‘94 Winter Olympic Games / Lillehammer : Russians Dominate Pairs Figure Skating

After weeks of debate about Skategate, and hour upon hour of scrutinizing Nancy Kerrigan’s and Tonya Harding’s practices, figure skating competition began Sunday night in the Winter Olympics, and, although neither U.S. woman was involved, the opening session was intriguing.

That is because the last two Olympic pairs champions, Russians Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov from 1988 and Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev from 1992, took advantage of a new International Skating Union rule and returned from professional careers to serious competition.

It is a cliche to say that they are in a class by themselves, but it is nevertheless true that no one else belonged on the same ice with them in the technical program at the Olympic Amphitheatre except perhaps the third-place pair, 1993 world champions Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler of Canada.

Ranked first by six of nine judges, Gordeeva and Grinkov were superb, which was no revelation. But Mishkutenok and Dmitriev, although not as classically elegant, were technically their equals, which was something of a surprise because they have been underachieving in practices. “I looked into their souls and willed them to skate well,” said their colorful coach, Tamara Moskvina.

John Nicks of Costa Mesa’s Ice Capades might have used a similar technique because his pair, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, performed the best technical program of their 21-month partnership. All it earned them was sixth place entering Tuesday night’s freestyle program, which accounts for two-thirds of the final score, but the competition is more daunting than ever before in the Olympics.

“I think we did what we came to do, which is skate the best we could,” Meno said. “There’s no reason to be disappointed. Four of the teams ahead of us finished among the top five in the Olympics in 1992, and we weren’t even together then.”

The other U.S. pairs, Karen Courtland and Toddy Reynolds and Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen, were 13th and 15th, respectively.