Early years Peizerat started skating at age four
ABC correspondent
Lesley Visser reported that this move had become their trademark and saw it as "a way of celebrating the opposite yet equal strengths of male and female". Anissina and Peizerat continued to use the move in all of their free dances after 1998; figure skating writer and historian Ellyn Kestnbaum speculates that since they finished first or second in every competition during that period, they were not penalized for it, even though other dance teams might have used it as a gimmick rather than as an expression of their skating skills or an interpretation of their music. In 2001, Anissina and Peizerat won European and World silver behind the Italians but surged past them in 2002 to reclaim their
European title and become the Olympic Champions. At the 2002 Olympics, they led after the compulsory dances and the original dance. Their free dance, "Liberty", mixed music with sections from the famed freedom speech by
Martin Luther King Jr.; a 5-4 split of the judges' panel had them in first place in this segment ahead of
Irina Lobacheva and
Ilia Averbukh, and they became the first French ice dancers to win the Olympic gold medal. After the Olympics, Anissina and Peizerat retired from competition but continued skating together for many years in shows around the world. During their career, they represented the club Lyon TSC. Their signature move was Anissina lifting Peizerat off the ice, switching the traditional gender roles in lifts. Peizerat was named a Chevalier of the
National Order of Merit (France) in 1998 and a Chevalier of the
Legion of Honour in 2003. He has done some choreography for other skaters. ==Post-skating career==