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Six figure skating couples from the University of Delaware, including
American pairs skaters Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn, are preparing
for competition in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
In addition to Scott and Dulebohn, UD will be represented at Salt
Lake by five ice dance teams that train on campus. Those are Ilia
Averbukh and Irina Lobacheva, who hold the 2001 World Championships
Bronze Medal and will be representing Russia; Ruslan Goncharov and
Elena Grushina, who will be representing the Ukraine; Daniel and
Eliane Hugentobler, who will be representing Switzerland; Natalia
Gudina and Alexei Beletski, who will be representing Israel; and
Tae-hwa Yang and Chuen-gun Lee, who will be representing Korea.
The Olympics opening ceremonies will be
held Friday, Feb. 8, and Scott and Dulebohn will take to the ice for the pairs short program the following evening in the Salt Lake Ice Center. The pairs free program will be held Monday, Feb. 11.
Ice dance compulsories will be held Feb. 15, with original dance
Feb. 17 and free dance Feb. 18.
Americans Scott and Dulebohn have managed to triumph in a tumultuous
year. Sidelined for months by a stress fracture Dulebohn incurred
this past summer, they were forced to withdraw from various competitions
last fall. Only by placing second in the U.S. Figure Skating Association
championship pairs competition in January 2002 were Scott and Dulebohn
assured a place on the U.S. Olympic team.
Scott, a Hanson, Mass., native, is a junior at the University of
Delaware, where she is majoring in nutrition in the College of Health
and Nursing Sciences. Dulebohn, originally from Germantown, Md.,
calls the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club home.
The pair is coached by Karl Kurtz, a former U.S. novice national
champion, international pairs champion and U.S. junior pairs silver
medalist from Hershey, Pa., who currently lives in Wilmington.
Ilia Averbukh and Irina Lobacheva, both 28 years old, are from
Moscow, Russia. They are two-time ice dance bronze medalists at
the European Championships (2001 and 2002), as well as 2001 bronze
medalists at the World Championships and four-time Russian national
champions. Their programs for the Olympic competition include a
Spanish original dance and a Klavesin free dance.
Ruslan Goncharov, 29, and Elena Grushina, 27, both from Odessa,
Ukraine, are four-time Ukrainian national ice dancing champions,
who placed eighth at the 2002 World Championships. They will perform
a Spanish original dance and a free dance to “Barcelona”
for Olympic competition.
Daniel and Eliane Hugentobler are a brother and sister ice dancing
team from Switzerland. Born in Zurich, Eliane, 20, and Daniel, 24,
were first paired on the ice as children. They finished in ninth
place at the 2002 European Figure Skating Championships and are
five-time Swiss national champions. Their Olympic routines will
include a Spanish original dance and a free dance to Gloria Gaynor’s
disco hit “I Will Survive.”
Natalia Gudina and Alexei Beletski originally hail from Odessa,
Ukraine, but will be representing Israel in the ice dance competition
at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Gudina, 24, and Beletski, 23, will
do an original Spanish dance and a free dance to traditional Greek
music.
Tae-hwa Yang, 19, and her partner, Chuen-gun Lee, 22, come from
Seoul, Korea. They are three-time Korean national champions and
were selected for the Korean world championship teams in 2001 and
again this year. They will perform an original Spanish dance and
a free dance with the jungle as its theme.
All five international teams are coached by former Olympian Natalya
Linitchouk and Guennadi Karponossov. Both Linitchouk and Karponossov
are national, international, world and Olympic coaches. Linitchouk
specializes in choreography for the ice dancing teams.
Jan. 29, 2002
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