Post by leana on Apr 10, 2007 2:56:55 GMT 1
Hi All, 
Here it is, the Interview from the Pardonnez-moi, TSR, from last Sunday (laury, merci infiniment)
Q: Hello Stephane Lambiel!
S: Hello!
Q: You have returned with a medal from Tokyo. How is it like?
S: It’s fine and I am glad to be back in my Switzerland
Q: You caught a grippe, didn’t you?
S: Yes, I did, I had a fever during the second week of my stay in Tokyo. Now I feel better but I have still a sore throat
Q: In similar situations one should skate at whatever cost. It’s the galas. People are waiting for you and you must go there, right?
S: Yes, in such a case we try and keep our energy for a particular moment. What I did, I had as much rest as it was possible, I took all the medicine needed to keep warmth and when I entered on the ice I longed out to the full
Q: So, unlike the time when you have to show your energy and all, here you got up specifically for the occasion and then…
S: Yes, it’s true. I got up, took a bus, did the performance, I then came back and I went to bed again. I didn’t even feel strong enough to go to eat after the gala. I wend to bed immediately after it.
Q: Your skating was full of emotion in Tokyo. You fell on the ice on the first day and all the people thought that you were done for, and the next day you came back full of energy and that was extraordinary. What did you feel like at the time? For example, what did you say to yourself when you fell?
S: When I fell I felt really disappointed because since the arrival in Tokyo I had been doing well at my practices and I was really confident from the point of view of the technicalities.
Q: What did you think right after the fall? Darn it? Is there a particular word or an image that comes to your mind at such a moment?
S: When I fall I say to myself: “Hurry up” and normally it works. This time I was sort of obsessed to get up to my feet as soon as possible but I felt “glued” to the ice, and that was it. I was eager to get up and continue the programme while I couldn’t possibly do it, and that upset me a lot.
Q: Who are you thinking about, at such a moment: about the people who are watching you worldwide or about the Swiss, or who?
S: I think about you and me and what I have to do on the ice (kidding). I fell on the 40th second of my programme and I still had 2 min 10 sec left to perform, so the thoughts are about it.
Q: There are moments that demand a lot of courage inasmuch as you put a lot at stake. You went through a crisis, you skipped the championship in Warsaw…And there are moments when you collapse mentally, right?
S: While performing, I don’t have time to think about anything, but for my technical elements and my presentation of the programme. The pressure is great and the stress is there, also when practicing. It’s true that there’s a great deal of automatism in the movements of our body but we can’t afford the time to waste our energy and say to ourselves: “I am completely withered, I can’t continue, I am fed up, I want to go back”. We just take it right out of our guts and try hard to continue till the end of a programme.
Q: It remains though in your head, you continue your programme, the commentators are disappointed etc. You come back to your hotel room and what do you do in the evening?
S: I can’t remember exactly what I did when I returned to the hotel. What I can say is that after the programme there are moments when it’s necessary to realize what had happened
Q: How did you sleep that night?
S: It was a restless night. Frankly, the woke-up was difficult. The woke-up the next morning was even worse as this is the time when you have to say to yourself: A new day has started and this time you need to struggle for the better and long out to the full.
Q: Are there any specific behaviors? You look into the mirror in the morning, you shave yourself, you talk, what do you say to yourself?
S: I don’t shave myself for the Flamenco as I have to be unshaved for it. However I look into the mirror and I know I have to put aside all the deception and the bad performance of the previous day and view the long programme as if it were a new competition.
Q: Talking about a battle, you took part in the Le Journal TV programme, live, and you shared your formula saying that it’s a must to detest your rival, feel like screwing its head off…
S: It’s true but this is what a competition is about. We all want to win. We all want our medals. And then I was very anxious to show what I was, eager to demonstrate that I was strong, because since after the decision to go to Tokyo I knew I was able to compete and produce a good performance over there. And my fall during the short programme enraged me and gave me an impetus to plunge into a battle during the long programme.
Q: How do the skaters get along? The scene is somewhat strange. All of you are in a locker room before a competition, as if you were friends. You change there right in front of each other, and at the same time you are at a high level competition, and the rivalry is great. Do you pay attention at one another?
S: In a locker room no one talks with one another, it’s a dramatic time because it is a competition. Everyone is in his own “world”, hyper-concentrated. We don’t exchange words except for “Hello” when we arrive and that’s it. I would say that a competition starts when the 6 minutes’ practice begins, when everyone warms up. Then you can feel the tension rise and you have a sensation of the start of a competition. And in a locker room everyone is for himself, very concentrated, with his own player, listening to the music, eager to stay in his own “shell” and the competition starts when we enter on the ice.
Q: Did you watch other performances?
S: I didn’t see anything. I was concentrated hard on my performance. And at the end of my performance, I was really satisfied, and you could see it, I was really satisfied but it wasn’t due to the place I won. I was happy because I succeeded in realizing what I wanted to produce.
Q: It was a very good performance, and you mounted up and won your bronze medal. Brian Joubert was your rival. Do you think that his psychological faculty presents a problem for you now? He has won the title in a way which was very impressive.
S: I knew that this season Brian was in shape and that he dominated in every competition he took part. In the past he went through hard times too and got well over them. Given this, I think he merits respect but I know that he can be beatable and by the way I beat him in the past. So, there’s no reason why he should remain at the top in the future.
Q: There’s an entire Sage of Lambiel right from the year-start. You didn’t go to the championship in Warsaw and then you returned. Is it an end to the crisis?
S: It was not a crisis. I’d say it’s just the way my life turned. In January I may have survived a down period. I was so-to-say at the bottom of a wave and now I am rather at the top of it and I hope that this wave is going to stabilize. However, on the other hand, I tell myself that if we do not go to the bottom we never rise to the top. I really believe that one needs to move and be dynamic and it’s dynamics that makes our life interesting. But you must have it in your life.
Q: And you have gone through it. Over the course of the past few months you have acquired a real job experience. How was it?
S: I was in need to do something Cartesian. During my practice on the ice I need to create things, reach out beyond myself and take things right out of my guts. And given all the emotions, after some time, you feel you need something simple and clear. During the championship in Warsaw I told myself: “Why don’t I do something down-to-earth, something Cartesian where I don’t have to express myself and stand before the people who judge me. I will just have a number. I will need to be doing something. I will be doing it and no one will judge me”, while in figure skating…
Q: they judge you every second
S: They judge you every second, all of your steps, spins, jumps, your outfit, your music.
Q: And what did you do in your job?
S: I don’t want to dwell on it because one day I may decide to do it again and I would like to keep this place for me for the next time. In fact, I was filling trolleys with clothes for one of the fashion houses.
Q: And the people who worked near you obviously knew who you were
S: Sure.
Q: And were they not really bothering you?
S: They had been instructed beforehand. They knew that I was to come to work and their boss had told them to let me work in peace as a regular worker.
Q: What was your impression of the job? Wasn’t it strenuous? You are a star, and the job was so insignificant. What was it for you?
S: It did me a lot of good because after this period, and I had never stopped to practice, I could… I liked this job very much, it did me plenty of good, good for my head, good to see other people, be in a different environment. It was my first job, in real fact, where I had to do something other than studies or skating. I wish I could have worked there longer than just those few days
Q: This job may have served a contrast and made you willing to skate again. You may have decided that after all it was not that strange what you were doing…
S: I didn’t think about it. It may be though that I didn’t work there long enough to start to dislike it. I liked the experience and I would like to go through it again. I really liked it.
Q: You say it was the first time you had a real job. It’s true that your way of life is not typical. You started to skate at 7 and then across all the years that followed your way of life differed a lot from that of the others. Do you have a feeling sometimes that your young years were sort of stolen or differed a lot from those of the others?
S: I wouldn’t say that my young years were stolen. They were different, it’s true. But what I have to remember now, and this is something which is more important than the years, it’s the opportunity that I had to go on trips, to meet plenty of people. It means a lot and I have been lucky to do it. And on top of it all, I have achieved success in my sport. There are many people now who go in for sport, who would like to do the achievements but they don’t even have an opportunity to go on trips and participate at international competitions.
Q: I want you to tell me something and this has to do with the difficulties of your life. Monica Bonfonti, the chief and well known in the police of Geneva, who had been a skater and used to know you well, said that the people didn’t realize the extent to which this life is difficult. All these falls and rises over the course of the years, non-stop, and physically it’s very hard, it is a slavery work.
S: A sportsman needs to be a masochist to a certain extent if he wants to be a high level sportman. If you don’t like to suffer, you are unlikely to go far. And you could ask it so many other sportsmen. You need to suffer in order to succeed. Now I am not a masochist in the sense that I am not “bleeding” during my practice. However it’s necessary to work and it’s evident.
Q: When you were here at the Le Journal programme, when leaving I tapped you on your back and I was amazed at how stiff your back was, as if it were a stone, that was even frightening, like the back of a boxer. The body is built
S: The body is built. In addition to the work on the ice there’s a lot to do as regards the physical condition and without it one can’t really perform on the ice. I therefore have to say Thank You to all the people who assist me, as it’s thanks to them that I can sustain my good physical shape. And what is also important, a good physical shape prevents injuries. Also, if you are in a good physical shape you can stay longer in sport.
Another thing that we are focusing on when making a schedule of my practices is that we arrange for different phases: phases of repose, phases of hard physical workout before the ice, and then the entire season of day-to-day practicing on the ice when we try and stabilize the technical shape.
Q: So the body is built. And the character? Is it hardened too? Is it necessary for a high level champion to have a strong character?
S: I think the character must be very strong, very.
Q: And do you have a strong character?
S: (shrugs his shoulders in a diplomatic manner).
Q: Does it mean that one must be a choleric?
S: One mustn’t give up, I think. The main principle of a high level sportsman is that whatever happens, you shouldn’t be afraid to work. Should not be afraid of defeat, and it’s simply necessary to struggle through, day in day out.
Q: Is it necessary to be somewhat excessively ambitious, have sort of delusion of grandeur?
S: Yes. Yes.
Q: There was a polemic raised in press just at the time when you returned, you must have read it. It was in the Le Matin. They mocked at your fancy to refer to yourself in the 3d person. When was it that you learnt about it?
S: It upset me. I learnt it on the plane Zurich – Geneva when returning from Tokyo. I was ill and tired of the trip, so the return and the circumstances did their effect and upset me inasmuch as I had longed out to the full, I had done my best, and they chose to give way to criticism upon my arrival. And their criticism was against something that was not even negative, given the circumstances. I think the people who know me could confirm it that the formula I had used wasn’t at all negative. I may have used it in a wrong way
Q: I don’t think you used it in a wrong way. It has to do with what you are. Look, I have found your formula which is rather nice. I think it’s from year 2000. You say in it that “before entering on the ice I take in a breath and then I go there, and I say to myself : I am Stephane Lambiel”. Don’t you think that this is too much to say? That it may be interpreted as a delusion of grandeur? Is it really necessary to distance yourself?
S: Yes, One needs to distance oneself. And I just want to add that when entering on the ice I was under a strong influence of the Flamenco and the Flamenco is associated with pride, with an anxiety to reach out beyond yourself while remaining yourself. At the end of the programme I was satisfied with my performance as I produced what I had expected from myself. And it was that emotion that I wanted to share with the people, the sensation of a great achievement, of having done what I had expected from myself.
Q: There’re a few publications about you that make me angry, while the first one which is not really spiteful but somewhat negative refers to you in connection with Caesar and Alain Delon. I find it strange though. It’s the first time that their reaction is that negative as all the time you were presented as a favorite, placed at the top of the affection hit-parades. Do you find it strange to be under such an attack?
S: Yes, I found it strange and I thought of my friend Britney and I wondered what I could do, whether I should shave my head too in order to support her (smiling). But really, the very fact of remaining yourself, of managing to produce 100% of what you wanted to produce, should be sufficient enough for the people anxious for the battle. After all, the will is there and everything has been done to mount to the top. The people should not be that demanding, I think. In Switzerland there aren’t many things to be exhilarated about. And when you return with a medal from a world championship the people shouldn’t be looking for minor faults.
Q: You must be happy of your popularity, you seduce and you provoke. It’s the Japanese, the hysteria in Japan. You have really seduced plenty of people there.
S: The people are extraordinary in Japan, all of them: the fans, the ones who organize the events, everyone is willing to be of service. They try their best to bring you a ray of the sun, and it pleases a lot.
Q: And the females in particular. Some of them were crying, there were those who followed you right to here. What do you think about it?
S: I think it very touching. And I especially appreciate the way they handle their presents, the way they wrap them up, with a great deal of affection, and I would really like to realize a project in Japan because there I have received plenty of ladybirds, different objects and presents, and I don’t feel like keeping them in a cave in a cardboard box. It would be a shame. I would like to share these things with the others, to share the happiness which is there in all these presents, in every object from all over the world. I don’t know, but may be by doing so, by way of sharing all these objects and presents, I could help the children who are in need, bring them some happiness, especially to those who are in need of attention, who suffer cancer.
Q: What does it mean? To create a foundation, something of the kind?
S: There are tons of the foundations. May be, to provide assistance to a foundation which supports children with problems, so that my ladybirds and the entire “world” of the ladybirds make these children feel happy
Q: There are the Japanese, but I have once seen the girls here putting a piece of paper with their phone number under the brushes of your car front glass. Do you happen to behave in line with the desire that you provoke?
S: I am not someone who calculates when it comes to relations
Q: It’s part of a game though. Thus, the judges also evaluate, not exclusively, of course, one’s charms etc. How is it in your sport?
S: Yes, It’s clear that the way one interprets a character is important in figure skating, but I take no attempt at acting like Don Juan.
Q: Never? And the photo where you pose wearing some new clothes, I think the Italian, isn’t it acting, part of a game?
S: It’s been on demand. The photographer asked me to pose for him.
Q: Here you are
S: Yes, It was part of a game
Q: Don’t you think that at times it may even be disadvantageous because you may have a look which is not quite manly?(NB: Sorry, I am not sure I got it right)
S: I don’t know (laughter).
Q: Another side of success is money. What do you do with the money?
S: I haven’t yet thought about it.
Q: Do you keep it then?
S: At the moment – yes. I try and win the money in order to be able to adequately cover the expenses of my season. It means paying the people who help me in my work, who contribute to what I am, as there are many of them behind me. It involves considerable expenses associated with my practice throughout a season. When a new season starts we need to have funds in possession, to do the budgeting, to put together the plans, and before anything else, my priority is to be able to finance my season.
Q: Do you make presents for yourself, just to please yourself?
S: I receive so many already that…No.
Q: And for Fernanda, your mother?
S: Yes, it’s another thing. The very fact to be able to please the people is already a present for me. And I really try and do whatever I can to the people who are close to me. So, it’s rather this way than the other. To die with the money – I am not interested in it.
Q: We know the people who are close to you and I am not going to recollect all the details. It’s just to mention now that after the divorce your mother devoted herself to your career. She says that three times a week you used to travel from Saxon to Geneva and for that you had to get up at 5 in the morning. And now it’s a moral compensation for her, isn’t it?
S: She is happy now and, by the way, for my birthday she gave me a very nice greeting card. And what is really good is that she is proud of her three children. We share between us everything that is important. Each of us is engaged in its own sphere and excels in it. And my mother, she is happy for me but she is as happy for her other children and my father is also happy for us.
Q: Stephane, a week ago, on 2 April, you celebrated your birthday, you are 22 now. Luc, our chief of the programme, has brought you something. What do you feel at 22?
S: It’s a strange feeling. In my sport I am now moving towards the oldest team.
Q: Is it worrying?
S: It is, to an extent. Because, though it is not yet the end, but my career is not going to last for 10 years more as I saw it when I was 15,16 or 17. And then there are young people who have come.
Q: Are you afraid? Do you notice those who may be at the top in the future?
S: Yes, we notice them quickly
Q: At the moment you are doing well. Luc has brought you a cake
S: Thanks a lot
Q: And the decoration – these are ladybirds
S: It’s magnificent, it’s looks nice.
Q: At 22, do you feel an adult?
S: At 22, frankly, my first 22 years were just marvelous, and I hope that the years to come will be as marvelous too.
Q: I wish you to continue like this. By the way, the ladybird, how come that it has become your symbol? Is there an explanation?
S: It’s just that I have always been enchanted by this insect. I adore it ever since my childhood. I was pleased to see it on me, watch it fly up. And I liked the ladybird car, I talked to it, I found it extraordinary. So that’s how it became my amulet.
Q: Happy birthday, congratulations. Thank you.
Here it is, the Interview from the Pardonnez-moi, TSR, from last Sunday (laury, merci infiniment)
Q: Hello Stephane Lambiel!
S: Hello!
Q: You have returned with a medal from Tokyo. How is it like?
S: It’s fine and I am glad to be back in my Switzerland
Q: You caught a grippe, didn’t you?
S: Yes, I did, I had a fever during the second week of my stay in Tokyo. Now I feel better but I have still a sore throat
Q: In similar situations one should skate at whatever cost. It’s the galas. People are waiting for you and you must go there, right?
S: Yes, in such a case we try and keep our energy for a particular moment. What I did, I had as much rest as it was possible, I took all the medicine needed to keep warmth and when I entered on the ice I longed out to the full
Q: So, unlike the time when you have to show your energy and all, here you got up specifically for the occasion and then…
S: Yes, it’s true. I got up, took a bus, did the performance, I then came back and I went to bed again. I didn’t even feel strong enough to go to eat after the gala. I wend to bed immediately after it.
Q: Your skating was full of emotion in Tokyo. You fell on the ice on the first day and all the people thought that you were done for, and the next day you came back full of energy and that was extraordinary. What did you feel like at the time? For example, what did you say to yourself when you fell?
S: When I fell I felt really disappointed because since the arrival in Tokyo I had been doing well at my practices and I was really confident from the point of view of the technicalities.
Q: What did you think right after the fall? Darn it? Is there a particular word or an image that comes to your mind at such a moment?
S: When I fall I say to myself: “Hurry up” and normally it works. This time I was sort of obsessed to get up to my feet as soon as possible but I felt “glued” to the ice, and that was it. I was eager to get up and continue the programme while I couldn’t possibly do it, and that upset me a lot.
Q: Who are you thinking about, at such a moment: about the people who are watching you worldwide or about the Swiss, or who?
S: I think about you and me and what I have to do on the ice (kidding). I fell on the 40th second of my programme and I still had 2 min 10 sec left to perform, so the thoughts are about it.
Q: There are moments that demand a lot of courage inasmuch as you put a lot at stake. You went through a crisis, you skipped the championship in Warsaw…And there are moments when you collapse mentally, right?
S: While performing, I don’t have time to think about anything, but for my technical elements and my presentation of the programme. The pressure is great and the stress is there, also when practicing. It’s true that there’s a great deal of automatism in the movements of our body but we can’t afford the time to waste our energy and say to ourselves: “I am completely withered, I can’t continue, I am fed up, I want to go back”. We just take it right out of our guts and try hard to continue till the end of a programme.
Q: It remains though in your head, you continue your programme, the commentators are disappointed etc. You come back to your hotel room and what do you do in the evening?
S: I can’t remember exactly what I did when I returned to the hotel. What I can say is that after the programme there are moments when it’s necessary to realize what had happened
Q: How did you sleep that night?
S: It was a restless night. Frankly, the woke-up was difficult. The woke-up the next morning was even worse as this is the time when you have to say to yourself: A new day has started and this time you need to struggle for the better and long out to the full.
Q: Are there any specific behaviors? You look into the mirror in the morning, you shave yourself, you talk, what do you say to yourself?
S: I don’t shave myself for the Flamenco as I have to be unshaved for it. However I look into the mirror and I know I have to put aside all the deception and the bad performance of the previous day and view the long programme as if it were a new competition.
Q: Talking about a battle, you took part in the Le Journal TV programme, live, and you shared your formula saying that it’s a must to detest your rival, feel like screwing its head off…
S: It’s true but this is what a competition is about. We all want to win. We all want our medals. And then I was very anxious to show what I was, eager to demonstrate that I was strong, because since after the decision to go to Tokyo I knew I was able to compete and produce a good performance over there. And my fall during the short programme enraged me and gave me an impetus to plunge into a battle during the long programme.
Q: How do the skaters get along? The scene is somewhat strange. All of you are in a locker room before a competition, as if you were friends. You change there right in front of each other, and at the same time you are at a high level competition, and the rivalry is great. Do you pay attention at one another?
S: In a locker room no one talks with one another, it’s a dramatic time because it is a competition. Everyone is in his own “world”, hyper-concentrated. We don’t exchange words except for “Hello” when we arrive and that’s it. I would say that a competition starts when the 6 minutes’ practice begins, when everyone warms up. Then you can feel the tension rise and you have a sensation of the start of a competition. And in a locker room everyone is for himself, very concentrated, with his own player, listening to the music, eager to stay in his own “shell” and the competition starts when we enter on the ice.
Q: Did you watch other performances?
S: I didn’t see anything. I was concentrated hard on my performance. And at the end of my performance, I was really satisfied, and you could see it, I was really satisfied but it wasn’t due to the place I won. I was happy because I succeeded in realizing what I wanted to produce.
Q: It was a very good performance, and you mounted up and won your bronze medal. Brian Joubert was your rival. Do you think that his psychological faculty presents a problem for you now? He has won the title in a way which was very impressive.
S: I knew that this season Brian was in shape and that he dominated in every competition he took part. In the past he went through hard times too and got well over them. Given this, I think he merits respect but I know that he can be beatable and by the way I beat him in the past. So, there’s no reason why he should remain at the top in the future.
Q: There’s an entire Sage of Lambiel right from the year-start. You didn’t go to the championship in Warsaw and then you returned. Is it an end to the crisis?
S: It was not a crisis. I’d say it’s just the way my life turned. In January I may have survived a down period. I was so-to-say at the bottom of a wave and now I am rather at the top of it and I hope that this wave is going to stabilize. However, on the other hand, I tell myself that if we do not go to the bottom we never rise to the top. I really believe that one needs to move and be dynamic and it’s dynamics that makes our life interesting. But you must have it in your life.
Q: And you have gone through it. Over the course of the past few months you have acquired a real job experience. How was it?
S: I was in need to do something Cartesian. During my practice on the ice I need to create things, reach out beyond myself and take things right out of my guts. And given all the emotions, after some time, you feel you need something simple and clear. During the championship in Warsaw I told myself: “Why don’t I do something down-to-earth, something Cartesian where I don’t have to express myself and stand before the people who judge me. I will just have a number. I will need to be doing something. I will be doing it and no one will judge me”, while in figure skating…
Q: they judge you every second
S: They judge you every second, all of your steps, spins, jumps, your outfit, your music.
Q: And what did you do in your job?
S: I don’t want to dwell on it because one day I may decide to do it again and I would like to keep this place for me for the next time. In fact, I was filling trolleys with clothes for one of the fashion houses.
Q: And the people who worked near you obviously knew who you were
S: Sure.
Q: And were they not really bothering you?
S: They had been instructed beforehand. They knew that I was to come to work and their boss had told them to let me work in peace as a regular worker.
Q: What was your impression of the job? Wasn’t it strenuous? You are a star, and the job was so insignificant. What was it for you?
S: It did me a lot of good because after this period, and I had never stopped to practice, I could… I liked this job very much, it did me plenty of good, good for my head, good to see other people, be in a different environment. It was my first job, in real fact, where I had to do something other than studies or skating. I wish I could have worked there longer than just those few days
Q: This job may have served a contrast and made you willing to skate again. You may have decided that after all it was not that strange what you were doing…
S: I didn’t think about it. It may be though that I didn’t work there long enough to start to dislike it. I liked the experience and I would like to go through it again. I really liked it.
Q: You say it was the first time you had a real job. It’s true that your way of life is not typical. You started to skate at 7 and then across all the years that followed your way of life differed a lot from that of the others. Do you have a feeling sometimes that your young years were sort of stolen or differed a lot from those of the others?
S: I wouldn’t say that my young years were stolen. They were different, it’s true. But what I have to remember now, and this is something which is more important than the years, it’s the opportunity that I had to go on trips, to meet plenty of people. It means a lot and I have been lucky to do it. And on top of it all, I have achieved success in my sport. There are many people now who go in for sport, who would like to do the achievements but they don’t even have an opportunity to go on trips and participate at international competitions.
Q: I want you to tell me something and this has to do with the difficulties of your life. Monica Bonfonti, the chief and well known in the police of Geneva, who had been a skater and used to know you well, said that the people didn’t realize the extent to which this life is difficult. All these falls and rises over the course of the years, non-stop, and physically it’s very hard, it is a slavery work.
S: A sportsman needs to be a masochist to a certain extent if he wants to be a high level sportman. If you don’t like to suffer, you are unlikely to go far. And you could ask it so many other sportsmen. You need to suffer in order to succeed. Now I am not a masochist in the sense that I am not “bleeding” during my practice. However it’s necessary to work and it’s evident.
Q: When you were here at the Le Journal programme, when leaving I tapped you on your back and I was amazed at how stiff your back was, as if it were a stone, that was even frightening, like the back of a boxer. The body is built
S: The body is built. In addition to the work on the ice there’s a lot to do as regards the physical condition and without it one can’t really perform on the ice. I therefore have to say Thank You to all the people who assist me, as it’s thanks to them that I can sustain my good physical shape. And what is also important, a good physical shape prevents injuries. Also, if you are in a good physical shape you can stay longer in sport.
Another thing that we are focusing on when making a schedule of my practices is that we arrange for different phases: phases of repose, phases of hard physical workout before the ice, and then the entire season of day-to-day practicing on the ice when we try and stabilize the technical shape.
Q: So the body is built. And the character? Is it hardened too? Is it necessary for a high level champion to have a strong character?
S: I think the character must be very strong, very.
Q: And do you have a strong character?
S: (shrugs his shoulders in a diplomatic manner).
Q: Does it mean that one must be a choleric?
S: One mustn’t give up, I think. The main principle of a high level sportsman is that whatever happens, you shouldn’t be afraid to work. Should not be afraid of defeat, and it’s simply necessary to struggle through, day in day out.
Q: Is it necessary to be somewhat excessively ambitious, have sort of delusion of grandeur?
S: Yes. Yes.
Q: There was a polemic raised in press just at the time when you returned, you must have read it. It was in the Le Matin. They mocked at your fancy to refer to yourself in the 3d person. When was it that you learnt about it?
S: It upset me. I learnt it on the plane Zurich – Geneva when returning from Tokyo. I was ill and tired of the trip, so the return and the circumstances did their effect and upset me inasmuch as I had longed out to the full, I had done my best, and they chose to give way to criticism upon my arrival. And their criticism was against something that was not even negative, given the circumstances. I think the people who know me could confirm it that the formula I had used wasn’t at all negative. I may have used it in a wrong way
Q: I don’t think you used it in a wrong way. It has to do with what you are. Look, I have found your formula which is rather nice. I think it’s from year 2000. You say in it that “before entering on the ice I take in a breath and then I go there, and I say to myself : I am Stephane Lambiel”. Don’t you think that this is too much to say? That it may be interpreted as a delusion of grandeur? Is it really necessary to distance yourself?
S: Yes, One needs to distance oneself. And I just want to add that when entering on the ice I was under a strong influence of the Flamenco and the Flamenco is associated with pride, with an anxiety to reach out beyond yourself while remaining yourself. At the end of the programme I was satisfied with my performance as I produced what I had expected from myself. And it was that emotion that I wanted to share with the people, the sensation of a great achievement, of having done what I had expected from myself.
Q: There’re a few publications about you that make me angry, while the first one which is not really spiteful but somewhat negative refers to you in connection with Caesar and Alain Delon. I find it strange though. It’s the first time that their reaction is that negative as all the time you were presented as a favorite, placed at the top of the affection hit-parades. Do you find it strange to be under such an attack?
S: Yes, I found it strange and I thought of my friend Britney and I wondered what I could do, whether I should shave my head too in order to support her (smiling). But really, the very fact of remaining yourself, of managing to produce 100% of what you wanted to produce, should be sufficient enough for the people anxious for the battle. After all, the will is there and everything has been done to mount to the top. The people should not be that demanding, I think. In Switzerland there aren’t many things to be exhilarated about. And when you return with a medal from a world championship the people shouldn’t be looking for minor faults.
Q: You must be happy of your popularity, you seduce and you provoke. It’s the Japanese, the hysteria in Japan. You have really seduced plenty of people there.
S: The people are extraordinary in Japan, all of them: the fans, the ones who organize the events, everyone is willing to be of service. They try their best to bring you a ray of the sun, and it pleases a lot.
Q: And the females in particular. Some of them were crying, there were those who followed you right to here. What do you think about it?
S: I think it very touching. And I especially appreciate the way they handle their presents, the way they wrap them up, with a great deal of affection, and I would really like to realize a project in Japan because there I have received plenty of ladybirds, different objects and presents, and I don’t feel like keeping them in a cave in a cardboard box. It would be a shame. I would like to share these things with the others, to share the happiness which is there in all these presents, in every object from all over the world. I don’t know, but may be by doing so, by way of sharing all these objects and presents, I could help the children who are in need, bring them some happiness, especially to those who are in need of attention, who suffer cancer.
Q: What does it mean? To create a foundation, something of the kind?
S: There are tons of the foundations. May be, to provide assistance to a foundation which supports children with problems, so that my ladybirds and the entire “world” of the ladybirds make these children feel happy
Q: There are the Japanese, but I have once seen the girls here putting a piece of paper with their phone number under the brushes of your car front glass. Do you happen to behave in line with the desire that you provoke?
S: I am not someone who calculates when it comes to relations
Q: It’s part of a game though. Thus, the judges also evaluate, not exclusively, of course, one’s charms etc. How is it in your sport?
S: Yes, It’s clear that the way one interprets a character is important in figure skating, but I take no attempt at acting like Don Juan.
Q: Never? And the photo where you pose wearing some new clothes, I think the Italian, isn’t it acting, part of a game?
S: It’s been on demand. The photographer asked me to pose for him.
Q: Here you are
S: Yes, It was part of a game
Q: Don’t you think that at times it may even be disadvantageous because you may have a look which is not quite manly?(NB: Sorry, I am not sure I got it right)
S: I don’t know (laughter).
Q: Another side of success is money. What do you do with the money?
S: I haven’t yet thought about it.
Q: Do you keep it then?
S: At the moment – yes. I try and win the money in order to be able to adequately cover the expenses of my season. It means paying the people who help me in my work, who contribute to what I am, as there are many of them behind me. It involves considerable expenses associated with my practice throughout a season. When a new season starts we need to have funds in possession, to do the budgeting, to put together the plans, and before anything else, my priority is to be able to finance my season.
Q: Do you make presents for yourself, just to please yourself?
S: I receive so many already that…No.
Q: And for Fernanda, your mother?
S: Yes, it’s another thing. The very fact to be able to please the people is already a present for me. And I really try and do whatever I can to the people who are close to me. So, it’s rather this way than the other. To die with the money – I am not interested in it.
Q: We know the people who are close to you and I am not going to recollect all the details. It’s just to mention now that after the divorce your mother devoted herself to your career. She says that three times a week you used to travel from Saxon to Geneva and for that you had to get up at 5 in the morning. And now it’s a moral compensation for her, isn’t it?
S: She is happy now and, by the way, for my birthday she gave me a very nice greeting card. And what is really good is that she is proud of her three children. We share between us everything that is important. Each of us is engaged in its own sphere and excels in it. And my mother, she is happy for me but she is as happy for her other children and my father is also happy for us.
Q: Stephane, a week ago, on 2 April, you celebrated your birthday, you are 22 now. Luc, our chief of the programme, has brought you something. What do you feel at 22?
S: It’s a strange feeling. In my sport I am now moving towards the oldest team.
Q: Is it worrying?
S: It is, to an extent. Because, though it is not yet the end, but my career is not going to last for 10 years more as I saw it when I was 15,16 or 17. And then there are young people who have come.
Q: Are you afraid? Do you notice those who may be at the top in the future?
S: Yes, we notice them quickly
Q: At the moment you are doing well. Luc has brought you a cake
S: Thanks a lot
Q: And the decoration – these are ladybirds
S: It’s magnificent, it’s looks nice.
Q: At 22, do you feel an adult?
S: At 22, frankly, my first 22 years were just marvelous, and I hope that the years to come will be as marvelous too.
Q: I wish you to continue like this. By the way, the ladybird, how come that it has become your symbol? Is there an explanation?
S: It’s just that I have always been enchanted by this insect. I adore it ever since my childhood. I was pleased to see it on me, watch it fly up. And I liked the ladybird car, I talked to it, I found it extraordinary. So that’s how it became my amulet.
Q: Happy birthday, congratulations. Thank you.
and it was sooo like himself that he couldn't hold her emotions back. 
