Russian women "too strong and big" for figure skating

[charmainia]

According to Alexei Mishin, Russian women "too strong and big" for figure skating :lol:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060217/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_olympics_figure_skating_mishin_1

[sadya]

"Russian women are not very good for figure skating," Mishin told Reuters on Friday. "They are good for building rail tracks in Siberia, for example. They are just too strong and big."


I wonder how the Russian ladies skaters will react to that! :lol:

I don't see someone like Kondrasova, Ivanova, Butyrskaya or Markova, just a few examples, as 'strong and big' lol, imagine them, building tracks. :lol:

[crayonskater]

Or all their little gymnasts!

[kryst]

He's not going to win himself any fans from the feminist commitee with statements like that is he???? 8O

I'm trying to picture Tatiana Navka in an overall with oily hands and a mallet. It's just not happening! :P

[Schmeck]

Pehaps all the 'strong and big' skaters should go dump him on his butt, nice and hard... :twisted: Must make Irina feel really proud to be a Russian :roll:

[stardust skies]

There's a reason Mishin has no female students even though he's arguably the best coach they have....

He had Sokolova for a while. She dumped his a$$. Rightfully so. It's a wonder, with this kind of influence, that Plushenko remained SUCH a nice, respectful guy. Even more credit to his parents for that.

[sadya]

I don't know, he seems to have a nice relationship with Plushenko, and from what I remember, he had a nice relationship with Urmanov too.

From what I've heard, Sokolova was unhappy though when she was training with him. I also remember he coached another female skater some years ago. But she did very bad at Euros and I think she couldn't qualify for the free skate. Don't know her name anymore though, don't think I ever saw her again.

Those are the only two times I saw him coach female skaters.

He still seems to have a nice relationship with Moskvina though. From what I've read, when they run into each other at competitions etc. they are still friendly.

Makes me wonder why he said that. Perhaps it is another misreading of information? That happens often, sometimes you want to say something else and people around you who are only interested in demonising you, will take every single thing you say in the negative direction or misinterpret your words.

But for all I know, these could have been his actual words and he meant it!

[Rusty Blades]

As a woman who has always been "strong and big" (i.e. a "farm girl") I'd gladly clean his clock for him! LOL!

Like any kind of competition, one simply has to learn how to exploit their differences. Though not a "high level competitor" my first time around, I used my strength to push my jumps beyond what others were doing in my area (I was 5' 10" and 135 Lbs with VERY strong legs at age 18). Doing Pairs ended when my 6' 6" 200 Lb partner decided to retire - LOL!!!

(Now, 36 years later any kind of jump is just a dream! :( )

[znachki]

Someone asked Dick Button about Mishin's quote on the Olympic Ice program. After saying he couldn't understand what possessed him to say it, Dick commented that perhaps it wasn't that the skaters were too large, but that with the lack of Russian women in the pipeline, the coaching for younger skaters wasn't good enough!

[John King]

Perhaps he was thinking of Tatiana Tarasova!