First part:Evgeni, his feet on the ice rink countering the pain of new skates, Evgeni who just finished a hard session on the rink going to the river in order to quench with cold water the throbbing knee pain after the surgery. Evgeni running, riding mountain bike, training in the gym, on the ice rink and running again, back in the gym... These days at Pinzolo, last camp of the "Mishin Mission", Evgeni Plushenko has proven iron will to return to competitions already during the next season. After two surgeries - one on the knee and another one in the back, in order to solve a chronic pain - we find him decided to fight like never before.
He's skinny, even more than he was during the last Olympics, he looks in amazing shape, he reminds me of the 2004 season. The face is sharp, the body is thin. After only one month after surgery, he already lands beautiful triples, also the triple axel is magnificent as always.
I had the privilege of assisting in the preparation of some parts of upcoming programs, and as always I found the beauty of Evgeni's art, his unique ability to convey emotion, even by a simple arm’s movement. Work hard: the spins, wherein he has greatly lowered center of gravity and increased the speed; the transitions, for which he was heavily criticized, both are subject of a special care, and step sequences will be a true feast for the figure skating fans.
I'm excited to witness the birth and development of a new program that will become - so we hope - the trump card in the forthcoming races of Evgeni. This experience once again returns the image of a single athlete and an artist capable of transmitting unforgettable emotions. And this is the reason why I follow him a long time.
But what strikes me most of this unique champion is the grit. The desire to fight, never giving up, seems to be the peculiarity of his character, his winning weapons. After winning the winnable in this fascinating and very hard sport, he's still hungry for victory, the desire to give and to be there, that normally are the prerogative of those who have not yet reached the highest levels. As he replied to those who were saying that the struggle was over by now, "I have not yet stopped fighting."
So Evgeni is still struggling, before with his competitors on the ice rink against himself, against the pain left on his body by many years of skating, against the inexorable advancing age. As he tell us during a break before returning to his training: "I have to work hard because I'm old", we deny this, but he insists: "In this sport you can reach the maximum between 18 and 21 years, then the effort becomes increasingly large and to remain competitive you have to work a lot, harder than others. "
He confirms us that he means to return to competitions during the next season, but he's cautious with predictions: the knee surgery is recent and the pain is still intense. He prefer to talk not about the opponents, he's concentrated on himself and his ambitious goals.
First of all, the Olympics of Sochi, which is one of the engines of his motivation to compete. And we hope he may reach also this goal, for the delight of those who admire him and those who love figure skating, the real one, made of soul, passion, perfect fusion between sport and art. A synthesis that finds in Evgeni its greatest fulfillment.
With us he's always helpful and smiling, he greets us warmly, he laughs and jokes when, during a chance encounter in the park adjacent to the ice rink, we're trying to shirk in order to disturb not his training, he is the one who draws our attention sending us a kiss and a smile.