FriendBurst Blog

The 1998 World championship in Minneapolis arrived and the World team consist on just-crowned Olympic Champion Ilia Kulik and the European champion Alexei Yagudin. Zhenya was there too, not to compete but as Evgeni remembers: “I went there to make everybody company.” Still there were several rumors around Kulik not showing up at all, some say that he was going to turn pro after winning Olympics (which he did later), other said that his injury was back but probably the biggest reason why people though that Kulik was going to be a no-show was because they saw Evgeni there. The first day of the men’s practice Zhenya was seen in the boards watching practice. Then rumors became true, Kulik was withdrawing and Evgeni was in. Evgeni was not old enough to compete in the World Championship, but since he was the Junior World Champion, the ISU allowed him to compete.
Evgeni could not believe his luck: “I was simply in shock, one can only dream about making it to such a huge competition! It didn’t quite sink into me.”
Then he shocked himself and everybody by winning the qualifying round “And when in the qualifying round I was able to beat Yagudin, I almost lost my mind: How did I do that?!” How did he do that was probably the question that the rest of the world was asking too. Most of the figure skating fans, judges, coaches were impressed by the lack of nervousness that Evgeni showed, he was throwing quads and triples like if they were the easiest thing in the world. They actually come to a point, that some thought that he could actually win this title, it’s true that he did not have the artistry required (let’s remember he was only 15) but that lack of artistry was filled by his excellent technical ability of jumping.

After being second in the short program, he had an unsuccessful free skate where he fell three times, but that was still good enough for a medal. Evgeni earned at his first Worlds Championship the bronze medal which was a great success but he was not satisfied: “I’m not really happy because I had a very big chance to win Worlds. I watched the marks of the others and I understood that I had this chance. Well, of course this medal is a big success, but I could have done better.”

Success came quickly to Evgeni but it didn’t change him. He also decided to stay in Russia till today even though most of the other Russian skaters left to have better training conditions.
He also admitted that he almost got star fever one time but his mom was able to prevent him from that, Evgeni remembers: “Fortunately, I had it at the very beginning. At 15 I won bronze, and I even could win gold at Worlds. I came back home thinking that there’s no need for me to work any longer. My mom cured me very fast. She just said: “You’ve got to get down.” I understood. I saw a lot of examples of not so happy stories because people even didn’t try to fight star disease.” And since then he has been always a great sportsman and very humble. A success that made him even beat his long time idol Victor Petrenko: “I always loved Viktor Petrenko. I even tried to copy him in my childhood. I saw him for the first time in Petersburg, at the Goodwill Games, when I was 11 years old. I remember how much I liked his T-shirt, which had “Petrenko N. 1″ written on it in huge black letters. Naturally, I got from him an autograph. Then, in four years Victor and I met at a competition, where I beat him completely accidentally. I felt so embarrassed in front of my idol, but he came up to me and comforted me by saying: Zhenya, everything happens in sports. You are younger than me – I am already a veteran.” He was his idol since he saw him winning Olympic gold and since then it is his greatest dream winning Olympic gold too.
But also this success brought happiness to his heart because it made him fulfill another dream , to get the family together once again. At the age of 17, Evgeni’s told his parents to stop working, that from now on, he would take care of the family. “I told them: ‘You’ve worked off!’. They gave me so much, that’s why I want them to relax”. He bought an apartment in St. Petersburg for him and his parents and another for his sister and niece. This is a lot of responsibilities at such a young age.