Went to 2 Olys, finishing 4th in Albertville and 6th in Lillehammer.
Worlds: 8th in 1990, 6th in 91, took silver medal in 92, 4th in 93, 5th in 94 and took gold in 95.
Never did well at Euros, only making the podium only once: silver in 95.
They seem to have had moderate success as pros. I really can't comment on their skating as they never really moved me either one way or the other, they were "just kinda there" for me. Sorry.
I liked them for their classical elegance and grace on the ice (especially Radka Kovarikova) and I think they were just a bit unlucky for having to skate against G&G, Mishkutenok/Dmitriew and other many strong pairs at the beginning of the 90-ies (IMO pairs skating was much more interesting that time than it is currently). It's kind of wrong time, wrong place.
Actually, I have seen only a few of their Stars on Ice performances. The one that I really like from them is their program to the song "Still in Love with You" or something to that title. Does anyone here know whose song is that?
Mabe you can find something about that on their inofficial homepage or you can contact somebody there who will know more about that song: http://members.aol.com/RKRN236/index.html
I think they won a World Pro title, too, but it was controversial. They had many mistakes and then she caught her skate on the rink border lights because they were skating too close to the boards. They were allowed to re-start their program and skated it cleanly to win. All the previous mistakes were ignored.
Yes, she is quite a few years younger than he, maybe more like 13-14. I think he's 40-ish now and she is in her upper 20's. They used to train at Lake Arrowhead, getting married at home (an ex-Soviet bloc country????? Does anyone remember which?) near the end of their stay there. I saw them recently on a show--(World Team Challenge?)--and they looked much more relaxed than when they left the amateur ranks. I remember thinking that I enjoyed the number more than I did their competitive skating.
They represented the Czech Republic. There were a couple of articles about them in skating magazines this year. I think they organize a tour in Europe.
Kovarikova (pronounced ko-var-zhi-KO-vah) and Novotny represent the Czech Republic. They were World Champions in Pairs in 1995 and then turned pro, where they did a lot of competitions (it seemed like they were at every pro competiton that had a pairs category). They skated Stars on Ice in 1997.
I wasn't aware they were still competing. That's very good to know, because I always thought they were a very good pair team, one that still kept up their technical skills even after turning pro.
Also on the subject of pairs teams that went pro, does anyone know why Elena Bechke and Denis Petrov stopped skating pairs together? I know Denis is touring with SOI, but he doesn't do very much. They were a great pairs team as pros (I don't remember them as eligibles; I was 5 when they were. They won silver at the 1992 Olys, didn't they?)
According to SOI's website, Denis is not touring with SOI (at least in the US). I think his last year with US SOI was during Kristi's last year - they needed a guy to perform pairs skating with her. I loved how they skated together during the Moulin Rouge show.
Last I heard, Denis and Lu Chen have been dating and are now both coaching in New Rochelle, NY.
GrGranny's right about why they split and what Elena's been up to.
I'm glad that Denis and Elena were able to remain on good terms after their divorce and give us many years of pleasure during their years with SOI.