Irina Slutskaya: “At the Turin Olympics, the placement was pure politics. Or Salt Lake City – there, an American had to win, so they could build a whole business around her, organize half-year tours.”
Russian figure skater Irina Slutskaya reflects on the political challenges and biases she faced in figure skating during her career.
original source: Championat
Irina Slutskaya, a two-time world champion and multiple-time European champion in ladies’ singles, spoke about the politicization of figure skating during her career. Here’s a translation.
“When I was in the sport, of course, I was focused only on it – on victories and on performing my programs at the highest level. In our time, even minor slips were unacceptable, let alone mistakes. Any error cost us dearly because the competition was extremely tough. We were not exactly welcomed when we came to another continent and tried to win.
Unfortunately, the entire figure skating business at that time was in America. And the USA is a country that needs its own heroes. On top of that, when I was competing, we were leading in pairs, men’s, and ice dance. And the ladies always skated last. When you see that three medals have already been taken in all other disciplines before you, it feels like there’s no point in even skating.
Or take the situation at the Turin Olympics, where the placement of athletes was pure politics. No one would ever give four medals to one country. Yes, I made a mistake in the free skate, but the result would have been the same even with a perfectly clean performance. Whether it was second or third place didn’t matter to me anymore. Only once, when Masha Butyrskaya won the World Championships in 1999, did we take all four gold medals.
Or Salt Lake City – there, an American had to win, so they could build a whole business around her, organize half-year tours. We had no chance, but we still fought.
It was difficult and often very frustrating, especially when politics got involved. And now, politics is even more deeply entrenched. So, everything that happened to us was just the first signs. And how happy I was when I saw that people finally started fighting for our girls,” Slutskaya’s words were quoted by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) website.
Related topics: Irina Slutskaya
Damn, these grapes are extra sour..
How ironic to see her making these comments with the corrupt politically motivated judging from the former communist block countries. I can cite many examples were very underscored and strategically blocked from getting a medal. Most notably Judy Blumberg & Michael Siebert at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Throughout the competition, they strategically scored them so the tie-breaker came down to the advantage of the second Russian team, Klimova & Ponamerenko. Some of the judges said that they were being penalized for using classical music, which they skated to multiple tempos and time signatures. Then they hailed Torvill & Dean as “transcending their sport”, even though they too skated to classical music Bolero, which never changes speed or meter changes. Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth. There were also several travesties at the same Olympics.Elaine Zayack got cheated out of the bronze medal, by again, strategic judging from the communist block countries.Kitty and Peter Carutthers should have won the gold with their perfect program. So sorry, Miss Slutskaya, you are only using projection 101 to call out political judging favoring American skaters. What a travesty. I just lost what respect I had of her. She was a mere jumping machine with no musicality, style or grace.
How ironic to see her making these comments with the corrupt politically motivated judging from the former communist block countries. I can cite many examples were very underscored and strategically blocked from getting a medal. Most notably Judy Blumberg & Michael Siebert at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Throughout the competition, they strategically scored them so the tie-breaker came down to the advantage of the second Russian team, Klimova & Ponamerenko. Some of the judges said that they were being penalized for using classical music, which they skated to multiple tempos and time signatures. Then they hailed Torvill & Dean as “transcending their sport”, even though they too skated to classical music Bolero, which never changes speed or meter changes. Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth. There were also several travesties at the same Olympics.Elaine Zayack got cheated out of the bronze medal, by again, strategic judging from the communist block cointries.Kitty and Peter Carutthers should have won the gold with their perfect program. So sorry, Miss Slutskaya, you are only using projection 101 to call out political judging favoring American skaters. What a travesty. I just lost what respect I had of her. She was a mere jumping machine with no musicality, style or grace.
There is some political bias from all directions: USA, Russia, Japan and the EU. I long for a day when the scores come from a completely neutral and bias free system. Let’s all determine to work toward that goal.
same as the Sochi Olympics, the Russia woman stole the gold.