“When it was announced that the Olympic qualifier would take place in Beijing, we understood where things were heading. We are ready to compete, we want to challenge the strongest.” Nikita Volodin about the admission of Russian skaters to the Olympic qualifier
Nikita Volodin about the admission of Russian skaters to the Olympic qualifier competition.
original source: Sports by Maya Bagriantseva
Nikita Volodin who skates with Minerva Fabienne Hase for Germany and won gold today at the 2025 European Championships commented on the admission of Russian figure skaters to the Olympics. Here’s a translation of his comments reported by Sports journalist Maya Bagriantseva.
“Nikita Volodin: What do I think about the admission of Russian athletes as neutral competitors at the Olympics? It wasn’t sensational news for us; we have been preparing for this for two years.
When it was announced that the qualifying competitions would take place in Beijing, we understood where things were heading. Probably, in our line of work, it doesn’t change anything: we know what needs improvement and what our tasks are. We are ready to compete, we want to challenge the strongest, we want to test our capabilities.
It takes about 3-4 years for a pair to start feeling and understanding each other well. So just in time for the Games in Milan, I hope we will become such a pair and will be able to compete for the top places. We know we can perform our elements at a high level – no worse than our colleagues. We just need to work more.
So, we are ready. It doesn’t matter much who they select for the Olympic qualifiers. I think the highest chances are with Sasha Galliamov and Nastia Mishina, but we would be happy to compete against any pair. It would be great to compete directly with Dima Evgeniev – I know he commented on the European Championships, he did a great job.
It’s funny, by the way, that he remembered during the broadcast how I once defeated him at the Russian Championships – by six hundredths of a point, and he still remembers! Figure skating is one big family; we see each other at competitions more often than our relatives, which really brings us closer. So I will be happy for everyone.
I know that we are all fans of what we do. I am an absolute fan of figure skating as a sport – I watch all the competitions. Now when I return to the hotel, I’ll rewatch today’s free program, the whole event. I find it interesting.
I also watch Russian competitions. Both the Russian Nationals and the recent jumping championship – a very interesting format. It seemed to me that the pairs were not as exciting as the singles. But the team part – absolutely thrilling, such adrenaline!
Perhaps such a competition will also appear in the ISU calendar. But for now, we want to focus not on ultra-c elements but on refining the technical content we already have. There’s still a lot to work on.”
Related topics: Minerva Fabienne Hase, Nikita Volodin
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