Jevgenij Pluschenko: "I missed this adrenalin shot"

Jevgenij Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic Champion, 2002 Olympic silver medallist, three-time World and five-time European Champion has announced his return to competition. The 26-year-old is training again in St. Petersburg, Russia under his long-time coach Alexei Mishin. This interview was taken end of May 2009.

Q: What is your motivation to return to competition after having won every possible title in figure skating?

A: As my coach said – to extend my youth. Well, that’s what he said. But my idea is – I still want to win something. I have to try to become a two-time Olympic Champion. But even if I don’t manage to win the Olympics again, just to make the top three would be a very good result. I have a friend, ice hockey player Alexei Zhavnov. He has three Olympic medals – gold, silver and bronze. When I was second (in Salt Lake City in 2002), he said, ‘well, you need another medal.’ When I was first (in Torino in 2006) he said, ‘now you have two medals, but I have three and if you come back and take the bronze, that would be really good.’ So, it looks like I listened to him and I want another medal. Which one it will be... I will try my best that it will be the highest possible award, the gold medal, but even if it doesn’t work out, I won’t be upset. I will take it gracefully even if I’m outside the top three – everything can happen – because nobody can take away from me the medals that I have. Nobody is taking away my title (from 2006), just someone else will be Olympic Champion, and this will happen sooner or later anyway. And I missed competing.

Q: What did you exactly miss?

A: I missed this adrenalin shot. You don’t have that in the show. I want to compete. I missed this specific competitive atmosphere, no matter if it’s the trip to a competition, the hotel, the trip on the bus to the ice rink, the events after a competition. I want to live through all this again and to remember my youth, although I am still young.

Q: What do you need in order to win again?

A: I don’t have much time. The most important thing is to stay healthy. I’ve started to train seriously before my European tour (in spring) and I got back all my elements within two months, like the triple Axel. I landed six triple Axels in one show (in Germany in late April), and I’ve never done this even when I was at my best. Then I did two, and this was enough. Now I did six and I did a quad toe as an encore. So I was prepared after two months of training with Alexei Nikolaevitch (Mishin). My first competition is in September, it could be a complete flop, but I am prepared for that. You can get back everything if you really want.

Q: What about your programs and the music?

A: The music has been chosen, but it is not completely ready yet. It still has to be adjusted. Actually nothing is really ready yet, but as past experience tells – and we always had the will to succeed – we put together everything very quickly. When my team and I want it, everything happens really fast.

Q: How difficult was it to get back to the daily rhythm of training?

A: As I said, I have been training hard every day for two months this spring. Now I have to speed up the process, obviously. In the first days of the week, I’m really keen on practicing, then I get fed up and at the end of the week I don’t want to do anything. I have to take it step by step. It was extremely difficult at the beginning and I’ve asked myself, why I’m doing this. I have everything that I need. Some people tell me, ‘you don’t have an airplane or helicopter’, but I don’t need this. Yes, it would be nice to have, but I have a phone, I have a car, a house, an apartment, money; I don’t need more. I thought, why I’m doing this, practising spins, jumps, steps. The falls, the injuries (are inevitable). My mother was against my comeback. The only person in my family who supported my decision is my future wife, Jana  (Rudkovskaia). She pushed me into this direction already last year. It was her idea. She said, you are still young, you can do it.

Q: There was talk about a comeback already last year, but then you skated in shows again. Therefore many people are still sceptical about your comeback.

A: Last year I participated in three training camps of Alexei Mishin and I had an off-ice coach, but then my meniscus started to hurt again, the right and the left one as well. I went to Munich for treatment. I felt that I just didn’t have enough time to get ready. My knees stopped me. When I got an offer to skate in the show, I picked the show. Why I’m coming back now – because I’ve trained hard in spring and I saw that it’s going well. So I took a decision and went to see Valentin Nikolaevitch (Piseev, President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation). It was a good discussion. He invited me to the Cup of Russia (Rostelekom Cup) in Moscow, in the Megasport Ice Palace “Na Khodynke”. I actually don’t like this rink so much, because of the coloured seats. The rink needs to be full and I told Valentin Nikolaevitch, the rink will be full when I’m coming back.

Q: Edvin Marton created the music for your new programs, didn’t he?

A: Yes. The Tango is the free program and for the short program we picked a piece by Chopin from the movie „The Pianist“, and Edvin arranged it. There are also pieces of music that he wrote himself. So it is a kind of remake. Actually I have a lot of other pieces of music. We still have to change something in the one we have. I have to call Edvin, because I don’t like the music too much at the end of the straightline footwork. It is rather simple.

Q: How do you plan your season?

A: After the summer camps, I will train in St. Petersburg. End of August we have the test skate in Novogorsk. The competition in Samara takes place from September 7 to 10. I also want to go to Finlandia Trophy. I think, I started my Olympic season back then (2005/06) in Samara as well. Now I want to get a tattoo, an angel. I was in a lot of situations in which an angel supported me. Therefore I want to set a sign.

Q: Thank you very much and good luck for the season!