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 Wednesday, November 15, 2000
Europe brings a number of skaters to watch
By Peter Carruthers
Special to ABC Sports.com
It is so hard to speculate so early in the season who is going to be on the top of their games , but there are a couple of skaters who must be watched throughout the season from the European perspective.
|  | | Irina Slutskaya will make things interesting this season. |
Russians Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya are really two people to watch throughout this new season. But in the ladies, it is hard to say what is going to happen. They can be up and down. Look at what Slutskaya did last year, she was really terrific when she upset Michelle Kwan to win the ISU Grand Prix Final. From one season to the next it can really change. This is true of any sport. It is hard to say who will dominate. In diving with Greg Louganis, it was hard to get near him. Brian Boitano, a four-time national champion, is another person that has been consistently dominant in his sport. It doesn't seem to be that way any more. Two out of the top three female skaters in the world are Russian and both of them have a legitimate opportunity to dominate throughout the season.
Former World Champion Canadian Elvis Stojko has been up and down over his career. He appears to be up again. Alexei Yagudin has a competitiveness that you can never discount. He really proved that last year. It will be interesting to see if he can be a real fighter throughout the season again this year. Evgeny Plushenko is younger and is now gaining the necessary experience to be a true champion. He learned a lot last year by placing fourth at Worlds. Let's see how he handles that. The question is can he take his talent and ability, be a champion and be consistent with it all the way through to the World Championship. In the men's division two of the top four skaters in the world are Russian.
| |  | | | Evgeny Plushenko used a quad and eight triples to end Alexei Yagudin's two-year rule as European men's champion. |
In the pairs division, there are really two teams that stand apart, Russian World Champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, and the former World Champions Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. This is going to be very interesting because both teams possess great skills and are in very good condition when they compete. It goes back to the rivalry factor. Rivalry is what will drive a lot of the skaters.
There are still a great deal of questions that need to be answered when looking at the skaters in the pairs division. Last year at the World Championships, China's Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao captured silver and France's Sarah Abitbol and Stéphane Bernadis were third. I can't go out on a limb saying that the French team of Abitbol and Bernadis is going to dominate this year. How will Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze handle their return from suspension? Do they just go forward and be solid and terrific? With the ground that Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov gained, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze have something to prove by getting it going again.
If you look at each discipline it appears that the Russians have a very strong presence once again. Keep in mind that this is the beginning of the season, so we still have to wait and see what happens. Michelle Kwan is still the best in the business. Todd Eldredge will be tough this year especially with him expected to land the Quad this season in competition making him a factor in the world of mens skating. Skaters want to do the best for themselves, but these skaters in particular are competitors. Since they are competing within their own countries for dominance, this is what is pushing them to a high level before they even get to a World Championship.
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