SynchroNice / Third Edition / 2018

SYNCHRO NICE 19 most national competitions will have over 30 teams competing, this is incredible. Of course, I want and have to mention team “Paradise” at this point, they are a role model to us and the other teams. All the hard work by their coaches and athletes will mesmerize you while looking at their flawless performances on the Ice. That is the kind of skating I stand for as well, this is what we want to achieve with Junost as well. Our athletes who want to make the switch to Senior can maybe have a nice and extended career at this wonderful team. I always ask everybody, should it be Olympic? In my opinion, synchronized skating has a great future be- cause it is very spectacular and a technically complex kind of figure skating. The level of skating, the elements and also the difficult programs make you wonder more, time after time, why it isn’t already. Teams are trying to present mini shows or mini theatre plays accompanied by all kinds of music. It’s beautiful for audiences. Of course, we all hope that that this sport will be included in the Olympic family and we will all meet at the Olym- pics someday. What is your favourite music for skating? To be honest, I would say that my favourite composer is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. So, I’m a big fan of classical music and will always try to teach and explain it to our youth. I believe this is the result of our history with the Russian ballet. Every year we try to find music to our programs among the all-time classics. You definitely have a great team to work with. Yes, I have and I really love my skaters and my team, this here for instance is our Team captain, you can ask her any question too if you like. Thank you very much Natalia, well then miss team captain…What is your name and how old are you? My name is Liza Medvedeva. I’m 19 years old. I’ve been skating with team “Junost” for 5 years now. Well then you have earned it to be a captain? I feel it more to be a token of trust from our coaches and of course from the other girls to select me. I suppose you’re still studying? Yes, I’m a 2nd year stu- dent at the Ural State Pedagogical University. I can be a physics and computer science teacher when I’m ready but I still don’t know whether I want it to be or not. And how about your spare time, do have any? My hobbies do you mean? Well, I’m really a big fan of all sorts of handcrafts. For instance, I like to create presents my- self and I love to decorate…my own room for instance, but unfortunately indeed, I don’t have that much spare time to indulge myself in these kinds of activities. So, Work before pleasure? Always and although I find it hard to characterize myself, I do believe that I’m a very respon- sible type and furthermore I think that I’m a kind, gentle and often very emotional person. I always try to help the other girls frommy team and I hate all kind of fights. Where were you born and where did you grow up? Well, I was born in Yekaterinburg as well and I lived here all my life. I live here with my mother and older brother. We are all very close and have a warm relationship and as we get older, we even connect better. 19 years old, is it any fun to be a teenager in Yekat- erinburg? Sure, I think there’s a lot you can do or get involved in here in our city, but being an athlete…. You just don’t have the time to enjoy all that. On the other hand, being an athlete gives me many opportunities that you normally wouldn’t have, so I find my life to be very exciting. IT’S INCREDIBLE, THE HUGE STEPS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN OUR SPORT OVER THE PAST DECADE ‘‘ What is your History with skating? I had a Grandmoth- er who was totally in love with Ice-skating, unfortunate- ly she never got the opportunity herself to skate, so she tried to teach her daughters, that also didn’t work out. One day my mum passed by a sports school and that’s where she decided to make an athlete of me. Since that moment, 16 years ago, I have been skating on ice, 6 of them in synchronized skating. You see, although I never got a chance to meet my granny, her love for figure skat- ing was still passed on to me, so I believe. Do you have a role model or a favourite skater? When I was younger I used to like Irina Slutskaya a lot, but now- adays my interests have changed towards synchronized skating competitions and in that case my favourite team is of course the best senior team in the world “Paradise” from Sankt-Petersburg. Their programs are incredibly beautiful and so exciting. They have such an extraordinary gentle and soft way of skating. They make all the elements look so easily. But no worries, I also like senior and junior teams from Finland and Canada. All of them show such high levels of professionalism. Im- agine, how difficult it must be for judges to judge these teams and choose the strongest one. Do you like being the team captain? Yes, I do but I also believe that a team captain is the hardest role in any team, especially morally. Important is that you always put the teams interest before your own. It is absolutely my task to prep my teammates emotionally, push their fighting spirit and physical willingness and just support every girl. These are a captain’s obligations, but impos- sible to manage all alone. That’s why my girls always help me. I can say without the shadow of a doubt that “Junost” is the friendliest team in the world. Are you allowed to choose the music to your programs? No, Music is always chosen by the coaches but, we do participate in that process. Everyone can suggest their favourites and the coaches will listen to them and at the end they’ll decide what music is the best. Not just the Music, we also think of steps or turns in our Choreogra- phy and even draw the dresses we would like. Of course, our coaches will create the programs in the end, but not before they have hit many big and difficult bumps in the road. Talking about music, do you have any favourite music? Hmmm… The specific feature of “Junost” is a classical choice of music to one of the programs. Over the years our coaches have taught us the love for classical Music. Nowadays we’re even really very fond of going to the ballet together, but then on the other hand, it is very difficult to skate to classical music because your skating has to be very light, emotional and elegant. Yes, working with emotions is really challenging. However, everything should be done with a light twist in order to keep it approachable for the general public. And of course, all music maybe requires such an approach, but classical music has its… uniqueness. How do you and the team experience the traveling to competitions? Traveling to competitions is absolutely our favourite. Finally, we get the opportunity to present our programs to the world and we love to watch the teams from other cities and countries. Performing in competitions comes with a lot of emotions, there’s fear, excitement, happiness, joy, sadness. As a team you bond, you grow and become stronger. And last but not least, at competitions we meet new friends and even more important ‘old friends’. Over the years “Junost” has made so many friends from so many different countries that all traveling is a great way to meet them and spend time with them. We always try to bring enough presents. In the end you create and cherish the memories and it’s just beautiful and motivating to share these memories later on with new teammembers.