| Shen and Zhao make history for China 20.03.2002 In contrary to the wonderful short program, the skaters made a lot of mistakes in the free skate but you couldn't complain about the lack of drama. After Xue Shen fell on the triple toe and Hongboa Zhao singled the double axel, the door was open. However the rivals made even more mistakes. Maxim Marinin fell on the triple toe, while Kyoko Ina couldn't hold on to the throw triple salchow. It really is so ironic that the Chinese who produced floorless performences in 1999 and 2001 had to settle for silver and bronze and here they get gold, after one of the worse skates from them for a very long time. They had the opportunity to easily get gold in 2000 because Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze weren't there but they made a lot of mistakes to finish second behind Petrova and Tikhonov. This time everybody had a couple of floors and the amazing quality of the elements combined with improved presentation gave them easily the title they've been wanting to get for so long. Xue Shen and Hongboa Zhao became the first ever Chinese Pair Champions. So far China only had gold in the ladies thanks to Lu Chen. And looking at how the younger Chinese couples performed, you can be sure to see more medals for this country in the future. Pairs - Free Program Review Yagudin wins the short with ease 20.03.2002 Alexei Yagudin of Russia looks unbeatable. His was perfect apart from slight lean on the triple lutz. The judges were very generous, giving him two sixes. One judge, Yury Kliushnikov of Ukraine, awarded Alexei with two of them. The level of the mens short was very high. As I alerady mentioned, eight clean quads were performed (six toes and two sals) and there were many good skates. Looking at the results even some of the ones who didn't qualify for the free went clean. Alexei was followed by Alexander Abt, Takeshi Honda and Timothy Goebel. Michael Weiss finished down in 5th after he double footed his quad/triple combination. At this point, after easily winning the short and the qualification, Yagudin should be the one to take the gold medal home. Nevertheless the battle for silver and bronze will be very exciting as the two remaining medal could be won by Abt, Honda, Goebel, Weiss and even Li. I just can't wait to see the free program. We're in for a lot of drama, that's for sure. Men - Short Program Review It turned out that I was wrong 20.03.2002 2002 World Championships may lack in some big names but the level of competition is very high anyway. In the Men's Short there were eight clean quads executed. The level of the competition was very high, the same goes for the pairs. There were some mistakes in the free program but in the short most of the couples went clean. The event is also very exciting because it gives the opportunity for young athletes to appear on the scene. The old campaigners turned pro and enabled the likes of Jennifer Kirk or Jeffrey Buttle to compete here. Both won Four Continents this year and both are in a great form at their first Worlds. Hopefully the events to come will be even more exciting. Worlds looking to be a lackluster competition 13.03.2002 It is usual for skaters to finish their careers after olympics. As a result of that, it is common for the World Championships, which are right after the Games, to lack in big stars. However this year, the number of withdrawals has just been overwhelming. Let's sum it up. Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, Sale/Pelletier, Anissina/Peizerat, Fusar-Poli/Margaglio, Todd Eldredge, Elvis Stojko, Sarah Hughes. Plushenko also considers withdrawing. And that were just the big names who decided to turn pro or take some time off. But there is also a lot other skaters who had withdrawn from the competition due to injury or some other reasons. Emanuel Sandhu and Sarah Meier are on of the injured. The pairs who finished in 15th, 17th, 18th and 19th at the Olympics, will not compete in Nagano. Vanessa Gusmeroli decided to make a break to get her breath back after the worst season she ever had. Mojca Kopac has just returned after a horrible injury and yet she pulls out again. Maurizio Medellin of Mexico, Gheorghe Chiper of Romania and Angelo Dolfini of Italy also won't make the trip to Japan. So not only the top level skaters will be the ones to miss. Hugentoblers, the dance team from Switzerland are the next competitors who stay home. The Worlds look to be a very dissapointing competition, lacking in many different skaters. If I bought a ticket for them three months ago, I would be shooting myself in the head now. Goodbye Elvis 13.03.2002 Elvis Stojko changed his mind and decided to finish his competetive career before the 2002 World Championships. He finished down in dissapointing 8th in Salt Lake City, two places higher than at last year's Worlds. The numbers speak for themselves: Elvis' era has ended. Nevertheless he had a chance for a medal after Eldredge has withdrawn and it was possible that Plushenko will pull out as well. Elvis was a first man to land a quad-triple combo. However it was the quad that deserted him recently and gave him really a hard time. I am sure that just as Todd Eldredge, Elvis will be remembered for being a World champion and a great skater over the years, not for his latest dissapointments. Two pairs decide to call it a day 09.03.2002 Two completely different teams, two completely different stories. Danielle and Steve Hartsell, the brother and sister team, decided to finish their partnership which was plagued with injuries. They badly wanted to take part in 2002 Olympics however they had to pull out of the Nationals because of Steve's injury. Now Danielle wil become a coach, while Steve is looking for a new partner. You can find the whole story at: www.hartsells.com The story of Tiffany Sfikas and Andrew Seabrook is completely different. Tiffany had to fight her way to obtain the British residency, which enabled her to compete for Great Britain with Andrew as she originally comes from USA. After three years of training she finally managed to get it and they took part in their first international competition, the Europeans, placing 10th. And now suddenly Andrew decided to quit skating. The decision came unexpexted and was very shocking. You can find their story at: www.ukpairs.com Check also my article entitled Paranoia in Great Britain which is about the situation in this country. Alternate for Hughes named 09.03.2002 The Four Continents champion Jennifer Kirk will join the US team at the 2002 World Championships. Kirk was only 5th at the US Championships however Angela Nikodinov who finished one place above her, as I previously mentioned, probably took time to recover after the death of her coach and friend Elena Tcherkasskaya. She had a very tough season and hopefully she will recuparate and come back strong next season. No motivation because of the "unfair" judging 07.03.2002 Well and again somebody decides not to participate in the upcoming World Championships. You probably remember that Barbara Fusar-Poli wasn't especially happy about their placement. After the compulsories she said to the journalists: "I have no comments! Thank you!!!". She feels that they shouldn't have been third. I don't know what was her desired placement but I can say that they were unfairly judged. With Maurizio having such a weak technique and after all the mistakes they made, they should have been out of the medals. Barbara claims that because the judging was so bad, they have no motivation and they won't go to Nagano. So now it occurs that as always most of the olympic medalists won't take part in the worlds and as always the level of this competition will be somehow dissapointing. Inner test for Polish team 06.03.2002 The Polish figure skating team was tested before the upcoming World Championships. As a result it has been decided that Poland won't send any men to Nagano. The Polish champion, Bartosz Domanski tends to suffer with his nerves. He failed to qualify for the short at Europeans (16th in his QR), landing only triple salchow and triple toe during his program. Even though Poland has got two entries for pairs, only Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek will make the trip to Nagano. Aneta Kowalska and Artur Szeliski who placed second at Polish Nationals won't go as they can't execute any throw triple jumps and still have problems with their side-by-side double axels and triple salchows. Their skating skills are not good enough, to enable them to be sent to such a prestigous competition. Another olympic medalist has withdrawn 06.03.2002 The suprising ladies gold medalist, Sarah Hughes will not compete at the 2002 World Championships in Nagano. Sarah has decided to withdraw because she didn't have enough time to prepare for the event. Since the Olympics, she has been in the centre of attention. She has been doing interviews, appearing on different tv shows and normally she would be training a couple of hours a day in order to prepare properly for such an important event. However opposing to other olympic medalists who won't appear in Nagano, Sarah doesn't want to turn pro yet. She plans to start training again in summer. The substitute for Hughes is not yet known as Angela Nikodinov who finished fourth at US Championships did not compete at Four Continents this year, probably being very dissapointed to miss the olympic team. I guess that she also took a break from competing to recover after the death of her coach and friend Elena Tcherkasskaya, who passed away because of cancer at the end of last year. If Nikodinov won't go, the spot shouldl go to Jennifer Kirk, the winner of 2002 Four Continents, who placed 5th at US Championships or Ann-Patrice McDonough who finished one place lower but won the 2002 World Junior Championsihps. Russians follow in their rivals' footsteps 03.03.2002 Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze have signed a four year contract for ice shows and just like Jamie and David, they finished their competetive career with an olympic gold medal. In Nagano they will be replaced by Viktoria Borzenkova and Andrei Chuvilyaev who placed 7th at Europeans in Lausanne earlier this year. They are only Russia's 5th couple but Julia Obertas and Alezei Sokolov who are ranked 4th in Russia can't go. Julia has competed for Ukraine with Dmitri Plamarchuk before and split up with him after the terrible accident at 2000 Worlds when Dmitri fell during the lift. If you change the country you compete for, you have to make a pause. It's one year for international competitions and two years for ISU Championships. Obertas/Sokolov have competed this season already, placing 5th at Cup of Russia and 4th at both Skate America and NHK Trophy. Next year they will be able to take part in international competitions and should make the Russian team. Japanese fans will be dissapointed 01.03.2002 Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat had said before that they will go to Nagano to say goodbye to their Japanese fans. However it seems that their plans have changed and that they are turning pro. You can understand this decision as they won by a slightest of margins (5:4 split) in Salt Lake City and it's better to turn pro as olympic champions than World silver medallists. And this could as well happen if they went to Nagano. They will be replaced by Alia Ouabdelsselam and Benjamin Delmas who placed 13th at the 2002 Europeans in January. Vanessa Gusmeroli will be also out, probably because she wants to recover after the worst season in her life, finishing 11th at Europeans and 16th at Olympics. She will be replaced by young Anne-Sophie Calvez who placed 3rd at the French Nationals. It has been also officially confirmed that Michelle Kwan will go to Nagano. She also considers staying eligible until the next olympics in Turino 2006. Canadians are out!!! 28.02.2002 Now it has been officially confirmed that Jamie Sale/David Pelletier won't appear at 2002 Worlds in Nagano. Officially "they didn't have the time to train" and they still don't know if they will compete next year. But we all know that after all the drama in Salt Lake City, they become the "poor ones" and the favourites of the crowd. They had to be offered millions of dollars for endorsments and shows already and I'm pretty sure that they will turn pro. Of course I don't have anything against it. They deserved it and I hope that their pro career will be as succesful as their eligible one! Furthermore they already won every title they possibly could, having Grand Prix Final, Four Continents, Worlds and Olympics gold medals. Emmanuel Sandhu will be also out as he is still suffering from a knee injury. This is a very wise decision. I'll hope that he will be able to recover soon and have a good next season! He will be replaced by this year's Four Continent champion - Jeffrey Buttle. Zagorska/Siudek plan to stay eligible 25.01.2002 Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek, who got married two years ago, are not going to turn pro after this season, as many would have thought. Mariusz would like to stay for the next Olympics in Turino 2006 as they were never really able to perform well at the Games. Dorota is not sure yet however she said that she will agree if her husband will try to persuade her. Zagorska/Siudek became the greatest Polish figure skaters ever, winning two silver medals at the 1999 and 2000 European Championships, as well as the bronze medal at the 1999 World Championships. It was the first medal in the history for a Polish pair at Worlds! Recently Dorota and Mariusz started to fall down in the ranks (4th at 2001 Europeans, dissapointing 7th at the 2002 Olympics) and they know that they have to start to do more difficult jumps if they want to go up to the podium again. They have been working hard on the throw triple axel and would be very happy to become the first pair in the history that landed it. They also work on throw triple loop but because it's only 60-65% consistent, they don't include it in their programs yet. They are known for one of the best lifts and once they were even invited by the ISU to show the judges how they should be executed! Many of you may be asking: "What happened at the Olympics?" The answer is quite simple. Nerves. Mariusz said that for the four years, he hasn't missed a single triple toe during a competition. He fell on it twice this year, only during practice sessions. Dorota and Mariusz have been working with the famous Polish psychologist Dr Jan Blecharz, renowned for helping Adam Malysz, the succesful Polish ski jumper. However in Salt Lake the pressure was very strong and they couldn't cope with it. In four years time Mariusz will be 34, Dorota will be 30 but they still believe that they can win their first medal at the Olympics then. Currently they are training in Chicago, preparing for the Worlds. Todd Eldredge announced officially that he will turn pro 24.02.2002 Todd ended his competetive career with a dissapointing 6th place finish in Salt Lake City. Todd lost his chance to get a medal, he wanted so badly, after bombing in the short, where he double footed his combination and fell on the triple axel. Still he was able to move up to 6th after a very good free program. Todd won't go to Nagano which means that Matt Savoie who finished 4th at US Championships will be able to join the US team for 2002 World Championships. |
| NEWS ARCHIVE 01/02 SEASON |
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| Todd Eldredge waves to the crowd after finishing his short program at 2002 Olympic Games Photo @ AP |
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| Mariusz Siudek lifts Dorota Zagorska during their free skate at the 2002 Olympic Games Photo @ AP |
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| Jamie Sale/David Pelletier perform a carry lift during their free programme at 2002 Olympics Photo @ AP |
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| Marina and Gwendal standing on the podium at the 2002 Olympics. Photo @ AP |
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| Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze perform their free program during the 2002 Olympics Photo @ AP |
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| Sarah Hughes is thrilled after executing perfectly her free program at 2002 Olympics Photo @ AP |
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| Barbara cries knowing that after Maurizio's mistake she can forget about the gold |
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| Elvis Stojko waves to the crowd after finishing his short program at 2002 Olympics. Photo@AP |
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| Alexei Yagudin jumps during his short program at 2002 Worlds. Photo @ AP |
| Shen and Zhao finally get the gold Photo @ AP |