A natural charmer

Fifteen years ago at the world figure skating championships in Cincinnati, East German skater Katarina Witt finished practice at a makeshift rink in a convention center, changed her skates for shoes and waded into the stands to sign autographs.

The scene was extraordinary because East German athletes then were allowed little contact of any sort with non-communists. It also was extraordinary public relations, because Witt and her coach, Jutta Muller, knew it would be reported in the papers and television and help curry favor with the crowd that would watch a competition between Witt and Debi Thomas, then the reigning world champion. Witt won the 1987 worlds to great applause.

The Witt episode came to mind Sunday after watching Russia’s Irina Slutskaya launch what seemed a charm offensive for two-dozen media members, all but three from the United States, after finishing practice at the Salt Lake Ice Center.

After all, didn’t Slutskaya mention how she was practicing English during her free time in the Olympic Village and how the Russian media always made up problems when she didn’t skate well?

One difference, of course, is the fall of European communism means close encounters with athletes from the old Soviet bloc are no longer unusual. The other is the few reporters in Sunday’s crowd who previously had spent time with Slutskaya knew charm is not something she was putting on just to get the audience on her side before the women’s Olympic competition with Michelle Kwan of the U.S. begins Tuesday.

Slutskaya, runner-up to Kwan in the last two world championships, is the first Russian woman to be an Olympic gold-medal contender. She is not worried that her chances to win the title might be diminished by her rival’s home-ice advantage or any anti-Russian feeling after last week’s pairs controversy.

“Why don’t you think they will be cheering for me?” Slutskaya asked with her usual impish smile. “I don’t want to say Americans don’t like me too. It doesn’t matter where you skate. It matters how you skate.”

So it is more significant that Slutskaya’s skating has been consistently erratic all season. She saw improvement in December’s Grand Prix Final, only to backslide in a surprising loss to teammate Maria Butyrskaya at January’s European championships.

Some think the unreliability of her jumping this season can be traced to being a little heavier than a month ago. Slutskaya said she has lost four pounds since December, a significant difference for someone who weighs barely 100.

“In one way, I was surprised [at skating poorly at Europeans], and in another way, I was not surprised because I was tired after four competitions close to each other,” she said.

“I lost the European title and the Russian newspapers said, `This is the end of her, this is the end of everything,”‘ she said.

Slutskaya, fifth in the 1998 Olympics, took a week off after the European championships and did not arrive in Utah until Feb. 8. She was taken directly to Logan, missing the Opening Ceremony, and stayed there to train until Saturday.

Sunday was her first practice here. She did only random pieces of her long program, but one was a triple salchow-triple loop-half loop-triple salchow jump sequence, a first if she lands it during the Olympics.

“It’s competition,” she said. “I really want to try something interesting.”

Such a move would wait for the free skate. Tuesday’s short program has so many required elements skaters rarely try something unusual.

Sunday’s draw for short program skating order could be more favorable for Kwan (15) and Slutskaya (13) than the other two U.S entrants, Sarah Hughes (5) and Sasha Cohen (6). Judges often are baffled by how high to mark a great skate early in the order.

Kwan, the runner-up after being favored at the last Olympics, also spoke with the media after practice Sunday, her second brief interview session in two days. That is another difference from the isolationist stance she took upon arriving after the Opening Ceremony in 1998, especially considering Kwan hardly needs to win over reporters whom she has charmed for years. She went to the Opening Ceremony here Feb. 8.

“I’m a little wiser, a little calmer,” Kwan said. “I’m not taking things for granted. The Opening Ceremony is something I did miss out on a little bit, and I didn’t realize it.”