Well, this is embarrassing.
It turns out skater Irina Slutskaya is not retiring from competitive figure skating after all. I shared that piece of news a couple of days ago based on a Reuters news story, which got their info from the Russian News Agency. It seems the writer who reported this story in Russia had not confirmed the information with Slutskaya herself. The 27-year-old former World and European champion said it was all news to her, and insisted she was not done yet. “If I’m retiring, I forgot to tell my coach,” she joked.
On a similar note, Russian teammate and Olympic gold medalist Evegeny Plushenko is also remaining in competitive skating despite initial rumors that he would retire. A Canadian news article last spring quoted Plushenko as saying he planned to retire to focus on his family. He said at the time that he wanted to skate for his family, not for the Russian federation.
It seems a lot of skaters are putting retirement on hold indefinitely. There wasn’t nearly as many retirements after the Olympics and Worlds as there usually is. The fact is, once these skaters retire from competition, there aren’t many opportunities for them to perform, with the exception of Champions on Ice. There used to be a lot of professional competitions and ice shows during the height of popularity in the 1990s, but they have shrunk considerably. And I think, for Russian skaters especially, competitive skating is more lucrative than going pro.
For the last 15 years or so, Russia has churned out strong singles skaters. But now, the well is beginning to run dry. Beyond Plushenko and Slutskaya, there aren’t many Russian singles skaters coming up through the ranks. I suspect that Plushenko is remaining competitive to allow younger Russian skaters to develop and perhaps because of potential compensation or financial incentives from his skating federation. Lord knows, he has nothing to prove otherwise.
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