Maria Butyrskaya (RUS) - 2002 European Figure Skating Championships, Ladies' Free Skate 

The music and musician deserve applausing! So beautiful it is!❤

The landing on the flip was actually very smooth. She landed five triples. The commentators were overly critical of her.

Маша, красота , и осмысленная! Старается выразительность позы довести до совершенства! Слёзы от твоей красоты! И ,конечно, за тобой--- великая Елена Анатольевна Чайковская! Она при начале в создании вашей красоты!

Despite falls and mistakes here, she was on the roll at first and had a nice smooth flow in the beginning . . .up until the Lutz.

"(...) that keeps her from being a graceful skater." LOL Americans' idea of gracefulness on ice. Give me a break. Butyrskaya was the most graceful and elegant skater ever. Yeah, stiff knees, awkward landings true but her elegance on ice was second to none.

I think the reason why her jumps looked stilted is because she would often land on the ball of the blade instead of the toe pick first. This (5:49) is a perfect example.

I always rooted for her as she was the underdog and written off by many. Always a wildcard. Unfortunately her nerves always got in the way as it showed in her body carriage, face, and very stiff landings, and I always waited for her first mistake in a program that would lead to her unraveling. Regardless, I was proud of her in clean 1999 World win, and also 2001 Worlds program (not-so clean, but no falls).

If Slutskaya beat her in the long as Terry said, how did Maria win the competition? Slutskaya was in 3rd after the short...

A w aa rr ii oo rr COMPETITOR!

I absolutelly love her Flip! Here it was second to none! Awesome! Her Lutz also is very strong, unfortunatelly here she stiffs it :s Miss her so much

Маша лучшая!!!

I was in the audience, right in front of the spot where Maria fell. NO SKATER had the presence or the charisma of Maria, and this includes Slutskaya. The highlight, for me, was after the fall when she crossed the rink and landed the loop. Button is a moron.. calling Maria not graceful skater is sort of a bold statement....

How on planet earth does Dick Button says that a Triple Toe-Half Loop-Triple Salchow is not really a combo? There's no way to do a 3Toe-3Salchow Combo because of the different take off feet.

I wish Maria had picked better music. She probably wanted to go in the same vein as Otonal and Seventeen Moments in Spring, but this really wasn't cutting it.

@Dylvente i know, that flip was BEAUTIFUL! dick was probably just expecting it to be shaky, but she proved him wrong :)

Dick is a real Dick!! Whatever she does he finds something negative..What a fucker??? Is he still alive??? Its time for him to retire..as well as Peggy who is a real pigggggggggggggggg