Sofia Samodurova: I’m happy for myself, but I feel sorry for Liza

Interview with Sofia Samodurova after Russian Nationals and qualifying for European Championships 2019.

Who and when told you that you are going to the European Championship?

– I saw it myself on the Internet. No one called. I realized it when I started to get congratulations from my parents, coaches, relatives, fans …

I’ve already gave all the emotions during the free program – every single one! So, when I heard the news about the European Championship, I just had a big smile.

Of course, I really hoped that I would be selected. I think I deserved that. My coach Alexei Mishin congratulated me on a good skate. Was he surprised? I think he was confident. Although I do not know for sure.

Your team mate Elizaveta Tuktamysheva hasn’t fully recovered yet, so she will be a substitute for the European Championship. How did she take this?

– We haven’t texted yet. I’m kind of happy for myself, but I feel sorry for Liza. I don’t know what her state of health is. Two days ago they should have taken a control radiograph, but I’m not aware of its results. Need to ask.

This is your first senior season, but you already have silver and bronze medals at the Grand Prix, you were in the Final, and now you are going to the European Championship …

– I will be able to asses this season only at the end. Although its first half – knock on wood – turns out well for me.

Is it easier for you to perform in seniors?

– It seems to me that it’s impossible to compare senior and junior levels. This is completely different. Here are stronger competitors.

Last season, when you were a junior, Anna Shcherbakova, Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaia competed with you. Now you don’t have such a rivalry with them?

– I didn’t think about rivalry. With Kostornaia we communicate well since last season, when we went to the junior Grand Prix together. With Sasha Trusova … also good. In principle, I have warm relations with everyone.

Will you complicate your content how they did?

– Yes, we have triple axel in plans. I will start with this.

You are incredibly consistent with your jumps, which is now a rarity.

– Knock on wood, I always had it. Maybe earlier it wasn’t obvious. Think of my past season. I had eight or nine competitions and I skated all clean. Every single one. There was only one mistake: at the first junior Grand Prix, I made a three turn between jumps in combination. It was a small mistake. After that, I cleanly skated my free program.

What happened in the Final? You skated well, but finished last.

– Well that’s what must’ve happened. … I did a good job anyway. That’s all.

The judges don’t score your PCS high. How do you intend to work on this?

– Just make run-throughs of the programs, polish them. When you perform a jump, you may be focused only on this. When you do some element, you think only about it. But you have to learn and show emotions at the beginning of the program. This is professionalism. I think about having to smile during my performance.

What do you show in this season’s programs? What is the idea?

– In the short program, I perform to the music from the Mission Impossible movie and I just skate for pleasure. There is no particular artistic image, just a Spanish dance.

The free program is a burlesque. I portray Christina Aguilera from the movie. When she came to burlesque, she was shy at the beginning and at the beginning of the program I close from everything, I don’t understand what is happening. In the course of the performance, when the cameras start to clicks, I get used to this world. Ready plot for a movie!

It was Ilia Averbukh’s idea. Taking this opportunity, I want to thank him for working with me. It was a pleasant to work with him.

You seem to be a very balanced person, while all your programs have drive. How do you deal with such a contrast?

– Yes, it seems to me that I’m such an active person in life. I always had funny artistic images all the time

At Grand-Prix in Moscow, you made an interesting decision to answer journalists’ questions in English, without an interpreter. Why?

– I will not say why, can I? Because after that there was so much dirt in my direction. They wrote to me on Instagram that I humiliated Alina Zagitova somehow. But I didn’t mean anything like that.

by Elvira Ondar for gareta.ru

Related topics: interview, Russian Nationals, Sofia Samodurova