| | VIENNA, Austria--While Michelle Kwan is considered nearly a lock to win the U.S. Figure Skating Championships for the fourth time next week, the competition is much tighter at the European Championship.
Indeed, it figures to be a toss-up between two Russians with different styles and lifestyles.
Irina Slutskaya is barely out of her teens, married and has a 110-pound stuffed dog in her hall.
Maria Butyrskaya, 27, needs a more lively bodyguard - her car was blown up in Moscow after she became the oldest woman's world champion.
Both have one thing in common. They each own a victory over Kwan in major championships over the past year.
Slutskaya and Butyrskaya have won the last four European titles, splitting them two each. However, Slutskaya failed to make the Russian team last year and nearly quit the sport.
She returned this year with renewed motivation. She beat Kwan at the Grand Prix finals in Lyon last month after beating Butyrskaya for the Russian title.
"I'm a completely different skater than I was last year," Slutskaya said. "I'm a new person."
At the Grand Prix event in Lyon, France, she landed two triple-triple combinations, including a triple lutz-triple loop, a first for women in competition. Slimmed down, more sure of herself after her marriage, Slutskaya relies on her strong technique.
Butyrskaya, meanwhile, is more of an artist. Yes, she landed seven triple jumps in winning worlds, but she emphasizes the artistic quality in her current routine, to "Swan Lake".
Slutskaya and Butyrskaya will likely battle for the European title, with only a third Russian, Victoria Volchkova, challenging them.
Volchkova came in third in the Russian championships to earn her spot, pushing last year's silver medalist, Julia Soldatova, off the team.
The Russian men are likely to get another sweep, as they did in 1998 and 1999.
Alexei Yagudin won the last two years, but recently has been plagued by problems on and off the ice. After winning the world championship for the second time, he was kicked off an exhibition tour for inappropriate behavior stemming from a drinking problem.
Then he lost the national title to Evgeny Plushenko and missed the Grand Prix final due to boot and foot problems.
Now, a reported hand injury might further delay his comeback, although he is entered in the European meet.
He will have to be in top form to beat Plushenko, who has been brilliant throughout the season.
Plushenko has consistently landed a quadruple jump in combinations, including a quad-triple-double that he has done in the last three competitions.
Yagudin's strong card is the style with which he does all his triple jumps, and a more powerful quad.
The third Russian, Alexander Abt, returns to Europeans after winning a bronze in 1998 as a substitute behind Yagudin and Plushenko.
The Russians have swept all the titles in Europe for the past three years, but the end of that streak will likely happen in Vienna.
World ice dance champions Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov are out for the season and the title will probably go to Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France, although Anissina is originally from Moscow.
The current Russian champions, Anissina's former partner Ilia Averbukh and Irina Lobacheva, will have a hard time getting a medal, which causes worries in the Russian ice dance camp.
The situation in pairs is not as dire. The Russians have the current world champions, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, but they have had their troubles this season, quarreling off the ice and making major mistakes on the ice.
Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov won last year's European title in a surprise after Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze dropped out because of illness and could retain the title.
The French pair of Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis, two-time bronze medalists, look to do better, but will be hard-pressed to pass the Russians. | |
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