for what I dislike…
Q: Is it summer training camps?
A: (laughs) In fact, there is nothing especially difficult about summer camps, taking into account how many days of rest I have. And I have almost none. So I just have no time to lose shape.
Q: By the way, is it hard to stay in a camp for a long period?
A: I’m used to it. I’ve always gone there without my parents. Even when I was 9 years old I went to my first summer camp in Finland on my own. Of course I missed my people then. I was bored and sometimes I wept. But now it’s all right. After all, we can communicate via the Internet. I’m never bored. I don’t weep in summer camps any more.
Q: Don’t you regret that your parents have sent you to skating and not to any other sport?
A: No. They’ve made the right choice.
Q: And you never get sick of the ice, don’t you?
A: Never.
Q: And what about ice-cream?
A: I eat it sometimes, but not often. I like cakes and pastries and such things better. The things that I am forbidden to eat unless it isn’t a holiday.
Q: Can you cook?
A: In fact, I just have no time for that. But sometimes I help my mother in the kitchen when it comes to making salads, slicing and chopping. To tell the truth, I am a bit afraid of cooking. What if I accidentally do something wrong and poison someone? (laughs)
Q: Do you like movies?
A: I like comedies, both Russian and western. As for my favorite ones at the moment, they are The Irony Of Fate and its sequel, then Hancock, though it’s not a comedy. And I am delighted at the musical Mamma Mia starring Meryl Streep. I’ve watched it three times already.
Q: Fans usually give a lot of presents to skaters. Which one do you remember the best?
A: I think it was a small teddy-bear with a funny note attached. It said ‘Smash them all!’ (laughs) It was in Finland, at Europeans. It is very pleasant when people support you and wish you well.
Q: Can you hear what they shout to you from the stands?
A: Yes, and it is of great help to me. By the way, when I skated the free program at the WTT, even some Japanese shouted ‘Davay davay!’ [Go! Go!] in Russian. I was completely out of breath by that moment, but I still could hear it.
Q: If you were given a magic wand and could make three wishes, what would they be?
A: Well… First of all I’d wish that everybody was in good health. Because no skater can avoid injuries. Then… (pauses) there should be no wars. And my third wish is ‘Let everybody be happy and no one should leave offended’.
What would I wish for myself? Nothing. I’ve got everything I need. As for medals, I should win them myself and not receive as a gift… I’ve got to live the real life.
Alla Piatova:
Alena’s parents are very pleasant people who never meddle in sports affairs. But they are always ready to help when it’s needed. It was, for example, after the Nationals, when Alena was living through a very hard time. It was a real disaster for her. That’s why I did what I had never done before. I asked her parents to attend practices. I wanted them to support her and maybe to see was happening to her (I mean the depression and hysterics) and try to prevent their daughter from letting herself go.
They are very responsive people. I think that even if I asked them to do something that had no concern with Alena, they would do it nonetheless. They are a happy family. They understand and respect each other and their children. They are not conceited at all. So I’ve never had any trouble with them as well as with Alena.
Alena is a very light-hearted and outgoing person. Of course, some things are changing as she grows up. But I am sure that if you asked any athlete about her, everyone would give her a very good reference as a friend and a colleague. I would compare Alena’s personality to a light bulb that warms those who are around. I can’t say that she is exceedingly gifted by nature. But she has a little of everything. And everything in her is balanced and fairly measured. Plus her positive attitude towards life helps her a lot. Pray God it lasts long, because we by far haven’t achieved the utmost object. And this object is to take Irina Slutskaya’s place in the national team and, generally speaking, in figure skating.
Translated by Mikhail Sharov |
