Elena Sokolova ? | Golden Skate

Elena Sokolova ?

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Elena Sokolova seems to have been dismissed as a factor at the 2006 Olympics. Yet there is all kind of buzz about competitors such as Joannie Rochette, Susanna Poykio and even Kimmie Meissner, who have never come close to a Worlds podium.

Elena was the 2003 World silver medalist, and Michelle needed one of her all-time finest performances as well as the home crowd cheers to hold Elena off for gold.

The next year she was injured, lost a lot of training and conditioning time, but still managed to soldier on, doing the entire COI tour and all the cheesefests (where she mostly finished last). At 2005 Worlds she finished a respectable eighth in he long program, only one point out of sixth (Poikio and Ando barely edged her out), and well ahead of Arakawa. She was sixth in the short and third in her qualifying group in the first round.

This may not be Slutskaya territory, but I would not be surprised to see Elena in the final group to skate at Torino. From there, anything can happen.

What do you all think?

Mathman
 

JOHIO2

Medalist
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
MM. Elena is an up and down skater. If she has her triples and a triple/triple combo and any consistancy as she did running up to 2003 Worlds, watch out! Wish we knew someone who's seen her skate lately to let us know for sure. One thing for sure, we can expect to see her because Russia has three ladies spots and besides Elena, there aren't that many Russian ladies ready to compete at senior worlds.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
She is one darling of a gal. She brings that joie de vivre personality to the ice. I love watching her skate, and feel badly when she errs. In DC Worlds she looked like she was going to take over MK. But that knee was bad and it brought her down a notch,

Joe
 
S

SkateFan4Life

Guest
I think Elena is a charming skater - full of life, with a great personality. I hope she will be injury-free and in good physical shape at the Olympics, assuming that she qualifies for the Russian team.

Remember Dick Button referring to her as "cupcake"? :laugh:
 

John King

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Cupcake,eh?

Having two signed photos of her that I got in the mail(what a sweetheart!),I certainly hope she's in the 2006 Worlds,which takes place in my hometown.If she does repeat her success at a medal,I would be delighted.
 

Excidra2001

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Elena, when she skates like she can, can rival the top ladies of today. But sadly, she never skates her best. Its been since 2003 worlds where she produced some fine skating. In my opinion, she is not mentally strong. When the pressure is down, she is right in the thick of things but lord help her when she is skating for a big title.
She came so close to winning the world title in 2003. That season she was a having a knock out season beating a lot of skaters she has never been able to beat before. Its very sad that her team brought her to 03 worlds with a zzzzzzz LP and expect to win against Kwan 'bringin down the house' performence. They should've added more choreography to her LP and take out a lot of the meaningless choro. Her chances of beating Kwan at home woud've gone up. But hey, thats bridge under water.
I hope she comes out with some beautiful programs for next season and put the pressure on the other Russian ladies.
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
I thought Elena had really good programs and costumes at this year's worlds and she skated fairly well. I hope she continues this for the Olympics.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Mathman said:
Elena Sokolova seems to have been dismissed as a factor at the 2006 Olympics. Yet there is all kind of buzz about competitors such as Joannie Rochette, Susanna Poykio and even Kimmie Meissner, who have never come close to a Worlds podium.

That's the "beauty" of the Olympics- the X-factor.

I believe she has already peaked, and she has a world silver medal- that's pretty good. The only spot up from there is world champion.

I think the reason why the above are being hyped more is that they have not (or at least we believe they haven't) peaked yet. That is, had the "skate of their life" yet.

The exceptions to this rule are Kwan and Slutskaya, who both have peaked multiple times (although I would probably argue that Slutskaya really only peaked at '05 Worlds), so they both are very much in the game. IMO of course.
 

brad640

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Red Dog said:
On that note- what's happened to her site??

http://www.kataniye.com/sokolova/

It was an excellent site for info (the other fansite of hers hasn't been updated in several years). I hope it comes back.
BittyBug posted on FSU that all of the kataniye sites are down but they are working to get them back up.
 
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