events

The Road to Moscow, Part 2

Irina Slutskaya Photo by Michelle Harvath

(3/2/05) — Russian Irina Slutskaya didn't look outstanding at the European Championships in Torino, Italy, but she looked good enough to the judges.

Slutskaya won the event, giving her a perfect record for the season – the only lady who can make that claim. All in all, not bad for someone who was in and out of the hospital last season and is still on medication.

Slutskaya suffers from vasculitis, an inflammation of the heart lining, for which she takes various medications. After taking nearly all of last season off, many wondered if the Russian would ever be able to regain her world-class form. Until Europeans, it seemed her illness was in the past and she had answered all the questions.

But not so fast.

“I missed last season and it is still hard for me. I need a bit of rest,” Slutskaya said following her victory in Italy. “A couple months ago I started feeling not so good. My dosage became bigger and I feel it. I get tired faster. Sometimes I am shaking because the pills are really strong.”

This year's long season, after what amounted to a void season last year, may have finally caught up with Slutskaya in Torino. She has competed in six major competitions this season, more than any top-level skater, four of which have been held since the beginning of December. What's more, those four most recent competitions – the Marshalls World Cup of Figure Skating, the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, the Russian National Championships and the European Championships – have spanned three continents.

At Europeans, Slutskaya's three-triple free skate was sharply criticized. Still, when combined with the short program, her scores easily placed her ahead of defending champion Julia Sebestyen.

“I was training really well. I skated very good at other competitions,” Slutskaya said. “It's sport. You can't always skate great. Sometimes you are up; sometimes you are down. Sometimes you have mistakes and have to work more.”

The win gave Slutskaya her sixth European title, equaling the record set by skating legend Sonja Henie and later matched by Katarina Witt.

“When I started out, I thought it would be nice if I won maybe just once,” she said. “I wouldn't even suspect that 10 years later I would become six-times champion.”

World Championships on the Horizon
Slutskaya was 16 years old when she competed in her first World Championship in 1995 in Birmingham, England. She placed seventh in the event and remembers it like it was yesterday.

“In 1995 I was looking up at everyone,” she said. “Now I look around and they are really young. Ten years ago I was the same age. I know how hard it was and I know how hard it is for me now. When you are first it is harder. To go somewhere is easy.”

Last year's World Championships were Slutskaya's first since being diagnosed with the heart condition. Prior to the competition she was also suffering from a bout of the flu and bronchitis. As a result, she entered the competition in Dortmund, Germany, in poor shape and finished ninth overall.

But she was glad to be back in competition.

“I missed the competition atmosphere; I missed it very much,” she said during a teleconference March 1. “The whole season, all year you are in shape. You are feeling great; you are feeling strong, you are feeling energy. [But] when you are sick you are just sitting in the hospital. You can't do anything you are feeling so bad. Everything hurts. I need this feeling that you are staying alive. You are in shape.”

This year, when Slutskaya has been on, she has been awesome. Her short program to music by Shostakovich, which she performs in an innovative costume that features trousers, is hard to beat. And her free skate to some jazzy piano tunes is choreographed to include up to seven triple jumps and three combinations – including two triple-triples.

Now she will carry all of her talent to one more competition, where the expectations will place an even heavier load on her already exhausted frame. This year's World Championships will take place in Moscow, Russia, Slutskaya's native city.

Slutskaya is excited about competing in her hometown, and like all the competitors, she is taking aim at all the top skaters, including Michelle Kwan, who finished third at last year's Worlds. Slutskaya and Kwan have developed a friendship and mutual admiration for each other over the years. She even remembers the first time competing against Kwan in December 1993 at the 1994 World Junior Championships in Colorado Springs.

“I remember the first time to the States,” she said. “I saw the girls, and thought, “This girl is really good,” and I tried to talk with her.

“I had black skates on because in Russia it was a problem. And she (Kwan) looks at me and said, ‘Wow. You have black skates. How do you skate there?' It was really funny.”

Slutskaya added that both she and Kwan have of course changed over the years.

“I think we have grown more professional, stronger, more powerful, smarter,” she said.

And soon enough she will find out, along with the rest of the world, whether her talent and motivation will prove enough to overcome a long and tiring season and earn her another World title.

Next stop: It seems the endless work that goes into staying on top is beginning to wear on Evgeny Plushenko. The world's top skater wanted to lighten his schedule this year but instead was required to take an unexpected trip to China when all he wanted was some rest. Still he went, and he won, and now he's looking to add another World title to his resume in Moscow.