Oksana and Artur have just put another feather in their caps! They just won the World Professional Championships. This is considered one of the most prestigious of the professional competitions.
Oksana and Artur have just won the Challenge of Champions. More details on this as they are available.
Another addition to their schedule: in January 1999, Oksana and Artur plan to skate in the Tom Collins' Champions on Ice tour for two months.
One more addition to Oksana and Artur's schedule. They also plan to be at the Challenge of Champions on November 6th in Florida.
Additions to Oksana and Artur's schedule: they plan to compete at an open competition in Boise, Idaho on November 14. This one is scheduled to be aired live on TBS. They are also scheduled for the World Professional Championships on December 11 and 12 in Washington, DC. Brian Boitano is hosting a skating special on December 18th; they plan to be there as well.
Oksana and Artur will take place in the World Team Challenge in Milwaukee on October 22nd. They will represent team Russia along with Katia Gordeeva.
Oksana and Artur's home town rink, the Yubileny Palace of Sport remains closed. It will possibly reopen in November. The couple and their coach Tamara have temporarily relocated to North America to train.
Check out the new Artur Admiration Page!
Oksana and Artur placed second at the Goodwill Games. Although their short program had been near flawless, the free skate had several errors and the second placement was appropriate. The couple has been touring non stop since April and is understandably tired.
Their coach Tamara Moskvina confirms that they will skate in the "Open" pro/am series that the ISU has scheduled for next season. By doing so, Oksana and Artur will retain their Olympic eligibility and compete against both pros and amateurs under ISU rules.
Correction on the date for the Skaters' Tribute to Broadway mentioned below. It will take place on October 6th, and be broadcast in the US on October 12th.
Blades on Ice magazine reports that Oksana and Artur are scheduled to skate in Skaters' Tribute to Broadway. It will take place on October 12th in CoreStates Center in Philadelphia.
Artur Dmitriev and Tamara Moskvina were named by International Figure Skating magazine as two of the 25 Most Influential People in Figure Skating.
The ISU recently decided to allow a series of pro/am competitions.Oksana and Artur have expressed their interest in this, and will likely retain their eligibility and compete in this series. This is not a given, however and this site will be updated when more information is known.
Oksana and Artur have been getting great reviews for their performances in Champions on Ice. You can read some of the reviews here.
In their first pro/am competition, Oksana and Artur placed third at the Ultimate Four event.
As most of you know, Oksana and Artur unfortunately had to withdraw from Worlds. Artur has recovered from the food poisioning he suffered.
They next plan to compete at the Ultimate Four.
Artur and Oksana will then skate on the entire Champions on Ice Tour . After the tour, if they are in good condition and not injured, they will compete at the Goodwill Games.
The couple is not certain what their skating future will be (i.e. turn pro or stay amateur). It appears now that they will not give up their ISU eligibility and would like to compete in pro/ams sanctioned by the ISU.
(By the way, I have been out of town, and that is why it has taken me so long to update this page!)
Check out Kate Speers' new Kazakova and Dmitriev Site.
Congratulations to Oksana and Artur!! They just won the 1998 Olympic gold medal. It is her first Olympic title and his second. What a momentous achievement! Artur has now done what no man has ever done before--win Olympic gold with two different partners. (Irina Rodnina is the only other skater to have ever done this.)
The reporters Tatjana Flade and Christine Schwarz wrote an excellent article about Europeans. You can find it on the web here. They bring up some interesting questions about the judging in the pairs event.
A silver medal was taken home by Oksana and Artur from the European Championships. They were third in the short program but moved up to second in the free with a strong long program.
Oksana and Artur placed third at the Champions Series Final. They had a very strong short program, but a few mistakes on jumps in the free. Bereznaya and Sikharulidze won this event.
Oksana and Artur will skate in the Champions Series Final. The CTV-The Rink page will have coverage
Oksana and Artur finished third at the Russian National Championship. Oksana is still not fully recovered from the injury she sustained at the NHK Trophy , and she could not go all out at Nationals. In the short program, the pair also placed third largely because Oksana doubled the triple toe loop. Eltsova and Bushkov won this event and Bereznaya and Sikharulidze placed second. Oksana and Artur did receive four first place ordinals for their free skate and two marks of 6.0.
Good news: Oksana is recovering from her back injury and it is expected that she and Artur will be able to compete at Russian Nationals (December 11th-14th.)
Unfortunately, Oksana was injured during a practice session at the NHK Trophy in Japan. (Yesterday, she and Artur had finished second in the short program.) Doctors examined Oksana and found no broken bones, but Oksana had difficulty lifting her legs and there was no way she could skate through the pain for the free skate. More news will appear here as soon as it's available. If anyone wishes to send get well thoughts to Oksana, please send them to me, and they will be forwarded to Oksana. Due to this withdrawl, Oksana and Artur will not have the points needed to compete at the Champions Series Final.
Congratulations to Oksana and Artur! They won Skate Canada today, with straight first place ordinals. The CTV web site has photos, marks, and commentary. This is a great start to their season!
Readers in the US---be sure to catch the cable network A & E on Sunday, October 19th. At 10:30 pm Eastern Time, they will air "The Artistry of Russian Skating." It was taped April 22, 1997 when several Russian skaters performed at a special exhibition in Simsbury. Along with Kazakova and Dmitriev, other skaters who will have performances aired include Maria Butyrskaya, Ekaterina Gordeyeva, Irina Slutskaya, Ilya Kulik, Bechke &Petrov, Yeltsova & Bushkov, Usova & Zhulin, and Krylova & Ovsyannikov. The broadcast will last one and a half hours.
Oksana and Artur made it onto the front page of The New York Times today. The Times published an excellent article on the state of figure skating in Russia today. They placed Oksana and Artur's photo on the front page, and included many quotes from their coach Tamara Moskvina. The article was about the hardships the skaters who have chosen to remain in Russia are facing now.
Oksana and Artur have been training in St. Petersburg to prepare for the next season. They plan to add one extra set of double axels to their long program to help bring up their technical marks. On October 5th, they will skate in an exhibition in Helsinki, Finland.
Check out the Kazakova and Dmitriev Gallery by Andrei Karassev.
American Skating World has a great July issue, which features interviews with Oksana, Artur, and Tamara. They featured Oksana and Artur on the cover---their first ever cover of a major magazine!
American Skating World reports that its next issue (July 1997) will feature an article on Oksana and Artur. Yay! Their current issue has an article on training mates Bereznaya and Sikharulidze. They talk about the camaraderie they have with Oksana and Artur.
After finishing with the Tour of Champions, Oksana and Artur will return to St. Petersburg where they will vacation until June 25th. After that, they will begin preparations for next season
Oksana and Artur received their international assignments for next season from the ISU. They will compete at 1997 Skate Canada , November 6th through November 9th in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Then they will skate at the NHK Trophy in Nagano, November 27th through November 30th.
Oksana and Artur have been getting rave reviews on the Tour of Champions. You can read some of them here.
Correction on the dates Oksana and Artur will skate on the Tom Collins Tour of Champions . They are now scheduled to perform starting on the opening night (which was April 18) through June 5th.
Check out Natasha Markova's Unofficial Kazakova and Dmitriev Web Page.
American Skating World magazine didn't do such a hot job when reporting on Worlds. They erroneously wrote in their April issue that Artur singled the axel in the free skate and that Oksana and Artur doubled their split twist. Their writers need to check their tapes again; if they did, they would notice that both of those statements are false--the couple did perform the triple twist, and Artur a double (not single) axel. American Skating World also reported that the pair won over the audience----hey, at least they got something right!
Check out the Kazakova and Dmitriev Conference and Chat Room.
Oksana and Artur will skate on the Tom Collins Tour of Champions, from May 6 through June 5.
Over a year ago, just prior to the 1996 World Championships, Oksana and Artur's fan club president was interviewed by the Edmonton Journal. I just found out that the interview is on the web and can be found here.
Katja Rupp has photos of Oksana and Artur (and many others) from Worlds here.
CTV's News and Commentary section has a brief description of the pairs free skates, as does Euroskating's Lausanne page . It looks like Oksana and Artur again received a standing ovation and skated very well except for one error, on his part, on the triple toe. They received two first place ordinals in the free skate. Most of the pairs they beat have been skating together far longer than Oksana and Artur have.
Congratulations to Oksana and Artur! They moved up three spots to take the bronze medal at Worlds. More details to follow.
Oksana and Artur finished 6th in the technical program at Worlds. CTV has marks and ordinals. Aside from the doubled jump, all the other elements were very strong and the crowd loved the performance.
Joanne Petithory has photos of Oksana and Artur (and many others) from the CSF here.
Many have asked the whereabouts of Artur's former partner, Natalia. She now lives in the US and skates with her husband Craig.
A Canadian web site predicts medal contenders for the World Championships here. They dub Artur "the best male in the event."
Oksana and Artur skated extremely well at the Championship Series Final in Hamilton, Ontario. You can read a review of it here. Their next competition will be the 1997 World Championships which will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland. The pairs competition is March 18 and 19th.
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