ELVIS STOJKO

After you've done it for so many years, you have to find a new direction. You have to find something in your soul that's going to push you towards - to find your inspiration.

Just before I got down here I had a chance to see Agassi play another game and he smoked another player, which was nice to see. Someone who a lot of people thought couldn't come back and now he's winning.

A lot of times when you go through a very traumatic situation and it's emotionally difficult to deal with you come back spiritually stronger. It changes you in a way.

My mom was a dancer, my dad's a singer and I've always had that kind of music in my life.

And then, looking back at my first Olympics, and when the pressure was on, in '94 and '98, and looking back and going, wow. I sensed and felt what Brian had gone through.

I had the strength and the finesse there and put it all together.

All I know is that skating is getting better, the guys are getting better throughout the whole age range.

Just a whole different style, just a whole different way of going about an audience and a way about skating. And they are so brilliant in their own way, which is great, and that's what Brian was saying; is the styles are different, and it's the whole mentality.

I could not have done anymore, I had pushed myself to a limit that I had never touched before and that's definitely going to change you - than going out and doing what you do in practice every day.

When you're younger, your inspiration is there. As you get older, it tends to waver. Once you find it - I found it again - that's where you can draw from. That's where you draw your strength from.

I don't want to prove to anyone or prove to myself. I'd rather just enjoy and show myself that I am capable of doing it and actually going through the process.

You're always learning on different avenues and this is an opportunity for me to start on a fresh plate and start learning some other things that can really help me, that I need, and I want, to progress forward.

Always looked up to Brian and his skating, I loved his skating and what he had done for the sport. And the triple axel, that was the thing, and I wanted a triple axel.

I trained and trained and went up against Kurt, then being a world champion in '94, and after that I did Tommy's tour and then my tour and all this stuff and just trying to deal with it all. And now, I've just kind of backed off a little.

But a lot of my training can be done in Aston - a lot of the hard work, so to speak. But a new atmosphere, a new place, and it's good for me because I didn't want to get stuck in one spot, so coming home is good, back and forth, you know, where my roots are.

I would have to agree, that I'm probably more intense than Brian or Kurt, competitive because, I was always like this, always being that way, always real competitive.

I won't be skating for the rest of my life, that's for sure.

Technically, the last number of years, partially from the injury, it's been difficult to push forward but I felt even before the injury that I still could do more and was sort of at a stalemate.

You have to be able to focus, to control your energy. You need to make it your ally, instead of trying to harness it, to muscle it. That wastes energy too. There has to be a harmony between you and your body. Your mind and your body, and your soul have to connect in order to move forward. And this comes through relaxation.

When you are relaxed, you can focus a lot more easily than when you are hyper and over-energetic. It's important to be "up" for a competition, but you shouldn't have too much energy, because you might not be able to control it. In competitions, it is important to be able to bring the power and energy you are feeling down to a level that you can control. This comes with practice and experience.

A skater goes through a lot of different feelings during a competition. Staying calm is the key point. You feel a little anxious, a little nervous, a little unsettled. That's when you've got to trust your feelings, trust your abilities. Believe in what you have worked for so long to achieve. Have faith in yourself.