Anna Semenovich, the 46-year-old Russian singer and actress, former member of the girl group Blestyashchiye and a figure skater, has posted archival photos on Instagram and reminisced about her years in America, infohub.kz reports.
According to her, from 1998 to 2001 she lived and trained in the United States under the renowned coaches Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov. At the time, the coaches had moved from Russia to the United States and took with them three of Russia's top ice dance pairs for training.
"We lived very modestly, in a small American prefab house. Under one roof were Ilya Averbukh, Irina Lobacheva, Roman Kostomarov, Vladimir Fedorov, Anzhelika Krylova and me. Each of us had a tiny room, and we all shared a single refrigerator. We trained a lot, lived modestly, but we were a close-knit group!" she said.
Anna rode a bicycle to practice. After she won a competition and earned some money, she bought her first car.
"I was so happy! Because I had earned it myself. At first I skated with Vladimir Fedorov, and later with Roman Kostomarov. I remember those years with a smile and a touch of sadness. I worked very hard and was almost always hungry — I've battled excess weight my whole life, and in figure skating you had to stay very slim. Sometimes once a week I allowed myself candy — and that was a real celebration," she shared.
The performer noted that in these photos she is about 20 years old. But she already knew how to work hard, how to be a friend, and she dreamed of becoming an Olympic champion.
"But in the end I became a famous singer. And who could have imagined back then that just a few years later I would become a member of the celebrated group Blestyashchiye? That's how surprisingly life can turn out. So never give up. If things are hard for you right now, remember: there are still so many opportunities ahead that you can't even imagine today. The main thing is not to be afraid to seize them, to be happy and to enjoy life," she concluded.