Gwendal Peizerat, crowned in 2002 in Salt Lake City, in ice dancing came to talk to us about Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis before their entry into the running this weekend.
France Bleu Saint-Etienne Loire: This Olympic title is the only one missing from the French list. Are they still the favourites?
Gwendal Peizerat, 2002 Olympic champion in ice dancing :Speaker 1: Of course, those are the favorites. They already were four years ago. They then mastered the discipline in an almost insolent way. Today, a little less. They did not continue the harvest of titles they had garnered at that time. The fact remains that they are far above the rest. They have the capacity without problem to have this Olympic title.
With this expectation which is very strong around them. You knew her twenty years ago with Marina Anissina. How do we manage?
It is one of the most difficult things for an athlete. When the title is already given in advance. We become infallible for the public and others. We no longer have the right to make mistakes at all. But no one is superhuman. It does not exist people who are infallible. You really feel alone at this time. As everyone is convinced that we will have the title, there is no one to help us, to encourage us a little more. We know that the Olympic Games are very difficult. There may be surprises, so I wouldn’t want to put that pressure on them like I had with Marina. We must continue to support them and wish them the best.
The difference is also made on the alchemy. They are the best friends in the world. Does it matter when you get together and experience a big event like this?
I think that more than friends, they are almost brothers and sisters. Because, unlike Marina and I who created the couple who arrived as seniors, they have always skated together since their earliest childhood. They spent more time together than with anyone else on the planet. They are almost twins. They’ve been through the same things for years and years. Their chemistry is total.
You met them a long time ago in Lyon. Already at the time, could we imagine that it was probably going to become the greatest duo in the history of ice dancing?
We already saw, obviously, enormous capacities. When they arrived in Lyon, there was a lot of dynamism and a lot of tonicity, passion on the ice. They lacked a big technical control that they acquired in Lyon first, and then when leaving for Canada . The team created there around them really gave them an unparalleled quality of skating, touch of the ice and technicality.
This duo skipped the European Championships. We haven’t seen them for a few weeks now. Is it a strength to arrive a little masked or on the contrary it would have been necessary to be reassured on the ice?
Personally, I don’t like that. Missing deadlines, whatever the good reasons, personally I find it rather counterproductive. If they had come to the European Championship, they could have established their supremacy and anchored themselves better in the minds of the judges because they are the ones who have to be convinced. There, there is a doubt. What did they do ? Where are they? This does not prevent them from having good reasons because it was to avoid the Covid. Strategies in times of Covid are completely different.
Papadakis – Cizeron, an extraordinary record
- Silver medal at the 2018 Olympics
- 4 times world champion
- 5 times European champions
- 7 times champion of France