The ""Other" Skating - Figure Skating

[mtnme]

august said:

There are many who believed that Nancy Kerrigan played every sympathy card in the deck and still didn't win. Others thought her the America's Sweetheart of the bunch. I never felt one way or the other to be honest. I thought she was very good, but she never ... floored me. Maybe it was all the drama that surrounded her with the Tonya Harding thing. I find drama to be a huge turn off. Nancy was good though, and there was one program she skated to some sort of Irish folk song. She wore a lovely emerald green dress and the ending had an awesome footwork sequence.

Yeah, that whole scene with T.H and N.K. was a nightmare. But ya gotta give it this though, it was said more people started to tune into figure skating than ever before. Now there are reports that the interest is fading. Is it just that there is no one that really captures our interest?...or does somebody's knees just need to get wacked again?...

[lisam]

mtnme said:

august said:

It seems I have not yet given a nod to the ladies of figureskating! I have a great many favorites among them too. For starters, Michelle Kwan. I was among those heartbroken when she had to pull out of the 2006 olympics. Mainly because I knew how hard she'd worked, and how difficult a decision that must have been. Michelle is a champion. Plain and simple. Most people who follow skating know champion behaviors when they see them. It's a balance of doing what you know best while constantly re-inventing yourself. Knowing when to take a risk, and when to hold back. These skills come from years of experience coupled with maturity, and they personify Michelle. I believe that in exhibition, she could outskate anyone.

Kristy Yamaguchi has been a favorite of mine since her pairs days with Rudy Galindo. She's beautiful on the ice, and has so perfected her skills that she makes complicated programs look effortless. She is mesmerizing to watch.

Katarina Witt, one of the big girls on ice! I always admired the strength in her programs. One in particular was skated to "On My Own" from Les Miserables. You could appreciate this program from any of three perspectives: The emotion in her face, the artistry in her hands and arms, or the athleticism in her jumps. I must have watched that one dozens of times. It was truly a gift.

Another long time favorite, Surya Bonaly. What a powerhouse on the ice! Backflips with a one foot landing? I don't even think Scott Hamilton lands on one foot! Sadly, Surya was pegged a sore loser for bursting into tears on the winners podium and pulling off her silver medal because she felt she'd earned gold. Disappointment is hard to hide when you've worked so hard and fallen second so many times. I think she was great and always a pleasure to watch.

Two more who deserve honorable mention are Nicole Bobek and Rosalind Summers, both of whom always had a beautiful presence on the ice.

Hi August,
I am with you when Michelle had to pull out of 2006, -heartbroken, -almost as heartbroken when she didn't win out over Tara L. - While Tara had the jumps and spins - I still felt she not only looked- but skated like a little girl. I want to see a woman on the ice- that sophistication that translates to elegance and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with age. (I think Kimmie Meisner's got it, she was only 16 in the Olympics, but had the presence of a woman- if that makes sense? It's a quality that is hard to define exactly, but I know it when I see it)
Here is a link to one of my favorite exhibition skates by Michelle to Dantes Prayer. amazing how she can make the most simple (technically) of moves look so exquisite. That inside spiral is just beautiful.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtUVfSSepBc

Surya has never quite enthralled me, while athletically amazing, I think she suffers somewhat artistically. But I'll trade you for Nancy Kerigan, I loved her presence and style on the ice- but she wasn't for everyone. Many,many wonderful women skaters to be sure in addition to the ones you mentioned. How can you not love Kristi?

Thank you mtnme for the beautiful vid of Michelle, I hadn't seen it before and I will miss her too. I was so sad for her that she had to miss the '06 games. I just love her and wished she had won a gold medal. I watched her long program in the '02 games cuz I couldn't remember how she did and it was very good, but to me it wasn't as good as it could of been artisically, but because she had one fall it cost her the gold and she won the bronze. I also watched her Fields of Gold performance that she did in SLC, and I was very moved by it, very elegant, just beautiful. Here's the vid of that

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF4e1mtzr_Y&mode=related&search=

Kristi Yamaguchi was awesome, loved her! She's another one my fav skaters. Kat Witt I liked, she had a lot of spunk to her programs. Its hard for me to remember her skating because it was so long ago but I do remember liking her more than the US girl at that time. The younger girls that were in the Olympics last year, like Kimmie Meisner I thought were just ok, lots of potential so hopefully they will make it to 2010.

[mtnme]

Lisam
Thanks sooooo much for this video of Michelle! I hadn't seen this one before. Music and skating blended so beautifully my eyes actually started welling up. If I recall, I missed quite a bit of the 2002 olympics- I think I was working a lot of nights at the time.

heck, we can just exchange videos non stop! ha - Thank God for YouTube huh?

This is one of my favorite ones of Kristi. I was fortunate enough to see her do this live on one of the stars on ice tours. She was having sooo much fun with it. - And ya gotta just love the costume!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYzzIwcIvgE

[skaterswaltz]

I love this whole conversation. I am no way nearly as knowledgeable as all of you, but for years Winter Olympics=Figure Skating for me (well, now short track, too!). I love the skiing and the other events, but I am GLUED to the tv when it comes to figure skating. Started with Peggy Fleming in the 1968 Olympics. Of course Torvill and Dean's Bolero is legendary. But I have to say my favorite all-around skater is Kurt Browning, for this reason:

"Antares" to the Tragically Hip song wrote especially for him:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tcy--wXe5w

I, too, was watching the 2002 Winter Olympics like a fiend and that's when somehow I saw Apolo and he came into my consciousness and set up camp there and never left.

Kurt has the same Gene Kelly vibe going on for me that Apolo does. OK - I know Apolo would of course NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER do this, but in my fantasies he would do something like Kurt's Nyah on ice:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgH3p1BrV-4

OK - now I'm even more steamed up about going to the 2010 games somehow.

[Rhiannon]

mtnme said:

Lisam
Thanks sooooo much for this video of Michelle! I hadn't seen this one before. Music and skating blended so beautifully my eyes actually started welling up. If I recall, I missed quite a bit of the 2002 olympics- I think I was working a lot of nights at the time.

heck, we can just exchange videos non stop! ha - Thank God for YouTube huh?

This is one of my favorite ones of Kristi. I was fortunate enough to see her do this live on one of the stars on ice tours. She was having sooo much fun with it. - And ya gotta just love the costume!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYzzIwcIvgE

Great memories. Hey mtnme guess what? I saw Kristi Y on her Stars on Ice Tour too. I think it was sponsored by Smucker's at the time. She was always just sooo flawless like all the Gold medal winners. We saw the best of the best at that show. Like Katrina Witt, Kurt Browning and Scott Hamilton. Good show.

[lexi]

Thanks, Kirkland, for the links to the Russian Skating With The Stars show. I really enjoyed watching those clips. I can definitely see how some wouldn’t ‘click’ with Alexei. He can be a little too brash and honest at times. I like that though. Plus, I’ve heard so many stories about wonderful fan encounters with him and he just seems like the sweetest guy. Regardless of peoples’ personal impressions of him, everyone seems to respect his talent…even Plush has given him that and vice versa!

august said:

There are many who believed that Nancy Kerrigan played every sympathy card in the deck and still didn't win. Others thought her the America's Sweetheart of the bunch.

I dislike Nancy and Tanya equally. I never found Nancy warm and fuzzy, even before ‘the incident’. She always seemed cold and, unfair as it is to say, it was always difficult for me to give credit to her skating. Even if I were being objective though, I think there are plenty of other ladies I’d put way ahead of her as my top favorites. I could never fathom her as an Olympic gold medalist. She was definitely a medal contender, but only because she didn’t have a strong field to contend with.

mtnme said:

I am with you when Michelle had to pull out of 2006, -heartbroken, -almost as heartbroken when she didn't win out over Tara L.

I always liked Michelle, but she was always the bridesmaid, never the bride. I’m still dumbfounded that neither she nor Kirk will ever be Olympic gold medalists. That just ain’t right!

lisam said:

Kat Witt I liked, she had a lot of spunk to her programs.

Kat remains my favorite female skater to date, though admittedly, I don’t enjoy the ladies skating. She was a little spitfire on the ice, full of passion and charisma, competitive to the very end. I could never wait to see what she had up her sleeve, from her costumes, to her attitude against the other skaters to her flirtatiousness. Those were the good old days.

skaterswaltz said:

I love this whole conversation. I am no way nearly as knowledgeable as all of you, but for years Winter Olympics=Figure Skating for me (well, now short track, too!).…………. But I have to say my favorite all-around skater is Kurt Browning, for this reason:

I don’t even know that you have to be all that knowledgeable to enjoy or be able to converse about figure skating. I think you like what you like. Sometimes justification just isn’t necessary.

Kurt is amazing. Very few can captivate an audience like him. His footwork alone should have garnered him a gold medal!

rhiannon said:

We saw the best of the best at that show. Like Katrina Witt, Kurt Browning and Scott Hamilton. Good show.

Scott Hamilton. You gotta respect the man. He’s 49 years old and can still give many a run for their money!

[Rhiannon]

lexi said:

Thanks, Kirkland, for the links to the Russian Skating With The Stars show. I really enjoyed watching those clips. I can definitely see how some wouldn’t ‘click’ with Alexei. He can be a little too brash and honest at times. I like that though. Plus, I’ve heard so many stories about wonderful fan encounters with him and he just seems like the sweetest guy. Regardless of peoples’ personal impressions of him, everyone seems to respect his talent…even Plush has given him that and vice versa!

august said:

There are many who believed that Nancy Kerrigan played every sympathy card in the deck and still didn't win. Others thought her the America's Sweetheart of the bunch.

I dislike Nancy and Tanya equally. I never found Nancy warm and fuzzy, even before ‘the incident’. She always seemed cold and, unfair as it is to say, it was always difficult for me to give credit to her skating. Even if I were being objective though, I think there are plenty of other ladies I’d put way ahead of her as my top favorites. I could never fathom her as an Olympic gold medalist. She was definitely a medal contender, but only because she didn’t have a strong field to contend with.


I always liked Michelle, but she was always the bridesmaid, never the bride. I’m still dumbfounded that neither she nor Kirk will ever be Olympic gold medalists. That just ain’t right!

Kat remains my favorite female skater to date, though admittedly, I don’t enjoy the ladies skating. She was a little spitfire on the ice, full of passion and charisma, competitive to the very end. I could never wait to see what she had up her sleeve, from her costumes, to her attitude against the other skaters to her flirtatiousness. Those were the good old days.


I don’t even know that you have to be all that knowledgeable to enjoy or be able to converse about figure skating. I think you like what you like. Sometimes justification just isn’t necessary.

Kurt is amazing. Very few can captivate an audience like him. His footwork alone should have garnered him a gold medal!

rhiannon said:

We saw the best of the best at that show. Like Katrina Witt, Kurt Browning and Scott Hamilton. Good show.

Scott Hamilton. You gotta respect the man. He’s 49 years old and can still give many a run for their money!

Scott, to me, he's the cream of the crop and what a guy much like our Apolo. I see so many great qualities mirrored in each other. I think they could be or maybe they even are great friends. What a life story Scott Hamilton also has ... all of his challenges when he was little, illnesses and then at the high point of his carear he was stricken again with a life threatening illness and he still stands strong today. He's such a plus to mankind because the man is kind.

I agree with pretty much everything you've all said here about the past generations of skaters. It was so much fun to watch but like August mentioned ... Nancy Kerrigan was not warm and fuzzy and to me did not have what the other champions had. Outwardly she wasn't the best skater and inwardly she was hmm conceited. The media built her up as as the new Katharine Hepburn on ice. Not. It was a great era of skating. I was really into it. Great memories. And Di*ck Button ... loved to listen to his analogies.

[lexi]

You're right, Rhiannon. Scotty sure overcame a lot to come so far. He really is adored in the skating world, by his fellow skaters and the fans.

Just a correction - I mentioned about Nancy not being warm and fuzzy. I just don't want to put those particular words in Augusts' mouth.

Thanks for mentioning thingy Button. Wonderful commentator. Like you, I love his analogies and how he just tells it like it is. Here's a sample from an article.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101460.html

ETA: Hee! Thingy Button is actually D*ick Button.

[Rhiannon]

lexi said:

You're right, Rhiannon. Scotty sure overcame a lot to come so far. He really is adored in the skating world, by his fellow skaters and the fans.

Just a correction - I mentioned about Nancy not being warm and fuzzy. I just don't want to put those particular words in Augusts' mouth.

Thanks for mentioning thingy Button. Wonderful commentator. Like you, I love his analogies and how he just tells it like it is. Here's a sample from an article.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101460.html

ETA: Hee! Thingy Button is actually D*ick Button.

Oh please forgiveth me Lexi and August for the screw up. It will probably happen again too. As hard as I try somehow I stand corrected. Yea I got the thingy Button pop up for me and went back and changed it. Good thing I went back and re-read what I wrote. When I saw thingy Button I thought, "Oops I did it again."
That article is relatively new. He's getting old which means I'm getting old too. Yuck.

[lexi]

No need to apologize at all. It gets confusing as to who said what when you have quotes within quotes...within quotes. If it had been complimentary, I would have left it, but since it wasn't........ LOL

[August]

Weird how "Thingy Button" sounds far creepier than the man's actual name. Classic case of the auto-censor making making it worse in an effort to clean it up!

I agree with all about Scott Hamilton. He is an amazing person as well as a brilliant skater. In fact, the only time I've seen Brian B. look nervous was when in competition with him. Do they still do the Skates of Gold competition? Haven't seen it in a while.

[Rhiannon]

lexi said:

No need to apologize at all. It gets confusing as to who said what when you have quotes within quotes...within quotes. If it had been complimentary, I would have left it, but since it wasn't........ LOL

Tee Hee

[Rhiannon]

august said:

Weird how "Thingy Button" sounds far creepier than the man's actual name. Classic case of the auto-censor making making it worse in an effort to clean it up!

I agree with all about Scott Hamilton. He is an amazing person as well as a brilliant skater. In fact, the only time I've seen Brian B. look nervous was when in competition with him. Do they still do the Skates of Gold competition? Haven't seen it in a while.

I still have these smoldering embers inside of me for all of these older skaters and you're all rekindling that flame inside of me. I want to watch them again. Yes Brian Boitano did know that Scott was his nemesis ( I think I used that word correctly. If not you know what I meant. He knew Scott had his game on alll the time.) Skates of God Competition ... I'd watch that again. They don't play it up like they use to. Oh well. Got to go. Luv ya my friend.

[kirkland]

I don't think they have ANY pro-competitions anylonger. Could be wrong.

Nancy Kerrigan - boring - actually, I couldn't stand her. In some ways, she reminded me of the American version of Maria Butraskya. Stiff legs.

So far womens figure skating doesn't grab my attention as much as mens or pairs. But bring on some great skaters with interesting personalities and things could change.

Scott and Kurt are really in classes of their own. Both incredible men. Scott is miraculous. Kurt just had his second child.

Alexei can be brash, I think it is somewhat cultural, but not totally. He is not a good-goody, which I like. He has a big, interesting personality and and is a really good guy overall. My fan encounter with him was lovely and at a point that he was extremely exhausted which was readily apparent to look at him.

[mtnme]

skaterswaltz said:

I love this whole conversation. I am no way nearly as knowledgeable as all of you, but for years Winter Olympics=Figure Skating for me (well, now short track, too!). I love the skiing and the other events, but I am GLUED to the tv when it comes to figure skating. Started with Peggy Fleming in the 1968 Olympics. Of course Torvill and Dean's Bolero is legendary. But I have to say my favorite all-around skater is Kurt Browning, for this reason:

"Antares" to the Tragically Hip song wrote especially for him:
I, too, was watching the 2002 Winter Olympics like a fiend and that's when somehow I saw Apolo and he came into my consciousness and set up camp there and never left.

Kurt has the same Gene Kelly vibe going on for me that Apolo does. OK - I know Apolo would of course NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER do this, but in my fantasies he would do something like Kurt's Nyah on ice:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgH3p1BrV-4

OK - now I'm even more steamed up about going to the 2010 games somehow.

Great clips skaterswaltz. I just love Kurt! (I have to admit rooting for him in the Olympics even though he's Canadian! I'm such a traitor!) And I know what you mean, about the same Apolo quality. Men figure skaters are often very artistic, but I wouldn't call them "sexy". Kurt is the exception-definately HOT.

I could copy and paste away all the previous posts- but I'll just type the random thoughts.

I have decided that going to a Winter Olympics in person needs to be put on my list of 1000 things to do before you die.

(I'm not as much a summer olympics type of gal. I ski, skate & snowshoe-so I gravitate to watching sports I enjoy doing. Or maybe it has to do with this great line in TIME magazine. )

Summer Olympians do things we couldn't do, But Winter Olympians do things we WOULDN'T do.

(... for which luge comes immediately to mind...)

I have a friend with family in Vancouver- so room and board is already set. Tickets go on sale in 2008- so start saving your pennies. She went to the Calgary Olympics and said it is an experience you really must do at least once in your life- 'nuff said.

Like I said, Nancy wasn't for everyone. I think a lot of people were put off because she isn't all warm and fuzzy. But I understand the Katherine Hepburn statement. Physically she always reminded me of her. The broad shoulders and overall posture on the ice. I don't know, I guess I just liked "the look" of her on the ice- very elegant, but I guess to some in an "icy" sort of way.

Hey, plenty of other great points everyone made-but this post is long enough and "sometimers" has just kicked in...