- I have someone very, very special sitting beside me and I�m not going to let you see him yet because this is like a very big deal. He is and absolute figure skating star ladies and gentlemen. Okay, pan out, pan out! See him, see him!

 A.Y.- Hey everyone!

 S- How you doing bud?

 A.Y.- Really great. I�m just happy to see like these beautiful walls and its great.

 S- It�s a cool place here at the Zone, eh?  ( * curse that Canadian �Eh�

A.Y.- Yup.

 S- well, its even better now that you�re here. I must say that I�ve gotta shake your hand on television, because I know all of the fans of the Zone are really big fans of you and your figure skating success; and he�s pretty cute too, isn�t he?

 A.Y.- I tried to fix my hair before I came here.

 S- You look very good- now, you�re pretty amazing. You have won the gold medal in Salt Lake City, the Olympics this year, how was that? What was that like?

 A.Y.- It felt great. I mean 18 years of my work and that was the result of my work and I�m just really happy that the season�s finally over and I�m doing some touring here.

 S- Wow- so 18 years. That means how old were you when you started skating?

 <o:p></o:p>

A.Y.- I began to skate when I was 4 and ½ years old because my mom decided to put me in some sport because I wasn�t that healthy when I was young. And she chose figure skating because figure skating was one of the most popular sports in Russia.

 <o:p></o:p>

S- That�s right, you�re from Russia. So figure skating- did you really love it or was it more your mom telling you that you should be a figure skater?

 <o:p></o:p>

A.Y.- When you were 4 ½ years old did you even think that you would sit in front of the camera? Probably not.

 <o:p></o:p>

S- No, no. I thought I was going to eat ice cream for the rest of my life; that was my plan. But yeah, that�s awesome. So you�re doing it now so you must absolutely love doing what you do, don�t you?

 <o:p></o:p>

A.Y.- Yeah, I love it and I�m just really happy that I�m in love with my sport.

 <o:p></o:p>

S- Awesome! We�ll have more with Alexei coming up later! Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen!

S- Back with the beautiful skater, Alexei Yagudin. Now, I'm very excited to have you here because I know that a lot of my fans are very big fans of yours. And I don't know if you've been on the Internet lately, but I typed in your name and there's all these "I Love Alexei!" sites on there. Have you seen them?

A.Y.- Actually, yes. Sometimes, like when I'm touring, sometimes maybe, but this never happens to me, you are bored, and I just go on the Internet and uh, yeah, I just type in my name just to see what the people are talking about me and sometimes I visit my sites. It's wonderful because people are really interested in figure skating and it's great.

S- Yeah, definitly. Now, I have a request from all of my fans. I had and email that was asking me to get you to say your own name into the camera. I don't know what it is with girls, but they want to hear you say your name. So I want you to look right into the camera and just say your name, with like, cute eyes.

A.Y.- Okay- "Alexei Yagudin" And let me tell you, it is a real pity you guys couldn't see this part. He like looked right into the camera, leaned forward and made his his voice so incredibly hot. And he really did the cute eyes too!!

S- Whoooo! Ladies and gentlemen, that was a Zone exclusive! Now, you are a gold medalist, very exciting. You've been doing a whole bunch of stuff, tell everybody what you're up to right now.

A.Y.- I'm up to Skate the Nation tour. That's little tour- there are like 10 skaters on the tour. And we just really like each other, we love each other. And we hang out, we know each other for so many years and we do so many solo numbers, group numbers. And we go across just Ontario right now, but then the Skate the Nation tour will move to the West Coast, so its just fun. Its like a dessert for me, after the competitive season, which I call "Dinner', and now I'm just getting the dessert.

S- Well, we have a wonderful clip of you doing some of your fancy skating. Let's check this out. Excuse me? "Fancy Skating"? That was the best she could come up with? How about "Incredible"?

Roll Clip

S- Wow Alexei! That was you last year on the Stars On Ice tour, right?

A.Y.- Yeah, that's right.

S- Very cool. And is there another Stars On Ice tour coming up this year hopefully?

A.Y.- Yeah, the Stars On Ice tour, it will begin sometime around May and we will go for one month and its just another cast of skaters, like Kurt Browning, Kristi Yamaguchi, so its a great chance to see them again.

S- That's great so great. Now I want to ask you, who is your favorite skater, other than yourself?

A.Y.- Okay, there are no favorite skaters. I mean, I can't say that I like someone more because everybody are different and they have their own styles. Nice answer buddy boy.

S- Very very cool. Now did you learn from anybody in paticular?

A.Y.- Yeah. I mean, I really like to watch Kurt Browning, Brian Boitano, Scott Hamilton. As I said before, they're all different and I take the coolest stuff from everyone.

S.- Very very cool.(Is this chick getting repetitive or what?) Well ladies and gentlemen, me and Alexei are going to hang out for a little bit longer, so I want you guys to hang out too. Come on, say your name one more time.

A.Y.- "Alexei Yagudin"

S- "Alexei Yagudin" Stick around ladies and gentlemen- right here!