In the person of Márti Afonyi, we can welcome a new returnee to the team! In an interview, we talked to her about the reason for quitting last year, his past year and his return.
Why did you decide to quit last year?
In 2020, I started working full-time, and I also applied to the Hungarian University of Sports Science for coaching. Team Passion youth training also started this season, and my coaches asked me to coach the newly formed team. I took on a lot of things at the same time, there were a lot of commitments and I got tired of training. It was during this period that the pandemic also appeared, first the quarantine made it difficult to prepare, then the competitions were cancelled. Competitions wasn’t my primary draw, but the competitions gave me feedback on our work and they were always special experiences. As a result, I also had a strong lack of motivation. I didn’t want to stop with a bitter taste in my mouth, to take another year without having a hard time getting myself into training. I was overwhelmed and very eager to have more free time. So at the end of the 2021 season, I decided to quit.
How did you spend this year? During this time, how did skating appear in your life?
My year was pretty average: work, studying and coaching. Thanks to this, I did not completely break away from skating, I was still standing on ice on a weekly basis. In addition, in my free time, I tried to spend as much time as possible with friends and family. I have been able to spend a lot less time on these reunions in the past.
When and why did you realize you were coming back?
I first started to think about the team and training around November and December, but I didn’t think about coming back. Then in February, when the races and the Winter Olympics were in full swing, I was constantly confronted by various sports successes. During the Olympic period, I was particularly excited about my desire to be an active athlete. I had goals for skating, and by then all the work had come to fruition, and I was tired of it. With each race, it broke my heart that what was my dream would be achieved by a team of which I am not a member. Then there was the fact that I couldn’t finish the way I wanted to finish a full season that ended with a World Cup. But I felt that I still had the will to perform and a new impetus. I knew that skating was the thing in my life that I know best about, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the longest time. The other thing that made me realize that I wanted to continue doing this was that I experienced what a year without skating was like, I can tell you that I did not get happier with all my free time… For me, there was a lot more joy and experience in skating, it gave so much more than other programs. I’m not sure that would be the case with anyone else, but since I grew up on the ice and spent most of my life doing it, no one else could make up for that lack. So after thinking about all of this, I decided to come back if the team and my coaches took me back.
How did your environment and team respond to your return?
My friends outside the team, my coworkers and my family supported me in going back. I think everyone saw how much I missed him. I was a little worried about how my coaches and the team would be receiving me after a year off. The people we’ve been with for a long time have known for some time that I want to go back and they were happy for them, and it was very nice for them to confirm that they are looking forward to me. My coaches were just as happy to go back. All this support and love that I was received confirmed even more in the fact that I made the right decision to return.
What are your new goals with the team?
At this year’s World Cup, the team did very well, but I think there is still room for improvement . That would be my goal with the team, to move forward. And the scores can always be improved, I want us to break the team’s best score to date again.