The United States last won a medal in pairs figure skating when Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard collected the bronze in 1988. Since then, U.S. teams have finished just off the podium, including a fourth-place finish by Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen in 1998 and a fifth-place finish by Ina and partner John Zimmerman in 2002.
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Rena Inoue and John Baldwin Hope To Leave Mark in Torino Photo by Susan D. Russell

Whether or not the U.S. medals this year will depend on the execution of one of the most technically demanding free skates currently being done in the world. Reigning U.S. champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin are chasing that potential medal, and they have in their arsenal a move that no other pairs team has ever accomplished – the throw triple Axel. Inoue and Baldwin landed the high-scoring move for the first time at the 2006 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and since then the team has been aiming high.

“Before, I [wasn't] even thinking about getting into the top 10 or thinking about bringing a medal back to the U.S.,” Baldwin said after he and Inoue won the gold at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in late January. “With the score at nationals, is a bronze medal possible? No question about it. If we skate a clean program there’s maybe a few other teams in the entire world that can get a better technical score.”

But consistency is key. While Inoue and Baldwin landed the throw at the U.S. Championships, they didn’t hit it at Four Continents. Even with the fall, they still earned 6.30 points for element, more than they did for a throw triple loop on which they didn’t fall. With the potential for such a high point value, Baldwin also announced that he and Inoue will include the move in their Olympic short program as well.

For Inoue, this is a return to the Olympics. She competed for Japan as a singles skater in both 1992 and 1994 and as a pairs skater in 1992. Baldwin, however, can view his trip the Olympics as the result of a long journey of work and sacrifice. The 2006 U.S. Championships was his 20th as a competitor (he previously competed as a singles skater), and he finally grabbed the brass ring this year. The pair placed 11th at the 2005 World Championships.

Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem earned a trip to Torino by finishing second at the U.S. Championships – their highest placement ever. They’re relatively inexperienced competing against the elite international field, having paired up for the first time in 2003.

Their first Grand Prix event was last October, where they finished fifth in an impressive debut. Even more impressive was the fact that Hinzmann had reconstructive surgery for a torn ACL just a year ago. She suffered the injury during practice in August 2004 but skated through the 2004-05 season, finishing third with Parchem at the 2005 U.S. Championships.

Hinzmann had surgery in January 2005 and was off the ice for four months, resuming skating in mid-May. The team won the bronze medal at the 2005 Nebelhorn Trophy five months later.

“All pairs go through ups and downs, and we’ve had our share,” Parchem said in January. “There have been times when we have had to drag each other kicking and screaming through a season. But we have stuck them out which is a real testament to Marcy with the injury she had.”

Parchem was the alternate for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games with former partner Stephanie Kalesavich. That added pressure to Hinzmann at the U.S. Championships, because she didn’t want to see her partner disappointed again. “I turned to our choreographer (Zuzanna Szwed, Parchem’s wife) after we skated, and I said, ‘I just don’t want Aaron to be the first alternate again,’” Hinzmann said. He wasn’t, as the team displayed a solid program to upset defending U.S. champions Katie Orscher and Garrett Lucash to take the second Olympic spot.

Parchem has joked that another wing would have to be added on to the Olympic Village to accommodate the number of friends and family coming to support the team. Each partner plans to have about 18 people cheering them on.

The extra support in the stands will come in handy as they battle the top pairs teams in the world. Among the medal favorites are 2005 World champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia, who captivated the world after coming back from a dangerous and dramatic fall just five months earlier at the 2004 Skate America event. Joining them in Torino are 2005 World silver medalists and Russian teammates Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov.

Also battling the Russians will be the strong Chinese teams, including 2005 World bronze medalists Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang, 2005 World fourth-place finishers Qing Pang and Jian Tong, and 2003 World champions and 2002 Olympic bronze medalists Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, who are back on the world scene after Zhao snapped his Achilles tendon in late summer.

The pairs short program takes Saturday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. at Torino’s Palavela. Inoue and Baldwin skate fourth, in the first warm-up group. Hinzmann and Parchem skate 10th, in the third warm-up group.