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THEIR STORY |
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This is the story of Marika
and Federico as told by themselves, their coaches and their parents.
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G. Quirini
(coreographer): they
are two champions in and out of the skating rink; it’s a honour
to work with them.
Federico: you
work hard the whole year and then in a few minutes everything is
over...
Marika:
it's really hard work but I'd do
it all over again.
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Emotions
and victories - I |
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Bologna
(Italy),
end of 2006.
Marika and
Federico are World Roller Skating Pair Champions for the fourth time in a row.
In Murcia (Spain)
they stepped on top of the podium once again.
Marika:
the greatest victory is always
the first one because you do not expect it, because you fulfill
a lifetime dream... you can't believe it!
Federico:
every competition is a special emotion; in Spain we managed to skate one of our
best programs and this is something you treasure forever. Still every year there
is a reason to remember a championship.
Chiara (Marika's
mother):
(about her feelings when watching
them compete) I believe it's tougher to be in the stands than in
the rink to compete because you know that in a few minutes a
year of training is at stake... I cannot breathe, I'm always
afraid Marika might fall out of a lift...
Isabella (Federico's
mother):
I've been pretty calm the past
few years because I thought they were pretty superior compared
to the other pairs.
To see them up there on the podium, first place, gold medal...
Isabella:
you feel very emotional!
Chiara:
those are feelings I wish every
parent could experience, you cannot descrive such feelings...
M.R. Zenobi (coach):
those are moments that make you
feel proud as they pay off for all the hard work you have done.
They have been
unbeaten for four years, what makes them so good and different from the other
pairs?
Marika:
most of all it's the experience,
we have been skating together for 11 years so there is a great
understanding between the two of us.
G. Quirini:
they are the best pair in the world therefore they have the best elements in the
world. They had a heavy legacy to carry on their shoulders as they replaced the
best skating pair in history, Palazzirossi/Venerucci who had won eleven world
titles in a row. Yet with humbleness and hard work they managed that and they
have been on top for the last four years.
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Marika's
first steps on rollers |
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Chiara:
when she was four years old
Marika wanted to take ballet classes; the day of her first class
the ballet teacher was late as she was coming from Venice...
Marika:
I went to the skating rink with my mom as my brother wanted to start playing
hockey.
But we ended
up in the artistic roller skating club so that's how we both started.
Chiara:
I decided to take her bother to the skating rink first as he wanted to play
hockey; Marika saw him skate and decided to give it a try.
T. Gasparetto
(coach):
I have been knowing Marika since she was four years old when she started skating
at our club in Rovigo. As a little girl she was very shy and a lot of times she
didn't have the courage to enter the skating rink to compete.
Marika:
I used to cry expecially on the first competitions because I
didn’t want to step into the skating rink; I couldn't face the audience,
I was very
shy.
Chiara:
on her very first competition she came out of the rink in the middle of the
program; she said "I can't take it anymore" and came out crying badly.
Marika:
I skated half of the program then I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do
so I got out of the rink.
T. Gasparetto:
deep inside she understood she had the quality but she probably didn't have the
courage to believe it.
Marika: at first I had a lot of difficulties to
enter the rink and compete so it happened they'd either call my name and I
didn't step in or I'd leave after skating the first minute of my program because
I couldn't take it anymore.
T. Gasparetto:
once she understood that with the help, support and cooperation of her partner
she could get very good results, she really blossomed.
Chiara:
I would have never imagined she could have become world champion!
I took her to
skating classes so that she could overcome her shyness.
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Federico's
first steps on rollers |
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Federico:
as a little boy I was very lively, cheerful, a bit difficult to look after at
times but growing up with family and sport education, I've matured and changed.
Isabella:
as a little boy he was very lively and talkative.
Federico:
I started skating because my older brother was skating; the rink was just 300
meters away from home and my mother used to bring me along when she took my
bother there. So eventually I started skating myself and I've been involved with this
sport for 18 years now.
Isabella:
we entered the rink by accident and then they both started skating.
The coaches
were always looking for them because there are not many males practicing this
sport.
M.R. Zenobi:
it was a real challenge to make Federico skate, he has always been very good at
it but he wanted to play soccer. It was a real fight: his mother and I insisted
he would come to the rink also because his brother was skating and it would have
been difficult for his mom to take him to some other place.
Federico:
I've been skating for 18 year but started to take it seriously about
5 or 6 years ago!
As a little
boy I played basketball, soccer, volleyball… I was always on the go!
M.R. Zenobi:
as he tended to run away, we reached a compromise: if he skated four days a
week, I'd give him two days off to play soccer.
Federico:
it happened that I skipped training or went to the rink just to have fun more
than training...
M.R. Zenobi:
he was a playful kid, when I wasn't looking at him, he played and made jokes with
the other boys but as soon as I turned to him again he was a good kid right
away! The most critical phase was when he was about 10 years old: all his
friends were playing soccer and he was doing a sport, a lot of people say it's a
female sport. This is not right of course because pair skating requires the
power and strength of male athlete; yet as a young boy he didn't feel
comfortable with it.
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Winning
team |
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In 1996 Marika and Federico start skating together: a winning team is
born.
Chiara:
the coaches were right!
M.R. Zenobi:
Marika's partner was too small for her and Federico's was too big for him so
they ended up together and the winning team was born.
Chiara:
when they had the first try-out, Federico came to Rovigo with his coach.
After the training I
remember Marika telling me: "I feel like flying up there!".
Marika:
Federico's coach used to come and coach in Rovigo and since his partner had
grown too much and my partner was too small, she decided to make us try
together.
Federico:
females develop earlier, males later, so my partner and I had to stop skating
together; expecially in pair skating the male partner has to be big enough for
the female otherwise you cannot execute some elements. Since our first practices
we got really good results, as a matter of fact in the first year as a pair we
won the national title.
Marika and
Federico right away have a very good relationship.
Chiara: they have a very good relationship because they are good guys,
also Federico to stand Marika...
Marika:
luckily we go along very well, even during the training we have fun!
M.R. Zenobi:
to skate in pairs there has to be a good relationship between the partners as
it's like a marriage. They have to stand each other expecially during
competitions when anxiety, fear and stress are sky-high.
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A life of sacrifices |
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For Marika and Federico, skating together means making sacrifices...
G.Quirini:
a lot of sacrifices, first of all because they live in different cities so they
have to travel to train together.
Isabella:
when school lessons were over, at 2 p.m., we left right away for Rovigo and when
we got back the homework had to be done.
Federico:
my mom along with my coach picked me up after school and we went directly to
Rovigo; I trained from 3 to 5 p.m. then another hour trip to come back home
where, at 6 p.m. I started studying... high-school years were very tough ones.
M.R.Zenobi:
he has never complained about having to study too much, he's never asked me to
leave the rink earlier because he had homework to do, but he's always been a
good pupil.
Federico:
when we were younger our parents made a lot of sacrifices, economic ones too, to
take us to practices and competitions; growing up we have become more
independent, now we have our own cars and it's all much easier.
A career of
beautiful moments but also difficult ones…
Chiara:
of corse there have been difficult moments because every year new pairs come up, new pairs to defeat! More than once Marika had a difficult time; one day we were
coming back from Bologna and, I can’t remember for what reason, she threw her
skates away and said "I'm not gonna skate anymore". She had yet to win her first
title and I told her "You have been skating since you were four years old, you
can't give up before winning at least one title". I insisted she kept on skating
and then… results came.
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Creating new lifts, quad-twist, falling down and standing up
again |
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M.R. Zenobi:
Marika and Federico are very creative and inventive: they created a beautiful
new lift, it's called 'deglizan' from Degli Esposti/Zanforlin... They have the
highest difficulties at international level and they are the masters of throw
jumps; Marika is called 'the queen of throw jumps' as she is the only one in
the world who can do four rotations in the air. The quad twist is their winning
card for the world championships.
Pair skating
can be dangerous at times…
Federico: you learn to do pair moves step by step; you start as a kid to
do lifts under your shoulders and when you become more confident and grow up you
add more difficulties. But for sure an element of risk is always there...
Marika:
it’s difficult to learn throw jumps, expecially from three turns up… you take a
lot of falls, it's hard to stand up and do it again!
At the 2001 Italian
Nationals,
Marika falls out of a lift...
Federico:
that was a very unusual fall because I was still rotating and she was already
lying on the floor, we didn't have time to understand what was going on…
we were quite shaken because it was a tough fall but luckily we managed to keep
skating. In case of ordinary falls, you keep going with a smile on your face as
if nothing happened.
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Emotions
and
victories - II |
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M.R. Zenobi:
to see them on the podium, I felt very happy not just for them but for their
parents who made so many sacrifices taking them to practice everyday since they
were four years old. Behind a great atlete there are always great parents.
Chiara:
Marika and I always look at each other before she enters the rink to compete; we
look at each other even if I'm among 5000-6000 people, she knows that... those are
emotions you treasure forever.
Great
fulfillments behind each medal they’ve won…
Marika:
from the first to the last one: the first one is special because it's the one
you remember the most, because you don't expect it, because after a week you
still cannot believe it. The last one is also special because every year you have
to show something more than the year before, you have to show that you got
better.
Federico:
this is only the final result of years and years of hard work, sacrificies,
tensions, a lot of different things that make you enjoy the world championship
when it's over and you are successful... yet you conquer all this overcoming a lot
of difficulties people at home or in the stands can't see and can't even
imagine.
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A new
challenge |
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...COMING SOON...
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