2003 World Figure Skating Championships

24 March

Pairs Short Program

Kathryn Orscher/Garrett Lucash (USA), 2003 National silver medalists
Orscher:  It is an honor to be here and represent our country, but there is also pressure to do well before a home crowd.  This was our best performance of the season. Competing at worlds is a big achievement for us, a step up from last season. 
(Regarding war with Iraq) 
I try not to watch the television, I don’t want any distractions.
Lucash: Katie skated awesome, I’m proud of her.
(On feeling pressure)

I’m here to enjoy the experience and that has been easy to do with the home crowd.  The national championships are the hardest in terms of pressure.  Since we skated first after the warm-up we didn’t have time to get off the ice and think.

Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang (CHN), 2003 World Junior Champions
Hao Zhang: We think that was a very good performance today. The audience received us very well, and we like a lot being here in America. We had a lot of competitions this season, so we are a bit tired.

Jacinthe Lariviere/Lenny Faustino (CAN), 2003 National Champions
Lariviere:  I don’t know what happened on my jump (she fell on the triple toe). It just happened. I don’t know how I fell. I can’t figure it out now. 

Faustino: I am pretty disappointed with our performance.
(Being National Champions) we had only a little pressure. There is much more pressure for the performances.  We don’t know if we make the top 10.

Tatiana Totmianina/Maxim Marinin (RUS), 2003 European Champions
Totmianina: This was the best performance of our short program all season. We did everything as planned. (On being the top Russian team now) We don’t think about this, we want to skate well. (On the war) It’s better not to watch TV. The war is constantly on TV. There is a lot less security here than at the Olympics, though. There you were

stopped every five minutes and checked thoroughly.

Marinin: Everything worked out, and the first part of the competition is behind us. It was the best, also concerning the inner feeling. (On being the top Russian team now) It is a lot of responsibility.

Tiffany Scott/Philip Dulebohn (USA), 2003 National Champions
Scott: I put pressure on myself, but I didn’t feel any pressure from the audience. (On the judging system) It’s a lot of marks, there is no way of knowing whose marks they’re using. I wish we could get feedback from the judges. Maybe we should have an audience vote like “American Idol”.

Dulebohn: (On the mistake on the triple toe) It’s very disappointing. I really missed that jump. I was nervous, but no more than usual. It’s good to have crowd support.

Eva-Maria Fitze/Rico Rex (GER), 2003 National Champions
Fitze: I’m especially happy, because we did all but one of our short programs clean this year. Of course, we still get a lot of deductions, because we’re lacking in details. It’s a lot of fun to skate this program, and we feel the support of the audience. I felt less shaky on

my legs than in Malmoe (Europeans). The warm up was a bit chaotic, so I felt shaky  doing into the triple toe. I feel more nervous now than I felt as a single skater.

Qing Pang/Jian Tong (CHN), 2002 Four Continents Champions
Pang: I made a mistake (double toe), so it wasn’t too good. I didn’t feel tired. Now I really want to do my best in the free skating.

Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao (CHN), 2002 World Champions
Shen: (On her injured left foot after a fall in practice on Saturday) I had two injections before practice and before competition.  They worked.  I don’t feel anything; my ankle is like out of wood.  We thought about withdrawing on day after the injury occurred, because I could not do anything.  However, I felt a little better, so we decided

to compete.
Zhao:  (On the mistake on the spin) I paid attention only to the jumps because of her injury.  So, after all the jumps, I was too relaxed. 

Rena Inoue/John Baldwin Jr. (USA), 2003 National bronze medalists
Inoue:  I had a great time out there tonight.  Since nationals we have worked more on our expression and speed, before we had been holding back.

Baldwin: (On doubling the toe) Going into it I was over excited, I put too much pressure on myself but I didn’t let the mistake affect the rest of the program.  Tonight was one of the top two programs we skated this season.  The 5.9 for presentation was fantastic.  The motivation comes from our coach, Jill Watson.  She pushes us to work hard everyday.

Julia Obertas/Alexei Sokolov (RUS), 2003 National bronze medalists
Sokolov:  I came almost late! I thought another pair was yet to skate. It was a good program, I would say second best this season, after the one we did at the Grand Prix Final. (On competing in his first World Championships) So far, I’m calm, I don’t feel any panic!

Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov (RUS), 2000 World Champions
Petrova: We feel a bit tired. We came here only three days ago, so we feel the jetlag.

Tikhonov: We tried to sleep this afternoon, but we couldn’t. There was some pressure because we skated last. It was a long wait. But I somehow knew that we would do well tonight. I was very confident. Maria did a great job. There was only a small glitch on the exit of the lift, everything else was very nice. Now we’ll fight in the free skating.