Irina Slutskaya

[MR-FAN]

It's amazing that after more than 6 years since her last competitive performance, she shows up at the pro-am in Japan earlier this season and nails a program with identical technical content to what she was doing in 98-99

[Sasha'sSpins]

IIRC comments from the time I think I'm in the minority as far as Irina's 2002 Olympic LP - I enjoyed it. She was a tremendous athlete but worked hard on improving her artistry. I loved her beautiful deep edges, her powerful stroking. Perhaps the only negative aspects were on her posture (she seemed to hunch a little) and also the tendency to 'telegraph' her jumps as Scott Hamilton often pointed out. But what jumps they were! She is missed.

[MR-FAN]

Cohen's and Kwan's spirals were clearly better only as far as quality of position was concerned. Slutskaya's speed, edges and transitions in her spirals were better than Cohen and at least on par with Kwan IMO.

I actually enjoy Slutskaya's spirals, she does them on deep edges and with great speed like Kwan, but in addition to Kwan's extension and position, I always swooned over how stable Kwan was able to keep her upper body and her edges throughout her spiral sequences. Irina couldn't quite match that stability a lot of the time

[Marco]

Slute is a wonderful athlete and competitor. I always thought she would be able to achieve more if she had focused on perfecting an easier 3/3 (like a 3toe3toe or 3sal3toe).

I actually enjoy Slutskaya's spirals, she does them on deep edges and with great speed like Kwan, but in addition to Kwan's extension and position, I always swooned over how stable Kwan was able to keep her upper body and her edges throughout her spiral sequences. Irina couldn't quite match that stability a lot of the time

You mean during the change of edge? Absolutely.

Perhaps the only negative aspects were on her posture (she seemed to hunch a little) and also the tendency to 'telegraph' her jumps as Scott Hamilton often pointed out. But what jumps they were! She is missed.

And also, she mostly skated through the music during free skates. In short programs and exhibition skates, she was able to feel and express the music a lot more. My favorite was her 2001 short program to Culture.

I lost a lot of respect for her after seeing her COP spins and spirals.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

One thing I liked about both Slute and Kwan in 2002 is that they worked on skills that the other was strong in. If you watch their Olympic SPs, for example, you see how much better Irina's spirals (in terms of position and maybe even stability) were in 2002 while Kwan's spins in SLC were held longer and faster.

[David21]

I actually enjoy Slutskaya's spirals, she does them on deep edges and with great speed like Kwan, but in addition to Kwan's extension and position, I always swooned over how stable Kwan was able to keep her upper body and her edges throughout her spiral sequences. Irina couldn't quite match that stability a lot of the time

After CoP was introduced and Slutskaya had to do those CoE-spirals, her edges often were "hit-or-miss", yeah (but one has to consider she did them in a more difficult position than most skaters). On her other spirals and pre-CoP, her edges were mostly stable and deep.

[lulu]

One thing I liked about both Slute and Kwan in 2002 is that they worked on skills that the other was strong in. If you watch their Olympic SPs, for example, you see how much better Irina's spirals (in terms of position and maybe even stability) were in 2002 while Kwan's spins in SLC were held longer and faster.

I never consider that before, but that's a great point.

I love Irina's incredible speed over the ice, her athleticism, skating skills, presentation skills and 3-3 jumps. She really was amazing.