“I looked at the guys from Poland and felt they were treated like ours. It’s like there’s something wrong with me” – figure skater Samoilov

Figure skater Vladimir Samoilov who competes for Poland, told that he felt a difference in attitude towards the local skaters and himself.

In 2021, Samoilov decided to play for the Polish national team. The 24-year-old athlete is training in Italy.

— To what extent is figure skating developing abroad? Are there many spectators attending international competitions?

— It’s hard for me to say, because I started playing when this whole situation in the world had just started. But at the World and European Championships, everything is fine: there are a lot of people, they support everyone well. There are very few people at Challengers, at least the ones I have attended. We don’t feel any tension, we ride as if we were training. There was no feeling of competition.

— How do fans treat you?

— Last year I was at the competition, there I looked at the guys from Poland and I felt that they were treated like ours. This seems normal to me too, but this seems a little different. Maybe because I’m new. Overall, everything is fine.

— Do you know Polish figure skaters? Is there competition within the team?

– I don’t know everyone. There are the Vitkovsky brothers. A Ukrainian, Matvey Efimenko, who competes in juniors, like Jakub Lofek.

The guys are good, they will learn the jumps – and you can compete with them too. Right now I’m number one, but it’s very possible that one of them will beat me to it if I start messing up. Figure skating is a lottery,” Samoilov told .

The skater is the winner and prize-winner of the stages of the Russian Cup and the Junior Grand Prix.