‘I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to win in Salt Lake City’: Russian skating icon Irina Slutskaya on lost victory at 2002 Games

[Coco]

Hey now, Irina pioneered using an illusion as a difficult transition right after a jump. With today's judging system, that would be +1!

 

[VGThuy]

I thought it was unwise for Michelle to attempt to duplicate in 02 the magic she had with that SP from 98. The magic just was no longer there; The performance was flat, IMO. I would've given the SP win to Irina. Heck, I think even Sasha deserved at least 2nd place for her gorgeous performance in that segment.

I really liked the extra things Kwan added in the SLC performance. I would have preferred a new SP, but honestly, I saw why that got all 5.9s in presentation and how she won the SP even with that flubbed flip. I mean if the judges were counting Irina’s URs on those 3/3s for the past few seasons and Sarah’s whole jump repertoire, then why not one egregious one for Kwan?

 

[muffinplus]

I think Irina thinking her Tosca program is amazing / genius is worse than her thinking she should have won gold TBH

Still wondering WTF this was... it just makes me laugh every time, which I guess is not the intended effect?

[HD] Irina Slutskaya - 2002 Worlds FS - Tosca

Irina Slutskaya / Ирина Слуцкая / イリーナ・スルツカヤ2002 World Figure Skating Championships, Ladies Free Skating, Nagano, Japan, March 23 20022002年世界フィギュアスケート選手権 女子...

youtu.be

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Still wondering WTF this was:

Dick Button would say “arm flaillings”

Lol

The free programs of both Michelle and Irina that year were my least favorite free programs of both of theirs ever.

 

[muffinplus]

Dick Button would say “arm flailings”

Lol

The free programs of both Michelle and Irina that year were my least favorite free programs of both of theirs ever.

"I just got out of bed and I'm having a bad hair day"

 

[syzygy]

This was 18 years ago, you'd think by now she would have gotten over it. It's not like she got last at regionals. She got silver at the Olympics.

She has enough salt for the ocean, jeez.

 

[mjb52]

Isn't this all part of what makes the sport fun though, the grudges/the what might have beens and so forth? I've only JUST gotten over '94 pairs mostly because I'm too old to care anymore not because I don't still think M & D should have won.

 

[tony]

Ignore. Mis-read.

 

[LarrySK8]

Irina's Tosca = "The Migraine Program."

 

[Excidra]

I think Irina thinking her Tosca program is amazing / genius is worse than her thinking she should have won gold TBH

Let's see you create a figure skating program filled with intericate moves including 3/3s and we'll be the ones judging you. I am willing to bet you will not come close to anything Irina can do on the ice.

If she thinks her program was a master piece she has the right to feel that way.

You can judge what she puts on the ice but don't knock her down for what she believes.

 

[Excidra]

BTW- the guy in the picture looks different from the guy she married when she was young. Did she divorce?

 

[Ananas Astra]

BTW- the guy in the picture looks different from the guy she married when she was young. Did she divorce?

Yep. She got divorced and remarried. Her third child is also from her new husband.

 

[aftershocks]

Still wondering WTF this was... it just makes me laugh every time, which I guess is not the intended effect?

[HD] Irina Slutskaya - 2002 Worlds FS - Tosca

Irina Slutskaya / Ирина Слуцкая / イリーナ・スルツカヤ2002 World Figure Skating Championships, Ladies Free Skating, Nagano, Japan, March 23 20022002年世界フィギュアスケート選手権 女子...

youtu.be

Irina was visibly nervous and tentative on the jumps, but she managed to pull out a fairly clean program. There was nothing special or exciting about her skating or the performance though. The crowd was certainly effusive in their clapping and cheering response, so Irina thinking they were against her is all in her head. She started out fairly well, but she was holding back throughout as if fearful of making a mistake. The ending arm flailing was of course OTT. I suppose it was partly due to relief she'd gotten through the program.

The free programs of both Michelle and Irina that year were my least favorite free programs of both of theirs ever.

I had to look it up to recall what fp Michelle skated to. Her Fields of Gold exhibition that season was so iconic and memorable, it overshadowed the Scheherazade fp. Sarah Kawagara choreographed the latter, which was okay, but not MK's best program ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_BFYZPuqEA

MK probably should have stayed patiently that season with the more adventurous and experimental Miraculous Mandarin, choreographed by her future brother-in-law, Peter Oppegard. I think it was choreographed for the previous season's GPF? Or else the 2001 GPF? MK ended up using Song of the Black Swan for the remainder of 2000-2001. Part of the reason for dropping MM is apparently because it was not well-received, but with continued development, it really could have been something special. I suppose it was too different and challenging for some fans and officials, so MK and her team caved to the critiques and went with something more safe and pedestrian. I guess MK had two free programs for the GPF (when she first debuted MM) due to the format of the GPF series at the time. She originally had revived East of Eden for her 2001-2002 sp, but then she switched to the gorgeously choreographed Rachmaninoff medley that she'd skated to in 1998.

Irina had better programs in 2000-2001, the season when she'd improved some of the aesthetics of her skating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Au7ZvpO2E Sarah's program
Sarah under-rotated the first jump in her first 3-combo, and she under-rotated both triples in her second 3-combo. Meanwhile, Sandra B and Scott H are going crazy with praise in the broadcast booth. To Sarah's credit, she skated with a sense of freedom and delight, so she met the moment. Seemingly it was a boon for her to not be carrying a lot of pressure after her 4th place finish in the sp. Sarah's skating talent overall was good, not great. She was pleasing to watch, and she had a gorgeous free leg position in her layback spins, as did her sister, Emily. It's still rather strange that she won Olympic gold without ever winning a U.S. National title.

It's rather interesting how the skating community over-responds to technical feats that aren't necessarily performed well. Meanwhile, short shrift is often given to aesthetic and creative risk-taking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JgjgI2IBmk MK's Miraculous Mandarin debut at GPF

MK tended to have trouble landing 3/3s consistently, but she did when she needed them most at 2000 and 2001 Worlds. The Miraculous Mandarin program was difficult technically and thematically to skate to. They needed to further develop it, instead of dropping it. Peter Oppegard was good at creating dramatic storylines in his choreography (witness 1997's The Sorcerer's Apprentice for Stiegler/Zimmerman). Karen Kwan has done some wonderful choreographic work as well. Karen worked with MK, Scott Williams, and Morozov on the Concierto de Aranguez program for MK in 2002-2003. That season MK came back to win Worlds again (it would be her last gold medal at the World championships).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvp96fqlRTk (I love this pairs program)

 

[Aerobicidal]

Let's see you create a figure skating program filled with intericate moves including 3/3s and we'll be the ones judging you.

If this said 4/3s instead of 3/3s I would have thought it was either written by Gleikhengauz or Tutberidze.

Somewhere Plushenko has the urge to throw shade and doesn't know why.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

To Sarah's credit, she skated with a sense of freedom and delight, so she met the moment. Seemingly it was a boon for her to not be carrying a lot of pressure after her 4th place finish in the sp. Sarah's skating talent overall was good, not great. She was pleasing to watch, and she had a gorgeous free leg position in her layback spins, as did her sister, Emily. It's still rather strange that she won Olympic gold without ever winning a U.S. National title.

And to me thats what The Olys are ALL about

Skating with abandon and awe.

The Olys is where I like seeing someone win who is not generally part of the conversation. Its The Olys!!!! Magic baby!

And yes in those days when you are in 4th after the SP you can just go for it with not that much pressure. When you are the favorites and you are both in 1st and 2nd place thats where the nervers nerves nerves happen... and skating conservatively comes in.... NOT what The Olys is about!!!

Its a whole different ballgame there! And I love it!!!!!!

 

[overedge]

I just noticed that this story is from RT (Russia Today) which is basically a state propaganda outlet. So of course the story is going to be spun as the eville West unfairly holding down a fantastic Russian athlete. Even if she had said "I was happy to win silver" RT would find a way to present it as "Irina deserved gold"

But even with her own words, I don't know why she thought she "wouldn't be allowed to win". She won gold or silver at pretty much every competition she entered from 1999 onward, so it wasn't like the judges had a pattern of not rewarding her.

 

[alchemy void]

Dick Button would say “arm flaillings”

Lol

The free programs of both Michelle and Irina that year were my least favorite free programs of both of theirs ever.

Ironically, on several different occasions Button praised Slutskaya's Tosca program and considered it the best thing she ever did.

I still like that odd "Ballet For Carolyn Carlson" LP she had in 99, but we all agree the fortune teller program was easily the best long program she ever had, right?

I also have to admit the main reason I posted in this thread was to maintain two Slutskaya threads on the front page of GSD. in 2020.

 

[lala]

So many angry Americans This is not propaganda. They really believed that.

In 2002 Irina received a real gold medal in Russia. It was a copy of the origial.
https://lenta.ru/news/2002/03/11/slutskaya/google translate

"At a festive ceremony in the Moscow department store GUM, the award of the highest dignity to the Russian figure skater was presented by the famous Ural politician, entrepreneur and ideologist of the May movement Anton Bakov.

At the XIX Winter Olympic Games, Slutskaya took second place in the individual program, but, according to most experts and fans, she was more worthy of "gold" than the American Sarah Hughes." -google translate

Almost this happened with Plushenko case in 2010 . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGpv29rHzTU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doJkdG-0HVs - People's medal for Evgeni Plushenko . The difference was he didn't receiev it. The medal went to a museum.

 

[alchemy void]

So many angry Americans This is not propaganda. They really believed that.

My reaction to this.

Somehow Robin manages to be more over-the-top than I remembered.

If Slutskaya skated freely with 6 big, clean triples, then yes, she deserved gold. But that LP performance was just as tight (if not more) than Kwan. Not to mention the flip was very shaky, the second lutz just OK, and the 3S+2Lo+1Eu+2S not cute. Silver is a fair result and bronze is definitely justifiable.

 

[lala]

My reaction to this.

Somehow Robin manages to be more over-the-top than I remembered. :ROFL:

If Slutskaya skated freely with 6 big, clean triples, then yes, she deserved gold. But that LP performance was just as tight (if not more) than Kwan. Not to mention the flip was very shaky, the second lutz just OK, and the 3S+2Lo+1Eu+2S not cute. Silver is a fair result and bronze is definitely justifiable.

I don't argue just showed the other side.

 

[overedge]

Politician giving an athlete a "copy" of a medal that they didn't win in the actual competition = propaganda.

 

[lala]

Politician giving an athlete a "copy" of a medal that they didn't win in the actual competition = propaganda.

maybe..but for ex Plushenko's medal idea came from the citizens you can see it in the video..The people gave their own gold necklace to the joint...This is typical Russian I believe...

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

I remember seeing the 2001 World Championships in person. The general consensus from spectators around me was that with Michelle, you felt the mood she was creating. With Irina, you saw the tricks.

Without her usual jump content, Slutskaja seemed flat and tense in the free skate at Salt Lake. I can understand why the judges went with Hughes.

 

[Marco]

I thought it was unwise for Michelle to attempt to duplicate in 02 the magic she had with that SP from 98. The magic just was no longer there; The performance was flat, IMO. I would've given the SP win to Irina. Heck, I think even Sasha deserved at least 2nd place for her gorgeous performance in that segment.

Well Michelle wasn't going to (and didn't) win the Olympics with the short, the key really was to place as high as possible, and it worked. That program allowed her to showcase every single element. Please re-watch. Aside from the flip, each element was actually very well done, even by her standards.

Irina looked clean to the naked eye but my previous post raised some areas on which the judges might have dinged her. For me anyways, there is no argument that Michelle would win the second mark (and by at least 0.2 if it were up to me) even if the 'magic' wasn't there the way it was at 1998 Nationals.

 

[Coco]

I also think that the Olympic SP was the wrong place to use the 1 foot step sequence. On the whole, it was a bit shallow and while impressive, by default it doesn't let you show turns on the other foot.

 

[caseyedwards]

Her loss is because Hughes Was over-scored tremendously

 

[giselle23]

Her loss is because Hughes Was over-scored tremendously

Sarah skated clean and that counted for a lot under 6.0. URs and flutzes were inconsistently penalized under the old system (and were even ignored under the IJS in some instances at the Olympics in 2014). If she was a bit over-scored, especially on the second mark, I still think there should be no argument that she won the long program. Irina's long program was so bad. Sloppy jumping and truly awful face-rubbing "drama" at the end. Michelle's program was better but she was doomed by the fall.

 

[skateboy]

Irina is nuts.

 

[Brenda_Bottems]

Irina is nuts.

Succinct and accurate.

-BB

 

[Coco]

I have to say, I love Sarah's program and her double axel. I put it up there with Stolbova's.

The music is divine and rarely used.

Also, the changes she and Robin made between Nationals and the Olympics made a significant positive impact.