2000 World Figure Skating Championships - Competition Notes

Competition Notes

Due to the large number of participants, the ladies and men's qualifying groups were split into groups A and B.

This event had originally been awarded to Brisbane, Australia. However, in late August 1999, the ISU reassigned the event to Nice, allegedly due to failure of the Australian organizers to provide adequate broadcast services.

There were two accidents resulting in withdrawals. Julia Obertas and Dmitri Palamarchuk, who were 10th after the short program, withdrew from the pairs event after a fall during the free skate. Palamarchuk caught an edge (right skate) while executing an overhead lift with Obertas – she was uninjured in the resulting fall but he hit his head on the ice. Palamarchuk lay on the ice for several minutes before getting up and leaving the ice on his own but then lost consciousness and was taken to hospital – no damage was found but he was kept overnight for observation.

In the ice dancing event, Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski, who were 8th after the original dance, were also forced to withdraw. She was seriously injured in the practice before the free dance when Peter Tchernyshev's blade slashed her leg above her boot, severing two tendons and a muscle.

Pair skater Stéphane Bernadis said he was attacked on March 28 by an unknown assailant with a razor – resulting in an eight inch cut down his left forearm – when he opened his hotel room door. Bernadis said he had received a death threat three weeks earlier.

Over 52,000 tickets were sold.