- 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
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