Interview with Sergej Voronov
(Russian Nationals/European Championships, January 2008)
Q: How do you feel as Russian Champion?
Sergej: I felt a big burden (before). I came off a little and had some rest and slept, and now it’s a good feeling obviously that I finally ended up in first place at a senior level competition. We’ll continue to strive for more.
Q: How did you celebrate your title?
Sergej: I was just sitting in a Japanese restaurant with Sascha Uspenskij, but without drinking alcohol.
Q: Well behaved boys.
Sergej: Yes!
Q: What did you think at the very end of your program, when you struck your final pose?
Sergej: I thought that I skated well in yet another competition this season. I only thought about that.
Q: I watched your reaction in the Kiss & Cry when the marks came up. You were very pleased. There was one more competitor to skate, but were you sure that you had won?
Sergej: Yes, because I skated almost clean and it would have been very hard for Sascha (Uspenskij) to beat my score. Two competitors had skated before him, who did well, (Andrej) Lutaj and myself. Everything is possible in our sport, and so I waited until the very end, but I already realized that I would be in first place.
Q: What did your coach Alexej Urmanov tell you before you went out to skate?
Sergej: He told me that I should fight for it.
Q: And what did he tell you afterwards?
Sergej: Good job.
Q: You obviously progressed a lot this season, you not only include a quad into your programs, but your skating itself has improved a lot and you are much more mature. How do you explain this progress?
Sergej: I probably grew up in general. After juniors you realize that juniors are one thing and that the senior level is a little different. I’ve worked a lot with my coach this year in spite of the injuries and in spite of some disagreements. The work led to some success.
Q: Do you feel you changed since last year?
Sergej: Probably yes. I don’t know how to say it, but something inside me has changed.
Q: Just like that?
Sergej: No, maybe it has to do with some events, I can’t grasp it myself fully, but I understand that I’ve changed a lot.
Q: You had two injuries, the knee and the ankle. How are they now?
Sergej: It’s better now, but I am still in pain sometimes and don’t feel so good, but I’m fighting with that and I hope to heal fully. Hopefully everything will be ok.
Q: You didn’t practice Lutz and flip. What is exactly the problem with these jumps for you? Does it hurt to do them or is it dangerous for your foot?
Sergej: It’s not so much that it hurts, it’s more dangerous, because these toe pick jump put pressure on the (injured) bone and the slightest mistake leads to pain.
Q: You compete at Europeans for the first time, but you were at Worlds last year. What experience did you get from there?
Sergej: Of course I got a lot of experience, because I saw how the best of the world are skating, not only in competition, but I also saw how they are working in practice. This was a good marker for me, and it was a good lesson for me. I probably understood a lot afterwards. This helped me to progress, no doubt, because to see how Stéphane Lambiel or Brian Joubert are skating is precious, of course.
Q: You told me before that you also liked how Emanuel Sandhu skated his Tango program.
Sergej: I like Emanuel Sandhu’s skating in general and I really hope that he’ll continue to skate.
Q: What do you learn from Joubert and Lambiel when you watch them?
Sergej: You can take something good from everyone, and I try to take their best qualities. Lambiel has this natural elegance, and Joubert is very focused. You have to draw something from them.
Q: What are your impressions of your free skating at Europeans?
Sergej: To be honest, it was hard. The program felt difficult mentally and physically, but it’s good that I was able to cope with it and could practically fulfil everything I had planned together with my coach.
Q: You had to skate right after Stéphane Lambiel again.
Sergej: Today Stéphane skated well and this pushed me a little. Obviously I was not competing at the same level as he was, but for myself I competed with him.
Q: You got a new personal best for your free program at Europeans. Would you rate this as the best program of your career so far?
Sergej: Yes, I would say this is my best program, as for points, but as well as for emotions. Everything worked out in this performance.
Q: How was your foot doing?
Sergej: It was hurting a little, but thank God not too much and basically I was able to do everything as planned.
Q: Now many people are talking about you as a discovery of the European Championships.
Sergej: I wouldn’t say that I came here for this. I rather came to present myself and in first place I wanted to prove myself that I am able to do something. I wanted to please the audience in first place and then also the judges so that they won’t forget that not only among the foreigners, but also among the Russians there is someone who skates quite well.
Q: Do you think that Russian single skating has climbed back out of the hole it fell into after the retirement of the big stars?
Sergej: It is still too early to talk about that. This is my first serious appearance at the European Championships and World Championships after last year when only one skater qualified for Worlds. Let’s see what happens at Worlds (this year). In general you could already see at the Grand Prix events that this season will be more successful than the last. Not for everyone, but for some it was much more successful than last year, because everybody got used to the new system more or less and is working towards a goal and knows what to work on.
Q: Who put your programs together to get the maximum of points?
Sergej: I help as well, but mostly (coach) Urmanov is working on this. He has passed the exam as a Technical Specialist and he knows the system very well.
Q: Would you also like to become a coach later on?
Sergej: To be honest, I haven’t thought about that yet and I don’t really want to work as a coach. I think figure skating isn’t for my whole life. For me personally, it’s an episode in my life, but not more. There is only one life, and you want to live it in an interesting way and not only on the ice.
Q: What is worse – to wait until you compete or to wait afterwards until you get to go home?
Sergej: Both situations aren’t so nice, but probably it’s worse to wait your turn to compete. Afterwards you can go and do some sightseeing. It’s a different country, different people, everything is different here and it’s interesting to see, at least for me. I was for the first time in Croatia . A long time ago I was scheduled to compete here in my very first Junior Grand Prix event, but I didn’t go at that time, because of my foot injury, again, and the second time now it worked out.
Q: Whom did you especially support at Europeans?
Sergej: I have to express my deep admiration for Maxim Schabalin. He underwent surgery one month ago and this guy won Europeans basically without meniscus and had to skate, as I suspect, with painkillers. This is a true act of bravery. I wish him that he is not in pain.
Q: At this event you already competed with the leaders, and you even beat Brian Joubert in the free skating. What does this mean to you?
Sergej: Right now it doesn’t have a special meaning for me. Of course, I like to win, but it’s not the only goal in my life to beat the reigning World Champion or the Olympic Champion. We go out on the ice, and I am skating for my own pleasure. If I don’t feel any joy anymore, I just will stop skating. Right now I am enjoying it, and if something comes out of it, it’s good. If not, it means there will be something else.
Q: How will you now prepare for Worlds?
Sergej: Honestly, I didn’t discuss it yet with my coach. First I have to go home, not only to St. Petersburg but also to Moscow , and then I’ll have to start thinking about it.
Q: How are your practice conditions now in St. Petersburg?
Sergej: The conditions we have in the Figure Skating Academy right now are amazing. I think it would be difficult to think of something better. Obviously we didn’t have something like that in Moscow . We have a lot of ice (time), and rooms. Probably that also helps to achieve results.
Q: You like to travel. What was the most unexpected place you have been to so far?
Sergej: That was probably the island Phuket in Thailand . Many things impressed me there. First of all, this is Asia . It is different from Japan , the only other Asian country I have been to. I went there for a vacation after the World Championships in Tokyo to heal my injury. I didn’t consult any doctors there, but I tried Thai massage, and it was quite good for me.
Q: How difficult was it for you to move from Moscow to St. Petersburg ? Where do you like it better?
Sergej: Of course, I like Moscow much more. First of all, it’s my hometown and the lifestyle is closer to my character. I can’t say that St. Petersburg is a bad city. I am grateful, because I grew as an athlete in St. Petersburg and hopefully will continue to grow, but to be honest, I don’t like being in St. Petersburg so much.
Q: How do you live there? Alone?
Sergej: I rent an apartment and I live there with my mum, for now.
Q: Why did you move from Moscow to St. Petersburg ?
Sergej: When (former coach) Rafael Arutunian left for the USA , I felt that I didn’t have another choice, although I was only 13 years old at that time. I really wanted to continue my career and to achieve something in this sport, and moving to St. Petersburg was a difficult alternative, but it was the best.
Q: Didn’t any of the coaches in Moscow such as Zhanna Gromova and Viktor Kudriavtsev want to take you on?
Sergej: Maybe they would have wanted, but I didn’t feel comfortable with that.
Q: How did you end up working with Alexej Urmanov?
Sergej: When I moved to St. Petersburg , I wasn’t coached by him right away. I was trained by (Galina) Kashina for two years. When my injury problem started I went back to Moscow for treatment. I came back, but I probably wasn’t fully recovered, and it didn’t go so well, and she had another skater at this time, Angelina Turenko, who won the Russian Junior Nationals and the coach didn’t pay so much attention to me and we parted ways. I went to Tatjana Anatolevna (Menschikova, the director of the skating school in St. Petersburg ), and she suggested to work with Urmanov.
Q: How many skaters are in your practice group?
Sergej: Seven to eight, if you count the little ones. I am the only boy in my age. If someone else shows up, I don’t think that I would lose anything, but on the contrary, I will only gain from it.
Q: Did you get along well with Alexej right from the beginning?
Sergej: No, not right away. I think it would be a miracle if student and coach find a common language right away. Both of us have not an easy character and obviously it was very difficult in the beginning. But then it worked out.
Q: What are you fighting about?
Sergej: Obviously skating related issues. My coach is a professional, and of course I honour his opinion, but I never would erase my own opinion. I think that my opinion influences our final decision by 50 to 55 percent. Anyway I take the decision on the ice, because I’m the one who is skating and jumping.
Q: What is the most difficult thing for you to accept in figure skating?
Sergej: Injuries probably. That’s not only in figure skating but in all kind of sports the most unpleasant and ungrateful issue. You are working hard, you’re trying to achieve something, but you get injured. You need time to heal. You can get injured in one second, but unfortunately, you can’t heal an injury in one second. So time is passing, and this is regrettable as a figure skater doesn’t compete to 40, 30 years. And you want to compete in your time as much as possible and to achieve something. You don’t want to sit at home and heal an injury and feel like a disabled person that nobody needs.
Q: Did you ever think why you are continuing and did you think about quitting?
Sergej: Thoughts like this come to everyone, in other sports as well as in other aspects of life, and I had them, too. However, for now I like figure skating, and when I stop liking it, I just won’t do it anymore.
Q: What other sports do you like?
Sergej: I like playing soccer and tennis, but unfortunately figure skating takes away so much time that I don’t have time to practice other sports seriously.
Q: What about watching?
Sergej: I’m watching other sports, of course. I’m watching summer and winter sports, athletics, soccer, ice hockey. But I don’t go to the stadium to watch. When I have spare time on Sunday, I like to spend it otherwise. I like to meet friends, to go out to the cinema, just to talk with them. During summer time, I like to ride a bicycle.
Q: What is your favourite place in St. Petersburg ?
Sergej: The Nevskij Prospekt. It’s very lively, and I like that.
Q: Are you more of a night or a day person?
Sergej: I am, as we say in Russian, more an owl. I like to go to bed late and to get up a little later. I have to adapt to my practice schedule, but so far it’s working.
Q: Who are your idols in other sports, if there are any?
Sergej: In first place I’d bow deeply before American cyclist Lance Armstrong. He is a strong person and athlete. The second one is the gymnast (Alexej) Nemov. He is an outstanding athlete as well. He won four Olympic gold medals and this is something I know I’ll never achieve. He is also a human being made of flesh, but he was able to achieve it. This is just cool.
Q: If you have children one day, would you put them into figure skating?
Sergej: Probably not. I think that children shouldn’t necessarily go the same way as their father. If – give God - I have one child, or two, or I don’t know how many, I don’t think that they’ll have to repeat a certain career. I think each person has his and her own fate and way and it’s not necessarily figure skating.
Q: Did your parents practice sports?
Sergej: No, they have no relation to sports at all. My grandmother was a skier in the Soviet Union , but my parents have nothing to do with sports.
Q: How did you get into figure skating then?
Sergej: By accident. A neighbour and friend of my mother registered her girl for a figure skating class and, I still don’t know how it happened, I was also registered. So they told me, just go and try it, if you like it, skate for your health. Well, and so I’m still skating for my health until today.
Q: Thank you very much and good luck for the rest of the season!
Interview with Alexej Urmanov, 1994 Olympic Champion and coach of Sergej Voronov
(Russian Nationals, January 2008)
Q: Sergej has made a huge step forward this season. He not only started to land the quad in competition, but his skating and performance skills in general have improved significantly. How do you explain this progress?
Alexej: First of all I can say that Sergej has grown up a lot. He became more conscious about what he is doing. I would put this in first place in our work together. He is talented. As a coach, I want to give a 100 percent and Serjozha has started to follow up and so we got a result.
Q: Is it just him growing up and maturing as a person or was there a special event that prompted this development?
Alexej: I wouldn’t point out a certain event, but his chronic injury forces us all the time to think about something. And probably, when it flared up the last time again, I think something clicked in his head. He has to go in this direction or in that direction, and he chose figure skating. He just adores figure skating, he loves it a lot and he is ready to do everything for skating. This is very important. I support him fully. We battle together with his injuries and consult specialists in this area.
Q: What did you tell him before the free skating?
Alexej: First of all you can’t repeat this in two words. There is a certain preparation during the whole competition, and always some words come into being that accompany victory or defeat. This is going on during the stages of the competition, so I can’t tell what I told him – and I’ll never tell what I said to him. This is like my secret that is only for him and for me.
Q: What did you tell him afterwards?
Alexej: After the performance there are only congratulations, because the athlete really pleased. “Very great job”, as I said at the press conference. I liked this phrase, although it’s not a real Russian expression. It was a hard, tense fight and the atmosphere was tense, and to preserve under this atmosphere wasn’t easy at all. He preserved, and on top of that he was able to relate to his program. He really pleased in the short program. We discussed all these things once he was off the ice. What happened and how it happened and how we’ll go further. We finished one competition and we move on. After a competition, we analyze how it went, we analyze our performances and what to do next. What we said exactly, I’m not going to tell!
Q: You said already that Sergej is ready to give all for figure skating. What else are his strengths?
Alexej: I’ll name two more things. One I already mentioned before, that is talent. The second one I want to name is creativity, the kind of creativity that is not studied, but that comes naturally from himself, from his soul.
Q: Where do you see his weaknesses?
Alexej: We are now trying to eliminate his weaknesses. There is only one weakness, and that’s experience or the lack of it. We’ll get more experience now.
Q: You for sure remember how you became Russian Champion yourself for the first time. How does it compare to coaching someone to become Russian Champion for the first time?
Alexej: I remember it, and there is only one feeling that is comparable – one is delight and the other one is delight. There is also the pride about the victory. This is the only part that you can compare. Everything else is not comparable, because the work of the coach and the work of the athlete are totally different. When the question is about which side of the medal weighs heavier, then I’d probably say that the coach’s side of the medal is heavier after all. We always say that the coach’s work is harder, but in truth it’s not easy for the athlete either. Now within the new system they have to perform such difficult elements, they have to perform spins and steps at such a high level and combine this with the hard jumps and the pairs have to combine it with the lifts, and there are moments that you just can’t compare. The work of the coach is very hard, but the work of the athlete is insanely hard now.
Q: Thank you very much and all the best for the future!
