Searching, Searching

Some unusual searches bringing people to my blog this week...

Of course the top search, and not unusual at all, is Michelle Kwan. Poor alas she has decided to not compete this upcoming season.

However, an unusual search indeed, from several different search engines was "Maria Butyrskaya Russian Mafia." Huh? Is there a story I'm missing somewhere? I'll do some detective work but somehow I doubt Butyrskaya is in anyway connected to the Mafia. But, stranger things have happened.

Several searches paired skater Molly Oberstar and Adam Rippon together. No clue why.

Another unusual search; "Ilia Kulik Shake your bum." Really, I can't make this stuff up if I tried!

One blog search I can answer. "What is Jeremy Abbott's new Free Skate?" That would be "Pines of Rome" and "Jupiter Suite from The Planets."

Keep searching...I'll keep looking!

UPDATE: This Butyrskaya story has legs but it's from the past. Another name came in from a search with Butyrskaya, Sergei Sterlyagov. In Jon Jakson's book, On Edge, he writes of Maria Butyrskaya's horrific ordeal prior to the 2002 Olympic Games when her boyfriend, then Sergei Sterlyagov, was found shot dead in the woods. Apparently the murder (at this point I'm wondering how I never knew any of this!) came after Maria said she was tired of sharing her skating wealth with mobsters. Now the plot thickens, Jackson also writes that the FBI warned him not to travel to Russia as his life was in danger after writing of these events in his book. I'm wondering if Maria is still having to deal with these mafia 'baddies.'

My outlook on Maria Butyrskaya's 2002 Olympic Performance is completely changed. It's gone from being slightly unimpressed to absolutely stupified that she could skate at all given the events of the prior two weeks.