Word: berezhnaya
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Olympic motto is citius, altius, fortius - faster, higher, stronger. How about fairer? Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier left the ice last Monday after a figure-skating performance that Sale, like most spectators, deemed "absolutely perfect." Their closest competition, Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, had made a clear error - he stumbled coming out of a double axel. Yet five of the nine judges placed the Russians first. They got the gold, and the Canadians settled for silver...
...Olympic motto is citius, altius, fortius - faster, higher, stronger. How about fairer? Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier left the ice last Monday after a figure-skating performance that Sale, like most spectators, deemed "absolutely perfect." Their closest competition, Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, had made a clear error - he stumbled coming out of a double axel. Yet five of the nine judges placed the Russians first. They got the gold, and the Canadians settled for silver...
...Russians did not skate their best. Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze had as many as six flaws in their program, notably Sikharulidze's stumble on the side-by-side double Axel. Berezhnaya's landings on the throw jumps were also not as smooth as Sale's. Though the Russians peppered their program with innovative moves--at one point Berezhnaya opened into a spread eagle with Sikharulidze clinging to her in a spiral--Sale and Pelletier were a miracle of unity...
...international judge for 15 years, would be suspended indefinitely for failing to tell the skating union immediately that she had been approached by people seeking to sway her vote. The only equitable solution would be to award a second set of gold medals to Sale and Pelletier while allowing Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze to keep theirs. For the first time, an Olympic medal decision would be changed as a result of a judge's misconduct...
...Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, it was a much more trying week. "This kind of scandal, the TV people, the media, they make our life harder," said Sikharulidze. This situation makes us very unhappy." Their coach, Tamara Moskvina, insisted that their transitions and footwork were superior to the Canadians'. She stressed that her side did not protest the result of last year's World championships in Vancouver, when Sale and Pelletier beat the Russians. "We considered that Yelena and Anton won, but it went to the other couple," she said. "We just accepted...