The same magazine that did a interview with Kamila Valieva where she praised Alysa Liu and Ilia Malinin, did also an interview with Masha Zakharova, here are some of the quotes...:

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**On friendship in sports**

I’m not friends with the girls on our national team. I believe that within the same training group or on the same national team, true friendship never exists and never will. At least not for me.

I’m friends with a figure skater from the German national team. We got along very well back when international competitions were still open. Of course, it all depends on the people involved, but I wouldn’t choose to have close friends among my direct competitors.

I get along well with Mark Kondratiuk, Grisha Fyodorov, Alexander Melnikov, and Matvei Vetlugin and among the girls, I keep in touch with Dina Khusnutdinova, Kamilla Nelyubova, and Dasha Sadkova. I can also have a chat with Alisa Dvoeglazova.

**On the next season**

I think I’ll keep my short program in my usual style, but for the free skate I want to try something new.

I also have another ultra-C element in my arsenal (Maria has landed numerous 4Ts during the 2025/26 season), but I wasn’t able to show it this season. Which one exactly is still a secret for now. I think it will appear on my social media and at competitions next season.

**On missing competitions due to an injury and her attitude toward her health**

It wasn’t easy to start training again. Going out and just skating is one thing, but getting back to serious work is something completely different. I needed to lose weight and rebuild muscle. It was tough, but thank God, I managed to do it.

It wasn’t easy to start training again. Going out and just skating is one thing, but getting back to serious work is something completely different. I needed to lose weight and rebuild muscle. It was tough, but thank God, I managed to do it.

Retire from skating? Those thoughts did cross my mind when the doctors still couldn’t tell me whether I would even be able to walk again. At that point, I wanted to give up everything and just live a normal life.

Now I take very good care of my health. At the first sign of a problem, I go straight to a doctor. When I realize there’s no point in continuing to fight for a jump and that it’s just not going to happen that day, I stop trying to land it.

I don’t think the lack of competition experience has affected me in any way. There are just certain events where I get more nervous than others.

**On training with her parents - coaches Anna Tsaryova and Stanislav Zakharov**

After my injury, we became much better at separating the rink from home. At home, we try not to bring up figure skating. We can calmly discuss how practice went, but Mom doesn’t scold me if I didn’t do something or did it poorly. All of that stays at the rink. On the ice, Mom is my coach; at home, she’s just my mom

We argue almost every day… Considering our personalities. One of us is fire, the other is gasoline, and it’s honestly a disaster. But I try to respect my mom as a coach, so I’m usually the first one to calm down. I understand that she worries about me, and I don’t want her wasting her nerve cells. She’ll still need them at competitions. But no matter how much we argue or fight, we’ll always support each other and help each other through difficult times.

The biggest challenge is knowing when you’re a mother and daughter and when you’re a coach and athlete. The biggest advantage is that she’s my mom and will always understand me.

On the ice, Mom has stopped forcing me to work. I’ll honestly admit that I was a bit of a lazy child, so I constantly needed someone pushing me to train and run through my programs. Now I understand everything myself. And in everyday life, what’s changed is that we no longer talk about figure skating 24/7.

Mom’s strongest qualities as a coach? Her ability to handle stress and her understanding.

Switching to pairs skating with my dad? No, never. When I finish my competitive career, I’m not going to switch disciplines just to keep skating.

Of course, Dad gives me advice. He rarely has the opportunity because he works at a different rink. When I go train with him before competitions, I can ask why something isn’t working for me, and he explains it. I listen, draw my conclusions, and everything falls into place.

Have I ever thought about joining his coaching team? No, although I really like their group—it has such a kind and always positive atmosphere. But if I transferred there, I think I’d become a little too relaxed in all that positivity and stop working through my programs properly. Even though I’m trying to be self-disciplined now, I still need Mom’s firmness to keep me focused and doing everything the way I should.

Whenever something isn’t working for me, Mom always finds the right words. She supports me, praises me, and then everything starts to work out. She knows how to find that perfect balance so that I get the job done. Criticism is just as important as praise, but you have to understand which criticism is worth listening to and which isn’t.

  
If competitions are held in Moscow, my grandmother on my mother’s side always comes. I don’t allow anyone else to watch or especially travel to see me compete because I start getting nervous. The only thing that matters to me is that Grandma is there. When I was little, she used to throw lots of stuffed toys onto the ice. She doesn’t do that anymore. But I guess posters and toys aren’t as important to me as simply knowing she’s there and worrying about me.

I always know where she’s sitting. If I haven’t asked beforehand, I look for her during the warm-up, and our eyes meet.

Family traditions? We always celebrate New Year’s together and ring in midnight as a family. We celebrate Easter as well. There’s also a tradition that I came up with during the pandemic. Back then, a friend was staying with me, and together we organized an Easter treasure hunt for Mom. Ever since then, I’ve put together this quest for her every Easter morning. She has to search the entire apartment for gifts, and at the end she finds the main one.

Another tradition is that Grandma makes a special cake for every holiday that we all absolutely love. The cake is called *Olga*, after my grandmother.”

"I’m not friends with the girls on our national team. I believe that within the same training group or on the same national team, true friendship never exists and never will. At least not for me" - interview with Maria Zakharova