Interview with Paolo Bacchini
iceDOME Oberstdorf July 2009

Q: When did you start with figure skating and why?
A: I started skating when I was 9 and first I started with (ice) hockey. I was a hockey player and then I turned to figure skating. I was to small to do ice hockey, so I tried figure skating.

Q: Are there other skaters in your family?
A: Nobody else was on the ice. It was just an experiment and mine was the first experiment in my family.

Q: What do you like about figure skating?
A: I like the connection between the athletic part and the artistic part, I think it’s really important and I love the connection between those two.

Q: Do you have a role model?
A. My idols are Philippe Candeloro and Kurt Browning. When I was a little boy I tried everytime the Candeloro-spin and now I can do it. He was really my idol when I was a child.

Q: What’s your goal in this sport?
A: My aim was always the Olympics since I was a child, because when I started skating I told everybody, my friends and my parents that I want to go to the Olympics and now I can reach this aim. It’s really a big satisfaction for me.

Q: Where did you learn German?
A: I studied it at school for 10 years, but then I had some practice in France and in the US. But now I’m training in Oberstdorf in summer and so I can improve it with you and my German friends.

Q: How did the situation in Italian Men’s skating change with the arrival of Samuel Contesti?
A: I think besides being a good skater he is a really good person and I’m really happy that he joined the Italian Federation, because he is a really good skater. He was able to reach such a good result at the World level, so it is a big motivation to have such a strong skater in our Federation.

Q: Where do you see you strength and your weakness?
A: I think that my Latin part is my strength, because I’m Italian and therefore I love the artistic part of this sport, but I have to be careful to manage it, because also the athletic part needs to be managed and controlled. So I think I have to work on this part of my character.

Q: How is the practice in Oberstdorf helping you in your preparation for the season? A: I think it (Oberstdorf) is a good place to train in the summer, because there are lots of good skaters and we have great conditions on the ice that I don’t have in Italy. So I think it’s a really good place to train in summer.

Q: What can you tell us about your programs?
A: My programs I didn’t change , I kept les fabouleux monde d'amelie for the short program and for the long I have Cirque du Soleil. I decided to keep these programs, because I didn’t skate at Europeans and Worlds last year and I think that they are really good programs.