I never had a serious injury that kept me out of a big competition. Now everyone has injuries - to their feet or their knees or their backs.

When you're young, you don't think very far ahead. You just think in terms of the next day, the next week, the next competition. You don't think about injuries that could threaten your long-term health.

I'm the sort of person who needs a big mountain in front of me to climb.

I don't want to compete. I want to skate for the joy. I get so nervous in competition. I get always sick. I had pressures enough in my life from skating.

Skating taught me to set a goal and to block out other things and just focus on this one thing.

Sometimes I even now feel like a stranger in my country. But I knew there would be problems because I had seen the world as a skater. And now? A lot of people in eastern Germany have lost jobs, rents went up, food costs went up, unemployment went to 20 percent. Freedom is good, but it is not easy.