Daria Danilova and Michel Tsiba of the Netherlands share their A to Z!
Most used App?
Daria: I think maybe YouTube or Spotify.
Michel: I think WhatsApp, I’m the manager of the team. I’m always in touch with everyone.
Bedtime?
Michel: I tried 10pm but it never works. So let’s say 11.
Daria: I can go to bed at 9, but I go to sleep at 11. But at 9, I’m already in bed.
Comfort food?
Daria: Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. In the Netherlands we have Pecan Blondie. It’s with the pecan pieces, white brownie, caramel. It’s the best one. And it’s only in Netherlands!
Michel: I think my comfort food is Époisses cheese. We have a little cheese store near our house, a French one. I always buy it with grapes. When it’s the off-season I have it with red wine, but during the season just sparkling water or something.
Your last Dream or any recurring Dreams?
Michel: I can’t think of one right now. I honestly have, often in competitions, I dream that I screw up so badly or that I actually win the event. But that’s something that happens in competitions often.
Daria: I had a lot of weird dreams about my school. I didn’t do my exams or homework and my teacher started screaming. I don’t know why, but I’m waking up like, oh no school anymore!
Embarassing moment you can laugh at now?
Daria: I can tell one. I told Michel never tell this story but we were in Japan, it was 2024 or 2023 NHK Trophy, and we started to learn Japanese with a woman online. I had a lot of words in my head, Japanese words that I remembered. We went on a walk and we asked a woman to take a picture of us and she did it and instead of telling her arigato I told her konnichiwa and then she ran away! I was very confident!
Michel: We were saying stuff like sentences in Japanese and then she made the [mistake]. It was so funny.
Favourite fan encounter?
Michel: We had one, her name is Maho, she’s a Japanese fan and she started a fan page for us. She also started a petition going on after Zagreb. She’s insanely enthusiastic in supporting us. She actually, with her husband too, they came to an event, they gave us all kinds of presents. There’s just so much love. I think we have got to give it to her because she’s the first one that really came with it. Just supporting us. Like, I only support you guys. I was like ‘Why? Well, thank you!’
Sarah: Were you surprised with how many people signed the petition?
Michel: Yeah, it was incredible. It’s just because [it was] so many people that you don’t personally know from the figure skating community and then they start writing you and start supporting you. I don’t even know if the petition helped or not, we had nothing to do with it but just to see that. That’s something I said yesterday too, I think the Olympics is for every figure skater to dream [about], and then everybody understands how much it means to you as an athlete, so to get that support and love was incredible. That was pretty heart-warming.
Goals that you’re working on right now?
Michel: For me, I want to have personal best [in the] short, free, total score at Olympics. I mean, not even that much about the scores, it’s just for ourselves to show just the… I mean, we’ve never actually had a competition where we were fully clean in both programs, and I feel that that’s something that I would love to do. At the same time, don’t put too much pressure on that. But just [go] there in the best shape of your life. And if something happens, okay, shit happens, but to be as prepared [as you can be].
Daria: And for me, I felt this before the Boston World Championships. I felt 100% ready. I went there with 100% confidence that I can do clean programs. It wasn’t clean, but I felt this confidence and it was the best preparation we ever had. So I want to do even better and feel even better before the Olympics. This is my goal.
Michel: I’ll actually change my answers to her answers. I prefer it more.
Favourite Holiday memory?
Michel: I think we always go to Mallorca, just because it’s cheap from Amsterdam to fly and it’s always sunny and nice there.
Daria: Just laying on the beach without any thoughts with my book.
Michel: Just the moment when you finish Worlds, and then you have this accomplishment feeling from we did well, and then just have the rest you deserve.
Biggest Inspiration?
Michel: For me in the sport, [it] definitely is Yuzuru Hanyu. He was a king. Then outside, Kobe Bryant is really a real inspiration.
Daria: Last season and this season for me, the biggest inspiration was Alysa Liu and her mindset, and what she’s saying; what she’s saying about figure skating and skating fans and what she brings to the world. This kind of… no stress, no pressure, skating just for herself and just enjoying. It’s the biggest inspiration.
Jam session song?
Michel: “Would the real Slim Shady please stand up?”
Michel: [to Daria]: [singing] I can buy myself flowers. You liked that one for a while.
Keepsake you’d never part with?
Michel: I think my chain. I got it from my grandma when I was born and it’s just something personal.
Daria: Yeah, for me also, [gesturing at necklaces] this one from my parents, this from my parents, and this one from my mom. So it’s always with me.
Lyrics stuck in your head right now?
Michel: Honestly, I’m quite silent in my head right now.
Daria: I think Michel listened to it today in the shower. Bye, bye, Miss American pie.
Michel: Yeah, I listen to this song quite often before [a competition]. I don’t know, it’s chill, but at the same time like a building up song. I like that one, yeah.
Movie night favourite?
Michel: Karate Kid with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. That was my go-to movie when I was younger. Actually, no, right now it changed to, The Pursuit of Happyness. That’s a beautiful movie.
Daria: It’s a Wonderful Life? I don’t know about movies but Friends, [the] TV series, it’s always on repeat.
Niche interest of yours?
Michel: Watching soccer. Is it niche? No, no, wait, collecting Pokémon cards.
Daria: Drawing.
Michel: She’s dreaming about having a dog. That’s her niche.
Daria: This is my niche, yes. For now, I’m dreaming about a dog.
Favourite Outfit to wear?
Michel: Just casual [clothes], because we’re always in sports clothes and we’re traveling always, all the time. So just to have the comfort to put on a pair of jeans. When we go to Japan we always go to Uniqlo and buy everything there, but we never can wear it.
Favourite Podcast?
Daria: Yes, Anything goes. Emma Chamberlain.
Michel: I don’t do podcasts. I watch motivational speeches on YouTube but that’s the only thing.
Bonus P: skating Program you wish you had seen live?
Daria: Tessa and Scott, Moulin Rouge. I wish I could have seen it.
Michel: I would say Hanyu, the Pyeongchang free skate. And I think probably Javi [Fernandez], the 2015 World’s with the blue costume.
Favourite Quality about the other person?
Michel: Daria is very lovable, but at the same time fierce, and you can always depend on her. If I had to imagine my dream woman, that’s her.
Daria: I like that Michel really feels me and knows what to say or what to do when I’m in a bad mood or I’m happy. He can be happy with me when I’m sad. He can really support me. He feels how I feel. This is also my dream man!
Favourite Restaurant?
Michel: I think the first restaurant we went to was in Berlin. There is an Italian place. I don’t remember what it’s called.
Daria: La Cantina.
Michel: La Cantina in Berlin. The first restaurant we went to, on our first date. It became our special place. Very cheap pizza place. Very nice and convenient.
Season you wish it was all year round?
Michel: Summer.
Daria: For me, spring.
Michel: Yes, spring. You know when it’s like, 18-20 degrees. Not too hot, not too cold. You can go out with just a sweater, sometimes even a t-shirt.
Training day essentials?
Michel: Massage gun.
Daria: Coffee.
Who or what do you think is Underrated?
Michel: Us [laughs].
Dream Vacation destination?
Michel: Okinawa and Miami.
Daria: Yeah, Japan, and somewhere in the ocean.
Whereabouts on a day off?
Daria: Sleeping.
Michel: Rest, just rest.
An eXperience that changed you?
Michel: Figure skating.
A Year that you would like to visit?
Michel: 1997. I would love to see myself as a little kid.
Daria: I don’t know, in 1995 and to talk with my young parents.
Michel: I would go to [the year] zero, I want to see Jesus Christ, I want proof. I mean, belief is good, but it’s always nice to have proof.
What is your Zodiac sign, and do you believe in the zodiac?
Michel: Sagittarius.
Daria: Virgo.
Michel: I see similarities, but I don’t believe in – when it says that this month I’m gonna be rich or something, I feel that I have that in my own hands.
Daria: Also, it says that our zodiac signs cannot be in a relationship. That’s not true!
Read our previous A-Z interviews:
A to Z with Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel
A to Z with Loïcia Demougeot and Théo Le Mercier
A to Z with Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps
A to Z with Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez
A to Z with Yuka Orihara and Juho Pirinen
A to Z with Júlia Sylvía Gunnarsdottir and Manuel Piazza
A to Z with Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler
A to Z with Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko
