Turin – The final note of “Romeo and Juliet” had barely stopped echoing as the Russian crowd in the Palavela replaced it with a thunderous roar.
With the white, blue and red Russian flags whipping around the stands, a once-tortured Russian skater named Maxim Marinin knelt on one knee, closed his eyes and kissed his partner’s hand.
Sixteen months ago, that partner lay face down on the ice in Pittsburgh. She was unconscious from one of the most brutal falls in figure skating history. But Monday night, Tatiana Totmianina accepted Marinin’s kiss, a sweet symbol to a long journey that went from apparent death to an Olympic gold medal.
It’s debatable whether the gold medal meant more to Totmianina, the 5-foot-4, 100- pounder who took the fall face first from 7 feet off the ground, or Marinin, who dropped her.
“Everything was in that moment,” Marinin said. “It was appreciation for what Tatiana did for me, that she trusted me and has been with me as part of the team all this time. It was a sign of appreciation. Without her, we couldn’t get through all the troubles.”
Totmianina fought back tears on the victory stand, thinking back to the forehead-to-chin bruise she saw in the mirror when she woke up in the hospital.
“It’s difficult to explain what this means,” she said. “It means everything. We worked almost 10 years for this moment. We go through so many things, through the difficult and good things and we fight for each other. That’s why we got this result.”
While the mental journey was torturous, the competitive journey was very smooth. In an Olympic figure skating competition that could see a Russian sweep, Totmianina and Marinin were the best bet.
After the fall, she waited only two weeks to return to the ice, then they came back to win the 2005 European and world titles last year. They won the Olympics in a rout.
Including three lifts more difficult than the one-arm lift in which Totmianina fell, the pair scored a personal best in the free program of 135.84.
Their two-night total of 204.48 walloped Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, who scored 189.73. In weird irony, the Chinese couple took silver despite Zhang Dan falling while trying a revolutionary throw quad Salchow. She landed awkwardly with her legs twisted and slid into the boards.
After about a five-minute break and treatment on her knee, she picked up where they left off – with the referee’s OK and without the penalty – and beat teammates Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao for the silver.
“It was so important for myself,” Zhang Dan said. “Maybe I missed the first element, but I think I can do all the elements, so why not continue?”
Totmianina and Marinin, citing the immense pressure, announced their retirement to ice shows. As a parting shot, they hinted the Chinese pair purposely tried to bump them in warm-ups, similar to last year’s World Championships, and had no sympathy.
“(Sunday) night we were talking about triple throws and lutzes,” Marinin said. “They are extremely dangerous and the Chinese proved it. We respect what they’re trying to do. But with the new judging system they’re not necessary.
“It could’ve been worse.”
Speaking of throws, American Rena Inoue fell on her throw triple axel from partner John Baldwin, but they still finished seventh. Americans Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem took 13th.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
