Anastasiia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov: “We decided to keep La Traviata even after realizing we wouldn’t be going to the Olympics. The music is festive, even though we’re excluded from competitions, we’re still celebrating – we’re still skating.”
Anastasiia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov Discuss Recovery, Performance, and Missing the Olympics
original source: RT dd. by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya
In an interview with RT, Anastasiia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov discussed overcoming challenges, including injury recovery and missed opportunities like the Milano-Cortina Olympics. Here’s a translation of their comments.
“Q: Aleksandr, you stirred up quite a reaction by sharing the full details of the ankle injury you suffered during your trip to Lake Baikal in March. When did you realize it was more than just a sprain?
Aleksandr Galliamov: At the trauma center in a nearby village in Baikal, they put me in a cast, and I flew home with it. Once back in St. Petersburg, I immediately had a CT scan and MRI done, brought the results to a doctor, and was told surgery wouldn’t be necessary since I only needed to keep the leg rested for a month. But as the swelling subsided, the cast became too loose, so I decided to have it replaced.
At the trauma center, they told me they couldn’t reapply the cast without new scans. I agreed, of course, and that’s when I heard for the first time that surgery would be required. From there, things started moving quickly: a different clinic, more specialized doctors, and confirmation that surgery was indeed unavoidable. It seemed that as the swelling went down, the real extent of the injury became apparent. That’s when I realized it was far more serious than what we initially thought at Baikal.
Q: Was this the most serious injury of your career?
Aleksandr Galliamov: Yes. Before this, most of my injuries happened out of carelessness. For example, when I was 15, skating with Sasha Polischuk (before my partnership with Nastya), we played soccer on a gym floor one day. I was playing forward, ready to shoot, but I missed the ball and hit a goalpost.
Q: Did your toe dislocate?
Aleksandr Galliamov: At first, everything seemed fine. I even went to practice and skated the short program. But afterward, it started hurting to lift my toe. My dad took me to a trauma center where they put it in a cast and told me to keep it on for two weeks. I lasted a week and a half before taking it off because I wanted to skate again for an upcoming competition. But my coach shut that down, saying there was no need to be reckless.
Q: How difficult was it to recover from this injury?
Aleksandr Galliamov: The real sense of relief came when I could finally walk on my own without support. That’s when I realized I could exhale a bit. It’s during moments like these that you truly understand who your real friends are. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who was there for me – helping with rides, daily errands, and just being there.
Q: Because it was your right leg, you couldn’t drive?
Aleksandr Galliamov: Believe it or not, I taught myself. I’m left-footed – my left leg is my dominant one, even in soccer. If I absolutely needed to drive, I’d curl my right leg out of the way and use my left foot for the pedals. My car has an automatic transmission, so it worked. But I avoided unnecessary risks.
While recovering, I also had this crazy idea: I wanted to learn to drive a manual car. I was staying at a summer house at the time, and there were an old car parked nearby. Something in my mind just clicked – I had to try it!
Q: Was it challenging to get back into skates?
Aleksandr Galliamov: I had to expand the interior of the boot to fit, but there weren’t any major issues. Throughout the recovery, I did physical therapy, swam, and worked on developing the joint. Initially, just standing on both legs felt scary, but I was fortunate to have incredible specialists working with me – the best, honestly.
Q: The hardest part of these kinds of injuries is often accepting the slow pace of recovery, isn’t it?
Aleksandr Galliamov: That’s true. But I tried not to focus on it. I knew that for the Olympic qualifier, we’d need to perform at test skates, so in my mind, I set the goal of regaining my form by mid-August. Later, it became clear that rushing the process wasn’t necessary.
Q: What was the hardest thing to regain on the ice?
Aleksandr Galliamov: Definitely the jumps. I’ve had solid technique since childhood, so that wasn’t the issue. But landing on my right leg again was terrifying at first. The hardest jump to regain for me was the single loop. Initially, my leg hurt a lot and swelled after training, so I had to go for treatments every day and follow a complete recovery routine. The schedule was insane. On top of that, I missed several classes in my master’s program while I was on crutches.
Q: Why did you avoid public appearances on crutches?
Aleksandr Galliamov: It wasn’t shame exactly, but it didn’t feel great either. On the flip side, it gave me motivation – I really wanted to start walking again as soon as possible.
Q: Did the fact that this is an Olympic season but you’re unable to compete weigh on you for a long time?
Aleksandr Galliamov: I try not to dwell on it. We’re still doing what we love and still skating. We performed for the first time in late July at the Igora rink, and it hit me how incredible it feels to perform for an audience again. That alone made all the effort to recover worth it.
Q: Since your partner joined the conversation, here’s a question for Anastasiia: Which program from your current lineup do you like best?
Anastasiia Mishina: It’s a tough choice – I like both programs, but for different reasons. La Traviata feels a bit provocative. It’s obvious we originally prepared this program for the Olympics, but we decided to keep it even after realizing we wouldn’t be going to Milan.
Q: La Traviata might not be as iconic as Carmen, but it’s still a popular choice in figure skating. How do you make such a program stand out?
Anastasiia Mishina: The music is inherently festive, so our goal is to energize the audience, to make them feel the celebratory mood. Even though we’re excluded from competitions, we’re still celebrating – we’re still skating.
Q: Who took the news of the missed Olympic opportunity harder?
Anastasiia Mishina: I’d say we both felt it deeply in our own ways. It was a difficult period for us – not only did Sasha have to recover from his injury, which was beyond anyone’s control, but then the news came that we couldn’t go…
Aleksandr Galliamov: It’s funny, when I started playing in Medialiga (an amateur football league), everyone kept joking about when I’d injure myself playing football. But I ended up injured in Baikal – where nothing suggested there could be any trouble at all.
Q: Will you continue playing in Medialiga?
Aleksandr Galliamov: I’d love to if a team is set up in St. Petersburg again. But traveling to Moscow for games? That’s just too difficult for me. I think I’ve forgotten how to properly handle a ball anyway – it’s been since February that I last played.
Q: Anastasia, what were you doing while your partner was recovering?
Anastasiia Mishina: Initially, we discussed with Tamara Nikolaevna [Moskvina] whether I should keep training or take a vacation. When it became clear Sasha wouldn’t be back on the ice in one or two weeks, I decided to take a break. First, I went to Turkey – it was the quickest option in terms of planning – then I spent a week in Malaysia. It was an interesting experience because I had never vacationed so far away before. As soon as I returned, I started focusing on jumps with Veronika Daineko’s group.
Q: Did your jumps improve with that training?
Anastasiia Mishina: I think they did. I’m still far from mastering quads, but the time spent wasn’t wasted.
Q: When you train as part of a pair, do you get much time to work on jumps?
Anastasiia Mishina: There is time, but not always the energy to start learning something new. During pair practices, we usually begin with running through programs and pair elements, and only then – typically in the middle or end of the day – do we work on jumps.
Q: What’s it like to start skating with your partner again after such a long break?
Anastasiia Mishina: We’ve never had such an extended pause before, but we surprisingly remembered all the elements quite quickly. The experience didn’t disappear – it stayed with us. After all, this is our ninth year as a pair, and we didn’t stay idle with previous partners either. What was harder was skating full programs and regaining physical stamina.
Q: How do you stop yourself from worrying about your partner’s footing during pair elements?
Anastasiia Mishina: When we first began rebuilding lifts, it felt unusual and scary. You naturally question yourself: What if we fall? What do we do? But once you’re mentally prepared for absolutely any scenario, you start to feel more confident.
Q: I asked your coach this question, and now I’ll ask you: Is the goal to restore what you had or to improve in some areas?
Anastasiia Mishina: In terms of technique, the current priority is to fully restore all elements. Once we feel there are no deficiencies left, we’ll move forward. But emotionally and choreographically, we’ve evolved – we feel differently now.
Aleksandr Galliamov: Interestingly, when we started skating our old free program, which we hadn’t performed in three years, we realized that on the same steps, we no longer fit on the ice the same way. Our skating has undoubtedly become broader and faster.
Q: Why didn’t you risk showcasing one of your competitive programs during September’s test skates at Igora?
Aleksandr Galliamov: A simple reason – the rink there is smaller than the one we train on at our school. During the previous Olympic season, we skated both our short and free programs at Igora, but it was incredibly challenging and even somewhat dangerous because the elements had to be spread out differently than on a full-size rink.
Q: How do you evaluate your readiness now?
Anastasiia Mishina: It’s not perfect, but we can perform two complete programs.
Aleksandr Galliamov: Last year during test skates, we weren’t perfect either. I remember reducing the rotations in my spins because I had fallen ill shortly before and barely recovered. Starting a season is always hard. This time is difficult too, but our goal is to take gradual steps, ensuring that we’re fully prepared for the most important competitions.”
Related topics: Anastasiia Mishina Alexander Galliamov
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