Alena Leonova R-Sport interview, 22.04.2015

Alena Leonova R-Sport interview, 22.04.2015.

Translation by Vasiliy Melnik, vk.com/vasiliymelnik

-Alena, the season has ended, and of course I would like to ask how is your mood?
-Mood is great, I already think about new programs. Considering my transition to a different group, the season, I think, went well. There’s a lot to work on of course. Especially regarding the free program. The short program worked every time, but the free program had to be changed in the middle of the season and is less trained in general. In the next season, I think, we will stage the free program earlier, to have more time to work on it and will visit more events.

-Let’s start from the last summer, when you began working in the group of Eugeniy Rukavitsin. How difficult was this transition?
-Very easy actually. I knew the Eugeniy Vladimirovich is a very good person and a trainer. I’ve known him for a long time, we communicated a lot, met a lot at the events that he was attending with Konstantin Menshov. It wasn’t hard for me to get together with him. The hardest part, probably, was relearning lutz (laughs). In general, everything suits me, I adore choreographer Olga Germanovna Glinka and our fitness trainer Andrei Borisovich Luschikov. Everything is great.

-But there was something you had to get used to?
-I guess there were difficulties with training sessions, in the sense that I didn’t used to work so much. With Nikolai Alekseevich Morozov you just do your jumps and go (smiles), and here there are different tasks, a lot of skating that I don’t like… I guess this was difficult. But now I understand, that all of this was good, that this is training that you have to treat calmly.

-In the Morozov’s group you were a single lady. Here – you are in big company.
-This is very good. Very good girls skate in our group, you can learn something. As for the coach’s attention, there is no jealousy. We skate in different time: I together with Dima Aliev, and Konstantin with Masha Artemieva. But even if we skate at the same time, it’s good, stimulating. Especially when we “play for jumps” (I suppose it’s a game to train jumps-translator).

-Is “playing for jumps” something new to you?
-No, not at all. Sometimes the coach gathers us all to play. It’s normal (laughs).

-First events of the season went pretty good, like Oberstdorf, where you competed at the same level with Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. Then something happened at Gran-Prix.
-At the first Gran-Prix event in Canada there was very inconvenient time schedule. In Russian time, I had to skate at night. Muscles couldn’t wake up and I couldn’t prepare myself to skate in such harsh conditions. I think this is the main reason, because I was well prepared for the tournament.

-But still, then the problems continued on the next events, with the free program.
-The main reason, probably, is that training sessions always were incomplete. Sometimes I couldn’t finish skating because of a painful fall, or sometimes it’s the end of the week and I’m tired. There wasn’t a lot of good full sessions, I couldn’t build stability. That’s why I was unsure when I had to skate the free program. At the same time, the short program worked the whole season. That’s why they want to keep it for the next season.

-What’s its secret? The mood?
-Probably, yes. You begin skating and you know that people will like it right away. You are not thinking about jumps, just having fun.

-Whose idea it was to turn you into Charlie Chaplin?
-Mine. At first we wanted to try something in the style of modern, something really new. But when we tried it, it turned out that I don’t feel it. Then, during a discussion I simply suggested: How about Chaplin? Actually, I had this idea when I was skating with Nikolai Morozov. But then we found the music, tried it, and I declined. Probably, it wasn’t the time for it. This time, Olga Germanovna brought music on the next day, turned it on on the ice and I liked it. We began staging with her in Latvia, and then Eugeniy Rukavitsin saw it and joined the work. In the end, he liked it, even thou at first he wasn’t sure it suits me. They wanted to change me radically, but I guess I don’t change (laughs).

-When the free program wasn’t working time after time, wasn’t there an idea to change it?
-There was. But then we decided to return to the old roster of elements and don’t change it. This was before the event in Japan.

-Why?
-I was getting too focused on difficult elements and couldn’t perform well. This roster was familiar and going good.

-But what about risking?
-Well, we risked for couple of events and then decided that it’s useless for now. That jumps that I tried in summer are not well trained yet. My tries to do a flip-toe loop in Oberstdorf and Canada were a surprise for the coach. But I wanted to do it. Later, however, we dropped the plans to make cascades harder.

-Were you hoping at the beginning of the season that increase in difficulty will go faster?
-More like I really wanted for it to be like that. So that I could’ve show everyone what I’ve learned. But in the end, there was not enough time, and I had to work on other things. At least I’ve relearned the Lutz, people said that not I perform it with the right edge.

-Any complaints about yourself? There has to be dissatisfaction because you didn’t achieve what you’ve planned.
-There are things I’m not satisfied with, but I’ve persuaded myself that I really have to leave increasing the difficulty for later. I must perform the option that I have now without problems, and that didn’t happen a single time in the whole season. That’s the only thing I will blame myself.

-Is it possible to explain why the usual option didn’t work out too?
-Oh, I don’t know… I feel like I know it, I can jump it. I could perform better at the Russian Championship Final. I don’t know. I thought about it, revisited how I skated with this program. It’s probably a psychological issue. Or maybe it’s just that I was so emotionally exhausted after the short program, that I couldn’t prepare myself for the free skating. I performed well during training, but at the events I was very different. Actually, not every training session was successful. Always a problem with some jump in the first half, and then I can’t perform well the second half. You struggle with the first half, but then on the next day, everything is fine.

-Just like Alexei Mishin was saying recently about his ladies: you prepare flip at the evening, and tomorrow it disappears.
-Yeah, and in the morning you get Lutz (laughs). Something like that. Yesterday you jump three out of three, and today you can’t do anything. There was a situation before the Russian Championship final when I couldn’t do Rittberger at all. And that was when I already really wanted to go and perform, and after we arrived, on the first training session right after the plane, I did everything flawlessly.

-Do you continue to work with your psychologist, Genadiy Gorbunov?
-Continue. For example, I called him during the Winter Universiade and he worked with me. I performed well there, even though people were angry with my “toe loop-toe loop” cascade, everything else I did good.

-The victory at the Universiade probably became a bright spot in the season?
-I was afraid to go there without the coach, even was telling him “I will not go without you”. But I was persuaded that I must pull myself together. I pulled.

-After the Universiade, was there a meeting with Vladimir Putin?
-Yes. We went to the airport on a bus with escort with sirens. WE had to wait for a long time there. First came our minister of sports, Vitaliy Mutko, greeted us all.

-What did he say?
-“Don’t give up, we cheer for you”. He knows me for a long time, always smiles when sees me. Then we were waiting together. Then I went up to the window and saw the helicopter landing. We were sent to a different hall, there we waited for another 20 minutes, all tense. And then he appeared, said couple of things and left.

-Greeted everyone?
-No. Honestly, I wanted to take a selphy with him. But I wasn’t able to do it, he was surrounded with bodyguards, you couldn’t approach him. But the whole week after the Universiade was nice. First we were invited to meet Putin, then we went for a meeting of a sports committee in Saint-Petersburg. That’s where we received awards together with Maria Artemieva.

-Did you become very upset when you couldn’t qualify for the European Championship?
-It hurt that I couldn’t perform clean, because I was well prepared. I was really, of course. I went to the final with mom, she was calming me down. But on the next day we returned home, and the

-You said in March that you had a feeling that the season is not over yet. Were you aware that Anna Pogorilaya had health problems and that you could replace her at the World Championship?
-I did know that. When we were returning from the Cup of Russia, coach told me to prepare for the WC. It’s possible that he had information that Pogorilaya is injured. And I was preparing, keeping myself in a good shape. Of course, when I found out that she still will go, and especially when I saw how she performed…

-Pogorilaya later said that she didn’t want to give you her spot in the team. Even though it’s the WC, and not some amateur talent contest.
-Well, it did hurt me a little bit.

-Liza Tuktamysheva won gold, did a triple Axel.
-Actually, I almost wasn’t surprised that she did it. I’ve seen her do it during training, she make it seem easy… So I had almost no doubts that she will make. I’m really happy for her and Peter (Saint-Petersburg).

-The main thing, is that at the even in Peter she was able to do only Axel, and in the Shanghai she was able to do the whole program with Axel.
-Yes, and it’s very important. I don’t see a point to insert a triple axel unless you can do it. And she did all, which means that she prepared well.

-Have you tried doing a triple Axel?
-I’ve tried. Even did it once. This was right after I transferred to Nikolai Morozov. I was jumping, then tried to do it and did, with proper exit on one foot. He was very surprised, told me that this means I can do it. I tried it couple of times more. In general, I have a chance to spin and exit it right, but I need time. Liza began doing it long time ago.

-Are there any plans for a sharp increase in difficulty?
-Right now, probably, no. But I do read various interviews and see that Gracie Gold will be trying to learn the triple Axel and a quad jump, Seraphima Sakhanovich – a quad Salchow. And then I thought, why not? But at first I must master the triple jumps, so that they would work without a thought. Because this is the most important thing. When I don’t think, I do everything. When I begin thinking, I begin to hesitate.

-When the young skaters are trying triple Axels, I don’t think that they are scared. What about you?
-If someone would ask me to do a quad toe loop, I would get scared, it scares me. Even though Andrei Lustchikov tells me that with my toe loop I could do a quad, but I’m afraid. But I don’t fear the triple Axel at all. Just wrap in foam rubber and go.

-Some pare skater say that a quad throw is easier to do on slow speed, without big height and distance.
-I think it’s the other way around. If a triple jump is high, then a quad jump will be easier. How I feel it, I will jump a triple Axel earlier than a quad jump. I tried a quad with a “fishing rod”, hit myself very hard and I don’t want to try it again.

-The “fishing rod” just supports you?
-Yes, lifts a little bit, but you must spin yourself.

-But the cascade “triple flip-triple toe loop” is still planned?
-Yes, of course. At first I must get used to new skates and then begin so that I will be able to do everything before the bootcamp.

-Are you planning a vacation at first?
-There is a show in Korea at first. Natalia Bestimianova called me asking if I could perform. I will go, of course, it’s very nice that I was invited. The vacation will be for a week, just the sun, beach and water, I think. And then the bootcamp, Latvia, Sweden, everything as usual.

-Do you still have motivation to skate?
-It didn’t leave me. What left is confidence, for some reason. Even though I work with a psychologist, it’s just doesn’t work when I start. That’s the only problem, I can do everything.

-Something has to “click”?
-Something has to click. Maybe I should cover myself with a towel like Isinbaeva!?

-Why do you skate?
-I want to win all. Leave a trace on all pedestals. I’m not afraid of the young generation. I don’t care about anything. I know, that I can do everything, that my programs are the best and I have enough strength for everything.

-What free program will you have next year?
-Ooooi… (smiles)