Hope I can do the telly interview tomorrow. Right now I`d like to finish the Tallinn interview.
Witt: How did your rivals react to your return?
Pluschenko: They didn`t believe I was serious. Everybody thought I was fooling them. Some even asked me if I was still clearheaded.
Witt: And how did your coach Alexei Mishin who cared for you since your childhood react?
Pluschenko: He accepted me with open arms. He`s like a father for me. I owe him everything I achieved as a sportsman. I trust him blindly.
Witt: Did the relationship with your trainer change when you got older?
Pluschenko: By now, yes. He`s started asking me for advice, wants to get some tips for everyday live. He understands that I can give him more than success in sports.
Witt: Did you miss competitions?
Pluschenko: Absolutely. Now and then I skated in shows, but competitions are something fundamentally different. You know, I`ve got four motorbikes and six cars. Never mind which vehicle I choose, I always want to drive quickly. And I love horses. If I ride a horse I want to be the fastest. If I play paintball I have to win. Same goes for tennis. But that`s not enough for me. It doesn`t free enough adrenaline; I missed the ultimative kick.
Witt: Now you`ve got it back?
Pluschenko: Yes. And that kick nearly broke me before the free skate at Europeans. It was so tough. Before I had to step on ice I sat in the changing room and didn`t want to go out. I was so nervous, so torn apart. I was really scared. Up to this point the pressure had never been so bad for me.
Witt: Do you know it was obvious for me? You seemed much more tense than you used to be.
Pluschenko: Yes, that`s true. But when I felt the bubbly atmosphere, saw the flags beyond the roof, the packed seats and the judges all doubts suddenly disappeared. I only wanted to show my abilities. With each step, with each movement I felt more great. One of the reasons is that I don`t have any health problems right now (knocks imploringly on wood three times). Last year I had knee and hip surgery in Germany. Your doctors did a superb job.
Witt: What was the toughest stuff concerning your comeback?
Pluschenko: There were several truly gruelling things for me. It starts with getting up early at seven. Then I had to reduce some weight. I was more than 10 kg overweight. After the first training units I thought my brain wouldn`t belong to my body. Each muscle, each sinew hurt terribly when I had to get up in the mornings (gets up and mimicks moaning and with a twisted face how he moves painfully). I needed at least half an hour to be able to walk halfway normally.
Witt: You poor thing...
Pluschenko: Thank God I`ve got a sauna in my house. Each morning I spent up to 30 minutes inside. Then I jumped into ice cold water. Only afterwards I felt like a real human being again.
Witt: Do you like it to have a regulated daily routine again?
Pluschenko: Even without training and competitions I couldn`t complain about boredom. There were some ups and downs. Before I married Yana in September last year I`d already been married once. We got divorced 2008 after three years of marriage. During those 3 years my son Egor was born a few months after the olympic games in Torino.
Witt: Is he going to become a sportsman like you?
Pluschenko: He was two years old when I put him on ice for the first time. He instantly started running without falling once. And last year I took him to hockey.
Witt: And why not figure skating?
Pluschenko: Every kind of sport is somehow difficult if you want to make it to the top. But in my opinion figure skating is the most brutal stuff. If you want to be world class you have to sacrifice a lot of things. Seven, eight hours of daily training are a must, but that doesn`t guarantee you can jump a quad one day; without it you can win nothing nowadays.** In training I already managed to jump two toeloops in combination.
Witt: Wow, that`s crazy!
Pluschenko: Let`s wait and see, maybe I`m going to show a qad combo* now at the olympic games. I`ve planned two quads. But on top of my wish list is the olympic gold medal, of course.
Witt: How would you like to go down into the annals of figure skating? As the human being who managed to nail a combination of two quads or as the personality who was able to achieve this performance? (???)
Pluschenko: Preferably with the combination, if possible combined with a great victory. I`ve been the first one who jumped the 4toeloop-3toeloop-3loop combo as well.
Witt: The last skater who managed to repeat his olympic victory was the American Richard Button 1952 in Oslo. The only one to win three olympic gold medals was the Swede Gillis Grafström - 1920, 1924 and 1928. If you`d win in Vancouver and 2014 in Sotschi you`d be the most successful figure skater in history.
Pluschenko: I`m already the greatest.
In addition to my gold medal from Torino I`ve got the silver from Salt Lake City 2002 as well.
Witt: But Grafström, Button and the Austrian Karl Schäfer who became olympic champion 1932 and 1936 still were more successful than you.
Pluschenko: You can`t compare those competitions with the competitions nowadays. The competition is now much better in a quantitative and qualitative way. That`s normal.
Witt: Well, well, well. One should never compare the times. Will your wife keep quiet if you become olympic champion for the 2nd time in the following days?
Pluschenko: She`d prefer me to continue till Sotschi.
Witt: That would complete a circle for you. As a dominant face of the application of Sotschi you had a huge part in the city receiving the bid for 2014.
Pluschenko: It was bloody hard work to convince the members of the International Olympic Commitee of Sotschi. But it was worth it. I heard you`re doing the same for the Munich application for 2018?
Witt: Yes, I`m the chairwoman of the trustees of the Munich application society.
Pluschenko: If I`m allowed to give you an advice, than this one: Stay natural and tell the truth. I`m sure in this case you will do a super job and pave the way for Munich. If Munich will receive the bid I`m going to skate till 2018 (both have to laugh).
Witt: No joke now, for how long do you want to continue skating?
Pluschenko: Honestly, I don`t know. Sotschi is quite a tempation. But I don`t want to plan four years in advance.
Witt: So you`re planning from year to year. After my first olympic victory 1984 I did the same. That works superbly.
Pluschenko: It`s good that I already know what to do when skating is over.
Witt: You certainly want to become a politician?
Pluschenko: That would be an option. I`m a member of parliament in St. Petersburg. Nevertheless it`s a completely different life to be a politician. Let`s wait and see; maybe I will move to Moscow after the winter games. In any case I`d like to work with people.
Witt: And what do you imagine?
Pluschenko: I`d like to fulfill an old dream of mine and build an unique sports academy for figure skaters and hockey players in St. Petersburg. It`s supposed to contain a hotel, a school, Kindergarten, physiotherapy, simply everything that`s necessary to achieve top performances. The businessplans are ready; the search for investors starts when the winter games are over.
*I think he means the 4-4 combination
** Well, by now it`s been proved otherwise...
... this is from her "diary" - which link?
