Interview with Michal Brezina Oberstdorf, July 2008 Q: How do you rate your past season? A: It was a good season for me, because I was at the European Championships for the first time, and it was very exciting. My fifth place at Junior Worlds was (also) really good, and I was second at Nationals.
Q: At Europeans, you cut your hand during off-ice activities and you wore a bandage at Junior Worlds. How is your hand recovered now? A: It’s good, although it (the scar) doesn’t look good, but it’s ok. We have good doctors in my city and thanks to their help it’s good.
Q: What did you do since Junior Worlds? A: I just had some on-ice practice, we were training mostly off the ice. I was working on conditioning for the jumps. It was more off the ice than on the ice.
Q: When did you get back on the ice? A: One week ago.
Q: Just one week! But you looked really fit in practice. A: Last week I was in Italy with the Italian pair skater, Ondrej Hotarek, and it was my first week after a break of two weeks.
Q: So you had some holidays in between. Where did you spend your vacation? A: I was in France, in Nice. It’s really nice for mountainbiking. I was also biking there.
Q: So you enjoy mountainbiking. Don’t you think it’s a little bit dangerous? A: No. It’s not so dangerous.
Q: What are your plans for the season? Judging from your practice, you’re going to keep your short program. A: I’ll keep both programs. I like them, it was very nice to skate to them, so I keep them. I think the judges liked them, too. I will do new programs next year. I will change something in the free, because the rules have changed. We have just one step (sequence), so I have more time for choreography or longer preparations for the jumps.
Q: How do you feel about the change in the rules? A: I don’t know. They want to do it – they do it. I do whatever they say. What can I do? I have more time (in the program), but the step sequence was good, because I had some break in between. It was on the slow part of the music. Now I have more time and I cannot stop somewhere. We’ll see.
Q: You are going to do the Junior Grand Prix, aren’t you? A: Yes. This is my last (junior) year, so we will go junior and we will see next season, maybe I’ll get some senior Grand Prix.
Q: You’re probably aiming for the Junior Final then and you are a contender for Junior Worlds. A: Yes. We have two spots (at Junior Worlds), so I will do it, and then I’ll see. We have one spot at Worlds and two at Europeans. I want to go to Europeans and Junior Worlds. Europeans were a good experience for me. I didn’t skate so well in my free program and the short wasn’t too good either, but I think it will be better next year. I hope so. Last season, I did Europeans, and Junior Worlds after that were really good. I hope it will be the same next season!
Q: Which Junior Grand Prix do you plan to attend A: I will do Courchevel, the first one, and then maybe Merano afterwards or Ostrava, in the Czech Republic.
Q: Junior Worlds is also in Ostrava. How do you feel about that? A: I feel good about it, because I like the city. I like the ice rink. It’s a really nice ice rink there. I hope I will make the top three. It’s at home, so I hope I can do my best there.
Q: Some athletes feel it’s more pressure to skate at home. A: Yes, it is.
Q: What other competitions you are planning to do? A: I hope I can do Nebelhorn Trophy again, and then I will go to Finland, to Finlandia Trophy. Maybe I’ll go to Vienna, but I don’t know yet.
Q: Yes, this would be a lot of competitions for you. Thank you very much and all the best!
