Anyway, here's the transcript & translation:
Massi: "It 's a great joy, (because of how) we arrived here ... it was, I will not stop saying it, a very difficult Championship, because of all the tension, the fatigue, Federica’s illness ... we are very happy, this bronze is worth gold to us"Thank you to Eleonora and the other friends at Psicoradio (www.psicoradio.it) for their collaboration!
Speaker: Dear listeners, the voice you just heard belongs to Massimo Scali, who - with his long time ice partner Federica Faiella - won the bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships that took place on the last week of March in Turin.
Theirs is a story of pain, but also of great victory, in fact this bronze medal is almost golden for them. They have traveled, to Milan and then to the US as immigrants, but then, dancing their lives on the ice, they reached their dream.
Eleonora: as Massi was saying at the beginning, the path towards these championships has been difficult, the week before the event Massi and Fede almost decided to withdraw from the competition because Fede was very ill, they had trained very little, but then they decided to give it a try, to gather their forces, and to dance the story of their life – because their free program (which is the last phase of the ice dancing competition) tells their own lifestory. It 's a free program that was born from a reflection on the path that led them to this world bronze medal, on a music by Nino Rota aptly titled “The immigrants”, which in Fede and Massi’s program comes after a very suggestive introduction...
(the introductory spoken part of the program is played)
Speaker: "Our home is in a distant land, but this trip about us, now. It’s about our life, our memories, that slowly flow like ships in the ocean. It’s about what we will become".
Eleonora: with this program you have told the story of your last year, and also the sufference that comes with many difficult situation, with the need to adapt to being away and rebuilding a new life. Bringing this all on the ice was therapeutic in some way, did it help you?
Fede: it has helped us a lot. As you said, this program is our life, is what we faced in the last four years, and in our entire sports career by moving from Rome to Milano and then from Milano to America. It was born and it has been built around us, like a dress sewn right onto our bodies; for this reason, any time of the season we skated it, even in training, there was always a special emotion, an emotion that came from within ourselves because it is ours.
Speaker: This was the voice of Federica Faiella, who - with Massimo Scali – has won the bronze medal at the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships with a program that tells their story
Fede: to keep going in a moment that is difficult both psychologically and physically, what you need for sure is a lot of the determination that an athlete must possess, like anyone else actually, to go on with life – it is not just us athletes who have to face very difficult moments, both psychological and physical.
I think it is important to believe in yourself, and never take for granted anything, because in your life you can expect everything, all the joys and pains are part of this course... and so what is really important is to have near you those who love and support you, those who make you feel important. I think this has been my strength because I had Massi at my side, and all our coaches and all the medical staff, who made me feel important and pampered me; this is what really gave me the strenght to face this season that started on such already difficult terms.
Eleonora: what is harder to manage, victory or defeat?
Fede: both are difficult to manage. In my opinion an athlete must be prepared for everything, both victory and defeat, because when there is a defeat you must have the strength to get up and start working again, and anyway there’s always something to learn, even in the biggest losses. When you win, on the other hand, there is a downside: that we must be ready to find again the strength to go forward, because many times after a win you can relax too much, but that is not the right thing do. You can never really reach perfection, and even after a victory there’s always something you can improve.
Eleonora: ice skating is a though sport in terms of mental and physical stress. Do you have a psychological support that helps you face the challenges you meet?
Fede: we had it in the past and it helped us very much, because now we know how to manage our energy, how to manage the time before the competition, the competition itself, the post-competition, the training... now we say that we are our own teraphy, and we find our strenght in being a team.
Speaker: This was the voice of Federica Faiella, partner for many years on the ice of Massimo Scali. We have collected her impressions during the World Championships that took place in Turin on the last week of March.
Eleonora, you were there. Can you describe to our listeners the images that you remember the most, those who really took a place in your heart? I saw some pictures on youtube and they have a piece of my soul now.
Eleonora: surely one of the strongest images is this moment when, towards the end of the program, when part of the tension has already melted away, there is a reverse lift – the one where Federica lifts Massimo - and there I really think that all of us who were there following them so closely, we held our breath, and then the final moment when the tension broke and Federica burst into liberating tears. And then the image of Federica's mother in the stands, jumping and shouting and leaning over the balustrade so that security had to hold her back, as she gave the impression of being ready to jump down on the ice!The audience reaction was incredible, it seemed as if there were millions of people and that they were all celebratinf, applauding this result seeked with such dedication and intensity, and through so much sufference.
Speaker: that’s true, beyond the happiness we all feel for this bronze, there is the great lesson that comes from these athletes, the fact that you can do it, you can leave the pain behind, you can win. Life has a podium for us all, be it gold, silver or bronze, the important thing is to fight and win, and you can.
Here it is our slideshow+audio piece of the interview... enjoy!
