Alexei Yagudin’s dream has come true

Yesterday Russian figure skaters won two medals at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin won the second gold medal right after the victory of Russian pair Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. Yagudin was the leader after his short program, and has got the highest marks for his routine.

His main rival, Russian figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko won the silver, another Russian Alexander Abt finished fifth. But for his several mistakes, he could have finished better.

Figure skater Alexei Yagudin from St.Petersburg won the world junior championship for the first time in 1996 at the age of 16. He is a really talented figure skater, that was also confirmed by a storm of applause at the stadium yesterday. Yagudin skated last in the single men’s event to the music from “Man in the Iron Mask”. The audience was amazed and applauded for a long period. The performance was the best the Olympics have ever seen. Alexei has got four perfect marks for the artistry – a rather fantastic result.

As Yagudin told later, during the routine and afterwards he has not doubted a jot that he would win. That is the spirit that helps to win at the Olympic Games in the USA! After the performance Alexei Yagudin kneeled down before his coach Tatiana Tarasova.

The Soviet skating school has always been the best in the world. The Soviet traditions have been taken over by Russia: indeed, Russia is the best in figure skating now – “ahead of the whole of the planet”.

As for Russia’s team result, the country is rated fourth so far: seven medals (two gold, three silver and two bronze). Norway is the leader with ten medals now (5 gold, 5 silver), Germany is the second with 12 medals (4 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze), then goes the USA with 11 medals (3-5-3), Finland is the fifth so far with two gold, one silver and one bronze medals.

Sergey Yugov PARVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

In the photo by RIA Novosti: Alexei Yagudin

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/02/15/37095.html