Turin 2006 Pairs FS | The Zhangs recover from horrific fall to win silver: "we will cherish this"

Australian coverage (commentators: Belinda Noonan, Sandy Roberts)
Turin (Torino) 2006 Winter Games, pairs free skate (FS) program performance highlights, featuring here:
Rank Name Nation Total points SP FS^
2 Zhang Dan 张丹 / Zhang Hao 张昊 China 189.73 2 64.72 2 125.01^
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[NY Times extracts] Skating: After a fall, Chinese pair shines
Feb. 14, 2006

TURIN — When the Chinese pairs skater Zhang Dan crashed to the ice, legs splayed awkwardly as she slid into the boards, the crowd in Palavela gasped and its reaction was reprised every time the horrific fall was replayed on the scoreboard. Her partner, Zhang Hao, rushed to her side and all but carried her off the ice.

They were attempting a throw quadruple salchow, a jump so difficult it had never been landed in competition, but it was seemingly their only chance for gold.

Ahead of them in first place were Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia, a pair who know all too well about the dangers of the sport. They had just completed a flawless long program that wowed the judges and the crowd and all but clinched the gold.

But the attempted throw quad ended disastrously Monday night.

"She had to go around four revolutions," Zhang Hao said through an interpreter. "She fell on the ice and then she hit the boards. You can imagine how painful it was."

After a few moments spent talking to a doctor, then skating around the ice, Zhang and Zhang amazed the crowd again by picking up the program where they left off.

Despite the pain Zhang Dan was in, they completed every other jump and throw in the program. They could not catch Totmianina and Marinin, who captured their cherished gold, but their silver medal may become the most memorable one of the Games."It is extremely dangerous," Marinin said of the throw quad. "I really respect what they tried to do, but there is a big risk. They are lucky with what they got out of the situation. It could have been worse."

In October 2004, Totmianina was injured in an even more violent fall, tumbling from the top of a lift and hitting the ice headfirst.

She sustained severe bruises and a concussion, but returned to skate only two weeks later.

When asked about Zhang Dan recovering enough to finish the competition, Totmianina said, "I could not finish my program because I was unconscious."

Zhang and Zhang did not feel so lucky when their dream seemed to collapse to the ice, but their determination to finish their program may go down in Games lore as one of the most courageous figure-skating performances.

"The quad throw takes a lot of risk," Zhao said of his countrymen. "We admire their spirit."

Zhang Dan limped onto the podium to receive her medal, her left knee heavily wrapped. She seemed reluctant, despite being asked several times, to describe how painful it was.

"I think if I can do the first element that I can do all the others," she said. "We didn't say a word about giving up. We say we want to go on."

They skated to a silver with a moment that will be remembered longer than the golden one.
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from Time Magazine - https://time.com/archive/6676351/the-...

The Rise and Fall and Rise of a Skating Superpower
February 19, 2006

When Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao took to the ice in the pairs figure-skating final in Torino last week, most Chinese knew the song they skated to by heart. The Offspring of Dragons celebrates the glory of a mighty civilization. “There’s a dragon in the ancient East, its name is China,” go the folk song’s stirring lyrics. By the time the final standings were tallied in the competition, the Zhangs’ choice of music seemed particularly prescient. Although Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin won the 12th consecutive pairs gold for Russia (or, previously, the Soviet Union), the Chinese nabbed the silver (Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao), bronze (Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo) and fourth place (Pang Qing and Tong Jian)all in a sport China first entered little more than two decades ago.

China’s silver medalists almost didn’t make it to the podium. Just seconds into their routine, the pair attempted a throw quadruple Salchow, a whirlwind move so tricky that no one has ever completed it in competition. Zhang Dan landed in an ungainly split and crashed into the side of the rink. In obvious agony, the tiny 20-year-old hobbled to the side before returning a couple of minutes later. The pair went on to perform a nearly flawless routine, even though Zhang Dan was so sore she could barely complete her runner-up victory lap. “We are the offspring of dragons,” a tearful Zhang Hao, 21, told reporters. “It was just like fighting in a battle. We will cherish this silver medal.”
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