NAVIGATION

2001-2002 COMPETITIVE SEASON NEWS

2002 World Championships

03/23/02 - Maria and Alexei finished 4th place at the world championships.

- Pairs event sees solid performances
- Shen and Zhao win first world title

2002 Olympics

02/12/02 - Masha and Lesha skated a clean, and beautiful performance in the long program.  They finished 6th overall. 

Links:
- Final results from the official website

02/09/02 - Maria and Alexei skated a beautiful short program Saturday night in Salt Lake City.  They are currently in 6th place heading into the long program. 

Links:
- Official Website
- Extended short program results from the official website
 

02/07/02 - Masha and Lesha are in Salt Lake City and practicing for the Olympics. 

Schedule:

Saturday, February 9 - Pairs Short (18:30-21:20 MST) 
Monday, February 11 - Pairs Long (17:45-21:12 MST) 

2002 European Championships

01/17/02 - Masha and Lesha won the bronze medal at the 2002 European Championships. 

Links:
- Official Web Site
- IceCalc Results
- Totmianina & Marinin first despite lace problems - Iskater.com (01/14/02) 
- Totmianina & Marinin win first European Title - Iskater.com (01/16/02) 

Quotes from the press conferences (from the European Championships website):

After Pairs short program: 

MARIA:  "Today, we did all our elements exactly and clean. We wanted to skate beautifully to bring joy
to the audience, and I think that’s what we did. The low marks don’t bother us, because we are
pleased with ourselves." 
ALEXEI:  "It was an excellent short program. I can’t explain the marks, that’s
the judges’ job. We came here to win and that’s what we will fight for in the long program." 

After Pairs free program: 

MARIA:  "I’m not entirely pleased with ourperformance. I didn’t land the triple throw toeloop." 

ALEXEI:  "I think we skated the program as awhole better than at Russian Nationals, but the
elements were more shaky. Therewas a huge pressure on us. We wanted to win very much. And we
know that wecan’t miss a single element. The judges don’t pardon anything. As we approachedthe
end of our program, I pushed through, we wanted to finish strongly." 

Press Conference: 

ALEXEI:  "We fought till the end tonight. I think we skated very well tonight, emotionally. But we made a few
mistakes, espcecially in the throw. It wasn’t enough to win tonight, unfortunaly. I didn’t see the others.We are glad with our skating tonight. Our speed was very nice. We made changes in our free program, it’s now stronger and more powerful. We made a combination with a triple jump (double Axel-triple toeloop sequence), another triple jump (toeloop) and double Axel. This is one of the strongest programs in the world now. I don’t know why,but it’s more difficult (to win) for our couple. If we make some mistakes, the judges don’t forgive us anything. But it’s ok, it makes us stronger." 
. 

2002 Russian Nationals

12/29/01 - Russian nationals have concluded in Moscow.   Below are links to articles detailing the competition and containing results. 

Slutskaya wins Russian national title - AP (12/28/01) 
Russia crowns figure skating champions - AP (12/29/01) 

12/27/01 - Russian nationals have begun in Moscow! 

Schedule:
- Friday, December 28 - Pairs short program - 17:30 
- Saturday, December 29 - Pairs long program - 17:45 

Links:
- Russian Nationals web site by Engis
- Live results by Engis
- Iskater.com nationals preview article (12/25/01) 

2002 Grand Prix Final

12/15/01 - Masha and Lesha finished 5th in all phases of the Grand Prix Final Competition.  Below are links to articles about the event from Iskater.com. 

- Short Program
- Free Program A
- Free Program B

12/13/01 - Masha and Lesha are currently competing at the Grand Prix Final. 

Schedule:
- Friday, December 14 - Pairs short program - 3:50 PM 
- Friday, December 14 - Pairs long program (A or B) - 9:50 PM 
- Saturday, December 15 - Pairs long program (A or B) - 8:45 PM 

Links:
- 2002 ISU Grand Prix Final - Kitchener, Ontario, Canada - December 13-16, 2001 
- Official Web Site
 

2001 Grand Prix Events

11/30/01 - Maria and Alexei finished 2nd in the long program to win the silver medal at NHK Trophy.  Read about their performance in the following article: 

Iskater.com Article on Pairs Long - 11/30/01 

11/29/01 - Masha and Lesha finished 2nd in the short program with a clean program. 

Iskater.com Article on Pairs Short - 11/29/01 

Schedule:
Thursday, November 29 - Pairs Short Program (19:40) 
Friday, November 30 - Pairs Long Program (18:30) 

Links:
- Official NHK Trophy Website
 

11/24/01 - Masha and Lesha finished 2nd in the long program to win the silver medal at Cup of Russia.   They skated well, with the only error being Alexei stepping out of his double axel. 

Iskater.com Article on Pairs Long - 11/24/01 

11/23/01 - Skating first, Maria and Alexei performed a clean program and finished first in the short program at the Cup of Russia. The long program is Saturday. 

Iskater.com Article on Pairs Short - 11/23/01 

11/20/01 - Masha and Lesha will be competing at their second grand prix event (first scoring event), Cup of Russia, in their hometown of St. Petersburg. 

Schedule:
Friday, November 23 - Pairs Short Program (6:45 pm) 
Saturday, November 24 - Pairs Long Program (5:00 pm) 

Links:
- Official Cup of Russia website
- St. Petersburg by Engis
 

11/10/01 - Masha and Alexei finished 2nd in the short program and 3rd in the long program at Nations Cup.   In the short program, Alexei stepped out of his side-by-side triple jump which resulted in deductions.   They skated a solid long program. 

- Iskater article about the short program (11/09/01) 
- Iskater article about the long program (11/10/01) 
 
 

11/01/01 - Maria and Alexei begin their grand prix event series in Gelsenkirchen, Germany at Sparkassen Cup (formerly Nations Cup).   Masha and Alexei have won this event twice previously (in 1998 & 1999) and finished second last year. 

Schedule:
November 9 - Pairs Short Program (15:00) 
November 10 - Pairs Long Program (13:00) 

Links:
Nations Cup web site
Results

2001 Goodwill Games

09/07/01 - Goodwill Games Long Program - Maria and Alexei debuted their new long program to selections from the musical "Chess."  Although they had a few problems in the program (Masha singled her triple toe loop, they doubled the throw double toe and completed a double twist instead of a triple), their new program was very well recieved and they finished third, clinching the bronze medal. 
Full marks and results are on the Goodwill Games web site.   Reviews from several people who attended the Goodwill Games are on Nick's Skate Victoria web site. 

09/05/01 -Goodwill Games Short Program - Maria and Alexei finished 2nd in the short program at the GWG in Brisbane, Australia.  They debuted their new short program, Tchaikovsky's Adagio from the Nutcracker.  The program is elegant with interesting elements and Maria and Alexei skated it very well.  Visit the Goodwill Games web site  to view marks and ordinals. 

- Spoiler article from Yahoo (9/5/01)

07/02/01 - Goodwill Games Update: Maria and Alexei are planning to compete at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia from September 5-9.   They are listed on the USFSA's list of confirmed skaters. 

06/25/01 - Grand Prix Event Info: Maria and Alexei, as seeded skaters, are competing at three grand prix events in the fall; Nations Cup, Cup of Russia and NHK Trophy.  More information is available in "The Future" section of this web site. 

6/5/01 - Training Update:Maria and Alexei are working hard in the off season to prepare for their first Olympic season together.   They will be training in Sochi from June 15-28.    They will be training in Sweden for the month of July and return to St. Petersburg for the month of August.