Figure skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Pair skating
| Pairs at the XX Olympic Winter Games
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| Venue |
Palavela Turin, Italy |
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| Dates | February 11, 2006 February 13, 2006 |
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| Competitors | 20 pairs from 12 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning score | 204.48 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Tatiana Totmianina / Maxim Marinin |
 Russia
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Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao |
 China
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Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo |
China
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Pair skating was contested during the figure skating events at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
This event is performed by partners consisting of a female and male skater. The competition consists of two segments. A short program is skated first, with eight required elements performed within 2 minutes and 50 seconds. All pairs progress to the free skating, where each pair skates for 4 minutes and 30 seconds. There were 20 pairs who competed at the 2006 Games.
The pairs' short program was the first figure skating event of the Olympics, and took place on 11 February, with the free skating completed on 13 February. Two-time World Champions and Russians Tatiana Totmianina / Maxim Marinin were the pre-tournament favorites to win. They were expected to be challenged by two-time World Champions and reigning Olympic bronze medalists Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo, but an injury to Zhao initially kept them out of contention for the gold medal. However, the team was able to get back into shape for the Olympics.
Totmianina and Marinin took the lead after the short program, with a score of 68.64 points. Zhang Dan / Zhang Hao of China, skating to Led Zeppelin's song Kashmir, ranked second with 64.72 points, followed closely by Maria Petrova / Alexei Tikhonov of Russia with 64.27 points. Close behind were two other Chinese pairs, Pang Qing / Tong Jian (63.19 points) and Shen Xue / Zhao Hongbo (62.32 points). Americans Rena Inoue / John Baldwin made history in the short program by landing the first throw triple Axel in Olympic competition, putting them in sixth place.
In free skating, Totmianina / Marinin were described by NBC as "untouchable", and the pair scored a personal best 135.84 points in this segment for a combined score of 204.48. Their victory was described as "a rout" The pair had suffered a setback in 2004 when Marinin dropped Totmianina during a lift, putting her in the hospital with a concussion.
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