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VALOVA& VASILIEV
ACHIEVE A MILESTONE
"International Figure Skating", August 1998
ST. PETERSBURG& CHICAGO. April
4 marked 20 years of partnership for 1984 Olympic
pairs gold medallists and two-time
World
Champions Elena Valova & Oleg Vasiliev. The two, who were married from
1984 to 1991, but are now divorced, remain
good friends and may someday
coach together. Vasiliev moved to the United States in December 1997 and
is teaching in Chicago where he works with Maria Jezak-Athey. Valova is
contemplating a move to Pittsburgh where she will work with Suna
Murray. Last autumn they returned to performing and competing after a
three-year break.
"I felt wonderful that people still
enjoyed our skating," Valova said. Unfortunately, it appears those will
stand as the final performances of their impressive career as Valova
admitted, "I don't want to skate anymore." Vasiliev has embraced his new
coaching position. "We have a very good group of skaters, 27 competitive
girls between 13 and 16 years old," he detailed. He and Jezak-Athey,
also a former pair skater, hope to introduce pairs to their program. "In
the United States it's very difficult to find the boys for pairs. A lot
of girls want to skate in pairs," Vasiliev said.
Valova and Vasiliev were
paired up and coached for their entire partnership by Tamara Moskvina,
and both hope to use lessons she taught them in their future work.
Vassiliev stressed
"patience," hard work and unity. "They have to be as a family," he
stressed. "They have to think in the same direction. They have to work
side by side. They have to be always together. Not like enemy, not like
cat and dog. They have to be really good friends, and they have to be
long, long time together. They have to be ready for this."
And so it has been for this pair. "We
feel like we stayed together forever," Valova said with pride. "We have
a lot of good times to remember about the past 20 years."
Photo by Barry Mittan
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