Evgenia Medvedeva: “The organization in Russia has always been one of the best. I involuntarily recall the stages of the Grand Prix in France – it was hell. Plastic medals; bus that doesn’t go according to the schedule.”
Interview with Evgenia Medvedeva. About Russian and international Grand Prix, shows and her current activities.
source: Sport24 dd. 8th December by Anastasia Skoptsova
The filming of “Ice Age” has ended. Do you feel the strength to continue participating in the Ice Age in the future?
Evgenia Medvedeva: It is very difficult but very interesting. The most important thing is that you like your partner in terms of mood, character, and, most importantly, a sense of humor. If you have the same sense of humor, this is the perfect match. You need to choose a partner very carefully, then you can trust him, and it will be very interesting, because sometimes a project turns into a whole torment. I know several stories when it just didn’t work out with a partner.
You began to appear frequently in various popular shows, in particular, on YouTube.
Evgenia Medvedeva: I’m surprised that they call me everywhere, really (smiles).
Are you imagining your own show? 20 years on the ice is a big date. I’m not talking about now, but in the future, would you like to?
Evgenia Medvedeva: Of course I do. But I don’t think it will happen in the near future.
Or maybe a YouTube show?
Evgenia Medvedeva: (winks and smiles) Stay tuned.
You comment on the Grand Prix stages, act as an expert. Have you heard about the new Code of Ethics? What can you say?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I will say this: I first learned about the code during the Ice Age, when a journalist asked me about it. To be honest, I don’t know anything about this Code of Ethics. I have always had this policy: if you comment, it must be ethical, without touching on topics that are considered offensive in the conventional sense. I think that I have no problems with this, I always choose my words (smiles). Probably, if I start having problems with this, I will read the Code of Ethics (smiles).
In principle, you should always be polite and respectful to the person who is on the ice. It doesn’t matter who their coach is, how they skate, or for how long. A person goes on the ice, and your job is to comment on what a person does on the ice, what elements they perform, what music they skate to, and express your own, useless, expert opinion that no one asked for (laughs).
How ethical is it when during Sasha and Mark’s performances they show their halves?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I will say this: there are couples who publicly declare their relationship, and there are those who hide them. Sasha and Mark openly show that they are together by hugging, kissing, and holding hands. And this is their decision to show people their happiness, to share their joy: “I have a loved one, and I’m deeply in love.” I think that specifically in the case of Sasha and Mark, this is okay because they themselves made the choice to make their relationships public.
In my case, I am not a supporter of this, I don’t really like it when they look under a magnifying glass. If I had some kind of secret relationship that suddenly someone would find out about, and my soulmate would be shown on TV, I would be unpleasant. In my case, it would be private, not public, and a violation of personal space. It all depends on the couple and how they position themselves. It seems to me that everything is very organic with Sasha and Mark, and they themselves enjoy it.
The stages of the Russian Grand Prix were held either in large, half-empty arenas or in smaller, filled ones. Don’t you think that our Grand Prix lacked PR?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I know that our federation is on fire right now. It is very difficult to organize such a huge number of events. I know one girl from the federation who is directly involved in the organization of sports competitions. She told me this phrase: “Just imagine. In the international season, there were only the “Cup of Russia” and the Russian Nationals. The stages of the Russian Cup do not need PR, just small internal qualifying competitions. That’s all”. Sorry, I forgot about the Russian Cup Final, which I won (laughs).
Now there are six “Cup of Russia”, the final of the series, the Russian Nationals. First, it is a huge financial cost. Fortunately, our federation has no problems with this. There is no space for advertising on the boards. Energy costs are simply enormous. Therefore, it seems to me that now the federation is only getting used to the weekly Cup of Russia. This is hell, really. It seems to me that there are simply not enough people or resources for PR, promotion, and advertising. Just imagine how big these events are. and how difficult it is to produce everything at a professional, like international, level.
Is it possible to compare our series of Grand Prix with the international level?
The organization in Russia has always been one of the best. There has always been attention to detail. I involuntarily recall the stages of the Grand Prix in France – it was hell. It was very hard and bad, I would say. These are plastic medals; this is a bus that, according to the schedule, should leave at 4, but leaves at 4.43 or simply does not come to pick us up. Marseille, Paris – in France, it is very difficult with organization.
Another very good organization is, of course, in Japan. But this is Japan.
Did you follow the international Grand Prix series? Or is it not as interesting as before?
Evgenia Medvedeva: Honestly, I follow figure skating only in terms of my work. If I have to comment, I mostly follow the guys. I check the results and watch some performances of people and friends who are interesting to me in pair skating, ice dance, and women’s single skating.I watch guys because I need to comment on them.
It’s the same with international competitions. I do not need to comment on them at the moment, but I know what is happening. Ilia Malinin jumped the quadruple axel; we are discussing this on the air; a historic event happened. On the Moscow stage, they said that Malinin, a skater with a Russian surname, skates for the USA and performed a quadruple axel. Can you imagine it? This is a world event. It does not matter in which country the competition takes place. If the competition were anywhere in the world, this topic would be covered. Therefore, I follow to be in the subject.
In February, the event “For the Prizes of Evgenia Medvedeva” will be held. How did you come up with the idea to create your own competitions?
Evgenia Medvedeva: I didn’t create them; the competition “named after Evgenia Medvedeva” just appeared (smiles). As far as I know, the Moscow Federation holds it. I was offered it, and I thought it was cool—cool in my lifetime (laughs).
Can you compare your schedule now and when you competed?
Evgenia Medvedeva: This is the situation when you think that this is the bottom, but they knocked from below. I thought that I did not plan to perform and would rest. It’s such a nightmare, guys. I think, “Zhenya, are you sick? Zhenya, do you look bad? Girl, are you all right?” (smiles). The schedule is now mega-packed, but there is no routine—that’s cool. Because I’ve been doing the same thing for 20 years, I’m sick of it. Although this is also cool, constancy is great, it is very comfortable to have it, there are less stressful situations.
Now I have completely different tasks: all sorts of YouTube shows, advertising shoots, commenting, Ice Age, the show where I skate—I’m still a single skater, and I remember how it’s done, sometimes I even jump (smiles). In general, a lot of things. And it’s very cool, I like it.
Related topics: Alexandra Trusova, Evgenia Medvedeva, Mark Kondratyuk
Leave a Reply