Never in my life have I rooted for a Russian to win at anything. But the Olympics (ahh, the olympics) can change a man, and especially a junkie like me. Last night Tatyana Totmiyanina and Maxim Maranin won Russia's 11th straight gold medal in Pairs Figure Skating, and they deserved it. They were flawless in the short program, and nearly so in the free skate.
So why did I root for this team? Two reasons. One, they were so beautiful in the short skate you HAD to pull for them in the long. I mean, really, they were head and shoulders above everyone else. And, two, the last time we saw these two was in 2002 at the Salt Lake City games; she was unconscious on the ice after he dropped her in the middle of an overhead lift. The fact that they could come back at all is truly OLYMPIC. To see her crumple and limp on the ice then and skating so perfectly now was the kind of inspirational story that deserves Gold.
