Albena & Maxim in 'MK Boulevard'

Girls! The new interview with our dearest Albie & Max!

Girls! Sorry that i put it not in the right order
And the translation will be a little bit later!

Until now I can only enjoy the pics, but they are wonderful !

Many thanks, Wondergirl!!!

Wondergirl, thank you very much!! The pics are gorgeous!

Thank you Wondergirl . Great interview.

The first part of the interview translated by me! (the 2nd and partly the 3rd pictures)

Here it is:

Albena Denkova: We are together with Maxim for 10 years already but we haven’t enough time for wedding.

When the Bulgarian figure skater Albena Denkova understood that her life would be connected with Figure skating; she didn’t know that her life would be connected with Russia too. 12 years ago she came to Moscow to get acquainted with her new partner Maxim Staviski. Russian figure skater in his turn didn’t even imagine that he would get the Bulgarian citizenship in some time and would skate for Bulgaria. ‘MK Boulevard’ met with two-times World champions and the stars of the Ice Age.

-Albena, today you are a famous figure skater known all over the world. Could you remember the beginning of your career in sport?

- I began from the gymnastics – this kind of sport was very popular in Bulgaria. I was very flexible so my parents brought me to the sport section. But one day the figure skating coach came and said that he was searching the children to his group. I and my parents liked this kind of sport so I was taken there. Firstly I was skating alone but in some years I understood that jumps and rotations are not for me. And I began to skate only in Ice Dancing. I was skating with the Bulgarian skater for a long time; we didn’t gain good results, so he decided to finish his career. So I had to take a great decision: whether to finish skating or search a new partner. I was looking for him for a year and was going to stop it. But suddenly Maxim’s mum phoned me and said that in Moscow there is an available sportsman. Maxim’s partner was in junior group by her age. And Maxim needed to start skating in a senior one. So he was searching the partner too. I came to Moscow in 1996. We skated for a month in the group of Oleg Epshtein in ‘Olimpiyski’. And I was surprised by Maxim’s level of skating: everything coincided from the very first day. By degrees we were going to the World champions. And we made sacrifices to reach it. We became two times World champions. It wasn’t easy for us but neither I no Maxim have regrets.

- Your parents brought you to sport. Do they have an attitude to it?

- No. My mum is a designer and my dad is helping her. They have their common business. And everybody was brought to sport sections at that time.

- The sportsmen spend the most of their time on practice. How did you manage to combine sport and study?

-Very well. I studied at special sport school. We had special day regimen. We studied for some hours in the morning and some hours after lunch (dinner). And all the time left we were practicing. In other words our day was divided into two half-days. I was good in almost all the subjects but most of all I liked Maths, Biology and History. And after finishing school I entered the University to an economic faculty.

- It means that you got a profession.

- Yeah. In management and marketing. Together with my parents I decided that in addition to figure skating I should have the possibility to gain money. At the same time we began to skate with Maxim. By degrees we were rising higher and higher and got a success. So I had two professions (laughing).

The continuation... (the 3rd and the 1st pictures)

-You lived for five years with Maxim in Russia; and practiced with Alexei Gorshkov in Odintsovo. And now you live in Moscow for the most of the time. Do you feel yourself Russian?

-Oh, I really don’t know (laughing). Of course I miss my home because my friends, my family is there. But here everybody treats me kindly and I feel myself very comfortable. And at this moment my home is Moscow.

-You speak good Russian. Did you have problems with the language?

-I began to learn Russian when I was in the 3rd form. People say that I had less Bulgarian ascent at that time. One thing: it is when I begin to worry I use the wrong cases. But what concerns the words it is difficult to surprise me. I know a lot even Russian slang. But I don’t use it in my speech – I don’t like. I can say that the Russian language is really one of the most difficult and rich languages in the world. Sometimes I can’t find the necessary word in Bulgarian; so with Maxim we search this notion in Russian.

-When Maxim came to Bulgaria did you acquaint to him the culture and traditions?

-No. He got acquainted to it by himself (laughing). And speaking to the Bulgarians he learned the Bulgarian language. There are many Russians in Bulgaria and it is well-heard the soft ascent when they speak. But Maxim speaks Bulgarian almost without ascent.

-Albena, when did you understand that Maxim is not only a partner on ice to you?

-In some years after we began to skate together. Maxim impressed me at first that he is a wonderful gallant. As a partner he took care of me and behaved with tenderness. And day after day began to place high emphasis on me. I was impressed and our relationships grew to ‘only love’. To private ones.

-In your interviews with Maxim you are always saying that you didn’t impress yourselves when you first met at the airport in Moscow. And you even wanted to come back because he wasn’t that one from the cassette. And he also said that wasn’t impressed by you.

-Yes. Such a feeling took place (laughing). I imagined him tall and slim. I came and whom I saw? A boy! He was 18 or 19 at that time. But it often happens that you don’t like anybody from the first sight but then you become the best friends.

-You are a little bit older. Do you teach him some good sense?

-I teach him a lot, so he is tired of it! (laughing) But he taught me a lot either. He has another life philosophy. He perceives the life in a positive way. He can determine what is important and what is not. I take my attention to the details and often waste my nerves. Maxim teaches me to reach the priorities. I think that from the first day we met; we began to balance each other.

-The Bulgarian press wrote that you got married and even that it was in Spain…

-We are together for 10 years already. We live together, have common family life. And Maxim did the proposal many times. But always we stopped – why marry during the competitions? It should be an event that we must remember till the end of our lives. We haven’t time to think about children – we took part in the competitions last season. And then we were invited to work to Moscow. Also we have some problems in Bulgaria now. That’s why we are waiting with the registration now.

-Maxim told that after finishing your career his rest is planned for the next half a year: snowboard, hunting, skiing.

-Oh, there is nothing of it now. After we finished we went to one tour, then to another, then to the third one. We think that we should take this possibility while we have the invitations, the possibility to skate and earn money. And besides it’s interesting to us.

At last... the end (the 4th picture)

- How do you spend your free time in Moscow?

- What free time? I have no free time at all! Timur Rodrigues (my partner in Ice Age) is absolutely crazy! He is trying not to disappoint me and our coaches that we spend 6 hours on the ice every day! (laughing)

- And can’t you even go to the cinema or to the café with Maxim?

- I was at the cinema long ago. Sometimes we can go to a restaurant and eat sushi. I even have no time for shopping. I think it’s terrible for a woman!

- Where do you and Maxim plan to live: in Russia or in Bulgaria?

- We’ll live where we’ll have a job. Unfortunately in Bulgaria practically nothing happens in figure skating.

- How do you manage to combine the work in Ice Age in Russia and the work of the President of the Bulgarian figure skating Federation?

- The work of the President is a public work. I am not paid and I haven’t the necessity to go to work every day. My task is to lobby the interests of the Federation and to organize different competitions. Last year we accepted the World Junior Championship in Bulgaria. I needed to work with the mass-media, solve the financial questions. I talked to the Sport Department, the government executives and even the President. In February there will be one more World Championship in Sofia. It is a great responsibility for me.

- And the fact that you were proposed such a post sounds very honorable. And I think that even after your finishing the career you are the most popular and loved people in Bulgaria. Because no one earlier got such results in figure skating as you did.

- Of course our success was the first one. And we are glad. And we are glad that we withstood this hard work when you must get up at 4 because you need to be on ice at 5.30. Last two years we practiced in such conditions in America with N.Linitchuk and G.Karponosov. They did a lot for us and they helped to reach the success. And we are thankful to them. I don’t know whether we will stay the public favourites, but I know that many people were proud of us when we were standing at the top position of the podium.



And the some words from me… Don’t think that it is the house of Albie and Max on the photos… We all thought this when we saw this article. But there is a note after the article: it is the furniture saloon in Moscow!

Have a nice time reading it...

Wondergirl, such a wonderful and great translation again!!! Again many many thanks !!! You´re a real darling ...

Quote :

And the some words from me… Don’t think that it is the house of Albie and Max on the photos… We all thought this when we saw this article. But there is a note after the article: it is the furniture saloon in Moscow!

... I wondered as I saw the kitchen... in one of the vids we had some months ago the kitchen looked different: red (But I do not know if the red one belongs to Albie and Max or to Albie´s mom Sylvia...)...


P.S.: Is translating your profession? I only ask because all your translations seem to be so "perfect" and "professional" to me...

Quote :

P.S.: Is translating your profession?

You are quite right! I am the teacher of English... But I am not working now so this is the great opportunity for me not to forget the language...

Wondergirl wrote:

Quote :

P.S.: Is translating your profession?

You are quite right! I am the teacher of English.

Oh, another English teacher ! Hi partner ! Welcome in the club ! I teach English only in primary school, therefore I do not need to be sooooooo perfect as you are ....

Stop!!! I also worked in primary school!!!! And after two years of working with them I understood that I am losing myself and forgeting my 'so loved' English...

Thank you so much for translating my dearest english teaching wondergirl!

( Two teachers of English.....
I cannot write never again on this forum.... :study: :study: )

Don't be afraid!!!!!! I have many mistakes in my posts! But it can't be the barrier for communicating!

So, another colleague I worked as a teacher too. Not in English - in French, but anyway, we're colleagues

I am laughing!!! So many of us....

piemontesina wrote:

( Two teachers of English.....
I cannot write never again on this forum.... :study: :study: )

Oh, come on, Piemontesina ! You know you can!!! ...

Vania wrote:

So, another colleague: I worked as a teacher too.

Ewuch ones wrote she´s teacher, too! If that´s correct then there are four of us... really can´t stop laughing at the moment...
... a forum full of teachers ... I really hope nobody will run away because of this now...

The house is beautiful! I'm rather disappointed that it's not theirs!!!
They look gorgeous in the photos, btw. So happy! It made me smile.
Thank you so much for the translation!!! I have yet to read it, but it looks faaaaab!

The pics from the magazine, uploaded by Anya :

http://pic.ipicture.ru/uploads/081218/12035/7hLA3DTWRU.jpg
http://pic.ipicture.ru/uploads/081218/12035/NY6TuTc0Y8.jpg
http://pic.ipicture.ru/uploads/081218/12035/w5Riw2Y8GU.jpg
http://pic.ipicture.ru/uploads/081218/12035/nYTM20nURe.jpg

Sorry, I can´t re-upload pics from ipicture-server for reasons I do not understand... And I do not want to "wreck" this page with pics from that slow server...