Every sport has its own immortal questions.
Is there more to Spygate than we were told? Were the 1981 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships fixed by the Soviets and East Germans? And, in figure skating: exactly what happened in Canton between Igor Shpilband and Marina Zueva in June 2012?
One year, they annexed the podium at Worlds. The next, everything began falling apart.
The coaching divorce remains a mystery that we don't have a clear answer for - as mysterious in hindsight as it was surprising at the time. It'd be like if, in a few months, Romain Haguenauer announced that he's leaving Marie-France Dubreuil's Ice Academy of Montreal and setting up his own school ten minutes down the road. Only a handful of coaches in history have ever reached Zueva and Shpilband's level of dominance, and only Natalia Dubova would see her own empire crumble so dramatically.
Years later, the scars still hadn't healed. During Sochi 2014, Zueva would tell Sport-Express that "if there is no unity in the coaching team, it is impossible to win", in a barely-veiled snipe at her former partner. Shpilband was even less civil when Time Magazine asked him about Zueva:

“I don’t have any relationship with her."

After Sochi's ice dance competition, Adrianne Lenda - Shpilband's co-coach and fiancee - offered her own uncharitable thoughts on Zueva:

“Did you see the articles today?” she asked. “Virtue and Moir felt their coach, Marina, was not in their corner, and they didn’t feel she wasn’t putting in the same effort she did in Vancouver.
“It’s probably true, because she tends to gravitate toward the more winning team, for selfish reasons.”

For people watching the Dubreuil-Lauzon-Haguenauer triumvirate crush all opposition beneath their blades, could you imagine Patrice Lauzon telling the media in Milan that Haguenauer was a glory hunter who undeservedly took all the credit for Papadakis/Cizeron's Olympic title?
While we might not fully know the truth behind Shpilband and Zueva's spilt, there's no reason not to try and piece the kaleidoscopic fragments of the story together. A combination of the passage of time, gradual internet link decay and a general effort to obscure the actual details mean it's nigh-impossible to create a full history, but there's enough left over to assemble the broader picture.

The backstory

For anyone who isn't familiar with the people we're about to discuss, refer to this fantastic writeup by Lionclaw21, on the leading coaches in the American ice dance scene.
Over their extensive careers, both of Arctic Edge's coaches - Marina Zueva and Igor Shpilband - became well known for their mastery of skating's behind-the-scenes games. After Zueva joined Shpilband in Michigan in the early-2000s, their partnership used his technical expertise, her artistic brilliance and their shared political cunning as the foundations for their rise to supremacy.
Of course, unlike their primary coaching rivals at Vancouver 2010 - the then-married Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov - Zueva and Shpilband's alliance was purely one of mutual self-interest. For a while, both parties got exactly what they wanted from the arrangement, as their work in Canton raised the bar for everyone else who came after them, both technically and artistically. Our eyes and souls were purified after a decade defined by the dubious stylings of Linichuk and Alexander Zhulin. Without their rise, we might have been living in the world where the diabolical Aboriginal Dance earned an Olympic gold medal.
After breaking North America's Olympic glass ceiling in 2010, Arctic Edge became the first rink to sweep the ice dance podium at Worlds the following year. Meryl Davis / Charlie White and Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir were light years ahead of the rest of the pack, and siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani were the youngest world medalists in half a century.
But the rink's environment was also infamously toxic behind the mirage of perfection, and it's telling that many Canton skaters who pursued a coaching career themselves (such as Moir, or White and his wife Tanith Belbin) have spoken of the importance of building a supportive and healthy training environment for their students to thrive in.
Because the only thing capable of ending Arctic Edge's supremacy was Arctic Edge itself.

Catalysts and context

How did we go from a Worlds podium lockout in 2011 to internecine implosion one year later?
It was because Arctic Edge was always a ticking timebomb, and the decisions Shpilband and Zueva made only accelerated the inevitable meltdown. It's not a secret that Canton was a vicious environment - Virtue's spoken of bullying, Belbin's spoken of draconian body standards and disordered eating, and everyone's mentioned the constant cut-throat tension between the skaters - but the coaches' actions just poured petrol on a bonfire.
Both coaches were known for favouring particular teams at the expense of others, providing them with more attention and better programs. And to make things worse, Zueva's favouritism was often correlated with whichever Canton woman her son Fedor happened to be dating at any particular point. He was linked to Belbin circa 2005, Virtue from 2008 to late 2009, and Davis from 2012 onward. There were also rumours of him pursuing Maia Shibutani at some point, as well as his 2010-11 on-ice partner Jana Khokhlova. And coincidence or not, it's impossible to dispute that Belbin/Agosto were Zueva's top team for 2005-06, or that Virtue/Moir had the superior 2009-10 season, or that Davis/White were perceived as Zueva's favoured ones as Sochi approached. He'd ultimately marry Davis in 2017.
It's difficult enough to create a civil behind-the-scenes atmosphere between top ice dancers under normal circumstances. Having a situation where the coach's favour was nepotistic while her son saw the rink as his own personal Tinder isn't "normal".
Not that Shpilband was any better. An oft-repeated rumour is that, during the 2011-12 season, he began favouring the newly-created American team of Madison Chock / Evan Bates (and, according to one version of the story, Shpilband arranged secret tryouts between Chock and her new partner behind the back of Bates' previous partner, Emily Samuelson). The Shibutanis - who'd fall from 3rd at 2011 Worlds to 8th at 2012 Worlds - blamed their poor season on Shpilband's lack of attention, and the Shibutani family would allegedly play a major, behind-the-scenes role in getting rid of him. Everything in this paragraph is second-hand rumour and hearsay, but the fact that it's even plausible speaks of the cloak-and-dagger machinations behind each and every move in Canton.
And while this was all happening, Shpilband and Zueva's own relationship was rapidly deteriorating. Several sources from the time mentioned Shpilband's own dissatisfaction with the broader situation at Arctic Edge, and with Zueva's public primacy within their coaching tandem. A Moscow News article mentioned that even before their partnership dissolved, he was considering going solo himself at some point. The Detroit Free Press said Shpilband thought Zueva wasn't consulting him when drawing up training schedules. A 2021 RIA Novosti interview with Shpilband referenced rumours about his spouse, Adrianne Lenda, interfering in the training process and sparking internal conflict with Zueva as a result. Russian journalist Elena Vaitskehovskaya asked Shpilband at 2012 Worlds whether he was offended that Zueva gave more media interviews than him, only for him to "bitterly" answer that the journalists were paying more attention to Zueva's opinions than his own.
Something had to give.

Civil war

On June 3, 2012, fresh off of yet another Canton cakewalk at that year's World Championships, an earthquake tore through the power structures of global ice dance.
The Detroit Free Press broke the story, saying that Shpilband had been fired from Arctic Edge. Their article also discussed how, like a failing marriage, there had been interventions to try and save it: US Figure Skating (USFS) had been informed of problems between Shpilband and Zueva weeks before, and Shpilband mentioned talking to USFS about the "issue I had with Marina".
Shpilband said that Zueva should have waited until after Sochi 2014 to dissolve their partnership, instead of breaking up a winning machine two years before the Olympics. Zueva's response, as quoted in Russian media, was interesting.

"It's better than two months."

European medalist John Kerr spoke for everyone with his brilliant reaction on Twitter.
Now, what actually happened that day?
Well, we don't know for sure. Even a decade later, everything remains shrouded in a veil of secrecy that would make the CIA proud. All we have to go on are the various moments that made it into the media, which are naturally influenced by how everyone involved in the saga wants to make themselves look better and their foes look worse.

Zueva's perspective

The Associated Press quoted from Zueva's official statement:

"Igor and I built this program together, and it was great. Unfortunately, we are going in different directions," Zoueva said in a statement released by U.S. Figure Skating. "The skaters are very talented and focused. They have very strong work ethics, and together we will move forward."

Although Shpilband turned his rink into a national ice dance powerhouse before Zueva's arrival, it's fair to say that her involvement was essential to Canton becoming the all-conquering superpower it was.
Immediately after the split, she told RIA Novosti that the breakdown had nothing to do with their current students, but rather that it was because Shpilband wanted to train personal students of his own separately from her, in what she called a "conflict of interest" that showcased his desire to "start his own business inside our shared business".
Later in 2012, at the Rostelecom Cup, she would offer slightly more insight into the breakup:

When you parted ways with your coaching partner Igor Shpilband in the summer, there were many predictions that this breakup would provoke a decrease in the quality of your pairs' performances. Did you have to face any negative consequences in connection with this whole story?
"Of course. It was a tragedy for me that we broke up. However, I did not think it was possible for me to continue working on the terms Igor offered."
Do you mean Igor's desire to work with new couples separately from you?
"Yes. He wrote to me about it in a letter. That he wanted to have a separate group with which he planned to work at the rink at the best time - and so on. I tried to negotiate, to explain that in my understanding there is no such thing in collaborative work, where some students are one's own and others are shared, but Igor said that he had already made his decision and wasn't going to change it. So initially it was his decision, not mine."
^{Source: November 10, 2012, from a sport-express.ru interview, titled "Марина Зуева: "Чемпионы обязаны двигать свой вид спорта вперед"."}

Her now-former coaching partner would naturally tell a different story.

Shpilband's perspective

In the initial Detroit Free Press article, Shpilband said he was blindsided by his dismissal. Although it was known that there was some behind-the-scenes turmoil between him and Zueva, he appeared to believe their mutually-successful partnership was worth salvaging (or at least preserving until Sochi 2014), and she clearly disagreed.
The Detroit Free Press quoted Arctic Edge's general manager Craig O'Neill as saying that the rink's "three top teams" - Virtue/Moir, Davis/White and the Shibutanis - felt "Igor wasn't there anymore for them", and Shpilband added "he told me the kids don't want me at the rink anymore. For what reason, I don't know."
Shpilband said he left a message with Davis and White, but didn't mention Virtue/Moir or the Shibutanis. Online observers back then noted it fit the pattern of the latter two teams being considered Zueva-aligned teams at the time, rather than Shpilband-aligned ones.

The skaters' perspective

Because Tessa Virtue is not Oksana Grishuk, the teams at Canton gave us all the polite, stage-managed civility you'd expect, thanking Shpilband for his presence on their sporting journeys.
O'Neill tried to pin the responsibility for Shpilband's ouster upon the skaters:

“What [rink owner] John (Stansik) and I did today was all based on the kids," O'Neill said of Virtue and Moir, Davis and White, and 2011 world bronze medalists Maia and Alex Shibutani. "Igor did talk about starting his own program, and coaching some of his own kids, and we didn't have issues with that. Our main focus has to be the top three teams.
“There was a lot of issues. This has been going on for a couple of months. He's not focused with the kids. What it came down to was the kids didn't want to skate there (in Canton) anymore with Igor. Either they were leaving or Igor was leaving.
“We told him that the kids weren't going to come back to the rink until we had this meeting with you."

But perhaps the most transparent look behind the curtain was offered by Charlie White's mother Jacqui, who gave us some insights of her own, in reply to a Facebook commenter who called the skaters "spoiled brats":

“...I’m afraid you don’t know what you are talking about. This wasn’t initiated by the skaters, they are obviously only trying to hang on by the skin of their teeth to continue training while the coaches battle to the death and when convenient, use them as pawns in the fight. This is an old story of ‘who has control,’ where egos come into play and team cooperation erodes. The skaters in this scenario are not brats, but victims caught in the crossfire.”

Squaring the circle

This entire situation has echoes in history, and it actually is possible to reconcile these differing stories. It wouldn't be the first time that Marina Zueva had used her own athletes as cover to force out a coach she had problems with.
There's notable parallels with an incident following the 1985-86 season, where Zueva - then an ambitious neophyte choreographer working with newly-minted pairs world champions Gordeeva/Grinkov - organised a campaign against the skaters' tyrannical coach Stanislav Zhuk, accusing him of chronic alcoholism, moral depravity and missing training sessions in a denunciation letter to Soviet officials. There are various conflicting accounts of the letter, its authors and its signatories, but the constant in every single version is that Zueva played a key role.
She did have legitimate reasons for it. Gordeeva's memoir My Sergei has an entire chapter called "The Miserable, Pitiless Zhuk", while his training methods were notorious for a monomaniacal focus on micromanaging athletes, controlling their body weight, and doing the most difficult jumps and elements regardless of the wreckage left behind. He was basically a spiritual ancestor of Eteri Tutberidze, with some additional tales of sexual assault. Gordeeva recalled Zhuk making sexual advances on her roommate Anna Levandi (née Kondrashova) and "many girls over the years", while various Russian sources relate similar, independent rumours of Zhuk pursuing Kondrashova, Elena Buyanova and even the at-most-15-years-old Gordeeva while they trained at CSKA (though My Sergei explicitly rejects the last one).
Despite being one of the most powerful coaches in the entire Soviet skating scene, Zhuk was ultimately removed from his post as a coach at the Red Army-aligned CSKA Moscow club, and his students were reallocated to other coaches. Gordeeva/Grinkov and Kondrashova were assigned to the young Stanislav Leonovich, who wasn't even 30 when Gordeeva/Grinkov won the 1988 Olympic pairs title in Calgary. Naturally, their programs were choreographed by Zueva, who would get much of the credit for Gordeeva/Grinkov's brilliance.
Igor Shpilband might not be as monstrous as Zhuk, but it's rather telling that both instances involve a coach with a somewhat toxic reputation being on the receiving end of a political defeat at the hands of Marina Zueva.
For, however you look at it, it's unarguable that Shpilband was the one left in a weaker political position after the split.

The fallout

One day after the breakup, USFS confirmed that Davis/White and the Shibutanis would be staying in Canton as part of Zueva's group. The Shibutanis' decision wasn't seen as a surprise, but many thought Davis/White were the closest to Shpilband and the likeliest ones to follow him elsewhere. A few days later, it was confirmed that Virtue/Moir would be remaining with Zueva too.
Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) general director Valentin Piseev told Russian press that he would gladly offer Shpilband whatever he wanted if it would see the coach working in his homeland again, but Shpilband preferred to stay in Michigan. According to Ice Musings, he reportedly checked out the Compuware Ice Arena in Plymouth, about ten miles from Canton.
The following week, Shpilband announced that he'd now be working out of the Novi Ice Arena, just twenty minutes away from Arctic Edge. IceNetwork reported that the first Canton skaters to follow him there were Chock/Bates, a team who had finished fifth at US Nationals in their debut season together. Lithuanians Isabella Tobias / Deividas Stagniūnas would join them a day later.
Zueva went on the hunt for a technical expert to replace Shpilband. After being turned down by Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas, she eventually lured Oleg Epstein to Canton to serve as her Igor substitute. Italy's Maurizio Margaglio also came onboard as a consultant for a while.
In a poetic twist of fate, Shpilband brought on Margalio's former on-ice partner Barbara Fusar-Poli as his own coaching collaborator. It was fitting that ice dance's most high-profile coaching divorce would also involve the artists behind ice dance's most legendary death stare.
Some time after the divorce, Shpilband would take Zueva to court. The exact details are buried behind a mountain of non-disclosure agreements. The only information I could find was a reference in a Time Magazine article, where they mentioned that Davis and White were deposed as part of it, the case was settled out of court, and the acrimony remained.

The aftermath

There's a persistent rumour that USFS paid Zueva's legal bills during the whole mess. It's brought up as a possible explanation for her actions over the next two years, alongside the coach potentially wanting multiple Olympic champions on her CV, and her son Fedor's romantic relationship with Davis from 2012 onward.
We all know how this story ends. Davis/White would go on to win the world title in 2013 and Olympic gold in 2014, while Virtue/Moir battled injury and lost the ephemeral concept known as momentum to their rivals. The Canadians also felt as if they lost Zueva's favour: Virtue allegedly wanted to leave Arctic Edge after a disappointing 2012-13 season, and while Moir talked her out of it at the time, he would later publicly lambast Zueva for not being "in our corner" following their silver medal in Sochi. When Virtue/Moir announced their comeback in 2016, they would move to train with Dubreuil in Montreal, a school that would become an even more dominant force in the sport than Arctic Edge at their zenith.
Shpilband continuously failed to find an artistic collaborator capable of replacing Zueva, becoming known for the artistic bankruptcy of his choreography, and his star team Chock/Bates would only become world champions after leaving him for Dubreuil.
Zueva, meanwhile, had similar difficulties finding a technical expert who could fill Shpilband's shoes, and her teams would consistently bleed away points by missing levels. The Shibutani family would reportedly acquire a stake in Arctic Edge, and more pointed rumours say that they effectively bought Zueva's services as a de facto private coach for the Shibutani siblings as Pyeongchang 2018 approached. They would win Olympic bronze there - behind the Montreal-coached Virtue/Moir and Papadakis/Cizeron - but it would be Zueva's final bow as a top force in ice dance.
Maybe, some day, we'll learn what truly happened in 2012.

"It's a huge fight at every event. And it's not just us. Our coaches, Tatiana Tarasova and Alexei Mishin, fight against each other, too, using us as weapons." - Alexei Yagudin¹

One of the most amazing quirks of figure skating history is how a generation-defining rivalry featuring genuine accusations of witchcraft at the Winter Olympics didn't even come close to earning top billing that year.
Because this was 2002: the year where The French Judge and the pairs event scandal dominated the airwaves, day after day. The year where Michelle Kwan lost Olympic gold to an American teammate for the second time in a row. It was the year where figure skating decided to showcase its credentials as the most chaotic Olympic sport of them all.
It's fitting that this particular story occurred in Salt Lake City, since the losers are still salty about it to this day. Nobody here is a truly reliable narrator, but we can assemble a beautiful kaleidoscope of madness if we piece all the different fragments of the story together. The man in the blue suit is called the Black Magician, and he's at the core of a legendary figure skating conspiracy theory.
(A short content warning before we begin: there are brief references to abuse in this writeup, with those specific sections marked in advance.)

Magic Formula

The sport:

Figure skating might be the most famous sport at the Winter Olympics, despite the diabolical complexity behind it. It might also be the most dramatic, with storylines often ripped right from a soap opera.
This particular tale focuses on singles skating, perhaps the 'default' version of the sport in the minds of people who don't really follow it. To answer the immortal question, it's what Brian Boitano did to win his Olympic title (although he wasn't wearing a blindfold at the time). Katarina Witt, Michelle Kwan, Yuzuru Hanyu - if you think of them, you're thinking of singles skating.
Split into men's and women's events, the discipline requires athletes to blend iconic jumps - you may have heard of the triple axel, or the triple Lutz - with difficult bladework, complex spins and artistic choreography, all done in eye-catching costumes to accompanying music. When it's done right, it takes your breath away at how the athletes can make everything look so simple, and surpass the boundaries of sport to create moments of pure transcendence.
In 2002, the sport was scored on the famed 6.0 system - a comparative ranking system where you needed a majority of the nine judges on each panel to give you the highest overall marks to win gold. Competitions in singles skating were divided into two segments: a two-and-a-half-minute "short program" (SP), and a four-minute "free skate" (FS), or "long program".

The characters:

Our tale centres itself around two camps - both alike in indignity, in fair Salt Lake City, where we lay our scene.
In the red corner, working out of Saint Petersburg, Russia, we had:

• Evgeni Plushenko, the 2001 world champion. Considered one of the greatest jumpers the sport has ever seen, with one of its dodgiest haircuts. Often had some questionable choreography and stylistic choices for his programs, though he did have his own distinct personality on the ice. His gala program to “Sex Bomb” at 2001 Worlds involved a striptease, a nude muscle suit, and a golden speedo. I wish I made that sentence up.
  
• Alexei Mishin, the coach of the 1994 Olympic champion in men’s singles. Based out of Russia at the time. Known as “the Professor” by many in skating, both due to his massive technical knowledge and his position as an actual university lecturer. Renowned for his expertise on skating biomechanics and jumping technique, and for a generally stoic, droll attitude. Was once blacklisted by the KGB in the mid-1970s for assorted reasons.
  

And in the blue corner, working out of Simsbury, Connecticut, we had:

• Alexei Yagudin, the 1998, 1999 and 2000 world champion. Originally seen as merely a skater with big jumps, but went through a metamorphosis over the four-year leadup to Salt Lake City to become a nuanced artist, too. Also prone to some rather dismal exhibition gala decisions, such as a 1997 performance to African music in this dubious costume. Once rumoured to have had a fling with the openly-gay American skater Rudy Galindo (ask Galindo himself), the Chicago Tribune reported he was kicked off of Tom Collins’ Champions on Ice tour in 1999 for drunkenness and bad behaviour.
  
• Tatiana Tarasova, coach of the 1998 Olympic champion in men’s singles. First a coach of champion pairs skaters and ice dancers in the USSR, before moving to America for better training conditions in the mid-1990s, and successfully working with singles’ skaters too. An interesting figure known for her dramatic proclamations, her eye-catching number of fur coats, and her equally eye-catching choreography.
  
• Rudolf Zagainov, a notorious, controversial sports psychologist known for his work in the Soviet Union. Over several decades, he associated with athletes in an eclectic array of sports, ranging from track-and-field and cycling to chess and figure skating.
  

The Montagues and Capulets were probably more civil.

Destined Rivals

"You must be an artist, too. I still think Plushenko doesn't know what he's doing. Mishin says, 'Do this with your arms,' so he does it. But he doesn't feel the music." - Alexei Yagudin²

“I know Yagudin well, and he wants to be the center of attention even when he loses." – Evgeni Plushenko³

(Content warning: abuse)

The general outline of the story is the one that NBC gave us in their melodramatic Olympic fluff pieces (like this one): Yagudin and Plushenko used to be training partners at Mishin's Yubileiny rink in Russia, until Yagudin left Mishin after the Nagano Olympic season to train with Tatiana Tarasova in the United States. Yagudin couldn't forgive Mishin for favouring Plushenko, and Mishin would famously say that coaching the two was like trying to balance the affections of two wives at the same time. Yagudin and Plushenko would dominate the Salt Lake City Olympic cycle - Yagudin winning the 1999 and 2000 world titles, Plushenko winning the 2001 world title - and entered the 2002 Olympics as the two main contenders for gold.
What's not mentioned so much is that Yagudin would have had every right to despise Mishin. Any of Mishin's skaters would probably have every right to despise him. By all accounts, the training environment he oversaw was horrifically toxic for all involved. Mishin himself told Sport-Express about breaking a young Plushenko's finger in a fit of rage after catching the child playing with a ball while they were in Italy. Yagudin and Plushenko have both mentioned vicious, institutionalised, long-term hazing rituals, where older skaters were encouraged to torment the younger ones; in 2021 a former Yubileiny staff member spoke to fontanka.ru, recalling colleagues telling her that the young Yagudin was being "educated" by his rinkmates when the boy's screams echoed through the building. The dreadful atmosphere continues to this day, since 2022 Olympic pairs skater Alexander Galliamov reportedly received a detached retina from his training mates during his time training with Mishin.
Even putting aside the poisonous internal climate Mishin actively fostered at his rink, there was some real merit to Yagudin's accusations of coaching favouritism. In a Chicago Tribune article, a Yubileiny skater once recalled Tatiana Mishina (Mishin’s wife and coaching partner) saying that the newly-arrived Plushenko had "more ability than Yagudin". A 2001 New York Daily News article said that Mishin was telling people how Plushenko "would become the true star" as early as 1997, while Yagudin was still training with him. Mishin would later abandon the distraught Yagudin in the kiss-and-cry area after the 1998 Olympic free skate, disgusted with his student’s poor performance.
Following Yagudin's departure for Tarasova, Mishin would attempt to explain that moment in a late-1998 interview with Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, showcasing his typical levels of grace.

"Alexei was very well prepared. But after one of the practices, he took a shower and sat in the stands right under the ventilation pipe without buttoning up. As I found out later, Artur Dmitriev came to him first and advised him to move so he wouldn't get a cold. Then the same thing was said by Andrei Bushkov. Then Ekaterina Gordeeva, who was just passing by. Yagudin listened to no one. And on the eve of the start he had a temperature of 39.5. I was frightfully offended at that. I think that anyone can get sick or get injured, but I will never understand that anyone can be so stupid as to knowingly fail at the competition for the sake of which all this crazy work is being done. It's very hard to forgive."
Is that why your relationship has fractured? Or was Yagudin broken by internal competition?
"I've always been aware of the fact that it's very difficult to withstand the work in my group. And that someone could break. That, alas, is life. But I'm glad we parted with Yagudin without any fights or mudslinging. After all, I made him the world champion and he made me the coach of the champion."

Yagudin, for his part, categorically denied all of this. But it's interesting that Mishin praised the lack of mutual mudslinging directly after calling Yagudin "stupid" for supposedly choosing to sabotage his own Olympics on purpose.
Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) president Valentin Piseev threatened that Yagudin would never win anything if he left Russia to train with Tarasova in the US; Russian Nationals became the only major competition Yagudin would never win, and both he and Tarasova were fully aware of their comparative pariah status in the eyes of Piseev and the federation. Swathes of the FFKKR and Russian media viewed Yagudin as a traitor for leaving to train in America, and his mother told Moskovskij Komsomolets in 2002 that “cheering for Yagudin was considered bad form” in Russia. On the eve of Salt Lake City, Yagudin would tell ESPN that the federation's dislike of him was "pretty sad".
Tarasova and Mishin were predictably at one another's throats, due to that and other reasons. Mishin was rather contemptuous of Tarasova and everything she represented: Vaitsekhovskaya wrote (in her memoir Tears On Ice) that even after Ilya Kulik won the 1998 Olympic gold medal under Tarasova's tutelage, Mishin didn't see Tarasova as a "serious opponent" in men's skating until the turn of the millennium. Whereas Tarasova was primarily known for her work as a coach and choreographer for ice dancers, and once walked away from Olympic competition altogether in the late-1980s to lead a touring ice ballet, Mishin told Vaitsekhovskaya that the idea of bringing "music to life on the ice" was the childish prattling of coaches who weren't thinking about the "one goal in sport - to win".
Naturally, all of this provided the fuel for a vicious rivalry. Vaitsekhovskaya recalled Mishin making disparaging remarks in the 1999-2000 season about how Yagudin’s programs disguised poor technique with ostentatious artistry, and he only upped the intensity of his scorn as the Olympics approached. In 2001, Plushenko told the Chicago Tribune that he learned nothing from Yagudin while they were training together, and Yagudin compared the situation between them to that of Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski four years earlier.
And then the hypnotist arrived.

The Black Magician

Yagudin actually contemplated walking away from figure skating in the lead-up to the Olympics, after losing the world title to Plushenko in April 2001, and having a calamitous performance at September’s Goodwill Games. Tarasova talked him out of it, and decided that her star pupil needed a sports psychologist to make sure he was in the right frame of mind to achieve his Olympic dream.
Enter Rudolf Maximovich Zagainov, psychologist to the stars.
Or, as many people in the Russian sporting world dubbed him, the Black Magician.
Zagainov’s grasp of the concept of professional ethics was nonexistent. He would help his clients, and then publish tell-all books detailing exactly what he did and what his clients needed. Vaitsekhovskaya called his personality “odious”, and she was far from alone in thinking so. His former client Sergei Bubka – who broke with him in acrimonious fashion – said Zagainov demanded every client adhere to three guiding principles:

1) You must hate your opponent; never give him a hand when you meet him.
2) One should strive for wealth, because wealth is power.
3) Go to the goal by any means, without regard to morality.

In the eyes of many, what turned Zagainov from an ordinary sports psychologist into a diabolical figure of Rasputinian malevolence was his reputation, and the stories of witchcraft that trailed in his wake. After Zagainov began publicly working with Yagudin, Plushenko recalled in his memoir Another Show that he received concerned letters from people, and that his mother was warned about the prospect of him being hexed by the psychologist’s magical powers. According to Vaitsekhovskaya, Zagainov's reputation derived from his involvement in the Soviet chess scene, where he became known as “the magician who hypnotised Anatoly Karpov” during his world title matches.⁴ At various points, he reportedly worked with top Soviet grandmasters Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi, Boris Spassky and Garry Kasparov, where he'd take the secrets of his past clients to his new employer for the right price.
Crucially, Plushenko’s coach actually believed that Zagainov had genuine magical powers. Mishin discussed why he thought so in his 2021 memoir The Secrets of the Ice:

"One incident allowed me to believe in Zagainov's extraordinary abilities. Many years ago, at a training camp in Leselidze, my eldest son Andrei suddenly developed a fever of 40°C. We did not know what to do. Rudolf Maximovich, who was at the training camp at that time, found out about it and volunteered to help. He sat down over Andrei and began to say something or make some gestures with his hands. As a result, the child's temperature dropped to normal in half an hour.”

Despite his own private beliefs about Zagainov's magical powers, Mishin was still publicly disdainful about Yagudin hiring him. Nevasport recalled how Mishin, as Salt Lake City approached, said that athletes who needed a psychologist were weak and didn't belong in elite sport.
By November 2001’s Cup of Russia, rumours were already swirling about how Zagainov’s appointment may have been a deliberate ploy by Tarasova to destabilise Yagudin’s greatest opposition. In a contemporary article, journalist Anna Raikova said that a possible explanation for Plushenko’s subpar long program performance may have been Zagainov trying “his charms” on Plushenko.
When asked about the Black Magician’s presence, Tarasova was more circumspect. She told Vaitsekhovskaya that she just needed someone who could enter the men’s locker room and be with Yagudin before competitions, and dismissively waved away the rumours without a care in the world:

“Let them talk.”

Black Magic Ritual

Salt Lake City 2002 arrived, and it was considered a foregone conclusion that Russia’s two leading men would be the only real contenders for the gold medal.
Skating to a medley of four different Michael Jackson songs within two minutes and forty seconds – “Earth Song”, “Childhood”, “Billie Jean” and “They Don’t Care About Us” – the most consistent jumper in the world promptly botched his first jump, crashing to the floor. Or crashing to Earth.
Plushenko gave a dramatic retelling of the moment in his memoir.

"I fell on a quadruple jump, which I know as well as the Lord's Prayer. It seems to me: you can wake me up in the middle of the night and I'll jump it without a single mistake.
Everything went great in training. And suddenly... going out for a quadruple jump, I saw Zagainov's silhouette. He was right across from me. I caught his heavy gaze.
I pushed off very well and flew out smoothly. But then something inexplicable happened.
It was as if someone ordered me: "Open up! Go to the landing!" And I obeyed, although it was still early. I still can't figure out where this signal came from, how it reached my brain.
After the Olympics, I replayed the video many times, my fall from the quadruple jump. In fact, I was in great shape at that moment. And I have never had such falls in my life. In any case, I couldn't turn around the wrong way. And I still have the feeling that I was dragged along by an incomprehensible force.”

The judges ultimately placed Plushenko in fourth after the short program, with several field-leading 5.9 marks for presentation, which some felt was excessively generous. American coach Frank Carroll snidely asked the Chicago Tribune whether it meant you could now get a 6.0 by simply standing up.
Plushenko would recover to finish in the silver medal position - fitting, given his shiny silver short program bodysuit - but Yagudin took the gold, with clean, difficult, well-executed, artistic performances to "Winter" in the short program and The Man In The Iron Mask in the long program. Zagainov sat with his client and Tarasova in the kiss-and-cry area, in place of choreographer Nikolai Morozov due to the official limit of two companions per performer. According to Tarasova, Zagainov had blackmailed her into allowing this, threatening to abandon Yagudin on the eve of the competition altogether if she didn't allow him to be present by the skater at all times.
It was this sort of behaviour that led to Tarasova's growing unease about Zagainov's methods: reportedly, she felt her job was to ensure that Yagudin was strong enough to always be in the right frame of mind for competition, while Zagainov wanted Yagudin to rely completely upon him.
Yagudin definitely embodied Zagainov's first maxim after the competition was over.

Bond Between Teacher And Student

It’s standard procedure for an Olympic event to be followed by a press conference, where the medalists answer questions. Usually, these are pretty low-key affairs – but usually, the media aren’t covering figure skating. So in a recipe for pure, undiluted chaos, the 2002 Olympics decided that this conference would be attended by each of the medalists and their respective coaches.
Predictably, it degenerated into a Russian farce from the moment it got underway. Throughout the whole press conference, ESPN noted bronze medalist Tim Goebel exchanging baffled looks with his coach Carroll, perhaps wondering if they'd both stumbled into a Chekhov play.
Yagudin had an axe to grind, after the years of pain, mudslinging and general scorn that his former coach had sent his way. He spoke at length to the world’s media about unnamed figures who didn’t believe in him, and how much he felt he’d improved as a skater since leaving Mishin – who he refused to mention by name – for Tarasova.
Mishin tried claiming a slice of the credit for Yagudin's triumph, saying that the audience could judge how much of the medal was owed to him and how much was owed to Tarasova, and that he was proud to have "two of my skaters" on the podium. Yagudin instantly shut that down, cutting in to say the medal belonged entirely to himself and Tarasova.
When asked about his emotions after the free program, Yagudin was less than conciliatory, as quoted in ESPN:

"I was like in a good dream. I just remembered how many hard times and happy times I had for four years. And how much crap was thrown in my face about how I am not such a good skater. I was keeping that within myself until I won. It was really hard, but that's what was in my life for four years. And I am so lucky to have such a good coach who changed me."

And asked by a Russian reporter for Express Gazeta whether he could forgive and forget, and make up with Plushenko and Mishin, Yagudin simply said “probably not, because my coach is Tatiana now.” That reporter wrote of later being accosted by Zagainov, who asked him “How much did Mishin pay you for this question?”
The Russian Olympic Committee planned to hold a celebration afterwards, to honour their new medalists and the coaches who worked with them. Supposedly, Yagudin made his excuses and didn’t show up. His actions were understandable, for Tarasova told Vaitsekhovskaya that Yagudin's triumph was considered an embarrassment for the FFKKR, and that foreigners literally asked her why the Russians would have preferred a non-Russian to win if it meant Yagudin didn't.
According to Zagainov (talking to Express Gazeta), a toast was made in honour of the triumphant Tarasova, who had celebrated her 55th birthday that week. Everyone up to and including Piseev stood, with the exception of Mishin – who gestured for Plushenko to remain seated too, as the entire room applauded Tarasova’s success. Zagainov and Mishin allegedly almost came to blows afterward, between what the psychologist saw as Mishin’s disrespect, and what the coach saw as Zagainov’s responsibility for Plushenko not winning gold.

Magical Dimension

The reason for Mishin’s rage can actually be seen in the Olympic broadcast: the unexpected presence of Zagainov rinkside, during Plushenko’s short program.
According to Yagudin, quoted in a 2020 Sport24 article, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for this:

“Mishin claimed that in the short program Zagainov hypnotised Plushenko to make Zhenya fall on the quadruple jump. This is complete nonsense! Here's what happened. After my skate in the second warm-up, we were backstage. And when Zhenya was called onto the ice, we didn't know where to run to watch the performance of our main competitor.
We didn't have time to get up to the grandstands. So Tarasova ran in one direction to find the television, and Zagainov ran in the other and jumped out beside the rink, where the ice resurfacers came out during the break. He just happened to be in that spot. You know, accidentally!
Nevertheless, Zhenya and his entourage now had a logical reason to blame someone else for their troubles. What can I say? For God's sake, say what you want, if you really believe it and it makes you feel better."

According to Mishin, Zagainov’s presence was evidence of a diabolical plot by the perfidious psychologist to undermine Plushenko. Express Gazeta reported that Mishin complained to FFKKR president Piseev after the short program, who later spoke with Zagainov at length and at volume; Zagainov was subsequently absent from the rinkside during Plushenko’s free program. In a 2002 interview with Sport-Express, Tarasova mentioned that both Plushenko and Mishin were saying "they were influenced by the psychologist Zagainov".
In Mishin's own memoir two decades later, he still maintained that Zagainov was to blame for Plushenko’s defeat, in a very “I could say it, but…” fashion.

"I can't say with certainty that Plushenko's mistake, completely uncharacteristic of him, occurred because of the hypnotic influence of this man. But the episode, in which Zagainov stood behind Evgeni when he stepped onto the ice and continued to stand in that position for the entire program, raises questions. It is telling that his charge Alexei Yagudin had already performed and there was no reason for him to stay near the rink.
Only God may know what exactly happened then. Either the young psyche failed, or it was the pernicious influence of Zagainov, but Evgeni made a mistake, which was uncharacteristic for him. Never before had Plushenko performed a quadruple toe loop in such a way - as well as afterwards, by the way. I can only say one thing: being in the flight, at a good, confident push, for some reason he changed his mind to continue spinning, regrouped and fell face-first.”

In a way, Plushenko was probably fortunate that such a convenient scapegoat existed for his failure to win gold. Based on how Mishin handled Yagudin's Olympic errors in 1998, the coach might have otherwise told the press that Plushenko was an imbecile who chose to screw up on purpose.
Per Sport24, Yagudin thought that Mishin's whining about Zagainov's malignant presence was the sign of a hypocritical sore loser who couldn't handle his own tricks being turned against him.

"In fact, I can also tell you something about the evil spells with which my former coach tried to entangle me. This was the case, for example, at the 2000 European Championships in Vienna, which I lost to Zhenya via the vote of the Russian judge. After warming up, Zhenya skated first, and after a certain period of time - me. When I went into the locker room to not hear the noise of the stands and to get away from it all, I saw Mishin there. He, too, came into the locker room, sat across from me and, staring uninterruptedly into my eyes, moved his lips like a shaman. Every time I did a quadruple jump at all the competitions where Plushenko took part, Mishin stood by the boards. It was only at the Olympics that I noticed Mishin in his usual place and smiled at him."

As for the psychologist himself, he was even less charitable.

Thousand Knives

In April 2002, Zagainov publicly flayed Mishin in a merciless interview with Express Gazeta, giving what can only be described as a gloating monologue.

“But I never got tired of repeating that Plushenko is not a machine, and as soon as he starts to fall, he will break at once. Knowing perfectly well that psychologically Mishin is not able to support his athlete in a difficult situation, because he belongs to the category of cowardly coaches.”
Apparently, you are not too ‘gentle’ towards Alexei Mishin.
“On the contrary, I am extremely grateful to him. It was his amazing illiteracy that helped me set Yagudin up for victory. Professor Mishin's main mistake was that he frightened Plushenko... with me. When Alexei Nikolaevich found out that Tarasova turned to me, he said literally the following in one of his interviews: ‘We know the psychologist Zagainov from the Karpov-Kasparov matches, during which he was removed from the hall for hypnotizing his ward's opponent...’ When I read that, I laughed for a long time. And I told Lesha [Yagudin] that we have almost no reason to worry now. In my opinion, Mishin should have either not answered such a question at all, or turned everything into a joke.
I'm pretty sure, by the way, that it's time for Mishin to finish his coaching career. Today he's more of a businessman than an expert in figure skating. I saw his pupil at four tournaments this year, and not once was Plushenko at the peak of his form. And that is the art of coaching.
I don't see any particular results in the 30 years he has been in charge of Leningrad figure skating. What did a man who always had his own ice, a [university] department, and who has the most talented skaters from all over the country sent to him every year, manage to achieve? Raised the Olympic champion Urmanov, who only won because all his opponents fell? Raised the insanely gifted Evgeni Plushenko, who became world champion but won nothing in his Olympic season? Reached the point where Yagudin left him?”

In comparison, Tarasova's own public comments on the affair were tame.
And she didn't even hold back. When interviewed by Vaitsekhovskaya, Tarasova suggested several decidedly non-supernatural factors were responsible for Plushenko losing to Yagudin, including:

• Mishin's deliberate efforts to throw petrol on the Plushenko/Yagudin rivalry, culminating in daily interviews about Yagudin's flawed skating, which Tarasova felt were indicative of a "coaching psychosis" that Plushenko found "impossible to withstand".
  
• Poor Olympic season preparation from Mishin's team, as exemplified in the saga of Plushenko's long programs. The initial one - set to a medley featuring "El Tango de Roxanne" from Moulin Rouge! - was prepared "too late", before they went back to the drawing board and designed a new program to Carmen for Salt Lake City.⁵
  
• Mishin's myopic focus on intimidating the opposition through Plushenko's jumping superiority and rumoured quadruple Lutz jump, while ignoring what Tarasova observed to be consistent technical flaws in his jumping. Plushenko didn't perform the quadruple Lutz in either Olympic program.
  

Tarasova then offered a few final thoughts to Sport-Express, tinged with glacial disdain.

"In principle, it's not for me to discuss their work. I always respect other people's work. But I don't like it when they blaspheme mine. Each of us does what we can do. We did better. But they tried too. Although it was a complete defeat. Plushenko did not go to the European or World Championships. And as far as I know, he will go to Collins' tour where he will perform 90 times. And it is unlikely that he will refer to injuries."

Amazingly, it's still - by far - the most level-headed perspective among the three non-skaters, even with her calling Plushenko's season a total failure from start to finish.

Dark Magic Curtain

(Content warning: abuse)

Yagudin won the season-ending World Championships in Plushenko's absence, but it was the last competition he'd ever win. Chronic hip problems led to his retirement several months later. His reputation would be shattered among skating fans in the social media age, when he made some viciously bigoted public remarks about openly-queer skaters. One of his targets - America's Jason Brown - idolised Yagudin so much growing up that he once competed in an homage to Yagudin's "Winter" costume.
2002 was the last time Tarasova would coach an Olympic champion, and she gradually faded away from competitive relevance over time. The years have definitely loosened her tongue, and now she's skating's equivalent of the one loud-mouthed grandmother you have at every family gathering, interjecting her opinion on everything whether you want to hear it or not. This year alone, she's busied herself with speculation about the romantic status of a teenage girl and whether ice dancer Tessa Virtue wants to murder people.
Plushenko would remain with Mishin for his entire career, going on to win Olympic gold in 2006, and silver in 2010 (not "platinum"). According to Vaitsekhovskaya, Zagainov tried offering his services to Plushenko and Mishin in the lead-up to the 2006 Games, despite having called Mishin a hack and Plushenko a failure - he was turned down, and Plushenko took gold without the psychologist's assistance. He'd ultimately retire after the 2014 Olympics, and now works as a coach at the modestly-named "Angels of Plushenko" academy. His wife, Yana Rudkovskaya, has deep connections in the Russian underworld, making him a cross between a trophy husband and a mob wife; they're also hideously abusive parents to their son.
In 2007, Zagainov's reputation went up in smoke after a horrific scandal involving the death of one of his patients - 24-year-old cyclist Yulia Aroustamova - who was also the 67-year-old Zagainov's live-in domestic partner at the time. Vaitsekhovskaya said that it wasn't the first time Zagainov had preyed on one of his clients, mentioning a patient who lived with him in a civil marriage back in the mid-1980s. He would die in 2014, largely forgotten and unmourned.
Mishin is still relevant in Russian skating, despite being well into his eighties, and coaches the most recent Russian national men's champion. Fittingly, that skater's name is also Evgeni.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Endnotes

1: From a February 2002 ESPN article.
2: From a February 2002 Sports Illustrated article.
3: From a February 2002 ESPN article.
4: Zagainov was not the infamous hypnotist among Karpov’s delegation during the 1978 World Chess Championship in Baguio, however; that was Vladimir Zukhar. Hypnotism was clearly in fashion back then. Korchnoi's chosen defence against such threats was a pair of mirrored glasses, which would have been somewhat impractical in figure skating.
5: Tarasova doesn't explicitly mention this, but for context, Plushenko's Moulin Rouge! program got an abysmal reception when it was unveiled. Scrapping a planned Olympic program entirely and making a new one is always a decision of last resort, because it takes valuable time for athletes to train and become comfortable with performing it. Carmen was very much a "break glass in case of emergency" concept, with Mishin picking the safest of safe ideas for the Olympics after his first plan failed. Ironically, Yagudin (speaking to Vaitsekhovskaya in 2000) practically predicted this when he said it was inevitable that Mishin's skaters would perform to Carmen at some point; his own program to Bizet's opera was in the 1996-97 season.

Merry Christmas everyone! And with Japanese and Russian Nationals over, the next exciting events on the horizon are Canadian and American Nationals!
I would argue that US Ice Dance is the most exciting discipline this season, and u/summerjoe45 already did a great overview at the possible rankings, but I wanted to do a deeper dive into each of the teams. It would be impossible to give an adequate understanding of ice dance without talking about the coaches and politics behind it, so this is part one of the series on US Ice Dance, covering the coaches and a bit of the history of US Ice Dance.

Arctic Edge - Canton, Michigan: Marina Zueva and Igor Shpilband (Defunct)

Past Notable Teams: Tanith Belbin / Ben Agosto, Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir, Meryl Davis / Charlie White, Maia Shibutani / Alex Shibutani
Starting the list off with the now-defunct school of Marina and Igor. Even though this school no longer exists, any guide to American ice dance would be wholly incomplete without describing the school that turned it into a powerhouse in the first place.
Marina Zueva rose to fame in Russia for choreographing programs for Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov, and she's widely seen as one of the best choreographers in the sport. As many say, "Marina Zueva programs are forever." Some of her masterpieces include Virtue/Moir's 2010 Mahler Olympic Free Dance, Virtue/Moir's 2008 Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Davis/White's 2014 Scheherazade, and many many more. She started coaching in the United States in the 90s, but the era really kicked off when she teamed up with Igor Shpilband in the early 2000s.
They had their major breakthrough with Tanith Belbin / Ben Agosto. Belbin/Agosto put American ice dance on the map, as they were the first American ice dance team to medal at Worlds and won silver at the 2006 Olympics. They were almost unable to go to the Olympics because Tanith is Canadian, and it required special Congressional approval with the backing of one of Michigan's senators to get Tanith citizenship in time.
At the same time that Belbin/Agosto were succeeding at the senior level, Marina and Igor also had two extremely promising junior teams, the American team of Meryl Davis/Charlie White and the Canadian team of Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir. Both these teams became incredibly successful, with the two teams occupying the top two spots on the 2010 Olympic podium. Not only did they have their marquee senior teams, Marina and Igor also had many junior teams who were achieving great success, including Madison Chock/Greg Zuerlein and the Shibutanis. Arctic Edge reached the peak of its power at 2011 Worlds, where their teams occupied all three spots on the podium.
Things came crashing down quickly, as in June 2012, Marina abruptly fired Igor. It's still incredibly unclear as to what was happening between the coaches for everything to get so icy. Their relationship was so toxic that Igor later sued Marina, and several of their skaters were deposed in the lawsuit. Everyone involved signed NDAs, so we will never really know exactly what happened.
After Igor left Canton, Marina continued as the main coach for Davis/White, Virtue/Moir, and the Shibutanis. Davis/White won the 2014 Olympics and retired, while Virtue/Moir felt like Marina wasn't in their corner and did not return to her during their comeback. The Shibutanis won bronze at the 2018 Olympics, and Marina moved from Michigan to Florida. Now, Marina is essentially soft-retired, as her only senior team is the Japanese team of Kana Muramoto/Daisuke Takahashi.
The success of the Arctic Edge training camp is what made American ice dance relevant and their streak of successful teams inspired many other American skaters to switch to ice dance. Despite all this success, it's super important to mention that Marina and Igor ran an incredibly toxic training environment. Each coach is known for picking favorites. Marina's son, Fedor, dated Tanith, Tessa, and is now married to Meryl. It was pretty disturbing to see how Marina's favored team switched from Belbin/Agosto to Virtue/Moir to Davis/White depending on which partner her son was dating at the moment. The teams that were out of favor were given worse programs and just generally less attention.
They were also incredibly toxic towards the women in their school. Tessa Virtue has an eating disorder while training with Marina and Igor. They were very much subscribers to the idea that ice dance women should be as thin as possible. After Belbin/Agosto left Marina and Igor, Tanith was told by their new coaches to gain muscle, which improved their skating skills and made lifts easier for Ben because Tanith was more capable of holding herself up.
Marina and Igor's Arctic Edge Academy is dead, and it's probably for the better that it is, considering how toxic the training environment was, but it has also left an undeniable legacy on US ice dance. None of the other coaches on this list or any of the current teams be where they are without the legacy of Arctic Edge.

IAM - Montreal: Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon, and Romain Haguenauer

Current American Teams: Madison Chock / Evan Bates, Kaitlin Hawayek / Jean-Luc Baker
Past American Teams: Madison Hubbell / Zachary Donohue
The most powerful and famous school on this list, it would be hard to follow ice dance without getting to know the Ice Academy of Montreal. Ice dance fans have affectionately dubbed the coaches as jacket collectors, since they have team jackets from seemingly ever single federation. They got on the map when Papadakis/Cizeron won their surprise World title in 2015, and gained even more attention when Virtue/Moir came back to competition in 2016 and chose to train with them. Hubbell/Donohue also switched to training at IAM in 2016.
After their success at the 2018 Olympics, where they almost swept the Olympic podium, IAM really became the United Nations. So many teams announced that they were moving to Montreal that it almost became a meme format. Having teams from every federation really helped push Montreal ahead in the political game. Just looking at SkatingScores.com gives a pretty clear picture as to which judges favor Montreal teams, and it lines up almost identically with teams from federations who are coached by IAM.
With the additions of Chock/Bates and Hawayek/Baker, IAM swept the top 3 places of the US podium for the entire quad after 2018. Despite all this success, there is of course some backlash to IAM. The most common complaint is that they aren't good at teaching the technical side of ice dance. The technically proficient teams at IAM are generally the teams who were strong technically before moving.
IAM also commonly face the complaint that they have too many teams and thus aren't able to truly devote their time to all of them. This is not something that any IAM team has complained about, and IAM has managed to avoid the favoritism problems that come up when one coaching team has so many teams. They are very transparent to their teams about ice-time and coach-time, which is probably a major reason why this has not been an issue. However, even if time is divided evenly, it is humanly impossible for all thirty teams to get precisely equal attention from their coaches, and it is often clear from the program quality when the coaches felt more inspired by certain teams compared to others.
IAM is also undeniably one of the healthiest coaching environments that has come out of skating (which admittedly isn't saying much). Many of the female ice dancers have talked about feeling more secure in their bodies and just gained so much more self-confidence from training at IAM and the philosophy that the coaches have. It is also very sweet that many of the skaters at the school are close friends despite being direct competition (see Madi Chock and Madi Hubbell getting matching tattoos).
However, IAM is obviously still not perfect. In a documentary earlier this year, Gabi Papadakis talked about how unsupported she felt by the coaching team and her partner during a really tough time for her mental health. IAM has also had a somewhat disturbing amount of concussions among their female ice dancers (both Madison Chock and Kaitlin Hawayek have had concussions while training in Montreal, though Madi Chock's wasn't a training injury).
If you're interested in learning more about IAM, because what I wrote only scratches the surface, the Olympic channel filmed a docuseries called On Edge which followed 6 of the IAM teams (Papadakis/Cizeron, Hubbell/Donohue, Chock/Bates, FeaGibson, Fournier-Beaudry/Sorensen, and Smart/Diaz) across their Olympic journey in the 21-22 season. It's a great look into their training/competitive lives.

IAM - London, Ontario - Scott Moir, Madison Hubbell, and Adrian Diaz

Current American Teams: Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko
Most ice dance fans didn't quite know what to make of IAM - London when it was announced in early 2021. On the one hand, many fans were very excited to see how Scott Moir, arguably the greatest ice dancer of all time, would do as a coach. However, it did feel interesting that IAM - London was supposed to be a subsidiary school of the already well-known IAM - Montreal. Plus, Scott Moir had extremely limited coaching experience, and when IAM - London started, they didn't have any senior teams. At first, many perceived IAM - London to be somewhat of a feeder school for IAM - Montreal.
IAM - London got their first major senior ice dance team when Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko announced their switch to Scott Moir after the pandemic season. With the additions of Madison Hubbell and Adrian Diaz to the coaching team after the 21-22 season, IAM - London is starting to find its footing. It's still a very new school trying to find its identity, and its teams have not gotten the same political boost that the teams at the Montreal school get, but they're definitely on the right track.

MIDA - Canton, Michigan - Charlie White, Tanith White, and Greg Zuerlein

Current American Teams: Caroline Green / Michael Parsons, Emily Bratti / Ian Somerville, Katarina Wolfkostin / Jeffrey Chen, Molly Cesanek / Yehor Yehorov, Angela Ling / Caleb Wein
MIDA was announced in early 2022 to much fanfare and hype. They are located in the same arena where Marina and Igor had their legendary ice dance school, which catapulted North American ice dance into the spotlight. Tanith White is one half of the partnership which put American ice dance on the map, the first ever American ice dance team to medal at the Olympics. Charlie White is one half of the greatest American ice dance team of all time, winning gold at the 2014 Olympics. Greg Zuerlein may not have the same competitive accolades as Charlie and Tanith (though he's certainly no slouch, having won 2009 Junior Worlds with Madison Chock), but he's the most experienced coach of the three. After retiring, Greg coached with Igor Shpilband for years, before moving to coach at another school on this list that I will talk about later, WISA. Thanks to his year coaching at WISA, MIDA have been able to take many teams who have left the Maryland school.
Their first team was Bratti / Somerville, who found quick success in the American ice dance field last year, placing fifth and getting an assignment to Four Continents. In the off-season, they poached three more American ice dance teams, Cesanek/Yehorov, Wolfkostin/Chen, and their biggest coup, Green/Parsons.
Still, it's hard to know what to make of MIDA. They're such a new school that they don't have an identity yet. Obviously, many ice dance fans hold a lot of affection for the coaches from when they competed, but MIDA is really just one big question mark because it's still so new. The programs they've given their teams this season haven't been standout, but this is also their first full season. Overall, it's hard to know how MIDA is going to turn out.
They do look like the school that's most likely to challenge Montreal's dominance largely because they could be anything, and their coaches have such a strong competitive reputation. They also seem dedicated to providing a healthy coaching environment for their students, but again, it's too soon to say whether that's been created or not.

WISA - Leesburg, Virginia - Alexei Kiliakov and Elena Novak

Current American Teams: Lorraine McNamara / Anton Spiridonov, Diana Davis / Gleb Smolkin
Previous American Teams: Caroline Green / Michael Parsons, Molly Cesanek / Yehor Yehorov, Lorraine McNamara / Quinn Carpenter, Angela Ling / Caleb Wein, Katarina DelCamp / Ian Somerville, Rachael Parsons / Michael Parsons, Caroline Green / Gordon Green
This is the school that probably had the most off-season drama in the last year. For many years, the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy was located in Wheaton, Maryland. They moved to the Ion Training Center in Leesburg, Virginia a few years ago, but are still largely referred to as WISA by fans. WISA has been one North America's ice dance powerhouses, particularly in the junior field, for a while. However, this team is also known for failing to achieve senior success due to bad packaging and general mismanage.
The quintessential team that probably shows how they mismanage is Lorraine McNamara/Quinn Carpenter. A very talented junior team, they were the 2016 Junior World Champions. After this win, instead of moving up to seniors, they decided to stay in juniors for another season. This essentially killed any momentum that they had, as the next season, they finished 7th at Junior Worlds and were surpassed by their training mates, Rachael Parsons/Michael Parsons.
Despite bad packaging, they are able to train extremely technically skilled ice dancers. Some of the teams with the best skating skills in the USA come from WISA. WISA seemed to finally find senior success last season when Caroline Green / Michael Parsons won Four Continents with a creative and well-received free dance and almost made the Olympic team.
And then the drama of the summer happened. You may have noticed that Green/Parsons are no longer training at WISA and that Davis/Smolkin, a team who may or may not be American, are now listed as training with them. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Diana and Gleb were vocally opposed to the war, and since Diana was born in the United States, she has American citizenship. She and Gleb have always trained in America, and especially once the Russians were banned, there was a lot of speculation that Diana and Gleb were going to switch federations to represent USFSA.
They left Igor, and then went to train at WISA. Alexei Kiliakov is one of Eteri's old ice dance partners, which is probably why he was willing to take them despite the fact that Diana and Gleb are very controversial. There's speculation that part of the reason Caroline and Michael left WISA so late in the off-season is the Diana/Gleb drama. Regardless of why, it's definitely a massive blow to WISA that their marquee senior team left them.
As of now, Diana/Gleb have not switched federations, and they have vocally said that they are not going to. However, they did get married right after the invasion, leading to speculation that they're trying to get Gleb an American green card. They have also not competed at a single Russian competition this season. What Diana/Gleb plan to do is anyone's guess, but as many can probably tell from the number of teams in US Ice Dance, switching to USFS would probably be a strategic blunder.

Novi Ice Arena - Novi, Michigan - Igor Shpilband and Pasquale Camerlengo

Current American Teams: Eva Pate / Logan Bye, Emilea Zingas / Vadym Kolesnik
Previous American Teams: Madison Chock / Evan Bates, Christina Carreira / Anthony Ponomarenko, Katarina Wolfkostin / Jeffrey Chen, Diana Davis / Gleb Smolkin, Avonley Nguyen / Vadym Kolesnik
Marina may be retired, but Igor is still in the business. After getting fired by Marina in 2012, Igor set up shop down the street at Novi Ice Arena with some of the teams that chose him over Marina (most notably Chock/Bates). Getting fired by Marina didn't change any of Igor's training methods, and Igor has a very specific style of team that he tries to curate. He expects a small woman who is performing and is carried around the ice by a stronger male partner. This has created a pretty toxic environment at Novi as well, and the sheer list of teams which have left Igor over the years to find healthier training environments and more success is pretty staggering.
Igor also heavily plays favorites and is incapable of balancing the needs of all his teams. After splitting from Marina, his preferred team was Chock / Bates for years, until they left him in 2018. Carreira/Ponomarenko were then his focus for another year before he found the heir to the Chock/Bates style in Nguyen / Kolesnik. After N/K split, he went all in on his partnership with Eteri Tutberidze and is an underrated aspect of why Davis/Smolkin were able to get such crazy scores in the 21-22 season. Igor is still a political machine. Davis/Smolkin left him at the end of the 21-22 season, and he seems to have found his new favorites in Zingas/Kolesnik.
Ice dance fans also joke that Igor is very "eco-friendly". He loves to recycle programs from old teams, and while Marina Zueva programs may be forever, Igor is not a creative genius. Chock/Bates skated to Rachmaninoff in the 2015-16 season, and then in the 2019-20 season, he gave the Rachmaninoff piece to Nguyen/Kolesnik. Chock/Bates skated to Dr Zhivago in the 2012-13 season, and CPom showed up in 2020-21 skating to Dr Zhivago. He even copies from programs that he didn't help choreograph, as Davis/Smolkin showed up last season with a Moulin Rouge program just like Virtue/Moir's 2017-18 free dance. Any original programs he comes up with are hardly original, as it's usually just a warhorse.
In 2019, Pasquale Camerlengo joined the coaching team at Novi. Pasquale is also a famed ice dance coach, as he used to coach at the Detroit Figure Skating Club and was the coach of Hawayek / Baker. But, he's no better than Igor when it comes to body positivity or healthy coaching environments. I will definitely talk more about it in my deep dive on Hawayek / Baker, but Kaitlin Hawayek has talked about her old coaches would encourage her to lose weight.
There just aren't many positive things to say about Igor. His teams routinely leave him because of his vile training methods, and he's mostly useful because of his politicking, but he's nowhere near as powerful as he was in his heyday.

I love Blank Check, and I also love figure skating. So, with the Beijing Olympics around the corner, I thought that I'd create a list of my favorite programs that use music from movies discussed on Blank Check. Programs are listed in episode/miniseries order, from Star Wars all the way to the this week's episode, The Piano.

1. Adam Siao Him Fa 2021-22 SP (Star Wars)- We will actually be seeing this gentleman and his amazing lightsaber choreography at the Olympics. One of the best new programs of the season!
2. Satoko Miyahara 2016-17 FS (Star Wars)- We have a fun Star Wars program, and also an artsy fartsy Star Wars program. This program uses selections from the Gustav Holst's Planets, which inspired John Williams' score, before transitioning into Princess Leia's theme.
3. Elena Radionova, 2015-16 FS (Titanic)- Titanic is, unsurprisingly, very popular among figure skaters. But this Titanic program is my favorite. Radionova was teetering on the brink of irrelevance in the crowded Russian ladies field in 2015-16 season, but every time she skated this gloriously tacky program, she performed with blinding sincerity and charisma, and dared us all to write her off. When Celine Dion starts singing, and then when Kate whispers "I'll never let go" (yes, this program includes voiceovers!) as Elena performs to the rafters, I always get emotional. And if you felt like that program didn't include enough voiceovers, you should watch Jorick Henrcickx's equally iconic free skate from the same season. It truly tells the whole story, and covers several important scenes, complete with sound effects.
4. Kamila Valieva, 2021-22 Exhibition (Avatar)- I like Kamila Valieva, who, barring any acts of God or COVID, will win the ladies Olympic Gold Medal in a few weeks, but I do not like her programs. This lovely and rather nerdy Avatar exhibition is the exception. Fun fact: Valieva was 3 years old when Avatar came out.
5. Kaori Sakamoto, 2019-2021 FS (The Matrix)- This outstanding program includes bullet time choreography and an iconic moment in which Kaori almost slices off the judges heads (the resulting gif gets a lot of use on skating twitter).
6. Peng Cheng/Jin Yang, 2019-2021 FS (Cloud Atlas)- I think that choreographer Lori Nichol must have watched Cloud Atlas on Netflix in the summer of 2019 and fallen in love, since she choreographed 2 Cloud Atlas programs that year (the other one was for Vincent Zhou, and it's not as good but it used the M83 trailer music!). This program tells the story of Hae-Joo and Somni 451, and it is magnificent. One of my favorite programs of the past 4 years.
7. Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy, 2008-9 SP (Lost in Space)- 2018 Olympic champion Aliona and her former (and better) partner Robin had lots of weird and amazing programs over the years, and this program might be their weirdest. Worth a watch for the costumes alone.
8. Mandy Woetzel/Ingo Steuer, 1993-4 FS (Basic Instinct)- And here is Aliona and Robin's coach Ingo Steuer skating to Basic Instinct. Skating to Basic instinct in when it was nice and fresh in everyone's minds was quite a choice, and it foretold a career of big choices and awesome programs for Ingo, both as a skater and a choreographer.
9. Eun-Soo Lim, 2019-20 exhibition (Is That Alright, A Star is Born) There were so, so many A Star is Born programs in 2019. This one was the best.
10. Shawn Sawyer, 2010-11 FS (Alice in Wonderland)- Sawyer portrays the Mad Hatter in this incredible free skate, choreographed by Marie-France Dubreuil, who coaches about a third of the 2022 Olympic Ice Dance field. To say that it is merely better than the Tim Burton movie would damn a masterpiece with faint praise.
11. Keiji Tanaka, 2016-18 Exhibition (Spirited Away)- There have been quite a few Miyazaki programs over the years, but this is my favorite.
12. Josefin Taljegard, 2010-22 FS (Joker)- There have been a truly alarming number of Joker programs in the past few years. But this one from fan-favorite Swedish underdog Taljegard is definitely the most fun. And if she qualifies for the free skate, we'll get to see this program in Beijing!
13. Ekaterina Gordeeva/Sergei Grinkov (Aladdin)- Katia and Sergei skating to A Whole New World surrounded by fake snow and in full costume in Disneyland for the TV special Disney's Christmas Fantasy on Ice, costarring Bronson Pinchot as himself, was such a Moment in Time.
14. Kaori Sakamoto 2018-19 FS (The Piano)- Kaori is the only skater to appear on this list twice, with her gorgeous free skate to The Piano.
15. Alena Kostornaia, 2019-20 FS (Twilight)- I originally wasn't going to put programs from Patreon episodes on here, but I simply had to share Alena's Twilight free skate. She starts by skating to Desplat's score for New Moon and landing 2 triple axels, and then things just get more and more fun.

I actually edited this list down quite a bit, so if you want more recommendations for programs, Blank Check adjacent or not, I have them!

Below is a rundown of letters J-L of Epstein's contacts. Last year, I wrote about letters A-C. You can check that out here (https://www.reddit.com/conspiracy/comments/cpis3n/a_brief_rundown_of_the_first_ten_pages_of_jeffrey/).
I also wrote about letters D-F on July 5, 2020. You can check that out here (https://www.reddit.com/conspiracy/comments/hlrba8/a_notsobrief_rundown_of_letters_df_in_jeffrey/).
I posted letters G-I on July 13, 2020. You can check that out here (https://www.reddit.com/conspiracy/comments/hqko0y/a_notsobrief_rundown_of_letters_gi_in_jeffrey/). There are some misspelled names. Epstein entered their names like this.
I have bolded some of the more interesting connections and information, but there could be much more that I overlooked. I hope something here strikes an interest in someone and maybe we can get more investigations out of this. Please, if you know anything more about any of these people than what is presented here, post below. I am working off of the unredacted black book found here: https://www.coreysdigs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jeffrey-Epsteins-Little-Black-Book-unredacted.pdf
J-L
Jackson, Michael (Samuel Gen): Yes, this is a reference to MJ the singer. However, the numbers listed are not MJ’s. They belong to Samuel Gen, a lawyer for a financial advisor (Jerry Seinfeld’s brother-in-law) who worked for MJ for a while. This one was a reach for Epstein.
Jacobson, Julian: Likely a reference to a Managing Director at several London-based investment firms.
Jagger, Mick: World-famous lead singer of the Rolling Stones. Has been seen in photographs with Ghislaine Maxwell. Actress Rae Dawn Chong claims she slept with Jagger when she was 15 years old.
Jagger, Hatti: Former fashion director for Vogue, Harper’s, and Tatler. Also works as a celebrity stylist and at fashion shows.
jake: Not enough info.
Jameel, Mohammed: Saudi Arabian businessman. CEO of Abdul Latif Jameel, a collective of family-owned businesses that specialize in transportation, investing, and real estate. Royal pervert Prince Andrew infamously partied on Jameel’s yacht during the 2011 London riots (source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-andrew-frolicks-on-yacht-with-mystery-147496).
James, Susie: Founder and owner of 123 Send Ltd, a company that provides payment terminals.
Janklow, Linda: Literary agent and wife of Mort Janklow, the primary owner of Janklow & Nesbit Associates, the largest literary agency in the world. Attended a party hosted by Sony Pictures with Epstein, although they are not pictured together (source: https://www.patrickmcmullan.com/search/?event=5b3ef4fb9f92906676446c21). In 2007, Ghislaine Maxwell threw an exclusive party (80 carefully selected guests) at her NYC townhouse to celebrate the opening of a new shop by designer Allegra Hicks (granddaughter-in-law of Earl Mountbatten, who you can read more about in my G-I Epstein thread under India Hicks’s name). One of the eighty guests was Julie Landlow, daughter of Linda and Mort.
Jarecki, Nancy & Andrew: Andrew is a filmmaker, co-founder of Moviefone, and was a producer on Catfish, the documentary that launched the popular MTV show. Andrew’s family was reportedly friends with Jeffrey Epstein. There is an EXCELLENT thread on the connections between the Jarecki family (especially Andrew and Nick’s father, Henry) and Epstein here (source: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1200044576947556352.html). Quick summary: Henry was born in Nazi Germany; flew on the Lolita Express; is an expert in psychotropic drugs; owns two islands in the British Virgin Islands; founded the first youth center in the British Virgin Islands; lived 2 miles from Epstein in NYC; owns and donates to many sketchy foundations, schools, and organizations; has donated at least $1 million to leftist organizations). Andrew’s wife Nancy created bettybeauty, a company that specializes in hair dye for your nether regions (not kidding).
Jarecki, Nick: The movie director brother of Andrew and son of Henry Jarecki (see link under Andrew & Nancy Jarecki for more info). Reportedly dated Courtney Love (also in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’) in 2015. Photographed with Ghislaine Maxwell at a Gucci party (source: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-and-nick-jarecki-attend-gucci-hosts-a-news-photo/591605562).
Jason (canada): Not enough info. Could be artist Jason Wasserman based out of Canada. The second number listed traces back to Station 16 Gallery in Montreal.
Javier: Javier Banon is former Co-head of Merchant Banking at Lehman Brothers and current Founding Partner of Trilantic Europe.
Jeffries, Tim: Ownedirector of Hamiltons Gallery in London. Best known for dating models Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer, Kylie Minogue and Sophie Dahl (also in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’). Jefferies has attended fundraisers for ARK Academy and the NSPCC. He truly cares about children.
Johnson, Richard & Nadine: Nadine is a millionaire public relations guru. Nadine is a good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell’s. Some clients of Nadine Johnson include spirit cooking extraordinaire Marina Abramovic and hotelier Andre Balazs, good friend of Ghislaine. Richard is one of the most well-known gossip columnists and was the editor of Page Six for twenty-five years. There is a great thread detailing the Johnsons’ ties to the Clintons, Balazs, and others here (source: https://threader.app/thread/1162148078981394432). Basically, Richard Johnson is friendly with the Clintons and, as Page Six Editor, purposely did not report or downplayed stories on the Clintons and Nadine’s clients. He also took bribes. Considering Nadine is a good friend of Ghislaine, it would not be a stretch to assume that Richard could have buried stories on Maxwell and Epstein. I could spend 10 pages on the shady connections these two have.
Johnson, Lucy: Not enough info.
Jones, Ann & Mick: Mick is the guitarist of Foreigner, an immensely popular rock band in the ‘70s and ‘80s. His wife, Ann, is a jewelry designer, and friend of Ghislaine. Ann Jones was photographed at a party with Ghislaine and Donald Trump in 1997 (source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/85818/epstein-madam-ghislaine-maxwell-milked-billionaire-dad-and-threw-lavish-parties-with-beautiful-women/)
Josephson, Barry & Jackie: Barry is a producer and the former President of Production for Columbia Pictures. Jackie is his ex-wife and also a producer.
Karella, Kalliope: Wife of Prince Pierre d’Arenberg. Kalliope is a good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Kastner, Ron: No info found.
Katz, Anton & Robin Plant: Anton is CEO and co-founder of Talos Trading, which specializes in cryptocurrency. Anton and Robin are friends of and have been photographed with Ghislaine (source: https://www.patrickmcmullan.com/search/?person=5b3ef50c9f929066764df255).
Katzeneilenbogen, Mark: Long-time investment banker who used to be based out of South Africa.
Keeling, Sarah: There is a Sarah Keeling in London who is a former British government official with 20 years of experience in national security and intelligence experience, however, the phone number listed has a 410 area code, which leads back to eastern Maryland. Inconclusive.
Kegan, Rory: A nightclub designer and creator. Co-founder of the exclusive, celebrity-filled London nightclub, Chinawhite. Prince Andrew (source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9818190/prince-andrew-pictures-cast-doubt-epstein-sex-slave/) and Prince Albert of Monaco are regulars. Chelsea Clinton has been there, as well (source: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/bright-night-for-china-white-6299739.html). Other patrons include: Prince Andrew, Kate Middleton, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, and more.
Keidan, Amanda: Owner of Keidan Jewelry.
Keidan, Jon: An entertainment executive-turned-venture capitalist. As an entertainment exec, Keidan worked with John Legend, Dave Matthews Band, and Nappy Roots. Keidan serves on the Council of Foreign Relations, a powerful group that some believe determines foreign policy. Former and current members include former presidents, current and former politicians, business magnates, and celebrities (https://www.cfr.org/membership/roster).
Keller, Georgie: Interior designer.
Kellette Frayse, Caroline: Fashion editor at Vogue and Tatler (both magazines constantly come up in Epstein’s contacts). Former girlfriend of Imran Khan, whose name has come up frequently. Passed away in 2014. Her husband, Jean-Marc Fraysse, is a French investment banker.
Kelmenson, Leo-Arthur & Gayl: Leo was an advertising and marketing guru who has been credited with saving Chrysler. Friend and advisor to Lee Iacocca, former President of Chrysler. He worked as Special Project Officer for the U.S. Department of State under President John F. Kennedy and AG Robert F. Kennedy. He had tons of connections. His former maid accused him of sexual harassment in 2010 (source: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/maid-harassment-suit-claims-ad-exec-leo-arthur-kelmenson-madman-pervy-mad-men-wannabe-article-1.156915). Kelmenson died less than two months after the story came out.
Kennedy Cuomo, Andrew & Kerry: Andrew is the current governor of New York. It’s no secret that Cuomo is willing to look the other way on sexual deviancy as long as he receives a payoff. Cuomo halted a probe into the handling of Harvey Weinstein’s case in New York after receiving $25,000 from Weinstein’s law firm (source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjbqg4/andrew-cuomo-received-dollar25000-donation-from-harvey-weinsteins-law-firm). Andrew’s brother, CNN Host Chris Cuomo famously told viewers “not to get caught up in the intrigue of who Epstein’s friends are” (source: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/07/11/cnn_cuomo_lets_not_get_caught_up_in_the_intrigue_of_who_was_friends_with_jeffrey_epstein.html). Perhaps, he was covering for his brother. Kerry Kennedy is Cuomo’s ex-wife of fifteen years, the daughter of RFK, and a close friend of Ghislaine Maxwell. Supposedly, Kennedy provided Ghislaine with informal illegal advice (source: https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/the-nth-word-and-m-theory).
Kennedy Jr. Ted: Son of Ted Kennedy and nephew of JFK and RFK. Ted Jr. dabbled in politics and currently works as a lawyer. His father, Ted, was a notorious sexual abuser (allegedly).
Kennedy, Bobby & Mary: Bobby is the son of RFK and nephew of JFK. Bobby is a known drug abuser and philanderer. Bobby kept a sex journal detailing his conquests while he was married (source: https://nypost.com/2013/09/08/rfk-jr-s-sex-diary-of-adultery/). His ex-wife, Mary, committed “suicide” two years after their divorce. Before committing suicide, Mary told a friend that she “feared for her life” and Bobby told her that she “would be better off dead” (source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3231043/How-serial-cheater-Bobby-Kennedy-Jr-strutted-family-home-exposing-private-parts-demanded-m-nage-trois-wife-Mary-went-public-Cheryl-Hines-telling-Mary-things-easier-killed-herself.html).
Kennedy, Ethel: Widow of RFK Sr. and mother of eleven, including Bobby Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, and Joseph Kennedy II.
Kennedy, Jo: Joseph Kennedy II is the son of RFK Sr. and Ethel. Served in the House of Representatives from 1987-1999. In 1973, Joseph was convicted of negligent driving after paralyzing a young woman. He was fined $100.
Kennedy, Senator Edward: Brother of JFK and RFK, Ted Kennedy served as U.S. Senator of Massachusetts for 47 years. Besides politics, Ted is best known for the Chappaquiddick incident in which a young female speechwriter for RFK drowned to death when he lost control of his vehicle while driving across a bridge. He was charged with leaving the scene of an incident and given a two month suspended sentence. Ted was also notorious for his extramarital affairs. Senator Kennedy once hosted a party at his house attended by Bill Clinton and Lynn Forester de Rothschild. Rothschild wrote a letter to Clinton afterwards in which she mentions that they spoke about Epstein (source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7283825/Jeffrey-Epstein-injured-jail-cell-following-possible-suicide-assault.html). It is unclear what was said or what Rothschild’s connection could possibly be.
Kersner, Sol: South African accountant and hotel and casino magnate who died of cancer in 2020. Kerzner was a close friend of Donald Trump. They even worked together to create The Palm, a man-made island off the coast of Dubai (source: https://www.ft.com/content/46393280-d9f9-11da-b7de-0000779e2340). Kerzner was also close friends with Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sarah-ferguson-the-duchess-of-york-sol-kerzner-chairman-and-news-photo/83768272), Naomi Campbell (https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/naomi-campbell-and-sol-kerzner-pose-backstage-during-the-news-photo/82869744), and Bill Clinton (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8144647/As-Sol-Kerzner-dies-aged-84-RICHARD-KAY-looks-riotously-louche-life.html). Kerzner was very good friends with Nelson Mandela and built his casino resorts with Gerard Inzerillo, who you can read about in my G-I ‘Black Book’ thread.
Khayat, Antoine, Jana, & George: Jana is an heiress and businesswoman. Jana is the niece of Galen Weston, a close friend of Prince Charles. George is her brother and CEO of Associated British Foods. Jana’s husband, Antoine, is a former banker and currently runs their vineyard.
Kidd, Jemma: Kidd is a British makeup artist, fashion model, and aristocrat. Married to Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Wellington, making her a Countess. Kidd is an interesting figure with elite connections. From 2005-2012, Ghislaine Maxwell served as Director of Jemma Kidd Make-Up Limited, a U.K. makeup company, which was founded by Kidd. Not only did Ghislaine serve as Director, but she was also a shareholder, along with the Rothschild family (source: https://nationalpost.com/news/world/in-hiding-for-years-epstein-accomplice-ghislaine-maxwell-spotted-in-l-a-burger-shop). If you click around the PDFs on this website (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05340072/filing-history), you can see everything. The 16 JUN 2006 PDF on page 3 shows you a list of Officers and shareholders of the company. Jemma Kidd has also attended charity events for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) (https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-beckham-nspcc-party-jemma-kidd-106882170.html). Her sister, Jodie, is also a huge supportefundraiser of the NSPCC, as well as the Help a London Child and Monsoon Accessorize Trust charities, both of which help out disadvantaged children (source: https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/jodie-kidd).
King, Abby: No info found.
Kirwin Taylor, Charlie & Helen: Charles is an investment banker. He was former CEO of Credit Suisse in Switzerland, an investment firm which shows up a few times through Epstein’s contacts. His wife, Helen, is a journalist.
Kirwin Taylor, Peter: British financier. Was a member of the Pilgrims Society (https://isgp-studies.com/pilgrims-society-membership-list), a group that has included the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and other elites amongst its ranks.
Kissinger, Dr. Henry A: Former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Nixon. Kissinger has long been accused of committing war crimes (ex: carpet bombing Cambodia, installing fascist governments in Chile and Argentina, genocide, extending our stay in Vietnam, etc) yet somehow managed to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Kissinger once said, “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.” Kissinger served with Epstein on the Trilateral Commission. Kissinger has also been a member of the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute, and Bohemian Grove. Long thought to be an advocate for a globalist New World Order, Kissinger is a scumbag of the highest order. His connections with Gates, the Clintons, Bush Sr. and Jr., the Rockefellers, and the Rothschilds are well-documented. If anyone here has ever done any research regarding the NWO, you have undoubtedly seen Kissinger’s name several times.
Klee, Rupert & Charlotte de: Rupert is a Director with Oakridge Group, a property development and investment company. His wife, Charlotte, is the producer of the religious plays at Wintershall.
Klesch, Johnathan: Former Director of Klesch Trading, which specializes in industrial commodities. It has offices in Russia, Malta, Surrey, and in London, down the block from Buckingham Palace.
Koch, David: Co-founder of Koch Industries, a diversified manufacturing conglomerate. Koch Industries has stolen oil from Indian reservations, committed hundreds of polluting, labor, and workplace safety violations. When he ran on the Libertarian ticket as the vice presidential nominee in 1980, Koch aimed to abolish Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare benefits, and minimum wage. Koch and Epstein were friends. Epstein even attended a party at Koch’s Southampton home (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7270735/Jeffrey-Epstein-Trumps-closest-advisers-Wilbur-Ross-Rudy-Giuliani-Steve-Mnunchin.html). Koch has also been photographed with Ghislaine Maxwell (https://www.reddit.com/KochWatch/comments/dcjth3/david_koch_ghislaine_maxwell_getty_images/). Thankfully, Koch died last year.
Kohl, Astrid: A businesswoman involved in pharmaceuticals. Married to Prince Alexander of Liechtenstein. Daughter-in-law of Prince Philipp of Liechtenstein. Niece of former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl.
Kotic, Boby: CEO of Activision Blizzard, a video game holding company. Used to run several electronic companies. From 2003-2008, he was a director at Yahoo! In 2012, he became a non-executive director of Coca-Cola.
Kotze, Alex Von: British businessman involved in the tech industry.
Kravetz, Anna: Not much info found. Has a degree in finance from Wharton School and used to live on Park Avenue in NYC.
Krooth, Caryn: A successful real estate agent based out of Los Angeles
Kudrow, Alistar: No info found.
Lal, Dalamal: Director of Akron Corp. & Akron (Nig.) Ltd., a food and beverage import company based out of Nigeria.
Lalaunis, Demetra: Daughter of Ilias Lalaounis, a pioneer in Greek jewelry and a world renowned goldsmith.
Lambert, Christopher: Well-known actor.
Lambert, David: Former partner, managing director, and VP at Goldman Sachs.
Lambert, Edward: Lampert is a billionaire hedge fund manager and former CEO of Sears. Lampert graduated from Yale University in 1984 where he was a member of Skull and Bones. Rumored pedophile David Geffen gave Lampert $200 million to invest in 1992, when Lampert was just 29 years old. Lampert made Geffen $1 billion.
Lambos Duff & John: Karen “Duff” Duffy is an actress, model, and TV personality. She has had memorable roles as the love interest in “Blank Check” and as JP Shay in “Dumb and Dumber.” Duffy has battled with sarcoidosis, a deadly central nervous system disease, since the mid-’90s. She credits Harvey Weinstein with saving her life (https://nypost.com/2000/10/03/coping-with-class-this-model-patient-suffers-in-style/). John is a former banker with Morgan Stanley and current President of GCA-US, an investment banking company.
Lang, Caroline: An art expert and Chairman at Sotheby’s Switzerland.
Lange, Dieter: Former Partner at WilliamHare, an international law firm with offices in London, Berlin, the U.S., Beijing, and Brussels. Passed away in 2010.
Larsen Janet: The only one I can find is a Business Psychologist based out of London.
Laurie, Jonathan: Founder and CEO of Cheyne Capital Management, an alternate investment fund firm.
Lavlada, Laura D.B. de: Laura Diez Barroso is a Mexican businesswoman. She sold her stock in Televisa for $726 million in 1993. Since then, she has been the head of several other companies.
Lawford Christopher & Jean: Christopher was an actor and relative of the Kennedys. His uncles were JFK, RFK, and Ted Kennedy. Many of his relatives appear in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’. His first wife, Jeannie, was an ad-sales associate for New York Magazine.
Lawton Paul: Two British businessmen with the same name come up. Both have extensive resumes. Could be either one.
Lazar, Christopher & Marie: Christophe seems to be a realtor in Paris, but I am not completely sure.
Le Bon, Simon & Jasmine: Simon is the lead singer of Duran Duran. His wife, Yasmin, is/was a fashion model. Yasmin is represented by Models1 in London. Models1 also represents Epstein and Ghislaine’s friend, Naomi Campbell. Le Bon has been accused of sexual assault in the past (https://www.freep.com/story/news/2018/07/12/simon-le-bons-accuser-sex-assault-claim-speaks-out-awful/777106002/).
Le Fur, Jean-Yves: French businessman and magazine creator. He was once Princess Stephanie of Monaco’s ex-fiance. More notably, Le Fur was the one who discovered supermodel Karen Mulder (his girlfriend at the time) on the floor after she attempted suciide. Mulder blew the lid off the rampant rape and sexual abuse that she and her modeling colleagues had suffered at the hands of businessmen, royalty, celebrities, and government officials. She was even the protege of Epstein collaborator (allegedly), Jean Luc Brunel (https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article238351108.html).
Le Marg Willie: No info found.
Lea, Piers: CEO of Learning Technologies Group, a workplace digital learning company.
Leeds, Jeffrey: Co-founder and Managing Partner of Leeds Equity. One of Leeds Equity’s partner companies is Endeavor Schools, which runs private preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools in Florida and 11 other states (https://www.leedsequity.com/news/articles/leeds-equity-partners-completes-investment-in-endeavor-schools). They are also partners with Fusion Educational Group (now Fusion Academy), which runs a chain of private secondary schools (https://www.leedsequity.com/news/articles/leeds-equity-partners-completes-investment-in-fusion-education-group). Former teacher Kris White, now the head of Fusion Academy in Palo Alto, allegedly told a student that he was in love with her and wrote her a note saying he was “obsessed” with her. (https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/12/teachers-named-in-presentation-high-sex-investigation-kept-working-as-bay-area-educators-for-years/). This story was just published on July 12, 2020. Hypothetically, if one wanted to procure underage children, it would certainly help if the head of the school was on board and possibly a pedophile himself. According to this former teacher at Fusion Academy, “many students struggle with learning differences, behavioral issues, and/or addictions” (https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Fusion-Academy-RVW21260629.htm). In other words, the downtrodden and vulnerable. Fusion Academy refers to itself as a non-traditional school that focuses on individual students. Seems like a great opportunity. Leeds was also good friends with Epstein (https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/) and has close ties to Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani (https://nypost.com/2016/09/14/colin-powell-wont-vote-for-her-because-of-bill-clinton/).
Lefcourt, Jerry: Famous lawyer who defended Epstein in 2007. That same year, Epstein donated $250,000 to the Washington-based Foundation for Criminal Justice, where Lefcourt was a board member.
Lester, Dominick: Founder and owner of MortgageFlex Systems, a mortgage lending company.
Levine, Phillip: Ex-Miami Beach mayor and close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton. He claims that he doesn’t know how Epstein got his contact information… all 13 phone numbers, including those of his driver and housekeepers (https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/ex-miami-beach-mayor-philip-levine-listed-13-times-in-jeffrey-epsteins-black-book-11242116)!
Liman, Doug: Popular Hollywood director and producer. He directed Swingers, The Bourne Identity, and a couple of Tom Cruise movies.
Lindeman-Barnet, Sloan & Roger: Sloan has been a New York Times bestseller and an on-air and print reporter for NBC, ABC, and Reuters. Sloan and Roger also sit on the board of the Spence School in New York City, a private K-12 all-girls school (https://www.spenceschool.org/2017---news-detail?pk=999120). Her husband, Roger, is the founder of beauty.com and Chairman and CEO of Shaklee, a highly successful nutrition company. Donald Trump, Melania Trump, and Ghislaine Maxwell all attended the publication party for Sloan’s book in 2008 (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-anton-katz-and-robin-katz-attend-sloan-news-photo/619921016 ; https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/donald-trump-melania-trump-sloan-barnett-and-roger-barnett-news-photo/619921180).Other guests included Steve Mnuchin, Epstein and Maxwell chum Carol Mack, and a bunch of others also featured in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’ (Colin Cowie, Anton and Robin Katz, and Vittorio Assaf).
Lindemann, Adam & Elizabeth: Adam is a billionaire investor and art gallery owner. Brother of Sloan (mentioned just above). Elizabeth is his ex-wife. She is often photographed with many other people mentioned in Epstein’s ‘Black Book.’
Lindemann, George(Sr.) & Freida: Now-deceased billionaire father of Sloan and Adam. George was the CEO and Chairman of Southern Union, a pipeline company and served as Vice President of the Metropolitan Opera Association of NYC. His wife, Frayda, is the President and CEO of the Metropolitan Opera.
Lindsay, Alex & Jaclyn: Alex is a war documentary maker who rents out his loft at the address Epstein has listed (https://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/property/spheres-of-influence-72014.html).
Lindsey, Ludovic: Racecar driver.
Lindsley, Blake: Actress who was in two movies directed by Doug Liman (also in Epstein’s book) - “Swingers” and “Getting In.”
Linley, David: Princess Margaret’s son, Queen Elizabeth II’s nephew, and first cousin of Prince Charles and Prince Andrew. Linley is a furniture maker and the 2nd Earl of Snowdon. He used to be the Chairman of Christie’s auction house in the UK.
Liogos, Babis: No info found, but one of the numbers traces back to Thylan Associates, a real estate and investment firm.
Lister, Paul: Likely the director of legal services and company secretary for Associated British Foods, or it could be a conservationist. Not sure which.
Livanos, Arriette: I believe this Arietta Livanos, wife of Greek shipping magnate, Stavros Livanos. Arietta passed away in 1986.
Lo Cascio, Robert: Founder and CEO of LivePerson, a tech company that develops conversational commerce. LoCascio was photographed with Ghislaine at an after party in 2012 (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-and-robert-locascio-attend-osklen-spring-news-photo/1169681572).
Loeb, Alex: Alexandra is the daughter of John Loeb, former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark under Reagan and former Delegate to the United Nations. John Loeb was also a special advisor to Nelson Rockefeller. Alexandra is also a descendant of the Lehman family (Lehman Brothers). Alexandra graduated from Spence Day School for Girls (mentioned earlier under Sloan and Roger Lindemann-Barnett).
Lonsdale, Richard: British investment banker.
Lorenzoti, Eva Vivre: Founder of luxury online retailer, Vivre.com and is a TV spokesperson/personality. Good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell and a couple of Rockefellers were guests at her house for a dinner party in 2010 (https://hauteliving.com/2010/11/doris-world-eva-lorenzottis-dinner-party/105102/).
Lorimer, John & Lottie: John works as a private investor and as a realtor. His wife, Lottie, is an interior designer.
Louthan Guy J: Prolific British film producer and former boyfriend of actress Liz Hurley (also in Epstein’s book).
Love, Courtney: Famous drug addict, musician, and actress who likely killed her husband, Kurt Cobain. Courtney famously claimed that Prince Andrew showed up to her house late one night in 2000 looking for sex. She has since retracted this claim. The entries under Love’s name all say ‘Dana’ next to them. This is Courtney’s ex-boyfriend, Dana Giacchetto. Giacchetto was considered to be the “stockbroker to the stars” and was friends with JFK Jr, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and many others. He ripped his clients off of millions. Even more telling, Giacchetto was involved in a sex abuse case against X-Men director Bryan Singer (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/news/leonardo-dicaprios-convicted-ex-money-manager-denies-bryan-050000120.html). He died in 2016 after he partied too hard and overdosed (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dana-giacchetto-dead-stockbroker-stars-902383).
Lowell, Ivana: Guinness heiress who wrote about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse while she worked at Miramax in her book back in 2010 (https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/guinness-heiress-spoke-out-about-predator-harvey-weinstein-7-years-ago). She also dated Harvey’s younger brother, Bob.
Loyd Mark: No info found.
Lucas, Colin: The godfather of Boris Johnson, England’s current Prime Minister. Lucas is a British historian and university administrator. Served as Vice Chancellor of Oxford University from 1997-2004.