| Russian couple won the short program without laces The European Figure Skating Championships, which takes place in Lausanne, Switzerland, brought together 111 participants from 35 countries. Despite the fact that, naturally, only European skaters were entered in the tournament, a huge number of journalists from America and Canada came to cover the competition. This is understandable, the European Championship is the last start before the Olympics, which will partly demonstrate the balance of power before the Games in Salt Lake City. According to one of the foreign correspondents, with whom we spoke in the press center of the championship, pressure on the judges has already begun. After the Russian Championship, one of the American TV channels repeatedly played the performances of Berezhnaya - Sikharulidze and Lobacheva - Averbukh for several days. At the same time, the commentator focused special attention on the mistakes of Russian skaters, explaining to spectators and fans what was done wrong.
However, Russia's reputation as a trendsetter in pair skating in the absence of leaders was supported by another Russian pair - Tatyana Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin. After the December Russian Championships, Maxim said that in Lausanne the short program will decide a lot: “One blot and you can say goodbye to your place on the podium, so the main task for us is to skate it flawlessly.” Our couple coped with this task. With her short program “The Star and Death of Joaquín Murietta” to the music of Alexei Rybnikov, she beat another Russian duet, world champions and two-time European champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, as well as the French Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernady. Olga ERMOLINA, a correspondent for the Vremya Novostei newspaper, spoke with Tatiana TOTMYANINA and Maxim MARININ.
- Tatyana, is it true that you skated the short program literally on your word of honor?
T.: - I still can’t get over the shock. The fact is that at the very beginning of the program, after the first throw, I felt that my right skate was not holding on to my leg. Apparently, the lace broke or Maxim accidentally “ran over” it. Indeed, I completed the program on my word of honor, and it’s surprising that we never made a mistake.
— How important was the current tournament for your couple?
M.: - This championship is extremely important for us. We understand perfectly well that at the Olympics, given the competition that now exists in the world in pair skating, no one will bet much on us. But this does not mean that we are not preparing for the Games and will not give our all there. Most likely, we will consider our performance in Salt Lake City as a trial step that the athletes need to gain experience and confidence.
— How did you feel at the moment when it became known that Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze would not go to Lausanne?
T.: - We found out about this ten days before the championship. There was no feeling of joy that they were not going and we had a chance. We knew that Masha and Alexey would participate in the championship, a strong French couple who have proven more than once that they can and know how to win. Besides, Maxim and I don’t like to make guesses about anything. Practice shows that when you constantly think about a high place, it only gets worse.
-- This season you are working with a new coach, world champion Oleg Vasiliev. Why did you decide to go to him?
M.: - It was an accident that we ended up with Oleg. Although happy for us. The fact is that a year ago we decided to leave our former mentor Natalia Pavlova. The reason for the disagreement? At some point we simply stopped understanding each other. It became obvious that our joint work could only bring harm.
We worked with Natalya Evgenievna for quite a long time. I came to St. Petersburg from Volgograd when I was 16 years old. Tatiana a little later from Perm. Then, in fact, we were still children, and, probably, we had to be forced to work, taught discipline, live according to orders, and up to a certain point it “worked.” And then there were disagreements. Moreover, the coach blamed only us for all the sins and mistakes. There was no dialogue between us. And at some point we decided to explain ourselves, but nothing came of it. There was a conversation - crumpled, on emotions, on nerves. And in the end, we went to the European Championships in Bratislava alone, without a coach. The world of figure skating is a small place, and, naturally, this situation became known to everyone. In principle, our coach could be anyone who would offer their help. Fortunately, Oleg Vasiliev turned out to be such a person.
T.: — By that time, Oleg had already been working in Chicago for three years. Not long ago he finished performing on professional ice. And psychologically it was much easier for us with him. He told me what opportunities he had, but did not give any 100% guarantees. He just said: “Let's try. Let's see how everything turns out." And now we have been working together for almost a year.
- But it was quite risky on your part - to go nowhere?
T.: — By and large, we simply had nothing to lose. Just as they had nothing then - no housing, no special money - so it is now. Maxim initially lived for several years in the Olympic reserve dormitory. The choreographer lent me and my mother an apartment for a while. When the first money appeared after the European Championship in 1999, they began to look for their own corner. No, there was no talk of buying an apartment. We rented a two-room apartment in St. Petersburg, where we lived with the same group - me, Maxim and my mother, who took care of all everyday issues. There was only enough money for figure skating. We sewed suits, ate the rest, and that’s how we live to this day. We may now be getting a little more, but in America life is much more expensive. By the way, we flew to the Russian Championship in Moscow with our own money, and it seems that no one is going to return it to us.
M.: -- In Chicago, Oleg arranged for us to live with the families of his students. I allocated one car for two. At first, life in America seemed incredibly difficult, because we had to start completely all over again. I don’t know about Tatyana, but I was ready for such a turn of events.
- How did your couple form?
M.: -- I started as a “single skater” in Volgograd with coach Makoveev, who, by the way, also coached Zhenya Plushenko. It's surprising that Makoveev was never a professional figure skater. He is a weightlifter. But I admired figure skating. Perhaps this feeling helped him find talented students. However, with the beginning of perestroika, our Ice Palace was converted into a market. There was nowhere to train, and I was invited to St. Petersburg to Natalya Pavlova. I got ready in no time because I really didn’t want to give up figure skating. And he ended up in the “greenhouses” after losing to eleven-year-old Zhenya Plushenko at youth competitions. It was a shame that he won, although he started skating much later than me. They were looking for a partner for several months. All to no avail. But at the tournament in Samara, Natalya Evgenievna spotted Tanya. The most interesting thing is that at that time Tanya also did not have a good relationship with her coach, and after the tournament she was going to leave the sport altogether.
T.: -- Since I was also a “single skater” and knew how to do all the jumps well, at the first training session we jumped three triples and a double axel, which convinced the coach that we wouldn’t have any problems with this. But when we started performing paired elements, we realized that we still had to work and work.
- Let's go back to today. You are skating the old free program, but has it undergone any changes?
M.: -- Oleg rightly considered that in the Olympic year it would be unreasonable to change the program, which is called “West Side Story”. This melody is very familiar to Americans, and this also plays an important role. However, compared to last season, we made some adjustments, about 25 percent. We removed elements that the judges did not like. And, in the coach’s words, we tried to give the program “our own face.” interviewed by Olga Ermolina |
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