In numerology the numbers 2 and 3 symbolize female and male essences and together they symbolize the marriage union.  2002 world bronze medalist and coach Galit Chait got married to Francesco Moracci of Italy in a spectacular wedding ceremony in the Estate of Florentine Gardens in River Vale, New Jersey, on the 23d of August. Our skating pair of Ekaterina Sozinova and Fedor Sokolov got married on the 23d of March in Moscow making this year a truly wedding season.
While Fedor and Ekaterina will share their wedding story when they are back from Monsey, here is a short recollection of Galit and Francesco's romance and wedding.

The Jewish Wedding Ceremony
"When I saw the way Francesco was looking at Galit in Turin, I immediately knew he began falling in love with her", says 2-time Olympic Champion Evgeny Platov, former Galit's coach and one of the six groomsmen at the wedding ceremony. What began as love at first sight at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, where Francesco was assigned to our team as part of security police force, was followed by a long-distance romance, crowned by a beautiful Jewish huppah (canopy) wedding ceremony attended by Galit's and Francesco's family, friends, and numerous guests.. There were six bridesmaids at the ceremony, among them Nina Petrenko, wife of 1992 Olympic Champion Viktor Petrenko, and Natalia Gudina, our former ice dancer. Alessandro Moracci, Franceso's brother, was the best man, and two of his friends were among the groomsmen. The rabbi recited ketubah (a Jewish prenuptial document) in Hebrew with a simultaneous translation into English, and Francesco stepped on a glass to break it in line with the Jewish wedding tradition – "le zeher hurban beit ha-mikdash" (in the memory of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple).

A Gold Medal of Love

The huppah was followed by a wedding party attended by 250 guests, among them 2008 European Champion Oksana Domnina, 2008 world bronze medalist Johnny Weir, and of course, our figure skating squadron of Sasha and Roman Zaretsky, Maxim Shipov, ISU judge Katalyn Alpern, and others.

The music was a blend of Jewish, Russian, Italian, and English choices, with Galit and Francesco dancing to a beautiful Italian dance. Boris Chait, Galit's father, invited her to dance to a poignant song featuring fatherly love and performed by Joseph Kobson, an iconic figure of the Russian (and Jewish) music scene of the last 40 years. The ceremony, too, was Jewish and white wedding traditions intertwined as one. Galit threw her wedding bouquet, which was made of white roses wrapped in silk, to a group of eagerly waiting brides-to-be. The lucky one was Jennine Russo, the bride's Maid of Honour who also said that Galit came to Turin to claim a gold medal, which was a medal of love.

No Honeymoon yet
In the intense world of figure skating love and work are, too, a no less intricate medley than the most sophisticated skating routines. Two days after the wedding ceremony Galit is back to work together with our team at test run-throughs in the Sport-O-Rama rink in Monsey, New York, which is the first showing of this season's competitive programmes to be concluded by a gala performance on August 31st. When I finally catch up with Galit finding a small outlet in her super busy schedule, I hope she will share her wedding impressions with us.

We wish Galit, Francesco, Ekaterina, and Fedor to cherish their love and be happy