Icing the Past -- Skaters move beyond Olympic controversy to perform together

Last year, viewers watched as an Olympic drama unfolded on the ice rink.

At the heart of the brouhaha were Russian pairs skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who won the gold medal -- only to have their golden moment tarnished by scandal.

Unless you were trapped in an elevator last February, you heard about the judging disgrace that almost cost Anton and Elena their medals. French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne admitted to beefing up the Russians' scores in exchange for the same type of favor for a French ice-dancing team.

An international outcry arouse when the Canadians, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, initially did not receive the gold for what many considered a flawless performance. Later, in an unprecedented ruling, Sale and Pelletier also were named Olympic champions.

Now, the four gold-medal winning athletes at the epicenter of the rumpus have nothing but nice things to say about each other.

"Everybody gets along very good," Berezhnaya, 25, said in a phone interview. "We all have very much fun together."

So much fun, in fact, the four will perform a special number together in the Stars on Ice 2003 tour coming to Van Andel Arena Saturday. The St. Petersburg, Russia, natives are joined on the tour by 2002 Olympic men's champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia, Katarina Witt, Todd Eldredge, Kurt Browning and U.S. pairs champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand. Scott Hamilton, who retired from Stars in 2001, remains a co-producer of the show.

Despite the intense scrutiny of the Russians' long program -- and the consensus they had made obvious errors -- Sikharulidze, 26, is proud of the team's work in Salt Lake City. But did the reigning world champions deserve the gold medal?

"Yes, sure," he says. "It wasn't unusual or unbelievable or the best ever (performance), but it was good enough."

Berezhnaya also is eager to put the past behind her, not for the first time. On January 9, 1996, while practicing side-by-side camel spins on an ice rink in Russia, her then-partner, Oleg Shliakhov, sliced Elena's head with his skate blade. She was rushed to the hospital, unable to speak. Two brain surgeries were required to remove pieces of bone from her brain.

Anton, a friend from the rink who also was skating with another partner, traveled to Riga with Elena's mother when he heard the devastating news. While doctors questioned whether Elena would be able to talk again, much less skate, Anton provided her with comfort and friendship. "He gave me a lot of support," she says. "All I needed."

Incredibly, Elena made a quick recovery, due in no small part to Anton's care. They eventually decided they wanted to skate together. After asking Tamara Moskvina to be their coach, they began serious training in May 1996, a mere four months after the accident.

The tiny skater admits she was nervous at first, "but then once or twice after that no more." Anton, however, was a different story. Elena's safety and well-being always was his and coach Moskvina's first concern. In fact, Anton later confessed in their first year together on the ice, he thought about her accident every time he lifted her.

"It was very difficult," he says. "Every time we practiced, she got better and better, but I always thought, 'You never know' (if something bad would happen)."

Love bloomed for the couple off the ice, though today their status is ambiguous. "Romantic friends," is how Sikharulidze describes their relationship.

The bond they formed after Elena's injury stood them in good stead as they climbed their way to podiums everywhere. After a series of embarrassing falls in a 1997 competition, the duo got a grip on their nerves and resolved to learn from their mistakes. In 1998, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze were silver medalists in the Nagano Olympic Games, and soon after were crowned world champions.

The time leading up to Salt Lake City, says Elena, was one of intense preparation.

"Like an exam you study for four years," she says. "You pass or you fail."

If their friends Sale and Pelletier were technically superior on that fateful night in Utah, it was and is irrelevant to the Russian pair and their homeland.