Sofia Samodelkina: “It’s absolutely clear to me: if I don’t land an axel or a quad next season, I won’t rise above my current standings. So the goal is clear.”
Kazakh figure skater Sofia Samodelkina shared her determination to regain ultra-C jumps, stating that without them, she cannot progress further in her career.
original source: Sports by Maya Bagriantseva
In an interview with Sports correspondent Maya Bagriantseva, Sofia Samodelkina spoke about her intention to restore difficult jumps (quads and triple axel). Here’s a translation.
“Sofia Samodelkina: I think about this all the time. When I injured my leg, what upset me most was that it would set me back significantly in working on ultra-C jumps. Trying to land a triple axel or quad right before the Olympics is a strange decision, so it was immediately clear: this season was a write-off in that regard.
When I was doing jumps in the winter, I saw that the height was good, and I had enough margin for another rotation. But I couldn’t take the risk.
It’s absolutely clear to me: if I don’t land an axel or a quad next season, I won’t rise above my current standings. So the goal is clear. But as you get older, you realize that achieving goals isn’t so simple. A difficult jump isn’t achieved just by repetition – it’s important to structure all the work properly.
Q: But have you had successful attempts since moving to America?
Sofia Samodelkina: Yes. The first thing I landed here was the axel, and then I started working on the salchow and loop.
I know what people will say: ‘Where’s the video? Maybe you just dreamed it.’ But my coaches and I have plenty of these landings on our phones; I just don’t see the point in bragging – there’s nothing to show off yet. Once I do it in competition, then we can talk. As Rafael Vladimirovich Arutyunyan says: a jump counts when it’s 10 out of 10, not on social media.
Q: Did you see the comments from Evgeni Plushenko’s team after the Olympics? They said that if you’d been with them, you would have taken the ice in Milan with three ultra-C jumps.
Sofia Samodelkina: I saw them. Everyone has the right to their opinion. Life turned out this way: I went to the Olympics not with them, but with Rafael Vladimirovich. Each of us can draw our own conclusions and make decisions. What else is there to say? If I weighed 40 kg now, maybe I would have shown all the quads at the Olympics. If ifs and ans were pots and pans.”
Related topics: Sofia Samodelkina
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