Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo make short work of skating program

“Awesome,” said 1992 Olympic singles champion Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States.

“Unbelievable,” said 2002 Olympic pairs champion David Pelletier of Canada.

From the start, with Chinese pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo first on the ice, to the finish about three hours later, when Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy skated as the last of 20 competing teams, the Olympic pairs skating short program Sunday reached unprecedented levels of brilliance.

“It was a fantastic night, there is no other way to put it,” Pelletier said.

In their 2 minutes 50 seconds of captivating power and effortless beauty, the Chinese set the bar where no pair had been.

The Chinese posted a world-record score of 76.66 points, breaking a mark of 75.36 they set in December.

As stunning as the Chinese were, reigning world champions Savchenko and Szolkowy were nearly as good, with 75.96.

European champions Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia were a close third at 74.16 during a short program when the top five finishers skated exceptionally well. There may never have been so many extraordinary performances by the leading teams in this often error-riddled discipline at a major event.

With the fifth-place team, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, at 71.28, the battle for the medals in Monday night’s final is wide open.

“This is what you want - to win when everybody is at their best,” Pelletier said.

Savchenko and Szolkowy were watching from the Olympic village when the Chinese skated.

“We knew that they are good and it was obvious that they would do everything,” she said. “We just had to skate our best as well.”

The two U.S. pairs simply were out of their league.

Shen and Zhao were more than 23 points better than what U.S. champions Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett mustered after Denney doubled a planned triple toe loop jump. They wound up 14th.

But, as Barrett pointed out about the Chinese, “I think they have been around longer than Caydee has been alive.”

Denney is 16.

Two-time Olympic bronze medalists Shen and Zhao have been skating together for 18 years.

The Chinese have also been married nearly twice as long as the 19 months that Floridians Denney and Barrett have been skating together.

The other U.S. team, Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig, gave a career highlight performance that left them in 10th place with 57.86.

Evora and Ladwig have skated together eight years. They train with Denney and Barrett in Ellenton, Fla.

Ladwig, 29, defied convention by watching the Chinese even though he would skate an hour later.

“I wouldn’t have missed them for the world,” he said.

What he and the sellout crowd of 14,200 at the Pacific Coliseum saw was a Chinese team capable of doing a triple twist in which the 36-year-old Zhao sent his 31-year old wife into orbit and following it with graceful spins and footwork that drew out-of-this-world component scores, from 8.3 to 8.7.

“We are happy with our performance today,” Zhao said. “It was a nice Valentine’s Day present. ... It was a brand new start for a brand new year.”

phersh@tribune.com