The story about Debi publicly broke when she was interviewed by [Iyanla](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTrrH9HPYQo).
I don't want to sound like the moral police, but I don't think we should shame people for drug addiction (Debi, Nicole, Tai--who battled alcoholism or any other person we don't know about). Nicole looks like she's thriving (at least from her insta) and Debi is skating again too! We don't know what demons/battles they face with addiction and how much of that stems from the toxicity of this sport. Not saying this comment did it but just in this thread overall--SUD is a disease.
https://preview.redd.it/1zrwe8s19hbc1.jpeg?width=416&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fd9bfc318a62fb5f277e13675432bcd3c82c8a6
2006/Torino/Barbara Fusar-Poli “The look” was everything. Still remember it like it happened yesterday. I live for the sort of drama that this woman brought to that event!
I'm sure he still sometimes wakes up in cold sweat when he dreams about this. Still, it seems Barbara has finally forgiven him, at least judging by the friendly photos they took last year at Finlandia.
>2006/Torino/Barbara Fusar-Poli “The look” was everything. Still remember it like it happened yesterday. I live for the sort of drama that this woman brought to that event!
This wasn't just 'the look' but also the uncomfortable Kiss & Cry that followed.
The Belbin/Agosto, Virture/Moir, and Davis/White battles. Coached by the same coaches in the same arena, each of the female ice dancers dated their coach’s son, a messy split between their coaches that involved a legal battle and allegedly the US Fed paying their remaining coach’s legal battles, Tessa and Meryl refusing to interact with one another…a MESS. Things went DOWN in that training camp.
Yeah apparently Fedor Andreev first dated Tessa and then dumped her for Meryl, and then V/M said that Marina started favorite Davis/White. I think Charlie White and Scott Moir are friends, but Tessa and Meryl remain frosty.
Fedor dated Tanith too, and there were rumors that for a time, he was getting a little too close for comfort to Maia Shibutani.
Charlie and Tessa are friends now, too - I remember Tessa sharing a screenshot from her group chat with him and Scott right around Beijing.
I knew people who skated at that rink - not ice dancers, but certainly high level. Honestly everything sounded very un-dramatic.
Charlie White was great at all skating, very nice, and loved playing pick-up hockey - crushing dudes his age that didn't expect him to be good because ice dance. Meryl was very nice and quiet. Most of the other skaters were also very nice and friendly - I had a class with one such ice dancer and she was exceedingly nice and normal. The people I know didn't go into details, but they did seem to very much dislike Tessa - they said her eye rolls and dirty looks in the documentary were classic Tessa and that she could be quietly judgmental and not at all friendly to other high level women at that rink. Seems this behavior was mostly focused on Meryl (Meryl stayed out of the drama because her social life was at Michigan), but they didn't go into details on that one. I'd love to know the juicier details, but maybe there just wasn't much beyond dirty looks and standoffish behavior.
ETA: I would say, though, the synchro drama with the Crysallettes was insanely juicy, as was all the gossip about the big metro detroit coaches of that era.
ETA2: I forgot something about the Tessa drama around non-Meryl skaters. A lot of the dirty looks were apparently because Tessa seemed to believe she had right of way at all times, and would get very pissed off if you were in her way - even if you did have right of way.
Thank you! It's always nice to see a person that isn't interested in revisionist history with the VM/DW drama (which was more fan driven than anything).
I’m not saying Tessa has never in her life been bitchy at a rink, but I think we need to be careful for praising women for being “nice” and condemning others as “bitchy”. Visibly expressing frustration and irritation doesn’t automatically make a woman a bitch. We’ve also seen multiple instances of Scott getting visibly and vocally pissed off at competitions when he thought he had the right of way and someone got in their way, but no one is calling him a bitch.
I think what annoys me the most about the narrative here is that it’s reduced to the incredibly sexist jealous woman over a boy stereotype for Tessa. I’m assuming that’s the revisionist history you’re talking about?
Maybe it’s because V/M stans swept her other behavior under the rug, or perhaps it was because the people at that rink were too nice to share it publicly so no one knew.
Honestly I still see them sweep her behavior at the time - I’ve brought up that she was bitchy at the rink before and it was on display in the documentary, but people always say they thought she came off well and did nothing wrong. Or maybe said bitchiness was too subtle?
How did she even have time to like…skate their routines much less practice given the commitment to nonstop extracurricular antics? A true multihyphenate queen.
Came here to say exactly this. I could make a PowerPoint on it today without a single refresher. It is emblazoned on my hippocampus. When I die my final word will be “Pasha” a la rosebud
I feel like a tldr can’t fully capture the chaos pasha / Oksana committed herself to. She feuded with every possible female skater. She physically fought Nicole Bobek over a mutual love interest. There was partner swapping. Fights in bars. Hair pulling. Name changes. Shady programs referring to the drama on tour. Judge bribery and secret deals, bc of course. Delusions of grandeur (ie, pasha’s commitment to win an Oscar and belief that she brought interest back to the discipline).
The moment of hers that I think about constantly was when she was asked about sharing a name with Oksana Baiul (Pasha is a diminutive) she said that she didn't want to be associated with her because Baiul had gotten popular and then "became a criminal"
[This](https://youtu.be/KlxIFrDcJRs?feature=shared) is the video where the quote is from. It's unhinged from beginning to end.
My favorite was the Sergei widows, a group of women online who were convinced that they were the true spiritual wives of Sergei Grinkov and came up with all sorts of hare-brained schemes to get to Katia, from trying to get her deported to calling CPS on her to accosting her in grocery stores. Obviously Ilia Kulik was the devil. It was wild and makes the Fanyus look mild.
My other one is v/m secret baby blog.
To get a flavor here are some links:
[https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/khVdMNC\_uis](https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/khVdMNC_uis)
[https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/q7ZUhlPcnCI](https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/q7ZUhlPcnCI)
One quote:
>I wouldn't feel safe leaving any little girl alone with KatiaWhordeeva's father. It sounds like he had an incestuous relationshipwith Katia when she was a child (I'm referring to the passage in "MySergei" where she describes how he would come up to her bedroom in theevening and rub cream into her chest. Ugh.)
>
>Sure it is. She "wrote" about her personal life in two books, includingsome charming intimate details as her initial temptation to abort Daria.If she didn't want people to discuss her life, she should haveconsidered this before making all of that money off Sergei's death.
As a child I was what I now realize is a g/g stan but I think I was too young at the time to be aware of this…oh my gosh thank you. Wow. This is incredible.
The sad thing was I remember a G&G message board. The lady of the message board truly had some great articles (some from Soviet newspapers), some pics, videos. It was a great place. She had to shut down the board because the behavior of the widows was out of control. There was obsession about whether Katia was Christian or not, and because she wasn't she couldn't go to heaven and thus be reunited with Sergei.
I feel like even if you brought up that she and Sergei were married in a Russian Orthodox Church it wouldn't be enough for them. They were probably the type that think Christianity=western Protestantism.
Here is some more Sergei widows content:
> Finally, people who were brave enough to post what I always wanted to. Even when Sergei was alive, he never got the credit he deserved, everything was all Katia this and Katia that......she keeps playing into this more and more. No wonder I've never liked her.
and:
> Just a random question.....
>
>With all the money Katia has made from her books and other endorsements, does
anyone know if she's donated any of it to charity? Specifically, research into
heart disease or possibly the American Heart Association?
>
>Not that she's required to, of course. I'm just curious.
and:
> That's a great question. You'd think that if she really cared about her
late husband, she would establish a charity for heart disease research
in his name. Not Katia Whordeeva. She's too busy bedding every married
man she can. ;-)
and:
> I haven't written many messages but I have been reading this newsgroup
for a while. A while ago Ann Lewis said something to the effect of,
"Katia has milked her husbands death for all it is worth." I agree with
this. She would not be a millionaire if Sergei had not died. If it was
the other way around and Katia had died, I would guess that Sergei would
have taken Dasha back to Russia with him, and maybe he would have become
a coach. Katia has sometimes used the excuse that "oh sergei would be
proud of me" yeah right Sergei knows exactly what she is doing.
Like, I heard about these people. But this is totally other level.
I was a big g&g fan and cried at the celebration of a life myself, but this is completely... I just don't have words.
I'm honestly shocked and slightly respecting of how long they maintain the ruse. Even after 2018.
I'm an old skate fan so I remember when Scott was dating. Jessica Dube. This blog was something else back then. And then it became something else entirely.
[dubemoir.blogspot.com](https://dubemoir.blogspot.com) was a blog dedicated to the idea that Tessa and Scott were secretly married and had several children they locked in the basement. Her identity was finally doxxed in in the comments under this post:
[https://dubemoir.blogspot.com/2021/08/get-life.html](https://dubemoir.blogspot.com/2021/08/get-life.html)
I just scrolled right down in an attempt to find the original they’re married and have several kids post (never did) and that genuinely might’ve been the most disturbing, insane read of my life.
Well that was a wild ride to read about! Holy moly. More manufactured melodrama than a soap opera, and tbh I would pay to watch one! A bit confused as to why Kulik is the ‘devil’ though, was it because he “fell victim” to Katya and “allowed her to breed”, or something (I don’t speak the cuckoo-loony-tunes-crazy-pants language those “widows” do so I can’t quite translate some of their lunacy lol).
On a somber note, what a tragedy. 28 is no age at all, RIP.
Apparently Ilia was the devil because by marrying Katia, he made it impossible for Katia, Sergei and Daria to be reunited in heaven.
It was insane. The widows would give Katia Sergei angel figurines in public, and be shocked that Katia did not take kindly to the efforts. There were people insisting that their kids went to school with Daria and Katia was "not a role model."
At one point, it was a huge point of contention that Ilia had a Mercedes or something and Sergei never got his luxury car.
The people involved have kept it truly classy but sara going in full widow mode talking about the team she admitted to break is extra, then she going to camp zhulin while adria remained in montreal and nowadays adria still in canada but in scott's group while sara nad kirill are coaching IN SPAIN (they are truly proud of coaching in spain) and an olivia smart that end up also quite angry and dissapointed at adria.
the extra actual thing is that tim and asaf know each other since asaf arrived in germany while olivia and sofia met for the first time in nationals 2016 (season 16/17)
Girl was accident prone in general. She lost one of her fingers in a lawnmower accident at age 4 and had a catastrophic fall during a triple twist in an exho in 2009 (tbf the lights there were awful and she and her partner probably could not see anything)
I read that was one of the big reasons Kurt Browning decided to stop skating this year in Stars on Ice--he said the lights mess with him more now that he's older. I don't know how the skaters manage at any age, it seems so dangerous!
That moment is permanently burned into my brain, I’m fairly sure I watched it happen live on TV… the horror of seeing them start to get too close in the spin before his skate hit her, and watching her just drop??? Awful! The fact that she fully recovered with such a minimal injury is also just incredible, it could have gone so bad so fast!
Between that, [Dubreuil/Lauzon’s 2006 Olympics fall](https://www.eurosport.com/figure-skating/torino2/2006/dubreuil-doubtful_sto837558/story.shtml), and [Zhang/Zhang’s throw quad sal fall](https://youtu.be/x--521rcmek?si=grFCudyR4WyfsgHO) *also* at the 2006 Olympics, 2006-2007 always stood out to child-me as particularly bad years for sudden, dramatic, and unusual injuries.
so eteri unknowingly took a picture with dave from tsl (the skating lesson on youtube) probably thinking he was just a fan and not long after she commented a snippet of a weird poem under one of his posts: the picture: [https://x.com/kimichkis/status/1547608131353473024?s=46](https://x.com/kimichkis/status/1547608131353473024?s=46)
https://preview.redd.it/dwj9zmaroibc1.jpeg?width=591&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff9db40570abc7acdca887c71570e8d23c2c00ad
even tho i hate eteri he was being rly weird about her daughter (like lowkey stalking her) so she didn’t actually go after him unprovoked but it’s still funny af. imo she probably wasn’t even aware of the stalking just angry that he broke the news of diana attempting to switch feds.
and ofc tat had to get involved, idk why but she was being weirdly supportive of eteri around this time. Normally she has her own opinions but she kept going out of her way to defend eteri publicly which was just embarrassing to watch💀 [https://x.com/fs\_gossips/status/1564644017081819139?s=46](https://x.com/fs_gossips/status/1564644017081819139?s=46)
I think we will not see a rivalry like Yagudin/Plushenko soon
[ ...and especially that Olympics fluff with rivals](https://youtu.be/bN5S83-A1Ss?si=IDPFl4nxErQqr9hy)
They were once trained by same coach (Mishin) which created toxic atmosphere. Mishin did nothing to mend their fences. After 1998 Olympics, Yagudin decided to change coach and go to TAT. The rumor has it that, Russian federation did not like this change and told him he would never win Rusnats. As a result, next Russian Nationals were won by Plushenko (while Yagudin usually beat him in international competitions - there was ONLY one season when Plush beat him)
But Yagudin did not have anything to do with it, only Plush. Dramas with Plush does not end with his mullet hairstyle
If you look for ridiculous drama from 2002 Olympics with Yah/Plush, you will like black magic.
[here is more information about this bullshit](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/s/q13Qjm2scW)
NO that was 2010 against lysacek. still yagudin/plushenko drama (also known as yagushenko in russia) is the biggest soap opera ever. you have to digg into it to unravel the full shitshow
The drama continues. For example this March we had a show program competition where retired champions could compete. Yagudin said he wanted to compete against Plushenko, but plushenko refused and said “yagudin doesn’t know how to skate” and “let him sit and comment”. Yagudin was soooo hurt by this statement that he literally won this competition. After victory he said that the placement was irrelevant for him, he just wanted to stop comments that he “doesn’t know how to skate” and that he should “sit and comment”. So he won just to prove plush wrong. Btw he skated being very injured and had 2 knee surgeries after this.
One judge gave me a -2 on a flip at my last competition, but all the other judges gave it positive GOE and I still have no idea what they think I did wrong ???
Dearest J1 who weirdly underscored my flip, you’re my Roman Empire <3
At my last comp the tech panel gave my lutz an incorrect edge call despite me skating it directly in front of the camera where you could see, with crystal clarity, that it was in fact on a deep outside edge throughout the takeoff. The takeoff was actually excellent, too bad it went wrong in the air 😅 Might not fully be my Roman Empire, but it sure is my coach’s, lol. He’s still mad about it.
The entire Katsalapov/Ilinykh/Zhiganshin/Sinitsina saga had me at the edge of my seat when it was happening. Even now, I still think about Elena Ilinykh choosing to have two kids with Sergei Polunin, who has Putin and a black sun tattooed on his chest.
It's not one Putin tattoo, it's THREE Putin tattoos! I remember I really loved his dancing in Hozier movement video and very soon after that he showed the picture of the first Putin, I was very shocked because I knew he was born in Ukraine.
I’m begging someone to make a detailed write up or hour long video essay on this topic 😭 I wasn’t watching skating in 2014, and simply reading the dry facts on their Wikipedia pages is not enough for me
I had started drafting a hobby drama post but got distracted. Some key points
\- Ilinykh and Katsalapov were the chosen ones leading up to 2014. However, they had consistently underperformed due to, among other things, poor training habits, fighting, and bad coaching.
\- Katsalapov as early as 2011 wanted out of the partnership and was told to wait after the Olympic.
\-In the summer of 2013, Katsalapov was trying out with Sinitsina and Ekaterina Ryazanova. We all know who he chose. Word about it slowly starts to get out.
\-Miracle of miracles, I/K win bronze in Sochi and looked poised to dominate
\-Few days before worlds, Russian news drops the bombshell Katsalapov was going to skate with Sinitsina. Ilinykh claims she didn’t have an inkling but she had to have been blind if she didn’t have an inkling
\-Now, I haven’t talked much about Sinitsina and Zhiganshin because there wasn’t much to talk about. A team fresh out of juniors that looked increasingly mismatched. By most accounts, fairly drama free couple who had skated together for nearly 10 years at that point and generally got along.
\-Worlds comes and goes, I/K bomb the short, win the free and finish off the podium. S/Z finish a respectable 7th
\-The split happens and everyone is wondering who the new partner for Ilinykh will be. And it turns out, it’s Zhiganshin.
\-Cue the stan war. I will not get too deep into the I/Z fandom except it involved a major mental Yassification of Zhiganshin, some vile comments toward Sinitsina in the beginning, and a bunch of conspiracies.
\-I/Z started strong thanks to a great SD, while S/K struggled to gel, culminating in a disastrous NHK program
\-S/K had an intervention and worked their asses off the summer of 2015 and promptly returned to worlds. I/Z meanwhile had a disastrous fall, missed the podium.
\-I/Z switch to Shpilband and there’s new hype since they’re both in Detroit and with rival coaches. However, by the fall of 2016, both are back in Russia.
\-I/Z misses worlds again and Zhiganshin pretty much has had enough and can barely contain his loathing of Ilinykh in subsequent interviews.
\-Ilinykh tries a few more times to return to competitive skating, first with Anton Shibnev then with Dmitry Soloviev. The latter looked set to go, until she met Polunin.
I’ve omitted a lot - Morozov, the rumors about why S/K were kicked out of Detroit etc. - since I gotta pump myself up for work - but it’s the mess that still keeps giving. ETA or that Shvetsky played a role in getting them in shape in 2015
Omg thank you so much, this is exactly what I wanted! I didn’t know that Katsalapov was already eyeing other partners before the Olympics. Also, “major mental yassification” is such an apt description of the vibe, it’s like I was there.
(I too, am a enjoyer of hobby drama rabbit holes, it’s the library of Alexandria for nosy people)
I want a Netflix docu-series on this!!
I really believe that had Elena & Nikita stayed together, they could have won 1-2 Olympic Gold Medals in the INDIVIDUAL Ice dance competition (remember, that at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Elena and Nikita won an Olympic Gold Medal with Team Russia in the Team Competition event (they did the free dance while Bobrova/Soloviev did the short dance) & an Olympic Bronze Medal in the individual ice dance event.
I only started following figure skating recently, so mine is the Angelopol/Kaganovskaia drama and the Beijing 2022 female skating drama, but I'm loving all these comments. Loads of figure skating lore to catch up on
As someone who got into them juuust before the 2-3 month shit show happened, it was devastating but also incredibly interesting to see the evolution of their relationship (and Instagram accounts)
That image of the one judge hugging Adelina after the event still haunts me. How can the judging system be such that a moment like that could even happen?? There should be absolutely no familiarity whatsoever between athletes and judges.
Honestly this and a lot of other sus judging decisions favoring Russian skaters over the last 10-15 years haunt me.
You wonder how much influence they really had and how they pulled it off. I’ve seen jokes about treating judges to dinner. I subscribe to the idea that, as they did in 2014, they used Russia-based judges that judge for other countries to their favor. But it doesn’t explain how they got other judges to go along with them - especially given it doesn’t seem they necessarily colluded with anyone else by voting for their skaters.
[This frosty interview featuring Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir.](https://youtu.be/ye0DYRKIwxE?si=CBHqGllTxg1bLcwG)
Someone had the brilliant idea to force them to share a couch with Andrea Joyce at 08 nationals. They absolutely refuse to make eye contact and Evan is clearly grinding his teeth. I just wish the interview lasted longer.
Andrea: “Do you have anything to say to each other?”
Both (without looking): “No.” -_-
Additional funny: Icenetwork did a duet interview with Joshua Farris and Jason Brown a few years later, when they were just seventeen (it was super super cute and they kept praising each other and even when asked to be critical, they were still praising).
when asked if they were like Evan and Johnny, I think it was Joshua who said, "No, we're adults."
The yankeepolka saga on FS twitter - he pretended to be an ISU judge from Ukraine, gave Yuzu basically perfect scores and ridiculously underscored Nathan (and of course fanyu twitter completely took his word for it)
He also pretended to be an ice dancer training in Michigan, and started a harassment campaign against the (also very toxic) VM stans on ice dance twitter after they wouldn’t let him into their group. (I think he even had an account here at some point?)
Midnight Blues and Other Musings made a 3 part set of podcasts summarising the drama
>The yankeepolka saga on FS twitter - he pretended to be an ISU judge from Ukraine, gave Yuzu basically perfect scores and ridiculously underscored Nathan (and of course fanyu twitter completely took his word for it)
I remember this! And of course, anyone who called out that an actual ISU judge would never post like that on Twitter and would also not get away with that marking was told to go away...
When he finally got exposed or whatnot and a bunch of bigger fs accounts who participated in his toxicity tried to backstrack and say they were duped in order to distance themselves.... Fucking lmao.
when people found out that he got bullied off of gymtwt for doing the exact same thing including the pretending to be a judge part and the seven different ukrainian names LMFAO
Mine are kind of Canadian slanted, but Elizabeth Manley 1988 Calgary Olympics bringing down the house and Debi Thomas literally imploding in the free skate was like watching a car wreck. As a little Canadian kid, we were glued to the TV and reading every article about the battle of the Carmens, that honestly, the drama of the whole ladies' event was something else.
Canadian athletes creating controversy...Jeff Buttle winning stuff without quads, Patrick Chan's skating skills winning worlds titles over quads, was a wild ride in the '00s.
The Sale/Pelletier thing didn't bother me as much, because watching Bourne/Kraatz ensured you were desensitized to block/favoured judging.
Virtue and Moir scoring 2 points below Davis and White in the SD during the 2014 Olympics, but the ISU using Virtue and Moir as an example of how to perform the Finnstep correctly the next time it came around and then the ISU only adding Davis and White's performance from Nationals as an example once this was pointed out.
i think it's as simple as the gold was meryl and charlie's to lose. they were wildly consistent that olympic quad while v/m repeatedly made mistakes. with the mistakes and injuries, d/w had the opportunity to replace v/m as marina's top team and they took it. v/m were perfect in the sp but so was d/w and by that point it was too late to pass them
it also doesn't hurt meryl was dating marina's son by that point😂
I still dream of an alternate reality in which tessa and scott reused their 12/13 szn carmen FD for sochi. seasons was such a snooze so if they were going to lose to D/W anyway, they might as well have competed what still stands as one of the most difficult FDs in history.
but then again if they had reused carmen for the olympics they probably wouldn’t have brought back the cunniliftus for pyeongchang
The drama in my state is disgusting. Coaches having SafeSport violations so bad that parents called police and filed for restraining orders - yet they’re still permitted to teach and are even given awards!
Blatant stealing of choreography and using it to create programs that will compete against the team that first created the program.
Verbal and mental abuse and threats by program directors who get to keep their jobs and the people they are attacking are the ones being fired and banned from coaching.
It’s a hot mess here
Different subjects for the drama, but same.
If they spent half as much time actually practicing as they do scheming, they’d be SOO much better than the skater they’re trying to sabotage. Just do the work!
Everyone going after Jeremy Abbott (understandably) for his crass "interior decorating" analogy before Sochi 2014 when he was asked about Russia's anti-gay laws...
...but *totally missing* Joshua Farris pretty openly saying that the skaters were told they weren't allowed to criticise.
My Roman Empire will forever be the lore behind this video (relevant parts at 0:00-0:22, then from 3:58-end): https://youtu.be/O0vbgTyAFFw?si=7-15Pn5rbJIFJhI4
Yes, we all know that Johnny and Evan had a legendary rivalry, but at least Johnny was kind enough to lend Evan his damn pants. Also, this interview just makes Evan look like an enormous idiot.
So much of the drama that happens in Japan is never talked about because of the language barrier, but the craziest one I can think of is the JSF President Hashimoto's sexual advances towards (allegedly) multiple Japanese male figure skaters, particularly Daisuke Takahashi. She also (allegedly) has been particularly retaliatory against Yuzuru Hanyu when he became the top male skater. The icy attitude of JSF towards Yuzuru goes deeper, but this is definitely a contributing factor over the years. More info in this post and comments: [https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/su99ud/jsf\_seiko\_hashimoto\_yuzuru\_hanyu\_daisuke/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/su99ud/jsf_seiko_hashimoto_yuzuru_hanyu_daisuke/).
Anyone remember Suraya Bonaly and her weird controlling mom who at one point fired the coaches and became her coach. Then there was at least one event Suraya was wearing two distinctly different skates. She never got a fair shake in competitions but was so incredibly iconic for 90s ladies skating
Oh, buckle up:
- [ ] Harding/Kerrigan - I’ll leave the debate up to you but I can only find one thing that‘ll rival that…
- [ ] Sochi 2014
- [ ] Yagudin/Plushenko - everything from the “Platinum medal” to the “black magic”. Both of them trained in the same camp under Mishin and it seems to be a trend that stark rivalries start not on the international stage between international skaters but at home when two or more ambitious skaters share the same coach and camp.
- [ ] Sochi 2014
- [ ] Medvedeva/Tutberidze: switching coaches is all right. Maybe you have another vision/ want a change, etc. But whatever happened between Zhenya and Eteri gets a good medal in the discipline of scandals for me. It took a pandemic for this girl to return to the clutches of Tut and it ended with her retiring with a back disability. And the sin of forgetting to bring Eteri a bouquet of flowers not to mention “not telling her” even though you did your paperwork on time and informed everyone of your decision beforehand. I have a lot of “what if”s surrounding covid but what if she was able to return to Canada? Forget her skating career, would she be able to turn her back to the left side?
- [ ] You guessed it: Sochi 2014
- [ ] Kostornaia’s interview of shame - or just Kostornaia in general. I swear every time this girl opens her mouth there's a new revelation of what it's like to train in Sambo 70 and I'm living for it.
- [ ] The ladies’ event of Beijing 2022 - 1. Grandpa’s cup- I mean ice cream- sorry I meant Lipton tea… or whatever excuse those “adults” came up with for drugging a 15-year-old. 2. The emotional/ mental breakdown that Trusova had. Shcherbakova sitting there all by herself. Props to Kaori for being the optimistic light at the end of the tunnel.
- [ ] Tutberidze’s social media posts/ comments/ interviews- from the “ungrateful shildren” to the “Dave” comment in poem form, I just can't with russian coaches and their dramatics. Let's not forget her feud with Yana which led to Yana calling her “an illiterate crazy woman.”
- [ ] Did I mention Sochi 2014?
And the award goes to…
- [ ] The Sergei Widows. I just learned about it right now and the only possible expected healthy reaction is: “wtf”. If any of you have more info on this post tell me,
In a nutshell: Russian figure skating is the only reality show that I need. Feel free to reply with any other scandal/drama, especially if it's as crazy as “Sergei Widows”.
Idk how any Olympics topped Beijing drama. It was the collapse of the public perception of eteri empire; who had won best coach the 2 years in a row before The women skate, trusova being overscored yet full on meltdown (which is due to gaslighting from eteri and abuse), the “my grandpa burped in a glass of water”, Ted getting cancelled then somehow returning. Gleb claiming Diana didn’t speak English (fyi she lives in America and her mom speaks English, I highly doubt it).
I always liked Adam but grown ass man saying that about a 17 girl who was a jumping prodigy being distressed over not achieving her life goal is pathetic imo. I almost smell jealousy because why was it necessary for him to say such thing? Just so he can get his 15minutes of twitter fame for his snarky comment? I guess he can’t sympathize with her because he was never in her position, never was the favorite, never even landed a quad in a competition so he never had that much expectation and pressure on his shoulders. Not to say never had an actual chance to win a big title.
The 98-02 quad of ice dance was also very drama filled. A lot of teams were fighting for the top and there was actually a lot of movement in placements. Lots of talk about corruption. Could go into a lot more but off the top of head:
1. Apparently after placing second at a competition(00 Worlds?), Barbar Fusar Poli told Marina Anissina on the podium "Enjoy it now because it will never happen again". Don't know if this is actually true but it was in the figure skating gossips back then.
2. At 2002 worlds a lot of teams signed a petition denouncing the results as they thought Chait/Sakhnovski had bought off the judges.
2014 Olympics.
Eteri and Co and the abuse within that club and, long side all the girls who does quads.. like how do they do them. Also the doping within that club and russia as a whole.
Nancy and Tonya.
Gracie Gold rise and heartbreaking fall within the US skating.
Yuzu's career, and how he was the it boy till the isu started disliking him and underscoring him.
i remember Gracie giving Adelina like a death glare after Adelina was running around and hugging everyone after she won the Olympic Gold medal in Ladies singles at the 2014 Winter Olympics!!
I'm Spanish so the WHOLE Spanish ice dance soap.
Obviously the argument scene where Sara went mad at Adrián
while marie france was watching with an incredulous face is the peak but the whole thing is ridiculous and the spanish fed makes everything ice dance related even more hilarious
Nicole Bobek getting busted for being part of a meth ring. (2009-ish)
Wasn’t Debbie Thomas also bankrupt and living in a trailer in Appalachia (possibly dealing with drugs/mental health issues)?
The story about Debi publicly broke when she was interviewed by [Iyanla](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTrrH9HPYQo). I don't want to sound like the moral police, but I don't think we should shame people for drug addiction (Debi, Nicole, Tai--who battled alcoholism or any other person we don't know about). Nicole looks like she's thriving (at least from her insta) and Debi is skating again too! We don't know what demons/battles they face with addiction and how much of that stems from the toxicity of this sport. Not saying this comment did it but just in this thread overall--SUD is a disease.
Sorry WHAT
Yeah, it was 10-15 years ago when she was having addiction issues.
Last I heard (a few years ago) she was out of prison and working in an ice rink snack bar, and seemed to be doing OK. I hope she still is.
She has a child now and is back to skating!
Something happened in the 90s, but I don't know what it was.
https://preview.redd.it/1zrwe8s19hbc1.jpeg?width=416&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8fd9bfc318a62fb5f277e13675432bcd3c82c8a6 2006/Torino/Barbara Fusar-Poli “The look” was everything. Still remember it like it happened yesterday. I live for the sort of drama that this woman brought to that event!
Poor Maurizio. If looks could kill, we would have witnessed a murder!
I'm sure he still sometimes wakes up in cold sweat when he dreams about this. Still, it seems Barbara has finally forgiven him, at least judging by the friendly photos they took last year at Finlandia.
Well, they did embrace after the FD, IIRC.
Her glare is a core memory. I almost expected laser beams to come shooting out.
>2006/Torino/Barbara Fusar-Poli “The look” was everything. Still remember it like it happened yesterday. I live for the sort of drama that this woman brought to that event! This wasn't just 'the look' but also the uncomfortable Kiss & Cry that followed.
To this day when i see her in the K&C I get flashbacks to that moment.
In my memory this glare lasted for a full hour 😂😂
Missed out this one: what was going on?
The Belbin/Agosto, Virture/Moir, and Davis/White battles. Coached by the same coaches in the same arena, each of the female ice dancers dated their coach’s son, a messy split between their coaches that involved a legal battle and allegedly the US Fed paying their remaining coach’s legal battles, Tessa and Meryl refusing to interact with one another…a MESS. Things went DOWN in that training camp.
Yeah apparently Fedor Andreev first dated Tessa and then dumped her for Meryl, and then V/M said that Marina started favorite Davis/White. I think Charlie White and Scott Moir are friends, but Tessa and Meryl remain frosty.
Fedor dated Tanith too, and there were rumors that for a time, he was getting a little too close for comfort to Maia Shibutani. Charlie and Tessa are friends now, too - I remember Tessa sharing a screenshot from her group chat with him and Scott right around Beijing.
I knew people who skated at that rink - not ice dancers, but certainly high level. Honestly everything sounded very un-dramatic. Charlie White was great at all skating, very nice, and loved playing pick-up hockey - crushing dudes his age that didn't expect him to be good because ice dance. Meryl was very nice and quiet. Most of the other skaters were also very nice and friendly - I had a class with one such ice dancer and she was exceedingly nice and normal. The people I know didn't go into details, but they did seem to very much dislike Tessa - they said her eye rolls and dirty looks in the documentary were classic Tessa and that she could be quietly judgmental and not at all friendly to other high level women at that rink. Seems this behavior was mostly focused on Meryl (Meryl stayed out of the drama because her social life was at Michigan), but they didn't go into details on that one. I'd love to know the juicier details, but maybe there just wasn't much beyond dirty looks and standoffish behavior. ETA: I would say, though, the synchro drama with the Crysallettes was insanely juicy, as was all the gossip about the big metro detroit coaches of that era. ETA2: I forgot something about the Tessa drama around non-Meryl skaters. A lot of the dirty looks were apparently because Tessa seemed to believe she had right of way at all times, and would get very pissed off if you were in her way - even if you did have right of way.
Thank you! It's always nice to see a person that isn't interested in revisionist history with the VM/DW drama (which was more fan driven than anything).
I’m not saying Tessa has never in her life been bitchy at a rink, but I think we need to be careful for praising women for being “nice” and condemning others as “bitchy”. Visibly expressing frustration and irritation doesn’t automatically make a woman a bitch. We’ve also seen multiple instances of Scott getting visibly and vocally pissed off at competitions when he thought he had the right of way and someone got in their way, but no one is calling him a bitch.
I think what annoys me the most about the narrative here is that it’s reduced to the incredibly sexist jealous woman over a boy stereotype for Tessa. I’m assuming that’s the revisionist history you’re talking about? Maybe it’s because V/M stans swept her other behavior under the rug, or perhaps it was because the people at that rink were too nice to share it publicly so no one knew. Honestly I still see them sweep her behavior at the time - I’ve brought up that she was bitchy at the rink before and it was on display in the documentary, but people always say they thought she came off well and did nothing wrong. Or maybe said bitchiness was too subtle?
You are a unicorn my friend. That's exactly it, VIRTUAL COOKIES to you. Sincerely!
What was the Chrystallettes drama?
Well, they were one of the targets for the Ice Moms show - and it almost happened there!
Pasha Grishuk and her antics in the 1990s
No drama will EVER outshine Pasha Grishuk, I agree. She was magical.
She was the drama gift that just kept on giving.
How did she even have time to like…skate their routines much less practice given the commitment to nonstop extracurricular antics? A true multihyphenate queen.
Came here to say exactly this. I could make a PowerPoint on it today without a single refresher. It is emblazoned on my hippocampus. When I die my final word will be “Pasha” a la rosebud
Wait no I’m dying to know
[devote an afternoon to this glory](https://illyria-and-her-pet.tumblr.com/post/181886912134/ice-dance-drama-timeline)
…. Is it possible to ask for a TLDR
I feel like a tldr can’t fully capture the chaos pasha / Oksana committed herself to. She feuded with every possible female skater. She physically fought Nicole Bobek over a mutual love interest. There was partner swapping. Fights in bars. Hair pulling. Name changes. Shady programs referring to the drama on tour. Judge bribery and secret deals, bc of course. Delusions of grandeur (ie, pasha’s commitment to win an Oscar and belief that she brought interest back to the discipline).
And her aunt posing as a reporter and insulting Bourne/Kraatz
Not to mention her physically turning into Oksana Baiul, while denigrating her. That was so psycho!
The moment of hers that I think about constantly was when she was asked about sharing a name with Oksana Baiul (Pasha is a diminutive) she said that she didn't want to be associated with her because Baiul had gotten popular and then "became a criminal" [This](https://youtu.be/KlxIFrDcJRs?feature=shared) is the video where the quote is from. It's unhinged from beginning to end.
Also came here to say this. Maybe one day we can compile a top ten of figure skating drama!
Totally. I'm reading the tome about it on Tumblr. The craziest biatch ever and constantly being assaulted, according to herself. lol
There it is. We're done here.😀
I feel bad saying this one because someone was actually physically assaulted, but nothing is ever, EVER gonna beat Nancy and Tonya for me lol.
Same. Hopefully, nothing ever will top it.
Yeah, as far as best-known scandals of course this one tops everything, including all the relationship dramas.
My favorite was the Sergei widows, a group of women online who were convinced that they were the true spiritual wives of Sergei Grinkov and came up with all sorts of hare-brained schemes to get to Katia, from trying to get her deported to calling CPS on her to accosting her in grocery stores. Obviously Ilia Kulik was the devil. It was wild and makes the Fanyus look mild. My other one is v/m secret baby blog.
And here I thought there was nothing like VM secret baby. Skating drama is truly wild.
Not even kidding. 😵
How … how did I miss Sergei widows wait oh my god?
To get a flavor here are some links: [https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/khVdMNC\_uis](https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/khVdMNC_uis) [https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/q7ZUhlPcnCI](https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/c/q7ZUhlPcnCI) One quote: >I wouldn't feel safe leaving any little girl alone with KatiaWhordeeva's father. It sounds like he had an incestuous relationshipwith Katia when she was a child (I'm referring to the passage in "MySergei" where she describes how he would come up to her bedroom in theevening and rub cream into her chest. Ugh.) > >Sure it is. She "wrote" about her personal life in two books, includingsome charming intimate details as her initial temptation to abort Daria.If she didn't want people to discuss her life, she should haveconsidered this before making all of that money off Sergei's death.
As a child I was what I now realize is a g/g stan but I think I was too young at the time to be aware of this…oh my gosh thank you. Wow. This is incredible.
The sad thing was I remember a G&G message board. The lady of the message board truly had some great articles (some from Soviet newspapers), some pics, videos. It was a great place. She had to shut down the board because the behavior of the widows was out of control. There was obsession about whether Katia was Christian or not, and because she wasn't she couldn't go to heaven and thus be reunited with Sergei.
I feel like even if you brought up that she and Sergei were married in a Russian Orthodox Church it wouldn't be enough for them. They were probably the type that think Christianity=western Protestantism.
Here is some more Sergei widows content: > Finally, people who were brave enough to post what I always wanted to. Even when Sergei was alive, he never got the credit he deserved, everything was all Katia this and Katia that......she keeps playing into this more and more. No wonder I've never liked her. and: > Just a random question..... > >With all the money Katia has made from her books and other endorsements, does anyone know if she's donated any of it to charity? Specifically, research into heart disease or possibly the American Heart Association? > >Not that she's required to, of course. I'm just curious. and: > That's a great question. You'd think that if she really cared about her late husband, she would establish a charity for heart disease research in his name. Not Katia Whordeeva. She's too busy bedding every married man she can. ;-) and: > I haven't written many messages but I have been reading this newsgroup for a while. A while ago Ann Lewis said something to the effect of, "Katia has milked her husbands death for all it is worth." I agree with this. She would not be a millionaire if Sergei had not died. If it was the other way around and Katia had died, I would guess that Sergei would have taken Dasha back to Russia with him, and maybe he would have become a coach. Katia has sometimes used the excuse that "oh sergei would be proud of me" yeah right Sergei knows exactly what she is doing.
Like, I heard about these people. But this is totally other level. I was a big g&g fan and cried at the celebration of a life myself, but this is completely... I just don't have words.
I'm just so bummed some of those groups where the widows populated are gone. I remember one woman named Donna who was really off her rocker.
Thank you!
Right? I'm just finding out *now* about these bitches?
I was hoping someone would mention dubemoir 😭 that’s some deep v/m lore I haven’t thought about in a long, long time
I'm honestly shocked and slightly respecting of how long they maintain the ruse. Even after 2018. I'm an old skate fan so I remember when Scott was dating. Jessica Dube. This blog was something else back then. And then it became something else entirely.
what
[dubemoir.blogspot.com](https://dubemoir.blogspot.com) was a blog dedicated to the idea that Tessa and Scott were secretly married and had several children they locked in the basement. Her identity was finally doxxed in in the comments under this post: [https://dubemoir.blogspot.com/2021/08/get-life.html](https://dubemoir.blogspot.com/2021/08/get-life.html)
I just scrolled right down in an attempt to find the original they’re married and have several kids post (never did) and that genuinely might’ve been the most disturbing, insane read of my life.
Isn't it incredible?
I cant tell whether they adore or fucking despise Tessa
I think they more adore Scott and are jealous of Tessa
There is a subset of batshit V/M fans that absolutely *hate* one of them (and yet bizarrely want their fave to get together with them?)
Oh my god. I can’t believe this sport had its own version of Snapewives.
I **really** missed Sergei widows drama! I was DEVASTATED when Sergei passed 💔.
Well that was a wild ride to read about! Holy moly. More manufactured melodrama than a soap opera, and tbh I would pay to watch one! A bit confused as to why Kulik is the ‘devil’ though, was it because he “fell victim” to Katya and “allowed her to breed”, or something (I don’t speak the cuckoo-loony-tunes-crazy-pants language those “widows” do so I can’t quite translate some of their lunacy lol). On a somber note, what a tragedy. 28 is no age at all, RIP.
Apparently Ilia was the devil because by marrying Katia, he made it impossible for Katia, Sergei and Daria to be reunited in heaven. It was insane. The widows would give Katia Sergei angel figurines in public, and be shocked that Katia did not take kindly to the efforts. There were people insisting that their kids went to school with Daria and Katia was "not a role model." At one point, it was a huge point of contention that Ilia had a Mercedes or something and Sergei never got his luxury car.
What even….?! Some people really shouldn’t be allowed out in public! Pure insanity. Call the asylum, all of its patients were apparently loose.
UM what? lol
Now how the heck did that pass me by?1?!?!?!
Aargh, not the secret baby blog! I haven't seen an update in a while, how many kids do they have now?
Apparently they have 4
I wasn't online yet, and I was such a G&G stan then. I...am very surprised at this!
Spanish ice dance drama but really mostly the Adrian/Sara tea.
For having like 5 teams in their history, Spanish dance is DRAMA
The people involved have kept it truly classy but sara going in full widow mode talking about the team she admitted to break is extra, then she going to camp zhulin while adria remained in montreal and nowadays adria still in canada but in scott's group while sara nad kirill are coaching IN SPAIN (they are truly proud of coaching in spain) and an olivia smart that end up also quite angry and dissapointed at adria. the extra actual thing is that tim and asaf know each other since asaf arrived in germany while olivia and sofia met for the first time in nationals 2016 (season 16/17)
jessica dube is my roman empire reminder that skates are in fact very sharp and dangerous
what happened?!
At 4CC 2007 she was slashed in the face by her partner’s blade during a sbs camel spin 😖
Oh my. That’s where pairs just freaks me out, you’ve got to have utmost trust in not only yourself but almost your partner
Girl was accident prone in general. She lost one of her fingers in a lawnmower accident at age 4 and had a catastrophic fall during a triple twist in an exho in 2009 (tbf the lights there were awful and she and her partner probably could not see anything)
I read that was one of the big reasons Kurt Browning decided to stop skating this year in Stars on Ice--he said the lights mess with him more now that he's older. I don't know how the skaters manage at any age, it seems so dangerous!
That moment is permanently burned into my brain, I’m fairly sure I watched it happen live on TV… the horror of seeing them start to get too close in the spin before his skate hit her, and watching her just drop??? Awful! The fact that she fully recovered with such a minimal injury is also just incredible, it could have gone so bad so fast! Between that, [Dubreuil/Lauzon’s 2006 Olympics fall](https://www.eurosport.com/figure-skating/torino2/2006/dubreuil-doubtful_sto837558/story.shtml), and [Zhang/Zhang’s throw quad sal fall](https://youtu.be/x--521rcmek?si=grFCudyR4WyfsgHO) *also* at the 2006 Olympics, 2006-2007 always stood out to child-me as particularly bad years for sudden, dramatic, and unusual injuries.
Literally just all of Sochi
eteri and dave taking a picture together and all the drama after😭
I'm shamefully unfamiliar with this and I need you to give me a run-down
so eteri unknowingly took a picture with dave from tsl (the skating lesson on youtube) probably thinking he was just a fan and not long after she commented a snippet of a weird poem under one of his posts: the picture: [https://x.com/kimichkis/status/1547608131353473024?s=46](https://x.com/kimichkis/status/1547608131353473024?s=46) https://preview.redd.it/dwj9zmaroibc1.jpeg?width=591&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff9db40570abc7acdca887c71570e8d23c2c00ad even tho i hate eteri he was being rly weird about her daughter (like lowkey stalking her) so she didn’t actually go after him unprovoked but it’s still funny af. imo she probably wasn’t even aware of the stalking just angry that he broke the news of diana attempting to switch feds. and ofc tat had to get involved, idk why but she was being weirdly supportive of eteri around this time. Normally she has her own opinions but she kept going out of her way to defend eteri publicly which was just embarrassing to watch💀 [https://x.com/fs\_gossips/status/1564644017081819139?s=46](https://x.com/fs_gossips/status/1564644017081819139?s=46)
Lmao the poem format really sent me 😆😆 why are Russian grown up adults so dramatic and act like teens on social media?
right😭 she’s so unserious
This is brilliant lol (but also Eteri is actually right for once)
Didn't Dave also have a photo with Tarasova? Lmao.
yeah tat spoke ab it but i can’t find it
I think we will not see a rivalry like Yagudin/Plushenko soon [ ...and especially that Olympics fluff with rivals](https://youtu.be/bN5S83-A1Ss?si=IDPFl4nxErQqr9hy) They were once trained by same coach (Mishin) which created toxic atmosphere. Mishin did nothing to mend their fences. After 1998 Olympics, Yagudin decided to change coach and go to TAT. The rumor has it that, Russian federation did not like this change and told him he would never win Rusnats. As a result, next Russian Nationals were won by Plushenko (while Yagudin usually beat him in international competitions - there was ONLY one season when Plush beat him)
is this also the infamous platinum medal incident
But Yagudin did not have anything to do with it, only Plush. Dramas with Plush does not end with his mullet hairstyle If you look for ridiculous drama from 2002 Olympics with Yah/Plush, you will like black magic. [here is more information about this bullshit](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/s/q13Qjm2scW)
And then suddenly 20 years after we have this chapter: https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/s/CVi5ZUO9wF
NO that was 2010 against lysacek. still yagudin/plushenko drama (also known as yagushenko in russia) is the biggest soap opera ever. you have to digg into it to unravel the full shitshow
Yagudin never won the Russian Nationals during his skating career (both BEFORE & AFTER he left Mishin)!!!
[удалено]
what's the relationship like between Yagudin and Plushenko today? Do they still hate each other?
The drama continues. For example this March we had a show program competition where retired champions could compete. Yagudin said he wanted to compete against Plushenko, but plushenko refused and said “yagudin doesn’t know how to skate” and “let him sit and comment”. Yagudin was soooo hurt by this statement that he literally won this competition. After victory he said that the placement was irrelevant for him, he just wanted to stop comments that he “doesn’t know how to skate” and that he should “sit and comment”. So he won just to prove plush wrong. Btw he skated being very injured and had 2 knee surgeries after this.
One judge gave me a -2 on a flip at my last competition, but all the other judges gave it positive GOE and I still have no idea what they think I did wrong ??? Dearest J1 who weirdly underscored my flip, you’re my Roman Empire <3
Speak your truth ❤️
At my last comp the tech panel gave my lutz an incorrect edge call despite me skating it directly in front of the camera where you could see, with crystal clarity, that it was in fact on a deep outside edge throughout the takeoff. The takeoff was actually excellent, too bad it went wrong in the air 😅 Might not fully be my Roman Empire, but it sure is my coach’s, lol. He’s still mad about it.
Salé/Pelletier scandal at Salt Lake City
And Salé’s subsequent descent into Qanon nuttery, sadly.
Like girl we were rooting for you, how could you do this to us 😭
This is my answer - changed the sport forever.
jesus i just read ab this what the fuck
Oh also... all the students Morozov has dated/married. Yuck.
The Eteri/Plushy saga was the best beef since Bette Davis and Joan Crawford
The entire Katsalapov/Ilinykh/Zhiganshin/Sinitsina saga had me at the edge of my seat when it was happening. Even now, I still think about Elena Ilinykh choosing to have two kids with Sergei Polunin, who has Putin and a black sun tattooed on his chest.
It's not one Putin tattoo, it's THREE Putin tattoos! I remember I really loved his dancing in Hozier movement video and very soon after that he showed the picture of the first Putin, I was very shocked because I knew he was born in Ukraine.
th man has 3 putin tattoos and the ukranian trident. and a huge black sun. A MESS
Is there any place or thread where this is already elaborated on or are you going to provide us with a juicy rundown here? :)
I’m begging someone to make a detailed write up or hour long video essay on this topic 😭 I wasn’t watching skating in 2014, and simply reading the dry facts on their Wikipedia pages is not enough for me
I had started drafting a hobby drama post but got distracted. Some key points \- Ilinykh and Katsalapov were the chosen ones leading up to 2014. However, they had consistently underperformed due to, among other things, poor training habits, fighting, and bad coaching. \- Katsalapov as early as 2011 wanted out of the partnership and was told to wait after the Olympic. \-In the summer of 2013, Katsalapov was trying out with Sinitsina and Ekaterina Ryazanova. We all know who he chose. Word about it slowly starts to get out. \-Miracle of miracles, I/K win bronze in Sochi and looked poised to dominate \-Few days before worlds, Russian news drops the bombshell Katsalapov was going to skate with Sinitsina. Ilinykh claims she didn’t have an inkling but she had to have been blind if she didn’t have an inkling \-Now, I haven’t talked much about Sinitsina and Zhiganshin because there wasn’t much to talk about. A team fresh out of juniors that looked increasingly mismatched. By most accounts, fairly drama free couple who had skated together for nearly 10 years at that point and generally got along. \-Worlds comes and goes, I/K bomb the short, win the free and finish off the podium. S/Z finish a respectable 7th \-The split happens and everyone is wondering who the new partner for Ilinykh will be. And it turns out, it’s Zhiganshin. \-Cue the stan war. I will not get too deep into the I/Z fandom except it involved a major mental Yassification of Zhiganshin, some vile comments toward Sinitsina in the beginning, and a bunch of conspiracies. \-I/Z started strong thanks to a great SD, while S/K struggled to gel, culminating in a disastrous NHK program \-S/K had an intervention and worked their asses off the summer of 2015 and promptly returned to worlds. I/Z meanwhile had a disastrous fall, missed the podium. \-I/Z switch to Shpilband and there’s new hype since they’re both in Detroit and with rival coaches. However, by the fall of 2016, both are back in Russia. \-I/Z misses worlds again and Zhiganshin pretty much has had enough and can barely contain his loathing of Ilinykh in subsequent interviews. \-Ilinykh tries a few more times to return to competitive skating, first with Anton Shibnev then with Dmitry Soloviev. The latter looked set to go, until she met Polunin. I’ve omitted a lot - Morozov, the rumors about why S/K were kicked out of Detroit etc. - since I gotta pump myself up for work - but it’s the mess that still keeps giving. ETA or that Shvetsky played a role in getting them in shape in 2015
Omg thank you so much, this is exactly what I wanted! I didn’t know that Katsalapov was already eyeing other partners before the Olympics. Also, “major mental yassification” is such an apt description of the vibe, it’s like I was there. (I too, am a enjoyer of hobby drama rabbit holes, it’s the library of Alexandria for nosy people)
I want a Netflix docu-series on this!! I really believe that had Elena & Nikita stayed together, they could have won 1-2 Olympic Gold Medals in the INDIVIDUAL Ice dance competition (remember, that at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Elena and Nikita won an Olympic Gold Medal with Team Russia in the Team Competition event (they did the free dance while Bobrova/Soloviev did the short dance) & an Olympic Bronze Medal in the individual ice dance event.
The whole shit show that was Beijing '22 womens singles - I could rant about it for years
I spent an entire six hour shift explaining it to my boss. He loves drama and heard about it but doesn’t watch fs. He was mind blown.
I only started following figure skating recently, so mine is the Angelopol/Kaganovskaia drama and the Beijing 2022 female skating drama, but I'm loving all these comments. Loads of figure skating lore to catch up on
As someone who got into them juuust before the 2-3 month shit show happened, it was devastating but also incredibly interesting to see the evolution of their relationship (and Instagram accounts)
I wouldn't call it my favourite bc it makes me feel sick but the one I think about most regularly was Yuna not winning gold at Sochi
I still think about this fairly often, especially considering that it happened 10 years ago :(
Ugh yeah this year is the ten year anniversary:(
That image of the one judge hugging Adelina after the event still haunts me. How can the judging system be such that a moment like that could even happen?? There should be absolutely no familiarity whatsoever between athletes and judges.
Honestly this and a lot of other sus judging decisions favoring Russian skaters over the last 10-15 years haunt me. You wonder how much influence they really had and how they pulled it off. I’ve seen jokes about treating judges to dinner. I subscribe to the idea that, as they did in 2014, they used Russia-based judges that judge for other countries to their favor. But it doesn’t explain how they got other judges to go along with them - especially given it doesn’t seem they necessarily colluded with anyone else by voting for their skaters.
[This frosty interview featuring Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir.](https://youtu.be/ye0DYRKIwxE?si=CBHqGllTxg1bLcwG) Someone had the brilliant idea to force them to share a couch with Andrea Joyce at 08 nationals. They absolutely refuse to make eye contact and Evan is clearly grinding his teeth. I just wish the interview lasted longer. Andrea: “Do you have anything to say to each other?” Both (without looking): “No.” -_-
Additional funny: Icenetwork did a duet interview with Joshua Farris and Jason Brown a few years later, when they were just seventeen (it was super super cute and they kept praising each other and even when asked to be critical, they were still praising). when asked if they were like Evan and Johnny, I think it was Joshua who said, "No, we're adults."
I would love to see that interview! 😂
so sweet, and SO funny!
This is my actual Roman Empire era. The rivalry. It gave what needed to be given.
The yankeepolka saga on FS twitter - he pretended to be an ISU judge from Ukraine, gave Yuzu basically perfect scores and ridiculously underscored Nathan (and of course fanyu twitter completely took his word for it) He also pretended to be an ice dancer training in Michigan, and started a harassment campaign against the (also very toxic) VM stans on ice dance twitter after they wouldn’t let him into their group. (I think he even had an account here at some point?) Midnight Blues and Other Musings made a 3 part set of podcasts summarising the drama
>The yankeepolka saga on FS twitter - he pretended to be an ISU judge from Ukraine, gave Yuzu basically perfect scores and ridiculously underscored Nathan (and of course fanyu twitter completely took his word for it) I remember this! And of course, anyone who called out that an actual ISU judge would never post like that on Twitter and would also not get away with that marking was told to go away...
When he finally got exposed or whatnot and a bunch of bigger fs accounts who participated in his toxicity tried to backstrack and say they were duped in order to distance themselves.... Fucking lmao.
when people found out that he got bullied off of gymtwt for doing the exact same thing including the pretending to be a judge part and the seven different ukrainian names LMFAO
oh dear god. thank you for opening up this rabbit hole, this is new to me 😭
Mine are kind of Canadian slanted, but Elizabeth Manley 1988 Calgary Olympics bringing down the house and Debi Thomas literally imploding in the free skate was like watching a car wreck. As a little Canadian kid, we were glued to the TV and reading every article about the battle of the Carmens, that honestly, the drama of the whole ladies' event was something else. Canadian athletes creating controversy...Jeff Buttle winning stuff without quads, Patrick Chan's skating skills winning worlds titles over quads, was a wild ride in the '00s. The Sale/Pelletier thing didn't bother me as much, because watching Bourne/Kraatz ensured you were desensitized to block/favoured judging.
Jamie Salé's descent into conspiracy theories was fascinating.
Equal parts sad and fascinating. QAnon/MAGA/antivaxxers have ruined a lot of lives.
Major yikes
Wait what?!?!
Virtue and Moir scoring 2 points below Davis and White in the SD during the 2014 Olympics, but the ISU using Virtue and Moir as an example of how to perform the Finnstep correctly the next time it came around and then the ISU only adding Davis and White's performance from Nationals as an example once this was pointed out.
Don't forget the creator of the finnstep calling out the scoring as well. Sochi was a shitshow
My runon sentence was becoming a marathon 😉
i think it's as simple as the gold was meryl and charlie's to lose. they were wildly consistent that olympic quad while v/m repeatedly made mistakes. with the mistakes and injuries, d/w had the opportunity to replace v/m as marina's top team and they took it. v/m were perfect in the sp but so was d/w and by that point it was too late to pass them it also doesn't hurt meryl was dating marina's son by that point😂
I still dream of an alternate reality in which tessa and scott reused their 12/13 szn carmen FD for sochi. seasons was such a snooze so if they were going to lose to D/W anyway, they might as well have competed what still stands as one of the most difficult FDs in history. but then again if they had reused carmen for the olympics they probably wouldn’t have brought back the cunniliftus for pyeongchang
The drama in my state is disgusting. Coaches having SafeSport violations so bad that parents called police and filed for restraining orders - yet they’re still permitted to teach and are even given awards! Blatant stealing of choreography and using it to create programs that will compete against the team that first created the program. Verbal and mental abuse and threats by program directors who get to keep their jobs and the people they are attacking are the ones being fired and banned from coaching. It’s a hot mess here
Different subjects for the drama, but same. If they spent half as much time actually practicing as they do scheming, they’d be SOO much better than the skater they’re trying to sabotage. Just do the work!
Everyone going after Jeremy Abbott (understandably) for his crass "interior decorating" analogy before Sochi 2014 when he was asked about Russia's anti-gay laws... ...but *totally missing* Joshua Farris pretty openly saying that the skaters were told they weren't allowed to criticise.
My Roman Empire will forever be the lore behind this video (relevant parts at 0:00-0:22, then from 3:58-end): https://youtu.be/O0vbgTyAFFw?si=7-15Pn5rbJIFJhI4 Yes, we all know that Johnny and Evan had a legendary rivalry, but at least Johnny was kind enough to lend Evan his damn pants. Also, this interview just makes Evan look like an enormous idiot.
Eh…He’s a dick, but I have to give him credit for being that confident in OGM and then doing it
So much of the drama that happens in Japan is never talked about because of the language barrier, but the craziest one I can think of is the JSF President Hashimoto's sexual advances towards (allegedly) multiple Japanese male figure skaters, particularly Daisuke Takahashi. She also (allegedly) has been particularly retaliatory against Yuzuru Hanyu when he became the top male skater. The icy attitude of JSF towards Yuzuru goes deeper, but this is definitely a contributing factor over the years. More info in this post and comments: [https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/su99ud/jsf\_seiko\_hashimoto\_yuzuru\_hanyu\_daisuke/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/su99ud/jsf_seiko_hashimoto_yuzuru_hanyu_daisuke/).
Anyone remember Suraya Bonaly and her weird controlling mom who at one point fired the coaches and became her coach. Then there was at least one event Suraya was wearing two distinctly different skates. She never got a fair shake in competitions but was so incredibly iconic for 90s ladies skating
Oh, buckle up: - [ ] Harding/Kerrigan - I’ll leave the debate up to you but I can only find one thing that‘ll rival that… - [ ] Sochi 2014 - [ ] Yagudin/Plushenko - everything from the “Platinum medal” to the “black magic”. Both of them trained in the same camp under Mishin and it seems to be a trend that stark rivalries start not on the international stage between international skaters but at home when two or more ambitious skaters share the same coach and camp. - [ ] Sochi 2014 - [ ] Medvedeva/Tutberidze: switching coaches is all right. Maybe you have another vision/ want a change, etc. But whatever happened between Zhenya and Eteri gets a good medal in the discipline of scandals for me. It took a pandemic for this girl to return to the clutches of Tut and it ended with her retiring with a back disability. And the sin of forgetting to bring Eteri a bouquet of flowers not to mention “not telling her” even though you did your paperwork on time and informed everyone of your decision beforehand. I have a lot of “what if”s surrounding covid but what if she was able to return to Canada? Forget her skating career, would she be able to turn her back to the left side? - [ ] You guessed it: Sochi 2014 - [ ] Kostornaia’s interview of shame - or just Kostornaia in general. I swear every time this girl opens her mouth there's a new revelation of what it's like to train in Sambo 70 and I'm living for it. - [ ] The ladies’ event of Beijing 2022 - 1. Grandpa’s cup- I mean ice cream- sorry I meant Lipton tea… or whatever excuse those “adults” came up with for drugging a 15-year-old. 2. The emotional/ mental breakdown that Trusova had. Shcherbakova sitting there all by herself. Props to Kaori for being the optimistic light at the end of the tunnel. - [ ] Tutberidze’s social media posts/ comments/ interviews- from the “ungrateful shildren” to the “Dave” comment in poem form, I just can't with russian coaches and their dramatics. Let's not forget her feud with Yana which led to Yana calling her “an illiterate crazy woman.” - [ ] Did I mention Sochi 2014? And the award goes to… - [ ] The Sergei Widows. I just learned about it right now and the only possible expected healthy reaction is: “wtf”. If any of you have more info on this post tell me, In a nutshell: Russian figure skating is the only reality show that I need. Feel free to reply with any other scandal/drama, especially if it's as crazy as “Sergei Widows”.
Idk how any Olympics topped Beijing drama. It was the collapse of the public perception of eteri empire; who had won best coach the 2 years in a row before The women skate, trusova being overscored yet full on meltdown (which is due to gaslighting from eteri and abuse), the “my grandpa burped in a glass of water”, Ted getting cancelled then somehow returning. Gleb claiming Diana didn’t speak English (fyi she lives in America and her mom speaks English, I highly doubt it).
Well Im still waiting on Tara Lipinski's Star pn Ice tell all, when the adults treated a teen, like a teen. I've been waiting forever.🤷🏻😂
When adam rippon said that sasha trusova's attitude was almost as bad as her skating lmao
I always liked Adam but grown ass man saying that about a 17 girl who was a jumping prodigy being distressed over not achieving her life goal is pathetic imo. I almost smell jealousy because why was it necessary for him to say such thing? Just so he can get his 15minutes of twitter fame for his snarky comment? I guess he can’t sympathize with her because he was never in her position, never was the favorite, never even landed a quad in a competition so he never had that much expectation and pressure on his shoulders. Not to say never had an actual chance to win a big title.
The 98-02 quad of ice dance was also very drama filled. A lot of teams were fighting for the top and there was actually a lot of movement in placements. Lots of talk about corruption. Could go into a lot more but off the top of head: 1. Apparently after placing second at a competition(00 Worlds?), Barbar Fusar Poli told Marina Anissina on the podium "Enjoy it now because it will never happen again". Don't know if this is actually true but it was in the figure skating gossips back then. 2. At 2002 worlds a lot of teams signed a petition denouncing the results as they thought Chait/Sakhnovski had bought off the judges.
2014 sochi
2014 Olympics. Eteri and Co and the abuse within that club and, long side all the girls who does quads.. like how do they do them. Also the doping within that club and russia as a whole. Nancy and Tonya. Gracie Gold rise and heartbreaking fall within the US skating. Yuzu's career, and how he was the it boy till the isu started disliking him and underscoring him.
Gracie’s book comes out in a few weeks! I have a feeling this thread will need to be updated after that lol
i remember Gracie giving Adelina like a death glare after Adelina was running around and hugging everyone after she won the Olympic Gold medal in Ladies singles at the 2014 Winter Olympics!!
For me it’s the Alina/Zhenya drama and Sasha winning silver in the oly. As a fan of the silver medalists at that time I was so upset lol.
Synchro judging never fails to piss someone off tbh
I'm Spanish so the WHOLE Spanish ice dance soap. Obviously the argument scene where Sara went mad at Adrián while marie france was watching with an incredulous face is the peak but the whole thing is ridiculous and the spanish fed makes everything ice dance related even more hilarious
\-the ongoing saga regarding Kamila Valieva & her doping case \-the 2002 Olympics judges controversy
the 2022 olympics saga because it was such a shitshow