“Olympic medal is a primary goal in our career.” Hungarian pair skaters Maria Pavlova and Aleksei Sviatchenko
Translation of the interview with Hungarian pair skaters Maria Pavlova and Aleksei Sviatchenko.
original source: sovsport.ru dd.17th July 2024 by Ekaterina Rodionova
In an interview with “Soviet Sport”, the pair talked about past season, new programs and goals for the Olympics. Here’s a translation of their comments.
“Q: How is your off-season going? Have you started your training yet?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: Yes, we are training. We started on June 10th after a good vacation, we rested, enjoyed. Gradually we are getting back to our programs, restored all the elements, now it’s left to put everything together.
Q: Do you still train in Sochi or does your preparation take place elsewhere?
Maria Pavlova: At the moment, we train in Sochi. Soon we will have training camps: we will train in Turkey for two weeks, and then we will return to Sochi.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: Then back to Budapest for one and a half weeks, then to Oberstdorf, and we will start traveling.
Q: Sofia Evdokimova choreographed both your short and free programs for the past three seasons. Will your cooperation on new programs continue this year?
Maria Pavlova: No, this year we choreographed the short program in Italy with Luca Lanotte, and the free program was created for us by Irina Zhuk in Moscow.
Q: What’s the reason for changing choreographers?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: We worked with Irina Zhuk last season, we really liked it, so we wanted to repeat. And we decided to try a short program with a foreign choreographer, to see what it’s like, to gain experience. We asked Sofia, she was not against it, only for it, so that the development would benefit us.
Maria Pavlova: New experience. It’s quite interesting to try something new.
Q: Which program, choreographed by Sofia over these three seasons, was your favorite?
Maria Pavlova: In our first joint season, my personal favorite was the free program (Somebody to Love by Queen – Soviet Sport’s note). I really liked it: both the music and the choreography. It was cool.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I liked all of it, but I think I agree – the first free one was my favorite.
Q: What thoughts did you have entering the 2023/2024 season? What goals did you set for yourself?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: We knew it would be tough. We were told by the coaching staff that the second season is the hardest for some reason. But we just kept that in mind and in general just did our job: trained, performed and then looked at what will happen.
Q: In the past season, you finished fourth at the World Championships, European Championships, and the Grand Prix Final. How much did this result meet your expectations?
Maria Pavlova: Honestly, we had no expectations. We got into the Grand Prix Final at the last moment, just went there to perform and didn’t expect anything. As for Europeans, we more consciously approached it, performed decently – two clean skates. And the World Championships was our best start of the season. It’s the best result: after all, fourth place in the world is a bit different from the European Championships.
Q: What emotions did you have when you were left a step away from the pedestal again and again?
Maria Pavlova: It was a bit of a shame, but we understood that this was our maximum at the moment. So, we need to improve in order to stand on the podium this season.
Q: After your performance at the European Championships, you criticized the judging and said that such scores decrease your motivation every time. Do you really feel that the judges are downgrading you?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: Everything there was said on emotions, one way or another.
Maria Pavlova: Yes, I went a little to far, but it happened.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: It’s always better to look for the reason within yourself, to improve and move forward, rather than looking back at others. The main thing is to do everything we can and I believe that it will pay off.
Q: Which competition was the most memorable for you last season?
Maria Pavlova: For me, it was probably the first stage of the Grand Prix, because it was the first international Grand Prix stage in my life. And, of course, the World Championships.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: Europeans were more emotional for me, more explosive. After the free skate a lot was released there: both positive and a bit negative. And the World Championships went quieter. At the Grand Prix Final, we were enjoying that we were there, that we were skating.
Q: And if not the competitions, but performance of a particular program?
Maria Pavlova: We believe that the best short program we performed last year was in the Grand Prix Final. I don’t know how it happened, we genuinely came and enjoyed it. We weren’t worried about any elements, we just enjoyed what we do. And the free skate… I don’t know.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: For me it was a free program at the World Championships; when you already come for the last start of the season, there’s just a bit left.
Q: The goal for the new season is to get into the top 3?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I think that’s the goal for all coaches now, to lead us to the competitions. Our strategy is the same: we don’t want to plan or guess, the main thing is to do our job. Of course, we would like to improve the results. But here still depends on the moment of luck and failure: who will skate how, who will be judged how.
Maria Pavlova: For us the most important thing is to do our job to the maximum, and everything else should not worry us.
Q: In 2023, your coaches said that you are not yet ready to learn quadruple elements. Now are you focused on making your programs more complicated?
Maria Pavlova: We absolutely don’t think about the quadruples now, because I had small injuries to my leg. They don’t allow me to do the quadruple throw, which I really want to try, I will consider this. We are now working on triple elements, because they can be improved.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I think, only after the Olympics.
Q: From the next season, the ISU has allowed figure skaters to perform a back flip at official competitions. Do you think the back flip will come to pair skating or stay in singles?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I think there will be many people in pairs who will do it.
Maria Pavlova: But not us yet! We are not ready to do the back flip yet.
Q: And hypothetically would you like to try performing it in the future?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: Of course, I would, but it’s scary.
Maria Pavlova: It’s interesting, yes, but it is really scary.
Q: The 2024/2025 season will be the pre-Olympic one. Could it be said that your training is now geared towards the performance in Milan-Cortina in 2026?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: To some extent, yes. We are now working on the second mark so that over time it grows to a competitive level, to make it to the podium. We are thinking about ideas for programs for the Olympic season, we have a couple of them already, and for the short, we have the music if nothing changes. But we still focus on this season.
Q: What does the Olympics mean to you?
Maria Pavlova: This, of course, is an important competition, but if you think, you come to a country where you perform, and you compete, just the same. The Olympics – yes, it is an important competition, but you should not fixate on the fact that this is the Olympics. You come and do your job, it’s the same thing. This is my personal belief.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I prefer to think before the competitions that it is a regular competition, and only after, to reflect that this is a lifetime dream happening only once. Before starting, it’s better not to burden oneself with these thoughts.
Q: You have been performing for the Hungarian national team for several years now. What were your first impressions of this country when you came here?
Maria Pavlova: I arrived there much earlier than Aleksei, a year earlier I started performing for Hungary. I really liked the country: it is very beautiful, there are many attractions, I walked around a lot.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I liked it a lot too. When I arrived for the first time and now when I come, I like to admire Budapest, it strongly associates for me with St. Petersburg where I was born, there is a lot of similar architecture. I really like some performers, like Feduk and OG Buda, who have also lived a large part of their life in Hungary: I sometimes listen to them, they refer to Budapest and the Danube in their lyrics. I really like that.
Q: Are you learning Hungarian?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: Yes.
Maria Pavlova: Yes, now we are intensively studying with a Hungarian tutor, have been for quite some time. Hungarian is a very difficult language, it’s true, but we try.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: We haven’t learned all the words for daily communication yet, but if I have my little notebook, then I will be able to say a couple of words so that they understand me.
Maria Pavlova: We can already talk a little bit about ourselves, but it’s very basic.
Q: How is the situation with figure skating in Hungary? Are there conditions there for training top figure skaters from childhood?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I think to answer that, you need to live there longer and see it all from within. We did not observe long how children and adults are trained there, so we don’t have such information. But in the future, I would like to raise this level, already after sports while living there.
Q: Do you feel as the face of figure skating in Hungary, the leaders of the team?
Maria Pavlova: I do not feel it.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I think to get such a feeling you need to know that many people support you, somehow popularize the sport. Not much information gets to us, but recently we saw – a judge from our team showed us how they were in a bar during the World Championships and there at the projector the whole bar watched us skating a free program. This was very pleasant, I had goosebumps. We just don’t think about it.
Q: Is it important to you to popularize figure skating in Hungary with your performances?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: Yes.
Q: Do you see that Hungarian fans are supporting you? Maybe they write comments?
Maria Pavlova: Yes, a lot of people personally write to me, always wish me luck before the competitions and after they write congratulations, say “you skated well,” and then wish me luck at the next competitions.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: I really like it – at competitions, at training or already at the start you see that among the fans there are people with Hungarian flags.
Q: Have you encountered any negativity? Last year, the sports director of the Hungarian Figure Skating Federation resigned, who was accused of “Russification” of Hungarian figure skating.
Maria Pavlova: No, we haven’t had such. It’s none of our business. We do our job, we are supported.
Aleksei Sviatchenko: There are many different people: some condemn, some support, some understand, some have imagined something and think that it is true. If you listen to everyone, everything will be bad.
Q: What is your primary aim in your professional career?
Aleksei Sviatchenko: An Olympic medal.
Related topics: Maria Pavlova Alexei Sviatchenko
Yes, we love Hungary; yes, we learn Hungarian; yes, we get support. The guys could not have said anything differently;) Wishing them Good Luck.