Thank you all for the nice comments. I’m glad you like the outcome of the project. For those who like to know how the books looked inside a put a few pictures on my tumblr-side:
https://katiafigurnoekatanie.tumblr.com/ (due to data protection considerations, however, I only published pages with articles and pictures). That’s why I unfortunately also cannot publicly share the comments of Sergei and Stephane (I think they and also Adian would need to consent to that). But I can tell they wrote incredibly nice messages for him.
Hi Katarzyna, I just saw this thread today, this was a very nice project you did. And did you have a chance to ask Adian what his future holds for him now, what are his plans?
I always thought the ice dance idea was unfortunately not possible to go through with because of his back problmes (as he has to perform lifts).
That’s unfortunately the one thing which went completely wrong.

Tania had planned to do an interview with Adian. So I didn’t ask him much about his health or his how he is doing in ice dance, as Tania would just ask him the same things and I felt it will be more convenient for him to talk about it with someone he knows than with a complete stranger. So when picking him up - Tania told him to wait in sector A1 - and going with him to the press Center (where we gave the books to him) I asked Adian as intelligent questions like how he likes the competition.
However, as there was no time on friday to make that interview, Adian could keep the accreditation I gave him on friday till next day hoping there will be another opportunity to realize the plan. I really considered that important. First of all so many fans followed Adian’s retirement and wanted to know how he is doing but second in my opinion it is very important for Adian to stay present if he wants to continue in dance. From what I know Adian is not very fond of interviews and “publicity work” in general, he doesn’t like to talk about making things, but doing them (one of the things I like about him

).
On Saturday, however, there was no chance either and shortly before the competition ended Tania wrote me I should ask Adain about the interview (it was the final group of ladies and of course she had to watch carefully for reviewing the event afterwards). Now asking him – how? You were not allowed to enter another sector and after the event he might quickly leave. In SOS-mode and with no other choice I finally decided to do something which for me as a fan usually would be an absolute no go which is to write Adian an SMS if he’ll attend the gala tomorrow and if not, we need to meet again at sector A1 so I can pick him up again (Adian recently announced that he is on partnersearch on tulup.ru, that’s where I got his number from). It was really embarrassing – in particular after all the bad experiences he made with crazy Julia fans he must have thought “right, yesterday I got the scrapbooks, today private SMS from that fan and hell knows, where she got my number from”.

Here I need to add that I used a lot of stickers preparing the books to ensure that all messages will glue well. Many of them hearts (and flowers, and butterflies – right the things a young adult man would expect, but it was still better than options like princess lillifee stickers or rosy-pink unicors.

). So I can imagine what thoughts might have come to poor Adian’s mind. What additionally added to the embarrassment was that my stupid Austrian handy autocorrected the transliterated Russian words, so e.g. “togda” (then) became “Tagfalter” and I didn’t know how to change it and time till the event was over was running. Luckily Adian is a clever guy so he understood the messages.
So I again went with Adian to the press center (my Russian with the whole embarrassing situation being worse than ever) where Tania talked with Adian how our plan still could be realized (phuuu, I was so relieved that Adian now knew it was really about this interview and not a fan starting to stalk him). Basically both agreed that they’ll do the interview later online. So there should be kind of information, but it might take some time as the GP is in full flight. Today I can laugh about it, but that time it really felt uncomfortable.
What I can give as info at the moment from talking with him: Adian is still pursuing his goal to continue his career in ice dance. But it’s of course difficult for him (finding the right partner). From what I red on Russian forums he trains with Rubleva and he’s got medical clearance to do ice dance. But hopefully, there will be soon more information.
One thing to add here: Tatiana did an amazing job. At CoR she was also translating the press conferences. I was lucky to get a press accreditation as I write a little bit for a German figure skating magazine and this was the first time for me to follow a really big event behind the scenes and sometimes I felt almost displaced. When I got to know Tania many years ago, I thought cool job, you get to know all the stars in person and you are paid to watch figure skating. Today I’m in total admiration of Tania and any journalists writing on that top level. I’d never switch my job with theirs. It’s just amazing how these people start their day at 7 a.m. in the morning or even earlier and are in 100 % concentration mode, kicking out reviews ultraquickly till late night and that with sitting in a tiny work space in a noisy room they have to share with at least 20 others. And beside all that Tania still managed to help to arrange the handing over of the books. So I’m really thankful to her.
