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End of Russia’s ice skating dominance … at least until Sochi
Published: 23 February, 2010, 14:48
Edited: 25 February, 2010, 04:26
Canada, Vancouver: Bronze medallists, Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, perform in the Ice Dance Free program at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, during the 2010 Winter Olympics on February 22, 2010. (AFP Photo / Yuri Kadobnov)
TAGS: Sport, Olympics, Figure Skating, Vancouver-2010
Ice dancers Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin have secured the latest bronze for Russia. The judges put the Russian pair behind Canada’s Virtue and Moir, who took gold, and America’s Davis and White.
Another good day and another hat-trick of medals for Russia. All of them bronze, but they all count – and lift Russia to fourth in the overall medals table, ahead of Canada.
Russian ice dancers Domnina and Shabalin showed a solid performance in the final free dance, despite Maksim’s serious knee injury.
The pressure was squarely on the World and European Champions after slipping to third the day before. However, they coped with it to bring Russia a second medal in figure skating.
"We skated as well as we could," Domnina said. "Actually, we probably did more than Maxim's condition allowed us to do."
"We are happy with the bronze medal. It was a long, difficult way for us, and we are happy we did it," Shabalin said. "We gave everything out there on the ice."
Meanwhile, given that Russia has no gold medals in figure skating so far, and only the women’s event left, in which Russia has only a small chance of winning a medal, the Olympics in Vancouver seem to have ended the Soviet-Russian dominance in the sport. Time will tell if it can be reclaimed in Sochi.
23.02.2010, 02:43
Bronze day for Russians in WhistlerOn Monday Russia claimed two bronze medals in both the men’s and women’s cross-country team sprints at the Vancouver Olympics. |
24.02.2010, 02:56
Russia repeats as biathlon relay champStill without gold on Tuesday, Russian women made a smashing present to their fans on Fatherland Day by winning the relay biathlon gold medal. |
Yes, you are missing something. Russia is still dominant! Plushenko actually won; Kavaguti probably gave up after the marks in the short program, and she characteristically fell etc.; Domina and Shabalin were badly injured but still won bronze, and ice dancers Davis and White and Virtue and Moir had RUSSIAN coaches, one of them the choreographer for pairs Gordeeva and Grinkov. The Chinese and Germans won in pairs, and Canada and the US were nowhere near that podium...because the Chinese and the Germans originated in Russian pairs skating and Russians have not been allowed near US pairs skaters. And you don't have the system you used to have where you got access to 100% of your talent and people who were good were supoorted whether theiir families were rich or not. Now you have a system like us, where only rich kids can get noticed, and pay the enormous fees to be trained. However, Dennis Ten looked great to me, reminded me of Kulik! Plus you don't have the media fire power. I mean, just look how they manipulated the whole thing with Plushenko! The CIA could not have done better. I don't get why you don't have forums where it would be safe for people who like Russian skating or skaters! People are just blasted to smitherens for liking Russian skaters all over the US Net. I really resent it. My mom was a super patriot, hated communism, but she LOVED Victor Petrenko. She adored him.