VANCOUVER — Two decades after they were first yoked on the ice, three years after they were joined in marriage and barely six months after they unretired, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo are finally Olympic champions.
Gorgeous in presentation, effortless in technical execution and warmly embraced by the crowd, the Chinese Mr. and Mrs. beamed at one another throughout their free skate here Monday night, showing all the love and emotion previously withheld in their magnificent career.
He whispered in her ear when it was over, she looked adoringly in his eyes. Then they each jumped halfway over the boards to hug their coach.
Their routine was not without flaws; Xue almost fell on Hongbo on an overhead lift dismount. And, in the kiss 'n cry afterwards, awaiting their marks, Xue was shaking her head – clearly didn't think the score would be good enough to overtake compatriots Pang Qing and Tong Jian.
Then the numbers flashed: 139.91 for the free skate, a season's best, and 216.57.
They were golden.
Pang and Tong had to settle for silver. Reigning world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szokowy took bronze.
For the Canadians, it was an evening of similar but mixed results: Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay will go home happy with a ninth-place finish; Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison will go home sad with a sixth-place finish.
While just over seven points separated the two Canadian couples at the conclusion of the pairs competition, they've had vastly different Olympic Games.
After all the setbacks, injury issues, a national title left undefended a year ago whilst one rehabbed and the other practised alone, Langlois and Hay acquitted themselves better than expected on Vancouver's figure skating ice.
For Dube and Davison, these Games proved an underwhelming experience and a disappointment – no medal, which was always a very long shot at best, but no sense of a job well done either, which stings more.
"That wasn't exactly what we wanted to do,'' Davison said after a routine that featured botches on both their parts. "We were all over the place.''
More specifically, Dube was on the ice after failing to hold her side-by-side triple Salchow – deja vu from the previous evening's short program – and later over-rotating on a throw triple Lutz; Davison was hopelessly out of union on a change-foot combination spin. Their one-handed lifts were gorgeous, though.
"We finished the program, we're not in an ambulance, we're alive,'' shrugged Davison. And he wasn't just being sarcastic. This couple famously suffered a ghastly accident a few years ago, Davison's blade slicing Dube's face.
Theirs was a beautifully choreographed routine, skated to The Way We Were, poignantly emotive and engaging the audience, as the couple had hoped. "The crowd held us in it, the way they were cheering,'' said Davison. "They really had us keep the emotion up.''
For Canada 2, Langlois and Hay, these Olympics continued to unfold satisfyingly – if not quite as cleanly as the night before. Langlois fell on side-by-side triple Salchows and there were a few other small bobbles. But, for the most part, their Grand Canyon Suite performance was entirely respectable.
The routine earned them a season's best score of 115.77, 179.97 overall. Dube and Davison were 121.75 and 187.11 overall.
"It was an experience unlike anything I could have ever imagined and probably unlike anything I'll ever experience again,'' said Hay, of his first Olympics.
Canada's prospects for figure skating medals improves with the launch Tuesday of the men's event, short program competition.
Three-time national titleist Patrick Chan of Toronto, an Olympic scrubeenie, will test his all-around excellence against the quad-prowess grit of some pretty spectacular global veterans, including defending champion Evgeny Plushenko has come out of retirement to contest for more gold after 3 1/2 years on the non-judged shelf. Two-time world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland sat out a season before returning to the International Skating Union competitive fold last summer and consistently performs the quad toe loop.
Joining the clutch of world title holders past is the world title holder present, Evan Lysacek of the U.S.
Not that Chan seems worried.
"The level of preparation before I skate is so high now,'' Chan told reporters after practice yesterday. "I blink and get my skates on. I am so focused on my training. Each practice has been very productive. Everything is very consistent.
"I'm in the zone already.''
Source:Toronto Star
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