Skaters play it cool on Olympic prospects
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-10 05:39

TURIN, Italy: Miracles continued to happen to Zhao Hongbo, China's top figure skating pairs skater, here in Turin, Italy, where the 2006 Winter Olympic Games will start tomorrow morning. In just his second training session after arriving, Zhao, who severely injured his Achilles tendon last August, landed a tricky triple-double jump combination .

"It is the second time Zhao managed this move," said Yao Bin, Zhao's coach, after the training session at Palavela, the venue for the figure staking competition. "He also attempted the triple toe-loop and double axel, the two most difficult movements in his programme, several times today. It shows that he has overcome the fear of doing such dangerous movements."

Zhao and his partner Shen Xue used to be the biggest gold medal hopefuls for China before Zhao's injury. After breaking his tendon while doing a triple toe-loop last August during altitude training in South China's Yunnan province, their Olympic appearance was in doubt.

However, after surgery Zhao recovered with unexpected speed.

On November 24, just three and half months after the injury, Zhao returned to the ice. From January 5, he began to try easy jumps. Just before leaving for Turin, Zhao jumped the triple toe-loop successfully.

"Due to his injury, we have to lower Zhao's difficult level in the competition by changing the triple-triple jump combination to triple-double," said Yao. "His success today will strengthen his confidence a lot, which will help him to strive for the best result at his last Olympics."

In 1998, Shen/Zhao became only the third Chinese pair in history to compete at the Olympics, finishing fifth. Up to now, they have won two Grand Prix Final events, and have stood on the podium at six successive World Championships, winning in 2002 and 2003.

However, their best Olympic outing was a bronze at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, where a judging scandal overshadowed the event.

"I never gave up my dream to come to the Olympics," said Zhao. "We want to do our best. We are looking for a perfect performance. It doesn't matter which medal we get."