Interview with Christina and Anthony!

Interview Highlights

Hello this is Midnight Blues and other Musings, a figure skating podcast. Today we are thrilled to have two very special guests on today to talk about their career, training, and goals, the 2020 Skate America Bronze Medalists, the two-time US pewter medalists, and two-time World Junior Medalists, Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko!

• Your coaching switch to Ice Academy of Montreal’s extension skating school in Ontario to train under Scott Moir was the biggest thing in ice dance this spring so we are dying to know more about it.

  • In the last two years of their competitive career, Tessa and Scott talked a lot in interviews about how they took full ownership of their career and ran the show in all aspects of their skating.

    • QUESTION: In what ways has the move allowed you to claim ownership of your career?

    • Christina: Every decision we make is more of a team effort. It's not as much the coach telling us what to do or us saying what we want. It's really a collaborative effort and I think it's because we're working with such amazing people I think good things are going to come out of it.

    • Anthony: And I think taking ownership of our career, we really wanted to make this year collaborative with our new coaching stuff and wanted to put our print on our programs. We're given the opportunity to be ourselves more than ever before.

    • QUESTION: Walk us through how the differences between training in London compared to how your day-to-day training was in Novi, Michigan and just generally how this switch has been for you both.

    • Christina: In London our day is very structured, our schedule is made for us. There's a science behind everything we do it's not just working to work, which I feel is more logical and beneficial. So that's been the biggest change honestly, it's really night and day.

    • Anthony: Like every 15 minutes we know exactly what to do and work on. We're given a task at hand and we work very hard on it to complete it ever single day. I think that's the biggest difference from Novi and London is that structure and everything is done for us in terms of what we need to do.

    • Ceci: As an athlete I crave structure in every part of my life, it's really underestimated how much structure impacts training and preparation. That specific 15 minute chunk really helps you move on and progress.

    • Anthony: Even in the 15 minute increment Scott writes in capitals DO THIS, to really prove a point on what we have to work on.

    • QUESTION: What areas of your skating were you most excited to improve over the last couple of months with Scott and the extended IAM team?

    • Christina: Well their skating technique is pretty different. They have more of a British technique compared to the Russian technique that we are used to. We're still learning obviously they are just so fun to work with and they are such good coaches. We love working with them.

    • Anthony: We've really only had one style of the past 8-9 years and looking at skating in a different point of view is fun to expand on what we already know.

    • Ceci: Would you say your style still remains more Russian but you are implementing the British style and find a mesh of both Russian-British?

    • Christina: Our base is never going to go away so it's very much a mesh of the two.

• How was the trip to Montreal? Christina, what was it like being home? As an athlete, I compete often from where I grew up and I know I always feel more comfortable and focused at home, did you experience any of that when you were doing choreography for the week

  • Who did you train with in Montreal?

• Side-Bar: What language does the coaching team speak to you in, obviously Christina you speak French, do you translate for Anthony or do they speak in English to both of you?

• Christina What’s your inspiration when you think about costumes for the season? Do you think about the music, the feeling?

  • This season you’re having your costumes done by Mattieu Coron, what has that design process been like so far? Do you have any favorite ice dance costumes?

  • Christina, (and also Anthony I guess but girls put more work in) what’s your process when you think about styling? Do you have a go-to makeup brand look that you try to match with every program or create a whole new look for every program?

• You guys are both multilingual, have you guys picked up much of each other’s non-english tongue from each other?

• How did it feel to be reunited with your old training mates Madi Chock and Evan Bates when you went to Montreal for choreography two weeks ago?

• Christina, I remember reading in an article on USFSA that you said you were born with hip dysplasia. This is obviously a very serious condition because it leads to labral tears or even osteoarthritis with physical activity. You’ve been skating since you were three, how have you managed it in your athletic career?

  • (if she talks about her hip dysplasia) I really do hate to bring this up, but I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your recovery after you broke your foot last Spring, only because I broke the exact same bone in my foot last fall. I know for me, the physical rest period was very very difficult and the PT was very hard. What was that like working with that and your hip, making sure they are both healthy and ready for the skating season?

• Anthony, obviously with skating for male ice dancers they have to find a delicate balance in their training between cardio and weight-lifting, but some skaters favor more to help get more rotations because they’re lighter or lift more to better support their partner. Can you describe your training regime now, or talk about how it has changed over the years?

TLDR Short Answer: Anthony was not doing much cardio before. The lockdown allowed him to do more running and biking, and now he combines both in training.