2002 Olympic Figure Skating Trivia Quiz

Answer: Michael Weiss

Evegeni Plushenko went into Salt Lake City as reigning World Champion from the previous year's event in Vancouver where he had defeated an injured Alexei Yagudin to claim the title. Yagudin himself had already stood atop the world podium three times, in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Elvis Stojko was competing at his last Olympics several years after his three world titles in 1994, 1995 and 1997. Michael Weiss won two world medals, both bronze, in 1999 and 2000, but never took gold at the World Championships.

Answer: Fumie Suguri

Fumie Suguri was Japan's highest placed ladies competitor in 5th place. Ironically, considering Japan's power in the sport in the following years, the country was only able to qualify two skaters to compete in the event in Salt Lake. Yoshie Onda finished 17th. Neither Yukari Nakano nor Shizuka Arakawa qualified to skate at the 2002 Olympics although Arakawa went on to win the World Title in Dortmund in 2003, and the Olympic Title in Torino in 2006.

Answer: Marie Reine LeGougne

LeGougne became perhaps the most infamous judge in skating history after admitting that she had been pressurised into voting for the Russians over the Canadians by French Federation boss Didier Gailhaguet. She later took back her statement. LeGougne's marking led to a new judging system to be implemented in figure skating to prevent judges' marks being identifiable and to attempt to alleviate pressure on judges to mark in a particular way.

Answer: Sale/Pelletier, LaRiviere/Faustino, Langlois/Archetto

Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, and Kristy and Kris Wirtz's combined placements in the 2001 World Championships qualified three Canadian pairs for the 2002 Games. Kristy Wirtz fell pregnant early in the season preventing the Wirtz's from contending for a spot, leaving Jacinthe LaRiviere and Lenny Faustino, and Anabelle Langlois and Patrice Archetto to qualify instead (incidentally neither of these teams had even competed at a World Championship prior to the Games). Utako Wakamatsu and Jean-Sebastian Fecteau did not attempt to qualify for the 2002 Olympics, and despite being contenders for the Canadian title in 2006, were ineligble to skate at the Torino Olympics as Wakamatsu had decided not to pursue Canadian citizenship. Brasseur and Eisler, and Underhill and Martini were no longer skating eligibly in 2002. Both teams had won World Titles in pairs for Canada, Brasseur and Eisler in 1993, and Underhill and Martini in 1984.

Answer: Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat

Although it was considered a slightly risky move prior to the Games, Anissina and Peizerat's freedom themed freedance easily won them the Olympic title in Salt Lake. Bourne and Kraatz skated to a medley of Michael Jackson songs, Fusar-Poli and Margaglio used a version of, "I Will Survive", and American's Lang and Tchernyshev skated to Parisienne Walkways.

Answer: Sasha Cohen

Despite finishing second at the U.S. National Championships in 2000, Cohen was deemed too young for the World Championships that year and missed using a loophole for qualification to the event by being unable to medal at the Junior World Championships.

A back injury also kept her from qualifying for the World team in 2001. Despite her inexperience Cohen completed a clean short program allowing her to go into the freeskate in third place. However, several mistakes in the free program dropped her out of medal contention and both of her compatriots (Sarah Hughes and Michelle Kwan) made the podium instead. Sarah Hughes had already skated at three World Championships (1999, 2000 and 2001) prior to winning the gold medal in Salt Lake. Irina Slutskaya had competed at multiple World Championships from the mid 1990s, and Jennifer Robinson had made her World debut in 1996.

Answer: Irina Lobacheva & Ilia Averbukh

Was it the curse of the double-barreled names? Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh completed a clean free dance to win the silver medal behind Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat. Ironically, Ilia Averbukh had been Marina Anissina's partner before he fell in love with Lobacheva and left Anissina to skate with her. Anissina then moved to France to skate with Peizerat, although not before sending a letter to Victor Kraatz suggesting that he leave Shae-Lynn Bourne to skate with her.

Fusar-Poli & Margaglio and Bourne & Kraatz both suffered falls during their free dances. Fusar-Poli and Margaglio went down on a straight line step sequence when he caught an edge, and Bourne and Kraatz fell in the dying seconds of their program when he lost balance on a lift. Unable to get out of it before the program ended they did their best to throw themselves into as graceful a finishing position, flat on their backs, as they could!

Although they did not suffer a fall during their free dance, the second ranked Canadian team of Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon suffered the indignity of Dubreuil's elaborate Madame Butterfly costume becoming attached to one of the many buttons on Lauzon's shirt at the start of their program. They were forced to restart once they had untangled themselves and consulted the referee. Four years later in Torino they suffered another mishap when during the Original Dance portion of the competition Dubreuil lost grip of Lauzon during a difficult lift and fell hard on her hip forcing them to withdraw from the competition.

Answer: Double Axel

Sikharulidze stepped out of the landing of the side by side Double Axel. Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, and Sale and Pelletier had exactly the same planned technical content in their free programs, side by side triple toe-loops, side by side double axels, throw triple loops, throw triple salchows, and split triple twists. Sale and Pelletier performed all of these cleanly, though Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze suffered his bobble on the double Axel and, many argue, a bobble on the landing of the split triple twist.

Answer: Xue Shen

Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao were considered as outsiders for the title behind Sale and Pelletier and Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze. Known for their athletic style they were at the time, unable of competing artistically against the two other teams.

Early in their free program the pair attempted a throw quadruple Salchow and Shen rotated, cleanly landing before losing her edge and toppling over.

Ironically four years later in Torino, another Chinese team, Zhang Dan and Hao Zhang suffered an injury whilst attempting the same move in their freeskate. Zhang Dan fell awkwardly before hitting the boards, forcing the pair to pause their skate whilst Zhang recovered. They went on to win the silver medal.

Answer: Russia

Russia scored an impressive 12 points from the system above. Two golds (Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze and Alexei Yagudin) and three silvers (Evgeni Plushenko, Lobacheva & Averbukh and Irina Slutskaya).
The USA finished second with 5 points. One gold (Sarah Hughes) and two bronzes (Tim Goebel and Michelle Kwan). Canada and France tied for third (well ties appear to be the feature of these games so why not?) each with 3 points. Canada had one gold (Sale & Pelletier) as did France (Anissina & Peizerat).