Many of ice skating's biggest stars will compete at the MCI Center tonight as the 2006 Winter Olympics nears

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Date published: 3/31/2005

Five world-championship medalists crowned recently in Moscow headline the John Hancock Champions on Ice 2005 Tour that makes a stop tonight at the MCI Center in Washington.

A bevy of skating stars led by American Michelle Kwan are using the tour to gear up for the 2006 Winter Olympics next year in Turin, Italy.

Russian Irina Slutskaya won her second world title in Moscow, narrowly beating American challenges from Sasha Cohen, who finished second, and five-time world champion Kwan, who took fourth. All will compete tonight in D.C.

One of the more interesting stories in the group of skaters appearing at MCI Center tonight is that of the French ice dancing pair Marina Anissina and Gwendel Peizerat.

Anissina and Peizerat won the 2002 Olympic gold medal.

The pair got together when the Russian Anissina sent Frenchman Peizerat a desperate letter.

They had been members of junior dance teams in Russia and France. Anissina danced with Ilia Averbukh in Moscow and Peizerat with Marina Morel.

Averbukh fell in love with another ice dancer in his club and could not bear for her to dance with anyone else. He abandoned Anissina.

Anissina had met Peizerat at a juniors competition and felt some chemistry with him.

"I admired him as a skater, so I wrote to him asking if he would be interested in being my partner," she said during a phone interview last week.

She also wrote to Canada's Victor Kraatz, but as fate would have it, that letter never arrived.

Peizerat's collaboration with Morel was falling apart, so he wrote back to her in Moscow.

Anissina moved to Lyon, France, in 1993 to join Peizerat.

It was a major challenge, in part due to cultural reasons.

"I spoke no French," Anissina said.

She had to learn the language and adapt not only to a new culture, but to a new partner.

Date published: 3/31/2005