About one special person who celebrated his birthday today (THREAD)

1/ It all began with “Poeta” at Worlds 2007. Half a year later I went to my first skating competition ever just because I absolutely had to see it live.

2/ I saw it performed during competitions and practices. It was always mesmerising, even without jumps during run-throughs.
Still one of the best programs ever in men. And, btw, that performance included 3A and two 4T, pretty decent technical content even by modern standards.

3/ Nine years later, during the Ice Legends 2016 rehearsals I was able to touch that costume and see that program standing right near the ice, one of those “if someone had told me” moments...

4/ After Worlds 2007 and thorough Internet research, I joined lambiel_ru and on Apr 2nd wrote my first post there. It’s been a great journey, with roller coaster of emotions, passionate discussions, “Matryoshka” project and other unique gifts. And, of course, fan meetings.

5/ Our “online birthday celebration” in 2008:
https://lambiel-ru.livejournal.com/201554.html 
Pity the community doesn’t really function last few years, but, well, for every thing there is a season...

6/ It started with Worlds 2007. Ten years later Worlds 2017 was my first Worlds as accredited journalist (and ever) and his first Worlds as a coach. I feel that for both of us this debut was quite successful and fruitful.

7/ End of January marked ten years since we did our first interview:

Stéphane Lambiel: "I'm a little bit crazy"
http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=interviews&id=2009lambiel

8/ Btw it was my first interview evah. It was published both in English and Russian. In Russian - on the site of a big Russian paper. Reasons to be proud, although this interview looks very raw to me now.

9/ Since then we did many - 10? 20? Never counted, probably should - interviews (and I always have at least “five pages of questions” (c) more ). Some of them were translated to Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Czech and probably even more languages.

10/ This is one of my favourite talks and one of the best interviews I ever did:
S.T.E.P.H.A.N.E.
http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=interviews&id=2010lambielcrystalice

11/ And this one for many reasons is pretty special for me personally:
Stéphane Lambiel: "You never know enough"
http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=interviews&id=2015stephanelambiel

12/ This photo from Euros 2010 gala practice is my most stolen photo ever. By stolen I mean copyright was intentionally cut by those who took it and posted under their username.
It case you liked it, this album has more photos from that practice:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/reutush_lj/library/2010euros/gala?sort=3&page=1

13/ Talking about photos I have hundreds of his photos from various events through these years but only 5 photos with him. I see it as terrible waste of his time to ask for photo every time I see him instead of using it for precious conversation. Still glad I have those five

14/ My biggest pet peeves are titles “Little Prince” and “King of spins”. Also, when the only thing people associate him with is failures on 3A. Open protocols and count percentage of successes, you will be surprised.

15/ I also hate when he is brought as an example of artistic skater with low technical skills, open protocols and check. You don’t become two-time World champion on PCS only. He was among a very few skaters who had two quads in one program (which was rare back then).

16/ Another huge pet peeve is when people write his name as Stefen, Stephan, Stèphane (if you insist on using accent, at least use the right one), etc. It’s just argh… I feel like correcting every single person “on the Internet” who writes it (and sometime I actually correct )

17/ He is the best (and the worst, depends on his mood) interviewee I ever had; amazing, truly legendary skater and hopefully great coach in the making; deep and interesting person who never ceases to surprise me.
The thought he exists in this world brightens my day.

18/ This blessing is not mine, it is Neil Gaiman’s quote, but I think it suits him perfectly:
May your year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness!
Bon anniversaire, Stéphane!