Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova exclusive: How 'skating with feeling' got her the gold

The night before a big competition, Anna Shcherbakova usually dreams about figure skating.

But when she struck her final pose following her free skate at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, she knew she wasn't dreaming: She describes this moment as one of "pure happiness" in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com.

"Probably the brightest moments for me, the happiest moment is after the final move after the free program," Shcherbakova, 17, said on Saturday (19 February). "These are the seconds of pure happiness, when you just feel that you've done the absolute best at the right time. And probably it's these overwhelming emotions I skate for."

The moment came on Thursday (17 February) for Shcherbakova, who leapt from second to first in the women single skating event behind two flawless programs. The reigning world champion was especially strong in the free skate, nailing two quadruple jumps and holding off training mate Alexandra Trusova for the top spot at the biggest competition of her life.

"This is exactly what I was striving for – to show my best skating without mistakes at the Olympic Games," she said. "This is very important for me."

Now both a world and Olympic champion, Shcherbakova has confirmed that she will head to next month's world championships in Montpellier, France, where she is set to defend her title.

While she'll strive to add more hardware on the world stage, Shcherbakova reveals that her mindset is not one that dwells on the podium, but instead only wants to find the best within herself to find ultimate satisfaction.

"I've never had a particular goal in figure skating, so I can't achieve it," she said. "I just skate for it inimitable feeling. ... [I know] there will be ups and downs. It's impossible to always skate perfectly and to be on top at every competition. I am a perfectionist and an athlete and this is probably why I often skate well in competitions."

Anna Shcherbakova: Skating to the maximum

That maximalist approach is something Shcherbakova says defines her - and she believes it has helped her to success on the world's biggest stages.

There is none greater than the Olympic stage, and she timed her experience just right.

"This is some kind of internal maximalism" in me during Beijing, she said."I think it came to me with experience: I learned to enjoy the competitions and not only worry and [have] negative emotions. Probably all of this came with experience: With each competition, you get something new; you have a new look at different things, start to feel everything calmly."

"And I think I felt that I was ready for the Olympic Games."

Shcherbakova was skating with a kind of calmness she had rarely experienced, she explained. And said that those aforementioned dreams - sometimes nightmares - didn't bother her in Beijing. Instead, she felt placid.

"Usually I have ludicrous dreams about my competitions – I'm always late or forget my skates or I can't go to a warm-up or something," she said, laughing. "Always something bad happens: I always wake up with a feeling, 'Thank God it was a dream.'"

The dreams only played out on the ice for Shcherbakova in Beijing, who dealt with boot issues just two days prior to the short program but had no trouble in her new pair.

Shcherbakova was singularly focused throughout her Beijing campaign: Skate well and feel the performance. It's a mindset she believes that brought her to the top of the podium.

"My thoughts are not based on how many points I need to score or what my rivals will jump," she said. "I think only about all my feelings, for which jump I'm ready, how ready I am, what elements I can do, where I risk and where I don't."

She added: "Actually in my performances I can often do even more than I jump in training. But I need to feel that I can do it. I always listen carefully to my feelings during training while jumping. This is very important... just to work with your head. And then I can skate with more confidence and show my best at the right moment."

Watching from home: Her family - and cat

While Shcherbakova had a certain serenity about her during the Olympics, she said she knew her family at home was stressed watching along - very stressed.

"They all were worried about me and I'm sure they were nervous even more than me," she said, noting that as soon as she got to her phone she called her parents, who are in Moscow. She also has two sisters: Yana, in Moscow, and Inna, who lives in Switzerland.

"I called my parents, the whole family, my sisters" as soon as I could, she explained. A video of Anna's father even went viral on social media in her home country, him yelling out in delight as Anna's name is announced as Olympic champion.

Also watching along: Her cat, Mafia.

"I called my parents and they all congratulated me and we talked," she continued. "They sent me a picture of the Mafia watching my performance. So of course, I miss her too."

How will her life change now that she's an Olympic champion?

"I still want to finish this season," Shcherbakova noted, with worlds next month. "I don't want to spoil this impression for myself. So we returned to training (already). ... I probably don't want anything to change so much yet. After all the important competitions, I think there will be some kind of [photo] shoots, interviews, we will have performances in ice shows."

"It is probably too early and difficult to say," the 17-year-old added.