Skaters hit cash barrier
Dave Franklin, Sunday Times (Perth)
1st June 2003

THEY could become one of WA's brightest Olympic medal hopes, but the skating dream of Danika Bourne and Alexandre Pavlov is on thin ice.

Despite meeting only 13 months ago, the Bibra Lake pair have already been crowned Australian silver medallists and WA's senior ice dance champions.

But they need to come up quickly with $8250 to cut through red tape preventing Russian-born Pavlov, 25, from representing Australia.

They received a letter from the Figure Skating Federation of Russia demanding $US5000 to allow him to skate for his adopted country.

"We're so excited at the prospect of realising our dream that we were devastated when we got the (letter)," said Bourne, 21.

"We've heard of them doing this to others before us, but it was still a nasty shock. We've been on fire with motivation lately. We're training three times a day, six days a week and it's terrible to think we could miss our opportunity."

Pavlov, a teacher who is trying to get Australian citizenship, has only just received the official nod to work, while Bourne's training schedule rules out a full-time job.

Bids for training grants are still being processed, but the money must be found by July 1. The pair were teamed up after two coaches studied separate videos of the skaters and realised their styles were complementary. "When we danced for the first time it was pretty amazing, considering we had never even stood next to each other before," said Bourne.

"Everything felt just right."

Pavlov, the most highly ranked male ice dancer selected to represent Australia, said he felt frustrated at the Russian skating federation's cash demand to release him.

Ice Skating Australia president Donald McKnight also expressed frustration at the demand. Unless the money is found soon, the pair will be frozen out of the 2003-04 season, undermining their Olympic chances.