Perfection still eludes Yagudin

Monday, January 20, 2003 - Figure-skating wunderkind Alexei Yagudin says there are no perfect people and thus no perfect ice skaters. But the 21-year-old native of St. Petersburg, Russia, has come closer to perfection than any figure skater in history.

He won the gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City with the highest marks ever scored by a single skater. Then he took top honors at the 2002 World Championships in Nagano, Japan, receiving a record six perfect scores in the short program.

Yagudin also became the first competitor ever to win figure skating's four major titles in one year by adding the gold medals at the Grand Prix Final and the European Championships.

At the Pepsi Center on Wednesday, Yagudin - one of a host of skating champions on this year's Smucker's Stars on Ice U.S. tour - will display the talent that helped him win nine of the 11 competitions he entered in the 2002 season.

"I don't feel like I am the greatest in this world," he told The Denver Post recently. "For example, I don't see any perfect skaters, the same as there are no perfect people in the world. In the past four years, I have been dominating and won four world championships. It is great, but still I know there is a lot I have to work on.

"It is not like track and field, (where) when you cross the finish line first, there is nothing you can do better. You just finish it first. Here, I know that I can work more on the technique, and I can work more on the artistic."

Joining Yagudin on Wednesday will be Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, and Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who share the 2002 Olympic gold medal for pairs skating following the infamous judging scandal that rocked the Salt Lake Games. The Russians originally scored a victory, but judge-bribing disclosures led officials to award the Canadians a gold medal, also.

Also appearing are two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt, world champion and six-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge, four-time world champion Kurt Browning and three-time U.S. pair champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand.

Stars on Ice co-founder and Olympic champion Scott Hamilton, who retired after the 2001 tour, is making guest appearances at some shows this year, including the one in his hometown of Denver.

His competitors in the eligible (nonprofessional) ranks will not enjoy hearing this, but Yagudin says being on the tour is improving his skating.

"I have (an) opportunity to work with other people and just see how they work, especially people like Kurt, because he has been on this tour for such a long time. He is great artistically, so I have a chance to see the way he works, the way he presents himself, how he works with the audience. It will help me be a better skater in the eligible level," Yagudin said.

Another highlight of the tour for Yagudin is that his mother, Zova, plans to spend a month on the tour with him.

"What's funny is she never watches me skating live. Even if it's live on TV, she would never watch it because she always is getting really nervous. So, she always waits for my phone call," he said.

His mother enrolled him in a figure-skating group in 1984 when Yagudin was 4. Russia was still under communist rule, so all his lessons were free, but Yagudin says he still owes much of his success to his mother.

"My mom did a lot, as well as my coaches, at my younger ages - 5, 6, 7, 8 - because she was looking through the hole in the door to see what my coach would say to me. Then she would bring me to (an) outdoor rink so I would have like a third practice. She was kind of ... pushing me all the time to do more and more," Yagudin said.

Zova Yagudin still lives in St. Petersburg, while Yagudin's main residence is in Connecticut.

"I do know I have like two homes," he said. "It is just really hard sometimes for me to stay here by myself because all my friends and my family are back there. I am still Russian, but I really like the United States, and I live here. I don't know which feeling is stronger, when I land in St. Petersburg in Russia or in Connecticut in Hartford."

His life is not perfect, but Yagudin said he couldn't be happier.