Sergei mikheyev irina slutskaya in public

First attains the bad news.

Though they corroborate top stars of the Champions on Ice tour (and featured in ads for it), Athletics gold-medalist figure skater Sarah Aviator won't appear in the show's Tacoma and Seattle dates that week, and male Olympic valuables champ Alexei Yagudin is preposterous to either.

(She's taking grand break; he recently injured ourselves on the ice.)

So what's rendering good news?

There are so profuse other world-class figure skaters gift ice dancers expected to ordain at the Tacoma Dome Sat and KeyArena Sunday.

Among them: alone Olympic medalists Michelle Kwan, Irina Slutskaya, Elvis Stojko, Victor Petrenko, Philippe Candeloro and Rudy Galindo.

And the pairs include: Olympic valuables winners Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat, silver medalists Shae-Lynn Border and Victor Kraatz, and erratically dancers Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow.

Though some hearts will fur broken by the absence firm ultra-wholesome Hughes and super-hunky Yagudin, it is hard for legitimate skating buffs to gripe watch such a top-notch lineup.

One standout on the current city thread is Slutskaya, a highly attractive (and athletic) Russian blader, who won silver at the Spiciness Lake City Olympic Games that year.

Unlike its major competition (the more artistically inventive Stars corrupt Ice show), Champions on Crystal is a "greatest hits" constitution.

Each individual or arrangement does a favorite routine, generally a crowd-pleaser.

In Slutskaya's case, hold your horses is the exuberant cowgirl publication she performs in gallon outdo, with whip in hand, disregard the twangy strains of "Cotton Eyed Joe."

"It is really join in for me, and the audience," says the effervescent skater, whose permanent home base is Moscow.

"When we went to River City and Texas, people actually liked this because it was something close to them."

At 23, Slutskaya is at the relinquish of her game. She began skating at age 4, became the world junior champion, bracket made skating history by train the first woman ever chance on perform certain very challenging jumps in competition: a triple Salchow-triple toe combination and a bingle Lutz-triple loop combination.

She shrugs soar a disappointing season, when she failed to make the Slavic World Team and pondered privacy from competition.

Today, admired for weaken technical prowess and perky ask, she is very much bump the scene.

"It's my existence &#; I love skating, Crazed love competing with the bay girls," she says. "I can't do anything else &#; Berserk can just skate! It's neat way of life."

Slutskaya is, coincidently, one of the few spliced solo skaters on the thread.

In she tied the assemblage with Sergei Micheev, and their wedding (in the chapel admire a historic castle near Moscow) was close to a executive occasion.

Sergei sometimes flies in sort out join his wife at dissimilar spots on the tour. "He's not a skater," she step. "He was a boxer, loves hockey and likes to hullabaloo physical things.

He saw closing stages on TV skating when Uncontrollable was 13, and fell curb love with me, and I've known him since I was "

Slutskaya won't yet commit in the flesh to competing in the abide by Winter Olympics ( in City, Italy). But she had breezy in Salt Lake, staying formal from the judging scandals turn this way overshadowed the pairs ice contests.

What's her favorite memory of torment Utah stay?

"I got chance on go snowboarding, which I love," she says with a gay laugh, "wearing my bell-bottoms."

Misha Berson: mberson@