|
ZAGREB, Croatia -- Tamara Moskvina has been part of the
Soviet and Russian glory days in figure skating for more than 40
years, both winning and coaching pairs to gold medals. Now, with Russia's skating glory fading, Moskvina thinks her
homeland can make a comeback on the ice. "In every business there are ups and downs. Right now we are
down," Moskvina said. "But we have already started to go up from
the lowest down." The former Soviet Union and Russia have combined for 95 gold
medals at the European Figure Skating Championships, with the pairs
taking the majority with 39 golds from 1965-2006, including 11
medals sweeps. But times have changed, and all the stars from the 2006 Olympics
are gone. Evgeni Plushenko is out of competition, Irina Slutskaya
just had a baby, and the ice dance and pairs gold medalists are
skating in shows. With a dearth of rising talent, Russia struggled to win two
medals at the 2007 Europeans, compared with a sweep of gold in
2006. The reasons for Russia's success were manifold, Moskvina said. "It was a combination of different criteria. The culture, the
system, political system, tradition in teaching, science, work
ethic," she said, adding she's not exactly sure what has gone
wrong. "Without one screw, sometimes the whole unit may break." Although the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, it wasn't until
after 2006 that the decline really showed. "It was because we still had the depth of the human material
and coaching material," Moskvina said. "The result was that what
grew before, grew up, we used and was harvested until 2006." But no Russian singles skater has qualified for the Grand Prix
final the last two years, where world champions Plushenko, Alexei
Yagudin and Slutskaya commonly ruled. Now the country's top individual skater is struggling to break
into the top 10 in world rankings. Russia qualified only one
singles skater in each event at the world championships. A few
years ago, it had the maximum of three per event. Moskvina mentioned the cyclical nature of life and business --
and skating. "This is normal for any corporation. Now we are in the position
of down. I can't say it is very low," she said. "Right now the
development of skaters has started. Maybe no results now, but the
results will show soon. "Now we need to develop new coaching, new material." Moskvina noted a current "boom" in skating in Russia, similar
to the United States in the 1990s when the Tonya Harding-Nancy
Kerrigan soap opera put the sport in the spotlight. "Right now it became very popular in Russia thanks to the
achievements of the Russian skaters in Olympics 2002 and 2006, and
thanks to interest the government and the public created after the
Olympics," Moskvina said. "It has resulted in TV shows, the
building of skating rinks all over the country. That increases the
popularity and the government direction to help the development of
future generations." Russia won golds in men's and pairs at both of those Olympics.
Between the Soviet Union and Russia, it has not lost an Olympic
pairs title since 1960. Now it may be back with the help of others who won
championships. Ilya Averbukh, the silver medalist in the ice dance at the 2002
Olympics with his wife, Irina Lobacheva, is an entrepreneur. He has
skating tours and a popular TV show similar to "Dancing with the
Stars" in the United States. His show airs in prime time on
Saturday nights. Skaters who had to scrounge for ice time now have hours of it by
themselves in new rinks. And coaches who left the country are coming back to Russia,
including Moskvina. She spent four years in Hackensack, N.J.,
training Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, the couple
involved in the 2002 pairs scandal after a judge admitted she was
"pressured" into voting for them. Now, Moskvina is back in St. Petersburg, and 1993 ice dance
world champion Alexander Zhulin is coaching in Moscow. It's
starting to show in the results. Russia swept the pairs and took two of three medals in ice dance
at the junior Grand Prix final last month. Although Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the
European pairs for the second time Wednesday, Russians were second
and third. Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov, who won bronze after
landing a quad throw salchow, were asked how they plan to beat the
Germans in the future. "I'm not sure what we have to do to beat another pair,"
Kawaguchi said, "but our coach knows." Their coach is Tamara Moskvina.
|
