According to Yuri (goto his page here, also in links page), Elena means "bright" and Sokol means "falcon". He explains her name in more detail for those interested. This little fact was a pleasant surprise for me as I had named myself "The Eternal Falcon". Yeah, yeah, that's stupid. I know. But I just had to put it down, okay?! hehe

Figure skating is, more or less, a seasonal sport, and as such, so appears the interest. My page was first up just after the closing ceremonies at Nagano, and, after the initial few days that it was unknown to anyone on the net, I was awarded over 200 hits in the first 7 days. With the average topping out at over 40 hits per day. Since then, however, visits to my site has significantly declined. I wonder if other webmasters have experienced the same thing or am I just not doing something they are doing?

I am certain that I am but one among the many whom would love the oppurntunity to communicate with Elena. For me, not just a hi or an autograph, I would like to be able to write her on a regular basis. I have taken some steps in that direction, having written some Russian skating authorities. I have not(yet, I hope!) received a response and am assuming that I was ignored. Figures : ) However, my friend Yuir(owner of another Elena page) has some good news - goto his site to find out.

Hmm... I have another coincidence to report. I have missed both of Elena's last two short programs, at the World's and at Nagano. Both times, when I received the scores, I found that she did not do well. However, at Nagano, I was able to watch her whole long program, in which she performed quite well in, I must say. Although her long program was not shown at the World's, I would have seen it had it been shown. Instead, I opted for the next best thing... I waited on the net for the results to be posted. She did quite well that time too. Anyway, maybe I am just a tad too superstitious but I am watching BOTH programs next time around : )

It is amazing how many sign the guestbooks of fan pages TO the person the page is about!!! I mean, we are not who we adore. I think that people who do that don't actually read your page, because otherwise, it would be quite obvious that the webmasters who make the site are not actually the athelete(at least there have not been any marriage proposals on my guestbook yet!).