Pairs, Mixed

The greatest pair of the 1970s had been the husband-wife team of Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaytsev. Together they had won the World Title every year from 1973-78, and the Europeans in 1973-78 and 1980. In 1979, Rodnina took the year off to have a baby, and the World Championship was won that year by the American pair of Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner. Babilonia/Gardner had been third at the Worlds in 1977-78 and became the first American pair to win the title since Karol and Peter Kennedy in 1950. The competition between the Soviet and American pairs was greatly anticipated, especially in Lake Placid at the height of the Cold War, but Rodnina and Zaitsev were still considered the favorites. Unfortunately the great dual did not occur. Before the Olympics, Randy Gardner injured himself in training. Just before the short program, he was given a lidocaine injection to his groin, hoping it would mask the pain enough for him to be able to skate. But during warm-ups, he fell several times, and it was not felt he could safely continue. Babilonia and Gardner withdrew without competing and Rodnina/Zaitsev were left with no real competition. They won the gold medal easily, winning both the short program and the free skate, and being ranked first by all nine judges. For Rodnina, it was her third consecutive gold medal, having won in 1972 with Aleksey Ulanov, making her only the second figure skater to win three consecutive gold medals, after Sonja Henie. Set to compete at the 1980 Worlds, she withdrew with a shoulder injury and thus retired after Lake Placid, having won three Olympic gold medals and 10 World Championships.