Kiira Korpi: figure skating, my great life experience

Kiira Korpi about a month an half ago announced her retirement from competitive skating with these words on her Facebook profile: My competitive skating career which lasted almost 20 years has now officially come to an end. I find it impossible to describe with words the overflowing feeling of gratitude that I feel at this moment. I'm so happy about how much I've been able to connect with people through skating. Sometimes the connection has been with unspoken language, sometimes verbal, sometimes more shallow, sometimes very deep, but always precious and unique.I feel lots of joy also because I've been able to represent my country all over the world and be a role model for younger people. There's a strong fire within me that still wants to shine out through skating, perhaps by performing in shows and helping young athletes. THANK YOU ALL for your irreplaceable support! The Finnish skater, always great example of grace and elegance on the ice, leaves, with regret of the fans and of the people who followed, the competitions with a silver and two bronzes in European Championship, two victory in Grand Prix series, a qualification to the Final Grand Prix and five gold medals at Nationals. Below the interview, that she issues to us.

AOI: The best moment of your career? And the worst?
Kiira: I find it actually almost impossible to answer to this question. Since every moment of my career was valuable and precious in its own way. One of the most memorable moment of my career was at the Europeans 2009 in Helsinki when I fell against the wall in the beginning of my free program. On that moment after the surprising fall I was in a kind of a shock trying to decide if I can continue or not, I felt like the whole audience was holding their breath and hoping that I could still finish the program. That was energy from the crowd really helped me to go trough the program and I felt like I was not skating just by myself, I was kind of skating with and for everyone in the arena.

AOI: Your favourite program
Kiira: This is not an easy question to answer either, because every program had some unique touch and feeling. One of my favorites are maybe my short program from last year to a Beatles song A day in a life and also a short program from 2011 to the music Over the rainbow.

AOI: An analysis of your skating life
Kiira: I think the best and most valuable thing as a skater for me was and still is all the experiences I've had in different countries and situations, and all the people I've been honored meet and with some of them become really good friends.

AOI: How do you choose the costumes and who creates them?
Kiira: For a long time I've done cooperation with a Finnish sports costume company called Biancaneve and a Finnish fashion designer Teemu Muurimäki (who's also worked for Armani and Dolce&Gabbana etc.). The costumes were inspired always by the music and together we made them to look and feel good.

AOI: Who is Kiira off the ice?
Kiira: Kiira off the ice is of course the same as on the ice. ;) But if you mean what I do on my free time off the ice, I like to do "normal" stuff like meet friends, enjoy good food, walk in parks and in nature, drink tea or coffee, read books, practice Pilates, or just be and enjoy what's happening inside and around me at any given moment.

AOI: Now that you've said "goodbye" to ice, what are your next goals?
Kiira: For me quitting competing didn't mean a goodbye to ice, because thankfully I can still keep skating in a different form and perform in shows etc.

AOI: It was difficult to announce your retirement? And at which point did you know that was time to leave?
Kiira: Not really. The decision didn't arrive easy and took some time and I had to go through some more difficult phases, but once the decision arise from somewhere deep inside, I knew what I had to do and felt at peace with the decision to retire from competitions. The public announcement came much later than my decision so it was fairly easy to do. I felt very emotional of course but in a good way.

AOI: Now that you retired, are you training to prepare  performances? How?
Kiira: Yes I'm training and preparing myself to the shows, but I feel like the training is much more intuitive and creative and I don't follow any strict plans anymore. I love the freedom and creativity that's arising! I even choreographed one program for myself because I just started to have this feeling inside me that something wants to come out.

AOI: When did you realize you had the talent to compete at a high level?
Kiira: I guess when I went to my first international competition in Zagreb when I was 11 years old and got into second place. Then I maybe realized that I'm not so far from the other skaters around the world.

AOI: Your role models, in skating and in real life
Kiira: My role model in skating when I was young was always Michelle Kwan, there was just this magical lightness and effortless grace in her skating that I admired so much. In real life my kind of role models actually now tend to be somehow related to nature, like trees or flowers or animals. I admire how they face the present moment with such ease and peaceful grace.

AOI: You find an old bottle, you rub it and a Genie comes out. Your three wishes...
Kiira: ctually the only real wish would be that people (including myself) would get free of their ego that always craves to be more and different, and would appreciate more what they already have and what is.

Thank you Kiira!

Eleonora Baroni