Thaindian News

Beijing, Sep 10 (IANS) It was a wedding tailor-made for them. Two of China’s gold medal winning ice-skaters married on their dream surface - an ice rink.
The love story of Olympic gold medal winning pair of Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo “skated to a perfect conclusion”, when they exchanged vows recently in an ice rink in Beijing, Shanghai Daily said in a report.

The 15-minute wedding ceremony was only a small part of the two-hour “Artistry On Ice” show at Beijing’s Capital Gymnasium that drew over 13,000 spectators.

Tickets sold for as much as 1,080 yuan ($159) and a third of the proceeds would be donated to charity, officials said.

The wedding was the first on the list of programmes.

The bride wore a trailing white, spaghetti-strap gown and carried a bouquet of pink flowers. The bridegroom wore a black tuxedo. At the centre of the ice rink, Zhou knelt on one knee and later they embraced and exchanged rings.

The couple - Shen, 32, and Zhao, 37, - have been partners on ice for 18 years and were legally married by obtaining a marriage license in 2007. But in China, people are not considered “really” married until they have a ceremony.

The couple had retired from skating in 2007, but they returned to the Olympic Games in Vancouver in February this year and took gold in figure skating.