United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice turned down a chance on Saturday to show off her ice-skating talents and warm up frosty US-Russian relations during a visit to a rink in Russia.
Rice, herself a former ice-skating champion, joked that it was 10 years since she last put on her skates and cut a figure on the ice.
“There is this theory that ice skating is like riding a bicycle: you just get back on it, you immediately know how to do it,” she said, adding: “I’m not going to take that chance — just in case it’s not true!”
Rice met about 30 young ice-skaters at the Russian Army Sports Club rink who gave the top US diplomat a demonstration of their skills before posing for photographs.
Rice was a competitive ice skater between the ages of 12 and 17. She said she lost her skates in the move from Stanford University in California, where she was a lecturer, and Washington when she joined the Bush administration in 2000.
On Friday, Russian and US differences were laid bare when the two countries failed to find a way forward on the proposed US anti-missile defence system in Europe. — AFP