Ponomarenko, Klimova Take Gold, Turn Pro

ALBERTVILLE, France - On previous nights, the French had threatened to tear down the house when their favorites, the Duchesnays, were not in first place.

But they could do nothing but applaud in admiration for an ice-dance pair that was not their own last night.

Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay turned out to be a sensation without much substance as they played it close to the vest and were completely overwhelmed by the sultry husband-and-wife pair of Sergei Ponomarenko and Marina Klimova of the Unified Team for the Olympic gold medal.

The two-time world champions from Moscow easily won the Unified Team's third gold medal in as many figure-skating disciplines in these Winter Games. The French-Canadian brother-sister team, skating for France, their mother's native land, settled for the silver. Alexander Zhulin and Maia Usova of the Unified Team won the bronze.

The two U.S. dance pairs finished poorly. April Sargent-Thomas and Russ Witherby were 11th and Rachel Mayer and Peter Breen finished 15th out of 19 pairs after Mayer fell, an unusual occurrence in ice dancing, where there are no throws or jumps.

Ponomarenko and Klimova performed a steamy, sexy program to the music of Bach that was far superior to the Duchesnays' rough-and-tumble act to "West Side Story." The pro-Duchesnay crowd in the arena loudly cheered the Russians, with nary a boo or whistle, such was the level of their dominance. The previous night, some had thrown debris on the ice to protest the Duchesnays' second-place marks.

After their breathtaking performance, the gold medalists immediately announced they were turning professional and signing with a U.S. agent.

"I hope our fans will like us as professionals," Ponomarenko said.

They certainly loved them as Olympians. Dressed in black and gray, with Klimova wearing flowing chiffon and her long red hair tossled and down, the pair began their free dance program lying on top of each other on the ice and ended on their knees, where Ponomarenko kissed his wife.

In between, they performed as one, with daring lifts and holds that no other couple came close to matching. They skated with an emotion they acknowledged was possible only in a married team. They received technical scores ranging from 5.5 - from the French judge, Armelle van Eybergen, who blatantly scored them low throughout the competition - to 5.9 and all but one 5.9 for artistic impression. The lone 5.8 came from none other than van Eybergen.

The Duchesnays, who began skating for France seven years ago and are the reigning world champions, came next and last in the competition. They threw several gimmicks at the judges, including Paul's moving, sliding backward somersault, but they didn't look anything like the avant-garde couple that took the Calgary Olympics by storm four years earlier, finishing a controversial eighth. Even worse, Isabelle stumbled during footwork midway through the program.

They received scores ranging from 5.7 to 5.9 for technical merit and 5.8s and 5.9s for their artistry.

"We looked out for the rules," Paul Duchesnay said. "We did nothing illegal. We did a lot of sacrificing for the rules. We could have done much more interesting moves, but we were basically told to do it this way (by the international judging community). We didn't get the freedom we like."