| Place | Skater | Country | CD1 | CD2 | OD | FD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marina Anissina / Gwendal Peizerat | FRA | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | Barbara Fusar-Poli / Maurizio Margaglio | ITA | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | Margarita Drobiazko / Povilas Vanagas | LTU | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | Irina Lobacheva / Ilia Averbukh | RUS | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | Galit Chait / Sergey Sakhnovsky | ISR | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Kati Winkler / Rene Lohse | GER | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 7 | Elena Grushina / Ruslan Goncharov | UKR | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 8 | Naomi Lang / Peter Tchernyshev | USA | 8 | 9 | 9 | 8 |
| 9 | Sylwia Nowak / Sebastian Kowlasinski | POL | 9 | 8 | 10 | 9 |
| 10 | Marie-France Dubreuil / Patrice Lauzon | CAN | 10 | 11 | 11 | 10 |
| 11 | Isabelle Delobel / Olivier Shoenfelder | FRA | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 |
| 12 | Jamie Silverstein / Justin Pekarek | USA | 14 | 14 | 13 | 12 |
| 13 | Anna Semanovich / Roman Kostomarov | RUS | 13 | 13 | 14 | 13 |
| 14 | Eliane Hugentobler / Daniel Hugentobler | SUI | 15 | 16 | 15 | 14 |
| 15 | Megan Wing / Aaron Lowe | CAN | 17 | 15 | 16 | 15 |
| 16 | Natalia Romaniuta / Danil Barantsev | RUS | 18 | 17 | 18 | 16 |
| 17 | Alexandra Kauc / Filip Bernadowski | POL | 19 | 19 | 19 | 18 |
| 18 | Nakano Tsuzuki / Rinat Farkhoutdinov | JPN | 21 | 20 | 20 | 17 |
| 19 | Stephanie Rauer / Thomas Rauer | GER | 20 | 21 | 21 | 19 |
| 20 | Zita Gebora / Andras Visontai | HUN | 25 | 24 | 22 | 20 |
| 21 | Julie Keeble / Lukasz Zalewski | GBR | 24 | 23 | 23 | 21 |
22 |
Weina Zhang / Xianming Cao | CHN | 23 | 22 | 24 | 22 |
| Withdrawn | ||||||
| Albena Denkova / Maxim Stayviski | BUL | 11 | 10 | 8 | ||
| Federica Faiella / Luciano Milo | ITA | 16 | 18 | 17 | ||
| Final not reached | ||||||
| 25 | Angelika Fuehring / Bruno Ellinger | AUT | 22 | 25 | 26 | |
| 26 | Katarina Kovalova / David Szurman | CZE | 26 | 26 | 25 | |
| 27 | Alissa de Carbonnel / AlexandeMalkov | BLR | 28 | 28 | 27 | |
| 28 | Zuzana Durkovska / Marian Mesaros | SVK | 27 | 27 | 28 | |
| 29 | Anna Mosenkova / Sergei Sychov | EST | 30 | 30 | 29 | |
| 30 | Tiffany Hyden / Vazgen Azrojan | ARM | 29 | 29 | 30 | |
| Did not qualify | ||||||
| 31 | Ana Galitch / Andrei Griazev | BIH | 31 | 31 | ||
| 32 | Portia Duval-Rigby / Francis Rigby | AUS | 32 | 32 | ||
The dance event ended up pretty much as expected, but still managed to hold some surprises along the way. There was more movement in the places than has typically been seen in the past with only one couple in the entire event receiving the same placements in each dance of the event. Overwhelmingly, the skaters and coaches were enthusiastic over the changes brought about by the new rules instituted after the 1998 Olympic. There was a sense that "protocol" judging may finally be on the way out and that the couples will now be judged the way they actually skated. With Angelika Kryolova & Oleg Ovsiannikov out of competition due to Krylova's neck injury the French team of Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat were the clear favorites, but beyond that all bets were off.
In the compulsory dances the event quickly shaped up to be a contest between the French and Italian team for the first two places, and the Russian and Lithuanian teams for the next two places. In both dances the Anissina & Peizerat bested Barbara Fusar Poli & Maurizio Margaglio, though the Italian team managed to get one first place ordinal in each dance. For third and fourth place Irina Lobacheva & Ilia Averbukh won out over Margarita Drobiazko & Povilas Vanagas, with the Russian team getting the majority, but not all of the third place marks.
After the completion of the dances the couples all had the opportunity to assess their skating. Said Anissina, "This is very important to us. The Worlds are in Nice, in France. We were very focused. It doesn't matter if we are the favorites or not, we prepare for each competition to be ready." On their chances of winning she remarked, "Don't say it too much. This is just the beginning of the competition." Added her partner, Peizerat, "We had several approaches in the different disciplines. We worked a lot on interpretation and the purity of the technique in the compulsories. It was a good beginning. We skated better than at Europeans."
In addition to the competition itself, Fusar Poli & Margaglio had the added challenge of skating in from of Anissina & Peizerat's home crowd. Said Fusar Poli, "We skated the Waltz and the Tango the best we could and are very happy with the result. We find the whole setup extraordinary. We hope to become Olympic Champions in 2002. I wish to say that we appreciate the spirit of the French public and understand this is the big moment of Marina & Gwendal."
Several of the teams found the ice to be difficult to skate on. (Tank ice was used in the exhibition hall where the competition was held.) Both the Russian and Lithuanian teams, among others commented on this. Said Vanagas, "Our dances could have been better if the ice had been better. The ice is very strange. It feels thin. in the practice rink as well, the ice is sometimes quite bad. It was terrible this morning when we had practice. The Tango went better than the Waltz for us. We skated second in our group after the resurfacing and had fresh ice." Along a similar line Averbukh said, "We are happy with our Waltz, but unfortunately couldn't show what we can do in the Tango because the quality of the ice is really bad. It's impossible, and the organizers should do something about it. The ice is very hard and the tracings are getting deeper with each couple. You want to move in one direction, but the tracing goes in the other. There is nothing you can do."
The top U.S. team of Naomi Lang & Peter Tchernyshev ended the compulsory dances tied for eighth with the Polish team of Sylwia Novak & Sebastian Kolasinski. The second U.S. team of Jamie Silverstein & Justin Pekarek who are competing in their first World Championship placed a respectable 14th in each dance. Said Silverstein, "We skated very well in both compulsory dances. It's our first Worlds. It's really overwhelming to skate at Worlds. We want to do our best."
In the Latin combination original dance the judges began to shuffle the deck and one first began to get the feeling that the results would not be uniform across the board. Among the top two teams, the Italians upset the French team on a five four split of the panel. Fusar Poli & Margaglio skated a very strong dance, and Anissina & Peizerat nearly as well, but Peizerat had a small stumble in a step sequence and in such a close decision it was all that was needed to make the difference. Afterwards Peizerat explained, "Maybe I had too much power going into it (the step sequence)," while Anissina added, "We had a little mistake, but we still did very well. Tomorrow it will be a different thing, another competition. We have a strong free dance. We have nothing to lose, we can give everything. Of course, we are somewhat disappointed, we could have done better."
Among the next couples, the Russian and Lithuanian teams held fast in third and fourth place, while the Israeli team of Galit Chait & Sergei Sakhnovski moved up to fifth place in an unexpectedly strong showing since last year. After their performance Lobacheva said, "we gave everything we had today." Averbukh elaborated, "It's a tough competition, there are many strong couples. This season has been difficult for us so far. We lost to other couples, then we won again. This is hard psychologically." Asked about a small limp he said, "I've new boots, and it hurts. But his will take only two days." Drobiazko commented on the Lithuanians performance by saying, "It doesn't matter that we are in fourth now. The most important thing is that the audience liked our performance. We still have a shot at the bronze tomorrow, and it doesn't make a differences if we are third or fourth after the OD. The free dance is our strongest point. Hopefully we'll have our Lithuanian judge on the panel tomorrow, this would help us psychologically."
Lang & Tchernyshev placed ninth in the OD but still ended up in sole possession of eighth place overall. The Polish team they were tied with after the compulsory dance placed tenth and dropped to tenth after the OD. Lang described their performance by saying, "We skated very well. We are happy with the way we skated. We were hoping to get a little higher marks. It has been a long week for us. For the rest of the competition we expect to skate our best in the free program. We are learning a lot." Silverstein & Pekarek had a good skate in the OD and moved up to 13th. Said Pekarek, "We had a lot of fun out there, really. With all the crowd here, it was really cool. Even this morning, like 6:30 AM (in practice) I was feeling good! The nice French crowd was cheering for our group, and we laughed and we were about to wave and say thanks, but they were cheering for the next French team! It's nice to get that noise behind you, even if it's for someone else." Added Silverstein, "It felt to me, the more the program progressed, the more we got into it. I was definitely felling a little bit of that world tension."
For those who were carefully paying attention to the results during the event, they would have noticed the odd circumstance of the U.S. and Polish team swapping places under the dreadful new ISU scoring system that is supposed to prevent it. After Lang & Tchernychev skated the scoreboard showed them behind Nowak & Kolasinski in the OD by one place. At the end of the dance not only had the two teams swapped places, the U.S. moved ahead of the Polish team by two places. So much for the great mathematical minds at the ISU!
Immediately after skating Fusar Poli said, "We are very happy about our presentation. We are waiting for the results, very impatiently! We went over our limits and gave more than the maximum. We really hope this will be enough to get the first rank, before the French couple." Indeed it was, and after the OD was completed she elaborated, "We are very happy. It was the last time we skated the original dance. We really like the Latin rhythms, so we were a bit sad that it was the last time. ... Last May, we had five rhythms to choose from - Cha Cha, Samba, Merengue, Samba, and Rhumba. We both liked Cha Cha, Rhumba and Samba. We have the same taste. We listened to a lot of music. We didn't change the original dance during the season. When we pick one music we keep it. We feel these rhythms very well. After ten days of practice with a ballroom dancer, he said, 'sorry, you are good, but not very good, and I don't know if it works out, don't you want to try another rhythm?' We insisted to do the Cha Cha, and he was surprised when he saw the video of our performance at Skate America. Samba and Rhumba are very easy to do." Added Margaglio, "As we worked with a ballroom dance World Champion, we realized how difficult the Cha Cha was. It is difficult to transfer the feeling of the Cha Cha on ice."
In the post-OD press conference Anissina & Peizerat were still a bit "down". In describing the results Peizerat said, "I can't say that we are very, very happy. We skated well, but we made a little mistake. We didn't skate to assure our position, but we really wanted to show our best in the OD and give it all. We didn't lose motivation for the free dance. For tomorrow, we know we have a very strong program." Asked about skating first in the last warmup group in the free dance he said, "It can be an advantage to skate first. You don't lose the contact with the ice after the warmup. We've skated first in our group before, for example at Europeans." And on changing their OD during the season, "If you improve something it doesn't mean it was bad. It wasn't bad at the beginning of the season, and it's better now."
At the close of the OD the Russian team of Lobacheva & Averbukh seemed in better spirits than after the compulsories, and appeared in firm control of third place. Said Averbukh, "We are very pleased with today's performance. The ice was much better than the day before yesterday (the compulsories). We really appreciated the support of the audience, and we want to thank especially our Fan Club from Germany. It was our goal to show the dance without thinking of marks or placements, and I think it worked out. It was the last OD this season, and we are glad we finished it on a high note." Asked about changes they had made to the dance since Skate America he said, "We only did small changes. We listen to the advice of the judges. Our big problem at Skate America was that we weren't ready yet, and that's why we didn't skate so well. We now just skated better."
Although the dance final did not have quite as many surprises as some of the other events, it had a few, and with the home crowd sensing a victory the energy in the room was at a peak for the competition. There were also two injuries related to the dance final forcing two teams to withdraw without completing the event. In a practice session the day of the free dance Naomi Lang slashed the left leg of Bulgarian dancer Albena Denkova who was in ninth place after the OD with her partner Maxim Staviski. She spent the afternoon in surgery where the severed muscles in her leg were repaired by a specialist sports surgeon. She was expected to be in a cast for six weeks and to be able to resume skating after an additional three months of rehabilitation. Also withdrawing from the competition was the Italian team of Frederica Faiella & Luciano Milo. During their free dance performance, Milo aggravated his previously injured left ankle and dropped Faiella a short distance in a small lift. They left the ice to be examined by a doctor and by the end of their warmup group it was decided they could not continue and they withdrew from the competition.
Silverstein & Pekarek completed their Worlds debut with a well skated free dance; perhaps their best performance of the dance of the season. They moved up one more place to finish 12th in the dance and 12th overall. In addition, with four 11th place marks they nearly placed 11th in the free dance. Overall, it was a strong result on which to build next year. After their performance Silverstein said "The crowd was so fabulous. Just watching the others tells so many things about their character, like [the way] they carry themselves. They look so poised. That's something I really can look up to. It's so fabulous we had the opportunity. My partner and I think we just skated our best." Added Pekarek, "We learn a lot from watching the other teams - like what it takes to be a champion. Firsthand we saw that and we can use that to improve our training and work so we can be in future years on the top."
Lang & Tchernyshev also had one of their best performances of the free dance for the season, and it allowed them to hold eighth place. Overall, they were pleased with the result, with Lang saying, "I think we skated very well tonight. This is the best skating of our season. We are happy when we skate like that. Overall the whole competition went fine for us; we learned a lot. Our season was great, winning our Nationals, placing second at the Four Continents, and coming here for the second time." Their result here was two places better than at 1999 Worlds, but with two teams who were ahead of them last year not competing here they actually did not gain any ground.
The final warmup of the free dance began with Anissina & Peizerat skating their powerful "Carmina Burana" routine, consisting of four minutes of leaping, charging energy. Their effort was rewarded with technical marks including eight 5.8s, and four 6.0s in the second mark. Afterwards, Anissina described the pressure of the moment. "It has been extremely difficult to concentrate and to go out there," she said. "The audience was great, but there was also a lot of pressure, but we skated a good free dance. I'm happy about this. There was a little off balance in one of the moves, but it's a very difficult move, so I think everything was still very well done."
In the post-event press conference Peizerat described his feelings about the event and talked about the direction of ice dance. "I've a lot of emotions," he said. "We never put so much physically and mentally into a program. I'll feel this for a long time in my body. To win the World Championships at home, in France, is a dream we didn't even think of a couple of years ago. It wasn't easy tonight. With the tough competition we had, we had to give the very best. There were doubts. Yesterday, we got our first second placement of the season, so we came here with the 'Grand Slam'." On the greater movement in the results this year he said, "We saw these movements in the rankings. Some couples got placements they have been waiting for a long time. We hope this will continue. Last year, we were very disappointed at Worlds and we complained about the judging. Yesterday, we didn't complain, because the placement was correct. If it's more difficult to stay on top of a mountain than to climb it, then it will be very tough! But we haven't yet reached our limits. We can do better." Of his partner he said he appreciates most "Her strong will. Marina never lets go." At the press conference a fax from the prime minister of France congratulatng the team was read.
The French team was immediately followed by Fusar Poli & Margaglio in the skating. It was a very difficult position for them having to follow the leaders after they had just received four perfect marks. In addition, due to the layout of the exhibition hall in which the competition was held, it was impossible for any of the skaters to find a quiet place to prepare themselves mentally just before they had top skate, the noise in the arena carrying to the farthest corner of the building. Even worse, there had been some booing of the team as they were introduced during the initial warmup period for their group of competitors.
The Italian team also gave a strong performance but it did not quite reach the level of Anissina & Peizerat. Technically it was close with five judges marking the two teams equal in the first mark and one judge having the Italian team ahead. In the second mark, however, the French team unambiguously had the lead with eight of the nine judges placing the Italian team 1 to 2 tenths below the French team. After having won the OD, Fusar Poli and Margaglio held out faint hope they might carry the day, even as they waited for their marks, and their disappointment was apparent when they saw the results. Said Margaglio, "We were not expected to be so good, but we could do better. The public was against us in the beginning, but the music helped and at the end they cheered us the same. This music is definitely for us." Added Fusar Poli, "I will work like crazy, and take the gold in the next Championships. I wish myself good luck!" Later she elaborated, "we are very happy, because we did a wonderful program. We had to skate after the four 6.0s, and we had to skate in France, so it wasn't easy." On the changes in ice dance and the rules she said, "A lot of things changed, not only the judging. We improved as well. ... I'm happy about them (the rules changes), because now everybody has the same problems - to do twizzles, lifts and spins - spins are terrible for me." In describing the competition Margaglio said, "It was a lot of stress because we are not used to skating for the gold. We are happy that we coped with this pressure and that we were able to show what we can do. To us, Skate America probably has been the toughest challenge. When we won there, we believed we can manage to improve. ... We didn't watch Marina and Gwendal because we were concentrating on the competition. I didn't see anything of the competition. We believed in the gold everyday, because you have to believe in it when you are going into a competition."
Finishing out the top three teams going into the free dance, the Russian team of Lobacheva & Averbukh skated next. Their dance to music from "Jesus Christ Superstar" while capably and at times passionately done looked threadbare in comparison to the two teams that had gone before them. Their marks were disappointing and after their performance they declined to comment, perhaps sensing what lay in store.
Not yet accustomed to the new spirit of freedom in the judging, many expected the Lithuanian team to be slotted into fourth place behind the Russian team, no matter what. But not Drobiazko & Vanagas, who felt their free dance was strong enough to move them up into medals. Their dance was technically and artistically more interesting than the Russian's and six of the nine judges placed them third. After seeing the results Drobiazko was ecstatic. "I don't even know what to say, I'm so happy! It's unbelievable. We are not used to winning medals after all! But today we felt it was going to happen. We had an excellent practice, and we skated very well. We put everything we had into this free dance. We just felt great and everything fell into place." Commenting on the audiences response to their program Vanagas said, "The audience helped us so much, it was easy to skate."
On having faith in their ability to win the bronze medal Drobiazko said, "It would have been funny if we hadn't believed in it because we finished third in a couple of competitions before - like at the Grand Prix Final and Europeans. We weren't disappointed about our fourth place finishes in the compulsories and the original dance because we knew that the free dance is our strongest point and we've been winning with it all year." "We attribute our success to our coach Elena Tchaikovskaya, who makes us work so hard and pushes us forward," said Vanagas. On the recent changes in the nature of ice dance he said, "You see changes in the OD and the free dance, but not yet in the compulsories, although everyone is doing exactly the same, and it's easier for the judges to compare the couples. Well, it can happen all in one year!" And about his partner he added, "Rita always wants to work more than she can. If I let her, she would stay the whole day in the ice rink."
The last team to skate in the final warmup was the Israeli team of Galit Chait & Sergey Sakhnovsky. It was a high spirited performance which earned them a fifth place finish in the free dance, and overall. It also represented the biggest single year improvement of any of the couples over their previous year's result, this couple having placed 13th in 1999. They, like the teams ahead of them left this competition with the hope and expectation that from now on they would be judged the way they skated, free of expectations created by past reputation. If that turns out to be true the next few years,the ice dance event could end up being quite a roller coaster ride.
Some miscellaneous records for this event:
The Lithuanian couple won the first ever World Championship medal for their country in ice skating.
This was the first time since 1968 that a Russian couple did not win a medal in the ice dance event at Worlds.
The Italian couple won the first ever World Champion medal in ice dance for their country, and it was the best ever result for Italian skaters at any World Championships in any of the four skating disciplines.
The French couple won the first World Championships gold medal in ice dance for their country since 1991.
This is only the second time the host country has won the gold medal in ice dance (the first being Czechoslovakia, in Prague, in 1962).