Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarise: "We are ready to embrace the Olympic atmosphere"

What are your thoughts on your performance here in Budapest?

Matteo: We fought a lot, but we are very happy. Our preparation for this competition has been particular, we changed our skates a few weeks ago and, although we have had some problems, we gave our best here. This means that we can support each other and that we want to pursue our goals.

Why did you decide to change your skates at this time of the season?

Matteo: We changed them very soon, before summer, therefore we trained for many months wearing the same shoes. As we spent many hours a day training throw jumps and lifts, our boots were even more tired than us! That's why we had to change them. Here we were able to skate well and stay focused, although our skates are still a little bit stiff.

What are your thoughts on the competition you did in Trento, the Universiade?

Matteo: It has been an amazing experience: the atmosphere, all the people who were there, with their flags, to support us... it has been a unique experience to hear the public clapping along with the music since the very first notes of our Free Program. Winning the bronze medal was the icing on this beautiful cake.

We could say that Universiade are almost a “mini Olympic Games”.

Nicole: Exactly, I am happy that we have done this competition, so that Matteo had the chance to understand how the Olimpic atmosphere feels like. Of course all of this is going to be ten, perhaps a hundred times bigger in Sochi.

Matteo: Yes, you can find people who don't usually don't follow figure skating, new faces...something changes from the ordinary competition setting. It's like here at the European Championships: as we had a different schedule from the usual one, Anna and Luca won the gold before our competition would even start, giving us different emotions from the ones we usually have when we have just arrived at a competition. This makes you understand that things don't usually go the way you want them to be, but you have to fight in order to get them.

Nicole, you have already been at the Olympic Games: have you ever told to Matteo how it is like to attend that competition?

Nicole: Yes, I have told him about my experience in Vancouver, but I am sure that Sochi is going to be different. Every Olympic Games are something distinct from the previous ones. In Vancouver I loved what surrounded the competition: the event itself, for us athletes who don't aim at winning a medal, is just a normal competition after all. The difference is the atmosphere, staying in the Olympic Village with all the athles competing in different sports.

Moreover, they are going to be held in Russia, and you have been training in that country for more than a year now. Nicole, I know that you are studying Russian, do you think that it is going to be almost like skating on home turf for both of you?

Nicole: Yes, I am studying Russian. I can understand it well but still cannot speak a lot.

Matteo: She also writes in Russian very well...

Nicole: I really like it, I would love to learn it properly; I already speak English and French and I would like to add another language to this list.

What about you, Matteo?

Matteo: I speak Italian...quite well, I'd say! Jokes aside, I am not at Nicole's level, but now I can say some simple sentences and ask simple questions.

Matteo has previously mentioned the unusal schedule in Budapest: what do you think about it?

Nicole: I am not very happy about it because I remember when I attended this competition twice with Yannick, and we always finished on Wednesday. Now we were the last ones to finish our competition. We saw all the athletes finishing their competition in the past days, calming down and relaxing...but we couldn't, we had to suffer until the very end! (laughs)

Was it more difficult for you getting ready for this competition or the competition itself?

Nicole: We trained slightly different compared to our usual schedule: as the Long Program was in the morning, we changed the order of our run-throughs during our daily practices. We usually work on the Short in the morning and on the Long in the evening. Before this competition we switched these practices. Apart from this, nothing significant has changed.

Matteo: We have also being lucky because in Russia we are three hours ahead of this time zone, so it's like if we have competed at 1.30pm today. It hasn't been that tough for us after all.

Have you made any changes in your programs before the European Championships?

Matteo: No, our plan is to keep them the same until the Olympic Games, then we will evaluate whether to change something or not. We are probably going to add transitions because our Components are lower than six in the “Transitions” section. Moreover, we will think if we'll need to change some lifts positions.

Therefore you are going to work with Paola Mezzadri again?

Matteo: No, unfortunately, as we are going to be in Russia between Olympics and Worlds. We are going to work with a ballet dancer on the upper body posture.

Who do you work with in Saint Petersburg, besides Oleg Vassiliev?

Matteo: Oleg Vassiliev is our coach and Paola Mezzadri is our choreographer. Then we have other people helping us. When we are in Italy, at the Forum ice rink, Cristina Mauri follows us under a technical point of view. We also take ballet lessons with Corrado Giordani, for choreography. Oleg is happy that we are working with different people, and we are also happy to train with outside coaches who can perhaps see little details that he could overlook, as he sees us everyday.

Now we are training in the Yulileyny, where Tamara Moskvina and Alexei Mishin work as well. It is closer to our home compared to the rink where we used to train before: now we live only ten minutes by bus from the rink. Our first training session is right after lunch, the second is at 5.00pm or 6.00pm. We used to train at the Saint Petersburg Figure Skating Academy, but it was too far, it took us fifty minutes to get there and the two skating sessions were too far apart. Therefore it was very tiring for us. I hope that we will continue training in Yubileyny and that we will keep working in this way.