Right after the World Championships in Saitama, you said that you intend to change your body over the summer so that it becomes possible to solve more complex technical tasks. With such summer workload, did you succeed?
– Despite the fact that I performed in shows a lot, I had more than enough time to do everything I had planned. Even more than I expected. So, I managed to do everything. I changed my training outside the ice very much to develop muscles properly.
Usually, such a work isn’t quick. When did you realize that the result you are striving for starts to appear?
– Speaking specifically about working with the body, about increasing muscle mass, developing the right muscles and so on, I’m generally not a very fast person. I know people who only need to go to the gym for a week, and the body starts to get fit. But it doesn’t happen to me. Therefore, from the very beginning I understood that quick results should not be expected. You just need to work every day, monitor the regimen, and nutrition, and then maybe the result will come someday.
Well, when did the moment come when you looked at yourself in the mirror and said: “Oh! I did it”?
– When six-pack abs started to appear. This greatly added confidence. Well, then things started to go up. During training, I began to feel stronger, looking in the mirror, saw that I was becoming slimmer, all this added motivation to work on myself further.
I suppose six-pack abs are not the only goal.
– We work a lot on the legs muscles. Muscle mass during the summer work increased quite noticeably, my weight in this regard also increased, but, you know, it’s a different kind of weight. The fat layer always interferes, slows down the work of muscles. But when the muscle becomes powerful and well-developed, it gives a feeling of strength. On the ice, I constantly feel that the muscles have become stronger and sharper, I even started to jump with a different rhythm. True, I had to change the wardrobe: all the trousers became tight, but tops, on the contrary, turned out to be too loose. Actually, this was the first indicator for me that all the efforts in the gym were not in vain.
After the World Championships, you probably discussed with your coaches a plan for working on jumps, on complication the programs. To what extent have these plans been implemented?
– In this context “discussing plans” is a bit of a big word. In our country, such discussions are usually very abstract and take 2-3 minutes. “Let’s try?” – “Ok!”. We decided in advance that we would complicate the program in the technical part, have more complex artistic images, we also decided to sew cool costumes …
Asking about your plans, first of all, I meant jumps.
– In terms of jumps, in my short program, instead of a triple loop I have a triple lutz now, and in the free program I have two lutzes instead of flips.
Does it mean that you finally managed to overcome your problems with the wrong edge on the lutz?
– I can tell you for sure that it is incredibly difficult to fix the inside edge on the lutz. Therefore, I have to control every move in this jump. There is a progress in this regard and it’s significant, but absolutely correct execution is still given by great efforts.
Who, in your opinion, has the best lutz in the world?
– I like the way Nathan Chen jumps. I liked how Yuna Kim jumped triple lutz. It was always very correct and very beautiful.
Talks that you are actively trying to learn the quadruple salchow – are they just talks, or is there something behind them?
– We are working on this jump, and we are working a lot. But let’s not forget that I’m learning it just a month and a half.
The athlete usually immediately understands whether he will do this element or not.
– Good attempts happen, I understand that the element is absolutely real. I’m generally not the kind of person who rushes to show the others half work done. I have a goal is to show the quad in competitions.
How did you choose choreographers for this season?
– Yes, we decided right away that Ilia Averbukh would do my short program, and Shae-Lynn Bourne would do the free program.
Because…?
– Just because we decided so. Ilia and I chose music together, although I was the first to offer Exogenesis, and the program was made in a few days right after Worlds. There were no questions at all with the Memoirs of a Geisha. As soon as I first heard the music, I knew that Shae-Lynn was the only person who could do this program. I can’t explain why. I just didn’t see any other choreographer for this program. In general, everything that Shae-Lynn does is very close to me. She has amazing feeling of music, movements, her programs are always different from the others and very recognizable. True, it is very important to perform these programs exactly as it was choreographed. Then they really sparkle.
Was it your first experience with Bourne?
– Not really. We met on shows, this year in Korea there was a case when I urgently needed a gala program. Shae-Lynn helped me a lot. She came up with a program to Alla Pugacheva song “Million Scarlet Roses”. Quite unusual things quite often happen in my career. For example, the step sequence in the short program choreographed by Averbuch was made by Jeffrey Battle.
How did he fit in there?
– When I returned from Moscow to Canada, I told Brian that we need to think how to make a step sequence. He instantly reacted “What is there to think about? Here is ice, and here is Jeffrey.”
What do you like the most about this step sequence?
– Weird question. I already like the fact that I have it.
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