Skaters We'll Miss, Part 7: Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat
Figure skating, for all its complexity, is a sport where most athletes play it safe. That's why when two ice-dancers dressed in bright colours emerged from France and skated on a routine they had come up with themselves, the judges were skeptic. Their discipline was, after all, renowned for its renditions of Romeo and Juliet or The Swan Lake . So what impact could Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat could possibly have in their hilarious costumes and goofy attitudes? If only they had known... Nathalie and Fabian started skating together in 2000. They didn't get along from the very start and initially thought they were a bad fit. However, their relationship gradually evolved from necessity into a beautiful friendship and they discovered that it was the very things that they didn't have in common that made them a great couple. Their first Olympic Games, Turin 2006 Photograph: Getty Images Sport Their rise to fame was slow. For many years, they were only known as Fr