The world will witness a marriage of Olympic-sized proportions tomorrow when China’s 2010 gold medal pair skaters Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue get married in front of thousands of fans — on ice.

Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue

The glittering wedding, scheduled to take place at Beijing’s Capital Gymnasium that has been decked out in sweeping red ribbons and spotlights, has been an affair three years in the making. Zhao proposed to Shen after a gold medal-winning performance at the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships. �Zhao shocked Shen by dropping to one knee at the centre of the rink in Tokyo and popping a marriage proposal. Misunderstanding at first, Shen got down on her knees too, in perplexed solidarity. When it finally dawned that Zhao had just asked her to marry him, Shen squeaked a yes, the crowd roared.

Though they had legally registered their marriage in China on May 28 2007, they have yet to go through a formal ceremony with their families and friends. Most Chinese do not consider a couple formally married until they have undergone a wedding ceremony.

They have been skating together since 1992, and fell in love between practices and competitions around the world. Through all those years they skated together, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo were not allowed to so much as kiss. The couple was under intense and overt scrutiny, living and training full-time for 15 years at their country’s figure skating incubator in distant, freezing Harbin, where romantic fraternization was strictly forbidden.

Shen and Zhao were the first Chinese pair team to win a medal at an International Skating Union event and at the World Figure Skating Championships. In 2002, they became the first Chinese pair skating team to win a World Championship.� In February 2010 in Vancouver, they became the first Chinese skaters to win the gold medal at a Winter Olympic Games in any figure skating category, ending almost half a century of Russian and Soviet pair skating dominance.

They are considered by many critics of the sport to be one of the best pair skating teams of all time. They are the world record holders for pairs’ score in the short program and in the combined total under the ISU Judging System.

It won’t be just any ordinary friends in attendance on Saturday evening. Taking part in the couple’s wedding will be some of the world’s best skating stars who have flown into Beijing to perform as their gift to the couple. 2006 Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia will skate to “Sex Bomb” while Japan’s 2010 Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada will perform a tango-inspired program.

The men’s 2002 Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia and two-time World Champion Stephane Lambiel of Canada will also hit the ice with Zhao and Shen.

The newlyweds will conclude their wedding celebration with the classic “Turandot.”

Perhaps the only program that might outshine Zhao and Shen will be American Johnny Weir’s performance to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” which is slated to immediately follow the wedding vows.

“So many of my fans want me to perform ‘Poker Face’ in China,” Weir told CNN. “Yes, I am a little nervous that I am going right after because Poker Face is a little bit dirty… but I am excited by the challenge.”

The bride and groom’s Olympic friends are tight-lipped about what they will give Zhao and Shen. “We have all been discussing what we will do but I can’t tell you what the gift it. It’s still a secret,” said 2010 Olympic bronze medalist Joannie Rochette of Canada.

“I have prepared a traditional Japanese gift for them,” Asada said.

China and the world are awaiting tomorrow night with bated breath to the wedding on ice.