“I cycled more in the summer than any previous year.” Ekaterina Efremenkova will perform in both short track and ice skating

– Viktor Sivkov told how you trained before the season in his team. The question arises – at the beginning of the season will you have starts in short track or speed skating?

– Both. There will be the Russian Cup in short track, then speed skating competitions.

– What are you going to run on a long track?

– A full plan has not yet been discussed. But the length is correct. Mass start, 3000m and, if possible, one team race.

– How did you decide on all this?

– I had such an obsession for several years already – to try my hand at speed skating, and here is the situation with the season… When, if not now?

Last season, I was a little mentally tired from short track, it was morally difficult. Therefore, there were thoughts of skipping the season, as Sofia Prosvirnova does. I thought about it, but I decided that I didn’t burn out and that I didn’t want to be completely without competition, without training camps. And so everything turned out that I managed to join the team of Viktor Alexandrovich Sivkov.

– There are serious living charges in it. The body doesn’t say, “Katya, why did you start all this?

– I am not a sprinter by nature either, although of course I have never done such volumes in bike loads and at the bar. I have cycled more this off season than in my entire life. In short, be patient. Everything is quite reasonable, the muscles are rebuilding, the body reacts to the load differently than on a short track.

But it’s all very interesting, and it’s interesting to see how it will pan out in both short track and skating competitions.

– How did the short film take your desire to combine?

– The first conversation with the coaches was not started by myself, but by the previous leadership of the federation – they spoke with Victoria Leonidovna Gogotova. It was still at the Olympics, and she prepared them for the idea that I could try out for another team. At first they didn’t want to let me go anywhere, then they thought if I wanted to try, why not?

I came to three ice training sessions in the team of Vladimir Grigoriev. Girls – Anna Vostrikova, Elena Seregina – support. They periodically ask, how are you, how are the charges, am I alive there or not alive (smiling).

– Viktor Sivkov has more men in the group than women. Did you train with them? Aren’t you bored?

Believe me, there is absolutely no time to get bored there. I took two books for the first collection in Minsk – the Wi-Fi is not very good there – I thought I would read. I haven’t even read one. The training sessions are very long and there is not enough time to relax for at least a few hours.

I was a bit worried about how the team would perceive me, but the team is really, really good. At the Olympics, having come across the “truck”, Ruslan Zakharov approached me with words of approval. And he asked me if I was thinking of trying skating. So that fueled the thoughts that I already had, and a few days later I had a conversation with Victoria Leonidovna.

I went to the first cycling camp with a short track, and immediately after that I went to the camp with Sivkov. The guys and girls on the team are very good, responsive. The team now includes Liza Golubeva and several other juniors. Help support. Everything is very comfortable and I really like everything.