Tribute to Alexei Yagudin---Passion for Skating

[Zanzibar]

Kathleen, were you giving him directions in this picture.

I Can't Hear You!!!

Dee

Hee-hee...I think the conversation was something like:

Me: Can you believe how adorable Sasha Abt is? Have you ever see a Russian as adorable as that man? Maybe we should take some pictures of you and Sahsa TOGETHER! Sasha, Sasha, Sasha!

Alexei: (Heavy Russian accent): "My ears are going to bleed, please stop saying that word!"

[mzheng]

Watching man's competetion in Turino. I definitely miss him.

[Germanice]

I was unable to find results of European Finals because ISU's website shows the results in the language of the country that hosted the Finals. I do know that Yagudin never won a Russian National title, so I assume that those results would favor Plushenko.

If you are able to find the European Finals website w/English translation, I'd love to see it (I know, I'm a total geek!). Thanks!

I don't have a website, but I've got it in my mind; it's a tie:

1998 - Yagudin 1st - Plushenko 2nd
1999 - Yagudin 1st - Plushenko 2nd
2000 - Plushenko 1st - Yagudin 2nd
2001 - Plushenko 1st - Yagudin 2nd

2002 - Yagudin 1st - Plushenko didn't participate.

Anke

[JaeJ]

I don't have a website, but I've got it in my mind; it's a tie:

1998 - Yagudin 1st - Plushenko 2nd
1999 - Yagudin 1st - Plushenko 2nd
2000 - Plushenko 1st - Yagudin 2nd
2001 - Plushenko 1st - Yagudin 2nd

2002 - Yagudin 1st - Plushenko didn't participate.

Anke

Thank you, Anke! Yagudin also took 2002 Worlds, but I didn't count that because Plushenko didn't participate in that one either.

So ... in international comps/European Finals where Yagudin and Plushenko went head to head, Yagudin won nine out of fourteen.

Assuming that Yagudin participated and Plushenko won all five of the Russian Nationals between 1998 and 2002 (do you know this info also?), they would be virtually tied ... interesting!

On a side note, I've always wondered why Yagudin never won a Russian title, even when he was winning everything else in sight ... seems odd, but people probably wondered the same thing about Sasha Cohen until last month!

[Kelly22]

Zanzibar,

Are you in Torino?

[Kelly22]

[QUOTE=Vash01]I totally disagree that Plushenko did not stand a chance against Yagudin. "

Agreed, style is a matter of taste. If Yagudin skated clean, he was unbeatable, in large part, because his programs were superior. Winter will go down in skating history as one of the best programs, ever.

It's great that Plushenko is your favorite skater, he is definitely outstanding. The 6.0 slam diminished the validity of your point.

PS (reason for edit). On this we can agree, Yagudin and Plushenko competing together raised the bar in mens figure skating. It was a nail biting rivalry that we may not see again for quite a while.

[Vash01]

Vash01, do you have citations to support the contention that Pluskenko won more head to head comps than Yagudin? I'm really interested because -- except for the Russian Nationals, where Plushenko was always favored -- my impression was just the opposite -- I could be thinking only of international comps, though ... I'll check for sources as well and share if I find any. Thanks!

ETA: Okay, here is what I found at the US Figure Skating Association: out of ten international figure skating events in which both Yagudin and Plushenko participated between the 1998 Worlds and 2002 OLYs, including GPFs and Goodwill Games, Yagudin outscored Plushenko seven out of ten times. The three times that Plushenko outscored Yagudin all occurred in 2001 -- Worlds, GPF, and Goodwill.

I was unable to find results of European Finals because ISU's website shows the results in the language of the country that hosted the Finals. I do know that Yagudin never won a Russian National title, so I assume that those results would favor Plushenko.

If you are able to find the European Finals website w/English translation, I'd love to see it (I know, I'm a total geek!). Thanks!

I did count the Russian nationals. However, I was thinking more of their competitions leading into the 2002 Olympics (that is, 2000-2002) because in 1998 Plushenko went to his first worlds and did not skate in the Olympics. I don't remember the results of all the GP's but in 1999-2000 he won all but the worlds (he fell apart in the LP). He won all the competitions after that (Yagudin may not have been in all of them) until 2002 GPF which he lost to Yagudin. It was a close competition, which could have gone either way.

The real point I was trying to make was that Yagudin was not unbeatable as the original poster wrote. Yagudin was the more developed skater of the two at that point, but he had been beaten by Plushenko many times particularly in the two years before the Olympics. Plushenko was in fact the reigning world champion at the 2002 Olympics.

Vash

[soogar]

Thanks for the thread!

I still miss him (and Sasha Abt ) so much whenever I watch Men's events

Russian Fed should have made a deal with Abt to keep him in competition. He would have had decent results (even without a quad).

[Evdokia]

Hee-hee...I think the conversation was something like:

Me: Can you believe how adorable Sasha Abt is? Have you ever see a Russian as adorable as that man? Maybe we should take some pictures of you and Sahsa TOGETHER! Sasha, Sasha, Sasha!

Alexei: (Heavy Russian accent): "My ears are going to bleed, please stop saying that word!"

And that name!

Russian Fed should have made a deal with Abt to keep him in competition. He would have had decent results (even without a quad).

I too think so, I wish he had not decided to retire! Boy, he could have so easily made it on the podium in Turino. However, unfortunately Russian Fed - at least prior to 2002 - more likely did everything to make him quit his eligible career instead of encouraging him to hang on.

For the Sasha fans here: please sign in the yahoo-group my friend Irene has set up for Sasha - there are lots of pics of him skating in shows, but also from other skaters (Alexej included).
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Alexander-Abt/

On a side note, I've always wondered why Yagudin never won a Russian title, even when he was winning everything else in sight ... seems odd, but people probably wondered the same thing about Sasha Cohen until last month!

Alexej never won a Russian National title simply because of skating badly at that event. Some of his worst competitive performances usually happened to be Russian Nationals. Actually he was even lucky to make the team at times. And even on those rare occasions, when Alexej skated good at Nationals, Plush skated better hands down. I think unlike Plushy, Alexej simply didn’t care for Nationals, he knew, he would be on the team, no matter how he skated and so he decided to save his energy for major events like Worlds or the Olympics.

Agreed, style is a matter of taste. If Yagudin skated clean, he was unbeatable, in large part, because his programs were superior. Winter will go down in skating history as one of the best programs, ever.

YES!!!

[CzarinaAnya]

I never said Evgeni, was unbeatable.

Alexei's passion for the sport outranks any male figure skater I've come across, though. His programs could bring people to tears. I truly don't dislike Evgeni, at all. It's just that I can't find that extra something in his skating, that Alexei shows. His skating motto always seemed to be, "the show must go on".

[JaeJ]

I did count the Russian nationals. However, I was thinking more of their competitions leading into the 2002 Olympics (that is, 2000-2002) because in 1998 Plushenko went to his first worlds and did not skate in the Olympics. I don't remember the results of all the GP's but in 1999-2000 he won all but the worlds (he fell apart in the LP). He won all the competitions after that (Yagudin may not have been in all of them) until 2002 GPF which he lost to Yagudin. It was a close competition, which could have gone either way.

The real point I was trying to make was that Yagudin was not unbeatable as the original poster wrote. Yagudin was the more developed skater of the two at that point, but he had been beaten by Plushenko many times particularly in the two years before the Olympics. Plushenko was in fact the reigning world champion at the 2002 Olympics.

Vash

Yagudin did go into total melt-down in 2001, losing all of the major competitions to Plushenko (2001 is the only year in which this occurred however). It is my understanding that this disastrous season led Yagudin to a renewed discipline toward his game, which made him *cough* unbeatable by 2002. Just MHO (smile).

Please see the following list of comps in which Y and P went head to head. Note that I list only the results of the Grand Prix Finals, not the individual GP comps, which may be contributing to the confusion on this matter. These results are taken directly from http://www.usfigureskating.org/Events.asp.

1998 Worlds/Yag = 1st/Plush = 3rd
1998 Goodwill Games/Yag = 2nd/Plush = 3rd
1999 Grand Prix Final/Yag = 1st/Plush = 3rd
1999 Worlds/Yag = 1st/Plush = 2rd
2000 Worlds/Yag = 1st/Plush = 4th
2001 GPF/Yag = 2nd/Plush = 1st
2001 Worlds /Yag = 2nd/Plush = 1st
2001 Goodwill Games/Yag = 3rd/Plush = 1st
2001/02 GPF/Yag = 1st/Plush = 2nd
2002 Olympics /Yag = 1st/Plush = 2nd

Also -- did Plushenko win all the Russian Nationals from 1998 to 2002? if so, that is an incredible feat! I also agree with the other posters who said that Y and P drove themselves and their sport to new highs. I honestly believe that 1998-2002 will be looked back upon as the golden age of Men's figure skating, due largely to the competition between Y and P.

[Evdokia]

Also -- did Plushenko win all the Russian Nationals from 1998 to 2002? if so, that is an incredible feat!

Plushenko won Russian Nationals in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 (Yagudin placed 2nd that years), in 1998 Ilia Kulik won.

[JaeJ]

Plushenko won Russian Nationals in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 (Yagudin placed 2nd that years), in 1998 Ilia Kulik won.

Thank you for this info, and also for your earlier explanation as to why Yagudin failed to ever win a Russian National gold. Interesting that he never went "all out" for that title -- I think he may have regretted it later in his career. I remember an interview after either his OGM or his 2002 Worlds performance where the commentator said something like, "Now that you've won it all -- Europeans, Worlds, and now Olympics, what are your plans," and he interrupted her to say, "no, I've never won the Russian title." It made me think that it bothered him at least a little that the one title had eluded him for so long ...

[Germanice]

What I find amazing is that Yagudin still had some his most passionate and memorable performances in his so-called *meltdown* season 2000/2001, just remember "Gladiator" at Skate Canada 2000, "Gladiator" at Euros 2001 and "Revolution Etude" at Worlds 2001. It's kinda ironic/sad though he never won anything "big" with his probably greatest LP, "Gladiator". I wonder how many people will remind Plushenko's programs of this particular season?

Anke

[Kelly22]

Anke,

Was Overcome ever an LP or always an exhibition number? Overcome is my true all time favorite. One memorable performances was Hallmark 2002 (I think 2002).