Igor Shpilband fired

[Tonichelle]

Igor has been a coach in the US since his 1990 defection. He had amazing success for a US coach within 5 years, while partnered with Liz Coates. In 1998, they won "US Coach of the Year".

Marina only began with Igor in 2001.

In the 1990 to 2001 time frame he coached:

Jamie Silverstein and Justin Pekarek up till 2000 when they retired. (Jr World Champs, bronze at 4CC's, 2nd US Nationals

Punsalan & Swallow (long term US champions) till they retired in 1998. They were some of his very first students. Gorsha Sur, who defected at the same time Igor defected, recommended Igor as a coach to Liz & Jerrod.

Lang & Tchernyshev

Belbin & Agosto (2nd & 3rd at World Juniors prior to Marina's arrival, )

Joseph & Butler (2nd US Nationals 1998) World Junior Champs 1998

Eve Chalom & Matthew Gates (US silver medallists). This is particularly notable as Eve Chalom is almost entirely deaf, due to an accident in childhood.

Didn't he coach Roca & Sur as well? Or did he just talk Gorsha into defecting with him?

[golden411]

Yes, but sometimes people just make a stupid mistake. Take V/T at worlds- the death spiral is not the hardest element for a pair. It is very rare for pairs to fall on it. But they did and it was probably the first time they ever did so at a competition.

Well, yes and no. When an elite skater or team makes a "fluke" mistake, could it be that he/she/they lost concentration for a split second? And maybe thinking ahead to trickier parts of the program is what caused the momentary "distraction"?
I agree that a "stupid" mistake doesn't mean a skater is "bad" ... but if Shabalin was not immune from a fall during the Finnstep CD, then none of the top ice dancers will be immune during the upcoming Finnstep SD.

As Doris says,

Canton will need to hire a sharp CD coach, at the very least for part time, I think.

[blue dog]

Didn't he coach Roca & Sur as well? Or did he just talk Gorsha into defecting with him?

They were coached by Sandra Hess.

[dorispulaski]

Toni, It was the opposite AFAIR reading. Gorsha talked Igor and his partner into helping him pack to defect. While carrying suitcases out for Gorsha, Igor & partner were seen by other Russians, and were too scared not to defect themselves, which they did.

Wikipedia has Roca & Sur listed as being coached by Sandy Hess.

Hess also coached Punsalan & Swallow before Roca & Sur decided to skate competitively . Renee used to skate competitively with Donny Adair, before her first "retirement". Sur did choreography for Punsalan & Swallow before going back to competing himself. He recommend Igor to P&S.

At least that's how I remember it?

[SkateFiguring]

You seriously think that there aren't top students who won't go to Igor really? Fact of the matter is Igor was the one who built that school, Marina was a late addition. The Russians have already said that they will HAPPILY take him on as a coach. I have to laugh at the matter that Igor is going to have this huge difficulty getting top students. I would love to see him get I/K.

I already said he will have students flocking to him. But not right now. Not until he is well set up and can provide the complete organization demanded by elite skaters today. A top trainer alone is not enough any more. He needs to build a coaching team. With all the concern with Canton's need to replace him, Shpilband faces a lot more difficulties to build his team from scratch. The contenders for Sochi Olympics need assurance and confidence that there is a topnotch facility and faculty as well as enough time to commit themselves to a new environment, especially to switch from a place from where they have achieved great success already. Yes Shpilband's input will be missed there, but it's been expressed that his input had already slipped so much as to cause discontent from these skaters.

[Tonichelle]

you're probably right, I didn't follow Ice Dance until 1999 - and even then not really... but it was Gorsha - and that girl he skated with - that got me interested...

[dorispulaski]

There is some evidence of that-V&M, D&W and S&S all had a little more trouble getting Level 4 this year than in previous years.

S&S's spins were particularly a problem, and I would cite Keypoint 2 in the Rumba, except that every team had trouble, and different tech panels graded it in a widely inconsistent manner.

Toni--Roca and Sur were wonderful indeed. I think they suffered from bad marking throughout their amateur career though.

[nevergonnadance]

This is what Katia Gordeeva said about Zhuk in her book:

Sometime during the summer of 1996, Sergei, Alexander Fadeev, Anna Kondrashova and Marina Zoueva prepared a letter to send to Central Red Army Club officials asking that Zhuk be removed as head coach. He had become intolerable, drinking for days on end, missing practices and becoming increasingly abusive to the boys. He wasn’t fit to be coaching anyone, old or young.

Her father didn't want her to sign the letter but she couldn't stand Zhuk and she did it. Later there was an incident with Zhuk that made her cry and her father finally approved of the change. Her book also suggests he may have harrassed Anna Kondrashova, physically and otherwise. Fadeev has spoken out about his abuse. A young choreographer like Marina is not going to convince the Army Club to fire a colonel on her word alone. On the word of Russian champions, they would do it. And they knew themselves what type of man he'd become.

Before Zhuk died, Zhuk complained about it. Because in her book Gordeeva's father is angry about the letter and says "It's not your idea" Zhuk spun that Gordeeva was manipulated. But KG has always backed up what she said about Zhuk and so have other skaters. There are a lot of stories in her book about the creep he was. Defending himself, Zhuk insinuated Marina had Sergei Grinkov on a string and other slimy insinuations - whatever mud he could sling.

I don't know what happened to Leonovich's career but she didn't undermine him.

Looks like people are following Igor - "I have lots of skaters"

Yes. Doesn't that confirm that he was building his own side business adjunct to the business Arctic Edge was paying him for?

[bekalc]

I already said he will have students flocking to him. But not right now. Not until he is well set up and can provide the complete organization demanded by elite skaters today. A top trainer alone is not enough any more. He needs to build a coaching team. With all the concern with Canton's need to replace him, Shpilband faces a lot more difficulties to build his team from scratch. The contenders for Sochi Olympics need assurance and confidence that there is a topnotch facility and faculty as well as enough time to commit themselves to a new environment, especially to switch from a place from where they have achieved great success already. Yes Shpilband's input will be missed there, but it's been expressed that his input had already slipped so much as to cause discontent from these skaters.

Well the Russians have already said they will happily provide Igor with everything he could possibly want or need. I have hard time thinking there aren't US rinks that won't happily open their arms to him as well.

[SkateFiguring]

Well the Russians have already said they will happily provide Igor with everything he could possibly want or need. I have hard time thinking there aren't US rinks that won't happily open their arms to him as well.

He wants to stay in Michigan. If he goes further away, it will be even harder to get the Canton skaters to go with him. No doubt a coach of his calibre will have a great facility and a stable of eager talented students. But we are addressing the current situation.

[callalily]

Yes, all true, but that's the job of the coach not the choreographer.

In theory, yes, but Marina wasn't just a choreographer - she was a co-coach, which Igor absolutely needed to manage so many competitive high level teams simultaneously. And she was the one with the experience in the management and preparation of Olympic winners.

Igor was a Junior World silver medalist and Junior World gold medalist and had already built up a sagging US dance program before Marina joined him in 2001. I'm not saying that the Shpilband/Zoueva was not highly successful as obviously they have been. I am just saying that Igor was treatedly shabbily. Considering Zoueva's political history, anyone trusting her should be careful to watch their back.

I agree that (it looks like) he was treated shabbily. I'm just saying that he partnered with Marina because he knew she had the experience in making Olympic champions that he lacked - I don't think his reasons for leaving DSC with Marina were purely altruistic. It in the end, it may have come back to bite him, but I doubt he'd have had all those extremely successful teams (at the highest level, and simultaneously) without her.

[blue dog]

This is what Katia Gordeeva said about Zhuk in her book:



Her father didn't want her to sign the letter but she couldn't stand Zhuk and she did it. Later there was an incident with Zhuk that made her cry and her father finally approved of the change. Her book also insinuates he may have harrassed Anna Kondrashova. Fadeev has spoken out about his abuse. A young choreographer like Marina is not going to convince the Army Club to fire a colonel on her word alone. On the word of Russian champions, they would do it. And they knew themselves what type of man he'd become.

Before he died Zhuk complained about it. Because in her book Gordeeva's father is angry about the letter and says "It's not your idea" Zhuk spun that Gordeeva was manipulated. But she's always backed up what she said about Zhuk and so have other skaters. There are a lot of stories in her book about the creep he was. Defending himself Zhuk insinuated Marina had Sergei Grinkov on a string and other insinuations - whatever mud he could sling.

I don't know what happened to Leonovich's career but she didn't undermine him.

Leonovich was offered to coach in France in the 90's. He was Gusmeroli's coach for a time.

[Tonichelle]

Toni--Roca and Sur were wonderful indeed. I think they suffered from bad marking throughout their amateur career though.

Didn't the Swallows also fight to keep them off the Olympic Team? Ice Dance dramas = better than Soap Operas.

[DianaSelene]

This is what Katia Gordeeva said about Zhuk in her book:



Her father didn't want her to sign the letter but she couldn't stand Zhuk and she did it. Later there was an incident with Zhuk that made her cry and her father finally approved of the change. Her book also insinuates he may have harrassed Anna Kondrashova. Fadeev has spoken out about his abuse. A young choreographer like Marina is not going to convince the Army Club to fire a colonel on her word alone. On the word of Russian champions, they would do it. And they knew themselves what type of man he'd become.

Before he died Zhuk complained about it. Because in her book Gordeeva's father is angry about the letter and says "It's not your idea" Zhuk spun that Gordeeva was manipulated. But she's always backed up what she said about Zhuk and so have other skaters. There are a lot of stories in her book about the creep he was. Defending himself Zhuk insinuated Marina had Sergei Grinkov on a string and other insinuations - whatever mud he could sling.

I don't know what happened to Leonovich's career but she didn't undermine him.

Yes. Doesn't that confirm that he was building his own side business adjunct to the business Arctic Edge was paying him for?

To counter this, there was a Russian article translated into English a few years ago with a journalist talking about this whole case.
http://www.figureskatingmystery.com/...-more-ice.html

Scroll to the bottom for the article. What this article does not say is that Vodorezova later wrote a letter to CSKA defending Zhuk but it didn't matter anymore. She could not change anything.

[demarinis5]

It is not uncommon for someone to get fired and shown the door the same day, in other words blindsided. It happens all the time in my profession. Of course the individual's infractions have been well documented with the Human Resources Dept. but once the decision is made to fire the individual, you call them into your office, you say you are terminated, you tell them why and security is waiting outside and assists said individual to their office or desk space to pack up their belongings and bye bye. It is not pretty but that is how we handle it. Just saying....