Irina's interview ....

Here is a link to Rusian article. I saw it posted in FSU and MKF, there are translation of some paragraphs (some conflicts come off the translators I believe). Could someone from here please traslate it? Thanks.

http://www.sport-express.ru/art.shtml?98557

Here's my attempt

First meeting in Turin with then 5 time European champion came about on the territory that has nothing to do with European Championship. Irina was checking herself out in the mirror of a neighboring (to the hotel) boutique, trying on an elegant tight green dress. We asked if we could take a photo. Slutskaya hesitated for a moment, and then sharply said “no”. And then disappeared behind the dressing room curtain.

Irina’s arrival on the ice was anticipated with heavy interest. Most foreign journalists last saw her on the ice almost a year ago in Dortmund, where she placed 9th.

However, after only 1 practice, everyone was certain that the Russian is not capable of not getting the title back, she was that good. Therefore, she would be victorious for the 6th time and be in the same class as great Sonya Hennie and Katarina Witt. And no “buts” about it.

Slutskaya comfortably lead after the SP but the journalists got a few routine answers. Only Salvator Zanke, who knew Irina since her first appearance at the Euros back in 1996 and which she won.

You know, said Zanke to our correspondent, when I started recalling that championship, Irina immediately went back to that little girl. She started to recall how she was scared and how she fell on the salchow and how great it felt to win. And I felt that she is not as arrogant as it seems sometimes. You just need to find a key and her soul opens up.

In the middle of LP, when, to fan’s horror, Irina made unforgiving mistakes and when she stopped for a second, it seemed from her eyes that she was close to leaving the ice. But that was just a moment. Not even a tiny mistake was made for the remainder of the program.

Slutskaya was smiling when she was giving an interview, but you could feel how tense she was.

- Nothing bad has happened. I was very well prepared, trained great, but unfortunately couldn’t escape mistakes. It happens to everybody – it’s not like we are ski racing (I am not sure what she means here). Of course, I am disappointed. Not b/c of the lost gold, but b/c of my skate, which didn’t turn out like I wanted it.

When it became clear that the gold medal was hers after all, Irina was more relaxed.

- I remember my 1st championship very clear. I made the same mistake as here – the triple sal- I was really concerned over the lutz, but I ended up falling on my most sure jump. I was thinking back then _ G-d how lucky I am, I got to be a European Champ. I had not even imagined that I would win the title 6 times in 10 years.
- On the other hand, when I was going to Turin I wasn’t thinking about titles. I was just looking forward to competing at Euros again. I really miss the atmosphere of these competitions. When you don’t make the team – as it happened to me a few times over the years – it’s not too hard to let it go. But when it’s your health, then it’s scary. Maybe I really wanted to get back, to have a great skate. Hence the mistakes.
- But this is sport. You can’t make any predictions. It was also difficult for me that I started winning right away when I came back. This really calms you. It’s not my technique that caused the errors. Wake me up in the middle of the night – I can do these elements, no problems. As far as the gold medal – perhaps it’s for all my suffering, for all those years when I was unfairly placed 4th, for the Olympics. I believe in higher fairness and that you get sooner or later all that was taken away from you.

You mentioned at press conference that you started taking very strong hormones again. Why?

- I don’t think it’s a secret to anybody that I am taking hormones since my illness. At the end of December, when I was almost certain that I could stop taking hormones all together (and I was taking a minimum dosage), I felt bad. After I consulted with my doctor, I was told to increase my dosage immediately. And this affects your entire body, not just legs and head.
- The whole trip was very hard on me. We got here later than anybody, late Tuesday night. Getting here was not easy: we flew to Rome then to Turin. Flights were late, and it took approximately 12 hours altogether. The 1st practice session was at 6:25 am; we didn’t even have a chance to relax.
- Also, I was placed in the same hotel room with Lena Sokolova. It’s not enough that we are competing against each other and that any time together during the competition is additional stress. But how can you not understand that we are adults and we have our own habits. We go to sleep and wake up at different times – additional inconveniences. But we couldn’t get separate rooms right away.
- It was very difficult to wait to compete, knowing that everybody else is done. I still remember how great it was in Malmo when the ladies were almost 1st to finish. It would’ve been great to be able to root for your friends live. Otherwise, you seat in front of TV and think, should I go to sleep, since the practice session is at 6 am.

What was the hardest thing here for you in Turin?

- To pull myself together after all the mistakes.



Yana

Thanks very much for the translation Interesting insight on her experience at the European championships.

Thanks, STL_Blues_fan. The translation is great, very fluid.

[QOUTE]
As far as the gold medal – perhaps it’s for all my suffering, for all those years when I was unfairly placed 4th, for the Olympics. I believe in higher fairness and that you get sooner or later all that was taken away from you.
[/QOUTE]

Was she placed 2nd (2nd in SP and LP) in SLC? Where was the 4th place in Olympics come?

Well, she was fifth in Nagano in 1998, so maybe she is talking about the 4th place ordinal that she got from the Italian judge in the free skate at Salt Lake City. This really rankled her and she has complained about it ever since.

Mathman

mzheng said:

Thanks, STL_Blues_fan. The translation is great, very fluid.

[QOUTE]
As far as the gold medal – perhaps it’s for all my suffering, for all those years when I was unfairly placed 4th, for the Olympics. I believe in higher fairness and that you get sooner or later all that was taken away from you.
[/QOUTE]

Was she placed 2nd (2nd in SP and LP) in SLC? Where was the 4th place in Olympics come?

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I think she means "for all the times that she was unfairly placed 4th" and "also for the unfair placement at Olympics". Two separate ideas.

Besides that, what I see in this comment, is that Irina seems to think that the judging process is not necessarily related to the actual skate in the competition. And IF IF IF (please note I'm careful here) I interpret her comment right, she seems to think it's OK. Irina is a great skater and a charming lady, but I completely disagree with her here. Sigh.....

Yes, it seemed like her feeling was, I'm not embarrassed to get a gift from whimsical judging, because sometimes it goes my way, sometimes it goes against me.

Mathman

So it IS true that she was being weaned off her medication and began to experience the symptoms of her underlying disease. It seems she will not be able to skate without taking prednisone, even though there are bad long-term effects on the body. That can't be good news for her.

Apparently, Irina believes it's OK that she is being held up by the new system when she isn't skating well, to "make up" for times when she didn't win. I really can't agree with that.

I don't blame her for being upset about judges not giving her what she expected. All skaters feel that way. However those two Olys she skated in were not her best. She should let them go by and move on.

Like Tara knew the hip was bad but was driven to complete with those two hip jumps: 3rx3r worked for the win but what about her life afterwards? So should Irina way the pros and cons of the medication. It's amazing what it has done for her skating. In Dortmund she was given a gift. Susanna should have won over her. But now she is back to where she left off and extremely competitive. Those drugs do wonders.

I must see Susanna's skate and compare it with Irina's.

Joe

I love Irina and all but the girl is delusional if she thinks she should have won any of those competitions mention. In fact she's already gotten tons of gifts so she's already been compensated. :disapp:

Those drugs certainly aid in her skating. :sheesh:

Personally, I'm worried about the increased doses of hormones that she has to take again for her illness, and how it will effect her skating because of the changes it could make to her body. Perhaps this contributed to her less than stellar skate at Euro's. It's sad to hear that she still has to continue fighting this disease, but not surprising.

You know, Irina always seems so positive and bubbly in her English-language inteviews, but in transcripts I've read of her Russian interviews, she seems much less pleasant. I don't know if it's just the translation or what. But yes, her suggestion that it was okay for her to be held up for the win at Europeans is not very sportsmanlike.

I also was thinking the same thing: how pleasant and cheerful she is when giving interviews in English (i.e., NA TV) vs what she has been quoted to say in Russian. I don't think it's a translation - she has an excellent command of English language. I suspect our dear Irina could be a bit of a two-faced lady! But I still love her skating

I don't think she was suggesting that she was held up. My take on what she had to say was the fact that she was able to come back, the fact that she got that 6th championship is the payback for "all the suffering". It also seemed to me that she was not referring to 2002 Olympics, it was all the unpleasant experiences over the years.

I translated pretty much word for word but there were a few things that were not clear to me. It seems that whoever was interviewing her could've asked a few more questions to clarify some things. So much for the "key to her soul"!

Yana

Thank you Yana

Thank you, Yana, for translating. I wish I knew more than one language (if you don't count computer programming languages).

I hear Russian spoken frequently by co-workers. The inflection seems to be different.

Could that explain the difference between Irinia's English inflection and what we read in the Russian translations?

Lin

I suspect our dear Irina could be a bit of a two-faced lady!

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Unfortunately, I agree. I'm trying and trying not to entertain this thought but deep down I think she is exactly what you say. I've been thinking this for some time now. Do she not know we can find out about these articles some way.

STL_Blues_fan said:

I also was thinking the same thing: how pleasant and cheerful she is when giving interviews in English (i.e., NA TV) vs what she has been quoted to say in Russian. I don't think it's a translation - she has an excellent command of English language. I suspect our dear Irina could be a bit of a two-faced lady! But I still love her skating
Yana

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Yes. I agree. I think her Rusian interviews were what truely going in her mind. And what she believed.

Can you imagine had she given the contents in her Rusian interviews to NA medias, what kind receptions she would get when she skates in COI? The last couple of COIs I attended she got very warm receptions from NA audiences for an non NA skater.

I respect ppl who show appreciations to what they've got even knowing they've earned it.

Let me give you another explanation of the difference between Irina's Russian and English interviews. This is especially important when we're reading a little tiny interview like here, which is probably an exerpt of the full one. American interviewers are far more polite and PC than European ones in general in Russian ones in particular. Anyone who's ever listened to BBC knows this. With American interviews, Irina can be relaxed, knowing she'll just get the easy ball questions. With Russian ones, however, she is always on the lookout for some question that will make her say more than she wants to. In this case the interviewer is Elena Vaihovetskaya. She is, admittedly, very respectful and, IMO, one of the best sports writers in Russia. However, she does tend to want to get under the athlete's skin in an almost Oprah-like manner.

lavender said:

Unfortunately, I agree. I'm trying and trying not to entertain this thought but deep down I think she is exactly what you say. I've been thinking this for some time now. Do she not know we can find out about these articles some way.

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I'm sure she is not the only two faced skater. she is not as experience as michell and sasha that's all.

It looks as if Irina can't be weaned off her medication without the symptoms of her disease recurring. But the medication makes her not feel well, too. What a choice! She has to take the medication in order to be able to skate, but then she feels bloated and headachy because of the medication. Long term effects of being on prednisone include low resistance to infection and osteoporosis, which is a concern with a sport as athletic as figure skating.

I do think Irina has a feeling of entitlement when it comes to figure skating championships. She has always believed that she should have won Worlds 2001 (even though it was a 7/2 decision for Kwan) and Olympics 2002. I also read between the lines that she feels she will win Worlds in Moscow and the OGM in Torino because of the wins she was unfairly deprived of it in 2001 and 2002. If she does go to Torino next year and does not win, I think she will retire as embittered as Roslyn Sumners was after losing to Witt in 1984.

curious said:

I'm sure she is not the only two faced skater. she is not as experience as michell and sasha that's all.

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Well we were talking about Irina. However Irina is more experience than Sasha. Irina also said that Michelle's not two faced awhile ago.