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.