Always Home At St. Petersburg
by Susanne
Kempf
Photos © Susanne
Kempf
Coming back from a strong start into
the Olympic season, capturing the silver medal at Skate
Canada and the title at the Cup of China, the 2000 World
Champions, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, have their
sights firmly set on the Olympic Games in Torino in
less than 4 months. |
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AS: With the past Europeans having taken
place in the city of Torino where the Olympics will be, what
are you memories of that competition there?
A.T: Well, about our performance I was not really satisfied.
We made a mistake in the short programme - well, actually
two - and three mistakes in the free programme and we didn't
achieve what we had wanted there."
AS: What had been your goal?
A.T.: We wanted to win. But now it's ok. We skated very well
in the past season with the new judging system.
AS: Do you like the Code of
points? |
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AS: Why do you think you are often "held down"?
A.T: Well, probably because we are already too old (laughs).
No, seriously. Tatiana and Maxim certainly were the best in
Torino.
AS: What is your relationship with the other two Russian
teams?
A.T.: Well, we are not friends but I can say that the relationship
is very good!
AS: Do you think the rink is a good rink for the Olympics,
did you enjoy skating there? What about the ice?
A.T.: The ice is different, I liked the ice in the practice
rink much more. But generally I liked the rink although it
is very small. How much spectators do fit in?
AS: 8500....
A.T : That's really not so much. I remember Salt Lake City.. it was so big! And besides, in the Palevela rink on one side there is only tv, press and cameras so... still, it is very bright inside and I enjoyed that.
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AS: So, how did you start skating? AS: Really? (reporter cannot hide her excitement
as a huge ice dancing fan herself... ;) |
AS: What was the hardest jump you ever did?"
A.T.:The flip. But it is funny: The triple toeloop was the
jump I had the most problems with at the beginning (laughs).
I had learned the salchow first, then the loop, then the flip
- but I never "understood" the toeloop, I learned
it last.
AS: If you are looking back at your career (you have
been skating with Masha for 7 years now), what would you say
has been your best performance so far?
A.T.: Well, I fondly remember Euros in Prague 1999 which was
the first major competition we won. Elena Berezhnaya had to
withdraw because she was sick but still, we skated very good
there so we earned that victory. Then there is of course Worlds
in Nice 2000 where we skated very well too. But as far as
our best skate is concerned.. well, I have to say it was the
short programme at Worlds in Dortmund. It was the best skating
of my life. We did everything. At Nationals 2004 we would
have won under the new system, judges told us afterwards.
In the short programme we were two points ahead, in the free
programme five points. But under the old system we were 2nd.
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AS: What do you feel when you
are on the ice? Do you notice the audience or are you
in your own world? AS: Do you have a favourite element? |
AS: Looking back a bit at your common story. It
is well-known you skated in the USA in Tarasova's show but
how exactly did you meet Masha?
A.T.: Well, figure skating is a small world, esp. for the
Russians and somehow everybody knows everybody. :) The first
time we met in Japan at the World Championships 1994, she
skated with Anton Sikharulidze and I skated with a Japanese
girl. We met and she told me she liked me. But then I moved
to Japan for the ice show. I knew I hadn't done a lot of important
things in my life but I knew I could do something very good
in the amateur sport and I wanted to come back. In 1996 somebody
told me Masha was looking for a partner and invited me to
skate with her but somehow we didn't end up skating together
before 1998..."
AS:Which skater did inspire you
when you were younger? Who did you look up to? |
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AS: Which is the type of programme you like skating the most, which style do you generally prefer?
A.T.: We love the Tango SP from last season very much, also
the SP before. In fact we did like all our short programmes
from the past 5 years very much, I cannot really explain why.
As far as our free programms are concerned, obviously "Four
Seasons" is very important for us as we won our first
titles with it and including the Worlds title. Also, the "Circus
Princess".
M.P.: I particularly liked the "Chess" programme.
AT: Viktor Petrenko skated to it 1993/1994 as well before
he went back to the Malaguena programme. He told me - and
Alexandr Zhulin as well - that it is a great music but very
difficult to skate to. I don't know why but it is. Funny.
I remember we did a clean short programme in Salt Lake City
and two triple toes in the long programme, one in combination.
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AS: What is your goal for the next time in Torino
then? In which fields do you think you can beat the Chinese?
A.T.: We have to work a lot to show our best and we want to
be more smooth, clean and beautiful to look at. We used to
have a big problem with stamina and got tired towards the
end of the program. That's also because of our big height
difference - if I am tired I am more likely to make mistakes
especially during the lifts. But now we have started to run
marathons with friends of ours, they are twins, Dimitri and
Alexander. They used to run marathons professionally but had
to stop because of injuries.. They help us a lot. We meet
them twice a week for conditioning training.
Anyway, we don't have problems with the lifts generally but
we need to work on the split twists (Alexei smilingly looks
over to Masha who clearly isn't enthusiastic about this..
;) ). I don't think we will show any quadruple throws, that's
just too dangerous.
At the last GP we beat the Chinese couple with two more points
in the technical elements in the SP but there is still room
left in the program components field.
AS: What are your plans after the Olympic Games?
A.T.: Maybe we are going to do coaching - we like it very
much. We already have some young teams in our rink. It makes
me and Maria happy to be able to help them. We are gonna stay
in St. Petersburg - so many skaters are in America nowadays,
somebody has to stay at home (laughs).
AS: Thanks for the interview! Good luck for the season!
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