Tough Skate at Albertville

Here is a most unfortunate LP I remember from the Albertville Olympics.

A very young Laetitia Hubert, in 5th place after her SP had a shot at an Olympic medal but it was not to be.

I wonder if there was a problem with the ice as many skaters had falls including Kristi and Midori. Or maybe it was Olympic pressure. :yes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGgpsfsKTzU&feature=related


Can anyone think of a more unfortunate program than this one?

ETA: Kristi's first interview after winning the OGM is at the end of the clip.

janetfan said:

Can anyone think of a more unfortunate program than this one?.

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Carolina Kostner's free skate in LA last year. Although she's not one of my favorite skaters, it broke my heart seeing her pop like a Pringles can last year (once you pop, you just can't stop).

HCOSurfer said:

Carolina Kostner's free skate in LA last year. Although she's not one of my favorite skaters, it broke my heart seeing her pop like a Pringles can last year (once you pop, you just can't stop).

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Yes, I agree that was an unfortunate skate for Caro.
Surpisingly she still finished ahead of Alissa who had one of her very best LP's.
The magic of CoP scoring

Of course Tomas could probably be mentioned multiple times as he is a true "master of disaster."
Hope he is feeling better and has a strong showing at the GPF.

Kimmie at Nationals or Worlds in 2008? Very sad.

Spun Silver said:

Kimmie at Nationals or Worlds in 2008? Very sad.

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That was so sad I think I blanked it out of my memory.

Miki Ando has had a few major league meltdowns, the most recent at last season's WTT.

Spun Silver said:

Kimmie at Nationals or Worlds in 2008? Very sad.

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I did not see her skate at the Nationals, but her free skate at the Worlds 2008 was not as bad as Letitia Hubert's skate. No way. She underrotated her triple flip triple toeloop combination and fell on the underrotated triple salchow and underotated triple lutz but still had two clean trples and two double axels.

Kimmie's 2008 Nationals free skate was much worse, poor girl fell 3 times :no:

From 1993 Worlds here is Nancy K, 1st after her SP with a shot at winning the WC. This LP was not one of her better skates as she dropped off the podium.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diHF...C6D00D60&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=48

HCOSurfer said:

Carolina Kostner's free skate in LA last year. Although she's not one of my favorite skaters, it broke my heart seeing her pop like a Pringles can last year (once you pop, you just can't stop).

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Yeah, it always break your heart to see skaters bomb like that. Especially if they are your favorites. As for Hubert she seemed to have the same mental problems as CK. Lovely skater, but often failed. I think her best placement was 4# in worlds though.

Fool or Fighter, you decide.

After four huge mistake in the first 2 minutes I would have ran out of the arena screaming never to be seen again. The poor girl kept fighting through. She did manage to land one clean triple salcow among that nightmare.

I always felt that the Olympics was a monkey on her back, 98 was equally bad. I believe by 2002 she manage to produce a decent goodbye number.

Many skaters have had bad skates but, this one I think is by far the worse of them all.

MasterB said:

Fool or Fighter, you decide.

After four huge mistake in the first 2 minutes I would have ran out of the arena screaming never to be seen again. The poor girl kept fighting through. She did manage to land one clean triple salcow among that nightmare.

I always felt that the Olympics was a monkey on her back, 98 was equally bad. I believe by 2002 she manage to produce a decent goodbye number.

Many skaters have had bad skates but, this one I think is by far the worse of them all.

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I think we remember Hubert because she was a good skater and had a long career.

Sometimes I think back to 1973 and the rule change that devalued figures and introduced the SP for the first time.

Janet Lynn turned down a huge Pro contract offer for another shot at a WC under the new rules. During her SP Janet fell on a jump she rarely missed - a 2A - and then fell on it again.

After a night of tears and knowing she couldn't win Janet came out the next day and did what she always did and won the free skate.

Even the best of the best have off nights and bad luck sometimes.
Kurt Browning and the Olympics come to mind.

The minute I saw the title of this thread, I felt pretty sure it would be the Laetitia Hubert free skate. It's routines like that that make me think that figure skaters are among the bravest people in the world (not counting rescue workers, firefighters, people in the military, and cops, of course). To keep going in public (with hundreds of millions watching on TV) after everything falls apart is an unfathomable act of sheer grit to me.

If you count simply terrible skates, Kostner and a few others would certainly be up there--the ones who single all but one of their jumps and fall multiple times. But if you consider the stakes for an otherwise top skater, I agree that Kerrigan's wipeout in 93 has to be included. That was Nancy's year to be crowned. instead, Kerrigan and a few others had an awful skate in that Worlds, and by default, the previously obscure Oksana Baiul, who had already skated and received an okay score, won. Remember how shocked she was to win? That gold medal gave her her international reputation and possibly squeezed out the tiny margin (a tenth of a point, was it?) by which she defeated Kerrigan for the Olympics the next year. Not that I'm saying she didn't deserve it, but she went from nowhere to the top on the strength of that one day's work.

Maybe because I'm so fond of Browning, I'd include his fall (or was it two falls?) from the short program in '94. He was about the best skater of his era, and instead of his winning any medal at the Olympics, the gold went to Urmanov, a correct but not great skater who never again reached any kind of pinnacle. Poetic justice, though: Browning did so well as a pro skater afterward (as well as having earned a slew of World championships, of course) that it really doesn't seem to matter at all that he was 0-for-3 in his Olympic career. There is absolutely nothing of the "heartbreak kid" about him. When I think of him and Kwan, I remind myself that Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, and Fred Astaire never won Oscars for individual film performances. It doesn't seem to have hurt their status as icons.

Watching Kimmie fall apart was painful, I agree; I don't remember what year it was, but it was very difficult to watch. It was harder than watching Alissa when she's not on. Kimmie had a triple axel and triple-triples, for Pete's sake. Somewhere in the fourth dimension, her lost jumps are wowing the likes of Amelia Earhart and Judge Crater to this day.

HCOSurfer said:

Carolina Kostner's free skate in LA last year. Although she's not one of my favorite skaters, it broke my heart seeing her pop like a Pringles can last year (once you pop, you just can't stop).

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LMAO.

Now I'm hungry.

For Italian.

janetfan said:

Yes, I agree that was an unfortunate skate for Caro.
Surpisingly she still finished ahead of Alissa who had one of her very best LP's.
The magic of CoP scoring

Of course Tomas could probably be mentioned multiple times as he is a true "master of disaster."
Hope he is feeling better and has a strong showing at the GPF.

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The magic of CoP indeed! I think Sasha was painful to watch when she fell on her first jump, and put her hands down on her second at Torino-I thought it was over for her although I thought she really showed guts to carry on like she did. And she was fortunate to skate under CoP and still win the silver medal. Very fortunate.

Olympia said:

The minute I saw the title of this thread, I felt pretty sure it would be the Laetitia Hubert free skate. It's routines like that that make me think that figure skaters are among the bravest people in the world (not counting rescue workers, firefighters, people in the military, and cops, of course). To keep going in public (with hundreds of millions watching on TV) after everything falls apart is an unfathomable act of sheer grit to me.

If you count simply terrible skates, Kostner and a few others would certainly be up there--the ones who single all but one of their jumps and fall multiple times. But if you consider the stakes for an otherwise top skater, I agree that Kerrigan's wipeout in 93 has to be included. That was Nancy's year to be crowned. instead, Kerrigan and a few others had an awful skate in that Worlds, and by default, the previously obscure Oksana Baiul, who had already skated and received an okay score, won. Remember how shocked she was to win? That gold medal gave her her international reputation and possibly squeezed out the tiny margin (a tenth of a point, was it?) by which she defeated Kerrigan for the Olympics the next year. Not that I'm saying she didn't deserve it, but she went from nowhere to the top on the strength of that one day's work.

Maybe because I'm so fond of Browning, I'd include his fall (or was it two falls?) from the short program in '94. He was about the best skater of his era, and instead of his winning any medal at the Olympics, the gold went to Urmanov, a correct but not great skater who never again reached any kind of pinnacle. Poetic justice, though: Browning did so well as a pro skater afterward (as well as having earned a slew of World championships, of course) that it really doesn't seem to matter at all that he was 0-for-3 in his Olympic career. There is absolutely nothing of the "heartbreak kid" about him. When I think of him and Kwan, I remind myself that Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, and Fred Astaire never won Oscars for individual film performances. It doesn't seem to have hurt their status as icons.

Watching Kimmie fall apart was painful, I agree; I don't remember what year it was, but it was very difficult to watch. It was harder than watching Alissa when she's not on. Kimmie had a triple axel and triple-triples, for Pete's sake. Somewhere in the fourth dimension, her lost jumps are wowing the likes of Amelia Earhart and Judge Crater to this day.

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ITA with your entire post but-who's Judge Carter?:scratch:

Judge Crater was a New York judge who left a restaurant one night in about 1930 and was never seen or heard from again. Like Amelia Earhart, he became emblematic of people who vanish seemingly into thin air. Hence my comment about their being together in the fourth dimension with poor Kimmie's lost jumps. I didn't mean to make a joke at Kimmie's expense--in fact, I'd be thrilled if she turned out to be the dark horse who shows up in Spokane and wows the judges at Nationals. One of the lamentable things about figure skating is that one encounters delightful competitors and then worrywarts about them for years afterward. I still mourn the absence of Naomi Nari Nam, come to that.

Nancy Kerrigans Long at 93 worlds.....

Don't forget Nicole Bobek's 1998 Olympic performance. Speaking of Nicole, I wonder how she is doing with the drug investigation. I hope she can pull herself together one of these days!

Arianne said:

Don't forget Nicole Bobek's 1998 Olympic performance. Speaking of Nicole, I wonder how she is doing with the drug investigation. I hope she can pull herself together one of these days!

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Geez, that is another one I forgot about. :yes:

What about Johnny at last years' Natls. That was some pretty unfortunate and forgettable skating imo.

In terms of unfortunate programs, nothing can top Tomas' LP from 2008 Worlds. I wanted to cry when I saw it. I love the story that Johnny Weir gave Tomas a musical card to cheer him up after the competition that played "Simply the Best" by Tina Turner when it was opened.

Wicked said:

In terms of unfortunate programs, nothing can top Tomas' LP from 2008 Worlds. I wanted to cry when I saw it. I love the story that Johnny Weir gave Tomas a musical card to cheer him up after the competition that played "Simply the Best" by Tina Turner when it was opened.

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Tomas' '08 Worlds LP is hard to explain. I always wondered if he had a problem - like maybe he was sick or had an injury.

Johnny at '09 Worlds was not 100% due to the virus he had picked up earlier in the season. Weir atleast was undertrained.

Caro gets mentioned alot too but I think Miki can match Caro for meltdowns.

Here is another skater far from her best - Emilie's classic meltdown from TEB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igYRE6B3xL0