Learn more about Denis Ten, the wunderkind from Kazakhstan, who placed 8th with a
spectacular free skating in his debut at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2009.
The first interview was taken at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2009 while the second was a follow up interview taken at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2009.
Q: You said before that you tried many different things before focusing on skating. What other sports did you practice?
Denis: Now it’s already difficult to remember everything. I went to Taekwondo, which is a Korean sport, and Karate, but not so seriously, I played tennis and most importantly, I was singing in a choir. But anyway we spent more time with skating. I had two choices – music or singing. All the other stuff, tennis and even acrobatics – my mother signed me up for everything when I was little – wasn’t so serious. I just liked it when I was little.
Q: So why did you pick skating among all these activities?
Denis: My mother wanted it. I also went swimming, by the way. My mother read an announcement about figure skating classes, and it said there is also swimming and dancing. My mother felt that figure skating is a very nice sport, it’s beautiful to watch and she decided to put me into skating.
Q: What are your first memories of skating?
Denis: I remember when I went out on the ice for the first time all the parents were excited about someone, but I didn’t know about whom. They were saying, ‘oh, look’. Another boy overtook me, and he was also for the first time on the ice or for the second time, and he run a few steps and skated. I thought the parents are probably excited about him. And I wanted to the same and I ran after him. Later I found out that they were admiring a girl. She was four years old but she started to skate when she was three. So while the others were just standing around she already was gliding on the ice and all the others were excited about here. This was on an open ice rink, we only skated in winter.
Q: This must have been very cold!
Denis: I don’t remember now, but I was warm.
Q: You said you were singing in a choir. When was this?
Denis: Overall I studied in the music school for five years, since I was seven years old. Then I moved to Moscow and I couldn’t attend music school anymore.
What I wanted to tell you – a long time ago, when there were no borders, some Koreans were living on Russian territory. When the Soviet Union emerged, they closed the borders right away and all those who didn’t get away in time, stayed in Russia. They just lived in Russia, but then when the Second World War started, Stalin sent them all to Kazakhstan, as the Germans, the Turks and all the others that he didn’t trust. Kazakhstan is like a little United States, there are so many different nationalities living. Now there are more Kazakhs, but I remember when I was little, that you could see all kind of people on the street. We also have many Turks. It is very international! You have to go there and visit. Now our capital is Astana. They invest so much in it. It is such a new city. We went there not long ago. There are almost no old houses. The president is living there. But we are from Alma Aty. This is more like home, we like it better. There are also mountains, resorts, lakes.
Q: Do you speak Kazakh?
Denis: No. But in general everybody in Kazakhstan speaks Russian, if you don’t count the villages. There only Kazakhs living there and they speak their language. More and more people move into the cities. I have a friend, he speaks Kazakh very well, and he said they speak a totally different Kazakh. Like a dialect.
Q: As you studied in the music school, you probably have a good understanding of music. How does this help you in skating?
Denis: When I was little we didn’t have an ice rink, only in winter, but not in summer. We had a big sports hall, it’s standing until now, that was also used and when it was minus 10 degrees outside then it was there on the ice minus 20! When it is so cold you need to dress warmly, but then it was uncomfortable to practice. Then they started to build shopping malls with ice rinks. There was a Ramstore mall with a small ice rink and I went to skate there. I really liked it. One year later they started to have a show once a week. When I was little I skated a lot in the mall. I also went to dance classes, I even performed in the circus, not directly in the circus, but we went in summer in the park like the GorkiPark and had little performances there. We also danced in front of the circus on a stage. At this time I was already going to music school. Music means a lot to me. Music is everywhere – in dance, in the show. My mother is also a musician. She even studied violin in the conservatory, but she isn’t playing now.
Q: How did you end up in Moscow and with your coach Elena Germanovnva (Vodorezova Buianova)?
Denis: There is this competition in Odintsovo, the “Crystal Skate”. I went there when they tried it out for the first time. This competition existed before, when Elena Germanovna was skating, then it was cancelled and they decided to do it again. I was nine years old then, so now I’m 15, also it was six years ago. So this was in 2003 and I went to Odintsovo to compete. Before that, I went to Russia, to Omsk to a competition. It was a competition in Siberia. This was my first (international) event and Alexander Kogan was the head judge. I finished first. Well, I was still little, I did double jumps and I tried the double Axel. I was so happy. I skated not competitively there, but I still got a medal, because I had come for the first time. I was so excited; I returned home and told everyone about it. Alexander Kogan invited us to the “Crystal Skate” and so we travelled to Odintsovo. The situation was like this: I did all the doubles and when I got there, I met all the others that are now competing with me, Gordej Gorshkov, Artur Gachinskij, Artjom Grigorjev. We were all young and we were all at the same level. I was at a little lower level, because they were already doing a double Axel. In Kazakhstan we had some skaters, but they were all training abroad, like in the USA. So we had only one skater there, he was like 20 years old, he did the double Axel, triple Salchow and triple toeloop. And were so impressed! A triple jump! I thought only the big, tall guys can do triples. My coach at that time said, why so early try triples, why risk injury. I could have learned the double Axel. Sometime she put me on a rope and I did the double Axel, but then we stopped doing that. So when I came to Odintsovo and saw that all the others were doing the double Axel, I was very upset. I competed there and showed all the elements that I can do. Lutz-loop for example, everything worked and was clean. In the long program I was too nervous. On top of that there was an issue with my music. They switched it on, but they forgot to turn the volume up in the beginning. It was very low volume in the beginning and I didn’t start to move. I remember that my first element was the loop. I always did it and when I did the loop, I did everything else because I was confident. But there I suddenly fell, I still did the rest, but I was so upset that I just stood there and cried. I thought that was it. Everyone calmed me down and told me that I set myself apart. They said that the others have the double Axel, but I was very artistic. It’s true, I had some spark. You know, how the little ones are when they pop up, they are noticed, and the noticed me. Everyone was enthusiastic about Artjom Grigoriev. He was little. His birthday is in the beginning of the year, all of us were nine and he turned 11, but he was regarded as if he was of the same age. When we saw his jumps, we were so impressed, because everyone did the double Axel and he already did a triple loop. You have seen him, he has a good height on his jumps, and his jumps were also very high, when he was little. Everyone was looking at Gatchinski as well, at this time his last name was still Hill, and said that he is like Plushenko. Mishin didn’t come, but his choreographer was there, and they told everyone that he is like Plushenko, another one is like Jagudin. They called me Takeshi Honda! I was proud. Elene Gedevanishvili was also skating. She was from 1991 and she still could skate there one more time. I don’t remember exactly, what she did, but she drew attention, she probably skated well. So we met for the first time Elena Germanovna and we were told that she is a good coach. There was also Natalia Dubinskaia. At this time she was coaching Grigoriev, Daniil Gleichenhaus, Nikita Katsalapov, Vladimir Uspenskij, Alexander Schubin, Alexander Uspenskij… she had all the strong boys. We were enthusiastic about her, but Elena Germanovna was recommended to us. So we went there and she took me right away. This was in summer, after the competition (Crystal Skate), I had turned ten already and we went to Moscow. I went there like for a summer camp, there was also Nikita Mikhailov, he has changed a lot after he went to Mishin. You probably didn’t see him before.
Q: I did see him at Russian Nationals when he still was with Elena Germanovna.
Denis: When I saw him for the first time, I was like ‘oh, what he can do’! He was very consistent, and Elena Germanovna herself said that he was the one she trusts the most. There was also Sergei Rozanov, at this time he was better than later. It was a strong group, there were also girls, Elene Gedevanishvili, Veronika Kropotina. So when Elena Germanovna invited us to come we agreed happily. In the beginning we came like for ten days, then more and more. And then she said, now you can’t leave anymore, you have to stay. The year passed, and Andrei Griazev won Junior Worlds (2004). When he came back from America, we went to watch his practice. He was different from the others. You remember, there were no levels for the footwork back then, and he did all kind of step sequences, like Jagudin. Elena Germanovna also had Alima Gershkovitch. At Russian Nationals she finished third and she couldn’t go to Europeans because she was not age-eligible. There was also Andrej Saburov, do you remember him? He was with Rusakov before. He was actually a strong skater, he did a quad. I remember a funny story. He usually skated poorly in practice. You know, he was like ‘I don’t care so much’, he was falling in practice, but when he competed he suddenly started to do his jumps. And we said, well, he is so smart!
Q: Like Sergei Voronov, who doesn’t train so well but then skates usually well in competition.
Denis: No, Voronov is different. He is more focused in competition, but not so much in practice. Andrej Saburov, he was jumping (in practice), while Serjoga doesn’t do much, he is like ‘don’t get stressed’. Andrej did do his jumps, but they didn’t work out. He was falling, he got injured because of this and he retired. He was 20 something years old and he started to study, if I’m not wrong.
Q: You seem do be hard working in practice.
Denis: Yes, but here my practice wasn’t so good. It was my first major senior international competition and I was nervous. You know, Evan Lysacek was always one of my idols. I was always watching him. I saw him for the first time at the World Championships in Moscow in 2005. I have a picture of him, from after the Qualifying Round. He was only the number three on the US team and I heard that his job was to make the top 24 (laughs). When I saw him there, he was with his mother, and she was so proud that her son was skating at the World Championships. We were running to him to get his autograph, and I have little souvenir flag of Moscow 2005 with his signature. I still have it at home. It’s fun to remember this now.
Q: And now you are competing against him!
Denis: Yes. Back then I was just watching, but I didn’t know much about figure skating. I also saw Takeshi Honda there for the first time, but unfortunately he had bad luck.
Q: He got injured in the Qualifying and withdrew.
Denis: Yes, he was injured. We were going to all the practices to watch and he didn’t practice. You probably were there as well. Maybe you remember that he didn’t come to practice. I remember exactly, because he had the same music that I used for the short program that year. So we were at the practice and my music was playing! That was interesting for me. I’ve never seen him and I was curious, but then he withdrew during the Qualifying and I was so upset. And I noticed Evan Lysacek, because he had a golden costume. I had a similar costume before. My very first program was a Paso Doble and I had a great costume for it, it was all golden. I won my very first competition I participated in. The thing is, my first coach, he was very funny. He doesn’t really know figure skating, but he is still coaching. He went out and didn’t even know the elements. The kids of course didn’t do any jumps, not even single Axels. So he told my mother that when we go to competition, we need to include the “heron”, and my mom asked, what is a “heron”? He answered, we’ll find out when we get there. When we got to the competition, he said, Denis you have to do an Axel and I asked, “what is an Axel?” He explained it to me, and I started to do the Axel and I landed it right away in the competition and so I won. Obviously the level of the competition was very low. I still have a picture, I’m in first place, and I’m so tiny, in the second place there is guy that was a little bigger and in third place there is a tall one. I saw him recently, he is now like two meters tall, and he was a figure skater back then.
Q: How old were you when you did this competition?
Denis: I was seven years old. I don’t remember exactly. But I remember how it was. It was my first competition. We woke up in the morning and my mother said, the first competition, this is something special, so she took me to a restaurant to have breakfast. This I remember very well. I think I had meat on a skewer. Then we drove to the competition. I was so pleased! Well, what were we talking about – about Evan. So I had a similar costume. My mother and I remembered this immediately. We liked him, he skated very well. Of course, he was lucky, Evgeni Plushenko withdrew and Joubert couldn’t do it. But you don’t get anywhere in figure skating without some luck. We noticed him there for the first time, how he skates. I didn’t know then that he and Andrej Grjazev were always competing against each other. Andrej told me later about it. Like Jagudin and Plushenko, they were competing against each other in each event (in juniors). At the Grand Prix I saw him on TV and I felt he really had improved compared to the year before. I watched his “Tosca” program, which is my favorite of his programs. Then I started to look for all his performances. He didn’t change so much, but something was added. When I got here, I was sitting in the dressing room and suddenly Evan came in! For me to compete with him… not only that such a famous skater came, but that I was in the same competition with him, meant a lot to me. I went out to watch his practice. It was difficult for me to skate in this event for the first time. There were a lot of emotions.
Q: I think you did quite well, especially today in the free skating.
Denis: Of course, it was better than the short program. But it was an experience for me.
Q: Exactly. What kind of experience do you take from this competition?
Denis: It was unsual for me to be at a senior competition of this high level for the first time. You get there and you are watching. I saw Jeremy Abbott before at the Cup of Russia and at the Final, but it’s one thing to watch and another thing to compete with them. You notice that there is a difference between yourself and them. Like Nobunari Oda. Last year he was disqualified, that was a strange thing to happen. In Russia they are still wondering how they could do that. It’s a shame that Takahashi didn’t come.
Q: He suffered a severe knee injury and won’t compete all season.
Denis: But he’ll come back?
Q: That’s his plan.
Denis: It’s strange this season, Lambiel and Buttle retired. I thought, now Joubert might retire! Actually I thought he would retire when he won everything one season. Maybe they didn’t have anyone else in France and he thought he has to stay. But of course he has good chances to win the Olympic Games. But I think he is a little tired already. It’s probably his age.
Q: He is like 24 years only!
Denis: Still. He is not the same when he did three quads (at Cup of Russia in 2006). I just recently watched a video from the 2003 European Championships. He was doing these quads so easily! I was shocked.
Q: You are training the quad now as well, right?
Denis: Yes. When I did the quad for the first time that was even before the Junior Final. I thought it would be great if I can try the quad at the Four Continents, but then I was injured and Tatjana Anatoljevna now doesn’t let me practice the quad too much. I’m allowed to do it maximum three times. As you know yourself, if you don’t practice it for a while and then get back to it, you need to do it a lot. On top of it she doesn’t allow me to do it each day, but like twice a week. So it was difficult for me to get it ready for Four Continents.
Q: You are training most of the time in Moscow. Are you going to school there?
Denis: Yes, I’m going to school, to a public school. I was studying quite well in school, but this year I went to so many competitions that I showed up rarely in school. I’m even telling everyone a joke that I went to school and nobody recognized me. In my class everyone is very supportive and I don’t even know why, they think a figure skater is something special. They never saw me skating. But when I came to class, they were applauding; it was like a joke because I finally showed up again. We had a different practice schedule before. We had practice early in the morning and I made it to the third lesson in school and could stay until the seventh lesson, rest a little and go to the second practice. Now my practice is at the same time as the third lesson. So I can’t go to the first two lessons because of my warm up, and when practice is over, school is almost finished. I have to there afterwards and pass my exams. But it’s getting difficult. I’m in the ninth class, we have exams coming up and the teachers are already putting pressure on me how I will pass them. Last year it was still easy, I went and passed my exams, they gave me some marks. We had a show, you probably know it, “The Future starts here” and they gave out free tickets for pupils. My teachers came too, and there was also my geography teacher. Once before she even scolded me, because she was thinking that I was just skipping school. She gave me so much homework that I had difficulty to complete it. Then I told her that I want to pass my exam and she said, ‘oh, no, you don’t have to do anything, I’ve seen how you are skating, you skate so beautifully’ (laughs). This was last year, but this year this is not possible anymore. I have to do my exams and the demands are higher. We are thinking about putting in some extra hours at school, but this costs time as well. It’s also hard to do something in between the practices. We have practices at 11 am and 6 pm. Actually, I really liked how they constructed their practices in Canada(he was training for a few days at Burnaby before Four Continents). They have the second practice after 45 minutes. I liked this kind of schedule. I heard that in America everyone is training like this. But I don’t know how they are doing it with school. I didn’t ask.
Q: But there are special schools for athletes, aren’t there?
Denis: I think there are such schools, but we didn’t go there. I like my school. It’s not a big school, it’s small and comfortable. The director told us right away that they will try to help me, and most of the teachers are supportive, but not all, of course. The EGE – the state exam (at school) gets harder year by year. I have one teacher whose daughter regrets not having done the exam one year early as it’s getting even more difficult this year and she is worried that she won’t pass it, although she is a good student.
Q: What do you like to do when you have spare time?
Denis: Spare time? I don’t have any! (laughs) Like most athletes, when you have some spare time, you just relax. I like to go outside for a walk, but I usually don’t have any special plans. I do homework. On Saturdays we have athletic training after practice, and I stay to do some homework. Sometimes there is someone who helps and can you tell something. That’s like a second practice. But I don’t do anything special.
Q: You live with your mother in Moscow?
Denis: Yes, and the rest of the family lives in Alma Aty – my dad, my brother, my grandmother, they are all in Kazakhstan.
Q: You have brother? What is he doing?
Denis: Yes, my elder brother. When Elena Germanovna heard about him, she asked my mother, what he was doing, if he was an athlete. My mother said no, and Elena Germanovna said, so there is one smart one and one athlete (laughs). My brother was always a little different and in school he was quarreling with the teachers! We were in the same school and when I moved up to the higher grades, all the teachers knew my brother and they were afraid of me. He was always good with computers. When he was little, he loved to play with cables. He is five years older than me. He knows a lot, but he is lazy and he is admitting it. He told my mom, why should he study at school, when the computer corrects the spelling? He passed his exams with good grades. He started to study and also worked at the same time and helped in the computer club. He was working on a project, the “smart house”, which is that the house recognizes that you are back and switches on the light, for example. I remember he was doing this. Then he switched to work with video camera systems in supermarkets for example. At first he drove there himself to install and repair them, but then my mother said, Aliosha, why are you sitting at home, and he said, I already sent someone else. He has a lot of friends. He loves music. He bought drums. He was also playing the guitar, and my mother got a headache because he is tone-deaf. He is always doing something different. He started to study computer programming on his own, at one time he was filming marriages. He did video clips. He had a friend and they did video clips together, as director and cameraman. They even wanted to go to university, and applied, and they took my brother but not his friend. My mother didn’t want him to study this anyway so he listened to her and didn’t do it. But he is still taping videos. He still doesn’t have a real profession; he is trying many different things. It was not easy for him; my mother took me and left.
Q: Are you homesick?
Denis: Yes, sometimes. When I go to Kazakhstan it’s for vacation. I go there in summer.
Q: What are your goals in the sport?
Denis: When I was little, I always said, I want to become Olympic Champion. Obviously I understand now that this is very difficult especially in figure skating. I was surprised to find out that the US Junior Championships were won by a total unknown boy. At senior U.S. Nationals, it was also unexpected. The past years it was between Lysacek and Weir and now Abbott won. They have so many men and then an unkown guy wins (Junior Nationals). I know that the sport is very competitive, but still I want to get closer (to the top) and I still would like to become Olympic Champion. I want to earn the recognition of the audience and to please the judges. Unfortunately I was not able to show my best here.
Q: You are only 15 years old, it’s not unusual that not everything is yet consistent. You are training now in one group with Andrej Grjazez, Artjom Borodulin. How do you likethat?
Denis: It is nice. I remember that I earlier used to watch Artjom practice. Now I try to be at the same level. Of course it would be great if someone like Oda would also skate with us. Or Kozuka. At Skate America he beat Evan Lysacek even with the second mark, and I was wondering how this happened, but at TV you don’t really see the skating skills and anything. But when I came to Korea (to the Final) I was surprised to see how soft his skating is. On TV it’s not visible, but once I saw him live I understood why he beat him. Oda I saw for the first time, well I saw him once before at the Grand Prix Final in St. Petersburg. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention before or he was skating slower. He is short, but his jumps are high. The only thing he is lacking a little is emotion. He is so talented, the quality of his skating is so strong, but he can improve his choreography. I liked his short that is his style. It’s a great program, but the long program is a bit difficult. In the internet they are also discussing about Mao Asada and Yu-Na Kim. Some people feel that classical music doesn’t suite Yu-Na so well, but it suits Mao very well.
Q: Whom do you prefer of these two?
Denis: That’s difficult to answer. As you know, Mao is coming to us to train in Russia from time to time. I skated with her on the same ice! She is such a goal-oriented person. She is working so hard, she doesn’t tire. I saw her triple Axel. Before, she did it often on two feet, but there she did a clean one, and I thought, wow, a girl is doing a clean triple Axel and triple-triples! She even trained without any days off. She doesn’t want to take a day off. I think she got a little tired before she went to the Grand Prix on Paris, but this is not my business. I really look up to her. She is so focused on her goals. I don’t think that many people train that way. She is the first girl to do two triple Axels in one program. Obviously I also like how Yu-Na Kim skates. She has her own style, and she has beautiful jumps as well. To be honest, I don’t understand how the Final was judged. In the short program, Mao of course didn’t rotate the combination, but Yu-Na Kim popped a jump, she got nothing. But she was still leading.
Q: Mao had some low levels in her spins and spiral.
Denis: In the free skating, she did two great triple Axels, even if she fell on the flip, but two triple Axels for a girl, not even all the men are doing that, and I actually should be quiet myself.
Junior Worlds 2009
Q: Who made this funny exhibition number – the “Rocking Swan”?
Denis: My choreographer Mikhail Potchitalin came up with this. It was his idea to combine rock and classic. Elena Germanovna and I myself weren’t too sure about it. I thought, maybe the spectators won’t understand it. It’s difficult music, and if I think of my grandmother… what would she think of this music? She is always asking, what music I use and sometimes she doesn’t like it. My grandmother prefers the music of my free program to my exhibition program. I even have another costume for it, it’s done like with wings. He had this idea when he was driving and listening to this music. He thought, why not making an exhibition program to it. He did it in 2008, actually in 2007, and I forgot almost everything what he put together! I didn’t get to do so many exhibitions before, and so I did the program once and that was it. So this season every time I skate it, I do it differently, I’m improvising.
Q: How do you feel about Junior Worlds?
Denis: It wasn’t bad. The fourth place is an achievement. Obviously I would have liked to make the top three. When we went here, I didn’t really expect to make the podium with Michal Brezina, Florent Amodio and others competing. I felt that I’m far away from them. The last days before Junior Worlds I wasn’t in good shape. I did well in practice when I was here, only the last day before we left, I started to jump more or less normally. I don’t know what was wrong, I had some coordination problems in the jumps, they went wild. Tatiana Anatolievna (Tarasova) told me that I have to go to Junior Worlds and that I have a chance to fight for spot on the podium. I was in the Final after all. She is a maximalist, you know. She knows your place and she knows the maximum that you can do. Maybe that’s why she has so many Olympic Champions. When I finished my performance in the short program, she called me right away when I was getting back to the dressing room. She said, ‘don’t look at your score’. Elena Germanovna felt that I should have had a higher score. I think I could have gotten a new personal best. I feel I skated better than in Belarus (where he got his current personal best score). Tatiana Anatolievna said, don’t pay attention to your score, you should just do, what you can do. When I went out for the free skating… I’m still not so used to it. I just wanted to do all the jumps. I could have done more for the second mark, but I focused on the jumps. For Kazakhstan this is still a good result. They will be happy with it. It’s nice to stand not far away from Rippon and Brezina. Rippon did a great job, he did two triple Axels. He was far ahead of everyone else, and Michal Brezina agreed. In my first year at Junior Worlds, I was 26th, and when I was 16th last year, people told me, ‘look, you’re advancing by ten spots each time’, so I thought if I’m sixth here, what will be next year? (laughs). Before the free skating I thought I don’t want to drop to sixth. I wanted to skate as well as I could. Obviously it would have been nice to win the bronze medal. I really wanted to be at the press conference! I was there once last year, when Artjom was there, do you remember? I really liked it and I wanted to be there as well.
Q: I’m sure that you will be at many press conferences in the future if you continue to work the way you do. Now the World Championships are coming up for you. How do you prepare for this event?
Denis: My program is ready, but I don’t know if I will change my elements in the short program. For me it is important to earn a spot for the Olympic Games. Overall I’m happy with this Championship, because I secured two spots for next year. I’m happy for Abzal (Rakimgaliev).
Q: What are your plans for next season – will you do the junior circuit?
Denis: I don’t know yet. If this season is difficult for m - I did the Four Continents and I wasn’t in top shape coming here, I was tired – then the next season the Four Continents are just before the Olympic Games and then one week later is Junior Worlds and then Worlds. I don’t know yet what I will do, the coaches will decide. But I’d really like to come to Junior Worlds. On the other hand I also want to try myself at the senior level. I would like to do two new programs. It’s the Olympic season after all and you have to take it very seriously. I’ve never been at the Olympic Games, but I imagine that everything is different there. The nerves and everything….
Q: It depends. The competition itself isn’t so much different. If you go there and have to win, it’s difficult of course.
Denis: Like Plushenko, for example.
Q: Yes. He had a silver medal and in Turin only the gold counted for him. But if you are going for the first time, you just should enjoy the experience.
Denis: I always want to skate well, especially in this kind of competition. It’s more important to skate well at Worlds than at the Grand Prix, I think. Yu-Na Kim won the Grand Prix Final twice, but she hasn’t won Worlds yet. At Four Continents she was on a league of her own, of course.
Q: Mao wasn’t at her best.
Denis: No, she wasn’t. Actually she now came to us to Moscow, just before I left. She is taking it slowly, she is skating her programs, doing her jumps. She is getting into shape. I think she is physically tired, she never rests. She gets off the plane and right on to the ice.
Q: Thank you very much for the interview and all the best!
