[6] After Korolov moved to Greece, Butyrskaya was coached by Viktor Kudriavtsev for several years until he told her that she was strong technically but he could not help her mentally.
At the 1993 World Championships, Butyrskaya did not advance past the qualifying round, which resulted in Russia having no entry in ladies' singles at the 1994 Olympics.
She was one of two women to beat Kwan that year at Centennial on Ice, taking silver behind Slutskaya in front of her home fans.
[7] At the 1996 World Championships in Edmonton, she missed a triple loop late in her free skate and finished 4th, losing the bronze to Slutskaya.
[citation needed] The 1996–97 would see Butyrskaya maintain her status as one of the World's top skaters, but struggle with consistency of her triple lutz, which she failed to land cleanly in any of her long programs of the season.
Second in the short program at the Grand Prix Final, she dropped to fourth overall after missing her triple lutz in the free skate.
She also beat that year's Grand Prix Final silver medalist, Tanja Szewczenko (3rd), who had beaten her twice that season.
In 2000, the New York Times described her short program (Sarah Brightman's Scene d'Amour) as "flowing, lyrical skating...a performance of rare elegance and beauty."
In the 2000–01 season, Butyrskaya began attempting the triple flip jump in her short programs and won both the 2000 Sparkassen Cup on Ice and 2000 Trophée Lalique.
After a narrow loss to Slutskaya at the 2000 NHK Trophy, she would initially not stand on the podium and finished fourth at the Grand Prix Final, completing only five out of 14 planned triples over the three segments.
Although she placed third in the free skate with six triples and three 5.9s for presentation, she finished fourth overall, narrowly edged for the bronze by Sarah Hughes.
She finished sixth at her second Olympics[7] and ended her amateur career at the 2002 World Championships, withdrawing from the competition after skating poorly in the qualifying round.
[7] GP: Champions Series / Grand Prix Media related to Maria Butyrskaya at Wikimedia Commons