Stéphane Lambiel (24) is the 2005 and 2006 World Champion and won  the silver medal at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino. He retired from competition in October 2008 due to injury problems (adductor muscles). This interview was taken in April 2009. In July, Stéphane announced his return to competition.

Q: Let's take a look back. What happened since your retirement last fall?
A: The summer last year was very long for me as I had to travel a lot between Munich and Geneva because of my injury, but I was actually training in New Jersey. I spent a lot of time travelling and healing my injury. After Worlds in Gothenburg (in 2008), I was training for one week, then I had therapy for one week, then I was training again. It was a very long and difficult time. When I decided in October that I won't skate competitively anymore, I told myself that I need to take a complete rest for six weeks so that my body can recover. I wanted to see if I'm able to get back onto the ice after these six weeks. It was hard to come back after such a long break and the injury wasn't even gone. The doctor told me that this kind of injury needs a long time to heal and maybe it will never go away, because it is a functional problem. After all the strain that my body went through in my life because of figure skating, it won't be the same as before.
I started training again in December and I tried to be on the ice every day for one hour to prepare for the shows that started end of December. I went to Stars on Ice in Japan and to Art on Ice in Switzerland, then I had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles for the World Championships in March and to watch the competitions. I had some more shows in spring.
I was very happy that I could do these shows because they gave me a lot of energy. I got the feeling the more (shows) I do, the more energy I can draw from them and the more I'm enjoying to skate. I did two extraordinary programs in Kosice (in the Slovak Republic). I think this was the very first time that I skated so well, I felt totally free and it was great to feel the energy of the crowd, it was incredible. This is different from competitions where you are focused on your elements, but here you are creating a connection and this is what I love.

Credit: gstaadphotography.com

Late last month, two-time World Champion and eight-time Swiss Champion Stéphane Lambiel announced his decision to return to competitive skating. His last competitive appearance was the 2008 World Championships, in which he finished 5th. In October 2008, right before the start of the Grand Prix Events, he announced his retirement as a result of a thigh injury.

After finishing second to Evgeny Plushenko at the Torino Olympics in 2006, Lambiel is looking to improve on his silver medal in Vancouver. With both Lambiel and Plushenko coming back to another shot at the Olympics, this would mark the first time since the 1928 St. Moritz Games in which the reigning men's gold and silver medalists return to compete at the next Olympic Games.