Medal-sharing Russian skaters coming to the Soo

Add two more Olympic gold medalists to the list of top-flight skaters coming to the Soo on April 18.

But be warned -- these ones might not be crowd favourites.

Organizers of the PharmAssist Skate the Nation event at Memorial Gardens have announced the addition of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, 2002 Olympic pair champions.

Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze are the Russian skaters who ended up sharing a gold medal with Canada's Jamie Sale & David Pelletier in Salt Lake City.

Their Olympic gold was surrounded by judging irregularities that made headlines around the world.

"This should be fun," Berezhnaya said. "We're looking forward to performing for Canadian skating fans."

Also slated to appear are Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, the Chinese skaters who won bronze in the same controversial Olympic pairs competition.

Shen and Zhao tried unsuccessfully to be the first pair in Olympic history to land a throw-quad salchow.

The lineup

Also appearing at Memorial Gardens on April 18:

- Alexei Yagudin, who earned four 6.0s for artistry this year in the free skate on his way to a gold medal in the Olympic men's figure skating championship. The Russian skater is a three-time world champion and the Associated Press predicted after his Salt Lake City win that Yagudin could eventually "win more worlds than Dick Button, who holds the record since World War II with five."

- Takeshi Honda, who finished fourth in the Salt Lake Olympic men's figure skating final

- Brian Orser, two-time Olympic medalist (1984, 1988).

- Maria Butyrskaya, world champion

- Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman, three-time U.S. pairs champions

- Jennifer Robinson, five-time Canadian champion

- two-time U.S. Bronze Medal-winning Angela Nikodinov

If you go

Tickets for the Apr. 18 event are $45 and can be obtained at the Sault Memorial Gardens box office (759-5251).

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