2004 Cup of Russia Women's FS | Irina Slutskaya overcomes nerves for hometown win

American/Australian coverage (commentators: Terry Gannon, Peter Carruthers, Susie Wynne) 2004 Cup of Russia (Sport Palace Luzhniki, Moscow, Russia) | Кубок России 2004 | 2004/05 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Ladies/Women's free skate (FS) performances featured here marked with (^) below: FPl. Name Nat. Points SP FS^ 1 Irina SLUTSKAYA Ирина Слуцкая  RUS 183.02 1 1^ (08:41 forewords, 09:19, interview 1 15:59, interview 2 36:14) 2 Shizuka ARAKAWA 荒川 静香 JPN 155.52 3 3^ (29:14) 3 Julia SEBESTYEN  HUN 155.06 4 2^ (23:08) 4 Elena SOKOLOVA Елена Соколова RUS 147.94 5 4^ (16:44) 7 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 128.92 2 10^ (02:30) detailed results: https://www.isuresults.com/results/gp... --- Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:30 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 09:19 Irina SLUTSKAYA Ирина Слуцкая RUS 15:59 Interview 1: Irina SLUTSKAYA 16:44 Elena SOKOLOVA Елена Соколова RUS 23:08 Julia SEBESTYEN HUN 29:14 Shizuka ARAKAWA 荒川 静香 JPN 35:59 Final results 36:14 Interview 2: Irina SLUTSKAYA --- [Skating Magazine excerpt] Irina Slutskaya of Russia came out ready to compete, even against the stiff competition of reigning World champion Shizuka Arakawa of Japan and European champion Julia Sebestyen of Hungary. Two solid performances put Slutskaya in first place. Though she barely hung on to her triple Lutz in the short program, which was done in combination with a double toe, Slutskaya showed off excellent spins and came in first with her routine. In the free skate she fought to land her first Lutz but pulled it together to complete a triple Salchow-triple loop-double toe combination. The element was shaky, but the jumps were fully rotated and landed on one foot. She landed three more triples but doubled the second Lutz. "I'm happy about my free program," Slutskaya said. "This was the strongest field of the Grand Prix events with the reigning World and the reigning European champion. I'm glad that I was able to overcome my nervousness and show a good performance." full read: https://skatingmagazine.usfigureskati... --- CBC.ca November 27, 2004 | 6:06 PM ET Russia's Slutskaya wins Cup of Russia Skating before her hometown crowd, Irina Slutskaya wasn't going to disappoint her fans. The 2002 Salt Lake silver medallist and 2002 world champion made another positive step in her comeback from illness, easily winning figure skating's Cup of Russia in Moscow on Saturday. "I am very happy with my skating today, first of all because I finally managed to get together all the difficult elements I practiced for such a long time," Slutskaya said. Slutskaya nailed every one of her jumps, which included a triple Lutz and a triple Salchow combination, to earn a standing ovation from the crowd. Slutskaya's score of 183.02 was a higher total than what she earned in winning the Cup of China, her first competition this season after a knee injury in September. The Russian has been hampered by injuries and concerned about her mother's kidney disease over the past two seasons. "I was a little bit nervous before getting to the ice," she said. "But then I told myself that last year I had been watching this competition on TV and had been so disappointed that I couldn't skate. I missed skating so much last year, and that feeling helped me to skate here." --- With two wins, she leads the standings entering the Grand Prix final in Beijing next month. #figureskating #フィギュアスケート #eiskunstlauf #фигурноекатание #피겨스케이팅 #pattinaggioartistico #patinageartistique #patinaçãoartística thanks to Kim!