Gazeta.ru, January 12, 2004
No strength to compete with pain killers
The two-time European medallist, figure
skater Alexander Abt turns professional. His farewell ceremony took place
during the exhibition gala in St. Petersburg that closed the Russian
Figure Skating Championships.
“I didn’t plan to leave like that, not even
finishing the performances at the National Championships”, admitted the
skater to “Gazeta.ru”. “But in the last time, I hardly skated but battled
injuries. The last one, that I got in Piter, was the fateful final drop. I
don’t have strength left to skate with (painkiller) shots. That’s it, I’m
leaving.”
Is that a personal decision or insisted the
leaders of the Russian Figure Skating Federation on this step?
“I took the decision of ending my amateur
career myself. I will continue to skate in shows, moreover, there are
concrete offers from Japan. I will help my current coach Alexander Zhulin,
and I have already students of my own in America.”
How many years have you been in the sport?
“21 years. My grandmother took me to the
rink when I was already six years old. For figure skating this is quite
old. They gave me skates and told me that I have to catch up within three
months with the others of my age. So I was motivated in the sport from the
very beginning. I started to train with Sergei Volkov, the first Soviet
World Champion. Unfortunaly, he isn’t alive today.”
At the Russian Championships that took
place in St. Petersburg in December 1993, your coach at this time, Rafael
Arutunian, said that Abt is the most promising athlete for the next
Olympic cycle. Why do you think this prognosis didn’t come true?
“I was unlucky – I suffered two very
serious injuries. In 1995 in Japan I seriously injured my knee. I don’t
even know how I finished the performance. I couldn’t continue to skate due
to the unbearable pain. After the surgery I sort of came back. And then I
was sent to a training camp in Mexico, where they trained on bad ice. I
don’t like to remember the injury that I suffered there. I was in hospital
for one year, went through surgery twice. The doctors said that I won’t
even walk again. There wasn’t even talk about returning to the sport. I
learned to walk again, and then to stand on skates. Like a child. These
one and a half years threw me off.”
After you almost became disabled, didn’t
you have fear?
“It was there, of course. Before practices
I always carefully warmed up my leg.”
Under the conditions of hard competition
you didn’t always make the Russian team. Did you never think of changing
citizenship?
“I only wanted to skate for Russia.
Although the representatives of the German figure skating federation often
asked, if I don’t have any German roots. I didn’t even know what to answer
them. I know my ancestry only up to grandmother and grandfather. My
parents told me that the grandfather was taken to the orphanage in
Leningrad (St. Petersburg). After the war he went to Moscow, got married
there. Where he came from, grandpa never even knew himself.”
The peak of your career probably was the
Olympic season, when you at the 2002 European Championships competed at
the same level with the future champion of Salt Lake City, Alexei
Yagudin...
“I prepared in this year as never before. I
understood that I won’t have another chance to perform at the Olympics. In
summer 2001 in Moscow I went through successful surgery. After a short
rehabilitation period I easily managed the hard training at high altitude.
And the move to America turned out to be a blessing. I trained in
California at the same rink with Michelle Kwan. There I also started to
work slowly with young skaters. I led one boy to the US junior team.”
Your family is now living with you in
America?
“Yes. My wife is a housewife, and my son
Makar began even forgetting the Russian language. The athlete from Taiwan,
who trained together with us in California, taught him Chinese words and
English. And so Makar talked to us in a mixture of these three idioms. But
now the boy goes in the Russian kindergarten in New Jersey, and always
speaks with Russian children in his native tongue. Close to us not only
Sascha Zhulin and Tania Navka are living, but also Viktor Petrenko, Artur
Dmitriev, Katia Gordeeva and Ilia Kulik. They all have children, it’s not
boring for Makar.”
What will you miss most from the atmosphere
of the amateur competitions?
“The soccer matches between the skaters for
the former (Soviet) Union and the rest of the world. We always tried to
hold these meets during the last days of the World and European
championships. In soccer, like on the ice, there are no equals to our
skaters.”
Konstantin Bialskii
Original version at:
http://www.gazeta.ru//sport/2004/01/a_82830.shtml