Jekaterina Rubleva/Ivan Shefer are the 2009 and 2008 National Ice Dance silver medallists and won the bronze medal in 2007. They placed 8th at the 2009 European Championships, their first top ten finish in this event and they took the silver medal at the Winter Universiade.
Q: Katia, I think I don’t have to ask how you got involved into skating, as your parents Svetlana Bakina and Boris Rublev were an ice dance couple and competed back in the Soviet times.
Ekaterina: It might sound strange, but my parents knew what figure skating means, that it is hard, and they didn’t really see an athlete in their daughter. On the contrary, at the beginning they even didn’t really want me to skate. They weren’t too strict about that, but they didn’t push me. They took me to the ice rink and put me on skates mostly because there was nobody whom they could have left me at home with. They were working, and I was just doing my own things, skating along the boards, playing on the ice. I was about four years old. For a long time, my parents didn’t teach me. I had other coaches. They told my father, “look at your daughter, she will become a good athlete”, but my father was busy with other things. Later I skated with Vania and my mother coached us, and we also had another coach, Olga Riabinina. She was a student of my father. We were one of her first students.
Q: And how did you get into skating?
Ivan: My parents put me into skating in order to improve my health. I was about four years old. It happened that they took the other kids as five-year-olds and I as a four-year-old was in a group with older children. And when they put me into a group with children of the same age, I was already better than they were. First I skated on an open-air ice rink, then was sent to a group in an indoor ice rink. When I was in the group with children of my age, the coaches noticed me, because I was better. And so I ended up skating with Katia.
Q: You always skated together, if I remember correctly.
Ivan: Yes, I switched from singles to dance and skated right away with Ekaterina.
Ekaterina: I had another partner, but that was when we were very young, and I skated maybe for a year with him. But we stayed good friends, and he was in the same class in school as I was and we are still in touch.
Q: What do you remember about teaming up?
Ivan: We made the first step starting not with the same foot!
Ekaterina: Yes, we laughed so much. Everything started when they were looking for a new partner for me, because my previous one was sick a lot of the time. My father told me that he found a partner. It was Vania.
Ivan: I was in singles, but I didn’t jump very well. So they told me I should try dance.
Q: Did you want to do ice dance because of your parents?
Ekaterina: Yes, because of my parents, and I didn’t like jumping. Usually the kids start as single skaters and go into dance when they have trouble with the jumps, but I never was a real single skater, I didn’t jump. I did the basics such as spirals, shoot-the-duck, but I didn’t jump.
Q: You were skating in Kirov for some years before moving to Moscow. When was this?
Ivan: Seven years ago.
Q: First you were skating in the group of Svetlana Alexeeva and Elena Kustarova.
Ivan: We skated with them for four years and now it’s already our third season with Irina Vladimirovna (Zhuk) and Alexander Vasilievitch (Svinin).
Q: Why did you decide to change coaches? They were quite new coaches at that time.
Ivan: They were already quite known. We wanted a change.
Ekaterina: There were some reasons, but it was a difficult change for us, because our former coaches Elena Kustarova and Svetlana Lvovna (Alekseeva) were wonderful people. However, we decided to change something and to try something new. The Federation (Russian Figure Skating Federation) was also in favour of changing coaches. So it wasn’t just our spontaneous wish.
Ivan: But we weren’t against this idea.
Q: I don’t think you regretted your move.
Ekaterina: Once we changed coaches we cannot regret it. And we are very pleased with our training group and like it very much.
Q: How does it help you to work in one group with Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitksi?
Ivan: This helps us a lot. We are good friends with them.
Ekaterina: Yes, they help us and support us, and we support them. We help each other. This comes from our work together. I think that this is very good, because it happens rarely in ice dance to have this kind of relationship in the group. Often there is envy in a training group, but luckily there is nothing like that in our group.
Q: Your programs are to Blues and Swing in the Original Dance and to Flamenco in the Free Dance. How did you choose this beautiful music?
Ekaterina: This was the idea of our coaches.
Ivan: Yes. They always suggest something to us.
Ekaterina: They always have interesting ideas. We decided to try it, because we’ve skated for two seasons to sad, lyrical music and we were tired of this kind of image ourselves and we wanted to try something different. I think it worked out.
Ivan: We wanted to go away a little from the classical style and to do something else this time.
Q: Where do you see your strengths as a team?
Ekaterina: The specialists note our unison and our clean, parallel lines. Not all couples have this. Probably this is a result of us having skated together for a long time. I also think that the relation between the partners is our strength. We are very harmonious and we feel each other. This is very positive. People have also said that we are very technical. Maybe there is not yet enough speed and power, but technically we are strong.
Q: Where do you see your weakness?
Ekaterina: Maybe we could add some more confidence, which the leading couples have. Obviously this comes with experience and I think if we get this, we can achieve good results.
Q: Who are or were your idols in skating?
Ivan: I liked Evgeni Platov a lot.
Ekaterina: I cannot really name anyone. There are some qualities of others skaters that we like and that we try take for ourselves.
Q: What is your favourite free dance?
Ekaterina: We thought about it, and I can say that each free dance, each program is a favourite. Each program requires a lot of emotions from your side and you put a little piece of yourself into each program. Therefore it is hard to single out one and it is hard to compare them, because they are different from each other.
Q: What are your goals?
Ekaterina: We have dreams, but we don’t really want to voice them; maybe in order not to jinx ourselves. Of course, we have dreams and goals. For the moment the most important goal is to move forward, not to stagnate.
Ivan: We were told that we made a big step forward and this is something we like to hear. There should be constant progress.
Q: How do you rate the European Championship for you?
Ivan: I think it went very well for us.
Ekaterina: Concerning all our programs, everything was very successful. After this situation (with her dress coming loose during the compulsory dance) I was afraid of what will come next after this kind of start, but everything fell into place for us after that.
Q: What do you think now about the incident with the dress?
Ekaterina: Why should I be upset now, it would be useless. What happened, happened. You don’t shake your fist after the battle. I try to take it with humor.
Q: It even has a positive side.
Ekaterina: Yes, of course, it was a good publicity move (smiles).
Q: Did you see how many international newspapers printed your photograph?
Ekaterina: Yes, and I was very surprised to see how unconcealed they printed the photograph. There is also a video.
Q: During your performance the incident wasn’t even so noticeable.
Ekaterina: No, it wasn’t.
Ivan: The photographers of course caught the right moment (laughs).
Q: What do you think about the competitiveness of ice dance in Russia? You said at Russian Nationals that this is the hardest competition for you.
Ekaterina: Yes, that is true. The Russian Championships are psychologically very difficult for us. For me it is easier to skate in other countries than at Russian Nationals. We were a little calmer this year, as we felt a little more confident than last year, but still it was hard.
Q: How can you describe your partner in three words, Katia?
Ekaterina: Three words is not enough! I could talk long about him, because we’ve known each other for such a long time. We are very close. He is like my second leg. Without him, I don’t feel comfortable anymore.
Ivan: Yes, if you want to describe our relationship, “brother and sister” would be the best way to put it.
Ekaterina: Of course, this relationship developed over the years. We’ve grown, we’ve developed ourselves, we grew up, we’ve found ways to communicate.
Q: So you never were a couple off the ice?
Ekaterina: No, never.
Q: Vania, can you describe Katia in three words?
Ivan: I basically agree with her. I have to think about how to describe her in three words.
Q: What do you like best about skating?
Ivan: Well, I think the positive feeling after a good performance is the most unforgettable moment.
Ekaterina: The feeling when you know that you have won the love of the audience is just crazy. I don’t know where else in life you can find this kind of emotion. The satisfaction of having completed your work successfully is pure happiness. It is just great when you showed everything that you can do and gave the audience something to enjoy.
Q: And what do you not like about skating?
Ivan: Maybe the judging. Of course, there are as many opinions as people.
Ekaterina: Yes, this is very hard. I’m looking at the pairs, and they are all so different from each other, and I keep thinking, my God, how can they (the judges) judge them? How can you compare them at all, because they are so different? I passed the exam as a technical specialist in Russia, for domestic competitions, not for internationals. Now I understand how hard judging is. It is very difficult what is required from the judges and technical specialists. There is not much time when you have to look at everything, when you have to watch two people. Even when they split up during the footwork and one (specialist) is watching one partner and the other is watching the other partner, it is still very difficult. When I started judging, they told me that I need to prescind and to watch only the elements. But I’m watching and then I get so drawn into the program that I forget about everything else. What elements? The others say, Katia, the elements are over. I think it is very hard to focus only on the elements.
Q: As you passed the exam, are you planning to stay involved in figure skating in the future, maybe as a judge or as a coach?
Ekaterina: Maybe, but I don’t know yet. I haven’t thought about it yet so much, but I don’t exclude it. But all the knowledge I got from this exam is also useful for me as an athlete. It is very positive.
Ivan: I don’t know yet what I’m going to do after my career. It’s too early to think about this.
Q: What do you do besides skating? Did you finish your studies?
Ekaterina: Yes, I finished last year.
Ivan: And I finished the year before.
Ekaterina: Now we are completely focusing on the sport. But we have many friends that are not athletes, such as photographers and musicians. So I think we’ll have a lot of opportunities for the future after our career. Recently I got a new hobby and I have been modeling for calendars and clothes.
Ivan: There is not much time for other things. I like to relax in my spare time.
Q: You are training in Moscow, but you are from Kirov. How often can you visit your home town?
Ivan: About twice a year.
Ekaterina: Yes, because our schedule is very busy.
Q: Where do you live in Moscow? I heard you are living in a hotel room?
Ivan: We are basically living in the ice rink! We are there from the morning until the evening and we rest there during our break between practices.
Ekaterina: We are living in a hotel room, that is true.
Q: That must be very hard! Can you cook there at all?
Ekaterina: We aren’t cooking anyway. In the evening when we get home after practice, we aren’t hungry and we don’t cook. Obviously the hotel room is not a real home, but we’ve tried to make it as much a home as possible.
