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Please, share your thoughts on this:
https://www.rt.com/sport/497286-irina-slutskaya-salt-lake-games/
https://www.rt.com/sport/497286-irina-slutskaya-salt-lake-games/
Irina Slutskaya and Olympics 2002
- Thread starter NadezhdaNadya
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- Dec 22, 2017
Link of her performance: https://youtu.be/tHfM9iptYig
Can someone list her jumps, please? I think her second jumping pass is some very weird sequence that includes half loop?
Can someone list her jumps, please? I think her second jumping pass is some very weird sequence that includes half loop?
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- Jan 27, 2014
3Lz+2Lo
3S+2Lo+1Eu+2S
3Lz
3Lo
3F (hand)
2A
3T
3S+2Lo+1Eu+2S
3Lz
3Lo
3F (hand)
2A
3T
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- Jan 25, 2013
Yeah, I was like - um she made a ton of errors. The fact that 6 judges had tied her with Hughes on the technical mark was a gift. Many of her jumping passes had issues (3Z+2L was clean but it looked like a mistake as she had obviously hoped it to be a 3Z+3L, 3S+2L+half loop (really, more like a stepout IMO)+2S, 3F was a nose dive.
I think the artistic scores were a bit high for Hughes but she was flawless and it was a beautiful skate. Slutskaya was slow and very cautious and you see her thinking - I can't imagine the emotions she was going through in that skate, knowing it wasn't her best. Even at the end, she knew. It wasn't a winning program or a winning reaction.
Sorry Irina, you were not robbed of gold. Sure Hughes had underrotations on her 3-3 jumps but at least she went for them and they're still better than rotated than triples turned to doubles. Irina had two chances to include a 3-3 combination (which she was capable of doing) and copped out of each one, whereas Hughes went for broke. Had Irina done a 3S+3L, I think she would have had it. But she held back - not just on the jumps but the program itself. Irina needs to watch hers and Sarah's performances side by side because IMO, it wasn't even close.
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Thank you.
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- Dec 22, 2017
Yes, I am really wondering was it a step out or a half loop?
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- Jan 25, 2013
It really did look like a stepout. As far as I recall, Irina did not plan that. She didn't do half-loop 3S combinations. I'm thinking she was prepping to do a 3S+3L, doubled out on the loop, but was overrotated. It might have been better to have just done a 3S+2L securely, because it was definitely awkwardness/a visible error doing the series of jumps like that.
Jumps aside though it was the lack of her usual attack that led to the lower artistic scores and the loss of the gold. Had she skated with her usual speed and dramatic flair she would have beat Sarah, even with the jump issues.
P.s. not a fan of the NBC commentary - obviously pro-US and no Scott, she didn't 2-foot her solo 3Z. But I have to agree with them saying she skated slowly and tentatively. She was taking a breath before many of her big ticket elements but ones that she was confident with like her 3L and 2A where she didn't overthink it were lovely.
I appreciate the rest of the article though and her opening up about the aftermath of the Olympics. It's hard being an athlete - especially one expected to win. While it was Sarah's Cinderalla story, I can't forget that it was a nightmare for Kwan and Slutskaya who had a bad competition at the worst time. Same with Slutskaya in 2006 - had she managed to overcome the pressure she could have easily won there. Or if she had chosen to play it safe you needed to do it like Arakawa, making the rest of the program confident and beautiful.
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- Feb 17, 2010
All of the top 3 from the SP didn't skate particularly well. Even after Sarah skated and did her two 3-3s, I think everyone believed the gold would go to one of the skaters that followed. Irina did not perform better than Sarah, although given her reputation it's likely she would have emerged victorious had the event been held in any other country. I was sad for both Michelle and Irina because either would have been a worthy champion, but the pressure of the moment caused the Olympic title to slip away.
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- Jan 19, 2005
What's with the article claiming she had "immaculate skating" at the 2002 Olympics????
Maybe the SP, but certainly not the LP.
My recollection of Irina Slutskaya was that if she started to have problems, it usually kept getting worse.
Sometimes it seemed like she was changing her program on the fly. And she would appear to get frantic.
It's too bad, but she could be her own worst enemy in that way.
If she had skated a clean LP in 2002 and 2006, she could be 2 time OGM.
If she had skated a clean LP at 2000 and 2001 Worlds, she would have another 2 World Titles.
It's not even that she had disasterous LP's at those competitions.
But the little problems kept multiplying throught the programs.
Also....
I always had the impression that Irina was more upset at being 2nd in the SP than the LP.
If she had been 1st in the SP, she would have been the OGM (all other things being equal).
Maybe the SP, but certainly not the LP.
My recollection of Irina Slutskaya was that if she started to have problems, it usually kept getting worse.
Sometimes it seemed like she was changing her program on the fly. And she would appear to get frantic.
It's too bad, but she could be her own worst enemy in that way.
If she had skated a clean LP in 2002 and 2006, she could be 2 time OGM.
If she had skated a clean LP at 2000 and 2001 Worlds, she would have another 2 World Titles.
It's not even that she had disasterous LP's at those competitions.
But the little problems kept multiplying throught the programs.
Also....
I always had the impression that Irina was more upset at being 2nd in the SP than the LP.
If she had been 1st in the SP, she would have been the OGM (all other things being equal).
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- Jan 25, 2013
Let's give Sarah some credit - had she not skated as well as she did, Irina would have the OGM. And to the same point - had Irina skated better she would have beaten Sarah It wasn't meddling or anything. Sarah skated early and the judges left room for Michelle and Irina and neither delivered. The FS belonged to Sarah hands down, and Irina's FS did deserve to beat Michelle. Ironically, it's because of Irina that Michelle didn't win gold because had she placed lower than Michelle (they were split 5-4 IIRC), Kwan would have won, with Hughes second and Irina third. Either way - neither deserved to be placed higher than Hughes and the result is still an American win. If anything, the judges awarded the silver for Irina because the US could have gone 1-2 if one more judge flipped to Kwan instead of Slutskaya.
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- Jan 19, 2005
But it was even more than Sarah having by far her best performance ever at just the righ moment.
Everything else had to fall into place in such a way that would allow her to vault from 4th to 1st.
In an interview from last year she shared pretty much the same thoughts about 2006 also.
She has always been very competitive, always go for gold, so i can understand her position on how the Olympics went.
I do believe there is also some truth to it, Figure Skating being so US centric at the time because of the sponsors, so there was more push for the americans to get the medals, and other skaters were completely ignored even in spite of often clean stronger performances. (for me Fumie Suguri was even more robbed than Irina).
That said looking back, Irina's free skate both in 2002 and 2006 didn't age all that well, there were mistakes.
2010 is still hard to digest for me personally, having rewatched the event multiple times all these years.
It's hard to understand where exactly Lysacek won.
You watch his free skate and Johnny Weir's FS side by side and i really don't understand where that 20 points gap comes from.
Packaging and quality of skating Weir, Takahashi, Lambiel, Chan all skate better than Lysacek: deeper edges, better posture, more skating on one foot. While technically Lysacek programs were not the most difficult.
Yes Lysacek had difficult entries but they weren't matched with the music at all, the positions weren't great and not held: take his catchfoot or his back spiral for example.
What's even more surprising is that came from Frank Carroll who kept saying for many years how figure skating shouldn't be about counting beans and that's what i feel watching Evan's performance, a lot of things done just to get the points, and for a Nichol program that was very conservative and not particularly original especially compared to the others.
She has always been very competitive, always go for gold, so i can understand her position on how the Olympics went.
I do believe there is also some truth to it, Figure Skating being so US centric at the time because of the sponsors, so there was more push for the americans to get the medals, and other skaters were completely ignored even in spite of often clean stronger performances. (for me Fumie Suguri was even more robbed than Irina).
That said looking back, Irina's free skate both in 2002 and 2006 didn't age all that well, there were mistakes.
2010 is still hard to digest for me personally, having rewatched the event multiple times all these years.
It's hard to understand where exactly Lysacek won.
You watch his free skate and Johnny Weir's FS side by side and i really don't understand where that 20 points gap comes from.
Packaging and quality of skating Weir, Takahashi, Lambiel, Chan all skate better than Lysacek: deeper edges, better posture, more skating on one foot. While technically Lysacek programs were not the most difficult.
Yes Lysacek had difficult entries but they weren't matched with the music at all, the positions weren't great and not held: take his catchfoot or his back spiral for example.
What's even more surprising is that came from Frank Carroll who kept saying for many years how figure skating shouldn't be about counting beans and that's what i feel watching Evan's performance, a lot of things done just to get the points, and for a Nichol program that was very conservative and not particularly original especially compared to the others.
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Slutskaya was a dominant female Russian skater for about a decade and Russia had a few other female single skaters who could compete internationally. Because of this situation, Putin invested heavily on nurturing the next generation of figure skaters who could make the country proud. Just in time for Sochi, Yulia Lipnitskaya emerged dramatically in this environment, followed by the quad generation.
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- Feb 17, 2010
I think the judges had both Irina and Sarah ahead of Kwan 6-3, so the US judge alone (who put Irina ahead of Michelle) could not have changed the final ranking of the top 3. I really question how any judge could put Kwan ahead of either of the other two, and that may have added to Irina's frustration with the result (not to mention the problems with the pairs judging that cast a shadow over the whole event).
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- Oct 27, 2019
I saw this live. No way did Irina deserve gold. I would hesitate to even give her silver. She was a mess in the LP. She can say she was robbed in the SP, but being there and seeing it in person, Kwan really did have the overall better skate in the SP.
Sarah obviously had the skate of her life in the LP. Not the result most fans wanted, but she had nothing to lose and she went for it. The Olympics usually rewards the young, energetic skaters that aren’t feeling the pressure that the favorites are. Sarah took advantage of Kwan and Irina’s pressure.
Sarah obviously had the skate of her life in the LP. Not the result most fans wanted, but she had nothing to lose and she went for it. The Olympics usually rewards the young, energetic skaters that aren’t feeling the pressure that the favorites are. Sarah took advantage of Kwan and Irina’s pressure.
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If, and it's an if, Irina had skated as she had at the WC in 2005 she could have won. That was such a wonderful skate. But she didn't. If, and again it's an if, Irina would have been first at the SP at the Olympics in 2002, she may have won the Gold. Not because of her LP but because of how the system worked at the time. Would I rather have seen Michelle or Irina win rather then Sarah? Yes, because I am and was a fan of them both and I hardly remember Sarah except for that one skate (sorry). But Sarah had the best LP of the competition, and won deservedly. No question. Perhaps Irina could have won if she had been placed first at the SP. But it didn't happen, and Sarah skated lights out at the LP. Thrashergurl has a big point here.
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- Jun 21, 2003
Alas, the plan failed miserably. Interest and sponsorship in the U.S. took a nosedive after the 2002 Olympics from which they never recovered.
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What might have been with Gracie...
I'd say that with Alysa Liu, there may be another attempt but the Russian girls and the interest there that they won't want to upset will make it hard.
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