New Programs, New Direction

Vladimir Samoilov is embracing a new direction this season, trading last year’s dramatic Olympic free skate for a tango-inspired program. Summer changes everything in figure skating. Rinks close for the heat, groups scatter, and training follows whatever ice is available. For Samoilov, that means leaving Milan behind for a while: his home rink—the one that hosted the figure skating events at Milano Cortina 2026—is closed until September. According to Samoilov, temperatures reached 38°C in the city this year.

Samoilov spends his summers on the road. We caught up with him during a Baltic training camp tour: four weeks in Tallinn, with Lithuania before it and Finland to follow. It is not the first year that Angelina Turenko’s group has headed north for the off-season.

Summer Survival Mode

Training camps are the toughest part of the year, he admits: more work, more ice, more off-ice training.

“Summer is the hardest time of year for me. I was almost depressed this off-season, to be honest,” the 27-year-old admitted. “I love competitions, a change of scenery, meeting friends at different events. I love traveling and seeing new places.”

“From September the workload eases off,” he continued. “We mainly do run-throughs and get ready to compete. And in summer it’s ‘try to survive’ mode.”

Samoilov readily acknowledges that summer training lays the foundation for everything that follows. He patiently puts in the miles and disappears into the gym.

“I know I need to build up endurance, because during the season I work more on the ice,” he explained. “A bit of cardio at most.”

The Crash After Milan

The emotional low came after the Olympics.

“The first week after Milan I was on adrenaline, charged up, full of energy. And then I collapsed. It was like someone had switched me off,” Samoilov recalled. “Milan took a lot out of me — I was completely wrung out, emotionally and physically. And it was very hard to pull myself together for Worlds in Prague.”

He finished 14th there.

“I always get nervous at Worlds, but this year I had no nerves left for it,” he said. “The real peak of the stress came at Europeans. I was more nervous there than in Milan.”

Pressure in Sheffield

Why Sheffield, of all places?

“At those Europeans you could fight for the top three, and that means more pressure. It was realistic — for a lot of people,” Samoilov pointed out. “Look at Georgii Reshtenko, who managed to snatch the bronze. Plenty of us had a chance. It’s a shame it didn’t work out for me.”

What let him down, Samoilov admits, were those same nerves. A year earlier in Tallinn he had scored a personal best of 85.98 to sit third after the short program and collect a small medal.

“I remembered too well that I took a small medal after the short program at the previous Europeans. Yes, someone will say it’s just a small medal, but it meant a lot to me,” he shared. “And you realize it’s all within reach. You feel like you have to repeat it, and you understand that people expect it from you too. I wasn’t in my best shape, plus there was the pressure. You can jump every quad you like in practice — and then you step onto the ice and everything is different. I jump differently everywhere I go: you adjust to the quality of the ice and to your nerves. In Sheffield my coach didn’t recognize me, and I didn’t recognize myself. I couldn’t feel the ice.”

The most nerve-wracking start of his life, though, came a year earlier still.

“Worlds in Boston in 2025, when the Olympic spot was being decided. There was too much at stake,” he said. “I knew the extra qualifier in Beijing in September was a risk for me — I’m rarely in good shape in September. In Boston you could feel the tension even in the dressing rooms. You walk in and immediately understand: everyone is completely locked in.”

Finding Freedom in the Team Event

The Olympics themselves brought no relief. The team event, though, Samoilov remembers with nothing but pleasure.

“In the team event I wasn’t nervous at all, which surprised me,” he laughed. “I was glad it came first — though opinions differ on that. Logically it should be at the end, but it played into my hands: let’s be honest, Poland had no chance of qualifying for the top five anyway. It gave me time to go out and feel the arena and the ice. I enjoyed that short program. Yes, I was nervous for the team, but I still had a blast.”

A Camp Without Jumps

The off-season that followed was packed with camps and travel. First home to Poland, where a reception with the President awaited after Worlds. “Very nerve-wracking,” he says. Next came the Polish national team camp, as always. Finally, a week at home in Italy to catch his breath.

After that came an ISU seminar in Czechia, where the choreographer on staff was Adam Solya.

“For me it was an astonishing experience: we worked only on skating skills and spins — which, honestly, is hell for a singles skater,” said Samoilov. “Two weeks without a single jump. I don’t mind working on skating skills, but two weeks of three ice sessions a day with no jumps… It went well, though — I’m happy with it. It was useful. Challenging, but useful.”

A second ISU seminar followed in England, with his own coaches present alongside Solya, Michal Březina and Luca Lanotte.

Tango, at Last

And where in that schedule is there room to build new programs?

Both programs were started in Czechia during the seminar, and both were entrusted to Solya.

“The schedule was very tight, so we worked on the programs in the evenings after the sessions, in bits and pieces. The short program we put together at night, basically,” Samoilov said. “Then I made a special trip to Belgium to polish the programs with Adam and get them properly finished.”

Both of Samoilov’s programs are new this season. Because breaking in a program takes time, he has often carried one over from the previous season.

This season, Samoilov is pushing himself outside his comfort zone once again.

“For the last few years we’ve been playing with styles, trying new things — it’s interesting, even if not everything works out in the end. I try to step out of my comfort zone, even though it’s difficult,” he explained. “I don’t want to keep skating the same thing. I want to find something that’s really mine, and this season is no exception.”

Why Tango?

The search for his new free skate began with one simple request.

“I told my coaches straight away that I didn’t want anything boring in the free skate. At the same time we decided together that this season we’d take something slower and softer, because my Olympic free was heavier,” he said. “We were looking for a new approach.”

When it comes to choosing music, few opinions matter more to Samoilov than his mother’s.

“I always discuss the music with my mom. Her opinion matters a lot to me — she often sees things more clearly from the outside,” he shared. “Before the Olympic season she said right away that it would be difficult, that the music was heavy. And to me it felt like it was carrying me, charging me up. It’s important to me that the music has drive, that the energy comes from inside. Yes, it took a lot out of me, and I couldn’t always handle it. But the direction is right. That’s exactly what I want.”

The story of the new free skate music is an unusual one. Turenko had suggested the same idea to him two or three seasons ago, but he turned it down.

“I understood I wouldn’t pull it off,” said the skater. “The time hadn’t come for something like that.”

For what, exactly? Tango.

“We had absolutely no ideas about what to skate the free to. I arrived in England to see Adam with nothing in my head — my coach and I decided to come and trust him completely,” Samoilov recalled. “In fact, I found out my free skate music on the day we started choreographing it, right there on the spot. Usually it takes months to choose free skate music. Adam asked whether I had any ideas. I said no, none at all — maybe you do? And he said: five minutes!”

Then Solya put on a tango. The first half is Astor Piazzolla’s Oblivion, the second his equally famous Libertango.

“I feel like nobody has really used it lately,” Samoilov observed. “For me it’s probably an unusual choice, but it’s interesting to try. And Angelina had always been convinced that I absolutely had to skate a tango. When Adam played me this music on the ice, at first I even thought he and Turenko had discussed it in advance — but no, it turned out to be a coincidence. She was in shock herself.”

Both his coach and his choreographer believed he was ready for this style.

“Yes, and I used to feel I hadn’t matured into it yet. Now it turns out it’s fate,” he said. “Why not try? I’m ready to experiment. It isn’t easy for me yet, but you can feel that it’s a more grown-up, more mature program.”

A Secret Short Program

Usually it is the coaches who suggest the music. The short program — which Samoilov is not yet ready to reveal — is a good example: it came from Turenko.

“Right after Worlds she suggested the piece that will be second in the program, and Adam chose the first part to match it,” he explained. “The first section turned out calmer, and the second is more modern and up-tempo.”

A Back That Nearly Ended It

And how long before he is finished?

“As long as my health allows, but I’ve got the appetite to skate a full cycle,” he said. “Age, sure — but for men it’s not so critical. There have been so many wonderful skaters competing past 30. Plushenko, Patrick Chan, Fernández. And there are plenty more: 27 to 30 is nowhere near the limit.”

He speaks cautiously when the topic shifts to his health. Serious back trouble is part of his story, and it hasn’t entirely gone away.

“I almost walked away from the sport because of it. I had a lot of spinal protrusions, two kinds of hernia plus inflammation of the spinal cord and a marginal fracture. A whole bouquet of diagnoses,” he said. “I didn’t skate for four or five months. I was 17, my back seized up, my right leg was going numb. I could barely feel it.”

That was the spring of 2017, and he remembers the period as an especially bleak one. “A kind of emptiness, burnout,” he described. “I didn’t understand why I was doing any of it.”

The decision to come back was entirely his own.

“My parents gave me complete freedom to decide. They didn’t push me and they didn’t talk me into it. They were always right behind me,” he said. “And it was the first really grown-up decision I’d ever made.”

A Second Chance

Surprisingly, the comeback produced a completely different skater.

“Before the break I didn’t have a single quad, I’d only just got the triple Axel. I was 17, and around me were guys doing quads, with younger ones coming up behind me,” Samoilov recalled. “When I decided to come back, I knew the back problems probably wouldn’t disappear. But I gave myself one more chance — until the next flare-up, basically.”

He started over at public skating sessions, working on basic skating skills and rebuilding his jumps.

“And then one day my mom calls: ‘You have a tryout with Evgeni Plushenko tomorrow.’ I’d only been skating a couple of weeks. I had double jumps at that point, nothing more,” he said. “And he took me — and from that moment everything took off. I came to him at the end of the summer, recovered instantly, and by the beginning of September I was landing a quad flip in competition. To recover in a month — I still don’t understand how that was even possible.”

“And if before that it was sometimes coaches persuading me and sometimes my mom making me, from that moment on I knew for myself why I was skating,” he added. “Not for my mom.”

The rest of the quads arrived quickly after that. “Salchow, toe loop, Lutz, flip, loop, difficult combinations. Before the break I thought I’d be lucky ever to land a single quad. And then this.”

Quads, Quints and One Fewer Jump

Among all five quads, one clearly stands above the rest.

“The Salchow, of course, though I love the Lutz too. Then the flip. I’m neutral about the loop — it feels a bit awkward for me. And the toe loop is my least favorite,” he laughed. “In combinations it’s more or less fine, but on its own…”

With every quad in the arsenal, is there a quad Axel somewhere in his thinking?

“Definitely not. I don’t like the Axel as a jump, that’s the problem,” he said. “A quint, though — I might try to rotate one someday. But for that you need a very strong coach with a harness, and it’s extremely dangerous. So the thoughts about it stay just thoughts.”

Adapting to New Rules

The rulebook may bring him some relief from the unloved toe loop: the 2026-27 season removes one jump element from the free skate. How does he feel about the changes?

“We’re skaters and we work with the rules we’re given. Though there’s something a little sad about it,” he admitted. “I’d actually bring back the time when there were eight jumps — I still competed in that era. A program of 4:40 with eight jumps, I remember it perfectly. I feel like there was more room then to show the meaning of the music, the character. Programs have become far denser now; spins and the non-jumping elements in general have become much harder. To earn a level four on a step sequence takes about 40 seconds. That’s a big part of the program now. Under the new rules I have six spins across two programs — and all of them different! So in some sense it’s got harder, of course. This is definitely not a case of making things simpler,” he laughed.

With All My Slavic Soul

Samoilov is often described as a crazy quad jumper. What would he like to be remembered for — medals, programs, consistency?

“Consistency isn’t my thing, let’s be honest,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, analyzing it. In my case, I think being super consistent is impossible. Why? My Salchow and my Lutz simply can’t be one hundred percent reliable. I do them very powerfully, with a lot of amplitude. I don’t hold back on them — I do them with all my Slavic soul.” He laughs. So it is all or nothing.

“Physically, I don’t think you can guarantee consistency when you jump like that. And I like those jumps better,” he continued. “Like Kao Miura’s, for example — his jumps are very big, sweeping and beautiful.”

Landing those jumps for +4 and +5 GOEs brings a different kind of satisfaction.

“That’s far more satisfying than clawing one out for a +1,” he said. “At Worlds in Prague, when I did a good Lutz, I was really pleased with myself. And then I go into the Salchow — and everything goes wrong. It was obvious in the air that I wasn’t going to land it. Two hundred thoughts flashed through my head in half a second. But I still blew the jump.”

Learning to Fight Through Mistakes

Has he considered working with a sports psychologist? He has that experience behind him, but these days he has learned to pull himself together on his own. The turning point came at the 2024 European Championships.

“Before that, after a missed element I’d more or less stop fighting. In Kaunas it was different. After I popped the first Lutz, I pulled myself together and skated a decent program,” he said. “That’s when I understood you have to fight to the very end. And I learned to hold it together. That European Championships in Kaunas was memorable anyway — the atmosphere there was like the Olympic Games, I swear.”

Holding a Room

When it comes to inspiration, three names immediately come to mind.

“I was always mesmerized by the skating of Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernández, and also Brian Joubert,” he said.

All three are known for their ability to command an arena, and it is no accident that these are the names he reaches for. Samoilov wants to be remembered as a skater who could do the same.

“I really rooted for Joubert. I lived his competitions as if they were mine. He radiated confidence; he seemed to bend the audience to his will, and he knew exactly how to do it,” he said. “His Matrix is an incredible program in the history of world figure skating. You can still rewatch it now. It had a real wow factor.”

“I also think about the collaboration between Florent Amodio and Nikolai Morozov. The programs from that period gave you goosebumps. Those were two people who found each other and had super chemistry,” he added. “Morozov showed his genius through Florent’s skating. And Florent is still remembered.”

He wants to be remembered for more than the jumps.

“We’re working on that a lot with my coaches right now.”

A Small World in Italy

After a demanding off-season, Samoilov remembers his vacation fondly. He split it in two this year, taking the first half at the beginning of June.

“I just lay at home. I did nothing. I don’t know how it works for other people, but I sleep as much as humanly possible. Until three in the afternoon, if I can. Catch up on sleep and just lie around,” he said. “My ideal vacation is not leaving the house, moving as little as possible, hardly any training. No walks, as passive as possible. My small apartment in Italy is my small world, my routine, my comfort zone.”

Italy is home now, and with camps stretching up to two and a half months in the off-season and constant travel during the season, he doesn’t get to be there often. He lives out of a suitcase almost year-round.

Samoilov’s family stayed in Russia. He has not seen them since leaving in 2021 to compete for Poland, a separation that has now lasted five years, and he admits it isn’t easy. The second half of his vacation, in July, was given over to a long-awaited reunion with his sister by the sea.

Starting over in a new country proved far more difficult than he had imagined.

“I don’t even like remembering it,” he said. “For the first couple of months I lived in the kitchen of a big apartment with other skaters, and slept there too. It’s funny now — people even complained that I snored and kept them awake. Honestly? I thought about leaving and dropping everything. And I’m glad I didn’t. It all worked out for the best in the end. I never once regretted staying. I’m glad I stuck it out. But of course I understand better than most how hard it is to change everything: when you don’t know the language, you have no real money, and you’re forced to adapt to everything new at once.”

His English is no longer a problem.

“I learned it all as I went. If I didn’t know a word, my coaches helped. Speaking practice at competitions, interviews included, helps best of all — I can say that for sure.”

The Season Ahead

Samoilov plans to open his season in late September or early October, at either Nepela Trophy or Trialeti Trophy, with the rest to be decided with his coaches.

“That’s never my strongest stretch of the season, but you have to skate the Challengers,” he said. “And with two brand-new programs at once, those early starts are more about getting mileage on them than about peaking.”

Another change on the horizon could be a longer season.

“It’s obviously hard to be at peak form for the whole season, so some poor outings are inevitable. My form usually dips at Nationals, because by November you want to be in really good shape for the Grand Prix and the Challengers. And in January you have to build again for Europeans. So December isn’t my time either,” he explained. “I usually get into shape quickly, but it doesn’t hold for long.”

Looking Forward to Japan

For now he has one Grand Prix assignment. It could still change, but he is delighted it is the one in Japan.

“I adore competing there. I’ve been once, for Worlds. It’s a country everyone simply has to visit at least once,” he said. “It’s another planet. Everything there is different and unreal. The audience is incredible; they know and understand figure skating, and the way they cheer is something else — and not just for their own. You can feel that they love skaters and love our sport. It’s a culture of treating everyone with respect.”

He also speaks warmly about American crowds.

“At Worlds in Boston I skated right after Andrew Torgashev, on his home ice, and they received me so well. There was nothing cold about the reception at all,” he recalled. “Great memories.”

A Bracelet Instead of a Tattoo

There is a trend among skaters for Olympic rings tattoos, kept as precisely that kind of memento. Samoilov is not a fan of the idea, though he admits it crossed his mind after Milan before he quickly dropped it.

“Even though it’s a memory that stays with you for life, the idea of doing it on my own body just isn’t for me,” he said. “Although I like how it looks on other people.”

His own keepsake from Milan is a personalized Olympic bracelet in the colors of the Polish flag. He hasn’t taken it off since. And he is keeping room for a second one, four years from now.

Hopefully.