84 Sarajevo Olympics

Hello, what do you think of the Sarajevo Olympics? I used that mytube to see some of the performances, and I do think that Witt won it fair and sqaure. However, it is remarkable, how many mediocre skaters were there, no one seems able to skate cleanly there. I think the compulsaries may have been fixed a little, and then the rankings going into the free skating were also jaded a bit. Zayak being in 13th place didnt make the second flight of skaters, and thus was marked lower in the short, sixth, when she clearly had the third best program. Chin, being in 12th, made the second group and managed to move up SIX places. I dont understand how Kira Ivanova got the scores she did. She botched three jumps and landed only two clean triples and got scores of 5.6 and 5.7!! Chin deserved that medal., and Zayak should have been fourth. Someone stated that the Italian and Russian judges were in colusion and it also cost the US the dance bronze medal as well. I would not be surprised. The politics at the time may have precipitated this. I believe though that the judges wanted to give Rosalynn teh gold, but she made so many mistakes in the long that they had no choice but to place her second, they even tried to hold her up artistically but it wasnt enough. Chin was by far though the best free skater there. And Zayak had improved immensely, she had the best layback in the competititon and her slow part to "Reverie" was very nice. Well, theres my two cents worth.

unfortunately I haven't seen anything but Scott Hamilton's programs... but I don't think the skaters were by any means "mediocre" there were a lot of falls and bad performances in every olympics

I would say that Sarajevo had a weaker field than other OLympics, for example, Elena Vodorezova, one of the weakest skaters in the world, was the reigning World Bronze medalist coming in, and Claudia Leistner, the reigining silver medalist, couldnt manage anything better than 8th and 9th respectively. Ivanova, Ruben, Kondrashova?? Some of the weakest free skaters in the history of the sport. The compulsaries held up most of these skaters, and the European judges, who have no clue as to what artistry was when they judged the European skaters. Watch some of the performances and youll see what i mean. The three Americans and Witt were clearly the class of the field. No one else was in the same league.

I think the Carruthers had a really great skate; Kitty is beaming throughout. And then there is Torvill and Dean......


I do wish that Blumberg and Seibert could have medaled and that Scott H. had had a better performance (such as the many other great amateur skates he had).

skate expert said:

Watch some of the performances and youll see what i mean. The three Americans and Witt were clearly the class of the field. No one else was in the same league.

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what of Torvill & Dean - their most famous skate was at that Olympics... and they, I feel, are in a class all by themselves, and they are European

"The Three Americans" would be... ?

I saw just a few clips of the Sarajevo Olympics (opening ceremony, Torvill/Dean's Bolero, Witt, Sumners and Hamilton SPs and LPs). IMO Witt and Sumners did much better in other occasions, but Torvill and Dean were fantastic. It was because of their program that my interest in ice dance grew.
It is sad and nostalgic to remember the joy of the 1984 Olympics after all the ugly things that happened there 8 years later.
For me the best program of Katarina Witt was her tribute to Sarajevo 1994 Olympics free program. So touching, a message against war.

skate expert said:

Hello, what do you think of the Sarajevo Olympics? I used that mytube to see some of the performances, and I do think that Witt won it fair and sqaure. However, it is remarkable, how many mediocre skaters were there, no one seems able to skate cleanly there. I think the compulsaries may have been fixed a little, and then the rankings going into the free skating were also jaded a bit. Zayak being in 13th place didnt make the second flight of skaters, and thus was marked lower in the short, sixth, when she clearly had the third best program. Chin, being in 12th, made the second group and managed to move up SIX places. I dont understand how Kira Ivanova got the scores she did. She botched three jumps and landed only two clean triples and got scores of 5.6 and 5.7!! Chin deserved that medal., and Zayak should have been fourth.

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I think figures had alot to do with placements. Even a mediocre skater could be great at figures.

The three Americans were Sumners, Chin and Zayak. In terms of the pairs, the Carruthers had the perfomance of a lifetime, both programs were the best of the field as well. Because of politics they were denied a gold medal, because they clearly outskated Valova and Vasiliev..but i think the latter had triple jumps or double axels..dont remember that exactly. I was sure the judges were going to try to screw the Americans, but they actually judged fairly... I remember Dick Button saying that the judges were just waiting to drop the Carrruthers to fourth place.....Very sad what happened to the Canadians, but glad they redeemed themselves in Ottowa a month later.

I was astounded at the change in Chin after the Olympics, she had no confidence and could hardly land triples anymore. She in my mind became a short program skater after that. When she retired, I was so sad, because she was truly an aritist on ice.

Witts best peformance for me was the 87 Worlds, where she landed three different triples for a total of 5 triples. Cant say I cared much for Debi Thomas' style..but she did do a good job in the 86 and 87 worlds. I also think the best short program Ive ever seen is Caryn Kadavy's Olympic short, the most lyrical and techincally perfect one I have ever seen!

The overall results there certainly were, IMO, a bit odd, considering the results of the 2 Worlds preceding Sarajevo. And certainly by far the oddest was Ivanova's bronze. Mediocre and dull does not even begin to cover her skating at the time (she did IMO get a little better in future seasons), and as Dick Button (and my mother) said at the time, "Her skates aren't even clean!!" If some sort of judging conspiracy was at work there (and there HAD to have been), and if they wanted to go Russian, then I feel they should have picked Kondrashova. I have never read one positive thing about Kondrashova's skating over the years, but I personally felt that of the 3 Russian ladies there, Kondrashova was the best. (I actually liked her skating when she was able to stay on her feet.)

In the other categories, I was glad to see Sabovcik (one of my favorites at the time) finally break through to get the podium. In pairs, I too was amazed that the judges actually called it right and gave Kitty & Peter the silver; I was not naive enough to think they would get the gold no matter HOW they skated, and anyway I did like Valova & Vasiliev a lot. However, I have always considered Seleznyeva & Makarov to be 2nd-rate at best and would have much preferred Baesse & Thierbach to win the bronze. (Actually, my true preference would have been for Underhill & Martini to have skated well and been in the medal mix; that would have been glorious, tho I don't think they would have won the gold either.) As for dance -- I'm not even going to go there. It's been over 22 years now since that whole Blumberg/Seibert/Idiotic Italian Judge fiasco, and I can still rant and rave for half an hour about it......

JonnyCoop said:

The overall results there certainly were, IMO, a bit odd, considering the results of the 2 Worlds preceding Sarajevo.
If some sort of judging conspiracy was at work there (and there HAD to have been), and if they wanted to go Russian, then I feel they should have picked Kondrashova. I have never read one positive thing about Kondrashova's skating over the years, but I personally felt that of the 3 Russian ladies there, Kondrashova was the best. (I actually liked her skating when she was able to stay on her feet.)
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Odd results indeed. The best free skaters were clearly Witt and the three Americans (the only skaters there worth being in the final group IMHO). It's too bad that fgures weren't recorded in any way.
I too preferred Kondrashova over Ivanova or Vodorezova.

I really didn't follow figure skating back then (except during the Olympics), but I remember Torvill & Dean's brilliant performance of Bolero and seeing Kitty & Peter on the podium with a silver medal. What delighted me the most, however, was watching Brian Orser skate in Sarajevo. I was so thrilled that he continued to compete on the eligible side through 1988, but I could kick myself for not really following the sport between 1984 and 1988. Apparently I missed out on a lot of great skating, so ever since, I've been trying my best to make up for that.

yup

yeah, you pretty much summed it up, for me Sarajevo was some of the most exciting performances for American figure skaters.....especially Kitty and Peter, I still get chills when I watch that performance! Blumeberg and Siebert, well what can I say, so much controversy and Im glad that they had the guts to call the judges on that. Still dont know what the Ivanova thing was about, she SUCKED. and had dirty skates.

iluvtodd said:

What delighted me the most, however, was watching Brian Orser skate in Sarajevo. I was so thrilled that he continued to compete on the eligible side through 1988, but I could kick myself for not really following the sport between 1984 and 1988. Apparently I missed out on a lot of great skating, so ever since, I've been trying my best to make up for that.

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I didn't watch the 84 Olympics at the time, but have since seen tapes of the performances, and I agree that Orser's skate was incredible. He won both the short and long programs, but Hamilton got the gold due to his and Orser's figure scores. This was the year that Orser really should have won the gold, in my opinion, but the judges had him so low in figures that the best he could do was the silver. Although I think Boitano deserved the gold in Calgary, after watching tapes of Sarejevo, I really felt sorry for Orser when he was second again.