Their Story
Page 5
By the summer of 2000, Elena and Anton were ready to put a disappointing season behind them. "The whole season started on the wrong foot and everything was going wrong from the very beginning," Anton told International Figure Skating. "There were many things - living in a new country and having new things to deal with. When the positive drug test happened, I just realized that's the way the season was supposed to go."
They were able to put their difficulties in perspective and see that they can learn from their troubles and become stronger athletes and people. "When everything is good you can say, 'I don't care, I can win without hard work,'" Anton said. "But when you have a problem like this, you learn how to fight, not with each other, but with the problems. You wake up and want things even more."
What Elena and Anton wanted was to reclaim their World title and show the world again that they were the best pairs team. They were ready to try something new and different from the classic, romantic style that many pairs presented. Coach Tamara Moskvina sought the assistance of Igor Bobrin to create a Charlie Chaplin theme for the new long program. Bobrin, the 1981 European Champion who was Igor Moskvin's former student, had skated to Chaplin music as a singles skater in the early 1980's. He was now a choreographer with the Ice Theater in Moscow where he worked with his wife, 1988 Olympic dance champion Natalia Bestemianova, and her partner Andrei Bukin. Bobrin welcomed the opportunity to work with Elena and Anton and hoped to create a routine that would set them apart from all other pairs.
For their new long program, Elena and Anton would portray the characters of the tramp and the blind flower girl from the film City Lights. They prepared for their roles by watching numerous Charlie Chaplin movies so they would fully understand the spirit of the characters. While initially skeptical about the Chaplin theme, they eventually grew to love the routine. "We have a lot of new moves, not normal for pairs skating," Anton explained. "We're looking forward to skating this program, and hopefully the audience and judges will like it. It's cool and interesting, more theatrical." Elena added, "For us to make this program work, we must live in the program, in those moments. You have to stay focused to maintain the character. Your mind must concentrate on the expression."
For the new short program, Tamara enlisted help from 1984 Olympic dance champion Christopher Dean. The music was a strong and powerful recording of an old Soviet song, Meadowland, and Dean added complicated turns and footwork to tie the required elements together. Now more settled in their new home in the United States and confident in their competitive routines, Elena and Anton were ready to step back into the competitive spotlight.
After debuting their new routines in several exhibitions in the northeastern U.S. in September and October, Elena and Anton arrived in Mississauga, Ontario the first week in November for Skate Canada to put the programs to their first competitive test. The pair had not competed in nine months, but after the short program they were clearly back on track. The performance was technically flawless though somewhat hesitant and garnered first place marks. The debut of the new Chaplin long program was well-received but a fall by Elena on a throw triple salchow cost them the gold medal. Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier won the competition with first place marks from four of the judges to Elena and Anton's three. This would be the first of many times that the judges would be split four to three in their decision of these two talented teams over the next year!
Two weeks later, Elena and Anton were back in their hometown of St. Petersburg to compete at the Cup of Russia. Historically, they had not skated their best in front of a home crowd, but they thrilled the audience and the judges with two faultless performances. Showing more confidence than they had in Canada, they unanimously won both the short and long programs over the two teams they shared the podium with at the 1999 World Championships: Shen and Zhao of China, and Poland's Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek. The following week, the pair arrived in Paris to compete at Trophée Lalique against their Canadian rivals. This time, the Canadians the lead in the short program after Anton doubled the triple toe loop, but Elena and Anton came back to win the long program with the judging panel split 4-3, reversing the outcome of Skate Canada three weeks earlier.
After a whirlwind month of competition, Elena and Anton were able to return to Russia to refine their routines and prepare for the Russian National Championships at the end of December. This competition, though, did not start of quite as well as they had hoped. Both fell on the triple toe loops and despite clean performances by their top two competitors, they were still placed first. While this placement might have been controversial, their top placement in the long program surely was not! Elena and Anton completed the routine without a single flaw and the judges rewarded the performance with four 6.0's. They were now three-time Russian National Champions, tying the record set by Marina Eltsova and Andrei Bushkov.
During the previous two seasons, the European Championships had been a low point for Elena and Anton with the withdrawal in 1999 and their title being taken away in 2000. In the short program at the 2001 Championships, it seemed that their European bad luck was continuing. Although they were in the lead, Elena fell hard on the throw triple loop. As the high scores were announced and their placement was displayed, Anton simply sat in the kiss-and-cry shaking his head in disbelief.
Just as they were able to overcome a disappointing short program at Russian Nationals, their luck changed two days later in the long program at Europeans. Elena slipped on the landing of her double axel, but the routine was otherwise flawless and artistically superior to the other pairs. With one perfect 6.0 for presentation and a slew of 5.9's, they were the unanimous winners of the gold medal and unlike last year, this one was theirs to keep. As the white, blue, and red Russian flag was raised in their honor during the medal ceremony, a new melody filled the arena. Russia had recently changed its national anthem from the existing lyric-less piece to the old Soviet anthem and it was played for the first time in international skating competition at these European Championships. Elena and Anton welcomed the change back to the anthem they had grown up with. "It's great because I love this music," Anton said after the event.
Having conquered Europe, Elena and Anton were off to Japan one month later to try to defeat the best pairs in the world. The demanding Grand Prix Final would require them to perform three competitive routines in as many days and they held the lead over Canadians Salé and Pelletier after the short program. For their first long program, Elena and Anton skated to Chaplin and completed it with only one small error on a throw. They were placed second to the Canadians by another narrow 3-4 split from the judges.
For the final free skate, Elena and Anton competed head-to-head against Jamie and David for the gold and silver medals. They skated before the Canadians to the previous season's routine, Valse Sentimentale. Although they made a few small errors, this skate was artistically superior to any of the previous season's performances as they displayed more emotion and freedom. Jamie and David also performed their long program from the previous season, Love Story, and only made one mistake when Jamie fell on the triple toe loop. Elena and Anton's series of small mistakes were more costly than the Canadians' single larger error so they settled for the silver medal with only their own Russian judge placing them first.
Having missed the World Championships in 2000, Elena and Anton were ready to regain their world standing at the 2001 World Championships in Vancouver, British Columbia. Their practices at Worlds were excellent and they unanimously took the lead over their competitors with a perfect short program. Two days later, they skated a very strong long program although a tight landing on the triple twist lift left the door slightly open for the next pair, Salé and Pelletier. Skating next, the Canadians also made one small error when Jamie singled her double axel. The final decision was extremely close with six judges placing Salé and Pelletier first while three favored Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze.
Despite finishing the season on the second step of the podium, their 2001 performances had been Elena and Anton's best showing at a World Championship and the performances were stronger than those that won them World gold in 1998 and 1999. The top pairs in the world were now so much stronger and after overcoming such a difficult season in 1999/2000, Elena and Anton were happy with their placement. "Of course we wanted to win," Anton explained. "Every year Elena and I want this, but we skated the best we could. However, I don't feel we lost, but we just finished second."
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