Interview with Dorota Siudek/Mariusz Siudek
European Championships 2007, Warsaw

Q: You have had a long and successful career. What were the highlights for you?

Mariusz: Actually we’re pretty happy with everything what we achieved together. When we started our first goal was to be in the top ten at Europeans. After we did it, it was about top six at Worlds and finally we started about thinking to win medals. It happened in 1999, in Prague , we won the silver medal at Europeans and the same year the bronze medal at Worlds. I think those two medals are the most important for us, because they were the first medals for us and the first for Poland (in pair skating). The year after we won another medal at Europeans, but then we went down, finishing like fourth or fifth. Then, in Budapest in 2004, we won another bronze medal at Europeans. Coming back to the podium is also very important, but the medal we won here (in Warsaw ) will have a special place, because we couldn’t have been luckier. It’s our last year, the championships are held in Poland for the first time in 99 years, and we won a medal in front of such great public. It’s amazing and we’re going to remember that for a long time.

Q: On the other hand, how difficult was it for you to compete at the Europeans in Warsaw ? Your fans, the audience, everybody wanted you to do well.

Dorota: Yes, it was really difficult. When the Europeans started, everybody came to us and said you have to skate well.

Mariusz: The week before we still thought it’s going to be a normal competition, just another Europeans without big stress and pressure, but then, the day of the short program we started to feel that it is going to be very difficult. Many people came to us, wishing a medal, expecting a medal.

Dorota: All day long from the moment I woke up in the morning I felt my heart was racing. I felt the pressure. The practice in the morning was not good and I felt even more stressed. It was a terrible day for me. But I felt ok in the long program, like usually in a competition.

Mariusz: The short was not the best we can do, but we were where we wanted to be, so going into the long we couldn’t be more relaxed and we just did our job.

Q: How was the reaction in Poland ?

Mariusz: The last few days it started at eight in the morning and finished at 11 at night – interview followed by interview. I had to buy an agenda, because I was mixing up the dates and times of the interviews. I was talking to one journalist and the telephone rang and another one asked ‘where are you, you should be here for an interview’. On the other hand it’s very nice, and it’s very good for our sport here in Poland .

Q: Are you recognized on the streets?

Mariusz: On Friday we went to the restaurant in the Marriot Hotel to have lunch. When we wanted to pay the bill, the waitress said, ‘no, you don’t have to pay. Congratulations and thank you for your wonderful performances.’

Q: You moved to Canada to train. That was a big step in your career. How hard was it to relocate to a foreign country?

Dorota: It was very difficult for us, because we had to move to a completely different country. We are very close to our family and we had to leave them behind. In the beginning it was really difficult. I missed my family a lot. Then we found a cheap way to call our families, and we called like two or three times a day. Richard (Gauthier, their Canadian coach) is a really nice person and we started to feel at home. Now I am very happy that we made that move.

Mariusz: We became good friends with (Candian pair skaters) Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin. It’s funny, when we’re in Poland and go back to Canada , we say to each other, we’re going back home. And when we’re here, we’re saying, we’re going back home to Canada . We have two homes now.

Q: What are your plans after you retire from competitive skating at the end of this season?

Mariusz: We want to come back to Poland and start coaching here. There are a few places where they build new ice rinks. They are not finished yet but I hope they will be finished this year. But we still are going to work with Richard. We will go to Canada for summer camps with our teams, so we’re not moving back completely.

Q: Your fans also hope to see you in shows.

Dorota: If there are proposals we would like to skate in shows.

Mariusz: We already spoke to Margarita (Drobiazko) and Povilas (Vanagas). They did an European tour last December and they want to repeat it next season, so we’re going to be there.

Q: You are husband and wife. What are the advantages and what are the disadvantages of being a couple on and off the ice?

Mariusz: We are together all the time and we love to be together all the time. If I’m leaving alone for a few hours, we call each other. In professional sport, you travel a lot. Three quarters of the year you are somewhere. We are together and we are close. But we have one rule. We separate private life and skating. Sometimes in practice we have different opinions on something. So we start a discussion, but after the practice we leave the rink, we close the door and we are husband and wife.

Dorota: And on the other hand, when something happens at home and we go to practice, we leave it at home.

Q: What do you quarrel about?

Mariusz: At the rink that would be something like steps that are not going the right way. At home… I love to sleep a little bit longer sometimes, and she is an early bird.

Dorota: Sometimes we want to go somewhere and I am ready, I have my shoes and my coat on and he is still sitting at the computer.

Mariusz: But this (quarrel) lasts for about five minutes. Life is so beautiful and there is no time to waste it.

Q: You are very close to each other. When did you fall in love?

Mariusz: Right away, maybe one week after teaming up. When we started skating together we talked more and I realized that there is something more than I knew before about Dorota. We teamed up before the University Games in Jaca (1995).

Q: How did you team up?

Mariusz: We competed in St. Gervais with other partners. We knew each other, we skated in the same club. We didn’t skate very well and Anna Sierocka, the judge, said, maybe you should try to skate together. You are both students, in like one month there are the University Games. So we tried it and we won the silver medal and decided to stay together.

Q: It obviously was the right decision. Thank you very much for the interview and all the best for the future!