Mikhail Kolyada: Frankly speaking, I don’t feel good about myself.

Mikhail Kolyada summed up the results of World Championships:

– If to sum up the results of the last World Championships, I have questions to myself only about free program. There were shortcomings and even big mistakes. In the short program everything was cool. Let’s start with the fact that in the free program I had not the most top-notch set of elements. But I was ready to a fall from a quadruple lutz. Only recently I have started doing it at competitions, and so far it can be considered normal. But axel….it was unacceptable! Because of this mistake the impression from the program immediately changes too. In trainings, I had such experience, when I fell on the lutz, but then did a good toe loop and an axel. Apparently, at some particular moment, on the subconscious I slacked up. And I can’t say that before the free program I was keeping in mind an excellent performance of the short program. When I go out to the free program I forget about everything, I start from a clean slate. I am very glad that in Helsinki I managed to abstract from everything.

So you were ready for a good skate of the short program?

– Let’s just say – I hoped and believed. And this is a short program. It must be skated clean and well executed. If you skate it badly, then it’ll be very hard to get up in the standings, at least in our men’s competitions. Girls and pairs still have chances to pull themselves out of the hole by doing in the free program what other competitors don’t do. But we all do almost the same jumps. So it remains to wait for your rivals’ mistakes.

After the last year’s fourth place at the debut World Championships, you wanted to perform not worse?

– This year the level of figure skating has grown. I realized that, most likely, it would not be possible to repeat last year’s result, but I set myself up for two clean skates, and then let the judges decide everything. Therefore, I did not set myself any super goals for this World Championships. They were simple and doable. But I did not quite cope. Just need to work more physically, psychologically I was well prepared, had s fighting mood. I felt neither great excitement, nor any nervousness. I thought that I would go out on the ice and skate well. In a short it turned out, but in an arbitrary – no. Provided that I was prepared at a decent level. Although there have been some interruptions in preparation, but I will not voice them . And these moments affected also.

This season is almost over, did you manage to achieve everything that was planned in its beginning?

– Frankly speaking, I don’t feel good about myself. Because I know that I can do better. Yes, the season turned out not easy, but I did not achieve my goals a hundred percent. I wanted to skate both programs clean at the European and World championships, but, alas. There is still a World Team Trophy. So we will spend the remaining time working on mistakes.

What do you need to work on before the new season?

– First of all it is necessary to stabilize the quad lutz and salchow. Because we will have to be put salchow in the program. It is necessary to complicate the content.

Have you already chosen the artistic images for the new season?

– We don’t have something concrete so far. I don’t want to flatter myself, but it seems to me that I will be able to show any artistic image that my coach, choreographer will suggest or something that I’ll come up with. Of course, we all have some ideas. When we return from Japan, we’ll discuss all the options. It is necessary to choose thoroughly in order to choose the right option. I think we can’t delay and should start working quickly on new programs after the World Team Trophy.

The next season is Olympics. All thoughts will be directed towards Korea?

– No. I do not get hung up on it. I will try to abstract and do my work. Otherwise, all these thoughts are very distracting. And anyway, if you waste yourself on such thoughts, you may not get to the Olympics at all. And most importantly, we need to be careful with our health, because it is our working tool.

by Maria Staroverova for cska.ru

Related topics: interview, men, mikhail kolyada