Irina Slutskaya biography
Irina Slutskaya, (born February 9, 1979, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Russian determine skater who dominated ladies’s determine skating within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. Although her profession was briefly interrupted by well being issues, Slutskaya went on to grow to be the primary girl to win seven European championship titles.
Slutskaya started skating at age 4 upon the urging of her grandmother, who thought the game may cut back the kid’s frequent colds. Slutskaya took up critical coaching at a Moscow skating college two years later, and in 1996, at age 16, she turned the primary Russian girl to win a European figure-skating championship. She rapidly went on to overcome the sphere on the European championships in 1997, 2000, and 2001, and he or she gained each the Russian nationwide championship and the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix Final in 2000, 2001, and 2002. At the 2000 Grand Prix Final in Lyon, France, she turned the primary girl to land the extremely troublesome triple lutz–triple loop mixture. She improved on that on the 2001 world championships, when she landed a triple lutz–triple loop–double toe loop mixture.
In 2003 Slutskaya took time away from the rink to take care of her ailing mom, a kidney transplant candidate who needed to endure dialysis 3 times per week. One yr later Slutskaya was hospitalized with pericarditis, an irritation of the guts lining; she additionally suffered persistent asthmatic bronchitis and pneumonia and feared that she would by no means skate competitively once more. The diseases pressured Slutskaya to take a seat out nearly each competitors through the 2004 season. She did skate within the 2004 world championship (after a compulsory tryout ordered by the Russian ice-skating federation), however she was lower than match and completed ninth.
After regaining her type in late 2004, nevertheless, Slutskaya was capable of stage her return. In January 2005 she gained her fourth Russian nationwide championship, and in March she capped an unbeaten season by skating an aggressive, error-free program that included seven triple jumps to win the ISU ladies’s singles world championship for the second time in 4 years. Unlike her 2002 victory—which got here one month after she earned the silver medal on the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah—Slutskaya’s sensible efficiency in Moscow got here after she had missed nearly two full seasons of skating.
In 2006 Slutskaya gained her seventh European championship title, and on the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, she earned the bronze medal. Although she denied rumours that she was retiring from determine skating, Slutskaya didn't compete on the planet championships that passed off shortly after the Olympics in Turin, and he or she didn't take part in any main aggressive occasions thereafter. Nevertheless, her mark had been made: with victories in seven European championships (1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2006), she had damaged the data of the legendary Sonja Henie and two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt.