Evgenia Medvedeva: “I’m honest with myself, I did everything, I squeezed the maximum out of myself, I tried even more, but I couldn’t squeeze out more.”
source: Ozon.ru text version by sports.ru
Do you remember your feelings 4 years ago before the Olympics?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I remember that I didn’t understand anything. Absolutely. I remember that it was difficult, that at some moments it seemed that it was already the limit. But in fact – no, there was still a good reserve of strength and desire. It is at such moments when it seems that’s all, there is nowhere else to crawl, you get your 35th wind and you move on.
This is exactly what happened in 2018. When it’s already very difficult, you go on the ice, get in the starting position, you don’t worry anymore and you understand that now is the culmination of your life. When you set up your mind that it’s not scary, that it’s cool, it’s a holiday. You have reached the peak of your abilities, to the peak of your career, you look at the people in the stands, the whole world looks at you, you remember yourself as a little kid and ask yourself: is this what you wanted? And you answer yes.
And when I was little, I wanted to become a world champion. That’s all. So my inner child is quite happy with his career.
Our athletes are often brought up in such a way that you can be only the first. And I rejoice when those who win silver and bronze say: yes, I am satisfied.
Evgenia Medvedeva: I realized this only over time – I sat alone with myself, talked. Several times, many times. And this psychological trick, when you talk to your inner child, when it seems to you that everything is wrong, everything is not right, I did not do enough. And then I remembered from childhood: Zhenya, why do you want to be when you grow up? World Champion! Dot. There were no other options.
And, well… two world championships, well, and a couple more medals. So my inner child is doing great.
Did you worry when everything (sports career) ended?
Evgenia Medvedeva: It went pretty smoothly. After 2018, I promised myself that I would follow my sports path until I crawled and stopped at all. I am honest with myself, I did everything, I squeezed the maximum out of myself, I tried even more – but I couldn’t squeeze out more,
About her role in Beijing 2022
Evgenia Medvedeva: The day after tomorrow I fly to Beijing. I’m not worried, rather excited. I’m nervous, but not in a bad way. It is very interesting what will happen there, and I am very afraid of doing something wrong, like all of us.
I will comment, so watch skating. Of course, one of my main roles there is as an ambassador. I think it will be very interesting, because for the first time we have such a role, not only for me, but in general, in principle, at such competitions. At the last competitions (Tokyo 2020) it was not possible to be there, but this time luck is on our side.
About popularity of figure skating
Evgenia Medvedeva: Remember 2014 – we have Adelina Sotnikova, Yulia Lipnitskaya, who made an absolute sensation – this is such a super-mega-popularity now. Plushenko, Yagudin – this is understandable, this is 100%, when we talk about a generation we name Plushenko and Yagudin as another generation, that figure skating remained in the past.
I’m talking about the current figure skating – and it was 2014 that gave such an impetus. And then I moved to seniors, the three of us – me, Anya Pogorilaya and Lenochka Radionova – we went to major competitions, stormed the podium for a couple of years. And then, of course, 2018, and now we are here.
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