Brian Orser: Medvedeva did not work as an adult before, now we do it



The coach of the two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu flew to Moscow on Wednesday for the pre-season skates with his student, two-time world champion Evgeniya Medvedeva. In Novogorsk, Brian Orser briefly told the special correspondent of RIA Novosti Elena Vaitsekhovskaya about his expectations and noted that the first training session of the Russian skater on the ice of the Olympic training base was just stunning.



-Brian, could you describe how your summer training with Medvedeva went?



I’m completely satisfied. It is enough, I think, to say that both I and Zhenya flew to Moscow with a feeling of great anticipation. We want to show the programs finally, to show what we managed to do over the past months. I will not say that we are talking about some kind of global changes, but these changes certainly took place. In my opinion, Zhenya has greatly improved in skating, but this work, as you know, is never fully done, it can be neverending. It can last for months, years. Now the main thing for me is that Medvedeva is getting better, I can see it. I really want to show the work of our choreographer David Wilson. The programs he choreographed were very much liked by everyone who saw them. Sandra Bezik (one of the most famous choreographers of figure skating) helped us with the short program, and David even volunteered to come with us to Moscow.



- How ready, in your opinion, is Zhenya to skate these programs in public?



- It is clear that at this stage performance may be imperfect, but no one expects perfection on the first days of September. I can see how much Zhenya is worried, because she is a perfectionist by nature, but this is a good excitement that makes the skater concentrate very much on what she does.



- Do you plan to show the programs with all the jumps?



- In this regard, I would put the question a little differently: we are going to skate at the maximum that is possible at the moment. As the programs are skated and the form is gained, it's possible that something will look different. This applies not only to jumping, but also to choreography. This training system has already been well developed: Kim Yuna, Javi (Fernandez) trained this way. We do not have something like here we jump, then we glide, and then we dance: work goes on all aspects of skating at the same time.



-Is Zhenya an easy student?



- Yes very. She is always open to everything new, she knows how to work with very high intensity. This was noted by David (Wilson), and Sandra (Bezik). The difficulty is that no one worked with her as with an adult, and this is exactly what we are doing now. Junior work is completely different, so adaptation also takes time.



- In her previous group, I know, a lot was built on the constant competition of a large number of athletes on one ice.



- In our club, the competition is high too, but it is a little bit different. When there are many athletes around you, each of whom constantly strives to improve, a very special atmosphere arises, which, as they say, hangs in the air. The competition is engaging, but at the same time it is very friendly and, I would say, inspiring: no one is afraid to make a mistake, because there are many people around who know how to help, and who are always ready to support. I am very pleased with the fact that Medvedeva has not only blended naturally in our team, but she likes it very much.



- On Thursday, you spent your first training in Novogorsk at an earlier time. How are the consequences of prolonged flight and acclimatization?



- Considering what you said, I think that Zhenya had a crazy training, stunning. She did not quite successfully make two jumps, and I saw that it upset her. But for me as a coach, it was important that, in an unrealistic state in terms of freshness, she kept very high speed and freshness of the skating itself, a good presentation on the ice. The special feature of Medvedeva is that she constantly tries to be liked by the audience, to make it fall in love with her. And she succeeds. I see it as a coach at every training session and absolutely in love with Zhenya.



- Did you train with other skaters?



- There were no girls from the former Medvedeva group on the ice, if that's what you are talking about. As far as I know, they will start training in Novogorsk only on Friday, but that's good: we have time to skate in a calm environment, get used to the atmosphere, and get to feel ourselves in it. When everyone comes, the situation will certainly become more nervous, but it's good. We are ready for this.



