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by Alina Adams

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: ARTHUR DMITRIEV

Arthur Dmitriev can bypass the obstacles.

Translation of an article by Sergey Dadigin published in Russian Language Internet publication Express Gazeta on My 4, 2007

There is only one figure skater who twice became Olympic champion with two different partners. In 1992, at the Albertville Games, Arthur Dmitriev won together with Natalia Mishkutenok, and 6 years later in Nagano he won the Olympics in pair with Oxana Kazakova.

Everyone seems to know about the achievements of Irina Rodnina, three times Olympic gold winner. Arthur Dmitriev was not really that far behind - he had 2 gold and one silver Olympic medals. Arthur is a very modest person and never talked much about his achievements and thus was not as famous as Rodnina.

I remember how at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Games, I took my fist interview with Arthur. We met at the entrance to the Olympic village, where correspondents were not allowed and had to get a special permit. Arthur decided to help me. He took the badge off one of the foreign sportspeople and gave it to me to put on. I protested that there was a different picture and the guards would figure it out and would not let me in. Arthur said not to worry - they really do not look at the picture, but rather scan the badge and if it had the right chip and would make the right beep, everything would be fine.
And he was right, I was able to get into the village without problems. I liked his resourcefulness, but I was more surprised by his sense of humor.

Arthur Dmitriev and Natalia Mishkutenok performed the free program flawlessly, it was their best skating of the season. But the judges gave the first place to another Russian pair - Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergey Grinkov. According to many experts, Arthur and Natalia had a valid claim that the judges deliberately lowered their points, but Arthur was calm and did not express any pity. Later one of the female judges approached him and said that she was initially sure that Gordeeva and Grinkov would take the gold and voted for them, but she thought that Arthur and Natalia honestly were skating better.

In a similar situation at the 2002 Olympics, Canadian pair Sale - Pelletier protested the decision of the judges and were awarded an unprecedented second set of gold medals. Natalia and Arthur did not even think of that. In their pair, Arthur was always a leader - a strong, confident and dependable man. Natalia said once that he did not have any shortcomings. She always looked at him with loving eyes, but Arthur was looking for love outside the rink. He felt that it would be too much to be near the same woman at work and at home. Also, Natalia looked attractive, but had a problem with an extra weight. When their coach Tamara Moskvina suggested to develop a program to the music of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Arthur ironically commented that Natalia was not a swan and Moskvina agreed.


After Lillehammer, Natalia Mishkutenok told Arthur that she was tired and was quitting figure skating. But the unrestrained soul of Dmitriev would not rest until he won the Olympics in 1998 when for the third time he stepped on the podium, and this time up to the top. Oxana Kazakova, his then partner, confessed that she was lucky skating with Arthur as if she won the lottery. Initially no one thought that Arthur and Oxana would be a good pair. She was always behind him in her achievements. But the genius coach Tamara Moskvina had proven that they could work together. And she was right. And Cinderella became a princess.

I do not know what feelings had Natalia Mishkutenok when she heard that Arthur and Oxana won the Nagano Olympics. Natalia was in the US at that time, where she went with the hope to arrange her personal life. She lived there for nine years with an American hockey player, Craig Shepard. He adored her, but they broke up because she wanted a child and he did not. She took the break-up hard and decided to change the environment. This way she met her second husband, Alan Heinline - a realtor, who liked children. Last December, Natalia came to St. Petersburg to visit her mother with her new daughter - Natalia Jr. And judging by her happiness, the former Olympic champion will not stop at one child.

Arhtur Dmitriev met his wife, gracious Tatiana Druchinina, at the city of Novogorsk, where the National Gymnastics team was practicing near the skaters. She could definitely be a wonderful swan - great figure, long neck, proud posture. It was unfortunate but her sports career was cut short by an auto accident. Arthur and Tatiana got married and they have a son - Arthur Jr. Their son followed his father's footsteps - he is also a skater, but skating singles. The family of the two time Olympic champion lives in the US, but now they are considering going back to St. Petersburg.

Arthur is now working as a coach in the group of Tamara Moskvina. His wife works as a choreographer. She was the one who developed the choreography for Olympic Dance Champions of 2006 - Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov.
ItemPage

23 Comments:

  • At May 16, 2007 9:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It is interesting that this reporter states in the first paragraph that Artur Dmitriev is the only person to win two Olympics with two different medals and then in the second paragraph mentions Irina Rodnina who did that too. The reporter doesn't seem to be as careful to print only the truth as should be.

     
  • At May 24, 2007 2:39 PM, Anonymous Alina Adams said…

    I had trouble with that, too. I considered taking it out of the translation since it made so little sense, but decided it added... something... to the piece. Not sure what.

     
  • At July 26, 2007 12:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It is also interesting how he says Natalia met Alan after their marriage broke up due to Shepherd not wanting to have children. Natalia was seeing Alan during her marriage to Shepherd. Children had nothing to do with it.

     
  • At November 11, 2007 8:41 PM, Blogger Janet said…

    Artur Dmitriev is the only person to win two Olympics with two different PARTNERS quite different than just having 3 medals!

     
  • At June 05, 2008 5:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I stumbled across this site quite by chance but have to agree with the comment that Natalia was seeing Allan before she divorced Shepherd, and this is what led to their separation and eventual divorce. It was also sad to see that she lowered herself to poor level and had an article written that slammed Shepherd in the Russian newspapers by an old reporter friend of hers. The article goes into detail that he Craig, would not let her speak Russian, but as friends of theirs know, this was only when he was teaching her how to speak English. Shepherd does speak Russian contrary to belief otherwise, he actually lived in Moscow for over 9 months while playing for Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Super League. How would they have ever communicated in the beginning to the point of marriage, if he did not speak Russian, she did not speak hardly any English! The only way to learn a language is to be emersed in it, I know Natalia and Craig both, and her English is very good, he did a great job teaching her, and he also did a great job teaching me English as well in the same manner. Also, she states in the article that he would not let her go home to Russia. The truth is that when they were first married she could not leave the country for two years because of her visa status, she could leave but she could not get back into the country for a period of two years after leaving when they first got married, that is why she did not leave the country. They both went thru hell from the pressurs put on them in the sport of figure skating. When Natalia started coaching other coaches were afraid they would loose their student (and income) to Natalia, so they made Shepherd the bad guy to keep Natalia out of the rink, and he took each blow with class and dignity, without ever tarnishing Natalias Olympic reputation. In a sport of behind the back dealings, and fixed competitions even at the Olympic level, it was Shepherd who burdened the blows as the hockey player, while defending Natalia in a figure skating world as a hockey player. They were my coaches in pairs, they helped me come to the states to train and I appreciate them both so very much, but it was Craig who like a father figure helped me the most. People should leave him alone, Natalia will probably never have that kind of love again in her life, I am sure she knows this now, Shepherd did, and would have done, anything for her, he even give up his carrer as a hockey player to try to help her skate again. As for the children? They were always struggling with money, it took over $ 200,000.00 to get Shepherd ready to skate with an Olympic champion, they did not have the money after this to raise a child comfortably. What extra money they did have they would buy skaters equipment or sponsor them in their training, sometimes even train them for free to prove that their system of coaching worked just like the old Russian system that produced Natalia and Artur. Shepherd did want to have children and had showed me sweatsuits from Dynamo Moscow, and his team in Germany, and other hockey teams he had played for, that he had always planned on giving to his son when he had one with Natalia. He was a great coach, and the skaters who were serious about skating loved working with him, to me he was much like Igor Moskvine. Natalia did not want to wait any longer and left Shepherd for Allan, who at the time had more more money, but also two children from a previous failed marriage. Funny thing is now Shepherd has money, he has a great company, and is also a full sized helicopter pilot now of all things. I am older now, than when I trained in the states with them years ago, the last time I saw Shepherd was in Moscow at the World Figure Skating Championships in 2005, he was coaching the Slovakian pair team of Olga Bestandig and Joseph Bestandig. I do not skate anymore, but it amazes me that people are still going on and on about their separation and divorce. They have both moved on with their lives, seems like others should do the same.

     
  • At January 05, 2009 2:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Okay, Something needs to be said here. The truth is Craig was not a saint as you people make him out to be. He Hurt Natalia in the worst way. Thier marriage ended because he was unfaithful, not because she was seeing someone else. He was unfaithful with a skater who was living with them from Russia. Natalia opened her home to this girl and Craig and this girl stabbed her in the back. He used up all Natalia's money and then hurt her in the worst way. He is a snake. I know Natalia, she is very kind hearted and quiet. She is not the type of person that would cheat on her husband, it was the otherway around. How dare anyone of you suggest otherwise when you don't know her. If you say you do and she was with her new husband before her divorce, you are a liar! because they weren't. I know the name of the girl Craig was with and dates she was here. It was way before she met her new husband!! Rude Ass people!! Craig was a bully and the problems Natalia had with people thinking she was stealing thier skaters stemmed from him. I witnessed it first hand. And Natalia had know idea what he was doing. She was working to hard, while he was off doing his thing!!!

    Another thing, to the person who wrote the blog ahead of me, I'm thinking you are the girl and poor Craig fed you a line of crap to make you feel sorry for him. It looks like it worked!!!

     
  • At January 19, 2009 11:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Wow, the last post is interesting! I think it important that people understand that Natalia is no saint either. If the person who wrote the last blog wants to write nonsense, lets discuss the truth about somethings that I am sure you are not aware of Natalia's past. Natalia is very capable of cheating on Craig. She WAS dating Allan while still married to Craig, they lived in the same apartment complex! They then both moved out of their apartments into his house while she was married to Craig. Did you ever look at the timeline from divorce with Craig, to marriage with Allan, to being pregnant with her baby??? So maybe she is coaching your daughter, is that why you are so blind? You really have no idea at all the past history of who you are defending, in addition she was pregnant before in Russia, but had an abortion because it would have effected her skating with Artur before the Olympics, and no, the baby was not with Artur in case you were wondering! There are many skeletons in Natalia's closet... and we were all surprised that the marriage between Natalia and Craig lasted as long as it did knowing Natalia the way we knew her. She was not an easy person for Artur to skate with. While he cut music, and created new moves, and worked tirelesly with Shasha on choreography, she would come to the rink late, (like she still does I am told for lessons with her students), complain, and keep her coaches and Artur waiting sometimes for more than an hour or... not even showing up at all for practice. Artur could not even tell her that he was married, for fear that she would break down over it mentally. We all know she loved Artur, and never got over it, and in her mind no man, neither Allan or Craig will ever stand up to Artur in her mind. I think the simple fact that Artur went on to win another gold medal with Oksana proves that he was both the Power AND the Passion in his teaming with Natalia! By the way, an Olympic champion having to coach in Texas??? Stealing students Craigs fault??? She has produced no one as a champion herself, we are all aware that she stole a skater that already had a good chance to win Nationals, that another coach had put YEARS of work into to get her to that position! In addition after moving ice rinks into Natalia's rink, two pair teams, were also stolen away by her from a very respected coach in Dallas, and they eventually broke up after realizing that it is not all about an olympic gold medal when it comes to coaching! It was sad, both teams had wonderful careers in front of them. UH HELLO? Craig is not with her anymore, has not been for years, and she is still stealing skaters, so if she is still having problems in her life, you should stop trying to blame Craig for them, or anything that happened to her in the past, her past was turbulent long before she ever met Craig, maybe if she would stop drinking so much her life would be better! It is obvious that the person who wrote the last posting has a personal vested interest in Natalia, seems to have for a long time, and they are the ones who have been fooled, and really do not know the facts, nor the tainted history that is not all so golden of Natalia. I think you understand the story that NATALIA told you. It is an easy way out to say that Craig cheated on Natalia with another skater, to clear the path that Natalia, in fact, WAS seeing Allan while her and Craig were still married, and in the end she got what she had always wanted, a child. Natalia is quiet as we all know, but.. in your own words... so is a snake! Also to the person who wrote the last post, if Craig is a bully, you sure do not seem to be any better by the way you just attacked him! The only people Craig bullied were the people who tried to hurt his wife. All in all Craig was a very kind and would have given his life for Natalia. Several Russian skaters have spoken about that Craig spoke on the phone to a crying Russian Olympic female skater who shall remain nameless, who was afraid that her partner was going to hit her again at a practice. Craig hearing Natalia speak to her on the phone, asked if he could talk to this girl, and while doing so, promised this girl that if he was ever on the ice, or in an ice rink when that happened he would personally speak to and confront the guy who hit her! That is the kind of person he is, and he certainly would have done this and probably more to a person if it had been Natalia who was being threatened, everybody knows this! One thing is for sure, if anybody used anybody, Natalia used her share as well, and in the end she got what she always wanted, a greencard, citizenship, and now finally on her second marriage a baby. I am sure that you are also not aware that Natalia and Craig tried to have a baby, but had a miscarriage, that hurt both of them deeply! I am not sure if a person like you could ever understand or feel some of the pain that BOTH of them went thru in their marriage! I know both of them and have heard both sides!

    Finally to the person who wrote the last post, I believe people like you are the types that if Natalia was not an olympic champion, you would not even care to be around her, you sound fanatical at best, and should really know more about a person, and their lives before you start defending one, and attacking another based upon what you hear from only one of them. And I do believe that the person you questioned on the previous post with your "how dare anyone of you suggest otherwise when you don't know her" does know her! In your eloquent way with words, It looks like Natalia fed you a line of crap also, you believed it, and you are probably paying for coaching while you hear it! Yeah she is quiet, but she is smart enough to have an idiot like you fight her battles for her as she sits and stays "quiet". Bottom line, just because Natalia was not married to Allan while she was married to Craig, does not mean she was not seeing Allan while she was still married to Craig! SHE WAS! GO ahead, look up both of their past addresses (Natalia and Allan), and you will see they were both at the same apartments, BEFORE she divorced Craig, and then at the same house address before the divorce! There are dates on that too!

     
  • At January 21, 2009 6:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ahhh-- who is a fanatic? you checked where they lived? freakin weird, if you ask me. No, I am not a parent of a skater... She doesn't steal skaters.. she doesn't need too. And Craig was a bully.. He bullied me. I have seen Natalia's professionalism over the years. She is very careful not to solicit anyone. Then again, she doesn't need to. I know the pair teams you speak of. They were good, it's sad they broke up...but they have moved on.. which is what WE need to do. Nice going about bringing up past, painful issues.. You are a stand up person.. Way to go. I hope you feel better about youself now. I hope I never have the chance to meet you.

     
  • At January 22, 2009 1:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    To the person who last posteed, are you stupid??? Read your email, from before, you brought up some pretty painful issues as well. That is ok though right??? You are a real stand up person as well to get involved by cutting down Craig and start all of this, and funny how you cannot argue the fact anymore that Natalia and Allan were seeing each other, and later living together while she was still married to Craig! It is not fanatical, it is called investigation, and it is knowing the facts, and truth, and doing research BEFORE one makes statements about a situation, so that one's credibility is not broken as yours just became. Many people already knew this, that they were living together while she was still married, thre are no secrets in figure skating, where have you been all this time??? I never said, I "checked" as you put it, where they lived, I simply told you to look it up and see for yourself. LOL, now he bullied you too! I know Craig, he does not bully anybody, he only sticks up for the those who are being done wrong, and if you are a skater I know he pushed you very hard, harder than you had ever been pushed before, to make you better, because he cared more about you improving as a skater and getting stronger, than babysitting you just so you would keep paying him as a coach, and probably deep down inside you know this but are afraid to admit it. If you are a skater. You may have also been younger at the time and not mature enough to know that hard work is not punishment or being a bully. He was the ONLY person to ever get Natalia past her weight problems, and teach her how to control it! Even strong Artur had problems with her, finally to the point of making her cry on world wide television, I guess you think Artur was a bully too? I think others who read all this will say otherwise to that! Natalia had immense talent, but was not the hardest worker in Russia! Many top Russian coaches have left and gone back to Russia because they cannot teach here in United States the way one needs to teach to get results fast. This is why Craig is a consultant for my skaters for conditioning. Yes I am a stand up person. Craig has never tried to bully me and if he tried to bully my skaters they would tell me, but then again my skaters are more used to the Russian ways of training, they understand the difference between hard work and being bullied.

     
  • At January 24, 2009 5:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    No, That blogger in front of you is not stupid. They were defending their friend, just like you obviously were. You are the one putting Mishkutenok down with your comment that she left Shepard for another man because she wanted a baby and he had money..You even started your blog in agreement that they were livivng together before the divorce. When the blogger corrected you, YOU went on the attack, with very person private, and Not proveable information. Which is very slanderous. Both of you need to be mindful of your words. Both parties involved are coaching children right now. Children who will see this because they are looking for information on there coaches. Shame on you..This woman obviously worked hard for her sport, She does have Olympic medals to prove it. Do any of you have the same? and even if you do, you won't say who you are because you don't want these two people knowing you are talking about them.

     
  • At January 25, 2009 2:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Actually, to the last blogger, I believe it was another person that used to be a student of Natalia's and Craig's that had written the first posting on June 5th 2008. Then on January 5th 2009 a new slanderous posting came out saying very mean things about Craig and how he used Natalia. Then a new person posted on January 19th, 2009that started the slanderous things about Natalia in defense of Craig. If you read them all their were three people involved here. I agree however that all of the parties need to be mindful and aware that these comments can hurt both people. Then again, anybody who would take to heart what is written on a figure skating forum be it child, parent or other is not such a wise individual to begin with. This all just seems like the thing that is so common in the Texas figure skating rinks. There have been several other couples in other parts of the country who were married, skated/coached together, later divorced and you just don't see this kind of behaviour. Seems as though Texas skating always has some kind of drama going on all the time. Like somebody wrote above, they have gotten on with their lives and are both doing well, people should leave them both alone. I thought this thread was about Artur anyways??? No wonder he moved back to Russia! Who would want to be associated with all this drama!

     
  • At January 28, 2009 10:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Thanks for the dig against Texas!! Typical! It's all because of Texas? None of these people are even from Texas. Brilliant!

     
  • At January 30, 2009 7:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Craig is not coaching.

     
  • At February 01, 2009 5:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Well, that's good news, since he is not a figure skater. It's funny that someone on here said he was.. I wonder how long that lasted?

     
  • At February 01, 2009 8:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It is to bad Artur did not find Oksana first, such a sweet girl. Oksana and Artur were so beautiful to watch. People said Natalia could not be replaced, they were so wrong.

     
  • At February 02, 2009 11:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It's wrong !!Natalia is the best and arthur with oksana was'not so good.If Arthur loved Natalia was so good.I'm french and I'm waiting for news of Natalia for ten years.I hope she's happy,she was so sweet so beautiful,what back flexible.I love this woman and i would like to knom if there a site about her.Vive Natalia !!!!!!

     
  • At February 03, 2009 7:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think the person writing on january 19th 22nd and 25th is Craig.

     
  • At February 04, 2009 5:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    To the French person: Natalia seems very happy with her life and I'm sure she would appreciate your comments. Unfortunately there is no site about her, but keep checking -- you never know about the future!

    Regarding the previous posts: many people presume to know intimate details of Natalia's life and her marriage to Craig, as if they were present at every moment. Only Natalia and Craig know the absolute truth and if asked, they would probably report different versions of the same truth. That's the way humans are made. Let's leave them to their individual truths and appreciate them for the contributions they have made to their respective sports.

     
  • At February 05, 2009 3:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    No matter what happened in their personal lives after the Olympics, Natalia and Artur are the reason I first started watching figure skating. There was so much tension and drama in their programs - maybe because of their struggles with each other. I am still grateful to both of them for their work together and wish them well! And I agree, it would be so great is she started a website....

     
  • At March 02, 2009 2:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    do not listen to these reporters lies!! a lot of things she said about natalia are not true!!! i should know she is one of my coaches!!
    she did not even say her daughters name right!!
    it is natasha not natalia jr!! i see natasha everyday!! she skates now too! she is too cute:-)

     
  • At June 08, 2009 3:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    http://runryder.com/helicopter/t462444p1/

     
  • At January 15, 2010 3:34 PM, Blogger faeryquene said…

    This post has been removed by the author.

     
  • At January 15, 2010 4:00 PM, Blogger faeryquene said…

    @Janet
    Quote: Janet said...
    "Artur Dmitriev is the only person to win two Olympics with two different PARTNERS quite different than just having 3 medals!:

    November 11, 2007 8:41 PM

    Irina Rodnina was the FIRST pair skater to win Olympic gold three times-and she did it with TWO different partners long before Artur Dmitriev. Irina and her partner ALEXEI ULANOV won the 1972 Olympic Pairs gold medal in Sapporo. Irina then went on to win the Pairs gold at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck and the 1980 Olympic Pairs gold medal at Lake Placid-with her NEW partner ALEXANDER ZAITSEV. If you check on their total medal tally at Europeans and Worlds on your own Irina's achievements (alone with her partners) should be even more impressive.

     

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