helsinkibaby

Hopefully I'll be able to post an embedded link later on but I'm not on the computer at the moment and I wanted to get another one done!

Shen and Zhao win 2003 Worlds

I wouldn't say I was a huge fan of Shen and Zhao at the time but since I'd seen them at 1996 Worlds in Edmonton where they just blew me away, I'd kept an eye on them and watched them grow and mature. I'd stood in an arena and watched boos ring down as they lost 99 Worlds to a program with mistakes from Bereshnaia and Sikharulidze, watched them think they'd done enough to win 2002 Olympics, not having known what had gone on previously. And I'd seen them win worlds the previous year, post Olympics in a year where no-one, including them, skated well.

True story - Simon Reed, commentating for Eurosport, mentioned that Shen and Zhao were skating last and that after Totmianina and Marinin they would need to repeat what they did last year. My response, shouted at the tv was that I remembered how they skated last year and they'd need to skate a hell of a lot better.

And they did.

It was known at the time that Xue Shen was injured, and in fact she had a painkilling injection prior to taking the ice - she couldn't feel one leg. And yet, they skated the performance of their lives - watch for near the end when they go into the final lift, the crowd, already screaming, stand, and by the end, no one is in their seat.

Afterwards, Hongbao Zhao said that he wished he could make his medal smaller so that hers would be bigger...and I may have cried a little more.