Marina Klimova & Sergei Ponomarenko, Isabelle & Paul Duchesnay, profiles - 1992 Olympic Games FD

Rough translation, please don't laugh at the mistakes, feel free to correct me, time will be added : Marina Klimova 25 yo and Serguei Ponomarenko 31 yo were born in Moscow. A team on the ice and a couple off the ice. They started skating 20 years ago at the Spartak's figure skating association. They rose quickly to the top of their sport : 3rd in Sarajevo at 1984 Olys as young dancers, impressing judges by their pure skating. 4 years later they are on the podium again, around they neck are the silver medals. Today was they 3rd Olympic Games, a last trip, a culmination. Sergei : it was a very hard season, it was like ten seasons at once . They stuck by the same trainer almost all these years : Natalia Dubova. After being beaten by the Duchesnays they decided to move from her training camp. Sergei : After Munich Natalia didn't help us. You can't go on within skating together with a coach who doesn't believe in you anymore. Dubova : They were always negative. Throughout this key year Tatiana Tarasova brought them their confidence back. She has an incredible personality and her pupils won a massive among of medals : she was Rodnina Zaitsev's and Bestemianova Bukin's coach. Both team won the olympic gold. Tarasova : The first thing I had to do was to give them my enthusiasm. You don't just need to skate, to do figures on the ice, you have to believe in yourself and what you're doing. I have this faith into myself (and my skaters). As during the previous years Klimova Ponomarenko trained a lot. Besides they gained a personality they were lacking of before. For the last twenty years they have competed and won medals under the Soviet Union's flag, whereas tonight, when their biggest victory comes, their country collapsed. Thus they will have to enjoy it with an olympic hymn and flag only. Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay's first big impact on the world figure skating scene was at 1988 Olys on a drums music, breaking with the classics ice dancing lines. It was a starting point in their career started 14 years earlier. Sister and brother, they were born from a french mother and a canadian father and began skating together in Quebec. They started as a pair team but soon their parents made them stop this acrobatic sport because of a nasty fall. Thus they carried on with dancing on ice, less risky. However the main goal was kept : skating together. A.S. de K. : Would you ever imagine skating with somedoby else ? Paul : not at all really. Isabelle : no because the problems are solved within our family. If there's two families involved it's getting complicated and often breaks the team. Paul : We keep our dirty laundry within our familly. As they are brother and sister the six hours of training every day can be tense and the relationship straight. Although the Duchesnays have opposite personalities they take their decisions as one. In 1985 after being held back by the english speaking lobby in Canada they chose France, left they parents and started training in Germany. There they built a new family including their trainer and choreographer soon becoming Isabelle's husband. Dean : I enjoyed their skating when they where younger. I was watching them and thinking they had talent and could go far. So when they asked me to work with them it was the most natural thing to do. Stocknicky : I'm a bit sad because in a few months I'll lose the most talented pupils I ever had in my life. Last year in Munich they became world champions, today another medal comes, tomorrow they'll be professionals but their enthousiasm toward skating is still the same. It simply evolved over the years. Isabelle : we were less stressed. We were skating for yourselves, our pleasure, without really competing. We had friends at the rink. We were having fun. Now it's another kind of fun. It's a personal satisfaction to achive something, to improve and be able to say : I did it myself, I don't need my parents to push me. I'm getting better.