(3 of 7)
The only other couple with similar ambitions were the Americans. Blumberg, 26, and Seibert, 24, chose to skate to Rimsky-Korsakov's lush symphonic suite Schéhérazade. Under the tutelage of Bobby Thompson, a British coach close to Torvill and Dean, the pair had revamped their style over the past two years. In 1983 the effort paid off with a bronze medal at the World Championships. They had come to Sarajevo with real hopes for a silver, but finished in fourth place after being marked down .3 of a point below the panel's average by Italian Judge Cia Bordogna. Later she insisted that the couple's selection of classical music that could not be "danced on the floor" was the reason for her low marks, though a ballet has been choreographed to Schéhérazade. The competition referee had advised the judges before the final evening that he had examined all the routines in practice sessions and found them acceptable under the rules. Bordogna nevertheless decided to place the Americans fourth on her card, which put a medal out of reach. Bitterly disappointed, Blumberg and Seibert plan to retire. Said Seibert: "I still feel that what we did was important and is the right direction for ice dancing to follow. But if only Torvill and Dean can do it, then how is anybody else to climb any higher, expand the sport any further?"
Ironically, another American benefited by the couple's misfortunes. Two nights later, a different Italian judge appeared to make amends by leaping .3 of a point above the rest of the judges in her marks for Tiffany Chin in the women's short program. But then, two can play that game: the American judge bottomed out an Italian skater's average and, more egregiously, placed Katarina Witt, who won the short program with an incandescent performance, .3 of a point below the judges' average.
It was precisely the Blumberg-Seibert aggressive approach that put silver medals around the necks of the Carrutherses. For the first time in memory, or at least since the Soviets started competing in Winter Games, in 1956, there was no commanding partnership in pairs skating. The long reigns of the Protopopovs and Irina Rodnina and her succession of partners, Sergei Ulanov and Alexander Zaitsev, had come to an end. Since Lake Placid, several pairs had taken aim at one another, among them the Carrutherses, two Soviet pairs (Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev, and Veronika Pershina and Marat Akbarov) and East Germans Sabine Baess and Tassilo Thierbach. Compared with the liturgical certainty of pairs skating during the past three decades, the Sarajevo Games were a free-for-all.