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True Champions: Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas
Article for Intensity Ice, April 2002
The 2002 season shall be remembered for the unaffected joy of Sarah Hughes; passion and intensity from Alexei Yagudin; Shen and Zhao’s astonishing throw quadruple salchow attempt. It will also be marked as the year one of the world’s most beloved and popular sports changed forever.
As everybody who follows elite skating knows by now, the initial first place result from the pairs’ competition at the Olympic Games was hastily overturned. Events in this landmark decision unfolded rather like reading a Scott Turow novel. Thanks to a judge’s confession, the disbelieving eyes of a billion-strong television audience, and an explosive trial by media, two gold medals were awarded. Order was restored.
The IOC’s decision represented not only what happened that evening in Salt Lake City, but a clean-up in a sport rife with decades of questionable results, corruption and behind-the-scenes bargaining. Justice seemed finally served. Or was it?
Less than a week later there was a new scandal, this time in the dance. Nobody questioned the gold medal skate from France’s Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat; not even the runner-up performance from Irina Lobacheva & Ilya Averbukh. The race for bronze, however, told a different story.
Dance has had an uncomfortable evolution at the best of times; the least understood of the four skating disciplines. Without jumps and throws to protect it, it has had to constantly prove itself as a true sport. Difficult edges, intricate holds, and fast footwork may never be given similar credit.
The drama unfolded in the Delta Center when the Italian team of Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio skated. The defending world champions, their energetic free dance during the 2002 season had been criticised for a lack of difficulty. But this wasn’t the issue in Salt Lake City, thanks mostly to a frantic revamp after a poor Grand Prix Final result in late December. Perhaps due to a lack of comfort in adjusting to new steps and tricks, we may never know the real reason, Maurizio fell.
Minutes later the Canadian team of Shae-Lynne Bourne and Victor Kraatz punctuated the final pose of their routine with a glaring error; another fall. The two teams placed third and fourth respectively, a fair assessment if it were not for the brilliant and flawless skate by the fifth place team from Lithuania.
To many aficionados of figure skating, the wildly popular team of Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas represent the true essence of dance. World bronze medallists in 2000, their dramatic and difficult routines have earned them countless standing ovations, the most notable at the 2001 World Championships in Vancouver. Amid great controversy, they ended fifth in Canada too.
This time however, armed with a knowledge and confidence born out of the revised pairs’ decision, the normally demure couple lodged an official complaint. Bronze should have been rightfully theirs, they claimed. Without any satisfactory reason given by the ISU, the sport’s governing body, their accusation was swiftly turned down. Brushed under the rug. End of story.
Not quite. As is usual in an Olympic year, many of the top skaters withdraw from the subsequent world championships, citing fatigue or injury. The season seems never ending.
As luck would have it, the first and third place winners skipped the Nagano event for various reasons. Based on their Olympic placement, world bronze again would surely be theirs.
The first two sections of the competition went as predicted; they placed third in both compulsory dances and the original dance, also collecting some second place marks along the way. The free dance was a different story.
Lobacheva and Averbukh were the Russian winners. Bourne and Kraatz won the silver, their highest ranking ever in a decade of world competition. Bronze though, went to Israel’s Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski. Defying rank, this dynamic couple has been climbing steadily through the standings since their debut in 1996. Fourth before the long program, they skated a fast if unpolished routine and won their country its first ever world medal. Off the podium, the Lithuanians were left confused and devastated by what they had witnessed.
The final decision was desperately close, a five-four split in favour of Chait and Sakhnovski. A closer inspection of the judging panel seemed drawn down political lines. A petition drawn up by the fifth place Bulgarian team member of Albena Denkova followed, signed by judges and competing dance couples alike. Bourne and Kraatz complied without question. The Russians and the Israelis did not, citing that as competitors, it was their job to do their best. Nothing more.
In a bittersweet conclusion to the event, the Lithuanians returned to their hotel only to be overwhelmed by their peers with a five minute standing ovation.
How the upcoming hearing on April 29 regarding the pairs’ judging debacle in Salt Lake City pans out is anybody’s guess.
The media will be poised, pens and cameras waiting. What is of more immediate concern: how does the sport honour the best dancers when reward is due? Otherwise, the discipline may have seen its last waltz. |
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