This is an article about the life of Ilia Kulik made by Tatiana Flade

On the ice, we sometimes see a blond young man with brown eyes. Head down, serious expression, he skates slowly without paying any attention to the other skaters training at the same time. Suddenly, without visible reason, he gets some speed and lands a perfect triple axel. After a quick look behind him, he continues his own way, head down, serious expression....That's the usual for Ilia Kulik, world vice-champion. Sometimes friendly and nice, sometimes capricious and arrogant, his mood changes rapidly. But this gifted skater finds a lot of fans and will surely break the heart of many girls...

It all began in the middle of an endless Russian winter , when all the ponds are frozen and the streets become giant skating rinks. In Moscow, these ponds are countless. During the Soviet regime, some of these lakes were illuminated and transformed into rinks by the administration of Mosocw. Skating was very popular in Russia ; it still is, even if they're living in difficult and uncertain times. One of these ponds was close to the home of Kulik's family. At the tender age of 4, little Ilia was already playing on the frozen pond with his friends during winter. His parents noticed that their son was shwoing talent in his movements, that he was learning the basics of skating faster than the others, and that he enjoyed being on the ice. They decided to register Ilia in a skating club. That's how a wonderful skating career started.

Ilia, born and raised in Moscow, started skating seriously in the Red Army sporting club, where many medalists come from. It's a temple, a monumental building in the pure Soviet style, with five ice rinks, gymnasiums and recreation rooms. Today, part of the building is now a showroom for western luxury cars but, at the beginning of the 80's, figure skating and hockey were still ruling the club. It is there that Ilia received his first lessons and a solid skating base. "Our coaches were young and ambitious", says Ilia. "They wanted to achieve something, they wanted success".

He then skated in many clubs before finding Victor Koudriavstev, eight years ago. Koudriavtsev is not an average coach. He is the most experimented and respected coach in Russia. He trained Sergei Volkov, the first skating World Champion coming from the USSR. Koudriavtsev has worked for more than 25 years as a skating coach. " When I saw Ilia for the first time, I knew he had a huge potential", says Koudriavtsev. The coach started to create a champion. He did it carefully, without pushing the skater too early. He gave him time to grow, to develop his abilities. He didn't want, for example, Ilia to compete in Dortmund at the Europeans in 1995. He wanted him to rest after a tiring season so that he could skate with all his strength at the Worlds. But Ilia, 17 years-old at that time, was already headstrong and the Russian Skating Federation decided that he would skate in Dortmund.

Under Koudriavtsev, Ilia progressed rapidly. Four years ago, he competed at the Junior Worlds in the USA. He was first after the short program but totally failed in the free where he finished sixteenth.There, he got to know stress and pressure. Even now, he must sometimes fight his nervousness. In Dortmund, where he became European Champion at 17, he had the advantage of being unknown from most of the spectators and medias. "Nobody knew me. I had nothing to lose" says Ilia."For Alexei Urmanov, for example, it xas harder because he is an Olympic Champion and everyone expects results from him". But a few weeks later, we now expected results in Birmingham at the Worlds from the european champion. One mistake in the short program - the triple axel transformed in a single-cost him a lot. He finished 9th overall. "I"m disappointed for not having done better" said the skater,"But I'm happy to be here. I watched the others and learned a lot". "I hope the next time I won't do some mistakes again". And he didn't do them in Edmonton.........
The technique of the young skater is already well developed. However, his artistic impression is not developed enough.It is not lack of talent. Ilia didn't have a choreographer to work with him regularly because it was too expensive."I think of some movements and try them in front of a mirror", he explains.
after the success in Dortmund, Ilia rapidly found a choreographer-Tatiana Tarasova. she is a well-know dance coach who worked with Klimova/Pnomarenko and now with Maria Butyrskaya.For Ilia,she chose "Addams Family (short program) and "Aladdin" (free program).Thay were very nice programs, full of imaginative ideas, original and difficult movements. "Ilia expresses himself much more with the hands than the other skaters", says a dancer."Next season, I will do something even more interesting", promises ilia, after the Worlds. He knows he can improve his style and is working hard on it.
His coach describes him as mature, serious, hard-working and ambitious."He also knows how to work alone",tells Koudriavtsev."It's important for a champion to know what he wants, what he believes in". However, the boy didn't forget how to have fun. In Moscow, he was living at his parents' home. His mother, Nadejda, is an english technical literature translator and that is why Ilia speaks english very well. His father, Alexandr, is an engineer. He has a younger sister, Svetlana,15, who likes sport also.However, she prefers liquid water-she is a swimmer.
At school, Ilia was one of the best students. After his successful final exam, he started sport's studies in Moscow -mandatory, it seems for all russian skaters.
Last season, Ilia was already well installed in the skating world. After a mediocre performance at Skate America, he won the gold medal at the Trophée de France in Bordeaux, winning over Elvis Stojko. At the Europeans, Ilia finished third and lost his title. However, there was now a serious problem for the russian Skating Federation : it's another Russian skater, Igor Pashkevich, who won the silver medal. The Russian champion, Alexei Urmanov, didn't compete because of an infected eye.But htere were only two places for the men's Worlds...Dilemna :Who will represent Russia in Edmonton ? Urmanov, for sure.And the second skater will be ....? The Russian press favored Pashkevich "for the principle of sport".Even Koudriavtsev votes for Pashkevich, because, he thinks it is more fair.The Europeans is the qualification test for Worlds.(Maybe Ilia never forgave him).
But the Federation doesn't like Pashkevich very much and there is one more competition, Centennial on Ice, in St-Petersburg.Ilia won it with a splendid faultless performance.Igor failed and finished 7th. It's Kulik who went to Canada and won the silver medal. After the season, Ilia made the decision to leave V.Koudriavtsev.People say it's personnal reasons, certainly not professionnal ones. Kulik starts to train with his choreographer Tatiana Tarasova.First, they work in Moscow,then, during the summer, they go tothe USA,where Tatiana directs her theater on Ice "All stars".

At 19, Ilia Kulik can expect a lot from his future-sporting and other.Right now, the OG in Nagano are his main goal but that's not all. Ilia promises that he will not be a second Oksanna Baïul, who disappeared in the professional world right after her Olympic title."I will skate until 1998, maybe even until 2002", he says. "It will depend, of course, of all the developments in skating imposed by the ISU".
Ilia says he has no idol."In the past, I liked Brian boitano, Kurt Browning and victor Petrenko.But today, I want to develop a personal style".