by Alexandra Stevenson
Domnina and Shabalin bring Ballroom floor tricks to Compulsory to lead by narrow margin over North America’s Best
Canada’s Virtue and Moir skate last Compulsory ever in an Olympics and say Good Riddance!
One Olympic berth left empty as Lithuania’s President refuses Katherine Copely’s application for a passport, and replacement Greek team didn’t get Canadian Graham Hockey’s Greek passport; AND NO ONE ELSE TRIED TO QUALIFY!
1.43.76 (21.92+21.84) The Russian world champions, Oksana Domnina, 25, and Maxim Shabalin, 28, took the ice 18th of the 23 couples from 15 countries. For the Tango Romantica, they appeared in an outfit straight out of a Tango Milonga evening. He had his hair pulled back in a pony tail and wore an open-necked white shirt and expensive looking black jacket which flapped open to reveal the red silk lining. She was in a long sleeved, short red dress. They incorporated lightning fast leg kicks, facial poses and head snapping moves including a nose-to-nose moment with sticking-out bottoms which encapsulated the very different aspects of this dance, which channels raw emotion, anger, frustration, regret and longing, as opposed to the light romance of the alternate compulsory, the Golden Waltz which will be executed at Worlds. The Russians’ interpretation was brilliantly evocative of top level performance of Tango on the stage. No other couple was so extreme in this approach, which almost approached the grotesque. One judge gave +3, the maximum Grade of Execution, for the third section of both patterns of their dance. Their lead was only 1.02 over Virtue and Moir, pointing to an exciting battle as the event progresses.
They must have been under great stress due to the enormous fuss created by their Original after their performance in the Russian nationals was posted on You-Tube. Australian aborigines charged that their costumes were "disrespectful" and that their performance demeaned the heritage of these ancient people and was "cultural theft". Their coach, Natalia Linichuk, herself an Olympic gold medalist who won with her husband and partner, Gennadi Karponosov in 1980 in a controversial decision, said that the situation had been smoothed over. The costumes and music have been changed. She said, "It never was our intention to upset anyone. We had a meeting here in Vancouver with Canada’s Four Host First Nations a few days ago and they presented us with blankets. Maxim loves his. He’s been using it wherever he can." Shabalin said, "They said we should cover our hearts with them and it will keep us from any bad things. So we were very pleased with this. We presented them with our traditional gifts." After their performance, they draped themselves in these blankets while waiting for their marks.
Shabalin said later, "We were satisfied with how we skated. We did our best of the season but it’s only the beginning of the competition. We’ve worked very hard in the past three weeks. We feel more confident after the European championship." They won this dance in Estonia by over five points and held onto the lead although they were eclipsed in the other two sections by the eventual European silver medalists, Faiella and Scali. Shabalin continued, "We are optimistic for how the next few days will go."
There is home country pressure on them because Russians have not won gold as expected in the previous two figure skating events. They, unlike their main rivals, are not pleased that there will be no compulsory in the next Olympics. Shabalin said, "I think that is a very bad idea. I don’t see a big difference between the Original and Free except one is longer than the other. In the compulsory the couples show the class of their basic skating. As we are all doing the same steps, it is a straight comparison of skating skill." The TR was devised by the first Olympic ice dance gold medalist (1976), Alexander Gorshkov, who is now head of the ISU Dance Committee, and his late wife Ludmila Pakhomova. Since she was the star of the couple, and this was in the days when technique was a lot more basic than nowadays, the man’s steps are easier than the alternate, the longer Golden Waltz, which was devised 18 years later. The compulsory was done in six groups, the first with only three couples, and the rest with four. Domnina and Shabalin skated 18th, immediately following Davis and White. For the Original there are two groups of 4 and three groups of five. The top ten after the compulsories made a draw among themselves. Domnina and Shabalin drew to skate last of the penultimate group, before the second ice resurfacing.
2. 42.74 (21.40+21.34) Tessa Virtue, 20, and Scott Moir, 22, Canada, were the last to skate which was fortunate because they were the couple the majority of the audience, of over 11,000 paid admittance, had come to see. That probably set a record. Even if those numbers were exceeded elsewhere, this was certainly was the most money a crowd had paid to see a compulsory! He wore black; she wore a black dress with touches of red and one shoulder strap. These Canadians, who were second in the 2008 world championship but only third in 2009 after Virtue lost much training time having operations on both shins, received the maximum +3 for four of the possible six technical marks from one judge. Nowadays, 13 judges are used with a core of 5 who officiate in all the parts of a competition and four judges who change. Virtue and Moir also received two +3s from another judge. However, they still ended up with 0.52 lower technical score than the Russians. On the four component scores, they were 0.50 behind Domnina and Shabalin. In the other sections of the event, there are the normal five component scores but, because everybody does the same steps apart from the opening and closing moves, there is no mark given in the compulsory for choreography.
Moir said, "We wanted to go out and skate strong. We knew it would be close. It's really no surprise. As I said to Tessa, we've been training for this moment all our lives. It's really quite special for us.'' Their very smooth dance had the fans clapping in unison long before they finished, and they maintained their character while taking their bows. He expressed relief that compulsories are on the way out, saying, "Dear God, we hope so." That echoed the long-held sentiments of many North American couples, including their training mates, Davis and White. Virtue and Moir skate the Original 22nd, last but one.
3. 41.47 (20.46+21.01) Meryl Davis, 23, and Charlie White, 22, performed 17th. He said they were inspired by Evan Lysacek’s win the previous evening. The secret of a good compulsory dance is in powerfully channeling the energy good knee bends provide. Davis and White have this ability which comes with many, many years practice. The twice US champions, whose best place in the world championships was fourth in 2009, less than a point behind the bronze medalists, competed in black with red trimmings and a rose in her hair. Both Davis and Virtue wore black mesh tights, which were very appropriate for this dance. Their coach, Igor Shpilband, who is based in Canton, just outside of Detroit, arranged for Elena Tchaikovskaya, who coached Pakhomova and Gorshkov in Moscow, to work for two days just before the Games with both Davis & White and Virtue & Moir to give their TR a final polish. White said, "Getting three points higher than our personal best this year is very satisfying, knowing how much work we put into it. We were really confident coming in. We were aware of how she wanted the dance to be performed, knowing that this might be the last Tango Romantica at this level. I think we did her justice. There are pluses and minuses to the Compulsory Dance, but, like Scott said, under the new system so much has been added to Ice Dance, so it makes sense to cut it down to just two sections." One judge gave them a +3 for the second section of their first pattern and all +2s for the other sections. For the Original, they will perform first of the last group of five.
4. 40.83 (20.16+20.67) The 2006 Olympic silver medalists, former US champions Tanith Belbin, 25, and Ben Agosto, 28, drew to skate 20th, first of the last group. They lie only 0.64 behind their teammates, Davis and White. Agosto has always done well when portraying Latin characters. His demeanor this time was somewhat menacing in a very macho way. Belbin looked extremely high maintenance in a creation of black on one side with lots of silver glitter on the other side which didn’t look very tango-y. They definitely have more power than formerly. Two judges each gave +3 for two section of the dance. Belbin said, "We’re satisfied, yes. This is a relatively new dance for us and we nailed the two patterns, so we’re happy. We’re within striking distance, so we’re confident. In Torino (in the last Olympics), we were sixth after the compulsory dance, so we've moved up." Agosto said, "This is a very passionate and strong dance and we tried to portray that as best as we could. We were pleased we didn’t lose any speed at the end, which is a test of stamina." Belbin would not be displeased if the compulsories go out. She said, "If this is the last time we perform a compulsory dance, that’s awesome." Agosto agrees, "Good riddance, I say." For the Original, they have drawn to skate last.
5. 39.88 (19.82+20.06) Federica Faiella, 29, and Massimo Scali, 30, of Italy, silver medalists in the last two European championships, skated 21st. They were dressed fairly simply, she in a maroon sleeveless ruffled dress with cleavage, with silver wrist bands and necklace, he in a satiny elbow length shirt. This is their third Olympics. They finished 18th in 2002 and 13th in 2006. They will skate the Original 17th, which is next to last in the next to last warm-up group.
6. 37.99 (18.44+19.55) The French 2008 world champions Isabelle Delobel, 31, who gave birth to a son, Lois, on October 1, and Olivier Schoenfelder, 32, of France, are competing for the first time since December 2008 when she badly injured her shoulder at the Grand Prix Final. They skated 12th, first in the fourth of the six warm-up groups. They made a production of taking up their opening position, with Olivier "walking" up to his starting position with his jacket slung casually over an arm. He takes time to put in on. She said, "We tried to tell a little story so we would stand out. It is of a woman doing her hair and makeup and a man waiting for her." They then take up their starting position in which they both lean steeply into each other. The audience loved it. She wore a long sleeved dull black outfit with cut-out back that had sparkles low down and a narrow vertical cut-out in the front. Delobel said coming back was a challenge. "You better believe it was tough. I’m proud I was able to do it." She had put on about 20 pounds. And that was hard to get rid of. At this season’s Grand Prix in Paris, which they attended briefly as guests, Schoenfelder said that when he learned about the pregnancy, he was absolutely shattered. Now, he says, "I definitely had my doubts about whether the Olympics were possible. But once we made the decision, we didn’t let ourselves have any doubts." Their performance was given, by one judge, -1 on four of the six sections, which is all except the initial third of each pattern. No other judge gave less than 0 and they received 12 +2s. (54 GoEs are given, i.e. 6 marks from each of the nine judges, as well as the four component scores from each judge.) She said, "We did well, but not as well as we can." He said, "I think we’ll be more relaxed in the Original. We are doing a Can Can." They will skate 15th, second in the second-to-last group.
7. 37.18 (18.28+18.90) Jana Khokhlova, 24, and Sergei Novitski, 28, Russians who recently lost the European title they won in 2009, performed 19th. For the Original, they will skate first of the top ten in the Original.
8. 37.02 (18.04+18.98) The record seven-time consecutively British champions, John Kerr, 29, and his sister, Sinead, 31, were dressed in a sophisticated dull black with sparkles. His shirt matched her dress which was cut high on one side and low on the other, with a cut-out on one side. Several photographs of their posing start at the recent European championship, in which they finished fifth, raised eyebrows. Sinead laughed this off. "We think of ourselves as actors. The emotion we show is a part of the Tango. Apart from a few seconds at the start and finish, we all do exactly the same steps so we are looking for a way to stand out. It was fine. It was fun." John said, "We skated pretty well and we were pretty happy with it. We're confident we can build on this and we're pretty tight with the two teams above us so hopefully we can have two more clean skates and see what happens. The experience of the Turin Olympic Games (where they finished tenth) four years ago means we're a little bit more ready for it this time." Sinead said, "We've been training really well leading up to this and we've got a personal best so we can't ask for more than that. It's a really tough competition but we always knew there was a group of nine or ten skaters who could win it, so we've kept ourselves in there. We've got some good crowd pleasing routines to come so that is when we hope everyone will get excited and get behind us. We just need to keep relaxed, not get too tight and too nervous, thinking about it being the Olympic Games, and just skate how we know we can skate." They will skate their Original 16th, immediately following Delobel and Schoefelder.
9. 36.13 (17.72+18.41) Nathalie Pechalat, 26, and Fabian Bourzat, 29, of France, who train with Sasha Zhulin in Moscow, placed fourth in the recent European championships. They skated 16th, first of the penultimate group of four, after an ice resurface. Theirs was a forceful tango with a crowd-pleasing finish in which they spun with her legs wrapped around him. His black jacket was lined with red. She wore a head band with a long trailing edge, matching her patterned dress. She said, "We thought it was one of our best performances. We had a great start and didn’t suffer from stress. But we were disappointed with our marks." He said, "We didn’t come here playing for medals, so it just a matter of skating as well as we can." Talking of their teammate Delobel’s pregnancy, Pechalat said, "If that had been me, Fabian would have reacted very badly. When you skate 20 years, as they have, with someone with the dream of an Olympic medal, it’s a big thing. I think you really have to maximize your chances, and obviously, the preparation year before the Games is very important." Bourzat nodded his head. He said jokingly, "We’ve now done a partnership contract between us to make sure that everything’s clear." They will skate immediately following Davis and White, second in the last group, for the Original.
10. 34.38 (17.42+16.96) Alexandra, 22, and her brother, Roman Zaretski, 26, from Israel, who train in the United States, skated 15th, last of the fourth of the six groups. They claimed they weren’t nervous. She said, "What’s the reason to be nervous? It’s the same competitors and the same judges. At competition, we look at the audience, at people’s faces and feed off them. During training we have nothing to look at but walls and empty seats. We love competition." Both thought the expected demise of compulsories at this level is a mistake. She said, "That would be very sad. The compulsories are what makes us different from everyone else." He said, "They are not easy." They will skate their Original 21st of the 23 field, just before Virtue and Moir.
11. 33.87 (17.38+16.49) Anna Zadorozhniuk and Sergei Verbillo, Ukraine, who are both 25 and were 11th in the last World championship, train partially in the United States. They skated fifth. He explained, "We did this compulsory in the Chinese Grand Prix and in the European and the Ukrainian championships, so we’re quite familiar with it. Here we were amazed to see so many people at a practice. It helped to have them clapping." They will skate 12th in the Original.
12. 33.13 (16.40+16.73) Anna Cappellini, 23, and Luca Lanotte, 24, Italy, who finished tenth in the past two world championships, drew the dreaded position of having to perform first of the 23 couples from 15 countries. The announcer got the huge crowd fired up for a countdown by stating, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are waiting for an audience of 320 million viewers to join us." That might be true for the Ladies Free but for compulsory dance? Cappellini said, "That moment was an out-of-body experience. I got so excited. I thought, at least we didn’t draw to skate to the second piece of music." Competitors have no choice of which piece of music which will be played. Four were used in this event. If there had been five couples in each warm-up, then five pieces would have been rotated. The second piece is more sensuous and less snappy than the other and generally doesn’t fit the few introductory steps the skaters create to get into the spirit of the dance. This will be the last Olympics in which a compulsory dance will be performed. In Sochi in 2014, the ice dance will comprise only two sections in keeping with the other three figure skating disciplines. Cappellini said she disagreed with the decision. "That is where you learn how to ice dance. I will be sorry to see them go. Compulsories might be boring to watch but they’re very important. It teaches you exact technique and steps. I can tell which skater is good by watching some little things in their compulsory dance. They have to keep them, if only up to Juniors." They also got a bad draw for their Original. They will skate second.
13. 31.90 (16.60+15.30) Nora Hoffmann, 24, and Maxim Zavozin, 24, Hungary, skated ninth, the second couple in their warm-up group. They were 10th in the European Championships. She said, "Hopefully, despite the little mistake, we can catch up to the others." He admitted, "We didn’t do our very best. We had a few little mistakes. We were just happy to be out there in the competition. They will skate the Original sixth.
14. 31.37 (16.04+15.33) Emily Bates, 19, and Evan Bates, 20, who were the third-ranked Americans, skated 14th. Bates said it would be interesting if the compulsories do go out. "We'll be able to tell the youngsters, 'Back in the day we skated compulsory dances at the Olympics.'" His partner said, "I do like the compulsory dance. It would be kind of bittersweet to see it go." They will skate the Original 17th.
15. 31.14 (16.22+14.92) Vanessa Crone, 19, and Paul Poirier, 18, Canadian national silver medalists, were 12th in their debut in Worlds last March. She wore a backless purple outfit with sleeves with frills and a tight fit over the behind. He said, "It was the best Tango Romantica of our season. By the luck of the draw, we have competed only this compulsory all season. '' She said, "It's hard to describe the uplift we got from the audience.'' They will execute the Original third.
16. 30.31 (15.82+14.49) Christina Beier, 25, and her brother, William, 27, of Germany, had split up and did not compete last season but decided to return with the hope of getting to the Olympics. They performed the compulsory 3rd, and will skate the Original 9th. She said, "We were satisfied. It was a personal best for us. We skated better than at the Europeans." He said, "The Golden Waltz is better for us but we’ve danced the Tango a lot so it’s OK."
17. 29.86 (14.50+15.36) Ekaterina Bobrova, 19, and Dmitri Soloviev, 20, of Russia, were fourth to skate, first of the second group. She said, "I thought the score was fair. I felt good during the program." But her partner was not pleased. "I think it was the worst we’ve done in a while, hence the marks reflected it. There were some good parts and some parts didn’t turn out so well. We made small but significant mistakes. It wasn’t easy to make the team." They will skate the Original, eighth, last of the second group.
18. 29.49 (15.10+14.39) Cathy Reed, 22, and Chris Reed, 20, the American born Japanese brother and sister skated tenth. She said, "I’m saddened by the fact that the end of compulsories is coming. They are the essence of Ice Dance." They will perform the Original 10th.
19. 29.22 (15.32+13.90) Xintong Huang, 23, and Xun Zheng, 22, of China skated sixth. He said, "My partner and I have skated together for ten years, so we collaborate well. Marks are not my reason to be here. I am here for the experience. My only opposition is myself. I want to see what is my limit." They will do the Original 11th.
20. 26.65 (14.22+12.43) Allison Reed, at 15, was the youngest competitor and is the younger sister of the Reeds who represent Japan. She teamed up with Otar Japaridze, 22, at the end of last season. They are the first ice dance team ever to represent Georgia. Of course they had the terrible death of their teammate to deal with. They will be the first couple to perform the Original.
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| Domnina & Shabalin -- First | Virtue & Moir -- Second |
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| Davis & White -- Third | Belbin & Agosto -- Fourth |