In December, after a long break, Alexei had a serious victory at the GP Final. Nevertheless, it would be too early to tell how successful is his collaboration with a psychologist until the Olympic Games are over. Right now, though, our readers can take a closer look at Rudolf Zaiganov and his methods of work.
 Over the years this St. Petersburg’s psychologist has been working with many renowned athletes. Among those Rudolf mentioned even such names as Boris Becker and Monica Seles. However, he made his name while working as a imperceptible but a very influential shadow-participant at chess matches. He was supporting Victor Korchnoi in his rivalry with Anatoly Karpov at the final round determining an adversary to Robert Fisher. At that time it was a rather brave step and there is no surprise that the psychologist got into an unfavorable position and temporary lost possibilities of traveling abroad.
Rudolf Zaiganov has also been willingly helping Garry Kasparov in his attempts to conquer a chess throne. Some time later, though, he made an unexpected move and switched to Anatoly Karpov’s team. Later on he published his diaries that made Karpov furious and caused a huge scandal in a world of sports. So, Yagudin should be aware that in a case he fails at the Olympics, his personal psychologist’s “frankness” may find its way to the press. 
 Still, it’s not the biggest risk for a figure skater. At the moment Zaiganov’s professional strength as a sport psychologist is not quite clear. Lately he’s been working with top athletes only occasionally. It’s been a while since he consulted figure skaters. However, it’s obvious that in helping Yugudin, Zaiganov is still using the same methods that he used with chess grandmasters. He doesn’t even hide the fact that at that time he not only tried to help his outstanding chess clients but also to make some impact on their rivals. 
Some publications in Moscow media also prove a tendency of certain circles to put more psychological pressure on Evgeny Plushenko who is Yagudin’s main competitor. The authors of these articles wickedly play with quotes taken from interviews given by Plushenko and his coach Alexei Mishin. For example, they keep saying  if Evgeny doesn’t win in Salt Lake City he won't be loved any less.
It should be also mentioned that Yagudin’s withdrawal from Nationals was, most likely, motivated by some psychological factors. Of course, there was an official medical excuse sent to the Olympic Committee.
But was his injury more serious than Evgeny’s when he was competing at GP Final? 
Of course, it would be just plain wrong for Yagudin to spoil the effect of the successful outcome of the duel, which he won for the first time in last years.
 The psychological attack on Plushenko will probably last until the end of the Olympics but it can negatively affect the performance of both Russian skaters in Salt Lake City. As a result of all this - well, the Olympic gold may go to an American.