UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 39, Page 1
August 4, 1994
UD ice center new home of top-ranked Russian coaches

     Worldwide skating circles have found a new center at the
University of Delaware with the recent arrival of two top-ranked ice
dancing coaches from Moscow, who have joined the University's Ice
Skating Science Development Center, bringing with them numerous of
their Olympic, world and national champion skaters from all over the
globe, including the Ukraine, Switzerland, Japan, Italy and the United
States.
     In a news conference July 26, University President David P.
Roselle formally announced their arrival and welcomed the coaches--
Nataliza Linitchuk and Grennadiy Karpanosov, a husband and wife team
who won a gold medal in the 1980 Olympics, as well as the European and
World Championships. They were national champion ice dancers in the
Soviet Union for four years.
     Among the skaters they have coached are the gold medalists in ice
dancing at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and four teams
they trained finished in the top 10, including the gold medalists, in
this year's World Championships.
     "Nataliza Linitchuk and Grennadiy Karpanosov bring an additional
luster to the University's already distinguished program in ice
skating," Roselle said. "Our center has served as a training site for
12 Olympic skaters, as well as for many, many participants in other
skating competitions at the regional, national and international
levels. This new step promises to increase the University's impact on
the world of figure skating at the international level."
     "The addition of these acknowledged top ice dancing coaches to
our staff and the inclusion of the some of the world's best skaters
strengthen the University of Delaware program and brings the center
international renown," Ron Ludington, director of the Ice Skating
Science Development Center, said.
     "What this has done to our program is, I think, make us number
one in the world--not the nation, the world. They're bringing us a
stockpile of skaters that are just excellent, excellent athletes,"
Ludington said. "The youngsters who witness these skaters naturally
are going to come along and improve and become much better because of
their help."
     John J. O'Neill, director of recreation and intramural programs
at the University, said, "We are very excited to have Nataliza and
Grennadiy come to the University, making it the premier ice dancing
center for the sport. Delaware has long been the training facility for
Olympic skaters from this country, and this is the fruition of what we
visualized when Ron Ludington first came to the center as director in
1986."
     The Russian coaches are bringing to Newark several distinguished
proteges from Russia, the Ukraine, Switzerland, Japan, Italy and the
United States:
        * A young Ukrainian husband and wife team of ice dancers, Igor
          Yaroshenka and Irina Romanova, is ranked fourth in the
          world. The couple will be competing in the Goodwill Games in
          St. Petersburg this summer, and they will be accompanied on
          the trip by Linitchuk.
        * From Russia, Angelika Krylova, a silver medalist, and her
          new partner, Oleg Ovsyannikov, will begin training as a team
          at the UD ice center.
        * Americans Ron Kravette and Amy Webster will be training with
          Linitchuk and Karpanosov. Kravette spent four years training
          at Delaware with Ludington, before leaving for Boston to
          work with Webster, his new partner. The two skaters said
          they were delighted when they heard the Russian coaches were
          coming to the United States. "They are the best coaches in
          ice dancing, and this was a fabulous opportunity for us,"
          Kravette said.

     The coaches are impressed by the young Americans, as well.
Kravette and Webster "are hard workers and are here at 6 in the
morning ready to go," Karpanosov said. They have worked hard is
attested to by the fact that Kravette, a graduate of the University of
California at Irvine, and Webster, a June graduate of Wellesley
College, have successfully managed to meet the demands of skating and
academic achievement.
     Linitchuk and Karpanosov have coached at the University of
Delaware center before for short periods of time, but this year,
Ludington, who has known the team for several years from international
competitions, invited them to come to Delaware as permanent members of
the coaching staff. They had been training students from all over the
world at the Moscow Institute of Physical Culture, but political and
economic changes in Russia decimated their program.
     Linitchuk was encouraged by her mother to become a skater and has
been on the ice since she was 7. Karpanosov has skated since the age
of 8 and was a member of the Soviet Union's national team for 14
years. The two began skating together in the 1970s, culminating in
their 1980 Olympic triumph. They were married the following year and
have an 8-year-old daughter who will join them in the United States
after the Goodwill Games.
     Although they have been on the campus a short while, Linitchuk
and Karpanosov are very much a presence at the rink. As ice dancers
whirl, glide, lift and perform dance movements on ice to classical
music or jazz, they are both busy coaching talented young athletes.
Linitchuk gives advice to one young pair and puts her hands over her
face when the girl trips, then reassures her with a big smile.
Karpanosov is in the middle of the rink, demonstrating by skating
himself how to improve a routine. Their days begin at 6 a.m. and end
at 11 p.m., but the schedule will become less hectic after summer
training.
     The University of Delaware Ice Skating Science Development Center
is a complete training center integrating all of the science and
training components in a single site. The program concentrates on
three areas: development and training of competitive figure skaters;
training and education of coaches; and research directed toward the
advancement of knowledge of figure skating mechanics, physiology and
equipment development.
     The 1994 Winter Olympics were the 12th consecutive games in which
center director Ludington has taken part as a skater or coach. In
1960, he won the bronze medal in the Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif.,
and, in every Olympics since, Ludington-trained skaters have competed.
In 1993, he was elected to the U.S. Figure Skating Association's Hall
of Fame.
     In a recent interview, Karpanosov say they have had a wonderful
reception at the University and that they are grateful for the
opportunity to work here and to all those who did so much to make it
possible.