What PROGRAM made you a fan of figure skating? | Golden Skate

What PROGRAM made you a fan of figure skating?

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Am I the only one who fell in love with the sport simply watching one program? I hope not.

Mine was Scott Hamilton's Georgia On My Mind (can't find a youtube vid, would love someone forever if they found it). I was turning four, and the idea of him talking to a radio was just mesmerizing, and then the backflip sealed the deal. It's one of my first true memories of my childhood. I've been hooked ever since.

So what PROGRAM grabbed your interest and turned you to the sport?
 

Lightbulb

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Mine was Shen and Zhao's Turandot.

Randomly, I removed Joy Goodwin's book "The Second Mark" from a shelf in a Houston library. It was about figure skating, a sport I enjoy watching whenever I catch it on TV. The book proved to be a good read and the epilogue talked about S/Z's performance at Worlds 2003. I was intrigued by what was written in the book - that many former pairs champions acknowleged this program as one of the best of all time.

Then I got to see it in Youtube, and oh man, my reaction to it was even more than I imagined. It was magical! S/Z were technically perfect, and yet they reached this higher plane artistically.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qqHEd0Bq9o
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I agree about that Shen and Zhao program, Lightbulb. If I hadn't already been a fan of skating, that would have done it for me. The Second Mark is a great book, too. I should reread it now that Shen and Zhao have grown so splendidly as artists as well as athletically.

With me, it was John Curry's Olympic program. Many others have kept me here along the way. Browning's pro programs, Kwan of course, lots of ice dancers, and now Mao and YuNa. I realize that skating isn't going downhill, despite less visibility on TV. It's rising and growing. I think I'll hang around it for the foreseeable future!
 

Lightbulb

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
It was really serendipitous. I was just scanning the shelves of the library, and decided which books to borrow by reading the summary or reviews on the back cover. I passed over Lance Armstrong's book and selected The Second Mark.

I watched the Turandot program again and again. It's funny to remember now. I was then in the middle of perhaps the most difficult rotation in medical school. And everytime I got tired of reading this very thick textbook, I'll go to youtube, watch this program that was very uplifting, then I can go back to studying! :laugh:
 

1795

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 6, 2006
Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder's "Carnival in Venice" Free Dance 2006 Torino Olympics- sublime.
 
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pista04

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 27, 2007
Sasha Cohen's 2006 Olympic performance of "Romeo and Juliet". While not perfect, it truly moved me, as it did so many others. =]
 

Mafke

Medalist
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Probably Linda Fratianne's 1976 nationals LP. Don't remember much of it now. Fratianne was also the first skater whose career I kind of followed (not easy to do given the lousy media infrastructure of the times).
 

Ivana

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
1998 Olympics, Grishuk & Platov and their free dance Memorial. Even after 12 years I've still chills when I watch it.
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
I became a fan of figure skating by watching pairs: The freeskate of Marika Kilius/Hans Jurgen Baumler in 1964. The skating of men started to interest me since John Curry came onto the scene and in ladies Peggy Fleming.
 

Ren

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
I can't remember anymore what program it was that first made me a fan, as I was quite young then. I have this really vague memory of watching pairs skating :love: ; it might have been during the 1988 Winter Olympics, so maybe (I'm not sure if it's wishful thinking or I'm revising my personal history...) it was one of G&G's programs. I seem to recall watching ladies, too, circa late 80s-90s. Skating was irregularly shown on TV in my country, so the ignorant little me probably watched Kristi Yamaguchi/ Oksana Baiul/ Chen Lu/ Michelle Kwan and wasn't even aware of who they were. To be perfectly honest, the only real clear memory/landmark was watching the film The Cutting Edge (mid-90s, I think?).

I only got back into skating last year because of the convenience of Youtube. :biggrin: The skating program that had me from the get-go? Yu-Na Kim's Scheherazade at Worlds. :love: And from then on, it was a slippery slope into everything figure skating. :)
 

iluvtodd

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
Watching the "Battle of the Brians" and Midori Ito in the 1988 Calgary Olympics did it for me!
 

disneygal 2001

Spectator
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Boitano's Long Program in Calgary. I have never seen him skate before. After that, I was hooked-on skating in general and Boitano's skating in particular.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I skated for a few years in the early-mid 1970s. So I also watched on TV to see elite skaters doing well what I was only just learning. But I wouldn't say that any specific program back then made me a fan. I guess I was most impressed by John Curry.

Then after I quit doing it myself, for many years I paid no attention to skating, or only during the Olympics.

It was in 1991-92 that I first started following the sport closely again.

These were the programs that excited me the most that year:

Tonya Harding 1991 Skate America LP

Duchesnays 1992 Olympics FD
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
I skated for a few years in the early-mid 1970s. So I also watched on TV to see elite skaters doing well what I was only just learning. But I wouldn't say that any specific program back then made me a fan. I guess I was most impressed by John Curry.

Then after I quit doing it myself, for many years I paid no attention to skating, or only during the Olympics.

It was in 1991-92 that I first started following the sport closely again.

These were the programs that excited me the most that year:

Tonya Harding 1991 Skate America LP

Duchesnays 1992 Olympics FD

Thanks for the clips. The Duchesnays were the first Dance team I really followed and still my favorites.

Would Tonya have been better off in the CoP era?
 
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