RUSSIA AT THE OLYMPICS: Figure skating: Russians 'ditch Aboriginal costumes'

Moscow (AFP) - A top Russian skating pair whose 'Aboriginal' ice dance routine hurt feelings in Australia have decided to ditch their costumes for the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games, a newspaper reported on Monday. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, Russian world champion ice dancers considered favourites at next week's battle on ice in Vancouver, caused an uproar in Tallinn, Estonia last month with their 'Aboriginal' act. Their routine included costumes of dark, skin-toned bodysuits punctuated by bright red loin cloths, white body paint and eucalyptus leaves. A stunned Australia said, however, that the music, movement and body decorations worn by the champion pair have nothing in common with Australia's 60,000-year-old Aboriginal culture. "On the eve of the Olympics, our guys have decided not to push their luck and go to war with the creators of the boomerang," the populist daily Komsomolskaya Pravda said. "Oksana and Maxim have announced that they will perform in different costumes but have not given up the dance itself," said the newspaper, without providing further details. Domnina and Shabalin had earlier defended their routine, which proved a hit with the crowds in Estonia. "Our coach offered us this music and we decided to try it. We researched it on the internet and got a lot of information," 27-year-old Shabalin said at the time. "It's wasn't our purpose that it be especially Australian, just a dance from many thousands of years ago." Last month, reports of the duo's dance number unleashed a torrent of anti-Russian vitriol on the internet, with some commentators claiming the faux pas was not surprising because most Russians are rude and insensitive.

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