AND YET MORE YAGUDIN

Alexey Yagudin received a prosthesis

Article in the Russian Language publication Vzgljad printed on August 14, 2007

Figure Skater Alexey Yagudin, who expressed his desire to come back to amateur sports, is recovering after an operation. He received a replacement hip prosthesis in the USA.

The initial news of a return for Alexey Yagudin to amateur sports agitated the world about 3 months ago. Mr. Yagudin himself stated that he really never left the sport, and that his plans would depend on the replacement of his hip joint and the recovery after the operation. Only then would he know if he would continue to participate in the sport, or if he would hang up his skates for good.

On July 5, the operation of replacing his right hip joint that was damaged by an extreme workload with an artificial one made out of titanium, took place in the US.

A few days ago, the Olympic Champion started exercises for his leg. Alexey would not share his plans at this time. It is known that his coaches, Nikolay Morozov and Tatiana Tarasova, are ready to begin to practice with him and that the President of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, Mr. V. Piseev is ready to arrange for all the necessary conditions that Alexey would need for his practice.

Mr. Piseev stated that if Alexey Yagudin is really going to fight for a place on the Russian Olympic team, he would be ready to support him at the highest level. It is important that the International Skating Union would support the desire of outstanding sports people to come back into amateur sports and make an exception for them by allowing them to go back to sports. But at the time of this writing, Mr. Piseev did not see any real steps made by Mr. Yagudin on the way back to amateur figure skating.