Interview with Andrei Griazev
April 2007 in Riga

Q: For how long have you been skating in the Russian tour now and how do you like it?
Andrei: I have been on the tour for 20 cities now, about a month. How I do like it? I like it, because we’re travelling to many cities and I’m getting to see Russia and even other countries as we travelled abroad. Plus, of course, I can skate in front of spectators. I think there are more positive than negative points.

Q: What are the negative points?

Andrei: Of course, there are disadvantages. It (the tour) is hard. We perform back to back in many places. The season has just finished and I probably should work on my mistakes and start preparing for the new season. But an athlete should do something in between the seasons and I don’t think there is anything bad about it (taking part in the tour). I don’t think I’ll be on the tour until the end, because this tour won’t finish soon and I would like to rest a bit before the new season obviously and I have to work on new programs. I need to find some new strength and then head into the new season.

Q: What are your plans for the new season?
Andrei: Plans…First I want to go home to have a rest for a little while and then in June I’d like to go to Sotchi (Black Sea resort) for two and a half weeks for a summer camp. I will also receive some treatment to make sure that nothing hurts and that I’m healthy. After that maybe I’ll have one week off and then I’ll start to skate again and to work on my programs.

Q: I assume you’ll prepare new programs?

Andrei: Yes, I think so, and we’re thinking about that now, but so far nothing has been determined yet. We’re still searching.

Q: Will you continue to train in the CSKA club?

Andrei: Yes, I really like it there. We have a good group there and good coaches. So far everything is great, I just have to work and to strive for a result.

Q: Let’s have a look back at the past season. You won Russian Nationals but afterwards things didn’t go too well for you. What happened?

Andrei: Yes, I became Russian Champion. I just did what I can do at this point (at Russian Nationals). I didn’t do anything extraordinary, I just skated my program that I usually can do, without a quad. Maybe for this moment it was ok, because we don’t have boys in Russia right now that are so strong that they are unbeatable. You see it yourself, 20th and 21st place (at Worlds/in fact 19th and 20th) aren't good placements for Russia. I just was calm at Russian Nationals. I don’t know why, but I was calm and I felt confident. As for Europeans, when I got there, I already felt a big weight, because the Russian Champion should be at least in the top six. The Russian Champion is the face of the country and needs to show something. And of course, I wanted to do that, but one mistake in the short program and right away I was so far down, they counted it like two mistakes. I was in 13th place and I obviously was upset as I have been never before. As for Worlds, it was just a decision of our Federation to send a young skater (Sergei Voronov). I don’t know if that was right or not.

Q: Where you in good shape before Worlds and did you prepare for it?

Andrei: I was supposed to take part in a national competition one and a half weeks before Worlds (Final of the Cup of Russia). I wasn’t ready for this competition, because I was seriously ill after Europeans. We had the flu in the boarding school where I’m living and half of the boys were really sick and they almost wanted to send them away so that the others won’t catch the bug. So I got that flu and I lost a week. What can an athlete show in competition after not having skated for a week, especially when they are checking on you. So I didn’t go to this competition. We had a test then and Valentin Nikolaevitch (Piseev, president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation) came to my practice. I had been skating for a week and I wasn’t bad, I skated my program and showed almost everything. They said they’ll think about it and they’ll see how the juniors are doing. It was the same for me back then, I was in top form at Junior Worlds and it was easier for me to go to senior competitions, because nobody knew me, I was at the top of my game and I stormed forward. Now I’m in a different situation. Maybe they thought the same thing will happen again, but apparently it didn’t.

Q: You talked about feeling pressure when you went to Europeans. Did you put pressure on yourself or did others put it on you?

Andrei: I tried not to listen to what other people were saying, because I’m an adult and I understand perfectly what a first place means, especially when thinking of those who were first before – Eevgeni Pluschenko, Alexei Yagudin, Alexander Abt. When they were first in Russia , they didn’t compete for the top ten but they were always in the top six and fought for medals. This is a decline for us, but we’ll work hard and try to come back. I will work now on the jumps and the spins, because I feel that we’re lagging behind the Japanese and the Americans a little. We’re not loosing to them because of the jumps, as we have exactly the same jumps, we’re doing the same things in practice as everybody else does, but simply there is a fine line, we’ve been focusing too much on these jumps, and we’re not skating as freely (as they do). Honestly, you look at the Russian men at Worlds, they were so tense, there is no lightness, you can see, they approach a jump and they start to get tense. You can see that, of course, and when you look at the Japanese, they are just great, they skate beautifully. They do everything and they are artistic. This is what we have to work on and not to focus only on the jumps that we have been doing for like 18 years. This is what I think.

Q: Evgeni Pluschenko has announced that he will return to competition next season. What do you think about that?

Andrei: I think that is good, because we have problems right now. We have only one spot for Worlds next year, which is not the most pleasant news, and I think he can help us here and push figure skating forward. I think it will be more difficult for us without him and his experience can only help us for the future.

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