The Russian Championships held in Saransk revealed to the public many talented skaters. Among them is Ivan Ramzenkov, a student of Kirill Davydenko, who took the bronze medal of the tournament. The skater’s success was not predictable; Even in youth sports, the competition is such that several people compete for the podium at once. But most of the time stability decides everything.
Ivan Ramzenkov was able to produce two high-quality performances at the right time and in the right place, thanks to which he won the bronze medal. But this is probably just the beginning of Vanya’s successful journey in figure skating. The 14-year-old athlete is already planning complications, thinking about a quadruple axis and is inspired by the best skaters in Russia and the world.
Let’s meet Ivan Ramzenkov in our interview!
— Vanya, congratulations on your medal at the Russian Championships! Did you achieve all your objectives in this tournament? — The goal was to enter the top six to remain in the Russian team and, of course, have clean performances. Unfortunately, the clean skates were not successful, but I fought until the end.
— Is bronze a success for you or would you like to go higher? – Of course, success. Still, I had strong opponents, their set was more difficult, so for now I am third.
— Does the competition environment give you energy or does it sometimes demotivate you? – More motivating. We need to prepare, skate cleanly and not worry.
How did the boys win medals?
Junior Tutberidze takes the title for the second year in a row! Not even the fall stopped Fedotov from winning
—Has it ever happened to you that your rivals motivated you to do something? I know that when Ilya Malinin jumped the quadruple axle, many skaters immediately wanted to repeat his success. — Yes, when I discovered that Ilya performed the quadruple axel in competitions, I wanted to learn it too.
— Do you plan to reinforce anything in the near future? – Now my goal is to complete all the quads: flipping and looping. I have already performed Lutz only in training, but I should prove it in competitions. Well, in the future I would like to skate the program with all quads.
— Do you plan to make the content more complex this season? —Of course, I want to complicate the content, skating with three quads. I already tried to show that set, but unfortunately it didn’t work. It was in my hometown, St. Petersburg, at a competition in our stadium. But I didn’t get the quadruple Salchow there. However, I did not relax and made myself two quadruple sheepskin coats.
—Why do you think the three quadriceps have not worked yet? Lack of physical fitness or is it mentally difficult to prepare? – Honestly, I don’t know. But three quadruples remain masters of the sport, such as Andrei Mozalev, Zhenya Semenenko, Petya Gumennik. This content is very strong, preparation for it is more difficult. Of course, acting with this set is more difficult.
Ivan Ramzenkov on the podium of the Russian Championship (right)
Photo: fsrussia.ru
— You trained on the same ice with Andrey, but he recently left your group. Did this have any effect on you? – No, it didn’t matter. It was his decision, he didn’t affect me in any way. I wish you good luck in Eteri Tutberidze’s group.
— It turns out that, especially after this medal, you are now the leader of the group. Can you feel it? —I wouldn’t say I’m a leader. We have a lot of capable guys in our group. I think it would be a mistake to call myself a leader.
— In general, how is your relationship in the group? Are they friendly or is there still a competitive atmosphere? – It depends on when. On race days we are rivals, other days we are friends.
— Do you have sparring sessions or jumping battles during training? – There is. Sometimes we can organize a cascading battle, learning to skip complex combinations.
— Now, in general, in world men’s skating there is a tendency to complication, Ilya Malinin himself usually performs all quadruples in the free skate. Aren’t you afraid that the bar has been raised so high that to win you have to demonstrate something supernatural? – No, nothing scares me, it motivates me. Well, where would we be without skating? The second score depends on skating, she also needs to win, we shouldn’t forget about her either.
— You qualified for the Channel One Cup. But you already had experience in the junior version of this tournament. Can you tell us how you tuned it? Was it really something special? — Yes, it was a special start for me. Unfortunately I didn’t do so well there, not everything I had planned went well. Then I felt dissatisfied with my performance, but I tried not to get angry and move on.
Channel One Junior Cup: how it happened
Shcherbakova’s team won the Channel One Junior Cup! Everything was decided by the separation of the girls.
—Did it not work because the responsibility of the team weighed on you? “I was very worried because I didn’t want to let my team down. This may have caused errors.
— Surely you learned lessons from that speech. How will you approach the senior Channel One Cup now? – Yes, I learned my lesson. I told myself there’s nothing to worry about, there’s nothing to worry about. You have to imagine it’s like skating during training. I also want to finish learning lutz now; After a shoulder injury I haven’t fully recovered.
— Have you followed the Channel One Cup before, maybe you were supporting a team? – Yes, I looked at it, of course, but I didn’t support anyone. Still, all the athletes worked, they tried, each one showed his abilities. As they say, the strongest will win.
—This season is going quite well for you. Look, you’re almost always in the top 3. — Yes, although the season is complicated for me. But he is the best. Last season, after an injury, I left without quadriceps, only two axes. Only at the end of the season he showed a quadruple. And this season I show two quads, planning three. So the season is difficult, but successful.
— Has anything changed in you since last season that has allowed you to take such a big step? — I would say that I climbed steps, I improved and that brought results. Maybe something in my head changed after my serious injury, the surgery. After that, it occurred to me that I needed to work even harder and improve my second grade.
Ivan Ramzenkov
Photo: Anastasia Matrosova, “Championship”
– I want to travel a little in time with you. Tell me how you got into figure skating? — My mother brought me to the ice for the first time, just to skate. I went out and fell all the time, but I still really enjoyed it. She went out on the ice almost every day and tried not to fall again. She asked to take me to a coach and started learning how to skate.
—What interested you in figure skating at that childhood age? – Jumping! At that time I didn’t even know what skating was, but later they explained it to me. I realized this was important and tried to work on it.
— Is your family generally athletic? Maybe someone else was involved in some kind of sport? — Yes, my parents played sports in their youth. And now my younger sister is studying figure skating with my coach. She is 9 years old, but she started skating late. She performs double unders, now she is learning double axes and triples. I think she will become a good athlete.
—She looked at you and also decided to go figure skating? – Yeah.
– Cool! Turns out you’re already inspiring people to take up figure skating. – Yes. I really hope that my sister also wins medals.
— Do you have any skaters who inspire you? — Of the Russian figure skaters, Petya Gumennik, is now showing very good results, he jumps quadruple lutz and skates beautifully. Of foreign athletes, I like Ilya Malinin. I like how he pops his quads so easily. And last season I liked his choreography in the free show.
— Is there anything you like as much as figure skating? — The boys in my group and I play soccer. I also support a lot of people in football. And in the summer I usually play volleyball, which is also my hobby. My cousin and I usually go to play.
— Do you watch any soccer or volleyball tournaments? — I only watched volleyball on television, but I went to soccer with my father, our Zenith team from Saint Petersburg, which I support. Of the foreign teams, I support Barcelona.
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