Grishuk & Platov (RUS) - 1997 World Figure Skating Championships, Free Dance

Lausanne, SWITZERLAND - 1997 World Figure Skating Championships, Ice Dancing, Free Dance - First, a profile piece on both Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov of Russia and their teammates, Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov, and the competitiveness between them that has developed during the season as Krylova & Ovsiannikov were winning competitions while Grishuk & Platov sat out most of the season with injuries. In the Free Dance here, Grishuk & Platov would easily win this dance earning two 6.0s. As much as I love this dance from them (and it is my favorite), the fact of the matter is that they finished their dance 3 seconds after their music ended and should have received nothing higher than a 5.9 for Presentation. In addition, what I found interesting was the final lift in the program that was exact same move that Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean of Great Britain invented and performed at the 1994 Winter Olympic Games. At those Games, Torvill & Dean received deductions for that lift. Here, Grishuk & Platov did not receive any deductions from 7 of the 9 judges, even though it was not performed as well as it could have been (as they were rushing to finish with music). Nevertheless, Grishuk & Platov would another World Title here.