By Matteo Morelli

Darya Grimm & Michail Savitskiy are a junior ice dance team representing Germany. We met them at the Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, France, talking about their change of coaching teams and how they feel as a team that is developing and getting ready to move up to the senior field in the Olympic season next year.

Darya and Michail, congratulations on your Grand Prix Final bronze. What are your feelings after having achieved this second bronze at a Final?

Michail Savitskiy (MS): We feel great. I think the best word to describe it is relief: it has been a stressful time over the past couple of months, but we have been working a lot mentally, to focus more on ourselves and on our skate, to please the audience and ourselves rather than to think about the outcome or the judges. I think it worked.

Darya Grimm (DG): I think I am actually happier than last time, because last time we got into the Final being second in the international rankings having won two Junior Grand Prix. This year, we were happy to have made it to the Final, so we weren’t really contending for anything and because of that, I think I am a little bit happier than last time.

MS: We went in with less expectations than last year, when we went in as favourites because of our Junior Grand Prix wins and standings. So, of course winning the medal is always nice and it is always a reward for all the hard work, but especially this year, with all the stress and the lack of preparation, relief is the feeling that comes to mind.

I suppose a cause of the stress you are living this season is due to your recent decision to leave your coaching team. For the last couple of months, you have been training with Matteo Zanni (he was at the Grand Prix Final with them) and Maurizio Margaglio: do you know which school you are going to pick as your new permanent training location?

MS: We have been mainly with Matteo so far, but the final decision is going to be after German Nationals. We will talk with the Federation again and we will decide after. It is definitely going to be between Maurizio and Matteo. We also enjoy that they like to work together, they do a lot of camps together. They have a large group of great skaters, and the work they do there is amazing, with a lot of great coaches and great preparation when it comes to the off-ice and dance. It is great.

From a relationships point of view, when I look at your social media it seems that you are getting on really well with the teams there.

MS: Yes, we were welcomed so warmly by everyone! We were friends with some of the teams there and we have now made friends with almost every other team.

DG: And almost everyone told us they would love us to come back. They are great people, they support each other and it is a great atmosphere to be in.

Do you want to share what happened with your previous coaching team?

MS: Let’s say there have been problems, particularly when it comes to communication and conflict of interest. It all ended very abruptly, it happens, but we are moving on.

Looking at your successes so far: you have a total of six Junior Grand Prix medals, of which four golds, now two bronze medals from the last two Grand Prix Finals, and the Junior World Championships bronze from last year. How do you feel you are evolving as a team?

MS: I think we have made great progress. We started off pretty strong: in our first season, we experienced very rapid progress, we placed six at both Junior Grand Prix and then we placed fifth at Junior Worlds, which was a massive improvement. And then I feel like we kind of cemented our place among the top teams. We placed fifth at our first Grand Prix Final, confirming the results from Junior Worlds in the previous season, then we improved even more the next season, and I am happy to be back again on the podium. I feel like we are making steady progress. When we talk to the coaches, they are saying that we are improving a lot.

DG: I think you could tell from today, this was one of the best scores we had, considering that it was a Grand Prix Final and the judges are always stricter than in the other Junior Grand Prix.

MS: It is a massive development from last year, for example, we had 92 in our free dance and this year we earned 97 points.

Besides deciding your new coaching team, are you already making and longer-term plans about your future?

MS: We have to move up to seniors next year, so we will be battling our top senior teams in Germany. We want to go to the Olympics, so we want to stick together, for this Olympic cycle, for the next Olympic cycle, and maybe even the cycle after, but we haven’t thought this far.

DG: We are quite too young for that kind of figuring out. Every one of us wants to qualify for the Olympics in 2030 because not all of us are going to make it to the Olympic Games next year. Anyway, we are here to stay, we are hanging in there and then see what the future holds.

Let’s move away from the ice: what are your passions?

DG: Sleeping! (she laughs) I read books, and I write a lot: not about books, but mostly about my thoughts, in a philosophy or poetry direction.

MS: I play the piano, I used to play professionally but not anymore because it is kind of hard to balance the amount of work that both things need. Ice dance needs a lot of work, and if you want to play the piano professionally you need a lot of work as well.

You should talk to Zachary Lagha about this!

DG: They talk about it all the time!

MS: Yes, we do! He is really motivating me, telling me to hang in there and to keep going and to even maybe re-kindle that flame of playing at some festivals or competitions. I am finding that interest again, I have picked up some new pieces and I am getting back to it.