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Bourne and Kraatz: The people's choice
The Target Center audience, many waving Canadian flags and wearing the Maple Leaf, rewarded the popular ice-dance team with a resounding standing ovation and chants of "Six! Six! Six!" after its Riverdance program had ended.
Alas, the nine judges, or at least seven of them, didn't agree that the hard-luck team from north of the border deserved first-place marks, and Bourne and Kraatz remained in third place, their position after the original and first compulsory dances.
In fact, the fans were so upset with the Canadian team's scores, which dipped as low as 5.4 for technical merit, they booed with a gusto rarely seen in figure skating, never mind the world championships.
And when International Skating Union president Ottavio Cinquanta arrived on the ice to present the medals, the fans booed him also, as well as the referees, prompting United States Figure Skating Association president Morry Stillwell to whine about how he embarrassed he was that a North American crowd would boo such an esteemed sports executive, as if they were at "a hockey game."
Never mind that for years ice dancers such as Bourne and Kraatz have watched their dreams consistently get crushed by Cinquanta's merry band of marking freeloaders.
RUSSIANS FIRST
Two judges, Katalin Alpern of Hungary and Heide Maritczak of Germany rewarded Bourne and Kraatz first-place votes for their free dance. However, the other seven gave top marks to the Russian team of Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov, who won the gold medal with a dramatic program big on poses and dramatic gestures.
In a sense, Krylova and Ovsyannikov deserved the gold as much for their perseverance as for their performances. The appealing team had been placed second at the Olympic and world level so many times in recent years, they we're seeing silver in their dreams.
As for last night's second-place couple, Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France, the pair did a nice job interpreting Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, but they certainly lacked the speed and intricate footwork of the other top ice dancers.
In fact, they didn't lift themselves off the ice for the opening 25 seconds and did not take a single stroke for 36 seconds.
During the medal ceremony, Bourne, absolutely lovely in her Irish green gown, cried during the playing of the Russian anthem. But the Chatham native insisted they were tears of joys, not frustration.
"If you're in the sport for the love of it and not the result of it, you can go on with your life happy. And that's what Victor and I did," said Bourne, 22.