The youth competitions at the Grand Prix stage in Moscow turned out to be incredibly spectacular! Two of the most talented skaters of their generation, Lev Lazarev and Arseny Fedotov, collided on the ice. The second was considered the absent favorite: Tutberidze’s student had not lost in 11 outings. But if anyone could interrupt his winning streak, it would be Lev Lazarev, owner of the most complex content.
Sergei Davydov’s student in Moscow was great! The skater skated almost perfectly in the short program, and in the free skate he made a splash, landing two quad lutzes and a quad toe loop. With an impressive 273.56 points, Lazarev became the undisputed winner of the tournament.
After the award ceremony, Lev spoke with a “Championship” correspondent. The skater told how he prepared for the tournament, answered whether there was a fundamental confrontation between him and Fedotov, and also reacted about entering the Channel One Cup.
—The last stage didn’t go very well for you, can you tell me why? — Honestly, I didn’t even fully understand it myself. I was sick for three or two weeks, but I don’t think it affected me much. But yeah, last time it didn’t work.
—Did this make you more willing to show that you are great at this stage? Maybe it was important to win? — Of course, there was a desire to skate well, but it wasn’t that I really wanted to win. I just wanted to do my thing.
—How did you prepare for this stage?— First of all, my coach and I decided to eliminate the quadruple Salchow for this outing. I modified the program a lot and as you can see, it helped.
Lev Lazarev
Photo: Anastasia Matrosova, “Championship”
— You perform a quadruple lutz: it is considered the most difficult jump, but at the same time you do it very well. How did you manage to stabilize it? — For each athlete, each jump has a different difficulty. For me jumping Lutz is not very difficult, so far, for example, I find it easier to jump a quad Lutz than a quad Salchow.
— At this stage you have overlooked your main rival, Arseny Fedotov, do you have a fundamental confrontation between you? – Of course, I’m glad we won, but we don’t have any fundamental confrontation, we communicate well off the ice, so it’s not that we are enemies.
—How do you manage to maintain such friendly relations with competitors? I know a lot of people can’t do this. —When we are off the ice we are not rivals, we do not compete there, so we can communicate calmly.
— Do you have friends in figure skating? — In CSKA, of course, I have friends: Masha Gordeeva and Angelina Palagina, who tomorrow will compete in the adult phase of the Grand Prix. As it is, I don’t really communicate with anyone outside of my group, but sometimes we can write something to each other.
— So you in the group support each other, follow the performances, the results? — Yes, we follow each other, everyone at CSKA has already congratulated me, it’s very nice.
—What did the coaches tell you? —So far only Sergei Dmitrievich has praised me. He is very happy to have finally managed to compile all the content.
Lev Lazarev
Photo: Anastasia Matrosova, “Championship”
— You qualified for the Channel One Cup. How important was this for you? “I can’t say it was very important to me, it wasn’t some kind of goal. But of course it’s good to have gotten there.
—What are your expectations from this tournament? — I still don’t know in what format it will be carried out, but I think it will be great.
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The list of participants of the Channel One Junior Cup in figure skating is known
— Have you seen the Channel One Cup for adults? – Yes, I saw it, I even went to see it live once, I think the first one, which took place in Moscow, I really liked.
—Which team do you usually support, if it’s not a secret? — I don’t highlight any team, or I support some individual athletes who may be on different teams, or I just observe.
— How do you feel in general about team competitions in figure skating? — I think it’s interesting, but so far I’ve only competed in team competitions in the Battle of Schools, and it was really cool.
—What do you think of the Battle of the Schools? — The atmosphere there is non-competitive, more festive and I really enjoyed participating there.
— Do team tournaments differ from regular competitions in terms of mood? —As for attitude, probably not, they don’t differ at all. Therefore, when I performed at the Battle of Schools, everyone in CSKA supported me a lot. Everyone there supports each other very well.
— This is the second year without international tournaments. How does your motivation change because of this? “My motivation hasn’t changed at all. I want to perform as many quadruple jumps as possible in the program, but at the same time skate beautifully. And the lack of international outlets doesn’t affect me at all. After all, I haven’t performed there yet.
— You say you want to jump as many quadruples as possible. Ideally, what type of content would you like to make? Not necessarily this season, maybe in the future.— I think more than five quads, but I haven’t seriously thought about it yet.
—Have you ever thought about learning a quadruple axis? – Yes, I would like to learn it, but then after a while, because now I need to stabilize the quadriceps what can I do and try to complete the rest.
— Can you name your goal for this season? — My goal for this season is to skate as well as possible and try to collect difficult content as many times as possible.
Previous “Championship” interview with Lev Lazarev:
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