It is finally official: Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, World and European Champions in 2001 and Bronze Medallists at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, after a three year long absence from the competitive field, are taking up the challenge again with the upcoming 2006 Olympic Games in mind, with the declared goal of conquering a triumph that would be simply historical for the Italian sports movement. Voices of their approaching come back had been travelling all over the ice skating world, and last September 21st, during a crowded press conference held in Torino, the two athletes have announced their intentions.
The two skaters from Milan will count, beside the technical support of those who have always been their coaches - Paola Mezzadri and Roberto Pelizzola, also on the experience of Natalya Linichuk and Gennadiy Karponosov, Olympic Champions at Lake Placid 1980, twice World Champions and in the last few years coaches of exceptional couples such as Grishuk-Platov, Krylova-Ovsyannikov and Lobachova-Averbukh. Barbara and Maurizio have been training intensively since March, and after hours of hard work they have found their competitive shape in the summer, and they have prepared two magnificent competition programs which will undoubtedly favourably impress the judges who will have to examine them.
We met Barbara and Maurizio during a break in their practices to learn a bit more about their long awaited return to the international figure skating scene.

First of all, which where the motivations which pushed you to decide for this sensational return to the competitions?
M.: the dream was born because we have always believed and we still believe in sport and in skating in particular, because this is our life and our love; we have always tried to give all our heart and our honesty, and this is why I believe we never got tired of skating, and this is why we never really gave up the idea of competing, at the moment or in the future: it was like covering coals with ashes; under those, the coals were still burning. This Italian Olympics were a fundamental motivation as well: right after Salt Lake City, we had been chosen as testimonials by the Organizing committee (n.d.r. with skiers Alberto Tomba and Stefania Belmondo ); this was for us a crucial turning point because it kept us closely connected to the ice skating and Olympic world; working for the Olympics, we never really detached from them, and this was very important because slowly, day by day, it gave us back the confidence to say: we could be here, in Italy, in our homeland, no matter what happened, no matter what the past was and what the future could be. We could be here: this is the greatest motivation.
B.: for three years I didn't even want to hear talking about competitions, even with all the pressure from everyone in skating, I was so determined that when I decided to give it a try and told this to Maurizio, he asked me if that was a joke. After the Olympics and what happened there I thought I had given everything I could to skating, there was nothing left. But when I found myself in Torino for the European Championships, I found it hard to see myself out of competition. The level of the championships was good but not great, as if something were missing. I slowly realized that what I felt missing was myself: I would have liked to be there to show the world that I could do better, and this was a proof that my competitiveness had not disappeared, but had only been sleeping. From that came the first temptation to put myself to the test again. Actually I had skated in the Palavela before the European Championships, and the emotion I felt in that moment, probably made me desire to feel it ten times stronger at the Olympics. I also have to confess feeling (in the best possible way, bear this in mind!) a bit of jealousy for Federica and Massimo (N.d.R. Faiella-Scali), who have been wonderfully acclaimed and supported by the public for their excellent performances: Maurizio and I, we have won a lo, but always far away from home, sometimes in openly hostile environments, without our efforts being shown on the main national channels. So we still had the desire to experience all of this, and the extraordinary opportunity of having the Olympics in our home has done the rest.
A presence which has been a dream for so long, naturally accompanies herself with great ambitions, and, to say it in other words, to the idea of a golden medal …
M.: I think that when a skating champion puts himself back at risk, he doesn't do it just for the sake of trying, but because he wants to come back being the champion he used to be, maybe nothing more but surely nothing less, just like in any other sport: for example Yuri Chechi ( N.d.R. A great and famous Italian gymnast , golden medallist at the Rings in Sidney 2000, came back to win the bronze in Athens 2004 after a four year stop) came back to win, not to be a second lead: those who come back are real champions, and will prove their worth on the field of play.
B.: I want a golden medal. We left Salt Lake City with a Bronze medal we had fought for, in a competition in which we should have deserved more in the first phase, and in whose second phase we had lost confidence, and made to unforgiving mistakes which would have been unimaginable coming up to the Games. We ended our career in a way we didn't wanted, because we made our only a mistake in the most crucial moment. We are coming back now, and we feel so competitive, that we can only aim to the maximum success.
In this desire of Olympic victory, has a certain delusion for the ending of the Salt Lake City Games influenced you, giving you a desire for the satisfaction you missed, or are the American Olympics completely a thing of the past?
M.: to tell the truth the memory of Salt Lake City is not a burden for me, and I don't thing it is such for Barbara either. Our return is not motivated by a desire for revenge, this is not our motivation. Torino is a completely new project that has been absorbing us completely since March, and has noting to spare with our past projects, which have not influenced us, then.
B. : it can't be a return match because the couples who were our adversaries in Salt Lake City won't be in Torino: as an athlete I would like to face them again to see what the result could be, but this is impossible. I will say this again: the Olympics in Salt Lake City a wonderful medal, of great importance for Italy, which had never before obtained a success of this kind: so the only vindication I could get is for myself, because I know I could obtain even more than what I got in the past.
Someone might say that your return, like those of others, might be subtracting places to other skaters who have been waiting for their moment in the spotlight and now risk missing it: what do you think of this?
M.: we simply think this is the sports' law: if we will be the best we will be crowned; the results will speak for themselves and will tell us if it was worth it. I am only 30 years old, and a skater is not finished at this age: I feel at the peak of my maturity and will still face skaters older than me. If the younger ones will be better, no problem, they will beat us: better for them if it would, but I am sure it won't happen. B. : it wil be our third Olympics, like for Tatyana Navka and for Grushina-Goncharov: if the Lithuaninas will get the qualification, it will be the fifth one for them. Why should anyone say we are stealing space from someone? If we will skate badly, we will get penalized and the glory will be for the others; if we will skate well, we will deserve the victory, that's all.
Your detractors might say that your reputation could influence the juries to your advantage: what do you think of this?
M.: I don't think so. Actually, we will have to prove we are better than what we used to be: we won't be able to get on the ice exploiting our past: it doesn't work like this in skating. We have to be ready for the challenge, ready to show our best. We have a great past, but we have to prove we also have a great future. This will be the main thing. There won't be any space for us if we can't prove this. Anyway, we feel absolutely ready and competitive.
B. : I don't think so too, but even if it were, better for us, because we gained that reputation working very hard, through out all our career, building up our credibility without getting presents from anyone. For example, for Navka-Kostomarov, and for all the Russians in general, it is easier because they have a great tradition on their side, they belong to a school so powerful that they can be judged positively even when they are not particularly worthy. Our Federation is a lot weaker than the Russian, North-Americans, French, German or Japanese ones: have we ever had a Grand Prix event in Italy? How many times did Italy host Europeans or Worlds before this year? Very few. So the real problem is not our reputation, but that we need the competition to be more loyal, competitive, and that they really would crown the strongest.
What is you r opinion on the new rules adopted by the ISU after the sad events of Salt Lake City?
M.: actually the new rules are the only thing that I would link to Salt Lake City, as all the things that happened there are the causes of the sudden change of all our rules. It is clear that making dance more objective sacrifices the creativity and originality of the skaters; From one point of view it was clear that we could not keep on going like that, but from another one I think that today's skating has lost a lot of creativity and imagination if compared to yesterday. What I noticed the most, as a spectator who kept following this sport in the last few years, or, if you want, as a skater who has kept skating every day, is that today it is much more difficult to transfer to the ice what real dance is, because the rules, this exasperated technique which is expected today, are a limitation to the real dance steps that might not always be technically challenging, but who give the real feeling of a dance. It has become more difficult to transmit the true spirit of the various dance styles, because if you do these non technical steps, you are not getting many points.
B. : it is difficult but not impossible: this is what we want to demonstrate, this is the challenge we want to win. In the last few years, for example, the Original Dances have been criticized because they were not conforming to the tradition of the rhythms chosen each time, and this has been said to be a fault of the new rules. I think the Latin-American of this season will prove the opposite, that you can still dance with the new rules: this is what the judges and technical specialists want. In our programs we tried to put emotions, which is something very few people are doing now: in Torino I saw great technical performer, but very few of them had the ability to stir an emotion. We want to do this. I believe in the new rules, because they are really objective: those who make mistakes pay, those who skate well get what they deserve, and those who have an interpretation, will get the emotions flowing.
This season you decided to train also with Natalya Linichuk and Gennadiy Karponosov: where does this choice come from?
B. : we have always had a good relationship with Natalya and Gennadiy since the beginning of our partnership, when we used to train with them in the summer. In 1997 we had worked with them building our 1997 Worlds in Lausanne, and I remember that we would have liked to keep working with them, but it was impossible at the time because they were coaching two of our rivals, Krylova-Ovsyannikov and Lobachova-Averbukh. Said this, I have to say that already right after the 2002 Olympics, Natalya had contacted us inviting us to continue, but we were too tired to listen to her. She never gave up, and kept calling us for years, talking to us, telling us that giving up was a mistake, that there was not another couple as charismatic as us, and the prospective of an Olympics in our country couldn't be missed. I didn't want to listen to her for a long time, but when I decided to come back, and contacted her, she accepted with enthusiasm. I want to make it clear that we are still working very well with Roberto Pelizzola and Paola Mezzadri, but having Natalya and Gennadiy by our side gives us that extra bit of confidence, a second technical vision, and also the possibility to skate alongside and compare ourselves with Albena and Maksim, who are wonderful people apart from being excellent skaters: they are enjoying they opportunity for a different comparison with us, and I have found them very much improved in these years.
Talking about your new programs, did you have any problem with this year's original dance?
M.: absolutely not. The Original dance in general has always been very congenial because Barbara and I we love very much to dance and we usually get very good results in any kind of dance we experiment with. The Latin.-American of this season gave us a special charge because we feel very Latin, and for this we have to thank our mums and dads because we are Italians.
B. : I am thrilled for ISU having chosen these south-American rhythms for this year, because I really feel them. I adore dancing these music and the program we built is wonderful: I can't wait to skate it in front of an audience, this is how proud I am of the work we have done in these months.
And concerning the free dance you have prepared, which are your impressions on this program which is understandably top-secret so far?
M.: the concept we started from is very different from any previous concept and idea; our starting point was to be original with ourselves first, of from that we started a research for something that was completely new for us. What I can say is that we will be in our style something totally different from what we have been so far: this is what we're working on.
B. : first of all it is a music that no one has ever skated before, and in an age of conformism I think it is very important. It is incredibly beautiful: this FD could become the symbol of our career, better than Dracula in 99, than the Lord of the Dance in 2000, or than that Romeo + Juliet with which we won everything in 2001.Everyone is looking for something original, but not everyone succeeds in this quest: we have tried to create a fascinating choreography, full of energy and passion, and not only of positions and performance of levels. I really believe in this music, and I fell it will be appreciated, not only by the Italian public, but by everyone.
Let's talk about competitions: which will be the steps of your return?
M.: on this subject we still have to take some decisions with Natalya, Paola and Roberto, our coaches, and also with our federation. We can consider possible the National Championships, the Europeans and of course the Olympics, with maybe an Italian national competition before the Italian Nationals. We'll decide soon what we're going to do.
About your Federation: what support are you getting from the Italian Federation and the Italian Olympic Committee?
M.: Fundamental help: I'd say that the first people we have to thank for our return are the highest levels of our Olympic Committee in particular President Petrucci and general secretary Pagnozzi, Who embraced with enthusiasm or idea and our project. They welcomed us like children and supported us totally. Because of our condition, our federation found us as an "extra" in respect to their programs, because Barbara and I are something special for them as well, and after an initial shock they are behind us at 100%; both the federation and the Olympic Committee are totally supporting us, and this is very important for us.
B. : we are very happy of the support we found in the Olympic Committee and the Federation. We were the first to want the Federation's Technical Committee to examine us to evaluate our prospects for a return. I have to say that as soon as they saw us on the ice they immediately concluded that the project was absolutely possible, and everything came out of this.
The pressure on you at the Olympics will be great: do you already imagine how to handle it, or will it be something to be faced from day to day, living the exhilarating sensations of this Olympic adventure?
M.: what can I say, I think that the moment of the competition will be of great pressure, as it has always been in any other competition we did; the tension in that moment will be enormous. It will be crucial to transform all this tension into energy to burst on the ice. This is the most important thing. For the rest, we know we can give a lot to the public and we can receive a lot from them. It is such an intense and strong relationship. You have to be able to handle the pressure, and it is very important to be able to work with serenity before that. You can't invent anything in the last days.
B. : I can imagine that, at the moment of the competition, the tension will be great, but right now I am very calm, unlike what happened in the 2001/2002 season, the Olympic one that we lived with great tension because we were heading into it as World and European Champions, and so with great responsibilities: the pressure was always on us, even when practicing in Milano. Everyone was expecting the maximum from us, and we were afraid of letting people down. Paradoxically now it isn't so, because many believe that a three year long break is too much and thus certain results will not arrive. We know it is not like this, because we feel stronger than ever, but this scepticism is useful because the pressure is now on our adversaries.
About your adversaries, do you think that your rivals for the Gold medal will be Navka-Kostomarov, or do you think there might be other couples playing a role too?
M.: I don't think there's space for many couples in there I think that Navka - Kostomarov are the current world champions and will logically be our direct adversaries. But I also think that they haven't had many obstacles to overcome in these last few years. They became champions when us and others retired, so without actually beating someone in a direct confrontation. We feel very strong and our first goal is to fight without any problem, without any fear, against them. We have for them a great respect, as for all the others, but no fear, I'll say this again. I also think that the performances of Navka - Kostomarov in the last few months were not that superior to the other couples on the ice; I don't see them so ahead of everyone else, including us. I can't know what is their preparation or their programs now, but I know that we are in great condition, getting to top shape. The results from our physical tests say that we're even better than four years ago. I think that resting for these three years, letting our mind be surely more free, gave us a great physical and mental strength, and also a better maturity, because now, if I think again about the pressure, I know it will be great, but I also know that we are more ready, more serene: we already lived all of this, and experience in certain cases is very important. No one of the couples that will skate against us has ever fought for the Olympic podium, and I know how that can make your legs shake - be sure of that. I know this, but maybe they don't.
B. : I think too that Tatyana and Roman will be our most dangerous adversaries, because they are the more mature, more adult, more experienced couple - the more like us. Even Natalya and Gennadiy agree, and Albena and Maksim believe this too: the fight will be between us and the Russians. Grushina-Goncharov have improved tremendously, but I feel they still lack a touch of definite personality. The other couples are still too young: Belbin-Agosto and good and nice, but still immature; French Delobel-Schoenfelder are great, but I think their Olympics will be the next one. It will be different than in Salt Lake City: there had been five of us fighting for the gold, and four of these couples became also world champions, before or after the Olympics. Now I can only see a dualism between us and the Russians, with, on our side for once, the "home" factor.
Recently Navka-Kostomarov's coach, Aleksandr Zhulin said your skating style is not mature, is junior-ish. What do you answer to this?
M. (smiling): Last time we met his couple at Worlds was in 2001, and if I'm not mistaken we were first, and they were eleventh: we could say that the junior won over the novice, then. Jokes aside, I don't like looking at the past but only at the present, and I know I skate better than before because I never stopped training. To answer seriously, I ill only say that at the next Olympic games I hope to see - and I say this with my heart - more sportsmanship and more fair-play. What I never liked to see is when apart from the single athlete's ability, what matters are also some "external forces" trying to change or influence the results. I'll say , give up the polemics and let the ice give its verdict.
B. : Maurizio has improved: it is not only the technicians who say so, the judges, but I am the first one, as I train with him daily, and it will say it the public who will see him skate. But just like Maurizio I think that it would be better to be real sportsmen and refrain from this kind of plainly false accusations. If I had to get down to that level, I would say that even Kostomarov didn't appear to be worth of his title lately: everyone n Torino saw his mistakes on the twizzles and his uncertainty in the steps. If someone thinks we'll skate like juniors, feel free to do so. But on the ice we'll see if someone else will be able to conquer the Italian public more than us. The Italian public is warm, it loves the emotions and not only the plain executions, it loves the artists and not the robots. To tell the truth, I believe Zhulin is annoyed by our return, and what he says show he's worried. Better for us. The ice in Torino will be the same for everyone, and there we'll see who's the best without pointless polemics and useless judgements. Barbara, a last question: the one with Tatyana Navka will be a duel between mothers. What did change in your life as a skater and as a woman after the birth of your daughter Giorgia?
B. : Giorgia is the most wonderful thing it could ever happen to me, not only because she's a healthy, happy, funny baby, but because she fulfilled my life as a woman. For me this is a magical moment, under any point of view, because I have a fantastic family and a sport activity that's my passion; I am very happy when I skate, for how my practices are going, for the music I have chosen, and for the daily gratifications I get out of this. When I come back home I find my daughter which is my light, my husband Diego with whom I have a perfect relationship, my parents who help me, knowing what my engagements are: I couldn't ask for more. The only sad note was in July the death of my grandfather, whom I was very attached to - but this is life. I am serene and happy, and I will live the Olympics in all another way: even if I would loose, I won't care. But deep down in my heart I know it won't be like this, because for how we are skating, it will be hard to find someone to surpass us. I don't need to see them all, I have total confidence in our possibilities.

There isn't anything more to say: figure skating has found again two champions, Barbara and Maurizio, ready to fight and motivated as never before: sport teaches that there are no certainties in the results, but what we can know for sure is that after years in which Ice Dancing has been slightly obscured by the other disciplines, in Torino we will see a thrilling, breathtaking competition not only for the Italian public, but for all skating lovers.

by Filippo Ferrari