Irina Slutskaya - Career

Career

Slutskaya began skating at the age of four due to her mother. She was coached by Zhanna Gromova since the age of six and throughout her competitive career. During her career, Slutskaya won a total of 40 gold medals, 21 silver medals, and 18 bronze medals.

In 1996, Slutskaya became the first Russian woman to win the European title. She also won the title in 1997. She finished third at the 1996 World Championships and fourth in 1997.

At the 1998 Winter Olympics, she finished fifth in a very close free skate fight for the bronze. Maria Butyrskaya, Lu Chen, and Irina were 3rd, 4th, 5th respectively after the short program. Although these 3 skaters each made 1 mistake, Chen and Butyrskaya's were step outs while Irina had a fall. Lu Chen ended up edging Butyrksaya 5–4 for the bronze. Chen also edged Slutskaya 6–3.

The next month she took a silver medal at the 1998 World Championships. She did not win any competitions in the 1998–99 season and missed both the European and the World Championships. She almost decided to stop skating and call it a career.

Slutskaya made a successful comeback at the 2000 Grand Prix Final. She landed seven clean triples, including two triple-triple combinations and became the first woman to do a triple lutz-triple loop combination. She later won her third European title and won a silver medal at the 2000 World Championships with Michelle Kwan winning the gold.

At the 2001 World Championships, she became the first woman to land a triple salchow-triple loop-double toe loop combination and won the silver medal. She lost in a 7–2 decision to Michelle Kwan. Kwan had no visible mistakes while Slutskaya badly two-footed her triple lutz-triple loop-double toe loop combination and had two sloppy landings.

Slutskaya won silver at the 2002 Winter Olympics and became the second Russian ever to win a medal in the women's event. The competition had been billed in advance as a head-to-head battle between Slutskaya and American Michelle Kwan. After the short program, as expected, Kwan and Slutskaya placed first and second with Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes of the U.S. placing third and fourth, respectively. Many expected the free skate to play out like the 2000 and 2001 World Championships where Kwan and Slutskaya would fight for gold. Unexpectedly, Kwan made mistakes in her free skate and fell behind American Sarah Hughes in the overall standings. Slutskaya had to win the free skate in order to win gold. Slutskaya skated a nervous performance with minor errors throughout. Hughes won the free skate in a 5–4 decision against Slutskaya, and with Kwan finishing in third behind Slutskaya, Hughes won the gold overall. Russia, still somewhat aggrieved about the outcome of an earlier dispute over the pairs competition, filed a complaint against the result but it was rejected shortly. The next month she won the World title in Nagano. Going into the freeskate, Slutskaya had an advantage. She had finished 1st in both the qualifying and short program. Fumie Suguri was 2nd, and Kwan was only in 3rd after a shaky short program. Slutskaya could lose to Kwan in the free skate (e.g. finish 2nd to Kwan) and still win, however, she skated a strong performance and a majority of the judges named Slutskaya the winner of the free skate. It was her first World title.