« Okapi: Tell us about your famous spin. 

Nicole Hassler: – This is true, I was spinning at incredible speeds and I never got beaten in the number of spin: I was doing about 70 or 80. 

But there is a big caveat in this type of record: all your blood is going to your finger tips. That really hurts. I had blood marks all over my arms. Today, thanks to this craziness I suffer from blood circulation issues. 

Why this passion for the spin? When I was a kid, my dad, who was my coach, offered me one franc for every 10 rounds I was adding to the spin. At this time, with 1 franc, you could buy a lot of things. 

I was quite often training on open sky ice-rinks, by – 25°. To get warm, hop! a spin. I was spinning with one straight leg up, the blood was going to the tip. But as I only know how to spin in one direction, I was only getting the same foot warm. The other one stayed frozen. 

Okapi: how did you get back to your senses after such spins? 

Nicole Hassler: At the beginning it was horrendous. When I was stopping, I was finding myself stack to the ground. I was thrown to the floor like a little metallic ball would be attracted by a giant magnet. Every time I was trying to get up I was slapped back to the ice. I was really hurting myself … Finally I realised that I only had to wait for the balustrade to stop wobbling. When it stabilised, only then, I was able to get back up. » (OKAPI, Sept 1986)

« Let’s talk a little bit about these compulsory figures from which my victory depended. When I was competing, at the time the compulsory figures counted for up to 60%, the first in that discipline was almost certain to win the competition.

You often heard about these figures that are never shown on TV. The aim is to draw some pictures thanks to the traces that the blade leaves on the ice. They are geometrical drawings based on circles. They carry weird names like: Bracket, Rocker, Three, Double three, Contre-rocking, Loop. They look like clovers, hearts circumscribed on two or three circles. They are performed on one leg, with one push allowing one and a half or two circles. For the competition, you have to do the figure three times on each foot. They have to meet very precise dimensions. There is 41 different figures, a champion knows how to draw them all.

Nowadays these figures only count for 40%, giving back all its importance to the free figure skating.

I will always regret not having benefited from this evolution.

Having to work those figures 5 hours per day, I had to wake up at 4 in the morning. At the time the ice is completely clear of any traces and you can check the perfect geometry of the figure. » (Nicole Hassler, oct 1986)

« The compulsory figures are never shown on TV. This is so peculiar, you have to see for example the juges coming in their usual shoes in very little steps to mark the figures. Sometimes, they even lay down on the ice to have a closer look. Sometimes they even fall! » (OKAPI, Sept 1986)