"patinaje.org" October 2, 2002
By Betlem Boronat

Evgeni Plushenko had been, once again, loyal to his appointment with the Alexei Mishin's International Summer School that came once again to Jaca after being at the Majahonda ice rink. He is more mature and more aware of what is to be one of the world champions (by the time, he was already former world champion) and one of the important ones in the figure skating road. Plushenko is looking at this upcoming season with a hard challenge in front of him: to show besides the Plushenko we all know, there's another one, a different and innovative one and that if the injuries permitted we will see this new Plushenko this season.

BB: The season is starting, how are you looking at it?

EP: Right now, I'm a little tired. It's been a very hard summer because I've been on the Champions on Ice tour, which means I had done 93 shows on 83 cities for four months, so right now I want to rest a little bit and I want to polish my work for the upcoming competitive season. Anyway, I feel better than last year because I have overcome all the injuries that had been hunting me last season and I have already manage to finish here in Jaca my new short program (Adagio) so I'm very satisfied on how the season is starting.

BB: What are you expecting from this new season?

EP: Right now, first thing to do is to finish my new two programs, the short one that you have already seen and the free one we are still working on it. Besides, I'm working very hard to do new quads and overall I'm hoping that this season I will not have to go through all the problems with injuries like last season.

BB: It seems that Russian figure skating is still bringing new talents like Arthur Khill...

EP: Yes (laughs) We all have to be very excited about all this new skaters. Arthur is still very little, he is only 9 years old, but in two or three years, he will be competing to the maximun level.

BB: Who are the rivals to beat this season?

EP: The first rival I have to beat is going to be myself. Sometimes, regardless how hard you work, it only take one lack of concentration that can lead to a key mistake and all your season can go down; plus there's always the subject of the injuries...

BB: What about the other skaters?

EP: There's a lot of skaters right now competing. There's Abt and... I don't know Timothy Goebel.... There's a lot of good skaters, not just one, and you have to beat them all.

BB: In this new short program that you have shown in Jaca, we haven't see the Biellman... Is that a new change of this new Plushenko that you want us to see?

EP: No, not at all. The Biellman is included in the short program, is my trademark. But this time I haven't perform it because after my knee injury, I still have some problems with my back and I have prefer not to overdone it. But the Biellman spin is going to be in the short and free program.

BB: You told us that you are planning new quads, are you also planning new combinations?

EP: We are working on it. I'm mostly working connecting steps and the movements between the jumps so I don't make the mistake that I made at the Olympics games. I want all this changes to be part of a new Plushenko, more aggressive, braver and a Plushenko that wakes up from a season that was not as great as it could have been.

Translated by Ximena