Alena’s fans living in St. Petersburg are missing her so much now that she has moved to Moscow: we can’t attend her practices or meet her in the Figure Skating Academy anymore. Even in Moscow during the Cup of Russia Alena was beset by reporters. Our conversation took place a few days later. 

 

 

Shortly before the GP event in Moscow Alena celebrated her birthday. Last year her birthday party was organized by her family and friends, but in Novogorsk things surely couldn’t be the same. That was the starting point of our conversation.

 

A: Nobody in Novogorsk knew it was my birthday. I just came to a practice a little earlier and laid the table: tea, pastries, a cake… Everybody who came was wondering why a tea party was arranged before the practice, and then was told it was my birthday and congratulated me. Then the presents arrived, and I’m still (we were talking on the 4th of December, A. G.) receiving congratulations. All in all, it was a hectic day, because we had to move to Moscow to check into the hotel.

 

 

A: In fact, I like my new life very much. I feel like a more self-dependent and grown-up person. After the Cup of Russia my mother came here for a couple of days. I surely would have had a tough time if not for the Internet, but with it everything’s OK. I can say I miss St. Petersburg more than my family.

 

 

A: I don’t think I need to spend time in Moscow. I can’t say I feel comfortable there. Here in Novogorsk it’s very comfortable. Everything is close at hand, which promotes concentrated training. I could have easily been distracted in Moscow, that’s why Novogorsk is so convenient. In these six months it has become a second home to me, though formerly I hated coming here.   

 

 

A: Kiki is still very small, and we are afraid to leave her here. I spend most of the time practicing, and the trouble is that she starts howling as soon as she is left alone (laughs).   

 

Indeed, in Novogorsk Alena puts a lot of time into practicing.

A: I work a lot, both on and off ice. After each practice I jog for 30 or 40 minutes two times a day. We have no off-ice training coach here. A guest coach has been brought in, but I’ve worked with him only once. Mostly I work all by myself off ice. We have no ballet classes either, but I hope my choreographic skills haven’t become worse. But we do work a lot on ice.     

 

 

A: Indeed, I was very surprised when we went to Paris for the first time. But Nikolai Alexandrovich said we needed to switch gears for a while. I liked Paris very much, we were received very well, though the time we could spend on ice was rather limited. And we had no ice at all on week-ends, which, on the other hand, gave me an opportunity to go sightseeing. In Korea I spent two days, performing two times a day. I fell ill there and was in fever all the time, so I have no impressions of the trip. I only remember that it was too stuffy outdoors, which was making it hard to skate.  

 

As for St. Petersburg, lately Alena has become quite a stranger in her home city. During the season she has come here only for a couple of times for a day or two.

 

A: I think next time I’ll come on the New Year’s Day. I’m going to ask my coach to let me stay with my family until at least the third or fourth of January, so that I don’t have to clink glasses of champagne and leave straight away.      

 

This season Alena has shown us a new dramatic image in her free program. She had been used to skating upbeat and playful numbers, but the new program, which lacks a defined plot, had to be fleshed out.    

 

A: In this program I try to express some new emotions that I’ve never shown on ice before. When I was discussing the program with my coach, he said that I must express anguish and grief. When choreographing the program, Nikolai Alexandrovich was showing me every movement together with the emotions attached to it, and I was trying to remember and adopt it all. I mean I wasn’t adding anything myself, but trying to feel all the movements as they were shown to me. In our American camp my coach told me to run through the program in front of a mirror, paying attention to my gestures and facial expressions. He said to me: "Just sit on a chair and express the music with your arms”. At the GP event in Moscow I got the feel of my part so deeply that I was about to burst in tears when skating. I think that if I didn’t feel anything myself, I couldn’t have conveyed anything to the audience, too.  

 

At the press conference in Moscow Alena mentioned that she had tried to do the triple Axel.   

 

 

A: At this stage I just do it for myself, to be confident that I am able to do something bigger than triple jumps. I felt that I could do it on the third day of the American camp. I jumped, landed on one foot, and when everybody started applauding, I understood that I had done it. Now I know that I can do the triple Axel, but I need much time to do it well. I haven’t got enough time right now, but I’m going to keep on trying.

 

 

A: I don’t think it’s a must. I still regard it as a man’s jump. As for me, I think it’s important to do consistently the things I can do well.   

 

 

A: As a rule, I don’t think about points and places. Such thoughts are a nuisance. I think it is really more important for me to skate well and achieve a better result with every event. 

 

 

A: Of course, I lost the third place at Worlds by a hair, and it was the same with the first place at Cup of Russia. It’s vexing when you start thinking that if you have done this or that better, things could have been different. But I think that everything is like it should be. I must pay more attention to my weak points. At this stage it’s the second half of the free program. It surely wasn’t my desire to single a jump in four competitions in a row (laughs).

 

Since the day I spoke with Alena she has already participated in the Grand Prix Final. Coming to Canada just before Christmas, she, of course, couldn’t help but go shopping, but…  

 

A: The plentifulness of Christmas presents made me so dizzy that I failed to buy anything! The thing is I needed about a million dollars to buy everything I wanted!

 

But the main outcome of the prestigious tournament was Alena’s third place. She became the first lady from Russia in six years to medal at the GP Final.

 

A: In fact, I was so happy to make the podium that I had no emotions except the satisfaction of a well-done job!