That maximalist approach is something Shcherbakova says defines her – and she believes it has helped her to success on the world’s biggest stages.

“This is some kind of internal maximalism” in me during Beijing, she said.”I think it came to me with experience: I learned to enjoy the competitions and not only worry and [have] negative emotions. Probably all of this came with experience: With each competition, you get something new; you have a new look at different things, start to feel everything calmly.”

“And I think I felt that I was ready for the Olympic Games.”

Shcherbakova was skating with a kind of calmness she had rarely experienced, she explained. And said that those aforementioned dreams – sometimes nightmares – didn’t bother her in Beijing. Instead, she felt placid.

The dreams only played out on the ice for Shcherbakova in Beijing, who dealt with boot issues just two days prior to the short program but had no trouble in her new pair.

Shcherbakova was singularly focused throughout her Beijing campaign: Skate well and feel the performance. It’s a mindset she believes that brought her to the top of the podium.