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Pairs finals today
Can pairs duo keep Russia's golden streak alive?
By Jenifer K. Nii
Deseret News Olympic specialist
It is impossible to know where pairs figure skating would be today, had Elena Berezhnaya not been paralyzed when her partner's skate blade sliced into her brain.
It happened in Riga, Latvia, during a 1996 practice session with her then-partner, Oleg Sliakhov. The two were practicing side-by-side camel spins. They lost synchronization, and Sliakhov's skate blade struck Berezhnaya's skull. She lay partially paralyzed, unable to speak. Her skating career as she knew it, which with Sliakhov had earned her an eighth place showing at the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, was over.
When Berezhnaya takes the ice Monday, she will take the hand of the man with whom she endured the painful rehabilitation process, with whom she has traversed a vast personal and professional landscape, with whom she won the 1998 Olympic silver medal.
The journey was long, and arduous. It will reach its pinnacle here in Salt Lake City when Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze try to accomplish the one goal that has eluded them: to stand atop the Olympic medal podium as gold medalists.
The Russians stand in first place after the short program, ahead of reigning world champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada. Sale and Pelletier came from behind to defeat Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze at the 2001 World Championships, and will look to do the same here. Both teams are technically strong, and brilliant artists. What separates them may come down to a mere bobble.
If Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze have one intangible on their side, it is history. Russians have won every Olympic gold medal in the pairs competition since 1964. If they win here, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze will join the ranks of Russia's legendary, luminous pairs like Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov and the Protopopovs.
But history can also be weighty stuff, and it isn't something Berezhnaya likes to talk about.
"I didn't count the years that everybody won," she said of the Russian pairs legacy. "We are here to compete. We do what we have to do."
They have much to offer — their interpretation of Massenet's "Meditation" from Thais is lush and otherworldly, a perfect vehicle to display the team's speed and operatic grace.
Sale and Pelletier, on the other hand, will try to reclaim the gold medal for Canada. Canadians Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul were the last to win gold (at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics) before the Russian dominance took hold. Their "Love Story" program is already a crowd favorite, magical and magnetically romantic.
Should either team falter, however, others wait in the wings. Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, third after the short program, look to be the first Chinese team to win an Olympic medal. Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, an up-and-coming Russian pair, have shown great improvement over the course of the season. Americans Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman, in fifth place after the short program, remain legitimate medal contenders.
The Olympic medals will be decided on Monday, Feb. 11, at the Salt Lake Ice Center.
E-MAIL: jnii@desnews.com
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February 11, 2002
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