Pic of the Week

We hold our breath everytime they do the element. It's explosive, it's beautiful, it's perfect, you can't help but love Dan and Hao Zhang's split triple twist. And for that (and the fact that they have a big lead after the Pairs short program at the Four Continents Cup!) they get the Pic of the Week.

We first took notice of this team during a moment of real tragedy. Rewind back to the 2004 Skate America competition in Pittsburgh. Russians Totmianina and Marinin were forced to withdraw from a freak accident due to one of the nastiest slips from a lift I've ever seen. It was in fact the Zhangs that won the competition and made us all shake our heads in wonderment that there was in fact another team from China that could challenge the worlds best.

We can fast forward to the Olympics where their potential was realized with a silver medal (and oddly after a freak fall of their own on throw quad salchow!) and they haven't looked back, medaling at the 2005 and 2006 World Championships, and of course looking very sharp this season. They are the only team this season that has managed to defeat the German team of Savchenko and Szolkowy.

It looks like the Four Continents Cup will be easy sailing for this team barring catastrophe...look for this team to be in the thick of it in Sweden!