Sofia Samodelkina: “Surprisingly, I was almost not nervous. Of course, there was some excitement — it’s the World Championships after all, with so many spectators. But I know I’m fairly well-prepared, so I wasn’t shaking with fear.”
Sofia Samodelkina about her preparation for the World Championships.
original source: Sports
Sofia Samodelkina debuted at the World Championships representing Kazakhstan, earning 63.58 points for her short program. In a conversation with Sports correspondent Maya Bagriantseva, she shared her some details of her preparation for the 2025 World Championships with Rafael Arutyunyan. Here’s a translation.
“Surprisingly, I was almost not nervous today. Of course, there was some excitement — it’s the World Championships after all, with massive stands and so many spectators. Plus, there’s always the responsibility — you need to show everything you’ve worked on. But I know I’m fairly well-prepared, so I wasn’t shaking with fear.
The skate was decent; I’m happy with the jumps. However, I stumbled on the step sequence — it was a silly mistake. I think I misjudged the size of the rink and panicked slightly, worried that I might crash into the boards. Of course, that’s no excuse — we’re athletes, and we need to be capable of handling these situations. I’ll be more cautious in the free skate.
I really love this short program. It was choreographed by Nikita Mikhailov quite a while ago, but I’ve only started competing with it this season. My previous short program, to music from the movie Lara Croft, was lively and powerful, and I liked it too, but I realized it might not have been the best fit for serious competitions. So when I started working with Rafael Arutyunyan, I suggested this tango program to him and he liked it more.
A lot of people have said this program suits me, and I feel very confident performing it myself. The dress is gorgeous, the program has character, and the music is so strong.
We worked on it for several months, and now I’m happy with how I look skating it. I think it’s probably my best short program in my entire career.
I love competing, and I’m thrilled that this season has had so many competitions. Sure, I had to get used to traveling and adjusting to time zone changes, but that’s part of the job, and I’m handling it much better now.
As for my immediate plans, I’ll review the skate with my coaches. From their initial feedback, they seem happy, but we’ll also carefully check the protocols. Most importantly, I need to grab something to eat — I had breakfast at 6 AM, and haven’t eaten anything since, so I’m extremely hungry. After that, I want to catch up with Misha Shaidorov and Andrew Torgashev to support them before their competition tomorrow.
I’ll spend my World Championships rest day in a typical way: practice and relaxation. I’ll definitely make a call with my friends who support me a lot. We sometimes spend an hour on video calls — that includes Kira Trofimova, Masha Mazur, and Sofia Titova. They’re younger than me, but we get along very easily. If I need to unwind and chat, they’re always there.
I’ve also made some friends at the rink in California. They tolerate my English, even with mistakes — I joke that they have to work hard to understand me for now. I can’t express the full spectrum of emotions yet, but I’m trying to, ha-ha. We often go for walks, hang out, and take breaks from training — it’s nice that I’m slowly building social connections in my new place,” Samodelkina said, as quoted by Sports correspondent Maya Bagriantseva.
Related topics: Sofia Samodelkina, world championship
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