events

Pairs Event Full of Excitement and Beauty

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images Sport

2006 Olympic Winter Games Photos, News and Blogs

(2/14/06) - Rena Inoue & John Baldwin ended a long journey to the Olympic Winter Games Monday night with a personal best score and a seventh-place finish. Sure, they didn't land their throw triple Axel, and they didn't make the podium. But for a team that hasn't finished higher than 10th at the World Championships, it might as well be a gold medal.

“I'm very pleased with the way we skated,” Inoue said. “I thought it was a very good overall performance. We made a couple of mistakes so we know we can do better than that, but at least for myself I know I went for every single thing. No regret, and I couldn't ask myself for anything more than that.”

Skating last in the penultimate group, Inoue and Baldwin chose to go after side-by-side triple toes instead of triple Lutzes as the opening move. They landed them and went to hit a double twist and double Axel-double Axel sequence.

Inoue landed the throw triple loop but fell on the throw triple Axel at about the halfway mark of the program. The two-time U.S. champions collected 113.74 points, another personal best, and gave up one spot to Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Skolkowy overall. Of course, it is the throw triple Axel in the short program that fans will remember.

“They've made history two times in the last three weeks,” coach Peter Oppegard said. “No one can ever take that away from them. They've had a tremendous Olympic experience. Going in there in the last two groups is the most exciting thing you can face in pairs figure skating. You just have to get out there and trade punches with them one after another, because those are the big guns. On the throw triple Axel a slight miscue on timing is all it takes, and that's what happened tonight.”

In general the pairs competition was shaky, as no team put out a flawless performance. Even gold medalists Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia, who won with ease, looked tentative in their performance. Of course, tentative for them still meant no mistakes. They received just three negative grade of execution marks – all on their triple twist. With 135.84 points, they finished more than 10 points ahead of silver medalists Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang in the free skate.

"It was the best performance of our whole lives,” Totmianina sais. "It was perfect skating to end a perfect career. I can't explain the emotions I feel right now." Both skaters displayed their joy and relief on the ice, as Marinin slammed his hands down and later knelt in front of Totmianina and kissed her hands.

“It was a great performance,” Marinin said. We could feel it.”

The pairs gold medal has been handed out to a team from Russia or the former Soviet Union in every Games since 1960.

The Zhangs had the most memorable performance of the night. Skating last, their first move was an attempted throw quad Salchow. But Dan Zhang missed the jump, sprawling on the ice with legs extended in a very unnatural position. She crashed into the boards, and the team had to stop their program for a few minutes to recoup. Clearly injured, Dan bravely continued the program, landing a double Axel-triple toe combination, a throw loop and side-by-side triple Salchows. With all their other elements receiving levels of 3 and 4, the Zhangs finished as the top Chinese team and collected their first Olympic medal, a silver.

Third place went to the comeback team of Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, who haven't competed all season due to Zhao's torn Achilles tendon. They've only had about two months to prepare for the event. Despite a few mistakes, high program component scores kept them on the podium. It is their second straight Olympic bronze medal.

“I am very happy, and I'm very satisfied,” Shen said. “We just had two months to prepare; the others had one year. We did everything we were able to do.”

“We had too short a time to prepare,” Zhao added. “I feel like I still have to protect myself. The injury hasn't recovered completely yet. Being able to skate like this makes me very happy.”

Fourth place went to the Chinese team of Qing Pang and Jian Tong.

Americans Marcy Hinzmann & Aaron Parchem remained in 13th position with a strong performance that included no major errors.

“We just had a great time tonight,” Parchem said. “The audience was wonderful. We went out there and did the program like we hoped we could. I think regardless of whether we always stay on our feet or not, that's what important to us at this competition.”

Hinzmann said that they had time to reflect on the Olympic experience with coach Johnny Johns before taking the ice.

“I just said to him, ‘You know, we made it; we're here,'” she said. “And he was just like, ‘Take this all in; enjoy it; have fun. You're at the Olympic Games. This is your moment.' It was really special for all three of us to kind of meet together right before we went on.”