Michelle was phenomenal. But...she had some many other great moments, I'd have to give this one to Paul. His Albertville free skate (while not technically perfect) was packed with emotion and energy. He took the whole skating world by surprise with his Olympic silver (should have been gold in my opinion) and I'll never tire of viewing that performance again and again. In my mind, he set the standard for artistry in men's skating (from the 90s on, Curry did the same in the 70s) and that is exactly the type of style I want to see more of.
I couldn't chose just one. It would have to be between Paul Wylie's and M&D's. It was so wonderful to see Paul pull it off after so many years and tries. M&D's program was so powerful and dramatic and very worthy of a Gold medal.
Definitely Paul. His performance was worthy of the gold medal, whereas Michelle's, compared to Tara's inspired performance, unfortunately, was not. (BTW, I am NOT a Tara fan at all!)
Definitely Paul's. He deserved the Gold. Petrenko's Worlds performance was worthy of that Gold, but Paul should have had the Olympic Gold. His performance that night should have won.
They're all great choices, but I'd have to go with other-Liz Manley in 88. Maybe it's the Canadain perspective, but wow, that was a fantastic silver performance.
All the skaters were not only worthy of the silver medals they won, but on any other night, the gold........but I chose Paul Wylie. His skate was one of the most inspiring I have every seen....42
Ok I remember very little other than PAUL's skate at the 92 Olys(and thanks to a Kurt Kompilation I have his on file now too) but I do remember Auntie Marge(the one who got me obessesed with the sport) being upset saying Wylie should have won... personally I can't say so what's the feelings from those of you who remember Petrenko's skates?
I haven't seen the competition in a while, but I think both skaters landed five or six triples. Petrenko did have a 3a/3t, but he also fell out of a jump and took a tumble on his other 3a attempt. Paul had a couple steps in between combinations and a failed 3s attempt. I would have given Petrenko the edge technically by a small margin. His program didn't have all that much choreography and there was a lot of stroking and jump set up though. Paul's program was beautifully choreographed and paced. Viktor seemed tenative and flat. Paul was explosive and whipped that French crowd into a frenzy! But, it was close, and Viktor was a respected veteran and co-favorite so I think they gave him the benefit of the doubt. Paul had always been hugely inconsistent and had finished 11th at the 1991 Worlds. I still don't see how in the world Wylie got a 5th place ordinal though! But, I think it was from CZE, and Czech Peter Barna had been in second place after the technical program...perhaps they wanted to secure him the silver medal. LOL, or, disregard my conspiracy theories, maybe they honestly didn't like Paul's style or performance that night.