Russians Drop the Hammer in Short Skate

Tatiana Totmianina has never given so much as a fleeting thought to ending her figure skating career, although she has ample reason to flee the sight of skates and ice.

She suffered a concussion at the 2004 Skate America event in Pittsburgh when partner Maxim Marinin dropped her during a lift, and she still suffers occasional dizzy spells. More recently, the 24-year-old Russian has endured intestinal problems that have put her on a restricted diet and pared the weight on her already slight 5-foot-3 frame to merely 100 pounds.

“To get something big, you have to lose something,” she said. “I’m losing my health. Right now, I’m happy just to get results.”

Totmianina and Marinin, who train most of the year in a Chicago suburb, got spectacular results Saturday night for performing their short program at a remarkable pace and with exquisite precision. They took the lead after the first phase of the pairs competition with 68.64 points, just ahead of Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China, who have 64.72 points, and Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia, who have 64.27.

Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China are fourth, with 63.19, just ahead of their compatriots, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who have 62.32.

Rena Inoue and John Baldwin of Santa Monica were sixth with 61.27 points, boosted by a repeat of the historic throw triple axel they performed at the U.S. championships but held back from the top tier by relatively low program component scores. Their technical score of 35.53 was surpassed only by Totmianina and Marinin’s 35.93, but their second mark of 25.74, for artistic elements, was tied for ninth.

The finale will be skated Monday.

“I don’t look at rankings. I look at performance,” Baldwin said. “We can get a medal here.”

Totmianina and Marinin, winners of the last two world championships and five European titles in a row, drew the 19th starting position among the 20 pairs. The crowd of 5,554 cheered them on with shouts of “Rusiya,” and Marinin let loose a heartfelt sigh at the end of their routine.

Totmianina remembers nothing of her 2004 fall from a lasso lift and face-first plunge to the ice. Nor has she ever seen a tape of it.

“Maybe someday when I finish figure skating,” she said.

That might not be for a while. She said that soon after she was taken to the hospital for treatment, she asked doctors if she and Marinin could compete a few weeks later in the Cup of Russia event.

They said no, and she wondered why.

“The next morning, I saw myself in the mirror and understood,” she said. “It was a disaster. Can you imagine any girl seeing her face with bruises around her whole face? I didn’t realize it was so bad.”

Their coach, Oleg Vasiliev -- who teamed with Elena Valova to win the 1984 Olympic pairs title -- said the recovery was tougher on Marinin in some ways.

“He was blaming himself for the situation,” Vasiliev said. “He remembers every second of it. For her, there was physical pain. For him, it was more psychological pain.”

Yet, Vasiliev sees some good from the couple’s ordeal.

“They believe in themselves more,” he said. “They can put themselves together.’

Inoue and Baldwin put together a strong effort and are in contention to become the first U.S. pair to win an Olympic medal since Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard won a bronze medal at the 1988 Calgary Games. Oppegard coaches Inoue and Baldwin.

Their execution of the throw triple axel “was special,” Oppegard said, adding that they’d struggled with the move this week and regained their rhythm only Saturday morning.

“The confidence was a little too high,” Oppegard said. “I think initially in the week, they were throwing it a little too recklessly.”

They executed it perfectly Saturday in becoming the first pair to land the difficult throw in the Olympics. At the very least, they will have that distinction.

“That was our goal tonight,” Baldwin said, “because I think that however you performed at the Olympics, is just like extra. That’s just gravy. Getting here, that’s the real accomplishment, and experiencing the moment.”

The second U.S. entry, Detroit-based Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem, are 13th after Parchem fell on the couple’s side-by-side triple loops.

“Before we went out, I said to Aaron, ‘Let’s enjoy this, this is our dream,’ ” Hinzmann said. “It’s about being here and connecting with the audience.”