They have excelled in the other disciplines but their artistry and teamwork and choreography is put to the ultimate test in pairs. I believe they had won pairs 10 Olympics consecutively heading into Salt Lake City. That's what led to the ongoing pressure and belief they had to fix the judging, once they were facing a strong team from North America while on North American soil. That 2002 Russian pairs team was very good but not among their best ever. Most of the time there really hadn't been much question the Russian team was superior. Babilonia and Gardner were similarly considered a huge threat to end the Russian dominance on North American soil in 1980. But Randy Gardner had the well-remembered leg injury that spoiled their opportunity.
As I remember from 2002, the fixing was a case of securing votes in one discipline in exchange for similar favors in another discipline. There have been many blatant examples of that over the decades, although this one was the only time one of the participating judges broke down and essentially admitted to it. The same thing was responsible for perhaps the greatest Olympic robbery of all time...Roy Jones being denied the Olympic boxing gold medal in 1988. That result caused the international boxing scoring system to be changed for 25 years, although they have now reverted.
BTW, there is so much Russian dominance of ladies figure skating right now that they come in waves and often the stars are replaced within a year or two. Last year it was the Olympic controversy between Medvedeva and Zagitova. Both very young but now already on the decline. Medvedeva is an emotional type and could not deal with that Olympic defeat despite skating flawlessly. She has changed coaches to Brian Orser from Canada. So far it has not gone well. Medvedeva finished 7th in the Russian championships and was left off the team for the European Championships. Zagitova placed 5th in those Russian nationals but was given a spot in the European Championships. She had the lead after the short program but had numerous mistakes in the free skate and ended up badly beaten by another Russian 16 year old. Zagitova is maturing physically and not landing her jumps with nearly the precision of 2017 or 2018.
= new reply since forum marked as read
