The Past Is Golden, the Future Looks Bleak : Skating: Moskvina coaches another pairs victory, then wonders where the money will come from for the next.

Tamara Moskvina, indisputably the world’s champion figure skating pairs coach, barely had time to congratulate her Winter Olympics gold and silver medalists Tuesday night before someone asked her about the future, a subject citizens of the former Soviet Union approach in the same manner they do winter, with dread.

“Our plans for the nearest future are to have a glass of champagne with a sandwich and caviar,” she said. “Those are our plans for the future.”

It is much more pleasant for Moskvina to discuss the past, when Soviet pairs skaters ruled. Beginning at Innsbruck, Austria, in 1964, they won seven consecutive gold medals, and, in four of those Olympics, they also won silver medals.

There were the Protopopovs, Rodnina and Ulanov, Rodnina and Zaitsev, Valova and Vasiliev and Gordeeva and Grinkov. Now, although they no longer are Soviets but instead are members of a temporary conglomeration of former republics called the Unified Team, there are Natalia Mishkutienok and Artur Dmitriev of St. Petersburg, Russia.

“For innovation, ‘creativeness’ and an original skating approach, that couple heads the list,” U.S. Coach John Nicks said.

That is where all nine judges Tuesday night placed them. Although they were not flawless technically in their freestyle program, which they performed to Franz Liszt’s “Dreams of Love,” they received 5.9s on a 6.0 scale from all but two judges for presentation.

The only pair that seemed to belong in the Olympic Ice Hall with them was Moskvina’s other team from St. Petersburg, silver medalists Elena Bechke and Denis Petrov.

On a night when most of the performances were less than Olympian, Canada’s Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler won the bronze medal because the judges had to give it to somebody.

“We’re happy with the bronze medal, but it’s hard to hold our heads high because of the way we skated,” Eisler said.

To hear Moskvina tell it last week, she was just happy to be here with her two pairs. She told of waking at dawn every morning since last summer and going onto the streets of St. Petersburg to make sure she was first in line at the markets so that she could buy enough food for her skaters. But she admitted Tuesday night that she was exaggerating.

“Really,” she said, “the changes in our country have been truly great and truly disappointing. But, truthfully speaking, these changes did not affect our training. There were some extra expenses, but our (Russian figure skating) federation and myself tried to make everything stable for the skaters to prepare for the Olympic Games properly. You now know the results.”

After expressing concern last month about the federation’s financial situation, she said that there will be enough money to send her pairs to the World Championships at Oakland next month.

As for the future, the abyss that Moskvina knows she eventually will have to face, no one knows where the money will come from to assure that the pairs tradition will continue.

“If you have some suggestions for sponsoring our federation, we will be delighted to give you our address,” she told reporters.

But Moskvina is ever the optimist.

“Don’t make holidays too soon for American skaters,” she said. “We will survive somehow.”

U.S. champions Calla Urbanski of Skokie, Ill., and Rocky Marval of New Egypt, N.J., skated like the waitress and trucking company owner that they are in Tuesday night’s freestyle program, finishing 10th overall.

Asked to assess their performance, Urbanski said: “You can’t print it.”

The U.S. champions from 1991, Natasha Kuchiki of Canoga Park and Todd Sand of Costa Mesa, who train under Nicks at Costa Mesa’s Ice Capades Chalet, finished sixth. Sand has been suffering from a virus since Sunday night.

“Our goal was to nail the first half of the program, which we did,” Sand said. “After that, I was pooped.”

Another of Nicks’ pairs, Jenni Meno of Westlake, Ohio, and Scott Wendland of Costa Mesa, finished 11th. They skated a simple program, compared to the medal contenders, but it was one of the few Tuesday night that was virtually mistake-free.

“They have never skated better,” Nicks said. “I’m sure the judges will recognize them now as an up-and-coming pair.”