Summer 1995
From Russian TV:
RUSSIAN INTERVIEW IN SUMMER 1995
transcripted by Amy Lala and Olya Smolyanova
This interview takes place in a park in Russia, the summer of 1995. Ekaterina is wearing a blue and red striped t-shirt, and Sergei is wearing a plain white t-shirt.
Ekaterina: For the large part, everything happens in hotels and it's a terrible pace. Frankly, it works out to about five months on the road, being away from home. We are maybe home one or two days, but constant planes, moves... it's very difficult. But the thing is that it's all part of life because no one thought of doing this any other way, like having a show in one location - they exist, of course, but we do have to fly all the time, live in hotels out of suitcases all the time, so we get very tired of it and that's why we like being in one place... either there, or... and of course we love coming back here because all our friends and relatives are here.
Reporter:. You also take your daughter with you, right?
Ekaterina: Of course, she was with us almost from the very beginning - she came with my Mom a little later, Mom helped us.
Reporter: She took care of Daria when you were gone?
Ekaterina: Yes, Mom helped us at first...
Sergei: No, but we also...
Ekaterina: Yeah, sometimes we took her with us.
Reporter: You could be allowed to be in the next Olympics, will you want to go for it?
Ekaterina: It's still far away.
Reporter: Why far away?
Sergei: I think we will definitely want to, but the issue is - we will need to take an objective look at our physical and technical form. If it stays at the level that it needs to be at, we will of course...
Ekaterina: Try our chances.
Reporter: Tell me, do you have rivals there or do you win with no doubts?
Ekaterina:. The rivals are the same as in amateur sport because they all turned professional.
Reporter: Are they capable for beating you?
Sergei: You know, it all depends on us - if we skate well... This year we won five competitions out of five but it only happened because we skated well. Had we skated badly, we could have lost.
Ekaterina: You know, it's interesting... there is this competition, and too bad it wasn't shown here, it was called World Team Championships and our team was represented by Alexander Fadeev, Anna Kondrashova... There are two single skaters, a pair and a dance team, and Usova and Zhilin skated for dance, and even such team competition was won by Russia over USA, Europe and... what was the fourth team? (turns to Sergei)... Canada.
Sergei: Right, and USA was represented by Brian Boitano...
Ekaterina: Yes, Brian Boitano... no, no.. Paul Wylie
Sergei: Kristi...
Ekaterina: Kristi Yamaguchi and for Europe skated Torvill and Dean, Katarina Witt and Robin Cousins, if you remember him.
Reporter: So the organizers think of all sorts of competitions to attract audiences.
Ekaterina: Yes, because it's very...
Sergei: In America now, it's very popular...
Ekaterina: In America, it's very popular... figure skating...
Reporter: Do you ever feel like - uh, I am too lazy to do this.
Sergei: This is our life, we don't know how to do anything else and of course we understand that this is the only thing that can give us satisfaction and confidence. And I don't just mean financially, but also in general, as a person you have to know that you can do this better than others so of course we are trying... trying to keep...
Reporter: Who is the one who pushes the other, or are you equal?
Ekaterina: No one has to push because... If we were to skate poorly, the audience will see it and the critics won't be late.
Reporter: You represent a very lyrical, classical style, but your rivals, let's say Canadians, they think of some funny performances. Is you style enough for you, or would you like to contrast it once in a while?
Sergei: We could do a different program, it'd be interesting to see what the audience would say, but of course, for our programs... for the competitions... we will keep our style.
Ekaterina: We like to do it and we know how to do it well.
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