Elizaveta Tuktamysheva: preparation for Team Challenge Cup

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva told about problems of this season and preparation for the Team Challenge Cup.

Elizaveta: I’m not in 100%-ready shape, I still feel pain in my leg. Even at the show dedicated to jubilee of Alexei Mishin I was skating with pain. Because of this problem with the leg I had to withdraw from the competition in Budapest. We decided that it is better to withdraw than to skate a program without elements.

Before the competition in Hungary, I was in pretty good shape and wanted to perform there. But this season every time something interferes. Some injuries, abrasions, calluses. On the right foot – Achilles, on the left – abrasions. All the time some obstacles arise.

But I have some time before the Team Challenge Cup. I hope have time to heal. I really want to go to this tournament because it is held for the first time. To see what kind of competition it is. Anyway, I miss the competitions, because this season there were not many.  I want to participate, but don’t want to skate in a bad shape, so first of all it’s necessary to heal the leg.  

After quite a long break for me it will be a serious start, because Team Challenge Cup it’s major international tournament, so I have the most serious mindset for it.  I don’t know in what shape I will be, but for sure I will skate there like in competition, not like in show.  I will perform two my programs, which I’ve been skating this season – short program “Bolero” and free program that I call “classic”.

This season really wasn’t easy for me. And I’m grateful to Alexei Mishin, that at the right moment, he can shake me, doesn’t let me to relax, keeps in good shape. I know that Alexei Nikolaevich supports me, will always support and never will turn away from me. And I really need his support.

Neither he nor I had assumed that this season will turn out like this. However, Alexei Nikolaevich said that after so many starts last season the small decline can occur. Theoretically, the coach was ready for this. But in theory it’s one thing, and on practice it’s the other. Of course, he’s upset, but doesn’t show it. He fights for me, gives me his energy, tells me every time, “Come on, Lisa, you can do everything.” And for me these words are very helpful. I do not know what I would have been doing without coach.

the source: fsrussia.ru

Elizaveta also recently gave an interview to sovsport.ru, almost about the same. So, I translate a only few moments that seemed interesting:

Will you continue to bet on the triple axel?

Elizaveta: Yes. If not to do it, then how to complicate the program? In pair skating more pairs do a quad throw, in men’s figure skating skaters perform three quads in the free program. Progress is everywhere, only girls continue to jump “3-3.” Therefore, it seems to me, that triple axel – it’s a step forward. Of course, it’s a risk, but everyone passes through it when starts to do something new. It takes time to learn the triple axel, so it will turned out as a triple lutz. I hope that it’s possible.

What was the percentage of successful attempts in training during the period of best execution of 3 axel ?

Elizaveta: Probably 65 percent, something like that.

Was you confident at World Championships that you will land the triple axel?

Elizaveta: No (laughs). Just wasn’t thinking about anything. I was very, very scared, I jumped it with my eyes closed. I did not know what to expect, did not know what will happen in a moment. I could fall. But, apparently, I’ve trained it so well that the body worked as it should!

After all there was still a risk not to d0 with other elements after the 3 axel?

Elizaveta: I almost did not care about other jumps. I knew that if I do axel, than 80 percent that everything else I will do too.

Sergei Voronov, who recently changed a coach, will also represent team Europe at Team Challenge Cup.

Related topics: Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, interview, ladies, Team Challenge Cup, Team Russia