Yagudin undecided about worlds

 

(CP) -- Alexei Yagudin sleeps with his skates on.

Well, not quite, but given his workload it is a surprise that the charismatic Russian has the energy to take them off.

The Olympic men's figure skating champion will perform nearly 100 times this year, including stops in 35 Canadian cities this spring.

"That's my work and I really love what I do," he explained in a interview from his Connecticut training base. "When people ask me what I would do without figure skating, I answer, 'I have no idea.'

"The person who likes his job is a really lucky one, and I enjoy my job."

Starting March 30 in Niagara Falls, Yagudin will be in the Skate the Nation troupe with Brian Orser, Jennifer Robinson, Maria Butyrskaya, Angela Nikodinov, Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, Takeshi Honda, and Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman for 14 shows in Ontario.

The itinerary includes Brantford, London, Sarnia, Windsor, Brampton, Oshawa, Peterborough, Kingston, Belleville, Owen Sound, North Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.

Yagudin has always loved competing in Canada, where he usually wins. In December, he took gold at the Grand Prix Final in Kitchener. Last November in Saskatoon, he won the Skate Canada International, extending his winning streak to three years in Canada's lone Grand Prix event.

"Crowds in Canada are amazing," he says. "I never expected people would cheer for me that much.

"I felt this also at Vancouver (for the 2001 world championships). I really liked the crowds there. They really support me. That's what I like most -- getting a response from my skating."

Yagudin, who turns 22 next Monday, is the hardest working figure skater in the world. International Management Group keeps him on the move. After his Canadian dates, he's scheduled to join another tour in the United States.

He's in the process of deciding if he'll go to Nagano, Japan, for next week's world championships.

"In two days I will make the final decision," he says. "I was really tired after the Olympics.

"I needed some time to rest. Tatiana (Tarasova, his coach) is not feeling well so I still have not made a final decision.

"All season I worked for the Olympics. When I won it, so much emotion drained from me. I'm kind of empty and a little bit weak right now. But I think I will be ready."

He'd like to regain his world title. He won in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Last March in Vancouver, hampered by a foot injury, he was runner-up to compatriot Evgeni Plushenko.

"This season, I have my European title back, the Grand Prix Final title back, I won the Olympics, and now I want my world title back," he says. "I've got everything in my life, everything I've really worked for, but I love to compete.

"I won the war. I beat everybody at the Olympics, the most important competition of all."

That glorious victory will not induce him to quit the top competition level.

"I'm definitely not turning pro," he says. "I'm still going to compete.

"I might take a half year off but I haven't decided yet. It has only been three weeks since Olympics so it's a little hard right now to make decisions about the future."

He might be around to compete in another Winter Games, too, he says.

"I feel I still have power in my skating."

He dismisses suggestions he and Plushenko are in a league of their own.

"We never know," he says. "Every month, every year, new people can come from nowhere."

He allowed himself a rare liberty after winning Olympic gold -- food.

"All season long I was on a diet," he explains. "So I went off my diet for a few days.

"Pizza, hamburgers -- I gained weight. But I worked out and now it is gone."

The second phase of his Canadian tours is Stars On Ice, which will take Yagudin, Orser, Kristi Yamaguchi, Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, and Jenni Meno and Todd Sand to Halifax on April 28. Then it's on to Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener, Ont., Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Skate the Nation resumes May 18 in Prince George, B.C., with stops in Kelowna, Kamloops, Cranbrook then on to Alberta for Medicine Hat and Lethbridge before finishing up in Saskatoon.

"It is not easy," he says of the grind. "You have to do your own routines and also group numbers.

"It is every day so it is hard. But it gives me a chance to do many run-throughs of my programs and that keeps me in good shape."

If he goes to Nagano, he'll relish one last chance to skate with Elvis Stojko, who is retiring after the 2002 worlds. Yagudin was 10 when Stojko skated at worlds for the first time, in 1990 in Halifax.

"He's been such a long time in the world arena," says Yagudin. "People will remember him for his powerful skating."