Sometimes..
just a minor thing leads to unforseen surprising results. Minor things like a letter, for example. It is thanks to a letter that Marina and Gwendal are today a sucessful young dance couple, Olympic Bronze and World Silver medalists.

But this is how things went....

A couple of years ago, there were two hopeful junior dance teams, one in Russia, one in France. Marina Anissina, a  impulsive girl, danced with Ilia Averbukh in Moscow. A couple of thousands miles away, in Lyon, a city in central France, Marina Morel and Gwendal Peizerat trained together. The two couples knew each other, because they met  at Junior Worlds and were close rivals. Marina and Ilia were two time World Junior Ice Dance Champs. Marina and Gwendal took bronze in 1990 and silver in 1992. But then, love changed everything.

Ilia fell in love with another ice dancer in his club, and the power of one heart was strong enough to change the life of four people.
Ilia didn't want his beloved Irina to skate in the arms of another. And since she loved him, too, they decided to join forces.

When Ilia left, Marina suddenly didn't have a partner anymore. She didn't want to stop skating. She started to check other options.
From her competitions, she remembered two handsome skaters, one from Canada, one from France. Together with a friend, who spoke some French, Marina sat down to write two letters. She used her nicest stationery. She sent one letter to Victor Kraatz, but it never arrived. The other one went to Gwendal Peizerat. At first, there was no answer.

In France, however Gwendal laid the letter from Russia carefully aside. He still skated with Marina Morel, but future started to be clouded. Marina Morel, handicapped by various injuries, and Gwendal didn't go along very well anymore. Finally, the girl quit. So her former partner decided to write an answer to Moscow.

Give it a try!

In the beginning of 1993, Marina arrived in Lyon. She went to the rink with Gwendal, and they tried it out. Two really different characters met there on the city of Lyon - the impulsive, flamboyant Russian girl and the rather cool and elegant Frenchman.
Marina acts first, then thinks, Gwendal thinks first, then acts. They put together not only their different characters, but also their skating schools. Together with coach Murielle Boucher-Zazoui, they tried to take the best out of the Russian and of the Western Europaen skating school. They thought, it might work. But it was not easy.

"When I came to France, it was really difficult for me", Marina recalls, "I didn't speak the language at all!" But fortunaly, figure skating is an international language by itself. "There never was a real language barrier between us", Gwendal says. "Sometimes Marina wouldn't understand something our coach Murielle Boucher-Zazoui or our choreographer said. Then we translated it into English."
Marina had not only to learn a new language, she also had to adapt to a completely different life. There's more between Russia and France than a mere distance of a couple of thousands miles. "I don't want to live forever in France", Marina says even now. "I think, it's not good fot Russians to live abroad. The mentality is too different."

To make it easier for her, Gwendal's family invited Marina to live with them. She stayed in the Peizerats' house for a year, then moved to an appartment. By now, her mother lives in France, too. "She worked as a coach in Paris, now she came to Lyon and stays with me", Marina says.

The couple practices five hours a day. But Gwendal still manages to study marketing at university. Marina takes French lessons. "But often, I'm too tired to attend classes", she admits.
There is not much spare time, not much time to go home to Russia and to visit families and friends there. "For example, I went only shortly in the summer and in the winter, at christmas", she says.

For the French - Marina obtained French citizenship  - it's important to surprise the audience with new ideas, new choreography on the ice.
"I really like everything about skating", Gwendal states. "I'm happy when the audience reacts, when we could give them something. This happens especially in the big North Americans arenas." Unfortunaly, the rules don't allow everything the couple would like to do in the programs. "The rules are too strict", Gwendal critizises. Marina doesn't like the politics in ice dance.

Right now, the couple doesn't plan too far into the future. "I don't think I'll be a coach. I'll probably work in the sports management, where my knowledge could be of advantage. "Why not staying in for the Olympics in Salt Lake City 2002? "Our originality and flexibility are our strong points", believes Gwendal.

Marina Anissina, born in august 30, 1975, started to skate at age four. Her mother Irina Chernieva was a pair skater and competed at the 1972 Olympic Games in Sapporo. Her father Viatcheslav Anissin was a hockey player who won Worlds with the Soviet team. Both work as coaches in their sports today.

Gwendal, born april 21st, 1972, also started to skate as a four-year-old. His father Eugene Peizerat is an official in the French Figure Skating Federation and chairman of the National Ice Dance Commission.
He is also a teacher for physical education and sent little Gwendal  to skiing, swimming, horse riding and to figure skating. When coach Murielle Boucher-Zazoui spotted the boy on the ice, she suggested the parents right away to give him some lessons. For twelve years, Gwendal skated with Marina Morel.