Pairs free | 1986 Worlds | Gordeeva & Grinkov ☭🥇 Valova & Vasiliev ☭🥈 Coull & Rawsom 🇨🇦🥉

HD format, Canadian coverage (commentators: Johnny Esaw, Brian Pockar, Debbi Wilkes)
top 3, pairs free skate performances from the 1986 World Championships (Geneva, Switzerland):
Rank Name Nation SP FS Total
1 Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov Soviet Union 1 1 1.4
2 Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev Soviet Union 2 2 2.8
3 Cynthia Coull / Mark Rowsom Canada 4 3 4.6
[Globe & Mail extract] March 24, 1986. At the beginning of last week, before the world figure-skating championships began, Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev of the Soviet Union were considered shoo-ins for their third title in the pairs competition. Similarly, most skating experts thought the silver medal in pairs would go to another Soviet couple, Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov, who were second at the world championships last year in Tokyo. Instead, Selezneva and Makarov went home empty handed. Valova and Vasiliev were on the podium, but not at the top. Wearing the gold medals were Ekatarina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, last year's world junior champions. Gordeeva is 14, stands 4-feet-11 and weighs 35 kilograms. Grinkov is a 6-foot, 19-year-old.
Once again, the Soviet Union produced another pair capable of stepping in to the champions' shoes, or skates. The depth of talent in Soviet figure skating becomes even more apparent when you realize that Gordeeva and Grinkov placed only fourth at the Moscow News competition last December.
Soviet pairs coach Tamara Moskvina summed up her team's success in one word - harmony. "I think the secret is the harmony,'' said Moskvina, who coaches Valova and Vasiliev, as well as Elena Betchke and Valeri Kornienko, who won the bronze medal at the European championships last month. In order to produce very good skaters you should put all that is needed in harmony. And when everything is in harmony, the result is very high. This is harmony of music and dance elements, physical education, psychology, your goals, everything."
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