Yevgenia Medvedeva said she will always remember her seventh-place Skate Canada short program. She won’t soon forget how coach Brian Orser helped her process it early Sunday morning.
“After short program, I was really ready to die,” the Olympic silver medalist and two-time world champion told Skate Canada of her performance Saturday, her first time outside the top three in any program in her four senior seasons. “I didn’t want to say, ‘Oh no, I don’t care, just go forward.’ I felt awful. I felt so bad. I just really wanted to kill myself. I wasn’t even in the main warm-up [for the top six in the free skate].”
Medvedeva rebounded with the highest-scoring free skate Sunday, albeit with jumping errors, to finish third overall behind countrywoman Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Japanese Mako Yamashita. Medvedeva kept her flawless record of making the podium in all 20 of her competitions since turning senior in 2015.
“Really thankful to Brian because he talked with me until 1 a.m. this night,” Medvedeva said Sunday. “I almost didn’t sleep this night. I slept about two hours and a half because I thought about all the stuff.”
In her free skate, Medvedeva landed seven triple jumps, though one was downgraded and she lost points on two edge calls. Her score -- 137.08 -- ranks her ninth in the world this season.
“I really tried to wake up wild animal inside of me,” said Medvedeva, who wore a crown of flowers in the kiss and cry and shouted out Johnny Weir. “I made a huge step forward because I lose all concentration in the short program.”
Olympic champion Alina Zagitova, whom Medvedeva trained with before splitting from coach Eteri Tutberidze and moving to Orser’s training group in Toronto after PyeongChang, has the world’s best free skate score this season of 158.5.
“I didn’t know what to expect after free program,” Medvedeva said. “I really didn’t think even about podium. I thought that I just have to do everything in my power just to not regret about all of this competition. But I will remind myself that mistake in the short program for all my life. I think it’s a good lesson to me to keep concentration and attention.”
Medvedeva next competes at Internationaux de France in three weeks, with a place in December’s six-skater Grand Prix Final at stake.
“I know that I have to win in France,” she said.
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