Alex Zaydman: "Figure skating is like a movable feast"
Judge
Motto: freedom
Main character trait: responsibility

Profile:
Alex started skating at the age of five – first as a single skater, and later as an ice dancer. He became one of the first coaches of the IISF in 1992, and worked in this position till the year 2000. In 2002 he began representing Israel as an international judge. Alex has been on the IISF Board since 2005.

Q: Alex, how do you manage to combine your motto with your main character trait?
A: It's a good question. Most of the time I manage to do that. I like freedom, but if I am asked to do something, I keep my word and do it.

Q: You have been a skater, a coach, and a judge. What is more difficult, in your opinion?
A: To coach. If you judge, you have certain rules and criteria, which you can apply. If you skate, you are responsible for yourself only. But as a coach, you have to convey your knowledge and experience to your trainees, and from that moment they are pretty much on their own, while you are unable to change something.

Q: You have mentioned the judging criteria. The new judging system has been in force for several years. A standard question to a judge: what do you think about it?
A: It has certainly made the judging process more objective, but it still has some way to go and to be improved.

Q: You took part in the 2006 Winter Olympics. How would you describe your impressions?
A: Very simply. Unforgettable and incomparable.

Q: I have already asked several people the same question: what, to you mind, makes figure skating so beautiful?
A: For me the beauty of figure skating is in the facial expressions of the viewers watching the performance of high-class skaters. It can leave no one unmoved, because the impression is that of a work of art – a portrait or a sculpture- coming alive.

Q: Like Hemingway's "Movable Feast"?
A: Exactly.

Q: Alex, thank you very much for your answers and your unconventional reply about the beauty of figure skating. We hope that our team will contribute to this movable work of art.
A: You are very welcome