Namita Nayyar:
You have been a member of the Russian Competitive Pair Skating Team and had competed in many Championships and won. Tells how you were drawn to this sport of speed skating and your meteoric rise to be a member of the Russian Competitive Pair Skating Team?
Natalia Zabiiako:
My parents brought me to the ice rink in order to improve my health. I immediately really liked figure skating, although when I was very little, sometimes I went to the open skating rink at -15C in the early morning with tears. About 10 years I was single skater, but then I realized that I was much more interested in pair skating. All these elements, lifts, throws, attracted me very much. But in Estonia it was incredibly difficult to find a partner. And I started searching without saying anything to anyone. I decided to write to one of our singles, we met, talked, and then went to the coaches to report that we would like to try to become an ice pair.
From that moment I began my journey into the sport of the highest achievements. International competitions, failures, victories, then followed by a change of partners, citizenship. Hard work, severe injuries, but despite this, an insanely great desire to achieve something. And at the moment when it seemed that it could not be worse, an important and turning point in my career was a meeting with the coach of the Russian national team Nina Mozer, who offered me a partner and all the conditions to achieve what I was striving for.
Namita Nayyar:
You have won the Olympic Silver medal in 2018 at Pyeongchang in Team skating event, World Championships Bronze medal in 2019 at Saitama in Pairs, European Championships Bronze medal in 2018 Moscow in Pairs, World Team Trophy Bronze medal in 2019 at Fukuoka in Team and many more. Tell us more about your experience of these spectacular exceptional achievements?
Natalia Zabiiako:
All these achievements become much more valuable when you get it with huge difficulty. When you go through failure, pain, devastation, sometimes even despair. And when you finally reach the goal that you have been walking for so long, you see the eyes of your family and friends who were always with you, helped, supported, believed, sometimes even more than you yourself, then you feel an indescribable feeling of euphoria, satisfaction and happiness and you realize that you could go all this way again, for this.
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