Petr Gumennik: „I had to take this opportunity”

Russian Champion Petr Gumennik from St. Petersburg was able to compete as one of three neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus in the figure skating event at the Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina. Gumennik came sixth with two strong performances. He capped off his best season to date with a win at the national Grand Prix Final and now went for a training camp with Rafael Arutunian to the USA. We interviewed Petr at the Olympic Games in Milan and talked about his Olympic experience, his training, his studies and love for heavy metal.

Die deutsche Fassung dieses Interviews folgt am Ende nach der englischen Version. Eine gekürzte Fassung ist in der Printausgabe 3/26 der Pirouette erschienen. 

How did you experience your first Olympic Games after nearly four years without international competition, with the exception of the Olympic qualifier?

Petr: It was truly an incredible emotional experience. I had high expectations during my preparation, and when I arrived here, the reality actually exceeded those expectations. I was immediately electrified by the whole atmosphere. I walked through the Olympic Village and met up with friends. I remembered that Evgeni Plushenko had said in an interview how he was overwhelmed by all the hype at his first Games in Salt Lake City (2002) and how he lost his concentration. So I decided to spend more time alone in my room starting the day before the short program, to focus on the program and think about my jumps, so that everything going on around me wouldn’t distract me. I learned from the best in that regard.

In what ways did reality exceed your expectations?

Petr: It was very cheerful here. I didn’t know I’d meet so many old friends and have such a pleasant time with them. I’m more of an introvert, and it’s not easy for me to start a conversation. But here I immediately connected very well with many skaters. It was really nice to be together, go to practice, sit in the locker room, and talk about all sorts of things—for example, with Nika (Egadze), Vladimir (Litvintsev), and Stepa (Stephen) Gogolev, Ilia Malinin. I talked to Ilia for the first time, and I was really surprised that he’s such a down-to-earth and good-natured guy. We used to compete against each other in the juniors, but back then he wasn’t quite the “Quad God” he is now.