After the second day of team competitions in figure skating at the Games in Beijing, the captains of the teams included in the top three held a press conference and answered journalists' questions:
- Today is a wonderful day. Kamila (Valieva – approx.) skated her program flawlessly. She's in great shape. We are very happy for her, happy for the team. And, of course, Mark just ended today's competition day in a great way, skated to the fullest, did all the elements cleanly. We are happy and very happy...
Nikita, were you surprised by the substitutions in the U.S. team when Vincent Zhou
came on in place of Nathan Chen?- When Vincent came out, we were surprised. But, of course, we do not know the strategy of the American team. Perhaps Nathan wants to show just some divine level of skating and save strength for personal appearance. So his team knew what they were getting into.
- Young skaters such as Kamila Valieva, Yuma Kagiyama performed great today... What can you say about Camila, who is only 15 years old, but she shows such great skating?
- I can say for sure that this fragile girl has collected all the best qualities for a figure skater. It motivates the entire national team. She's a great person, she's an amazing athlete, very hard-working. Of course, watching her performances is a pleasure. And she also improves her performances from competition to competition. It's great that we have those. In general, we don't just have Camila, we have other guys. Look at Mark Kondratyuk. We also have Anya Shcherbakova, Sasha Trusova... We have a lot of young athletes who can become the greatest skaters. Already have... Already good athletes... I can't get the ending," Nikita lamented.
- Nikita, is there a secret thanks to which your athletes can skate like this?
- You need to ask Eteri [Tutberidze, coach ] about it.
- Can you think of any cases that say that Camila and the other girls are actually still children?
- When I watch these girls skate on the ice, the age goes out of your head, you absolutely enjoy skating, you enjoy the complexity of the elements that these girls perform. And you just admire the way these girls work, what they show to the whole world. They're very strong, very charged.
You know, we don't see each other very often. Even in competitions, we rarely cross paths because of the schedule. Probably, yes, they have some childish habits sometimes. But when our girls go out on the ice, it all disappears. They become focused.
- What advice as a captain would you give to the athletes of your team?
- My only advice for this tournament was to Mark Kondratyuk before performing in the short program. Because, I believe, each of the guys has their own coaches and, probably, it would be wrong to climb. Maybe they have a special attitude and maybe I'll knock him down. I hope Mark helped. But in general, it is clear that the guys are confident in themselves and, I think, no advice will help them. They know what they're doing.
- What's Mark's advice or is it a secret?
I just told him to get high on the ice. This is his first Olympic Games. So that he opened up completely and just did as cool as he did at the championships of Russia and Europe, - commented the captain of the team of the Russian Olympic Committee Nikita Katsalapov.
https://results.isu.org/results/season2122/owg2022/TEC001RS.htm
Olga ERMOLINA, Beijing
Photo by Tatiana FLADE
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