Crystal Ice Awards 2010 in Russia: Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel, Arthur Dmitriev and other awarded
On Monday, October 18th, the 2010 Crystal Ice Awards ceremony and show took place at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia. The award aims to recognize athletes, coaches, journalists, and companies who have brought significant input into the sport of figure skating in Russia. In previous years the award has been limited Russians, but this year they added a new category specifically for foreign skaters, "The Audience Choice." This year it was the Swiss figure skater Stéphane Lambiel who was awarded the Crystal Skate Award in "The Audience Choice" category. Meanwhile, Evgeni Plushenko was awarded the Crystal Ice in the "Overcome Challenge" category, and the upcoming Russian star Arthur Dmitriev-Junior was awarded as "Breakthrough of the Year." The winners in each category were selected through a process of on-line voting open to the public at large with some input from a select group of judges on the final outcomes.
Below is the full list of all who were awarded with Crystal Ice Awards 2010 and some articles about Plushenko at the awards ceremony translated into English by me. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any pictures or videos from this year's awards ceremony yet. If you find some, please feel free to share those in the comments.
Crystal Ice Award 2010 Winners
Discovery of the Year - Elena Ilinyh/Nikita Katsalapov (ice dancing)
Overcome Challenge - Evgeni Plushenko & Maksim Shabalin
Breakthrough of the Year - Arthur Dmitriev-Junior (mens singles), Vera Bazarova & Yuri Larionov (pairs skating)
Coach of the Year - Tamara Moskvina
Renaissance - Figure Skating School of ЦСКА
Best Young Children Coach - Natalia Golubeva (St. Petersburg)
High Standard - Federation of Figure Skating of the Republic of Moldova
Exceeding Your Own Potential (for figure skaters with limited physical abilities) - Maksim Kiselev
Recognition - Lyudmila Kubashevskaya
Inspiration (for best journalist) - Nikolai Dolgopolov
The Audience Choice - Stéphane Lambiel
And here are some articles surrounding Plushenko and Crystal Ice Award that I found interesting and I translated:
From interview with Ottavio Cinquanta, the President of the International Skating Union and a member of the International Olympic Committee, on Plushenko’s re-instatement as amateur skater:
http://www.rg.ru/2010/10/19/sport.html
Journalist: How will you react if Plushenko appeals to his national figure skating federation, and the federation in turn appeals to the ISU, with a request to return to him the status of amateur skater?
Ottavio Cinquanta: My duty as the president is to follow the common sense of the rules. There are a couple of “ifs” here. If the figure skater writes such a letter, if your federation supports it, if we are sure that the athlete wants to continue training, competing at official competitions and takes it all seriously, then it’s one story where we can offer support. But if Mr. Plushenko says, “I don’t know, maybe I will skate for another year,” why then in that case should we support him? Do you see the difference? I want to be honest with you, with Plushenko and with your figure skating federation, which has done quite a lot for the ISU. Is Plushenko finishing his sports career? The pilot of “Formula One” Shumaher has finished his career, but he also wants to come back. What if Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals in 1972, has this same idea? It’s clearly too late for him. From a legal point of view Plushenko’s return is possible. But here is the important part: how serious are Evgeni’s intentions? Let him tell that to his figure skating federation and they will relate it to ISU.
Plushenko met with Piseev
http://www.sovsport.ru/news/text-item/414092
According to the information of “Soviet Sport” [newspaper], Evgeni Plushenko has met with Valentin Piseev, the General Director of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, to discuss the question of re-instating his status as an amateur skater.
Judging by everything this question will be resolved in the very short future, our correspondent Oleg Chikiris reports to us.
Starting 2011 Plushenko will train more and skate less in shows
http://sport.rian.ru/sport/20101018/286954077.html
Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko announced that starting in the 2011-2012 season he plans to “skate less in shows” and “train more,” and also prepare new [skating] elements.
On Monday Plushenko became the winner of award “Crystal Ice” under the nomination “Overcome Challenge.” After the ceremony the figure skater told our RIA News correspondent that the recent tournament in Japan, at which he placed third after the American Adam Rippon and the Japanese Daisuke Takahashi, has become a competitive start for him.
“At any tournament I skate seriously, putting all my strength into it. But these competitions were actually team competitions and the team of Europe, the honor of which I was defending, was somewhat weak. Still I am satisfied that in the course of a week I was able to get myself properly ready [for the competition], I did two triple axels and seven other triple jumps,” said Plushenko.
“I skated the program ‘Tribute to Nijinsky,’ which I had skated way back in 2003, so it was not easy, but I am happy that I was able to do it,” added Plushenko.
The multiple times World Champion assured us that he is determined in the near future to restore his amateur skater status.
“I already said that I want to skate as an amateur. The [Russian Figure Skating] Federation and I are working towards the same goal, we must be friends and work together towards the good of Russian figure skating. I feel within myself great strength and great desire to skate at the Olympics in Sochi,” finished Plushenko.
The Olympic champion told us that a week ago he was awarded in Torino with the Italian award Golden Skate Awards. “It is nice that we [our country] has an award that is not inferior. I am happy that I have become the recipient of this award,” the figure skater admitted.
Plushenko explained that he did not plan to perform in Moscow with an exhibition performance. “I had already decided earlier that I will skate in Italy, and will then go on a vacation. Already tomorrow we are flying away for a vacation, I need to recuperate, gather up strength and then start training,” the athlete told us.
At the beginning of November we are planning to go to sports camp in Kislovodsk, where I will be doing ОФП [don’t know what that is], then I have a few performances planned, and then I plan to skate new programs, prepare for next season,” added Plushenko.
Plushenko: I want to skate in Sochi-2014
http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/414102
“Evgeni really let me down, when he agreed to take part in the ceremony, but then refused to do it,” said Ilia Averbukh about Plushenko just two weeks ago.
How great was the surprise of the audience, when Evgeni appeared yesterday on stage and received the award in the category “Overcoming Challenge."
“First, I am happy to be on this stage today,” said the Olympic champion of Torino. “Second, I want to say once again: I do not plan to finish my career. Young skaters announced today that they want to represent Russia in Sochi. I want to do it too!”
“The road into our show is not closed to anyone,” assured us Averbukh after the closing of the ceremony. “I called Evgeni, and he agreed to come, though, he decided not to skate.”
Evgeni really did not perform [at the Crystal Skate Award show], but, according to information from “Sovet Sport,” during the second intermission in the backstage of “Luzhniki” another historical meeting took place: Plushenko spoke to Valenti Piseev [General Director of Russia’s Figure Skating Federation]. Judging by everything, the reinstatement of the figure skater’s amateur status is the question to be decided in the near future.
Concerning those young skaters, whom Plushenko spoke about, their performances left a very strong impression on everyone. In particular everyone was amazed with the performance of Evgeni’s future competitor Arthur Dmitriev-Junior, the son of the two-time Olympic champion Arthur Dmitriev-Senior and the World Champion in gymnastics Tatiana Druchinina. The son of the famous parents right now is probably the most visible and artistic young Russian figure skater. Yesterday he received the award in the category “Breakthrough of the Year.”