Interview and Photos by Francesca S., Team FSO Contributing Writer/Photographer
Two-time World Champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva is making her debut this spring in the Stars on Ice Canadian Tour. She also performed this year in the show’s Japan tour.
Figure Skaters Online caught up with Medvedeva at the Laval, Quebec show to talk with her about her Stars on Ice experience, her goals for training and her programs for next season.
Figure Skaters Online: This is your first experience as a Stars on ice Canada full cast member. What are you enjoying the most? How is your relationship with the rest of the cast?
Evgenia Medvedeva: It’s my first time skating as part of a cast, it’s such incredible experience for me as a single skater. As a singles skater, I only have to be aware about myself, so I was not used to feel around me for the people I should be skating with. Now I start to feel more as part of a team. I was a little bit worried that I could only skate alone, but it is good now. Our relationship with the cast is really good, we are friends and after shows and practices we spend time together, we go out for dinner, we have lots of topics to talk about.
FSO: What’s your favorite part in the group numbers?
Evgenia: I loooove the ’90s number, I really enjoy it. Nobody things about what to do, everyone is just enjoying the moment and you can feel a special energy. We just let it go.
FSO: Tell us about your exhibition programs, “7 rings” by Ariana Grande and “Beautiful Mess” by Kristian Kostov, very different from each other. Why did you choose them, and what do they mean to you?
Evgenia: The main thing is that I wanted them to be different from each other. I’m a huge fan of Ariana Grande. She’s so gorgeous and talented and such a hard worker on the stage, and she really motivates me. She’s tiny, thin, and I really like her image and I wanted to do something like this. Not everyone likes my costume but I don’t pay too much attention to it, I just love it. The second number was my season’s exhibition, the singer is my friend, I just heard the song and wanted to skated to it. 
FSO: You also already announced music choices for your competitive programs (Muse’s “Exogenesis” for the SP and Memories of a Geisha film soundtrack for the FS). Who choose the music, and what is your goal to show with these programs?
Evgenia: The choices are both mine. I thought about these two pieces for a few years. For “Exogenesis” I felt I wasn’t ready technically to skate to it, for Memories of a Geisha, I wasn’t old enough mentally, but now I think I am ready for both.
FSO: What would you like to improve for next season?
Evgenia: My main goal is to land a quad salchow. I will learn it as soon as I recover from injury. Recovery is going well, I am jumping already, I feel almost no pain. I’m careful and not jumping a lot, but I recovered all my jumps and even loop combos.
FSO: What has been the biggest lesson that you have learned from your coaching team this past season?
Evgenia: I feel like I am happy as a person. Every day I enjoy skating. I feel that everyone around me is really supportive. I never think about giving up. 
FSO: Everyone is impressed by your command of English. How and when did you start learning?
Evgenia: I started learning English in the first senior season, that’s about four years ago already. Since the first competition I started to speak English and that was horrible, because I only had a few words, but now I understand everything and can say everything I want to say, I feel free with the language. I just have no choice, most of my friends speak English, and I have to communicate with the coaches.
FSO: Did you have the chance to explore Toronto, and what do you like most about the city and living in Canada?
Evgenia: I love calm. In Moscow, you can feel the tension: someone is late, someone is thinking about their own business, people are worrying about things. I love Moscow; it’s the most beautiful city in the world especially at New Year’s time. In Toronto, people are smiling, someone can say “I love your shoes” in the street and you say “thank you, I like your jacket”; you feel free to talk to everyone. People are less stressed. People don’t recognize me in the street. But I’m Russian and I couldn’t live forever in Canada, I need my own culture.
More photos of Evgenia Medvedeva in Laval, Quebec Stars on Ice show:
