Russian rarity

Country struggles to keep skaters, coaches at home

Alexei Yagudin performs a jump during a training session. AP

MOSCOW (AP) -- Behind the high walls of a former Soviet sports camp, the vaunted Russian figure skating machine is at work.

A world-renowned trainer, famed for the number of athletes she has coached to gold medals, watches in a long fur coat as a potential Olympian faultlessly lands a quadruple jump, pumping the air with his fist.

They share the rink with another strong Olympic contender, whose coach pushes him to practice a difficult jump "still one more time."

More than any other country, Russia knows what it takes to produce figure skating champions. But, increasingly, it isn't being done at home, making this sort of scene a rarity.

Many of Russia's top figure skating coaches have packed up and left, eager to work under better conditions in the West. Top skaters follow, complaining that rinks at home, even in this Olympic training camp in the outskirts of Moscow, have bad ice. It's rarely groomed and shared by too many skaters.

The two Olympians training in the Novogorsk rink were there only temporarily: Most of the time, they train in the United States. They were simply home for the holidays.

State interest in the sport also seems to be waning. The Russian Figure Skating Federation says too little attention is paid to the country's current and future skating stars. Even sports fans are suffering: If they want to watch international competitions, they must stay up late; state-run TV rarely broadcasts the events before 11 p.m.

However, if Russia's competitors are counting on these woes to help them in next month's Olympics, they will probably be disappointed.

Russian skaters are heading to Salt Lake City with strong prospects for at least two gold medals, possibly three. Russia remains at the top of the game -- it is the prospects for future success that causes concern.

"We have a very strong tradition," said coach Tamara Moskvina, who divides her time between St. Petersburg and Hackensack, N.J., training Russia's best hope for an Olympic gold in pairs, Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. "We have a very strong school, educated coaches and disciplined skaters. But ours is a system in transition."

At least one U.S. figure skating coach discounts all Russian pessimism.

"If you ask me, I think for whatever reason ... the quality of skater coming from Russia is better than ever," said Craig Maurizi, who once worked with 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski. "I don't see change on the horizon."

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union 10 years ago, about 200 figure skating coaches have left to work in other countries, usually taking their skaters with them. Most are still skating for Russia, but their absence deprives younger Russians of an opportunity to train with -- or at least watch firsthand and emulate -- the best.

"It is our biggest problem. If we are not going to have trainers, we are not going to have results," said Valentin Piseyev, president of the federation.

That would be a blow to Russia, where skating is not only a national pastime but a source of national pride.

In the 1998 Nagano Games, Russia won gold in the men's pairs and ice dance, failing to win a medal only in the U.S.-dominated women's event. That gave Russia a third of its nine gold medals overall, and helped it to finish third in the medals count.

This year, the men's title should be contested between Russian rivals Alexei Yagudin and Yevgeny Plushchenko, reminiscent of the "Battle of the Brians" between the United States' Brian Boitano and Canada's Brian Orser in 1988. U.S. favorite Michelle Kwan faces stiff competition for the gold from two countrywomen and two Russians, Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya. Russia also has strong contenders in pairs.

But while the Russians easily swept the European championships, they won only one gold medal at the worlds (Plushchenko) and took only two at the Grand Prix event this year -- not good by usual Russian standards.

Yagudin, who trains under the legendary Tatiana Tarasova, already speaks of Russia's dominance in the past tense, sensing it ended with the 1999 world championships, when Russia won the gold in all four categories.

"Then it was just Russia," Yagudin said after stepping off the ice and weaving his way through a ballet room -- filled with a hockey team next up on the rink -- to find a quiet place to talk. "Now Russia is not alone at the top. It is like the stock market, a country has ups and downs."

Piseyev complained that numerous rinks have deteriorated from lack of funding. Other rinks have closed and new ones are a rarity.

Even nature isn't helping, Piseyev said. Last year was a relatively warm winter, so the nation's outdoor rinks, still far more common than indoor spaces, suffered. Parents don't take their children skating and future champions aren't introduced to the sport.

But every year, the federation finds talented children and makes money available to support them.

"I still believe there will be the same quality and the same results in the future," Moskvina said. "But who knows?"

 

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