Jamal Othman

[whisper]

Cateva date despre elvetianul Jamal Othman:

JAMAL OTHMAN

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...ermich_eng.jpg





full name: Jamal Aziz Othman
date of birth: 13th August 1986

parents:
mother: Gertrud Othman, 1952, primary and sports teacher
father: Aziz Othman, 1953, chef
brothers: Rahim, 1984, handball
Harris, 1976, volleyball
Azman, 1973, chef

club: Schlittschuh Club Bern, Eislaufsektion
coach: Jacqueline Kiefer
choreographer: Michèle Colberg

education: 6 years primary school in Münchenbuchsee
2 years secondary school in Münchenbuchsee
1 year high school Münchenbuchsee
4 years sports high school Gymnasium Hofwil, Münchenbuchsee, graduation 2005
Since fall 2006, studying law at the university of Berne

hobbies: sport in general, dancing, shopping, going out

height: 186 cm (73in)
hair color: dark brown
eye color: brown

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s..._fotos_eng.jpg Some pictures:
http://www.ifsmagazine.com/forum/ind...e=post&id=1132
http://www.lextension.com/img/actu/img1677.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/DSC00655.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...l/DSC00544.jpg
http://photos.skatetoday.com/albums/...t/IMG_9108.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/P1010048.jpg
http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~lambiel/sw...bc_jo2_jpg.jpg
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...007/kep098.jpg
http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o...007/?start=all
http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~lambiel/sw...bc_jo5_jpg.jpg

[whisper]

http://www.vpj.ch/images/SCB04BA24.jpg
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http://www.vpj.ch/images/213SCB_2007_56.jpg
http://www.wcjunior.com/live-2004/wk...mal_othman.jpg
http://www.skating.ch/images/toplink...othman_web.jpg
http://www.absoluteskating.com/inter.../othman-03.jpg
Un interviu mai vechi cu Jamal...si niste poze super(in pagina cu interviul),nu?
http://www.absoluteskating.com/inter...005jamal-1.htm

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...malbildg43.jpg

What is your relationship with other skaters from your National Team, are you friends or rivals?
Our relations to each other are very friendly and concerned. Really, we always spend great times together when we meet. But what really interests you is my relation to Stéphane, right? Well, I think I can say we are quite good friends. We've known each other for a while now, but this was the first season that we’ve competed against each other in international competitions. Obviously though, we don’t skate on the same level. These were my first Worlds and Stéph won the title, so there’s no real rivalry yet. But I’m working hard on becoming a serious rival!

Someone told me that you were a blond and unruly child, is it true?
I wonder who told you! But yes, it’s true; I had shoulder-long blond, curly hair.
There are some funny stories my mom tells sometimes. For example, I went through this phase when I was about four years old, where I refused to eat anything that wasn’t green. Strange, I know, and I don’t remember my reason, I probably I didn’t even have one, ha!

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...n-Ice-2004.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...age025_25A.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...man/office.jpg

[whisper]

Competitiile in care va participa:

Season 07/08

2007

27th - 29th September
Nebelhorn-Trophy Oberstdorf, Germany

12th - 14th October
Finlandia Trophy Vantaa, Finland

8th - 11th November
ISU Grand-Prix Cup of China Beijing, China

7th/8th December
Swiss Championships Winterthur

15th December
Exhibition Solothurn, Switzerland

2008

21st - 27th January
European Championships Zabgreb, Croatia

17th - 23th March
World Championships Gothenborg, Sweden

http://www.goldentalents.ch/Golden-T...al-Othman.aspx

[skater girl]

thanx for the info,whis,deci mai avem un elvetian pe forumul de patinaj?,e bine!!mi-a placut f.mult poza cu jamal&steph!!!!n-o stiam!!

[irinaidu]

pozele alea alb negru cu jamal sunt din alea de sa-ti bati copiii!!! mie imi place de el si cum patineaza, e f elegant, dar sariturile il cam tradeaza!!!

[whisper]

Cu placere Delia!
Cum adica sa iti bati copii? Saracii,da cu ce au gresit

[skater girl]

Cu placere Delia!
Cum adica sa iti bati copii? Saracii,da cu ce au gresit

e o metafora draga,iri foloseste un limbaj plastic,nu te speria!!ea nu e o fire violenta

[irinaidu]

ce bine ma intelegi delia
da ade, asa e o vorba pe aici. sau daca chiar salivezi la greu sau esti f nervos poti chiar sa vrei sa iti bati copii cu sapca uda. nu ma intreba de ce

[alyosha_87]

gah! ce pozee....ce oom! ce bine arata
ITA with you, Irina !!!

[whisper]

Picture time

[Iulya]

http://www.figureskating-online.com/...49/7086427.jpg
Interview Jamal Othmann
Flims, July 2008

Q: The past season was difficult for you as you were battling injury. How are you feeling now?
A: The injury is quite ok now. I took a long break after Worlds, I wasn’t training on the ice for twom months. Then I started slowly. I was for three and a half weeks in the USA where I mostly worked on my new free program. Then I started slowly with the jumps, building them up, first singles, then doubles and then slowly triples. I’m still not doing the triple toe. I’m still waiting, but I can train Axel, with the left foot, and Salchow again. So it’s going actually very well. I can’t just jump without limitation, but I can train well and I’m pleased overall.

Q: What did you do after Worlds?
A: I wasn’t on the ice for two months and I didn’t train at all for three weeks. In order to build up again and to distract myself, I repeated a military class. So I was in Nördlingen and started to build strength and condition off the ice. After that I started building with on ice training in the USA. Then I went to Nördlingen again for another week and now I came here (to Flims).

Q: How are your studies going?
A: Well, that is a different thing. It is paradox that I can’t go to university in summer, as I’m always abroad. We have ice in Bern only from beginning of September to end of March. I don’t have any problem during this time as I’m living in Bern, I’m training in Bern and then I can study in Bern as well. But in summer, when I’m looking for ice time elsewhere, mostly abroad, I cannot attend university. I think I could have gone for three weeks this semester and I even wouldn’t have been there for the exams. Therefore I decided now to defer my studies, in any case for the time until after Vancouver, and then we’ll see. But I’m very happy that I started to study, and I’ve written a homework that I turned in and that will count and I can start again anytime, if I want. I realized that studying law is what I really want. I liked it very much and I’m regretting that I can’t continue. But I just know that it is impossible this summer and there are less than three years left until the next Olympic Games. Time is passing so quickly, and I need it and I want to invest it in figure skating. I’ll leave open what happens after that. But I keep my options open to continue my studies.

Q: What are your plans for the season regarding programs and competitions?
A: I didn’t get any invitations for the Grand Prix. I’m still waiting that something will change, last year I got a second invitation sometime later in August. I’m planning to go to Nice (Coupe de Nice) and maybe to Zagreb (Golden Spin). The Ondrej Nepala Trophy was postponed to end of November instead of September and therefore it is maybe Zagreb or Ondrej Nepala.

I’m keeping my short program as it was new last season and I didn’t show it at Europeans. Therefore I’m keeping it. I really like it and I think it suits me. I’ve changed the free program and I’ve worked for the first time with Tom Dickson in Colorado Springs on a program. The music is something classical Spanish. The composer is Isaac Albéniz, it’s a Spanish Suite that I heard and enjoyed a lot. I listened to different versions of it and I’ve listened for long, long time for many hours to music until I found what I like. Now I’m really happy with it. It is also something that suits me well, I think. Obviously it’s still raw and a lot has still to be done.

Q: What do you think about your hometown Bern hosting the 2011 European Championships? Do you want to compete there?
A: Yes, I definitely want to be there. I was very happy that Europeans will be there right after the Olympic Games, only one season later. I’ve always said that I’ll definitely want to continue after the Olympic Games and now I really want to be there, when Europeans are actually in Bern and in the stadium where I’ve been training since I was six years old. However, I do have a certain respect because I always felt a little sorry for skaters who compete at home. I cannot imagine how to deal with the pressure. I remember how it was in Sweden, it was extreme how the crowd went wild when Kristoffer (Berntsson) took the ice, and it’s always like this and therefore I think it will be really special, but at the same time it should be a new and beautiful experience. Therefore I definitely want to be there.

Q: Did you follow the European Soccer Championships in Switzerland?
A: I was in the States during this time. I was in the States when we had matches in Bern, and therefore I wasn’t involved. Over there soccer isn’t so po****r anyway and you didn’t hear much about the European Championships. But when I came back home there was the semi final and final, and there was a lot going on in the fan zones. I went downtown and watched what was happening. I think the big party was happening when I was in the States and so I missed it. On the other hand I’m not the biggest soccer fan anyway and so I’m not really sad, although it would have been nice for sure (to be there).

Q: Thank you very much for the interview and all the best for the season!

http://www.figureskating-online.com/pageID_6651024.html

[Iulya]

Striving to become the top Swiss figure skater

Jamal Othman has been wedded to figure skating since the age of six – a passion that finally paid off when he picked up the title of Swiss national champion.

The 22-year-old took over from Stéphane Lambiel as Switzerland's top male competitive skater in December, after winning the men's national championships in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

He developed an affinity with the ice after taking his first steps on a rink in his home city of Bern.

"I was always a skater. From the first second I was on the ice I really liked it. There was no question any more what I was going to do," Othman told swissinfo after a training session at Bern's newly revamped Post Finance Arena.

"I started with one practice a week but soon it became a daily thing. I went to school and I practised. That was pretty much it. But it was what I wanted."

At his side ever since has been coach Jacqueline Kiefer, under whose tutelage he started competing at the tender age of six and travelled to the Netherlands aged nine for his first continental competition. She knew from the start that she was onto "something special".

"He stuck out. You didn't even have to tell him anything. He just moved. He turned without knowing what to do," Kiefer remembers.

Without any prompting, the young boy quickly showed an ambitious streak, winning his first competition. "He wanted to be the best even then," Kiefer says. "As a coach you work with thousands of skaters and you are very lucky if you find someone like him."


Constant work

Born to a Swiss mother and a Malaysian father, Othman cuts an unusual figure, with striking looks and a tall physique. Self-assured after years in the skating spotlight as a junior champion, he appears older and wiser than others his age.

"To me figure skating is quite different from other sports," he muses. "It really requires a lot from when you are a child. You need to have a lot of discipline, a lot of sacrifice. You spend weekends doing choreography or getting new skates. You work constantly. You have to really want it."

As the trophy cabinet in his bedroom started to fill up, so did his calendar with competitions around the globe, from Europe to Japan. He has been Swiss vice champion for four years and in a career highlight took part in the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin.

Both Othman and Kiefer agree that success depends on both talent and hard graft.

In their experience the Swiss system does not give its sportsmen and women a helping hand, compared with some countries where coaches are employed by the state to teach people with talent or where high achievers are financially supported.

"Here it is completely different. If you don't push yourself when you are young nothing will ever happen," says Othman.

"We have successful sportsmen but everything they did, they did on their own."

Kiefer adds: "In different countries like China if you are a top sportsman you don't have to do anything afterwards because you are paid. You have brought the country all that fame. Here in Switzerland you can be a sportsman but after that you have to do something else. Even if you have been a world champion it doesn't mean you can live off that afterwards."

"If I was paid by the government I would have more time to focus on my good skaters but in Switzerland that is not possible."

Patriotism in sport

Nor is there necessarily the public support that sportsmen might enjoy in other countries, with many Swiss regarding sport as a secondary career.

"Sport is not a big thing to do in Switzerland. Every time I tell someone I am a figure skater they say 'and what else do you do?'. That's the mentality," notes Othman.

Which explains why he has also begun a law degree at Bern University, although studies have had to take a back seat recently so he can concentrate on skating.

He may not have received any handouts to make his career any easier but Othman says as a sportsman he still feels a strong sense of national pride whenever he performs.

"Your country is quite important when you are doing sport, whether you are a patriot or not. Since I was nine years old, they have introduced me saying,'and representing Switzerland...'. Before you become known, you are known as 'the Swiss guy'."
The home crowd

Othman's next big Swiss undertaking will be qualifying for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

To make the grade he will have to place among the top 24 in the World Championships in Los Angeles in March, which he is on track to do after gaining a 12th position in the European Championships in Helsinki in January.

Key will be integrating the holy grail of figure skating, the triple axel, into his routine. His one attempt so far failed to sufficiently impress the judges.

"This is really the last technical difficulty I will need. Everything else works. I have my triple-triple combinations, my level four spins. That's the thing I will need, so I will be working on that."

Beyond the Olympics Othman's vision is also firmly fixed on 2011 when the European figure skating championships come to Bern.

"It is going to be my first big championships in Switzerland and in my home rink, where I have practised for the past 15 years," he says.

"That is one of my big goals, to be in shape at that time and show the people who are very close to me what I have been doing.

"I think it is beautiful because you have the whole rink behind you but also you have the whole rink expecting something from you. I hope to be ready at that time to take that pressure."

swissinfo, Jessica Dacey
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/St...37281000&ty=st

[emiii03]

e foarte simpatic baiatul....
la el am vazut pt prima data medalion de aur in forma de patine