This Week in Skating / Hispanic Heritage Month: Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez

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[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, we are Valentina Plasas and Maximilian Fernandez.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to this week in Skating, the weekly podcast bringing you the latest news from the world of figure skating.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Here are your hosts, Daphne, Gina, and let's say it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Hispanic Heritage Month is an annual celebration of the history, cultures, and contributions of the US Latino and Hispanic communities.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15th to October 15th each year.
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[SPEAKER_04]: We at this weekend's Gating want to honor and celebrate our Hispanic and Latino figure skaters while also hearing their experiences, challenges and perspectives as the members of the Hispanic community.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So during this month we'll be having some conversations with them.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And today we are joined by 2024 US Bronze Medalists and World Competitors, Valentina Palazzo and Maximilliano Fernandez.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The two became the first U.S. pair's team to compete at the world championships in which both partners are of Latin descent.
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[SPEAKER_04]: So we want to welcome Valentina and Max Moliano to this week inscating.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome guys.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Hello.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Great job saying for names.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I've got it down.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Pretty good, I think.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was listening.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was listening very keenly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm always a Milano cookie at the end of it, you know, instead of Miliano.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So guys, thank you first for taking time to talk with us because I know we are talking to you between competitions.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You were just in Japan.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And now I think you're going to be heading to Neville, Orange soon.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So so again, thank you so much for taking time.
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[SPEAKER_03]: First, we want to start with
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[SPEAKER_03]: I know it because I've talked to you guys before, but maybe our listeners don't know your background.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So if you can talk about your backgrounds and then maybe your background in skating as well.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, so I was born in Colombia in 2000 and I moved to the US in 2006.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So I am fully born and have Columbia citizenship.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I was able to get my US citizenship in 2017.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So right now I carry dual citizenship.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, my whole family is from Columbia, Bogotá, Columbia.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And...
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[SPEAKER_02]: event like my family has come to the US and we've all kind of like my dad's side has been able to come to the US but I still have lots of family in Colombia and I have gone back a couple times since I moved and the last time I was there was in 2020 before the pandemic hit so my I do plan to go back I want to I was watching like old videos from when I was little I was like
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[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That sounds like a good offseason plan.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: What about you, Max?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm from a proven and Cuban descent.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So my mom is Peruvian.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She came to the US and and around the 90s, early 90s.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And my dad is a Cuban immigrant from, uh, he immigrated when he was only one years old from Cuba.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Had to spend a year in Spain and then he has
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's from my parents met and I was born in a in highly of Florida, which is like a very Cuban area of Miami like a to Cuban melting pot or all the Cubans went to after they left Cuba.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I was born in highly a hospital, but I live in Miami Now, how did you guys get into skating?
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[SPEAKER_02]: I got it just getting pretty like minus like basic I went to birthday party and I think I enjoyed it or like I know I fell really hard on my hand and I was like I don't really want to fall like that ever again like those are the words when your hand just burns and then my sister was doing college on set Saturday mornings and we had to drive her there.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So my parents were like, we need something for you to do in the meantime.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And they're like, let's just try ice skating classes.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And kind of joined group classes, the four-week classes, and progress pretty quickly from there.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And I couldn't get away from it here I am.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Now, you never skated in Columbia, did you?
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[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, not at all.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna guess was skating in Columbia a thing.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Is it even a thing?
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[SPEAKER_02]: not even close.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I think I probably went to like, I have a small memory of maybe ice skating like during Christmas and like a pop-up little rink, um, but it's not big at all.
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[SPEAKER_02]: No, no skating.
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[SPEAKER_02]: No, no ice, no nothing.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Just grass and a soccer ball.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And I did try soccer.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It
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[SPEAKER_01]: Latin American countries are what are or like South American countries only experience it like dizzy and ice rolls through and they pop up their ice or like there's a conventional like random pop up ice like rarely happens for like usually Christmas and stuff like that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Now what about you Max?
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[SPEAKER_03]: How did you get started in skating?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I got into it from the
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[SPEAKER_01]: There was like a one off of the airbud series with the dog like a golden retriever, but with monkeys.
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[SPEAKER_04]: I love airbud.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I got me in the hockey.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This is a monkey, a chimpanzee playing a play on the ice.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So then that got me into hockey.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I was like about, I want to say like four years old, four and a half.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If when I tried it, and then for my fifth birthday party, I had like in Miami and like Val said, it's very popular to have birthday parties.
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[SPEAKER_01]: in the skating rinks.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I had my party at the skating rink.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then I did hockey all the way until about 13.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then I switched over to figure skating at 13.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I started skating when I was 12.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And then I think my first competition was March 24, 2013.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So I was almost 13 by
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[SPEAKER_03]: And we're even considering possibly representing Columbia until Max called job been was like how about pairs?
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's funny like how everything happens.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, I was skating singles.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I was a junior skating junior and just got my like axle, my double axle.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And we were trying to get like a Federation in Columbia because like they were really interested in like opening up bomb.
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[SPEAKER_02]: like winter sports and like starting that process and we spoke with like the head guy from the Federation like or like the sports Federation of Columbia and they're really interested in like we met with them like he came to Miami and like we had a full conversation but at the same time Max and I were like skating around like I think we might have already had one try out and at the other day he just came down to like the financial help obviously like
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[SPEAKER_02]: with a sport that's not widely known or like just starting up like it's would be really hard to get back up from the Federation and figure skating is not cheap.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So like, you know, you really got to take that into consideration.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And
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[SPEAKER_02]: Essentially, I picked pairs and I was like, you know, like obviously the financial help, but like I also was interested in pairs, like I've always, I watched 2014 Olympics 2018 Olympics and I was like, oh, like, that seems so cool.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I never thought I'd be doing it, but the opportunity came up and it was obviously, and I would just want to say easy decision, but it was like, like, I would prefer having financial support a little bit.
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[SPEAKER_02]: than kind of like, you know, my parents have done so much.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And like my parents would have done it regardless, like they would never say no to me.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But I would, I, my goal was to like, obviously relieve them from that financial stress.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Now add to it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, is Columbia still at that point where they don't really have any federation or any skating whatsoever?
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they still don't have it.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I think they're, I might have seen that their name, like the country was in like the list somewhere in the ISU, but I don't think they have, because they don't have any ranks or anything, so I don't think they're quite there at all, and it's been six years so I think I made the right decision.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Um, so as we said, this is Hispanic heritage month and I want to know what does being Hispanic mean to you guys personally and how does your Hispanic heritage influence who you are today.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The touch up on the other part that there's Peruvians on the on the junior grand prester.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, I had to throw that out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I had to throw that out there if I'm doing it for like maybe three, maybe
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[SPEAKER_01]: two years in the JGP circuit, but yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What is Hispanic heritage mean to me?
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean it means it means everything to us I guess like we know it it represents so much to us like I said I'm proving and I know part of the proving skating association too because I've been there to Peru and talk to them and stuff and I've used to go to Peru every summer as a child before I
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[SPEAKER_01]: So then knowing that we're like the minority and like we're especially being Hispanic, we're like an extreme minority out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's we're like literally one in one in, you know, one on a 10 or one in 15.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Not even that it's way higher than that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it's just an honor to represent the the whole culture of being Hispanic and Latin, even though there's so many of us in the world, it's kind of crazy that there's not that many figure skaters out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it just means a lot to bring our culture onto the ice.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully this year we're showing that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We never really skated to any culture, really, you know, significant programs for like showing our like Latin culture.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And this year, one of our programs is going to show that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's our short program.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And it has a mixture of both English and Spanish.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So we're not getting everyone lost in that sense.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, it's Michael Blueblasting in it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So Skisashi says, and he says it also in English.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So perhaps perhaps.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I thought that song's funny and it's funny and it's fun and sexy and intimate.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it has everything we want and then and we hope the audience can feel and read that.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Honestly, like being Hispanic and like.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Like having such a Hispanic culture and roots and my parents, my grandparents, my sister, her husband, it's a lot of Hispanic people.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And it's really like, again, it really fort, like, reinforces or drive.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And I feel like that's something that Max and I,
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[SPEAKER_02]: Like weakness and strength is like that we're driven people and like we will not give up we'll do whatever it takes to like keep pushing forward no matter what and really like I mean for myself personally like my parents like I said like my parents would support me no matter what and I think that's like something that like.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's like very Hispanic to like always care for your child no matter what and like I feel like I mean like not that like other cultures don't But like for us like it's really like a big deal and like in our family.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So that's really important like we do it for our family.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We don't just do it for ourselves and like in that we represent Again like hard work that like from like the moment that my parents decided to come to the US like
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[SPEAKER_02]: that's what my skating represents, especially not to fully go there, but with the climate right now, that's, again, that's, I represent immigration.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I represent everything like the American dream, so it's really special to carry that on the ice, not just as a Colombian, but also with the US flag on my back.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So that's really.
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[SPEAKER_02]: like a big part.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And like what Max said, like, especially with their short program, perhaps perhaps Kisaski says, you know, like we have both in our hearts.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So like that's kind of like that was like, I know like Michael Boobley is like over playing skating, but I love Michael Boobley and I listen, I pick that music and usually my requests get shut down and this was quickly approved.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm very happy about that.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And the short program is my baby.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I love the show program.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's fun and it shows a different side of us that I feel like we haven't really shown.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's a little playful and it's fun and that it carries both of our cultures in it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, is this the first time that you've done something that kind of is your culture a little bit?
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we were like, it's funny because like you like use bigger skating
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[SPEAKER_02]: within our roots and we were like thinking of about it already just like again like quad like try something different but yeah we usually've always done Disney something like character wise greatest showman liking so Captain America didn't you do Captain America yeah we did adventure okay
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[SPEAKER_02]: And then we also do like classical like the rock monoth that we did last year.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We do have our longest rock monoth again, but it's like, like it's a good context.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Between the short and the long.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Well, we've said on this podcast that right now, this year is a good year to experiment and push yourselves out there a little bit more because it's the first
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[SPEAKER_04]: It's the time to really see, you know, to try the things that you may not have tried yet.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And to, sorry, and to add to the, what it means to be Hispanic, like what Valentina is saying was about the family thing, like, a lot of us don't, didn't make it out of our countries for whatever reason, let's say, in the 90s for my mom and Peru, was dictatorship was taking over.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why she left in her family center out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: thrown out and then a fidel getting going thrown in a lot of us don't make it out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So we're representing the people that are at home that didn't make it out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like when we phone call them and they don't have ice and they're like they think we're like, you know, something else.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, yeah, so it's like an honor, you know, and that sense representing their family and our cultures, not just ourselves representing out there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, just wanted to hit that.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Now, have you ever felt different from the people around you, especially in skating because of your background in your culture?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, I think so.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think so, especially like for me personally, like growing up, more so like.
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[SPEAKER_02]: back in like when I was like I had girls to look up to or like when I like all these I was just learning my jumps and like all these girls were jumping doubles and like like there's a specific like look they're all white they're all like like came from different families so it's like I did feel different and I felt like I was like not not as like I was set
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because we come from two different rings too, honestly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So like, where I'm from, I mean, South Miami.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot of Hispanics, like, pretty much everybody is Hispanic.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Am I rank, you know?
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then you go to about like up north to burn an hour and hour.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, an hour north.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then another 30 minutes of north, everyone is going to be a mix.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like the rick that I come from was not as nice.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and now you guys are up in Michigan too.
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[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm guessing it's a totally different environment up there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the culture is totally different, exactly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So that's another reason why we moved up here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, like I said, so I used to commute to Val's drink an hour away from where I used to live in Miami to skate with her for the six, seven months that we were trying out together.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And up here, you have a rink every 10, 15 minutes in every direction.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like it's so much more culturally appropriate
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[SPEAKER_01]: of a training environment to live and train that and work.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's definitely a lot more skating culture, but less Hispanic culture or like melting pot.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But it's nice though.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, I mean, actually like more recently, there's been a lot more Hispanics around in Michigan.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, moving up here.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Which is like, like, I like hear more Spanish around me and I'm like, oh, that makes me so happy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was not like that before.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Now you guys talked about how it's meaningful to represent both your heritage and the represent the United States.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Has that feeling changed as your careers have progressed?
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, when you've got your bronze medal at the US Championships, when you went to worlds did it, you know, change your feeling of representing your heritage in the United States as you've moved on with your career?
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[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like it's made it stronger.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's given us like
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[SPEAKER_02]: bigger, a bigger platform, and a bigger opportunity.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And with that, we've to bring in Donovan's pastio show.
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[SPEAKER_02]: We've been so grateful for the opportunity to be able to bring skating to Mexico as people front, it's so special.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And I think like,
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[SPEAKER_02]: without the 2024 metal and world team, we wouldn't have those opportunities as available to us.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So I think if anything, it's made it more powerful and more prevalent.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And it's funny that you say that because I was thinking the other day, I said never post anything in Spanish on Instagram, like whatever we've been wanting to talk Spanish, but now with the Mexico shows and with Donovan and Andrea,
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[SPEAKER_02]: embraced it more and I like enjoy it more and I'm more open to it.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like it's definitely changed put in a positive way for me.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Max loves to speak Spanish.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm laughing because I don't mind speaking Spanish because I I come from mixed parents and I'm from Miami.
19:47.193 --> 19:48.794
[SPEAKER_01]: So my accent is just trash.
19:48.814 --> 19:57.597
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess you can call it like a mixture of a gringo accent, which is like a white person accent, approving accent and a Cuban accent.
19:57.637 --> 20:09.402
[SPEAKER_01]: So I go in between all three, and that's just, yeah, so it's like, I don't mind practicing and talking, we're about like she has a beautiful accent and just talks in her Colombian voice, you know?
20:09.802 --> 20:13.203
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's different because when you go to different countries, like different dialects,
20:15.668 --> 20:20.272
[SPEAKER_01]: And compared to someone Louisiana Florida, you know, we all have our different twings.
20:21.093 --> 20:23.235
[SPEAKER_01]: So I have my Miami accent when I speak in English.
20:23.900 --> 20:26.321
[SPEAKER_01]: but it's seen that I can sometimes.
20:26.961 --> 20:34.604
[SPEAKER_02]: No, but he's more comfortable speaking Spanish and I used to be a little bit more shy because I don't want to be judged, but now I'm not.
20:35.425 --> 20:36.665
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not open to it.
20:37.005 --> 20:42.728
[SPEAKER_04]: Figure skating hasn't traditionally been associated with Latino communities in the US.
20:42.808 --> 20:45.789
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you feel like you're helping change that perception?
20:46.189 --> 20:49.470
[SPEAKER_04]: And how might you be helping to change that perception?
20:49.871 --> 20:52.272
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I hope we're helping change in the perspective.
20:53.779 --> 20:59.141
[SPEAKER_01]: We're definitely got in a little bit more of a platform like with the bus you'll show with that Donovan's thing.
21:00.081 --> 21:01.361
[SPEAKER_01]: Show has provided us.
21:02.061 --> 21:04.862
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, we hope to be the headway.
21:04.922 --> 21:09.123
[SPEAKER_01]: Seems like Jacob is doing a little bit better job than that than I feel like.
21:10.044 --> 21:14.265
[SPEAKER_02]: But well, I think so.
21:14.365 --> 21:16.025
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think we're definitely part of it.
21:16.125 --> 21:18.406
[SPEAKER_02]: There's definitely the trailblazers.
21:19.646 --> 21:21.307
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, everybody knows Rudy Gullindo.
21:22.990 --> 21:30.314
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, it's really nice to have that platform to build upon and Jacob, Matt, like, he's very well known.
21:30.334 --> 21:32.835
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I think we are helping.
21:32.855 --> 21:34.556
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we can do better.
21:34.576 --> 21:39.859
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we are helping in terms of, like, in South America.
21:39.879 --> 21:41.760
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, again, what the dawn shows.
21:42.360 --> 21:46.702
[SPEAKER_02]: I think in North America, it's still more about like, like,
21:49.442 --> 21:54.104
[SPEAKER_02]: enjoyed or like talked about since like really hard for us to break through.
21:55.304 --> 22:11.950
[SPEAKER_02]: Hopefully, eventually we do break through like knock-on-wood rescape like well, but um, I think we are helping in our own way like spreading it in South America and I think Jacob is doing a great job spreading it in North America and hopefully we can do it in all of America.
22:12.770 --> 22:12.990
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:14.070 --> 22:15.091
[SPEAKER_03]: Talk about that show
22:19.037 --> 22:23.680
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we have one in Mexico City, October 3rd and 4th.
22:24.301 --> 22:26.642
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is Donovan, show again?
22:27.423 --> 22:29.224
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, yeah.
22:29.404 --> 22:32.847
[SPEAKER_02]: He's doing a whole Paseo tour through Mexico.
22:33.587 --> 22:35.188
[SPEAKER_02]: And the first one was in Monterey.
22:35.389 --> 22:37.190
[SPEAKER_02]: This last one was in Guadalajada.
22:37.910 --> 22:50.293
[SPEAKER_02]: And this next one is in Mexico City, so it's really exciting, and it's been sold out every night, every event, and it is like Donovan is like the Prince of Mexico.
22:50.313 --> 22:51.693
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the French or King.
22:51.713 --> 22:51.993
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:52.053 --> 22:56.934
[SPEAKER_02]: He will be recognized like if you're just getting tacos down the street, people will stop him for a picture.
22:57.014 --> 23:00.895
[SPEAKER_02]: Even in Japan, he got stuck for a picture in Japan by some Mexico.
23:01.355 --> 23:03.836
[SPEAKER_02]: Like Mexican skaters are like fans.
23:04.396 --> 23:05.276
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just incredible.
23:06.216 --> 23:06.716
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so nice.
23:06.736 --> 23:11.140
[SPEAKER_04]: And he's really done a lot to put Mexico on the map of the church.
23:11.160 --> 23:11.980
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah.
23:12.060 --> 23:19.165
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he actually was like one of the first people I ran into when I was at the Olympics in Milan when I got to go to the Olympic village.
23:19.686 --> 23:24.409
[SPEAKER_03]: I could see the Mexican flag hanging from like one of the buildings.
23:24.449 --> 23:26.130
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, I bet you that's Donovan.
23:26.150 --> 23:28.532
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the next thing I know, Donovan's walking by.
23:28.552 --> 23:30.093
[SPEAKER_03]: And I said, Donovan, is that your broom?
23:30.613 --> 23:47.407
[SPEAKER_03]: and he goes, no, it's not my room, my room is the next one over, but it was the team leader's room and she was right there and so yeah, but he was, I mean gracious, I mean he was a, the flag bear for the Mexico, you know, so what he is doing ahead for
23:48.187 --> 23:53.752
[SPEAKER_03]: really expanding skating in Mexico is just great and he's just a wonderful person.
23:53.812 --> 24:08.304
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm glad he has got you guys on board and you know I'm put you in his shows and stuff and hopefully the response will continue growing and this will be more of than just these couple shows that you guys got to do.
24:09.362 --> 24:28.563
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's like in it's like a full circle moment because actually I knew I watched Donovan skate at my rank you'd come visit when he was also like in the jgp's and I was just learning my was joke, but yeah, and like And I was like, oh, look at that cool skater and it's like a full circle moment now I'm going to show in his show like it's so crazy.
24:29.224 --> 24:40.790
[SPEAKER_02]: and it's just amazing and yeah like again the goal is to make it like obviously spread it and go even further down into South America but Mexico has been doing it's been amazing yeah.
24:41.310 --> 24:54.477
[SPEAKER_03]: Now do you guys ever hear from young Latino skaters or young Latino fans who tell you that seeing you skate made them believe that they could do skating too?
24:54.997 --> 24:56.298
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah like a ton now.
24:57.157 --> 25:19.020
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually kind of crazy when you think about it because like now because a lot of them were just ran a people and then like they mess it just and they're like oh, and then they keep proposed and we follow and then support so it's like it's so it's so nice to see that you know, we did a show and more had North Dakota and
25:19.687 --> 25:20.087
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
25:20.107 --> 25:42.511
[SPEAKER_02]: There was like a little Brazilian girl or like her father came up to us and she's like my daughter saw you on the ice and she started crying because she finally saw somebody like her on the ice because she was like everybody was blonde at that rank and like I had brown hair just like oh my gosh like I never thought I would hear those words but like it's so special.
25:42.891 --> 25:44.792
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, everyone there was blonde.
25:44.952 --> 25:45.332
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
25:45.912 --> 25:46.492
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
25:47.858 --> 25:49.259
[SPEAKER_01]: I will say, but they're friendly.
25:49.279 --> 25:51.440
[SPEAKER_01]: They're the most common people amazing.
25:51.460 --> 25:55.803
[SPEAKER_01]: They're the best the best one of the best shows They were done, but really it's so funny.
25:56.143 --> 25:58.444
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, and what to call it?
25:58.544 --> 26:01.946
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a it's Mark Ladwigg's Omaric.
26:01.966 --> 26:06.589
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, okay, it's like I was performing in my Miami or in kind of, but
26:07.117 --> 26:09.579
[SPEAKER_01]: are like, my student performing there, something like that, you know?
26:10.299 --> 26:11.920
[SPEAKER_04]: So that's amazing.
26:12.020 --> 26:12.440
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
26:12.460 --> 26:12.941
[SPEAKER_04]: To do that.
26:13.521 --> 26:19.465
[SPEAKER_04]: So if a young Latino athlete told you, I don't see people like me in this sport, what would you tell them?
26:20.966 --> 26:22.527
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, how would it look what I say?
26:22.727 --> 26:29.171
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say keep going and make yourself the face of it then, right?
26:29.191 --> 26:33.173
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you don't see anybody that looks like you, but you look like
26:34.877 --> 26:42.401
[SPEAKER_02]: put the work in, whether you make it to the Olympics or you make it to junior collegiate championships.
26:42.701 --> 26:44.262
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, that's still something.
26:44.402 --> 26:51.326
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, whatever is like, again, as long as you're enjoying it and your family's enjoying watching you put it all out there.
26:52.067 --> 26:53.307
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, keep it up.
26:54.168 --> 26:58.050
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know there's not many of people that look like Hispanic.
26:58.270 --> 26:59.131
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think I, like,
27:00.088 --> 27:07.374
[SPEAKER_02]: people think that I don't look Hispanic, but I still represent it even though I don't look it as much as Max does.
27:09.015 --> 27:09.896
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah.
27:10.856 --> 27:20.904
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know what I would tell them if I were their coach or maybe yeah, if I were their coach, maybe not maybe not on the side of the street or whatever if they're or whatever at the ring, say stay away from the food.
27:23.766 --> 27:28.590
[SPEAKER_01]: Because our culture is just, that's the thing why, and like in my opinion and I
27:30.578 --> 27:33.200
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't know, skating or like, yeah, who don't know skating?
27:33.680 --> 27:35.341
[SPEAKER_01]: Who do know skating that are from Miami?
27:35.361 --> 27:38.844
[SPEAKER_01]: Like our culture, even in Miami, like it's a lot of fried food.
27:39.444 --> 27:51.713
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just, it's harder on the body, you know, especially once you get to the teenage years, you know, you want to, you love eating that stuff, but you have to be disciplined, and that's very hard thing to do for anybody in the matter.
27:52.333 --> 27:53.874
[SPEAKER_01]: So we just have a lot of access to it.
27:54.355 --> 27:55.876
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what I tell them.
27:56.731 --> 28:03.594
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, now that you brought up the food, I was going to ask, like, do you guys have some traditions that are important to your family?
28:03.634 --> 28:06.175
[SPEAKER_03]: And of course, sometimes those traditions involve food.
28:06.255 --> 28:10.197
[SPEAKER_03]: So what are some of those things that are important to you guys?
28:11.637 --> 28:13.438
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my god, can I go first?
28:13.658 --> 28:14.499
[SPEAKER_02]: You go first?
28:14.859 --> 28:18.120
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, okay, okay, because I love, okay, so back to the beginning.
28:19.261 --> 28:23.082
[SPEAKER_01]: So I used to sit fill up my, when I met Valentina, I used to fill up my car,
28:24.938 --> 28:31.604
[SPEAKER_01]: Mangles and avocados, I might have told you guys a story, but I say fill out my four runner with like a lot.
28:31.785 --> 28:35.108
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of mangles are avocados, a whole growth, right?
28:35.948 --> 28:48.600
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we have an acre and a half, and I would fill that up on my four runner either the night before or the morning of, I go teach skating, drive to a brow art, take an hour of bow art, and then teach a kid and then run into balance teacher.
28:48.961 --> 28:50.102
[SPEAKER_01]: And basically that's, so yeah.
28:50.690 --> 28:56.592
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's huge because those mangoes and avocados, it's like it's a big thing in this fan of culture, mangoes and avocados.
28:56.632 --> 29:00.434
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why, but it's just, it's a very normal thing for us to have.
29:00.494 --> 29:06.216
[SPEAKER_01]: And, but yeah, we're, we're very, uh, food lovers here at this, uh, in our boat.
29:07.776 --> 29:08.837
[SPEAKER_02]: Next year's so funny.
29:09.337 --> 29:12.178
[SPEAKER_02]: You like start with like the plot and then you lose it.
29:14.059 --> 29:15.139
[SPEAKER_02]: You lost the plot.
29:16.369 --> 29:19.710
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, yeah, so I teach and we skate with Val until like one she go to school.
29:19.850 --> 29:25.751
[SPEAKER_01]: She's still going to school at the time and then I go and stop by a couple restaurants and drop my avocados or mangoes or whatever was in season.
29:26.411 --> 29:40.035
[SPEAKER_01]: Add a couple of these restaurants or little places, but they guess and then I would go and sell them on the side of the road on my cousin's place and then I use that money to pay for my gas and lessons and whatever I needed at the time.
29:46.836 --> 29:49.781
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very popular like Miami Instagram.
29:49.801 --> 29:51.303
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a news for the Instagram.
29:51.724 --> 29:53.026
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, I was on there.
29:53.086 --> 29:54.989
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like a popular thing at the time.
29:55.009 --> 29:57.813
[SPEAKER_01]: This is like where Marcelo Hernandez went.
29:58.294 --> 30:00.778
[SPEAKER_01]: He used to go viral on Instagram back in the day.
30:02.217 --> 30:12.701
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I mean, man says, right, food is big and we have so many dishes and so much delicious food and you can't control yourself because everything is so good.
30:13.261 --> 30:19.904
[SPEAKER_02]: But we do have traditions and it's really hard for Christmas and Thanksgiving.
30:20.104 --> 30:21.405
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a big meal.
30:21.985 --> 30:25.406
[SPEAKER_02]: I've actually never had a Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving.
30:25.446 --> 30:30.268
[SPEAKER_02]: We always do a traditional dish, a Colombian dish for our Thanksgiving and our Christmas and all that.
30:31.929 --> 30:42.277
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really hard when nationals are so close to holidays because we can't like, and if we go visit home like we can't really fully enjoy ourselves because we are like, oh, we compete in like three days.
30:42.297 --> 30:44.158
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like really hard.
30:44.758 --> 30:50.643
[SPEAKER_02]: So we like that's why like the one thing like if there is like a schedule change with like the competitions.
30:51.503 --> 30:56.404
[SPEAKER_02]: I would mind it because we do get our holidays so that would be fun to be able to eat food.
30:57.284 --> 31:06.126
[SPEAKER_02]: But my mom makes, but yeah, like other than that, like my mom, whenever she comes and visits me, there's these things, uh, they're like, there's Venice well-enders, Colombianada bus.
31:06.587 --> 31:12.868
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's just like corn, like, yeah, like there's like so many, but like my mom makes that, like the Colombianada bus.
31:13.408 --> 31:17.269
[SPEAKER_02]: And whenever she comes, she, like, I can show you, hold on, like,
31:22.151 --> 31:24.893
[SPEAKER_02]: 200 and 50 at it bus for me.
31:24.913 --> 31:27.095
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my gosh.
31:28.416 --> 31:36.343
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, for me to just have my fridge and she makes me, she's like, what do you want for food and like she freezes it for me?
31:36.363 --> 31:41.387
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like I'm able to have some stuff even on here and Michigan away from home.
31:43.003 --> 31:45.584
[SPEAKER_04]: That must make you feel really close to that.
31:45.644 --> 31:53.385
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, when, if you've had a rough day, especially, you can go home and take something out of the freezer that your mom made for you.
31:54.086 --> 31:55.686
[SPEAKER_04]: And it must feel like a warm hug.
31:55.746 --> 31:57.586
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, to have that available.
31:57.706 --> 31:59.387
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely, we absolutely, absolutely.
31:59.407 --> 32:03.728
[SPEAKER_02]: And every, it's funny because she doesn't really make those when she's at home.
32:03.768 --> 32:07.869
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, my dad always wants to let it buzz and she's like, oh, sorry, Adam, I don't, I haven't made any.
32:08.369 --> 32:12.470
[SPEAKER_02]: But every Sunday or every Saturday, I like show them, I'm like, look at what I'm eating.
32:14.914 --> 32:19.323
[SPEAKER_04]: I went to a fantastic restaurant.
32:19.423 --> 32:23.751
[SPEAKER_04]: It's more of like a cafe bistro in Texas called Lemon Yellow.
32:25.216 --> 32:30.460
[SPEAKER_04]: They have the best empenadas I've ever had in my life.
32:30.581 --> 32:37.527
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to go back there and then to Kenyos, which oh my god.
32:37.547 --> 32:40.450
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so I'm obsessed.
32:40.550 --> 32:48.357
[SPEAKER_04]: I only get to go there once a year to it's in Tyler, Texas, and then we also went to a restaurant called
32:51.720 --> 33:14.976
[SPEAKER_04]: it is a guy that was an actor in Mexico that decided to move to Texas and he started this restaurant and it is all decorated with luchador masks from the wrestling scene and I had a case of Dia that was cheese, cilantro, and shrimp.
33:15.276 --> 33:17.017
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that would not have considered
33:22.118 --> 33:26.241
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm dreaming about that case because it was so good.
33:26.261 --> 33:29.182
[SPEAKER_04]: The food is it's just so incredible.
33:29.202 --> 33:32.884
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and it's always like makes us that you'd never think.
33:34.525 --> 33:35.246
[SPEAKER_04]: That's thing.
33:35.466 --> 33:38.968
[SPEAKER_04]: It's always things that I would never put together and would never like together.
33:39.248 --> 33:47.253
[SPEAKER_04]: But for some reason, the way that it's crafted and created, it just feels like it was made with love and
33:48.465 --> 33:53.146
[SPEAKER_04]: So, when I go to Texas, it's like, okay, where am I going?
33:53.166 --> 33:57.247
[SPEAKER_04]: I have a friend that lives there and he always finds the best places to go.
33:57.267 --> 34:05.230
[SPEAKER_04]: What is one misconception about his Hispanic culture that you wish people understood?
34:05.750 --> 34:08.370
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm the biggest one is that we're not all the same.
34:08.390 --> 34:13.932
[SPEAKER_02]: That's just, we don't eat the same, we don't speak the same.
34:14.772 --> 34:17.793
[SPEAKER_02]: I've had multiple encounters where, like,
34:19.003 --> 34:29.749
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, and granted, they don't mean any harm, but I was telling my coworker, like, oh, my mom's going to come to visit me and she's like, oh, like, so when your mom comes, do you guys speak Mexican?
34:30.369 --> 34:32.490
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, no, please speak Spanish.
34:33.311 --> 34:34.972
[SPEAKER_02]: But that makes it good.
34:35.072 --> 34:36.933
[SPEAKER_02]: And then she's like, does she make you Mexican food?
34:36.953 --> 34:39.314
[SPEAKER_02]: And like, no, she makes me Colombian food.
34:40.194 --> 34:41.375
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like just that, like,
34:42.409 --> 34:51.173
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, brought in your image of Hispanic cultures and like, countries, so that's probably the biggest one.
34:52.674 --> 34:54.155
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're so focused on Mexico.
34:54.175 --> 34:54.875
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, next to us.
34:55.695 --> 35:03.439
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, I don't know, our propaganda and media paint some as like a third world country, but they're so developed as a country itself.
35:03.459 --> 35:10.282
[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, compared to Peru and other South American countries that like, when Mexico has got their transportation figured out,
35:12.463 --> 35:38.449
[SPEAKER_01]: their buildings are clean like it was it's actually very nice like and we've been to two cities now we're about to go to a third one in Mexico and and it's been beautiful like I have no complaints and honestly better than some of our cities in the U.S. As far as city city yeah so it's it's very interesting and you know hearing that and yeah we get we all get put into one pot instead but we're all so vastly different.
35:39.903 --> 35:40.704
[SPEAKER_01]: going back to the food.
35:41.044 --> 35:43.207
[SPEAKER_01]: There's like different types of impenalas.
35:43.227 --> 35:52.417
[SPEAKER_01]: There's different types of a croquet that's from every different culture and like, and yeah, that's the beauty of it, you know.
35:53.189 --> 35:55.811
[SPEAKER_03]: We have to talk about skating this season.
35:55.971 --> 35:59.614
[SPEAKER_03]: We are into a new Olympic quad.
36:00.155 --> 36:02.416
[SPEAKER_03]: How has training been going?
36:02.456 --> 36:04.518
[SPEAKER_03]: You guys have already started your season.
36:04.598 --> 36:08.741
[SPEAKER_03]: So how are things going as you start this new Olympic quad?
36:09.502 --> 36:10.883
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they're going.
36:11.904 --> 36:13.886
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been interesting, you know.
36:14.046 --> 36:20.331
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, after nationals and like picking ourselves back up from nationals, it was a little hard.
36:22.177 --> 36:27.963
[SPEAKER_02]: But not as hard, thankfully we had to show and we had so many opportunities to like kind of shift our focus.
36:27.983 --> 36:29.986
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep ourselves busy.
36:30.006 --> 36:30.206
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
36:30.226 --> 36:30.346
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
36:30.366 --> 36:30.827
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
36:31.367 --> 36:32.428
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was nice.
36:32.749 --> 36:41.338
[SPEAKER_02]: I think like as a season story to get closer and we started to like see what was going on in the pair's field right now.
36:42.279 --> 36:43.721
[SPEAKER_02]: Mentally, you got a little bit harder.
36:45.163 --> 36:53.154
[SPEAKER_02]: We're, you know, Max and Val, everybody's like, Max and Val, it's only, so it's like, it's really hard to, like, you know, it's the new quad.
36:53.294 --> 36:55.417
[SPEAKER_02]: We want to be a different Max and Val.
36:56.098 --> 36:59.402
[SPEAKER_02]: We are Max and Val that can perform and we do perform.
37:00.439 --> 37:04.561
[SPEAKER_02]: We just let our fears get in our way when it comes to nationals.
37:05.321 --> 37:09.483
[SPEAKER_02]: Like whenever people are watching, so we're bringing this quad.
37:09.503 --> 37:12.945
[SPEAKER_02]: We're trying to leave that behind and coming in says quad would be like, okay.
37:13.925 --> 37:14.605
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just us.
37:14.686 --> 37:18.547
[SPEAKER_02]: We're just competing against ourselves no matter what is going on in the background.
37:18.607 --> 37:23.910
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of shifts in new toys and new things to talk about.
37:24.070 --> 37:27.651
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the end of the day, we're training to do our job.
37:29.163 --> 37:38.989
[SPEAKER_02]: We're so glad that we were able to get out there early, Japan was really early, a little bit too early, but like it's nice to like have like the fire lay under your butt anyway.
37:39.089 --> 37:47.253
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was like actually a really good week and it's funny because like a lot of people were like, oh, we don't want to go to Japan because the Russians are going to be there.
37:47.273 --> 37:53.457
[SPEAKER_02]: Looks like so what like, you know, like at the end of the day you're skating for yourself and I think that's kind of like help us.
37:54.237 --> 38:22.877
[SPEAKER_02]: like everything is out of our control and we're able to focus on ourselves, granted like we've had a couple of tough three months like skating wise just like it was hard to like find the motivation find like like like get the cart going but um Japan was really good and champs camp we actually had her first like successful champs camp since that was like a win in our book um and
38:23.889 --> 38:24.669
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been better.
38:24.709 --> 38:30.972
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we had a little mistake, like mistakes on the list, which is like not like us, but the rules are different.
38:30.992 --> 38:36.495
[SPEAKER_02]: We're doing different things like that was also that was like scary for me was like doing like the choreo lifts.
38:37.175 --> 38:41.077
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so used to like our overhead arm all the tunnel and like everything.
38:41.557 --> 38:50.241
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like the choreo lifts had been like a work in progress and yeah, like it's a lot of information to take into like with the
38:50.742 --> 39:06.361
[SPEAKER_02]: base value changes and like like we don't really know what the scores are going to look like, but essentially our pair scores are going to drop by a lot because the base value of a level four lift is no longer there and like a level four pair spin has no longer there in the free skate so it's like
39:07.600 --> 39:24.756
[SPEAKER_02]: It's interesting and I think Japan like although the score was like not what we want it obviously It's like hard to like see that number and be like okay, but like the math isn't there and like we also didn't do it live So like you know, but like we're excited for not born and to see like what other pair teams are doing
39:25.759 --> 39:36.765
[SPEAKER_03]: One thing this season is, we've kind of mentioned it, but we've had the shuffling of pairs and you guys are going on six years together.
39:37.665 --> 39:43.308
[SPEAKER_03]: What has contributed to this longevity with you guys?
39:45.735 --> 39:52.899
[SPEAKER_03]: Why are you guys still together and, you know, our, you know, strong team, your strong teams.
39:53.100 --> 39:59.163
[SPEAKER_03]: So how, what do you, you know, contribute, what contributes to the fact that you guys are still together?
40:00.144 --> 40:03.226
[SPEAKER_01]: Max just holds the team together and he's just the fine.
40:04.206 --> 40:07.268
[SPEAKER_01]: He is just the driving force, the head on this way.
40:07.288 --> 40:08.429
[SPEAKER_03]: You're just one letter going.
40:08.449 --> 40:09.509
[SPEAKER_03]: Is that the case?
40:11.010 --> 40:14.072
[SPEAKER_01]: As we'll let her go and Jim will let me go.
40:16.693 --> 40:22.176
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think it's a team effort.
40:22.396 --> 40:24.617
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a circle of trust we'll be call it.
40:24.757 --> 40:28.079
[SPEAKER_01]: So we go through the same questions we do every year.
40:28.099 --> 40:36.383
[SPEAKER_01]: If you still like doing this, if we like doing this together, and if you want to do this with Jim and Amanda, and then where we're going to do it, we go through those questions every season.
40:36.403 --> 40:40.725
[SPEAKER_04]: Those are good questions to ask yourself.
40:41.673 --> 40:42.754
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so we go through that.
40:42.774 --> 40:43.854
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, we go through that question.
40:44.034 --> 40:54.420
[SPEAKER_01]: We go through that every year, you know, and I think we just collect the lead com and we take it right now, like what we're doing and we want the next four years, obviously, want to see how it plays out.
40:54.980 --> 41:01.243
[SPEAKER_01]: We're taking a year by year, you know, not trying to look at the final picture, um, but like,
41:01.540 --> 41:12.370
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, just working hard and then whatever result we get, we get and we just keep pushing forward and if it's something good, it's just a cherry on top, but nothing else would really change, you know.
41:13.691 --> 41:21.258
[SPEAKER_03]: And you guys are heading to Nebelhorn, but then you have two Grand Prix, a couple of China in Finlandia.
41:21.518 --> 41:24.160
[SPEAKER_03]: Have you been to China at all?
41:26.002 --> 41:27.263
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been to Shanghai.
41:27.704 --> 41:28.004
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
41:28.973 --> 41:31.494
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and the ambie between that we're doing the Mexico show.
41:31.534 --> 41:34.956
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so you guys are, you're going all over the place.
41:36.156 --> 41:46.041
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so Obersterful hang out for a couple of days here and then we go to Mexico and then we had like four weeks to reconfigure for the grand priest.
41:46.461 --> 41:56.966
[SPEAKER_03]: And like what are your, I mean, you're taking it season by season, but what are your goals, you know, for yourselves this season, as you're heading into this new Olympic quad.
41:57.770 --> 42:10.779
[SPEAKER_01]: Our main goal is really to see like just to push forward for U.S. Championships and become, you know, the first Hispanic paired champions, you know, that would be the ultimate goal at the end of the day.
42:11.599 --> 42:13.000
[SPEAKER_01]: Worlds is always on the table.
42:13.921 --> 42:16.943
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's that's really the main driving force.
42:16.963 --> 42:19.244
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, is that we know we can be champions.
42:19.264 --> 42:20.825
[SPEAKER_01]: We have the material.
42:22.907 --> 42:25.969
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just have to just put it together and when it counts.
42:28.358 --> 42:29.820
[SPEAKER_01]: because we'd have to have the material together.
42:29.840 --> 42:35.529
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think, I mean, always the goal and has always been our goal is to be able to perform when it counts.
42:36.170 --> 42:40.677
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, Max said, like, we have the material to be national champions, and
42:41.652 --> 42:48.477
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it might be hard to believe, but we do like, I swear that we do and we just want to be able to show it.
42:48.638 --> 42:58.586
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think Japan was a good step forward, like again, focusing on ourselves and pushing past, like, especially for me, like, I'm someone who, like, just lets my thoughts.
42:59.306 --> 43:05.113
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I have really bad imposter syndrome and like I can't go down a rabbit hole real fast.
43:06.034 --> 43:09.958
[SPEAKER_02]: And I feel like you can see a happening in a five minute warmup at national.
43:10.038 --> 43:14.003
[SPEAKER_02]: So like to me, my goal is to like get myself together.
43:14.544 --> 43:18.148
[SPEAKER_02]: Five minute warmup and be able to just like keep my body chill.
43:21.662 --> 43:24.603
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, you've mentioned that this twice on the podcast.
43:24.623 --> 43:28.004
[SPEAKER_04]: So I wonder, do you work with this board psychologist?
43:28.064 --> 43:29.024
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, yeah.
43:30.044 --> 43:31.505
[SPEAKER_02]: We do extensive work.
43:32.265 --> 43:37.226
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's really like just like honestly, like, maxed in like such passionate people.
43:38.006 --> 43:41.888
[SPEAKER_02]: And like we let our emotions kind of drive us.
43:42.928 --> 43:47.069
[SPEAKER_02]: So like again, like that can be a good thing, but it can be a bad thing on a bad day.
43:48.160 --> 44:00.728
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's like a lot like our work with our sports like colleges is a lot more not so much like technique but like learning how to like handler motions and how to like handler motions and still be able to perform.
44:01.449 --> 44:11.155
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a work in progress and it's something that like evolves as you evolve to and as like your like life challenges come so yeah.
44:18.558 --> 44:22.639
[SPEAKER_04]: People don't talk about it a lot, but it's there.
44:23.720 --> 44:25.300
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's in everything.
44:25.520 --> 44:26.780
[SPEAKER_04]: It's in figure skating.
44:27.021 --> 44:28.321
[SPEAKER_04]: It's in life.
44:28.581 --> 44:29.881
[SPEAKER_04]: It's in podcasting.
44:29.981 --> 44:32.062
[SPEAKER_04]: Like it's in everything that you do.
44:33.062 --> 44:39.344
[SPEAKER_04]: You question your place in it, your spot in it, if you really deserve it.
44:39.944 --> 44:40.725
[SPEAKER_04]: It's really hard.
44:40.805 --> 44:42.065
[SPEAKER_04]: It's really tough sometimes.
44:42.945 --> 44:44.966
[SPEAKER_04]: I think we should ask a few fun questions.
44:45.999 --> 44:47.780
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's fall.
44:48.600 --> 44:50.521
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so grateful because I love fall.
44:51.401 --> 44:57.084
[SPEAKER_04]: So the question is really, I think, simple pumpkin or apple or both or neither.
44:57.424 --> 44:57.924
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm good.
44:58.865 --> 44:59.385
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm good.
45:00.686 --> 45:01.166
[SPEAKER_04]: All right.
45:01.606 --> 45:02.366
[SPEAKER_04]: That was easy.
45:03.107 --> 45:04.267
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're both pumpkin people.
45:06.048 --> 45:10.530
[SPEAKER_03]: If you were an ice skate, would you be the left skater, the right skate?
45:11.871 --> 45:12.731
[SPEAKER_02]: The left skate.
45:13.591 --> 45:14.232
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna write you.
45:14.752 --> 45:17.895
[SPEAKER_04]: See, you're a pair, that's how it works.
45:18.055 --> 45:19.336
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly, there you go.
45:19.356 --> 45:23.339
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, she puts her left one on first, and I put my right.
45:23.359 --> 45:31.005
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, so you guys took it by what skate you put on first, not necessarily your landing skate.
45:31.106 --> 45:33.327
[SPEAKER_03]: That's interesting, that's great.
45:33.568 --> 45:34.088
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
45:34.448 --> 45:36.050
[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's not the one we did earlier.
45:36.110 --> 45:39.893
[SPEAKER_02]: I put my right skate on once, and it was because my friend was talking to me.
45:40.948 --> 45:44.470
[SPEAKER_02]: And I realize, and I'm like, oh my god, if I have a bad session right now, I'm going to cool her.
45:44.490 --> 45:50.554
[SPEAKER_02]: He's like, oh, even for coaching, I only, I put my left scape first.
45:51.174 --> 45:54.536
[SPEAKER_04]: So, what is your go to guilty pleasure song?
45:55.197 --> 46:08.665
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, right now, it's called Love Today by Micah, or like, I don't know how to say their name, but it's like, Michael, like a guy that stays, um, I could be blue, like, yeah.
46:10.708 --> 46:20.730
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it's such a fun vibe and that's like, I feel like it's like a joky song and I always see like he can mess in skating to it in my head because I did that song.
46:21.010 --> 46:21.450
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
46:21.750 --> 46:25.111
[SPEAKER_03]: All right, Max.
46:26.131 --> 46:30.032
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have anything right now, but I've been listening a lot of Kanye West.
46:30.392 --> 46:32.513
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a guilty pleasure and unfortunately.
46:35.182 --> 46:41.784
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so we're on season five of this podcast, but this question has never left the podcast.
46:43.885 --> 46:50.467
[SPEAKER_03]: If you were stuck on a deserted island with three skaters past or present, who would you be stuck on the island with?
46:51.067 --> 47:00.149
[SPEAKER_03]: Now you can either just be on the island having a good time, or you need to figure out how to get off the island, your choice.
47:04.915 --> 47:07.958
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I'm going to say I'm going to be on the island for a good time.
47:07.978 --> 47:09.459
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
47:09.479 --> 47:13.422
[SPEAKER_02]: And my skaters are gauge brown.
47:14.643 --> 47:15.324
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, Max.
47:15.364 --> 47:16.745
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, mom.
47:18.466 --> 47:25.953
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, oh, no, she's like, she's like, she's so, you know, keep us all.
47:27.862 --> 47:31.183
[SPEAKER_03]: Those three were never mentioned ever with a question.
47:31.243 --> 47:33.384
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think we got some new people.
47:33.404 --> 47:34.385
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a good time.
47:34.985 --> 47:35.505
[SPEAKER_02]: I love them.
47:35.946 --> 47:38.767
[SPEAKER_01]: Please, so we do we have to be mentioned to have this question?
47:39.387 --> 47:41.348
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
47:41.568 --> 47:42.088
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no.
47:42.148 --> 47:43.569
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody's meant to get the question.
47:45.290 --> 47:46.870
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think we're resourceful.
47:49.131 --> 47:50.572
[SPEAKER_02]: Matt's actually might be actually.
47:51.308 --> 47:54.310
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I thought I could take three others versions of myself.
47:54.330 --> 47:56.151
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I have to take your own skaters.
47:57.171 --> 47:59.093
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't find my own skaters.
48:01.354 --> 48:03.415
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my goodness, it's so hard.
48:05.016 --> 48:08.038
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm friends with everybody.
48:09.298 --> 48:10.599
[SPEAKER_04]: It's all meant and fun.
48:10.719 --> 48:13.281
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not meant and yes, no.
48:14.522 --> 48:17.043
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, all right, I take, I'll take a, I'll take.
48:18.348 --> 48:21.850
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll take Andrew Turgishov and Anthony Pomeranko.
48:23.191 --> 48:24.072
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is just survived.
48:24.092 --> 48:28.474
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this is, because we just think, yeah, yeah, yeah, to get off the island.
48:28.494 --> 48:30.595
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
48:31.396 --> 48:35.018
[SPEAKER_01]: And I would take Max no more since he just did the thing to take over first.
48:35.678 --> 48:37.199
[SPEAKER_04]: Didn't just did that show.
48:37.779 --> 48:38.780
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a lot of things.
48:38.800 --> 48:40.221
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's where you're right there.
48:40.301 --> 48:41.542
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, definitely.
48:42.622 --> 48:43.223
[SPEAKER_04]: There's a lot of stuff.
48:43.303 --> 48:47.165
[SPEAKER_01]: A good thinkers, and I've had them on a team project before our chance came.
48:47.922 --> 48:49.162
[SPEAKER_01]: and pass through the younger self.
48:50.343 --> 49:08.307
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, us, wait, is that for now, my, me and Drew, and Anthony and who else, Tomoki, and a couple, oh, and Donovan, we all had our first JGP together over 10 years ago and, or is it in Czech Republic or straw?
49:08.327 --> 49:10.827
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that sounds right, yeah, all right.
49:11.567 --> 49:14.288
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, over 10 years ago, almost 12.
49:15.987 --> 49:16.587
[SPEAKER_01]: 12 years ago.
49:16.908 --> 49:17.908
[SPEAKER_04]: It was just last week.
49:17.948 --> 49:18.329
[SPEAKER_04]: Come on.
49:19.590 --> 49:20.530
[SPEAKER_04]: That's how I feel.
49:20.610 --> 49:22.191
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know time passes.
49:22.311 --> 49:26.654
[SPEAKER_04]: I still think everyone is like 8 to 10 years younger than they are.
49:26.995 --> 49:27.355
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
49:27.435 --> 49:29.737
[SPEAKER_04]: That's just how it looks like to do it.
49:29.777 --> 49:31.178
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, can we ask you guys a question?
49:31.198 --> 49:31.358
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
49:31.378 --> 49:34.180
[SPEAKER_01]: Without looking at her profiles, without looking at her.
49:34.220 --> 49:41.425
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
49:44.140 --> 49:45.260
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, okay.
49:45.320 --> 49:46.580
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, all right.
49:46.720 --> 49:47.081
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
49:47.841 --> 49:49.461
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's do the new age.
49:49.701 --> 49:50.701
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, let me think.
49:51.901 --> 49:59.423
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm not looking at all Valentina.
49:59.603 --> 50:01.623
[SPEAKER_04]: I think you are around 2526.
50:03.844 --> 50:04.304
[SPEAKER_04]: Max.
50:04.864 --> 50:06.964
[SPEAKER_04]: I think you're going to be 30.
50:07.684 --> 50:07.924
[SPEAKER_04]: He.
50:08.524 --> 50:08.864
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, no.
50:08.964 --> 50:09.625
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I know.
50:10.025 --> 50:10.845
[SPEAKER_04]: He's going to be 31.
50:12.417 --> 50:14.298
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm turning 31.
50:14.418 --> 50:17.079
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, look at, were we like was Stephanie right?
50:17.859 --> 50:18.140
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
50:18.920 --> 50:20.881
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, she's right on the money.
50:21.541 --> 50:26.603
[SPEAKER_04]: People are always older than I think they are because Time is a construct.
50:26.923 --> 50:29.004
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
50:29.124 --> 50:34.047
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I've been doing this for a really long time, but it feels like it's been 10 years.
50:34.447 --> 50:38.229
[SPEAKER_04]: And so time is a construct to me.
50:40.507 --> 50:45.650
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, we want to thank Evalentina and Max for coming on this week in Skating.
50:46.411 --> 50:49.213
[SPEAKER_04]: We wish you the best of luck with the rest of your season.
50:49.873 --> 50:50.694
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much.
50:50.734 --> 50:51.814
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for having us.
50:52.615 --> 50:53.315
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
50:54.628 --> 50:57.190
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of This Week in Skating.
50:57.550 --> 51:03.394
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, you can keep up with us throughout the week by visiting our website at www.thisweekinscating.com.
51:03.874 --> 51:05.975
[SPEAKER_00]: Connect with us on social media for additional updates.
51:06.356 --> 51:14.001
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find us on Twitter at This Week in Skating without the ease or Facebook Instagram and Threads at This Week in Skating.
51:14.541 --> 51:17.225
[SPEAKER_00]: You got a burning question or feedback for Gina Daphne or Mateo?
51:17.725 --> 51:22.252
[SPEAKER_00]: Reach out to us via social media or drop us an email at thisweekenscading at gmail.com.
51:22.712 --> 51:29.722
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're really enjoying the show and want to support us further, consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash this week in skating.
51:30.202 --> 51:32.025
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, have a nice week!