Q: The first time you participated in Olympic Games as an athlete in Grenoble in 1968. As a coach you also tried not to miss it. What's so special about the Olympics?

A. Mishin: One of my students used to say that there is nothing special about them. What's the difference where you're skating? It's not so. The Olympic Games take place only once in four years and only a few athletes have a chance to participate. I am not even talking about the importance of the title - because there are no ex- Olympic champions. All of this makes Olympics a very special event that can't be compared to any other.  The preparation to OG is turning from a routine into....

Q: War?

A. Mishin: Of course, a war but I was going to talk about some other nuance... The preparation for OG is turning into magic, shamanism. You can feel it even when you just say: Olympic Games... Do you feel it?  Say Worlds Championship, Europeans...It's not the same.

Q: How is your preparation for OG 2002 going?

A. Mishin: All the attention is now focused on Plushenko. His preparation for the Olympics, by the way, started in 1993 when he was 11 years old. 

Q: What qualities are necessary to win the Olympics? 

A. Mishin: Both, an athlete and the coach need knowledge, skills, spirit... No... The deepest knowledge, the best skills, warrior spirits and happiness. That happiness that only God can send. 

Q: Are you happy right now? I mean, are you ready to win in Salt Lake City?

A. Mishin: Yes, I am. I'm happy because I am working with the skater who is really preparing for Olympics. 

Q: Why hasn't Plushenko skated a new LP yet?

A. Mishin: Everything is going as we planned and according to our strategy for the Games.

Q: What was a reason for this strategy?

A. Mishin: The Olympic Games have special significance. To have success there you need something original and unexpected. 

Q: But it is believed  - the earlier a new program is presented, the sooner judges will get used to it...

A. Mishin: We've been leading for a long time now and our rivals managed to keep up with us. They've been changing footwork, costumes and even music. We won't give them this opportunity anymore. 

Q: The men figure skating has turned into a rivalry between Yagudin and Plushenko, or Plushenko and Yagudin - don't know what would be right way to say it. However, there are talks that Timothy Goebel may be a contender as well...

A Mishin: Rivalry, in my opinion, is not an accurate word for that.  In the last two seasons Zhenya lost to Yagudin only once, at Worlds in Nice.

Q: Someone did the math: the score for the last two years is 7:1 in Plushenko's favor...

A.  Mishin: That's right. There is no rivalry here. We can talk about rivalry when one skater wins one tournament, another skater wins the next and so on. It's not the case here. Plushenko has an advantage. But we belong to category of people who take their competitors very seriously and with respect. Our main goal, however, is not to lose to ourselves. If Zhenya skates as well as he is able - we aren't afraid of anybody. 

Q: If you coached Yagudin, would he been able to beat Plushenko more often?

A. Mishin: This is just a speculation but I suppose he would have been stronger technically. I think Zhenya has already shown Lyosha that his technical potential is much stronger. Not to mention the presentation skills. Hypothetically speaking, if we compare Plushenko's and Yagudin's ideal skating, the first one shows a skating of the future. Nobody else in the world does the footwork like Plushenko in his SP, a Biellman spin or doughnut spin. I'll tell you a secret: Zhenya is already landing a quad lutz. It's a question if others can master all those elements. 

Q: Are you going to include it into his new LP? 

A.  Mishin: I would rather not to answer this question because of our strategy for the Olympics. However, there is a possibility to see it soon and not necessarily in LP. 

Q: But we have almost forgotten about Timothy Goebel... Has he improved?

A. Mishin: Yes, I have noticed the progress. 

Q: Who else beside Plushenko, Yagudin and, say, Goebel is an Olympic medal contender?

A Mishin: Anyone who is considered himself so. 

Q: Yagudin has recently begun to work with a well known in sport psychologist Rudolf Zagainov...

A.  Mishin: I know Rudolf Maksimovich personally. He used to work in my group with Vitaly Yegorov and Marina Serova. I send him my regards!

Q: What do you think about this new alliance?

A. Mishin: If an athlete needs a psychologist - that's not a good sign. At least, I don't see anything good in it. 

Q:  Do you remember matches for the title of the Chess World Champion between Karpov and Kasparov? There were a few scandals caused by Zagainov's psychological provocations...

A.  Mishin: I am strongly against anything that doesn't belong to sports or to skating, in particular.  It doesn't work towards progress in sport but only makes it dirty. 

Q: Can you say anything about new program?

A. Mishin: The program is called "Pages from an Actor's Life." Zhenya's creative and artistic potentials are huge and it wouldn't be right to present him in program in the same light.  He is going to be different in "Pages..." Very different. It is believed that only Shakespeare was able to show the whole spectrum of humane feelings like happiness and tragedy, love and disappointment, devotion and treachery... In the new program Plushenko is going to be Shakespeare. Those two talents are of the same degree...