Michelle's and Irina's friendship cited!
- Thread starter sk8ing_lady2001
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
This might be slightly off topic, but I think it is possible to be friends with a competitor. Last year at Euros, Sokolova was beaming and applauding Slutskaya's win, and in Dortmund they were sitting about 10 rows behind us after qualis, munching on ice cream together. Yeah, they're from the same country, but it's not a given that co-countrymen will be friends.
Language may have something to do with it: Murvanidze hangs with Plushenko and Klimkin, and Staviyski and Kostomarov are friends. We language-disabled North Americans (outside of Quebec, of course
) force everyone else to speak English, which seems to be the common language among coaches and skaters, regardless of where events are held.
I think as there are more training programs like Mishin's in Spain and the number of people being consulted in Tarasova's camp that there will be more cross-national friendship among the skaters.
This year the ISU instituted a new pre-finals ritual, where the skaters are introduced before their final warm-up. The only skaters I remember standing respectfully and applauding their fellow competitors, instead of skating around during the intros, were Petrova and Tikhonov, and I think their example prodded the rest of their group to do the same.
Language may have something to do with it: Murvanidze hangs with Plushenko and Klimkin, and Staviyski and Kostomarov are friends. We language-disabled North Americans (outside of Quebec, of course
) force everyone else to speak English, which seems to be the common language among coaches and skaters, regardless of where events are held. I think as there are more training programs like Mishin's in Spain and the number of people being consulted in Tarasova's camp that there will be more cross-national friendship among the skaters.
This year the ISU instituted a new pre-finals ritual, where the skaters are introduced before their final warm-up. The only skaters I remember standing respectfully and applauding their fellow competitors, instead of skating around during the intros, were Petrova and Tikhonov, and I think their example prodded the rest of their group to do the same.
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2003
Michelle and Irina
They went to a nightclub together that was in an abandoned church?! I would like to hear the details of that story....
Yeah, I tend to think that Irina and Michelle would hang out together during the long tours. They're both around the same age and won their first world medal in the same year: 1996. I don't think Irina would talk about spending time with Michelle if she didn't care for her, which is how Irina was with Maria Butyrskaya.
They went to a nightclub together that was in an abandoned church?! I would like to hear the details of that story....
Yeah, I tend to think that Irina and Michelle would hang out together during the long tours. They're both around the same age and won their first world medal in the same year: 1996. I don't think Irina would talk about spending time with Michelle if she didn't care for her, which is how Irina was with Maria Butyrskaya.
