Conversation with Maxim Nekrasov, Vasilisa Kaganovskaya`s ice dance partner. Part of the couple's big interview for Vlad Zhukov.
– You can be called a kind of unique long-timer – you’ve been training with the same coach for so many years. How did that happen? Unique understanding or something else?
– It’s a long story. It all started in 2007. In singles, I couldn’t pass the standards because I was bad at jumping, and Lyudmila Mikhailovna (Gorshkova) suggested I switch to dance. I thought about it for a long time, discussed it with my parents. We decided – let’s try.
And so, since 2007 I’ve been with Alexey Yuryevich. And at this rink, I’ve been training since 2004. Or even 2003.
– You must know every corner here.
– Of course! I know everyone – the administrators, the other staff.
– Tell us about your family.
– Actually, it was my mom who put me in figure skating. My dad wanted hockey, but mom won. She herself wanted to learn how to skate – and sent me. Apparently, so that later I’d teach others (laughs).
My sister and her husband, my grandma – they support me a lot. Close relatives play a big role, let’s say.
– So your family is involved in figure skating in one way or another?
– Yes.
– Do they come to competitions, cheer for you?
– They don’t. We have a rule – they don’t come to my competitions. Once, the whole family came to the stands to cheer for me, and I skated badly. After that I told them – don’t ever come again.
I think only my mom watches competitions live. I recently found out my sister doesn’t watch – she says she can’t, her nerves can’t take it. She only turns it on after she sees the results. She doesn’t even let her husband watch (laughs). He’s like – why not me?
So that’s how they support me. During competitions, no one calls or writes – I just don’t answer. I’m completely in myself, focused. Until I get back home, no one touches me.
– I remember Vasilisa once said in an interview that she rarely faced hate. And you added that for you it happened more often. What was it?
– Yes, it did happen to me. Just someone wrote something, and you start thinking about it… But now I don’t care what or how people think. I have a big coaching staff. They’ll tell me the whole truth.
– Do you read comments about yourself?
– Not anymore.
– But is the opinion of respected experts meaningful to you?
– Yes, of course. That’s different.
– Were there times when you read such opinions and changed something in yourself because of them?
– Yes, often. I won’t say whose opinions I read, but it really happened a lot.
– What kind of partner would you like to see yourself as in the future?
– I’m very calm. I think I’d like to become more open.
– Are you as calm in everyday life as you are on the ice?
– Even calmer in life (laughs). Maybe only with friends when we’re joking around. Otherwise – calm. They tell me – I go and do it.
On the ice, because of this, it’s harder to open up. I’ll think a hundred times about how to do something…
– Tell us about your hobbies.
– The main one is traveling. To different places. I prefer mountains. I don’t know why everyone says sea-sea… Me – mountains. I like a different kind of rest – a tent, sitting around, emptiness all around, up high… Even though I’m scared of heights (laughs).
– Interesting combination – in life you’re calm, but you choose mountains. And mountains aren’t always safe.
– But you choose safer routes. Though that doesn’t cancel climbing Elbrus. I want to climb it, reach the very top. Even though I don’t know how it will go (laughs). Whether I’ll get altitude sickness.
– That’s quite a way to open up – starting with Elbrus.
– Well, some start with Kilimanjaro (laughs). I won’t go there – too scary. Elbrus is at least somehow under control. I have to climb it, I must. And I need to jump with a parachute too…
– Have you studied how it will go?
– Not in detail, just watched videos. Usually the climb takes about a week. There are 4 stages of altitude, you spend a day at each, checking your condition. There have been cases when people reached 5300 meters – and then altitude sickness hit. You have to go back down.
– And going down isn’t easy either.
– Going down – depends on the situation (laughs). But I still want to. I’ve been to the Elbrus foothills, to Dombai – I need to go higher.
– Give us your top 3 must-see places.
– Let’s take Stavropol Krai, I go there most often. The city of Kislovodsk, the Valley of Roses, Dombai, the Elbrus area. And there’s another spot – I still have a photo from there on social media – a bench and swings right over a cliff.
And of course, the waterfalls… So many places. Whoever wants to go, just go. Ask me, I’ll tell you everything! (laughs).