An Olympic love story skates to the altar
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Shen Xue(C) and Zhao Hongbo(not in the photo), China's first Olympic champion figure skaters in Vancouver 2010 winter Olympic Games, react at their wedding ceremony on ice in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2010. The wedding party is organized as part of a figure skating gala here on Saturday night. [Xinhua/Luo Xiaoguang] |
A love story on ice skated to a perfect conclusion when Olympic gold medal pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo exchanged vows on ice on Saturday night in a Beijing extravaganza that was criticized because of ticket sales.
The 15-minute wedding ceremony, however, was only the first small part of the two-hour "Artistry On Ice" show at Capital Gymnasium that drew around 13,000 spectators to see ice-skating champions from around the world.
Tickets sold for as much as 1,080 yuan (US$159); a third of the ticket sales are to be donated to charity, according to the sponsor Amway.
The wedding was the first on the program that included a dazzling array of skating talent.
The bride wore a trailing white, spaghetti-strap gown and carried a bouquet of pink flowers. The bridegroom wore a black tuxedo. At the center of the ice ring Zhou knelt on one knee to welcome his bride. They embraced and exchanged rings.
The couple - Shen is 32 and Zhao is 37 - have been partners on ice for 18 years and were legally married by obtaining a marriage license in 2007. But in China people are not considered "really" married until they have a ceremony and a party.
The couple had won numerous awards and retired from skating in 2007, but they returned to the Olympic Games in Vancouver this year and took gold for figure skating. On Saturday they repeated their winning performance to music from the opera "Turandot."
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