SALT LAKE CITY ? France's former world champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat comfortably led the compulsory section of the ice dance event on Friday as figure skating took a welcome break from controversy at the Winter Olympics.
The French couple, however, were closely tracked by Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, who deposed them as world champions last year. The Italians were in third but remained optimistic of their chances.
Russia's Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh were second after the compulsory dance which required the 24 competing couples to skate two set pattern dances?the Quickstep and the Blues.
With two more segments still to come?the original dance and freedance?and the opening round worth just 20 per cent of the total score, the gold remained very much up for grabs.
Little appeared out of place in the judges' scoring. Indeed, the consistency was striking. Every couple but two were ranked in exactly the same position for their execution of each dance.
Anissina and Peizerat did not suffer without a French judge on the panel.
Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, however, struggled, slipping backwards in the early standings to fourth, just two months after posting an upset win over the French and Italians at the Grand Prix Final. Lithuania's Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas stood fifth.
The French were the front-runners coming in, based on their performances throughout the season.
The Russian duo were somewhat of a wild card, injury preventing them from competing at any autumn internationals.
Their first international event of the season was the European Championships, where they finished third behind the French and Italians.
The judges will remain under intense scrutiny as observers watch for any indication that they are basing their marks on anything other than the the couples' on-ice performances.
The 10 countries, from which the nine judges for each of the panels was selected, consisted of Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Lithuania and Israel.
Competitors and coaches here remained optimistic that their event would be fairly judged. The uproar over the pairs result, they believed, would serve to stop any possible deals among the ice dance judges.
The pairs controversy came to a head earlier on Friday when Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were promoted from silver to joint gold medalists with Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze after widespread protests over the judging. A French judge has since been suspended pending an investigation.