The couple meshed, finishing second in the Russian championships and third at the European championships. SP: 5th, LP: 5th, 5th placeJan 29th-feb. 05th 1995, Dortmund, GER On Monday, Anissina, Peizerat, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze attended a press conference where Didier Gailhaguet, the president of the French Skating Federation, said each team "won their medal on . In January of 1996, her partner, Oleg Shilakhov, slashed a deep cut into her skull with his skate while they practiced side-by-side camel spins. ", "Now," Berezhnaya said, "I don't have any problems with my health. "I was sure I would be able to skate," she said. The doctors at the time weren't sure if she could ever skate again, but she did, starting practice about two months after the incident. "If you drop it, it will be hurt and broken into pieces. After the 2002 Winter Olympics, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze retired from competition and from 2002-06 toured together with Stars on Ice. They quarreled constantly. When she writes, she sometimes drops letters from the ends of words. It is a tale that is slipping into figure skating legend. The day scandal sliced Olympic ice | TheSpec.com That was a good sign. Her head snapped back and she collapsed face-first on the ice. She was slashed on the head when her ex-partner, Oleg Sliakhov, clipped her. "I did not think of her skating. Yet win or lose, this is really Berezhnaya's night. They soared into third place in the short program and the crowd stood and roared, admiring a soulful performance and acknowledging Berezhnaya's grit and grace. Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, Canada, 97.86. Elena Berezhnaya started skating when she was quite young. Its very dangerous considering all the things that we do, said American Olympian John Baldwin, who teamed with Rena Inoue for third. ELENA BEREZHNAYA, RUSSIAN PAIR GOLD MEDALIST: Well, right now it's getting to everything getting better. They began skating in March 1996. Anton Tarielyevich Sikharulidze (Russian: , born 25 October 1976) is a Russian former pair skater.With Elena Berezhnaya, he is the 1998 and 1999 World champion, 1998 Olympic silver medalist and 2002 Olympic champion.. His first partner was Maria Petrova, with whom he became the 1994 and 1995 World Junior Champion. Still, many of her friends and associates in skating are troubled. Anton Sikharulidze - Wikipedia Thats not all. Yelena Berezhnaya took up skating at the age of four and switched from singles to pairs at the age of 13. david pelletier and ekaterina gordeeva wedding 1 figure skaters (since 200102 season), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elena_Berezhnaya&oldid=1141003074, Figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Figure skaters at the 1998 Winter Olympics, Figure skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics, World Figure Skating Championships medalists, European Figure Skating Championships medalists, Goodwill Games medalists in figure skating, Season-end world number one figure skaters, Sixth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation), Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Russian-language text, Articles with Latvian-language sources (lv), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 21:38. In the fallout from the 2002 figure skating controversy, a judge and leading official in the support were suspended, and naturally enough, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze were also reviled. The girls take a lot of risks out there, and the guys have to take the brunt of it. But they faltered badly in the long, dropping to ninth. Elena retired from skating in 2011 and now seems to coach in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Where Are Jamie Sal and David Pelletier Now? Bad - The Cinemaholic Cathy Reed and Chris Reed, Japan, 68.30. Berezhnaya then was like a living corpse: she could not speak, survived two difficult operations, learned to walk again and hold objects in her hands. "I'm rather emotional," Moskvina said. They became two-time European champions, two-time world champions and Olympic champions in Salt Lake City. "She was so skinny, like a chicken," said Moskvina, who rushed to the hospital from St. Petersburg. She showed courage. FILE - Canadian figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier compete in the pairs free program in the Winter Olympics at the Salt Lake Ice Center in Salt Lake City, Monday, Feb. 11, 2002. But to win here they will have to beat a field that has grown in depth and ability. 9. A CAREER ALMOST CUT SHORT BY A BLADE - The Washington Post Steuer, by the way, has had six knee operations. Elena Berezhnaya & Oleg Shliakhov LAT - 1995 European Championships LP And Sikharulidze's. Elena and Anton finished second behind them at the 2001 World Championships. Anton made a foray into politics in 2006. Does Stephen communicate with children? And then, she arranged for Berezhnaya to be spirited out of Latvia. May 4, 2013. Canada Skaters Finally Get Gold. "She loves skating," Moskvina said. Berezhnaya wished to return to the ice and doctors agreed that physical exercise would be therapeutic. Thats the reason so few skaters compete in pairs. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, the competition was heating up in competitive figure skating, with the Canadian and Russian pairs looking like the favorites to take gold. . Sikharulidze, who knew Berezhnaya and was hoping to begin training with her, took a train to Riga, checked her out of the hospital, and brought her to St. Petersburg. I like skating with speed. As per the show, Oleg was abusive and temperamental, leading to tension during their practices and performances. CNN.com - Russian skaters: 'We are winners' - February 15, 2002 Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow of the United States are sixth. This made for an exciting face-off during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah. david pelletier and ekaterina gordeeva wedding She spent three months in the hospital in 1989 after suffering a head injury on the same side-by-side camel spin that felled Berezhnaya. Olympic athlete. Marie-Reine Le Gougne admitted in public under pressure from International Skating Union executive Sally Stapleford, bless her British heart, that she had been basically ordered by French. Elena Berezhnaya (born October 11, 1977), Russian ice skater, Olympic Before Canadas Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay took the ice after the blood was wiped off it Langlois eyes filled with tears. We are good skaters, and we are good guys,"he toldESPN. Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, United States, 98.17. . And she feared him, even though she lived with his family. Elena Berezhnaya, Russian Olympic athlete, ice skater. With training from the CIA and close coordination with Ukraine's state-backed neo-Nazi paramilitaries, the SBU has spent the past weeks filling its vast archipelago of torture dungeons with political dissidents. Due to ahovs conflicting nature, the pair also trained without a coach for most of their career. For the purposes of this column, I wont even get into the recent car accident that left him with a hyperextended shoulder. I cant really enjoy this. They are still friends, but in sports they parted ways. But Dube and Davison stole everyones attention. "If we think about the gold medal, I don't think we could win," Sikharulidze said, "Some judges like classical styles. Two of the nine judges put them in first place, but overall, they are behind Germany's Mandy Wotzel and Ingo Steuer and fellow Russians Marina Eltsova and Andrei Bushkov. Russias Elena Berezhnaya can tell you about the perils of pairs. Now she is at the Winter Olympics, preparing for the start of tomorrow's pairs short program. Pairs skating couldnt possibly be more hazardous than ice hockey. Shes in good spirits and sent her well-wishes to all of the other skaters.. In this years national championships, she sprained her ankle while landing a throw triple salchow. Elena Berezhnaya | Figure Skating Wikia | Fandom The pair initially won the 2000 European Championships, but were later stripped of their medals after Berezhnaya tested positive for pseudoephedrine. But if I was her mother, I would cry. Elena made her return to the ice later that year with Anton Sikharulidze. Netflixs Bad Sport: Gold War provides a fascinating look at the fiasco. I cant even talk to my parents about this. In the end, Russia and Canada were both awarded the gold medal. Here's what happened to Russian figure skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze after the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. All structured data from the main, Property, Lexeme, and EntitySchema namespaces is available under the Creative Commons CC0 License; text in the other namespaces is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. As a result, an additional gold medal was awarded to the Canadian team, who were given silver at first with what many felt was a superior performance to the Russians, per Britannica. If we did the lifts and I fell, it would be a big, big problem. They also won the 1995 Trophe de France. Berezhnaya went to watch an international skating competition there in February 1996, the month she returned to Russia. Qing Pang and Jian Tong, China, 185.33. 1. Dube will recover and there are good precedents. but as has been said, it's never that simple), this is not a comparable situation because whether she wanted to or not, Berezhnaya was not a free woman in the . She has two children with her ex-husband Steven Cousins and seems to live in Russia, spending time with her kids. You might think a figure skater can be injured only if he or she trips over a sequin, but thats not true for the pairs. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Kimberly Navarro and Brent Bommentre, United States, 77.81. We are not bad guys. In truth, there's no evidence that either one of the athletes had anything to do with the judging scandal, according to The Cinemaholic. After a little more than five minutes, she was helped onto a stretcher, and a waiting ambulance took her to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs. . Berezhnaya, Elena was born on October 11, 1977 in Nevinnomissk, Russia. 11. Only 20 teams in the world were deemed worthy of competing in the Winter Olympics, and, if everybody was really honest about it, maybe half of them dont belong. She had taken cold medication approved by a doctor but had failed to inform the ISU as required and as a result they were disqualified from sports for three months from the date of the test. 1 injury to men in pairs is to their backs, especially when their partners start loading up on croissants while competing in Trophy Lalique. I don't have enough money to buy nine judges. After unsuccessfully teaming up with Aleksandr Ruchkin, her coach's son, Berezhnaya teamed up with Latvian Oegs ahovs and they skated together more than five years. After the compulsory dance, worth 20 percent of the overall score, Olympic gold medalists Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov are first, rivals Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov are second, and Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz are third. On Jan. 9, 1996, at a practice rink in Riga, Latvia, the tiny skater with the big blue eyes was hurt. Her speech was "damaged," Moskvina said. More than two years later, she has an accent that she didnt have before. The fourth-place team after the short program is 5-feet, 95-pound Kyoko Ina and 6-0, 170-pound Jason Dungjen. It's like we tell funny stories on the ice. This continued until the day when in training, during the execution of a simple element of a short program, Shlyakhov hit Elena with a skate in the head. Two years ago, Berezhnaya lay near death with a brain injury. 3. Why couldnt Berezhnaya leave Latvia, where her partner mocked her? Here's What Really Happened To Tara Lipinski - TheList.com But her coach, Tamara Moskvina, remembers what the doctors told her when she obtained a visa and traveled from Russia to see her tiny skater lying motionless and speechless in a hospital bed five days after the accident. She also briefly lost the ability to speak. After unsuccessfully teaming up with Aleksandr Ruchkin, her coachs son, Berezhnaya teamed up with Latvian Oegs ahovs and they skated together more than five years. Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, China, 203.05. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Get to know all 17 Denver mayor candidates , Jamal Murrays brilliant fourth-quarter leads Nuggets over Grizzlies, 2023 Colorado state basketball tournament brackets, results, Keeler: From Tennessee Vols to CU Buffs, everybody wants Bri Crittendon. Fragments of the temporal bone touched the lining of the brain. "We understand what we're doing," Sikharulidze said. Tara Lipinski reflects on figure skating scandal that rocked 2002 We never talked to judges. On January 9, 1996, Berezhnaya was seriously injured when Shliakhov's blade sliced into her skull while the pair were practicing a side-by-side camel spin in Riga. We are good skaters, and we are good guys. They also won European titles in 1998 and 2001 and a European Championships bronze in 1997. Dr. Michael Sparr, the events medical director, quickly came to her aid. Despite that, they finished eighth at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games, were seventh at both the 1994 and 1995 World Championships and fifth at the 1995 European Championships. The maneuver calls for both skaters to spin side by side on one leg with the other leg extended. Elena Viktorovna Berezhnaya (Russian: , born 11 October 1977) is a Russian former pair skater.With partner Anton Sikharulidze, she is the 1998 and 1999 World champion, 1998 Olympic silver medalist and 2002 Olympic champion.. Berezhnaya first competed with Oleg Shliakhov for Latvia and won gold at the 1995 Trophe de France. Where Are Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze Today? The pair also missed the World Championships that year as a result of the disqualification. After the skater had been hospitalized for a month, Sikharulidze came by train and furtively . NICE, France -- Two-time defending pairs champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia were banned from the World Figure Skating Championships after Berezhnaya tested positive. "I hope here to be in the top 24" to qualify for next year's Olympic Games, she said. Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski, United States, 160.04. now everything is fine.". Critics arent satisfied, Olympic snowboarders accuse USOPC, national federation of sex trafficking in lawsuit, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Olympian Allyson Felix announces she will retire after one last run this season, Tourism Set Record in 84, Thanks to Olympics, Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier take pairs gold at U.S. Berezhnaya, who was eighth at the 1994 Olympic Games in Norway with Sliakhov, never lost consciousness after the accident, Moskvina said. In the life of Elena, then appeared a skater from England Stephen Cousins. He had a son with his partner, Viktoria, in 2014 and from what we can tell, lives in Russia. 4. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Colorado Springs In the risky world of pairs figure skating, it doesnt rank among the most dangerous maneuvers. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Canada Skaters Finally Get Gold - mrt.com The theme is on the complex relationship between partners in figure skating, and how typical it was for them to clash during training days that could extend to up to nine hours. The technical marks for the Azerbaijanis ranged from 3.6 to 4.2, the Armenians from 3.7 to 4.3. This tragedy happened in 1996. Elena BEREZHNAYA | Olympics.com Berezhnaya wished to return to the ice and doctors agreed that physical exercise would be therapeutic. ", "It was very hard," he said. Two years ago, China's Lu Chen was the world champion of women's skating. Moskvina began teaching them slowly, cautiously. Anticipated strikes in nuclear power plants, no child pornography in Palmades computer, PSG player Achraf Hakimi indicted for rape News from this Friday, March 3, Toyota in France, hybrid aircraft factory of Aura Aero, flex-office at Saint-Gobain The five most read articles, these creatures tease the return of Ezra Bridger. Two surgical operations were performed to remove bone fragments from her brain and the accident caused partial paralysis on her right side, and doctors were unsure if she would walk again. Earlier, Americans Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto took over first place in ice dance after the original dance competition. Others like the new style. And she and Sikharulidze are gold-medal favorites. 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Pairs skater slashed by blade - The Denver Post CAPTION: Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov make a formal appearance in the compulsory dance, earning first-place marks. Dungjen is still wearing an elastic bandage on his hand from an injury suffered last November. What is Berezhnaya doing now, and with what motto does she go through life? 8. . Winning isn't first for Berezhnaya After near-fatal injury, comeback 12. Dmitry Polyanskiy on Twitter: "We are extremely worried about the fate She addressed UN twice recently. At the competition, the pairs were evenly matched, making for a fascinating contest. Elena had to go through two major neurosurgery operations. 5. Germany's Mandy Woetzel and Ingo Steuer are first. He is still bothered by a strained right shoulder that was injured when he was grazed in a hit-and-run auto accident in December. Elena Berezhnaya. Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin, Canada, 162.79.