Maria Sotskova

Sam-Skwantch said:

Well that got a little messy.

Now that she’s worked out the jitters she can proceed without incident.

Congrats on another Silver Medal....is her FS dress technically silver

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- Has already released the emptiness that you had after the execution of an arbitrary program in St. Petersburg?

- A little bit moved away, but of course, fatigue is still felt.

- Further - deserved rest?

- Let's return to Moscow only tomorrow, so I will not train yet, but the day after tomorrow I will already go out on the ice and will train until December 31, because the European Championships start on January 15!

- You can be ranked among the most hardworking and diligent sportswomen. However, non-stop training sometimes leads to the fact that the body can not stand, as in the case of Yuzuru Hanyu and Yevgenia Medvedeva. Do you somehow especially care about the team in the Olympic season?

- The coach monitors this process and if he sees that I'm overworked, can give me an extra weekend or break so I can rest. If I have something hurts, I immediately inform about it, that the problem is solved at the root and there were no consequences and complex injuries. The main thing is to say everything in time.

- During all your career, there was a time when you had to ride with a trauma through pain?

- At the junior world championship of the season before last, our two girls Polina Tsurskaya and Alisa Fedichkina acted in film (at the junior world championship in 2016 Sotskova won silver and kept three quotas for Russia - note "SE"), I also had an injury. The truth was that the girls had tears and something very direct, but my muscles in the groin were overworked and over-stretched. Plus at that time I was very sick, but there was no other way out. It was the pain that could be tolerated.

- When in the course of the season they realized that the swans theme attracted you and many other figure skaters besides you, were upset?

- Girls are swinging a swan, and I'm a girl at a ball, just to the music from "Swan Lake", plus I have other pieces of the work. Yes, I do not feel like a swan, so I did not get upset.

- You communicate well with Polina Tsurskaya, even went on vacation together. These competitions ended well for her. You in fact in that year also had such a moment - the eighth place at the World Championships. How not to sour in this situation?

- Sports is not a sport without taking off and falling. We all know what we want and all have their goals. Even Polina had something wrong yesterday, but I do not think that this is critical. Yes, it did not occupy the desired place on the pedestal, but in general the rental was worthy. He can not always be perfect, man is not a robot. Our performances can not be equally flawless at all tournaments. Motivation should be drawn in the fact that you like figure skating and want to do it. I go out on the ice and ride for myself, the audience, my team and family.

- How does the family experience all these competitive vicissitudes?

- Parents can not watch the live broadcast with my performances, not that I come to the competitions and watch from the rostrum! This is a closed topic. They will first look at the scoreboard, and only then - repeat. Mom is terribly worried, she walks about the room back and forth and can not calm herself down. Plus, all their excitement is transmitted to me, so I ask them not to come, so it's calmer both to them and me.

- The national championship is the most difficult start of the season because of ...

- Excitement and excessive desire to be selected in the national team. Every athlete goes to this all his life and this season happens only once every four years. Plus it is, of course, a secondary factor, but yesterday I felt that I was skating for the whole of CSKA. Our guys did not perform well, and it was necessary to defend the name of the school. The most important thing now is to come to your senses. I put the best I could and gave everything I could at the rentals, so I need to save energy for a new one.

- But Alexander Samarin became the second!

- Any athlete wants a maximum. And if it does not work out, we criticize ourselves for this very much, we are angry. So I think that Sasha is upset. We are friends with him, and we train together. He's a good boy, and we get along very well.

- His coach Svetlana Sokolovskaya even led you to the ice at the Canadian stage of the Grand Prix.

- Yes, my coach Elena Germanovna Buyanova could not go, after all the flight was distant. Svetlana Vladimirovna me tuned me with Irina Anvarovna (Tagayeva - prim "SE") and supported as they could. It was their support that led me to silver at that stage. This year we as one whole and one team, somewhere Svetlana Vladimirovna helps us out, and Elena Germanovna helps her in return.

- At that tournament you lost to Canadian Caitlin Osmond, but then twice bypassed it - and at the French stage of the "Grand Prix" and in Nagoya - in the Final of the series. This added confidence in their own strengths?

"It's always a joy to climb a pedestal, but Kaitlin was not in the best shape in the cases indicated and tore up the elements. It's more pleasant to win when you and your opponent were perfect, and you were better!

- The first part of this season was incredibly intense for you. In addition to the pre-season tournament in Finland, the stages of the Grand Prix and the finals of the series with the Russian championship in late November, you also went to the tournament in Shanghai ...

- Initially, I was told there by coaches as a backup in case I do not get to the final of the Grand Prix. But then I got selected for the final of the series and decided that the trip to Shanghai would not be superfluous, and there was only an arbitrary program to perform there. So this tournament did not hinder the passage of the season, except that it knocked down emotionally (Maria became the third, losing to the winner of the competition Elena Radionova about 3 points.) - Prim "SE"). But then in Japan, I was able to prove everything to everyone.

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At the end of last season, 2015 World bronze medallist Elena Radionova joined Sotskova in being coached by Elena Buianova. It was a welcome addition to the training group and Sotskova finds it stimulating to have a skater of a similar standard nearby.

“It’s normal when in one group there are some strong skaters who can compete against each other. The main thing is for this rivalry to be effective. That’s what we have because we are both grown-ups and we both understand what we want from this season, from this sport, and we don’t waste our efforts on any unhealthy competition. We are divided in practices by our coach: Lena trains during the first half of practice and I on the second one, so the coaches don’t make us to play off against each other. We have quite a calm atmosphere. Of course, we see what the other does, but it helps. When I trained with my previous coach, I was the oldest skater in that group and I always was alone on the rink. When I transferred to Elena Germanovna, Adelina (Sotnikova) had left and I was alone in the group again, so I was thinking, “Will I always be alone?” And then Lena came, and it really helps and motivates me.”

In the little time off that she has, Sotskova prioritises family and friends with some cultural pursuits thrown in for good measure.

“I don’t have a lot of free time, but when I do have it, I spend it with my mother or my dog. Of course, I try to meet with my friends most of whom are skaters too. All of us spend a lot of time at practices and that’s why on Saturdays or Sundays we try to go somewhere to relax and to have a good time. However, we do it quietly so as not to get tired by Monday. Sometimes we go to theatres or museums. But in the museums there are rarely interesting exhibitions. As for theatres, I just adore them.

Sotskova has drawn on her trips to the theatre as a source of inspiration for her skating throughout her career.

“Especially when I was younger, when I came to practice after the theatre, I was so inspired and was skating so well that my coaches were just shocked thinking what had happened to me. Now, of course, I became different and quieter. I still get inspired by theatres. I try to learn some things from the actors because to go to the theatre is like to going to an acting lesson. You feel this special energy, and, on the one hand, you get it from the actors, and on the other hand, actors get it from you. And it is very important for us too to get the energy from the audience.
“Before it was a big problem. I saw only the ice and nothing around. Now it’s not so difficult. I don’t feel as scared as I was before when I really was afraid to compete, I felt very nervous. Now I made some conclusions why I do it, what I should do and how, so now it’s much easier.”

This season Sotskova wants to build on what she accomplished last season while learning from her mistakes at major events.

“Before some certain competitions, the most important ones, I skated quite well and clean. Then I had a little breakdown. I failed at the European and Worlds Championships and it gave me some doubts about myself after that. This season I want to always skate clean no matter what. I don’t have any room for mistakes. I must skate clean and work to do everything right till the end. It’s the most important things for all skaters, I think. You can get high so quickly and then fall the same and it hurts much harder. I want to get higher and higher, step by step and not to be a one hit wonder. Of course, for me it is very important not only to do the elements in my programmes, but to make them become art, to show all my emotions, beautiful lines and movement. Anybody can jump, but what is most important is to show programmes which give people goose bumps and that will be remembered for years.”

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russianfan said:

black-haired in a white jacket and a white-haired in a black jacket

https://pp.userapi.com/c621703/v621703755/5230c/ZlmcT9GNQU8.jpg
https://pp.userapi.com/c841021/v841021755/4d45f/qcwIZ9j3Kkw.jpg

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Azikin said:

Poor Maria was robbed of the medal today... by judges' favourite woman in a ridiculous costume...

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