Evgenia Medvedeva: I always have inspiration for skating
Interview with Evgenia Medvedeva. About motivation to skate, life in Canada and participation in shows.
by Anastasiya Rizkova for snob.ru dd. December 23d, 2019
You have been living in Canada since May 2018 and training at the Toronto Cricket Skating And Curling Club. How do you like work with Brian Orser and what is your relationship with athletes?
– We have a very friendly, warm atmosphere, Brian and Tracy Wilson created a positive atmosphere, and all the athletes are in excellent relations. The club is a couple of centuries old, it is a historical place with its own soul.
Has Toronto met your expectations?
– I did not expect anything, my mother and I went to an absolutely new country for us, where we had never been. We did not know how our housing looked like, we did not know how the Cricket Club looked like, did not know how the work with Brian would work out. Now I can say that I love this city. It is calm, good, there is everything that is needed for existence, including Russian food, Russian people. There is Asian food, which I am also used to, as we live near the Asian district.
What has changed inside Evgenia Medvedeva over the past year and a half?
– I remained the same. Only, after going through many difficulties, I became a little stronger in spirit. But my strength is in those people who are next to me now.
Your mother strongly supported you and moved with you.
– Yes, it was not even discussed that I would live in Canada alone.
So it was a joint decision to move?
– Sure.
And how do you now find the strength to fight? Where do you get motivation from?
– I just love my job, I love figure skating. I have never had a thought to give up.
In one of the interviews you said that you want, I quote, “to build such a body that I have never had before in my life.”
– I don’t know why journalists like to focus on this so much.
Probably because on Instagram you announced a twenty-day from ball to abs marathon?
– It was just a joke, not the title of a new article about me.
Nevertheless, you often talk about a change in diet and another training regimen. How has this affected you?
– I really worked with a nutritionist, but now nutrition has faded into the background, I have learned to monitor myself, correctly compose a menu depending on goals and tasks. Now the most important thing is to recover after a workout. Good sleep, stretching after gym, where I also began to work a lot more. It is bearing fruit.
You recently announced the launch of your own online store medvedevaevgeniya.com. How did this idea come about?
– This is my old dream. My team knew about this, they have been preparing the design, print for a long time and showed me. I didn’t like something, but overall they did a great job. There was not much time before the Russian Nationals, but in the offseason I plan to devote more attention to this project, perhaps draw something myself. After all, I can draw myself.
Makeup is part of Evgenia Medvedeva’s daily routine. How did you learn to do it so well?
– I use cosmetics from an early age, from 11 years old on an ongoing basis. So I have quite a lot of experience. But it was not my mother who taught me, but Eteri Georgievna Tutberidze. If she saw some kind of makeup mistake she always corrected it. She always demanded that there was a neat hairstyle, so that all the girls came beautiful to training, as this reflects a state of mind. If you are ready outwardly, then your mind itself goes back to normal, to battle ready. Of course, I stopped doing contouring daily, cat eyes and red lips, now I have a more natural make-up – to brush dark circles a little, blush, hygienic lipstick, eyelashes, put eyebrows in order, that is, everything is neat, but not changing facial features.
How do you like your new programs? The free program to the music from “Memoirs of a Geisha” is a real masterpiece.
– I skate them with great pleasure. To some extent the free program is special for me. It was my idea, image, music, I myself choose which musical fragments will be in the program. I am delighted with working with Shae-Lynn Bourne, with designer Satomi Ito, who sewed my costume. A very unusual, very laborious, but still very interesting work was done. And it turned out to be a great program.
I know that Ilia Averbukh offered you the role of Dorothy in his new show “The Wizard of Oz”? How did you prepare for the role?
– This was not a surprise to me. Ilia and I have been working together for many years, he choreographed me several programs for competitions. We always discuss plans for the future, and he told me that he will do “The Wizard of Oz” and invited me to the main role. For me, this is the first experience of participating in a full-fledged ice show, so I agreed with pleasure. I always have inspiration for skating. As a child, I had a favorite computer game, The Wizard of Oz. Of course, I read a fairy tale, watched both the cartoon and the movie.
You start performing in show on December 30, just after the Russian Nationals in Krasnoyarsk. Ilia Averbukh said that they will put you in the show literally in one night. How can you learn a role in such a time?
– I don’t think it will be difficult for me – our programs for competitions sometimes are choreographed at nights, sometimes in a few hours. That is, we can easily spend the whole night on ice. So, I can’t say that for me this is some kind of surprise.
The Wizard of Oz” is a show with the participation of a large number of athletes. How is the pair work on the ice for you?
– I do not think that I will skate with someone in a pair. But for me it’s absolutely not important how many people are on the ice, I know that it’s easy for me to interact with other skaters, and I don’t worry about this.
Are team relationships important to you?
– Yes, it’s important. I’ll be working with Ilia’s team for the first time and I hope that we will work well together.
Despite the fact that this is your first experience of participating in an ice play, you performed a lot in shows in Canada and Japan.
– This is a completely different matter. These shows are more like exhibitions after competitions. All skaters call them so – exhibitions or gala. That is, these are not performances, but shows of individual programs.
Is there a difference between the audience in Japan and Canada? And what are the expectations from the reaction of the Russian public to the show?
– There is always a difference, it doesn’t even depend on how loudly you are greeted, but on energy. In Japan, the audience greets athletes very warmly, but Japanese calmness is always felt. In Canada, on the contrary, people do not restrain themselves, shout words of support from the stands, express love, say thanks. I hope, no, I’m sure that the Russian audience will like our fairy tale and all people will have a very good impressions.
Whom will you invite to the premier? Will you call friends?
– Yes, of course, whoever can will come. But, unfortunately, not all of my friends are in Moscow.
In the interview you mention that you value friendship. But you studied individually, spent a lot of time on the rink. How did these people appeared in your life?
– I don’t have many friends, I rarely let people get close. Mostly friends appeared spontaneously. Yes, there are no people nearby whom I have known throughout my life or since childhood. But there are trusted friends, those whom I trust, but at the same time very unexpected and absolutely from other fields and professions, not from the world of figure skating.
Is it important for you that they are your peers?
– Not necessary. If it’s interesting for us to communicate, then what’s the difference, how old is who?
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