“I still can’t believe we were able to do that” – figure skater Volodin on winning the Chinese Grand Prix final

Russian figure skater Nikita Volodin, who competes in pairs for the German national team, told that shortly before the Grand Prix final in China he had a fever and was almost unable to train.

Volodin is originally from Saint Petersburg. Initially he played for Russia and in the 2019/20 season, together with Taisiya Sobinina, he took 11th place in the national championship. In May this year, Volodine went under the German flag and joined forces with Minerva Hase. This weekend they won the Grand Prix Final in China.

— After the Grand Prix stage in Japan, when we returned to the base in Berlin, I fell ill and lay in bed with a fever for almost the whole week. That’s why we barely skated for a week before the final. But of course, Minerva and I always wanted to show our maximum, which was mainly achieved in the short program. In the free skate, I lacked the fitness that I had lost due to illness. Since I was not feeling well, the management after the short period did not put any psychological pressure on us. There were other problems, we understood that we were not in our best shape now. It was necessary to prepare well for the free skating, to properly distribute the forces, which were already few in number.

When we did the last lift of the free program, I realized that today we were capable of beating ourselves. Given our complex preparation, we didn’t even think about the locations. When we saw the ratings, we were shocked. I still can’t believe we were able to do that! — Volodin told the correspondent.