“When you are the leader of a team, you must maintain the level and always raise it” – figure skaters Stepanova and Bukin

Skaters Alexandra Stepanova And Ivan Boukine after winning the Moscow stage of the Russian Grand Prix, they said that the team management should maintain the level and always improve it.

On Sunday, Stepanova and Bukin won the Grand Prix stage in Moscow in the pairs dance competition, scoring 220.44 points in two skates. Second place went to Elizaveta Shanaeva/Pavel Drozd (201.42), third to Sofya Tyutyunina/Matvey Grachev (178.04).

— Alexandra Stepanova (AS): Excellent condition, excellent health, because the competition is over. It was tense because we were playing in our own walls, with our own people in the stands.

— Ivan Bukin (IB): I always want to share my emotions with someone before and after skating. These are two things that cannot be combined. But in the end, one gently flows into the other. Now it’s happiness, joy, another goal has been achieved, a step forward. And before departure, you are extremely concentrated, constantly in your thoughts.

— AS: And you don’t know where to put them. What to do to slightly ease the burden of anxiety and responsibility. You walk along the corridor and…

— IB: Please let me out.

— AS: We were gone for quite a long time. We are no longer used to this. He is now being reborn.

– How can this be? You have been playing for many years.

— AS: You understand that you are growing. It’s always easier to catch up. When you are the leader of a team, you must maintain the level and always improve it. As you get older, you have more responsibilities. I remember very well the way Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron prepared for the departures. They are a cosmic couple and great athletes, but there were times when they were very nervous. I think every couple is nervous in their own way.

— IB: When you worry about your skating, you will always be nervous. Because there is no limit to perfection. As long as you are passionate about this profession, you will always go out and be nervous before you start. Even during a show, we are sometimes more nervous than before the competition,” the correspondent reports the skaters’ comments.