Claiming a spot on a Europeans podium was a long time coming for Vanessa James and Morgan Ciprès. Their long program at the 2017 European Championships was a standout performance, earning them a bronze medal.
James: (on the music choice “Sound of Silence”) This music really builds. So it helps push us and I think the audience helped also. It was an amazing experience. You never get tired of this song, so we can play it as much as possible and still be as motivated to skate to it. That was a really good pick from our coaches. We are really happy and proud to skate to this music and it’s getting better every competition. (on next plans) We have one week break after this competition and I think we need it after all these emotions we have this week.
Then, we’ll be back to Fort Lauderdale to skate with our coaches and start planning what we’ll be doing for Worlds. We have no shows planned because we’re going to rest, stay focused on the end of the season and the Olympic season. (on whether they expected to win the bronze medal and on how they feel after so many years of hard work) We were not expecting anything really, especially today, because two years ago, we were third in the short program and then we had a catastrophy. I forgot the program in the long program. But we have learned from this. Today we just stayed very calm and focused on what we had to do, on what we’ve been doing in practice.
I told Morgan after the program, it doesn’t matter what the result is because I am very proud of us. I wasn’t waiting for it, I didn’t want to expect anything. I was prepared for anything and just to fight. We’ll continue to progress I hope. It’s amazing to be on the podium with especially Evgenia and Vladimir because they’re amazing skaters, but they’re also amazing people.
Ciprès: It was an amazing day for us. The level of the competition was really, really high today and also yesterday. It was not easy, and it was also not easy for us to skate last. The audience was amazing and we are really proud of us to be on podium with these guys. (on being much more secure than in the past) We were young in the beginning (of our partnership). We did some good stuff. It wasn’t really easy every day. We have trained a lot and we believed in ourselves. Our new team believes in us and we believe in them. Also the federation believes in us. I think it is because of everybody who believes in us that we try to do our best. (on the standing ovation) It was just amazing for us. Standing ovations –it’s not like this every day. In France we could have this sometimes because we are French. But here it was a dream that came true. I wanted to stay on the ice forever. I want to thank this amazing audience today and yesterday.