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Butyrskaya to challenge Kwan at worlds
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- In easily defending her European title, Maria Butyrskaya has emerged as the top challenger to defending champion Michelle Kwan for the world title.The skaters have similar classical styles, mature and polished with elegant positions and strong jumps. What Butyrskaya has most lacked is consistency.
At 26, Butyrskaya has been Russian national champion six times, but only last year won her first major international title, at the Europeans.
The medal from her second European title Saturday seemed proof that her time has arrived,
"For the last two years, I've been skating quite consistently," she said. "Some become Olympic champion at 16, but to me success came later. I had to fight with myself."
Butyrskaya's victory completed a Russian sweep of European figure skating titles for the third consecutive year. But for the first time, Russians won all three women's medals, dominating the championships as the men have for two years.
The Russian Federation has started to concentrate on bringing up the level of its women's skating, long the weakest element of the Russian team, and the results were evident at the European Championships.
Two teen-agers just out of junior competition finished second and third behind Butyrskaya -- Julia Soldatova and Viktoria Volchkova, virtually guaranteeing the young skaters a place at the worlds.
Kwan is certainly the biggest obstacle to Russian hopes to a title sweep at the worlds in Helsinki, Finland, in two months, but she's not the only one.
French ice dancers Marina Anissina and Gwendel Peizerat are poised to upset the new European ice dancing champions Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov, taking down with them the long-standing ice dance hierarchy, if they do.
In the final free dance, the Russians skated a risky drum program that required great precision, but did not elicit the same audience response as the emotionally charged French program "The Man in the Iron Mask." Skating the part of The Mask, Anissina lifted Peizerat, who leaned completely into her crouched figure, extended one leg in front of him and reached the other to his forehead.
The judges were split and the decision went to the Russians. French fans were outraged.
Not that the Russians were bothered.
"In Russia we have an expression, 'Don't ask the winners why they won, just ask if they won,' " Ovsiannikov said.
Russian pairs skating got an unexpected boost at the Europeans when a couple training together only since June, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, won the event after teammates and defending champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze dropped out with the flu.
And the Russian men demonstrated their depth with another sweep. Alexei Yagudin, 18, overcame the disappointment of two recent losses to defend his title with a flawless, energetic free dance. Yevgeny Plushenko, 16, finished second, while the weakest link in the Russian troika was 1994 Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov, who fell on a triple axle and finished third.v, who fell on a triple axle and finished third.