Nice interview with Anastasia Skoptsova/Kirill Aleshin
А также отвечают Илье Авербуху, считающему, что их произвольная программа «закатана».
matchtv.ru
- The history of your team, as far as I know, began with anonymous profiles on the partner search site.
Kirill: Yes, there is such a website 'Toelooop' with useful information for skaters. Skaters looking for a partner can put a profile there. In the questionnaire, you write your first and last name, height, weight, contacts, who you train with, what goals you set in sports and etc. But you can skip something, so I just did not put my name and coaches.
Anastasia: It was September 2012, I was left without a partner and decided to end up with sports. I just went to school and studied. Mom kept asking if everything was all right, if I miss the ice. I answered: "Yes, yes, yes, it's all right" And five days later I realized that I really miss the ice, I cried at night. Mom said: "Let's try again, find you a partner!" And by that moment I lost faith in myself, I thought that I was not good enough for sports. Mom helped a lot, both morally and organizationally: she opened 'Toeloop' and found Kirill's profile. She called his parents and arranged a try out. When I went to the skating rink, I didn't know who I was trying to skate with. Although I knew Kirill through some competitions, we communicated with each other's previous partners. Sometimes we even went on transfers together.
Kiril: - I was surprised to see Nastya, and asked why she was here. She replied that she had come for a try-out with her potential new partner. I said: "I'm also waiting for a partner." But we did not realize at once that the coincidence was not just an accident, because many of other skaters were warming up in the big hall. Only when everyone went out on the ice and starts skating in teams while we just stayed, we realized that we had come for a try-out with each other.
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- You've been skating together for eight years. What is the secret of a couple's longevity?
Anastasia: The secret sits here (points to Kiril). I have a very difficult character... I don't know who else can stand it. I am very demanding of myself and people around me, I always want to polish everything. I start looking for something in detail: little things, some mistakes. I think that there're lot's of these mistakes, I throw tantrums, shout: "Let's do it again!"
Kiril: - And I turn everything into positive.
- Did you ever get terribly tired of each other?
Kirill: The most difficult season was in 2017/18. We fought a lot in the offseason: we were both very nervous and sometimes had conflicts. I was no longer so calm and could respond with great emotions. We understood that we had to take our gold - now or never. We are very grateful to the coaches that during that period they often reminded us to forget about small problems, to go together towards a common goal.
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- How do you like the atmosphere in the waiting room (the one with the current leaders coach)?
Kirill: At the last event Nastya said: “So, I didn't like the exit after that lift, the speed was not good enough, twizzles could have been more paralleled, we will have to do something with our angular legs”. And until the camera was pointed at us and we had to wave, she did not calm down. In general, it was the flow of emotions (laughs).
- What are the most valuable competitions for you at the moment?
Kirill: Rostelecom Grand Prix that happened a couple of weeks ago. We won our first medal. Emotions after the performances ... Universal joy, emancipation, a kind of exhalation: "We did everything we could!" Feelings were similar to those when we stood on the podium of the junior worlds in 2018.
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- Who are you friends among other skaters?
Kirill: Sergei Mozgov is my good friend, also Anatoly Belovodchenko, Denis Khodykin, Ruslan Zhiganshin, Andrey Nevsky.
Anastasia: My best friends are Stasya Konstantinova and Zhenya Medvedeva. I am also friends with Tiffany and Jon, Sasha Boikova and Dima Kozlovsky.
- Is friendship possible between direct rivals?
Anastasia: It's a kind of stereotype that athletes are not friends with the people they are competing. After all, ice is ice. You go out and take responsibility for yourself, only the coaches stand behind your back. And in your free time, why not to take a walk together, drink coffee, go to a play? My friends and I don't really discuss sports when we hang out together. Because there is enough of it in our lives.
- Nastya, how has your friendly trio formed with Stanislava and Evgenia, given that you lived far from each other?
- We started communicating with Zhenya back in 2014, at the Grand Prix in Barcelona. This was our first junior season with Kirill, and we qualified for the final. During the junior Grand prix event I talked with Polina Tsurskaya, we were roommates. And Polina was friends with Zhenya, and she often came to our room. We started talking about cosmetics. I also thought: “Wow, Zhenya Medvedeva! Such a sincere, simple and real person, without a drop of pathos. I don't know how you can be so open?" But she was already famous then. And then all these girlish conversations, then we kept in touch on social networks. Almost a year later, we met at our first Grand Prix event in Canada. We chatted, as it seemed as if we had not parted our ways at all.
We met with Stasya in March 2017 - at the Junior World Championships in Taipei. At the banquet, Stasya looked absolutely gorgeous, and I was really fond of cosmetics at that time, so I came up and asked how she managed to dress up so stylishly. We blabbed about cosmetics. Later Stasya said that she thought I looked too proud, unapproachable, I went everywhere only with my partner. In general, we both thought about each other in the same way, but in reality we turned out to be simple girls. And a couple of years ago we all came to the Russian Nationals in Saransk. And Zhenya and Stasya lived together at the Grand Prix stage in France before that. During the breakfast Zhenya said: "So, I need to visit Stasia, she invited me." I asked: "Are you friends with Stasia too?" - "Yes". So I thought that now we all were together.
- You were probably delighted last winter when Stanislava moved to Moscow. How did you support her during the difficult period ?
- Stasia had a very difficult period after the New Year until the beginning of the spring. She was left without a coach. She was thinking whether to go to Moscow or not, there were different options. She worked in a show where she was terribly tired: night rehearsals, then daytime performances ... I know what approach she needs, how to calm her down in stressful moments. Of course, I was very happy when she moved. But first of all, it was important for me that this decision could benefit her career, and not “cool! My friend is close now, and it is more convenient for me personally."
- Now you three live in the same city. How do you spend time together?
- We often see each other, we come to visit each other. We love to gather at Zhenya's home. Although I am terribly afraid of dogs, I always admire her Jerry. She's so cute! Very warm moments when the four of us sit down with Zhenya's mother and discuss something, joke, comment on tv series. It's so cozy and fun! Zhenya's mom is an amazing woman, I adore her.
- Kiril, do you remember some funny situations with your friends, for example, with Sergei Mozgov?
Kirill: - With this person every situation is positive and fun. I remember that the free program at the Russian Championship in Saransk ended very late, and we were super hungry. We went to look for a cafe, but everything was closed. Only "MacAuto" was still opened, but they sold meals only to people who were driving. So Sergei suggested that we went to the window and pretended to be sitting in the car. He struck everyone with his charm, and in the end we were well fed. It's not often that you see four guys acting like we were in the car.
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- What are your hobbies?
Kirill: I like to eat well and sleep well. Recently I bought a car, so am learning autos. Something whistles under the hood - and it then becomes a short-term hobby. I also love to understand computer programs and read science fiction. The last book that impressed me was Stephen King's The Dark Tower.
Anastasia: Fashion, make-up, and I have been fond of psychology for two years. At the suggestion of a psychologist from our school, I went to classes, and now I read a lot about human relationships, inner harmony.
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(date is wrong)
or extraneous movement.
