Q: What is your character like?
A: I think you can better judge my character from the outside. I am actually a funny person.
Q: Funny? You seem always so serious!
A: (laughs) I am just shy around strangers. But when I am with my friends, I am opening up. I only trust my very good friends. I trust them in the sense that if I am maybe saying something not right nobody will know about it or if I do something silly they won’t tell anybody.
Q: You are doing something silly?
A: I might scream very loudly. I might do a lot of things actually.
Q: Really? You seem so timid and quiet.
A: I was educated that way. In public, you have to be quiet and talk only when you are addressed. But sometimes I let myself go, but only with friends. When I am with my friends, I am in a good mood. I am actually always in a good mood. When I am with my friends, I relax and I have fun.
Q: Are your parents very strict?
A: My dad is quite strict. My mom is sometimes strict. The parents are always right, or maybe not always. (smiles)
Q: You said you don’t like to go to school, but you are still in school, aren’t you?
A: Yes, I am going to school and I have to pass some exams. I was shocked that just before Junior Worlds my algebra teacher told me that school has to be my main focus in life now and that I should push figure skating aside in order to concentrate on school and attend classes. I manage only to go to one or two classes. I leave the house at 8 in the morning and I come back at 10 at night. I just don’t have time for school.
Q: The three Russian girls that were in the press conference at Junior Worlds said that they are home schooled, but you attend regular school?
A: My parents are for some reason against home schooling. They say it is difficult. I don’t know, I haven’t tried it yet.
Q: What is your favorite subject in school or isn’t there any?
A: When I am studying something, for example algebra, I do it well. But my schedule is so that I can’t attend algebra or geometry and all these subjects that I could learn. I only attend the ones that I don’t like at all. I don’t like physics, it is not interesting for me. I like geography, but I don’t get there often. I get to attend chemistry, which I don’t like. Russian is easy for me. I don’t know the rules at all, but my grammar is correct as far as I know. When I am writing something in social networks I basically don’t make mistakes. I am always writing correctly and I don’t have any problems with that.
Q: If you were sent to an isolated island and could take three things, what would you take?
A: I don’t know! That is a very difficult question. Mhm. I think no matter what I take I wouldn’t get away from it, so it wouldn’t make a difference.
Q: What do you enjoy to do in your spare time?
A: When my friends have time to go out, I always try to go with them. When it doesn’t work, I have to do something for school. Sometimes the second half of the day is free, but my friends don’t have time so I have to sit at home and it bores me to hang around like that. My friends are other skaters from the rink.
Q: Where do you like to go for vacation?
A: Wherever it is nice. I prefer the sea, although I don’t like swimming in the sea. I only swim in the swimming pool. I am choking on saltwater all the time, not because I can’t swim properly, I can swim, but when I learned swimming I did not breathe in the right way and got water in my mouth all the time. Therefore I just can’t swim in saltwater. And also it is usually quite dirty, that turns me off as well. I can’t swim in dirty water.
Q: Thank you for the interview and all the best for the future!
Interview by Tatjana Flade
