After the judging controversy, the quad fest, the double gold medals, and fluke ice dance falls, it was time for the ladies to close out the competition. The Americans, of course, had the most to anticipate in the ladies’ event, as it was their best chance for gold and they had three strong contenders. It would be Michelle Kwan, the reigning silver medalist, who would go in front of Irina Slutskaya – and guess what? It was a 5-to-4 decision.
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Related: Kwan nominated for World Hall of Fame
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one surprised that Kwan was in front of Slutskaya after the short program. For me, the 2002 version of Rachmaninoff wasn’t as magical as the 1998 version, likely because, by that point, the novelty wore a bit. And I still contend that the Nagano skate of this short program remains one of the masterpieces of all time. It was a deserved placement – the program is still the most well-choreographed and strongest of any of the ladies, and she rocked it.
The scary moment for everyone watching, of course, was the slip off the toepick in the triple flip. With a closer look at it, it was still very close whether or not it was “underrotated” (in the quarter-turn IJS version of the term) – it looked just less than a quarter-turn short. Of course, back in the day, underrotations were not as greatly penalized, particularly if it was not obviously cheated. First place, though, could really have gone either way between Kwan and Slutskaya as a result of that flip, and it was reflected in that 5-4 split amongst the judges.
The strength of the Americans
This was really American ladies skating at its apex. I would argue that, more than Yamaguchi-Kerrigan-Harding in the early 90s, the Kwan-Cohen-Hughes combo in Salt Lake City was the strongest and most all-around ladies’ team that the U.S. has ever sent. Of course, the prospect of a sweep would be easily spoiled by Slutskaya.
Cohen was perhaps the most surprising, considering her lack of a big-time track record internationally. She was confident, clean, and strong – definitely a lack of fear in that program. Hughes was more conservative of the two, and her two-footed triple flip was more than enough to keep her from challenging the top three in the short program.
Slutskaya brings it, Butyrskaya was eh
I’ve always thought that Slutskaya’s disadvantage at Salt Lake City was the fact that her short program didn’t play to her strengths as a skater, whereas Kwan’s was perfect for her. She wasn’t quite as connected musically to the program as she has been in the past with more high-energy selections (one exception was her 1999-2000 short program, which was really strong for her). That said, the jumps were spot on, and she really brought on the challenge.
And in some ways, it was the same with Maria Butyrskaya, fifth behind Hughes in the short. She has had stronger short programs in the past, and even though she was clean, she just wasn’t as powerful or looked as smooth as the top four ladies. The biggest short program highlight of her career had to have been her Scene D’Amour short program from a couple seasons before. And this program, unfortunately, was nowhere near as smooth and polished. There was just a lack of energy throughout.
LADIES (after the short program)
1. Michelle Kwan USA VIDEO
2. Irina Slutskaya RUS VIDEO
3. Sasha Cohen USA VIDEO
4. Sarah Hughes USA VIDEO
5. Maria Butyrskaya RUS VIDEO
6. Julia Sebestyen HUN VIDEO
7. Fumie Suguri JPN VIDEO
8. Jennifer Robinson CAN VIDEO
9. Sarah Meier SUI
10. Vanessa Gusmeroli FRA VIDEO
11. Silvia Fontana ITA
12. Viktoria Volchkova RUS VIDEO
13. Tatiana Malinina UZB
14. Laetitia Hubert FRA
15. Galina Maniachenko UKR VIDEO
16. Elena Liashenko UKR
17. Yoshie Onda JPN
18. Elina Kettunen FIN
19. Mojca Kopac SLO
20. Zuzana Babiakova SVK
21. Vanessa Giunchi ITA
22. Julia Soldatova BLR
23. Idora Hegel CRO
24. Roxana Luca ROM
25. Stephanie Zhang AUS
26. Bit-Na Park KOR
27. Julia Lebedeva ARM
PLAY-BY-PLAY
#25 Galina Maniachenko UKR – triple lutz (possibly underrotated, step out)-double toe, steps into triple flip (fall out), double axel
#22 Viktoria Volchkova RUS – triple lutz (turn out)-double toe, steps into double flip, double axel (hangs on)
#17 Jennifer Robinson CAN – triple lutz-double toe, steps into triple flip, double axel
#15 Michelle Kwan USA – triple lutz-double toe (easy), double axel, steps into triple flip (possibly underrotated – on slo-mo replay from that angle, it looked just less than a quarter-turn short), trademark inside-to-outside spiral – after the delicate opening, the program didn’t really come alive until after the flip, when she really powered into her spiral sequence – still, first place was deserved, but only if that flip was fully-rotated
#13 Irina Slutskaya RUS – speed into triple lutz-double loop (nice), double axel, steps into triple flip (big), strong layback, nice one-foot work on her step sequence – I think what lost it for Slutskaya in the short was the fact that the music really didn’t play to her strengths, she usually connects better with the higher-energy pieces – still, extremely well skated
#12 Maria Butyrskaya RUS – steps into triple flip, triple lutz-double toe (hangs on to the lutz), a little tentative into double axel – it was not one of her best short programs choreographically, a lot of stops and starts, and not the flow that she had with a couple of her other short programs, it was rightly judged as fifth-best (but what was with that 5.0 in technical merit??)
#11 Vanessa Gusmeroli FRA – triple lutz-double toe, steps into triple flip, was that a trumpet motion she had in her layback? double axel – gotta say, even though the program isn’t the most choreographically-loaded, I’m a bit surprised that she was all the down in tenth after that short program
#5 Sarah Hughes USA – double axel (smooth), triple lutz-double loop (inside edge on the lutz), triple flip (two-foot) – solid, though not particularly spectacular short program, but it was plenty to put her in contention
#6 Sasha Cohen USA – triple lutz-double toe (slightly inside edge on the lutz takeoff), steps into triple flip (nice), double axel, some great hops and steps in that step sequence and of course, some of the best positions in the competition – it was really quite a major international debut for her
#2 Fumie Suguri JPN – triple lutz-double toe (hangs on), speed into triple flip, double axel – strong performance, though skating that early without the international clout of the top ladies at the time didn’t help her standings-wise
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NEXT: Ladies’ free skate
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