Olympics - With glue and tape, skaters strive to keep covered up

By Rory Carroll

GANGNEUNG, South Korea (Reuters) - Olympic ice dancers are taking extra precautions to ensure their costumes get attention for all the right reasons, using tape and glue to guarantee they stay covered up as they glide around the ice.

They are trying to avoid the fate of France's Gabriella Papadakis, who skated to an ice dancing silver medal after the clasp holding her dress together came undone at the start of her routine.

"I use special glue to make sure I can actually glue my dress to my skin so luckily I haven't had any problems," Russian ice dancer Tiffani Zagorski told Reuters after her free dance performance at the Gangneung Ice Arena.

"I'll stick to that and make sure that I'm well glued in."

British ice dancer Penny Coomes relies on body tape and safety pins to keep her colourful costumes in place.

"I am taped in. I always do that with this dress," she said.

"I think it's just a precautionary thing because no one wants that to happen."

Papadakis said she took steps to make sure there would be no repeat of Monday's incident, which she described as her "worst nightmare".

"Yeah, we made sure," she said with a laugh about her preparations after winning the silver medal on Tuesday, missing out on gold by less than a point.

Two-times Olympic ice skater turned television commentator Johnny Weir said he felt bad for Papadakis and was impressed by her ability to skate through the adversity.

"It was so sad. Only in figure skating, right?" the American told Reuters.

"Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are absolutely incredible and the fact that they are still in second despite having that much of a distraction to me is amazing," he said before the completion of the event.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll, editing by Ed Osmond)