By Sascha Fey
Sportinformation (SUI)

Last March Stéphane Lambiel stepped onto the ice in Moscow as King Arthur, and when he left, he was the first Swiss figure skating World Champion since Denise Biellmann in 1981. In Torino he will be the first challenger of Russia’s Olympia runner-up Evgeny Plushenko. 20 year-old Lambiel was crowned World Champion without ever having been on the podium of an international event. “That’s because I am special and I do things differently than others”, Lambiel, six time Swiss champion, says. It was actually only by a small margin that he missed the medal ranks at the 2004 World Championships in Dortmund, the 2002 European Championships in Lausanne and 2005 in Torino, where he finished fourth three times.

Lambiel is indeed an extraordinary skater who mesmerizes the audience with his presence on the ice, not the least due to his pirouettes, which he creates himself. He is extremely ambitious and never puts up with mediocrity.

Lambiel is an artist and can easily be considered the most genius skater in the world. “I would like to show more and more: the people want to have fun”. Consequently he is very unhappy about the many regulations for the programmes and does not like to be limited by rules. What an extraordinary skater Lambiel is, can be underlined by the fact that he developed his freestyle event to the soundtrack of “King Arthur” within only six weeks. He changed the music after the European Championships at the end of January because he felt that he needed something new, something that corresponded better with his personality. He was so convinced by his new music that he did not let go despite the doubts of coach Peter Grütter and choreographer Salome Brunner. That is so typical of him, he is a very emotional man who relies on his feelings – and very often rightly so.

Lambiel’s gold medal is all the more astonishing as the preparation for the past season did not go very well to begin with. Initially he had to take a three month break in order to pass his school exams. Then he was over-ambitious and injured his left knee, which required surgery at the beginning of September 2004. He did not return to the ice before the end of October. Lambiel’s first competition was the Swiss Championship at the beginning of January, where, despite his win, he seemed to be far away from his best performance. He then went back to Grütter, who, feeling dispensable, had retired in October. Lambiel’s work with Grütter began in 1995 and was initiated by Lambiel himself, who did not hesitate to travel from Saxon to Geneva – up to 1200 km per week! Grütter immediately recognized the huge potential of his student. “He was highly motivated and did everything with highest intensity“, Grütter comments, looking back. Lambiel has a strong imagination, too. No wonder that at age seven he was already designing costumes! As he is a very sensitive person he must be able to rely on his entourage. Besides Grütter and Brunner there is Majda Scharl, the physical coach, who lives close to him in Lausanne. “When I have a problem, I can go to see her”, Lambiel says. For the World Champion, who had confidently won the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo in December, the Olympic Games are the main focus of this season. That’s why he wants to change up a gear. In training he has developed new elements which he will not disclose before the Games in Torino. No doubt a big surprise is in store!