Irina Slutskaya's triple-triple combinations

[TheIronLady]

Watch this montage of Slutskaya's 3-3 combinations over the years. I am impressed that she really did not perfect her more difficult 3Lz+3L or the 3S+3L+2T until 2005. Most of her career she stepped out, fell, or completely cheated the loops, which is ironic since she attacked Hughes' cheated jumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxFjlJpi5MY

[Vash01]

She did a 3S-3R in 1997 (worlds LP)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSWtcD6fKlc

There is no comparison between Irina and Sarah. Irina had great power and speed on her jumps and her jumps were clean by the 6.0 standards (they were not using video monitors to watch replays). Sarah's jumps were so ur, you did not need to watch a video replay of them.

[TheIronLady]

You did not need slow motion to see how sloppy most combinations looked either-- even when fully rotated. I am not trying to argue, but there is no good defense of Slutskaya's arrogance. The only defense of her annoying attitude I could accept is that she believed judges circa 1997-2003 made her attempt such difficult combinations sloppily to even be considered a rival to Kwan. She perhaps was under-appreciated some seasons for the speed and power she did have, but I am not so sure that is true. I can understand if she viewed it that way though.

[AJ Skatefan]

I know. Not many of those look fully rotated or clean. Thanks for the link. Her technical abilities were over hyped for sure.

[judgejudy27]

I dont know exactly what Irina might have said about Sarah, but as Vash01 said her 3-3 attempts were perfectly acceptable for the time. Not perfect in many instances, you are right, but way better than Sarah's 3-2.2 and big full turn combos which got credited which were a joke. It wasnt just Sarah's badly underrotated triple-triples though, but her many UR solo triples, her huge mule kicks into all her toe jumps, the humungous flutz, her weak quality elements in general and poor short programs which were often held up. Irina was not a perfect skater by any means either, but atleast her technical elements were almost all high quality, and she probably isnt the only skater who felt Sarah got a free pass on many things, and was hugely lucky with the SLC scoring in many respects. The new COP was essentialy an anti Hughes system, which really says alot about what TPTB even felt about Hughes, and how agitated even they probably were at the overscoring she frequently received in 2001 and 2002.

The OP is right though that she really improved her 3-3s in her last 2 seasons and executed many much smoother ones with a perfect running edge, steady landings, and fully rotated than previously, which is a real credit to her to make such noteable improvements in one of her trademarks at such an advanced age for singles amateur skating. Perhaps had she made such improvements sooner she may have been able to win an event like the 2001 Worlds.

[fenway2]

Irina had great power and speed on her jumps and her jumps were clean by the 6.0 standards.

You're kidding right? If Irina's 3/3s pre-2005 were clean then Sarah's were also. But they weren't. Neither of them.

[Marco]

I think if she had focused on the 3toe3toe she would probably have risen to the top earlier and beaten Kwan at the big comps more. One of Kwan's reputation on the technical side was her consistency in laying out 7 triple performances when it counts. While Slutskaya was usually extremely solid jump-wise, she never really got to the magic number 7. 2000 GPF and 2000 NHK were exceptions but the 3/3s were clearly cheated in both cases.

I think her best 3/3s were the 3toe3toe at the 1998 Olympics, the 3sal3ooop at the 1997 Worlds and the 3lutz3loop at the 2005 Worlds. I hate that she liked to do 3 jump combos back in the days which usually had no flow out on the last jump. Her 3sal2loop was always superior in quality to whatever 3sal2loop2toe or 3sal2toe2loop she used to do. Too bad she was so influential during the time that the 3 jump combo became a standard COP feature.

Compared to Slutskaya, I also think people often under-estimate the quality of Hughes' spins (except the poor, pre-rotated flying camel) who were usually fast yet controlled and stretched out. Slutskaya had beautiful solo spins (loved her pre-COP layback and her flying camels) but usually lost speed and became sloppy when changing positions.

[caseyedwards]

She peaked with her 3/3 in 2005 and then abandoned them for the 2006 Olympic season! So that was unfortunate. But Throughout her career there were many successful ones. But not just 3/3 but big powerful jumps of almost all the possible triples. I can totally see why she was deserving of gold in 2002 because her completed jumps were harder and better done than anyone in slc! Like Hughes did have 3/3 but you know one lutz. And the judges were torn and split over it! It's not like urs mattered at all if they were one foot urs. Obviously 2 foot urs hurt scores!

[TheIronLady]

I dont know exactly what Irina might have said about Sarah, but as Vash01 said her 3-3 attempts were perfectly acceptable for the time. Not perfect in many instances, you are right, but way better than Sarah's 3-2.2 and big full turn combos which got credited which were a joke. It wasnt just Sarah's badly underrotated triple-triples though, but her many UR solo triples, her huge mule kicks into all her toe jumps, the humungous flutz, her weak quality elements in general and poor short programs which were often held up. Irina was not a perfect skater by any means either, but atleast her technical elements were almost all high quality, and she probably isnt the only skater who felt Sarah got a free pass on many things, and was hugely lucky with the SLC scoring in many respects. The new COP was essentialy an anti Hughes system, which really says alot about what TPTB even felt about Hughes, and how agitated even they probably were at the overscoring she frequently received in 2001 and 2002.

The OP is right though that she really improved her 3-3s in her last 2 seasons and executed many much smoother ones with a perfect running edge, steady landings, and fully rotated than previously, which is a real credit to her to make such noteable improvements in one of her trademarks at such an advanced age for singles amateur skating. Perhaps had she made such improvements sooner she may have been able to win an event like the 2001 Worlds.

I am laughing on the floor at your decimal selection of 3+2.2 for Sarah. They probably were about .2 rotated. Her 3F and 3Lz by themselves were sometimes 2.4s.

I agree that Slutskaya's improvements were significant and stunning for a mature skater. I never appreciated how much her combinations had improved in those final seasons.