You would know immediately that is was an imposter if you saw any name other than Maria's under my name.
Thanks for that MRRICE lol. But seriously I love that Maria is a fighter, she was the unwanted child so to speak, the skater people gave up on, she did not skate like a girl but a woman, she had her flaws - nerves which affected her with stiffness and awkwardness some times but she had a certain elegance. I now realize I just love Russian skaters lol I saw and loved on youtube a skater named Igor Bobrin and his horizontal axel and his unique choreography and style, Every time someone mentions a skater or team I look them up. I also forgot Kavaguti and Smirnov, KLIMKOV, Voronov, Sokolova, Vororzeva, I felt sympathy and hoped for a miracle with KIRA ivanova and loved the grace on youtube of Anna Kondrosheva, and there is something i like about k and s, v and t, i kind of felt sorry for petrova and tikinov as they like k and s was the team people jsut sort of dumped all the time, i liked navka and kostmorov, and lovacheva and alberbuch, there was a fierceness and such drama with Bestmianova and Bukin, and though i didn't like pasha gritschuk as a person i did like many of her skates with platov, there was something original and likeable about Olga Markova, i loved how T and M fought back after her horrible fall, I loved how Kasakova??? just stepped in with Artur to win gold in 1998, so much to like
Sorry Mr rice but Maria may be lovely but her skating lacked flow. I think she willed herself to stay in a long time and Russia never excelled in ladies until recently. I do agree she did very well in 1999 but she was no athlete like Irina was nor could she ever compete with our top ladies.
Now Russia can brag endlessly about the teens coming up. I can't think of any year but 99 I would watch Maria. She got lucky.
It's all right, mrrice. The subject is YOUR favourite Russian skater, after all, and we know how much you love Maria.
the other poster has, of course, entirely missed the point of the thread.
the other poster opened the thread...
I am grateful to mother Russia for so many skaters.
Yes! Bobrin!!!!! I forgot him, but I loved him so much! And he is a good choregrapher!
I liked him too. But Yuri Ovchinnikov was my idol, his jumps were huge and he was an artist on ice
Yes! :thumbsup: I also liked him, but I was a kid when he skated thus I forgot to mention him!! And unfortunately he has very few videos on YT, only exhibition programs. I looked for his videos not once... hmmmmm.... he had huge jumps especially his single Axel..if I right remember.. He was an artist, Bobrin was more funny.