The Olympic Games 2010 - Krail & Peter about the CDs

By Leonie Krail and Oscar Peter
Photos © Absolute Skating

We are Leonie Krail and Oscar Peter from Switzerland, 3-Time National champions in ice dancing. Since we didn’t compete at the qualifying event in Oberstdorf (Germany), we didn’t have any other chance to make the spot for Switzerland. A lot of things went wrong since last season and we didn’t recover until right before the start of the new season.
We have had some time to think about it all, and now we look forward to watching our favorite athletes and of course we want to work towards going to Sochi 2014..

We are very happy to have the possibility to train in the United States. Figure Skating is very popular even though it has lost some fans because of the new judging system. But the coverage of Figure Skating on TV is good. We practice in Aston, PA, at the Iceworks Skating Complex together with World Champions Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, the 2006 Olympic Silver Medalist Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto and since later in the season Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali also joined the group. It was so great to practice with them all during their preparations for the Olympics. We can’t really predict which of these teams are going to win. Each of them have their own trademark which makes all of them unique.

 

Leonie: On February 19 the Ice Dance event at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver finally started. Compared to many Olympic Games before this one, there are many teams fighting for the gold medal. Next to Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin (RUS), Tanith Belbin/ Ben Agosto (USA) and Meryl Davis/ Charlie White - as their direct competition representing the USA as well - there is also the French team Delobel/ Schoenfelder trying to get the gold. In general the compulsory dance event was pretty good, but a few teams really stood out from the rest. The best dancing by far was shown by the Russians Domnina/ Shabalin. They connected with each other throughout the whole dance. Their tango was skated with confident, it was smooth with very good knee action and deep edges. It was very high quality skating and to me the best performance of the night. Close behind - and on a well deserved second place for me - was the Canadian team Virtue/ Moir, which in my opinion also showed a very strong Tango with fire, good edges and expression. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, going into the competition as favorites, seemed less confident and stable than the top two teams, but showed one of the cleanest skated Tangos as well as good technique. But compared to the Russians and the Canadians I didn’t think they had that magic chemistry.

Oscar: The debut of Meryl Davis and Charlie White (USA) was a success. They placed 3rd after the compulsory dance. Inspite of the lack of experience they managed to present a good tango romantica and overcome their direct competition by 0.64 points for a total of 41.47. [Belbin/Agosto scored 40.83]
Though the amazing comeback of Delobel and Schoenfelder was highly anticipated they didn’t show the effort and their full potential to fight for the Olympic podium, and after the compulsory dance they placed only 6th with 37.99 points. Their advantage over the other couples is that no one else has seen their other dances yet, so they are still fighting! The Italian national champions Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali presented an emotional and well performed tango romantica. But because of the flaws the judges saw in their technical skills they placed only 5th, but still with a good chance to earn their first Olympic Medal.

Thanks Leonie and Oscar for your opinion and enjoy the rest of the competition!!