Russian Maria Butryskaya performs in the women's free program final competition at the 1998 European Figure Skating Championships at Assago Filaforum in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 17, 1998. She won the gold medal.AP Photo/Luca Bruno

Butyrskaya wins European title as rivals slide

Web posted January 18, 1998

By HOWARD FENDRICH
Associated Press Writer

MILAN, Italy -- Maria Butyrskaya of Russia put on the performance of her life today to move up from fifth place and win the women's European Figure Skating title.

With a graceful free skate, the five-time Russian champion finally broke her string of disappointing international performances and, in the process, gave her country a second straight sweep of the gold medals at the Europeans.

Butyrskaya took the title from two-time defending champion Irina Slutskaya, another Russian, who finished second. Germany's Tanja Szewczenko, who returned to competition in November after an 18-month layoff because of a viral illness, slid to third. She had led after the short program, but had trouble with her jumps today.

``I can't believe it. I just thought I had nothing to lose,'' said Butyrskaya, whose best prior finish at the Europeans was a bronze in 1996. She was fourth last year, and fifth at the world championships in March. ``I didn't think that I could move up so much, it was very difficult. I forced myself to work hard out there.''

While Butyrskaya was good enough to merit 5.8s and 5.9s out of a perfect 6.0 for presentation, her sometimes shaky landings kept her technical marks lower. It was not a performance that will worry gold medal favorites Michelle Kwan or Tara Lipinski at next month's Olympics.

Butyrskaya hit six triple jumps cleanly and also landed two difficult combinations. She won by virtue of making the least mistakes and by showing the most elegance and emotion on the ice. For the gold, though, she needed to hope the four women ahead of her after the short program slipped up.

They all obliged.

The farthest falls came from France's Surya Bonaly, who dropped from second to sixth, and Hungarian Krisztina Czako, who slid from third to fifth.

Russia won all eight gold and silver medals in the meet, an unprecedented feat. That follows up on last year's gold sweep -- the first time that had ever been accomplished at the Europeans.

Alexei Yagudin, 17, led a full sweep of the men's medals, ahead of countrymen Yevgeny Plushenko and Alexander Abt. Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were the pairs champions, while Olympic titlists Pasha Grishuk and Yevgeny Platov won the ice dancing Friday for their 21st consecutive victory.