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View Full Version : Tiffany Sfikas injured


mikey
10-01-2002, 06:03 PM
http://www.bladesonice.com/mag/blaweb1.htm

Did anyone else see this reported anywhere, and I just missed it?

Pair Skater In Neck Brace
by Alexandra Stevenson

It is October 1 and Tiffany Sfikas sits at home in Chicago confined by a neck brace, the sad result of her pair skating partner's rage. Doctors have advised her against skating, at least temporarily, and her international career has collapsed into ashes.
Pair skating can be dangerous. As Sfikas can witness, that danger can be mental as well as physical, and incurred off, as well as on, the ice. Sfikas, 25, is an effervescent blonde American who won the last two British pair championships with Andrew Seabrook and was aiming to retain that title with another Briton, Mike Aldred, in December. ... That incident occurred on September 7 in the apartment she shared with Aldred and other skaters near the Swindon ice rink in England. It was reported to the police who questioned and then arrested Aldred. The police classified the matter as domestic violence. Aldred denies the charge. ... "If he had later apologized, that would be something else, but it's like he doesn't even remember what he did," says Sfikas. "He started breaking furniture and throwing it around the room in the leased flat. We had paid a seven hundred pound (over a thousand dollar) deposit on it. It was horrible. And then he threw me. ... "That Monday Mike wasn't the man that I or my flat mates knew. He became volatile and violent. I had heard stories but I figured at 31 he had matured. I had even agreed to marry him. I'm very, very glad I had postponed going that route." ... Apparently Aldred became enraged with Sfikas' residency problems, which have plagued her since she teamed up with Seabrook.

IdmaIjan
10-01-2002, 07:24 PM
How awful. Why does her name ring a bell? Who did she skate with in the past?

IdmaIjan
10-01-2002, 07:27 PM
Never mind...I read the article and realized she was who I thought she was. How sad.

what?meworry?
10-02-2002, 12:41 AM
sadly, it is competitive skating's dirty little secret in the usa too. until now it has been a taboo to discuss it publicly---that there have been more than we could imagine situations of physical abuse between partners, both pairs and ice dance. this, along with other "abusive" situations (coach/student; drugs/alcohol; verbal/emotional; parent/skater). Lord help us find a way to eliminate such situations for good of our children.

LadyNit
10-02-2002, 12:45 AM
didn't this Aldred character pair up with Pasha last year? if so, it's a good thing she parted ways with him.

Scott
10-02-2002, 08:22 AM
This skater has the worst luck. Her partners are always walking out on her or carrying on in wierd manners as this guy apparently has done. Good grief. I hope she stays home in Chicago!

melanieuk
10-02-2002, 04:42 PM
Aldred was skating with Pasha Grishuk, earning money in shows then started skating with Tiffany as an amateur.
I wonder if Pasha had unpleasant dealings with him.
I hope he is being dealt with by the skating federation.

Last year Tiffany skated with Andrew Seabrook (GBR) but they split just prior to Worlds in 2002.

Mrs Redboots
10-03-2002, 12:11 PM
As a competitive ice dancer myself, I can understand blowing up at your partner on the ice - heaven, I just did that myself last night, and I see our elite dance couples doing it all the time - but throwing someone across the room? No way! It was bad enough when a skater got so furious with his then partner that he almost bashed her head on the ice, but managed to stop himself in time - that partnership broke up the following week, and I don't blame her!

It's one thing to scream at your partner when he has yet again turned in the wrong direction or put his arm just where you can't turn round it, but physical violence? I don't think so!

ClevelandDancer
10-03-2002, 01:50 PM
Yikes!!! :cry: I figured something was going on as I had surfed to their (now her) website a few days ago and noticed that almost all the references to Mike had been removed. Poor Tiffany, it sounded like things were going well up until that point :( I feel bad for her, especially after Andrew dumped her right before Worlds last year.

I had a training partner (dance) for the last couple years and know some of the issues pairs and dancers have to deal with. Sometimes it is the off-ice things that kill the deal. In my case, I'm married and so was my partner (*not* to each other!), but that didn't stop him from being "overly friendly" off ice. There was also the issue that I wanted to compete and he just wanted to go through dance tests as fast as possible, but that wasn't the killer. I remember when I told my coach I wasn't going to skate with my ex-partner any more. I said I was tired of getting hit on and coach replied something like (sarcastically) "Oh,I thought you two were dating". Oh brother :P