Disastrous Competitive Programs | Golden Skate

Disastrous Competitive Programs

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SkateFan4Life

Guest
Disastrous Competitive Programs

We all know that the ice is a slippery surface, and well, sometimes even the most talented figure skaters experience a disastrous competitive performance - one which they probably wish they could permanently erase from their memory banks. Here's a partial list of "when disaster strikes" in no particular order:

(1) 1993 Worlds - Nancy Kerrigan's long program. Nancy was the newly-crowned US champion and reigning Olympic bronze medalist and World silver medalist. She had won the short program at the 1993 Worlds, held in Prague, and was in a very strong position to win her first World title. Egads - Nancy missed her opening triple flip, then proceeded to fall or stumble on four more of her triples. While her program was unraveling, to the soundtrack "Beauty and the Beast", Nancy's
expression assumed a growing look of shock, dismay, and disbelief. I felt so sorry for her! She fled the rink, received her cruel (but accurate) low scores, and stated on camera, "I should be winning one of the medals!" Indeed, Nancy should have at least medaled at the 1993 Worlds, based on her World ranking; however, her long program was scored ninth, and she finished fifth overall.

(2) 1990 Worlds - Midori Ito, the reigning World champion, had collided with Letitia Hubert of France during the short program warmup, and the foot and rib cage injuries she suffered were to plague her for the long program. While she was able to skate the short program relatively pain-free, she miscalulated the distance from the takeoff of her triple lutz/
double toe combination to the edge of the rink, and she flew right off the rink, smack into the television camera.

In the long program, Midori's injuries kicked in, bigtime, and she was able to compete only three triples. She singled her triple flip, fell on her triple axel, and missed two other triples. It was painful to watch. Midori finished out of the medals, in fourth place.

(3) 1984 Winter Olympics - Barbara Underhill/Paul Martini, the Canadian pairs champions and reigning World bronze medalists,
were strong contenders for Olympic gold. Alas (!) Barbara fell on their side by side sit spins, and Paul collided into her and also fell. That error left them in 7th place going into the long program, where they made a few other mistakes and finished well out of the medals.

(4) 1980 Winter Olympics - Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner entered as the five-time US champions and reigning World champions - although their win in 1979 was due partially by the absence of longtime gold medalists Rodnina/Zaitsev. Irina had recently given birth to her first child and had missed that competition. Randy Gardner had injured his groin in January while practicing in California, and he re-injured the groin while practicing in Lake Placid. Unfortunately, the injury left him practically immobile and unable to lift Tai or to perform his side by side jumps. Watching them warm up for the short program, on live television was heartbreaking. Clearly, Randy was seriously injured and unable to skate. They withdrew from the competition.

(5) 1989 US Nationals. Natalie and Wayne Seybold, veteran US pairs skaters, were in the position to win their first National
title and were in first position after the short program. Alas, disaster struck, as Natalie fell on their throw triple salchow, singled their side by side double axels, and she caught her blade on the other boot while rotating on the throw triple loop and crash-landed on the ice. The lace had become loose, and the Seybolds were instructed to restart their program where they left off. The judges gave them quite generous marks that gave them the silver medal and the second spot on the World tem. A somewhat controversial finish, by many accounts.

(6) 1987 US Nationals. Michelle Kwan was the reigning US and World champion and considered a shoo-in to defend her title. Alas - Michelle missed three of her opening jumps, falling
twice, and she finished second. It was a shock to see this young woman, who appeared to be the essence of perfection and consistency, fall apart during her long program.

(7) 1994 Winter Olympics. Tonya Harding arrived at the Games
undertrained and overweight and, of course, the media was focused on her and Nancy Kerrigan, almost obsessively, due to the Kerrigan assault that occurred during the US Nationals.
Harding somehow forgot to carry an extra pair of skate laces and nearly missed the time warning to appear to skate for the long program. She began her long program, immediately missed her triple lutz, skated over to the judges, crying, and explained that she needed more time to relace her skates.
She was given the opportunity to skate, which meant that the other skaters had to compete earlier than they had expected to. Still, Tonya made a number of mistakes, and finished eighth. All of that talk about winning the gold medal was not backed up with the kind of great skating that might have won it.


And the list goes on......
 
L

LAVENDER

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

1997 for Michelle. I think you have 1987.
 
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Lucy25

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

Watching Nancy's '93 program was simply painful. I will never forget that. I think Meno & Sand's 1998 LP was pretty disasterous.
 
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Verbalgirl77

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

Kurt's 92 & 94 Oly SP's were pretty painful. Jamie & David's 2000 Worlds LP was sad too.
 
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guinevere

Guest
Re: Disatrous Competitive Programs

Todd Eldredge at the Olympics - any Olympics!

I understand that the '92 Olys were his worst performances, but I did not see them. I was heartbroken at the '98 Olys because Todd had such a great Short Program, was clearly in medal contention, and fell during the Long. It wasn't a total disaster, but it cost him a medal.

guinevere
 
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Jaana

Guest
Re: Disatrous Competitive Programs

It was not just the fall in Nagano. Eldredge also doubled the triple toe in both triple combinations, I believe. He would have gotten a bronze medal though if Candeloro had not succeeded so well in his freeskate.

Marjaana
 
G

guinevere

Guest
bad memory

Forgive my faulty memory - I was trying to recall if there were other errors in that program.

I do think that the results were correct that night - but I felt terrible for Todd.

guinevere
 
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Garden Kitty

Guest
Re: bad memory

Let's not forget the 2003 men's free skates at this year's Nationals - Goebel, Savoie, Weir and probably a few other's that aren't coming to mind.

However, I was thrilled that Timothy got over that discouraging performance to skate so well at Worlds.
 
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Princess Leppard 625

Guest
Re: bad memory

<span style="color:purple;font-family:georgia;font-size:x-small;">Laetitia Hubert, I can't remember which Olympics. Had an amazing short program and was put into sixth. She skated last in the free skate, should've been fine, no pressure, but she totally fell apart. Did she even finish in the top ten?

Laura :) </span>
 
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sk8ing lady2001

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

I am also never going to forget Sasha's mistakes in her long program at 2003 Worlds. How depressing. I still love her though. :(

By the way, I just finally reached my 1300th post here! :)
 
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Patchris

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

Laetitia Hubert; it's JO Albertville (1992) free programm

And Midori Ito (worlds Free programm 1991?)
 
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Patchris

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

Abitbol/Bernadis free Worlds 2003
 
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nymkfan51

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

Actually, the last few days I have been watching tapes of past Olympics, and I totally agree about Martini and Underhill ... that was very difficult to watch.
Also ... the SP for Kurt in '92 ... very disappointing.

I might add that Sarah's qualifying round at this year's worlds was about as bad as it gets.
 
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SkateFan4Life

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

OK GUYS, BEFORE YOU THROW EGGS AT ME, ALLOW ME TO CORRECT TWO OF THE DATES:

MIDORI ITO'S DISASTROUS WORLDS WAS 1991, NOT 1990.

MICHELLE KWAN'S DISASTROUS NATIONALS WAS 1997, NOT 1987.

NOBODY'S PERFECT! :lol:
 
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QuadAxel

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

How about almost all of the men at US Nationals this year?

How about almost all of the men at last year's Campbell's
Interational?

:cool:
 
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Ladskater

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

Bourne and Kraatz - last Olympics - Salt Lake City. The last 30 seconds - down they went - and the bronze medal slipped from their grasp.

Barb Underhill and Paul Martini - Sarajevo Olympics - 1984 - Barb had boot problems and took several spills during their long program. This time the Gold medal was practically theirs - not to be!


Ladskater
 
D

DORISPULASKI

Guest
Re: Disastrous Competitive Programs

Liz Manley's LP in 1987. Liz had had a superb LP in the 1986 worlds and much was expected of her in Cincinnati. And her SP was great. However, she came apart in her LP and finished off the podium.

Debi Thomas at the 1988 Olympics. Debi was looking great up through the SP but fell apart in the LP. I still find it hard to watch.

This year's pairs LP at Nationals where nearly all the last 6 pairs ended up bleeding from one or another part of their anatomy.

Brian Joubert's QR at Worlds 2003. Such a disappointment! He was one of the first to skate and had not slept well the night before.

Lu Chen's QR the year she failed to qualify, which was in between her 2 Olympic medals.

Nicole Bobek's LP at the 1998 Olympics. But worse was her LP the year that she was competing with Carlo Fassi as her coach and he died of a heart attack in the middle of the competition. Poor Nicole just couldn't get it together.

Janet Lynn's celebrateds fall the year they put the SP in just for her and she fell twice in it.

Sometimes there are whole competitions that you'd rather forget. Canadian men's and ladies in 1988. Worlds men's and ladies in 1992. Olympic ladies in 1992 weren't so wonderful either. And pairs, US nationals 2003.

dpp
 
B

BronzeisGolden02

Guest
The Worst Moments

I've always remembered Nancy's meltdown as the most shocking. Not shocking for the fact that it happend, rather the extent of the meltdown. The fact that she had a bad performance wasn't new or surprising really...her freeskate at 92 Worlds was error filled, as was her Olympic free skate from Albertville. Even her best international showing before Prague (her bronze at the 1991 Worlds) wasn't World title caliber. I expected Nancy to make mistakes...instead she completely came unraveled. I believe she completed 2 clean triples and lacked any hint of what could be conceived as emotion. I did expect her to make mistakes but I was used to seeing her at least fight back and not let everything slip away. But, I think that's just what she needed. Perhaps she skated before with the nagging fear that something like Prague could happen, and when it finally did she was able to let go of that fear and find the confidence that led to the best season of her career. I'm so glad she went out with such a memorable set of Olympic performances.
 
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icenut84

Guest
Re: The Worst Moments

Mandy Wotzel & Ingo Steuer's pairs free at the 94 Olympics. It was going ok (apart from a few mistakes) until about half way through, when they went into spirals and Mandy tripped off the front of her blade (with Ingo holding her hands, as he was behind her) and landed with a crash on the ice on her chest and chin. Owee!!! He had to carry her off the ice, and they had to withdraw.
 
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heyang

Guest
Re: The Worst Moments

I'll add Kurt Browning's 1st performance at World Pro. I think he performed to the Theme from Rocketman. I recall watching and thinking 'Ouch - he doesn't look like last year's World Champ'. I think Paul Wylie won that year with the Untouchables.
 
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