Memories of Ilia at Dortmund...

From Jiang Lu-Chengdu, China

I know many Krew members began to watch Ilia’s skating since 1995 when he won the Europeans and have followed him for many years. I’m a new fan, so when I understood that this year is Ilia’s 10^th Anniversary of winning Europeans, I felt incredible. Ten years is such a long time and even now Ilia is still very young. A month ago I just saw Ilia’s skating tapes for the first time. Thanks to the enthusiastic Krew members, without your help maybe I would never have seen Ilia’s presentation in 1995’s Europeans.

It’s such an enjoyable experience to watch Ilia skating "Rigoletto" and "An American In Paris." They have mature themes and they are very tough for a 17-year-old boy to interpret. "Rigoletto" is especially difficult, and Ilia’s presentation amazed me. This 17-year-old guy seemed so young and tender, and the opera’s theme was tragic. It’s a risk to choose this piece of music ("Women Are Fickle"), but Ilia was so clever to find the most suitable way to interpret it. He turned this music into playing himself and got away from the effort of portraying a dissolute duke.

In fact Ilia is not a born performer as are Candeloro or Plushenko. He has an introverted style; sometimes it’s more emotional to see that he hid the passion inside. I can still see the youthful vigor sprung from his body, lively and strong. It had more personality, he made the program an innocent feeling, not because he misunderstood the theme of the opera--it’s very suitable for his age. He was so pure, every movement just came from his heart without any affectation. He never overacted his character. He had that innocent “power” to give the music a new meaning. From Rigoletto, I saw a little prince in fairy tale jumped out from the book, just like a dream.

One of my friends who once saw Ilia’s program told me that when she saw him skating, she felt a little tragic. She is so sensitive and sentimental and I can understand her. If something is so perfect and dreamy, it always lets people think how fragile it is. Maybe that’s why I am always misty-eyed when I see Ilia’s programs.

Ten years have elapsed; the little boy has grown up to be a mature man. Time changes everything, but I’m rejoicing that Ilia is still Ilia. He still has his style, his quality. He lost nothing. I think that's why I love him so much. I’m really a lucky fan. In the next 10 years, I don’t know what will happen. We may get happiness, also we may undergo suffering, but one thing I can believe firmly, our Iliushka will still give more and more big happy surprises to us. Just wait, we’ll see. 

P.S.  As a Chinese fan, I have never seen Ilia’s live show, so I hope one day he will come to my country to do an ice show. I’ll be very happy even if it’s a very small one.

From Marjaana Jylha-Helsinki, Finland

I have been interested in figure skating since about 1964. In those early days I preferred to watch the skating of ladies and pairs; men´s skating with only half an eye, if even that. It changed, though, totally when John Curry came onto the scene in the early 1970s. The men´s discipline became my biggest favourite and that continued after Curry turned pro as I immediately became a fan of Robin Cousins. After he left the eligible skating there was nobody in men´s skating that really interested me in a big way. Of course I watched the Olympics and mostly Europeans and Worlds if I happened to be at home. 

In 1995 the Europeans were on convenient dates, and I decided to watch the competition on TV live. Besides, it was interesting to see how Alexei Urmanov and Philippe Candeloro would fare there. After Candeloro´s short programme I noticed that there will perform a young Russian skater, and thought "again a new Russian skater." As Ilia Kulik prepared himself for the starting pose, I kind of laughed and said to myself: "What do I see there, a RUSSIAN Leonardo DiCaprio".... 

As Ilia started to skate, I became immediately a fan! I was sooo enthralled by his totally effortless-looking skating and jumping. I could not believe my eyes. His skating was totally what I had been looking for in male skaters since Cousins turned pro. What a great triple axel-triple toe combination!

It was such a pleasure to see Ilia performing faultlessly and winning the short programme. That was actually a big surprise, because newcomers don´t usually do that. It was very apparent that also the judges were blown away by this new performer in senior skating. It was so exciting and I waited impatiently for the men´s free skate. Although I very much hoped that Ilia would win the competition, I really did not believe it, as he was a new skater and the judging being what it is...

In the free skate Ilia had a couple of mistakes, but his whole performance was really enjoyable. Again, I was so very much blown away by his effortless moving on the ice, and the jumps came out of nowhere!

Fortunately Ilia was second in the free skate and able to win the whole competition! WOW, that was sooo great. A new star was born and I had become a huuuge fan.

From Luise Wuetschner--Michelbach, Germany

I became an Ilia fan by accident/chance! I was just a 14-year-old girl who was too lazy in doing homework for school and decided to watch figure skating on live TV instead. I´d never watched the men before but was a huge fan of pairs and ladies skating. I think Ilia was skating in the first group, right after Philippe Candeloro.  

My first thought when I saw him: OMG, such a young boy! I thought he was a kid and I was totally impressed by his triple axel/triple toe combination! So easy-looking, so GREAT, so GOOD! I was completely overwhelmed! I didn´t know anything about skating at that time, but I saw that Ilia was the best! I loved his skating right from the beginning. I think I liked it back then for the same reason I like it now: everything looks so easy and is sooo great!!!

I know I was happy that he was first after the short program. But after it, my fight with my parents began, because I HAD to watch the free program the next evening and we weren´t allowed to watch TV in the evening, especially not when we had school the next day. But I was begging so hard, my mom finally allowed me to watch it.  

To that point, I didn´t even know Ilia's name. I just remembered that his last name was something like Kuli (German for ball point pen). Well, after his free program I knew his full name! I was totally impressed, overwhelmed by his skating. I can´t remember what I REALLY thought about him, I just know my feelings!

I think it´s funny that I saw what a great skater he is even though I didn´t know anything about the sport. I could barely tell you if somebody was doing a double or triple jump, but I knew he was the best. And I've never seen any skater coming close to his quality of skating even though I know much more about skating now.

I remember the victory ceremony, where Ilia was standing quietly on the podium, often in a close-up, which was the best part. I have it on tape, I know, but I still remember everything the way I saw it live.

I won a second fight with my sister about a newspaper article. On the back was an article about her favourite tennis player, but I got my Ilia article!!! I still have it...

Since than I have followed every competition of Ilia's, and as many shows as possible.

Something that is funny to the end: my mom came by right now and asked me what I´m doing. I told her and she said she remembers it. She said she allowed me to watch it because I was never asking for something if it wasn´t really necessary for me. And she said I was even crying (I don´t remember that!) and asking to watch it, so she said she noticed it was really very important for me and that´s why she said YES! Thank you, mom! By the way, she likes him, too. OK, she hadn´t any chance not to like him--I told her to like him--but she doesn´t say yes just to satisfy me; she likes his skating but not as anybody from Kulik's Krew. She says she doesn´t have the time to be a fan of anybody.

I think the main point is that I liked him because his skating is the best I´ve ever seen. I saw it back then, and I see it now. I became a fan of him because of the great, light skating!

From Nancy Hall - Briarcliff Manor, New York

I didn’t know who Ilia Kulik was when the European championships were broadcast here in 1995. I had been a skating fan since I was a little girl but paid no attention to skating at the junior level so when I saw a skinny, handsome, very young man who seemed to be all legs, I had no idea what his name was. I didn’t catch his name the first time the commentator mentioned it, but I did the second time and I’ve never forgotten it.

What do I actually remember from watching that day? an adorable Russian teenager who was all long limbs, as slim as a whisper, with perfect jump technique. My first reaction “Who is that kid and how did he learn to jump that way?”  I’d never seen anything so wonderful and so promising. It was stunning to watch - and exciting.  I don’t actually recall that he won that day – I just remembered the technique and being overwhelmed by it.

As I was looking at Marjaana’s screen shots that are attached to this Anniversary page, I realized that the positions, the stances, the movement we know so well now was all there even then. In the years since, Ilia has added flow, amplitude (lots of that!), speed and style. But to look at the stills and see how much was in place in 1995 is amazing – amazing in someone so young.

And after '95 Europeans I waited and I watched for him again. Could he possibly have been as good as I thought? Could anyone be that good?  I don’t know if I saw him in between but I do remember his Aladdin program vividly as my next Ilia experience and there he was again, more promising. He was the real thing and I knew then that someday he might be the gold standard. I was sold.

To have come from that day in front of the television in 1995 to a day in Hershey, PA in November, 2004 when I could say “Hi Ilia” and he would reply “Hi Nance” is an unlikely story.  But do not think that I take it for granted for a moment.  As Laurie and I often say to each other as we watch Ilia hurtle through the air or fly by the boards, “I actually know someone who can do that – that’s amazing, it's all just amazing.”