Maxim Trankov: We want to start trainings in April
Recently Maxim Trankov announced that he and Tatiana plan to resume trainings in April.
Tatiana and I discussed our return. If doctors allow, Tanya want to go out on the ice already in April. We want to perform at least with a short program at the test skates in September. Then, we will see, we will talk with the judges, federation of figure skating, whether our return is possible and whether it’s worth it. – Maxim said.
Of course after that, fans began to estimate the chances of Volosozhar – Trankov to get into Olympic national team. And of course, sterted to discuss whether it is worth to return at all. However, Maxim Trankov hastened to reassure that at the moment it’s not about Olympics.
– In April we start trainings. But not in order to prepare for something, for example, for the Olympics, as they usually like to return in our sport. We just start trainings because beside sport we have ice shows. But in our minds we keep the possibility of participating in the test skates of the national team. Either to say goodbye to the audience there or to perform at the Russian Nationals…But it’s not about the Olympics. Above all we don’t want to unnerve the guys, who are young, who are preparing for the Olympics. We don’t announce it now, but we’ll see, taking into account our possibilities and shape. Because we have a baby and Tanya still needs to recover. We don’t known how long it will take, but in April we really plan to go out on the ice.
To say goodbye to the audience at the test skates, does it mean that you can retire at this event?
– Maybe, even so. We have not yet discussed this (the question of finishing a career), but in any case we will need to appear somewhere to do it. Our last competition was the World Championships in Boston and we did not announce a retirement there. But we will need to announce it somewhere. Now our task is simply to get on the ice, to recall the sensations, the elements and will look at our future situation. Of course we don’t look so far ahead as the Olympics in Korea. So far we just return to the ice and, maybe, we’ll go to the test skates, because no one has removed us from the national team, so participation in test skates is our duty. We haven’t discussed it with the federation of figure skating (FFKKR). But we do not exclude the possibility of participation in the Olympics. Although it’s a very slim chance. It’s very, let’s say, hazy future, which … Well, it’s very vague.
So, trainings in April it’s more a preparation for the show?
– Yes. We will not smite our breasts and say that we are preparing for the Olympic Games. We want to make a short program, because it can also be skated in shows, it isn’t something very difficult. We want to make a short program, because we have one very good idea, which we haven’t realized.
Is it early to tell about this idea?
– Of course.
Maybe you can name the choreographer?
– We can’t name neither choreographer nor coach yet because we don’t have them. We need to talk with people, we need to think whom we can come in handy. Who will want to work with us.
Don’t have a coach? But you are in Nina Mozer’s group.
– Nina Mikhailovna now has the first three pairs in the country. I think that at this stage of preparation for the Olympic Games we are like a fifth wheel for her. I think it would be wrong to get in the guys’ way on the ice and take coach’s attention. I think that it’s not very interesting for Nina Mikhailovna.
To work with you?
– I think, yes.
Do you exclude the possibility of cooperation with Mozer?
– I very much doubt the possibility of this cooperation. We have lived a long life in our figure skating. And it is understandable that when a coach has a balanced team three years before the Olympic Games, all three pairs are leaders in Russia, they compete at European and World championships, potentially heading off to the Olympics, so first, unlikely anyone will allow us to interfere there and to destroy the team. Second, from the moral and ethical point of view, this is not right.
I have a strong feeling that Nina Mikhailovna perceives you as her skaters.
– Of course, we are her skaters. We went a long way with her and she has gone through it with us. She turned from a junior coach into a great specialist, a professional in her field. Tanya and I reached the top with her. Of course, we are her pair and will always remain her pair. But Tanya and I, we do not really want to dilute her group. It is not very convenient for us to be in Nina Mikhailovna’s team because we have a small child and her group likes to go on training camps and the ice rink is not very conveniently located relative to the place where we live. In short, everything is complicated. Again, we do not exclude such a possibility, but, again, it will be very difficult to do this.
We haven’t talked with Nina Mikhailovna yet. She found out from the press that we are going to start trainings in April.
I’m not saying that Nina Mikhailovna do not need us, I do not want to look like a victim. I’m talking that it’s not Nina Mikhailovna who thinks so, it’s how it seems to us that she does not really need us, because now she has a team and we can not break it. That’s how we understand it. To take us, she needs to put aside Zabijako – Enbert. But what for she spent so much time with them? So then Volosozhar – Trankov returned? This is also wrong. The situation is very complicated. There is no conflict here, just a very complicated situation between us athletes and our coach. That’s all.
Tatiana misses the ice?
– Tanya – of course! She’s a fan of figure skating, not me. First of all, it’s Tanya who pulls me on the ice and wants to skate. This is our work now, I hope this summer we will do ice shows, in Japan, somewhere else. We need to get out on the ice, because I also have not trained since the Ice Age. We must understand that when we missed almost the whole season, and in our case both of us, then it’s very difficult to return to the high level. First of all, I want to reassure fans, because there are a lot of comments on the Internet about our statement about returning to the big sport. I want to tell them that it will not be easy for us to return to the level that is expected of us. It is necessary to do only figure skating, twenty-four hours a day. And since we have a small child we can not afford it.
by Anatoli Samokhvalov for rsport.ru
To be honest, I’m surprised how honest and open Maxim was in this interview. I really appreciate that they don’t make any loud statements about their come back and intentions to qualify for the Olympics (as many others do). I also appreciate that he behaves with dignity towards the group and the guys with whom he trained.
Related topics: interview, pairs, Tatiana Volosozhar Maxim Trankov
First of all, it’s nice that Max finally stopped talking about big plans he can’t keep…marriage to sweet Tatiana has been good for him :)
I think they’d be wise to stay out of the competitions. Unless they plan on learning a quad twist (and they are more than capable) like Sui/Han and Tarasova/Morozov, a triple axel or quad throw (like Sui/Han, Savchenko/Massot, James/Cipres, and Duhamel/Radford), or difficult side-by-side jumps (3-3-2 like Stolbova/Klimov, 3-3 sequence like S/M, or even lutzes like D/R), they’re going to be buried in the pack. PCS won’t hold them up forever.
Also, they have a new baby. In my opinion, they should stay with her and enjoy her before she grows up and they ask, “What? We have a 5-year-old?”
Anyway, it’s their decision to make but I think they’d be best off to stay in shows. Go out on a good note.
Well, I think they deserved to have a nice finishing of their career, to say goodbye in a beautiful way. And no matter where it’ll happen, at the test skate or Russian Nationals.
Yeah, sounds like a good way to finish. Although if they go to Russian Nationals, Tarasova/Morozov will spoil the magic. Those kids are insane when it comes to jumps.
I think Max is still bitter that at Worlds they lost to both T/M and S/K. I think a test skate would be a safer idea.