Ladies - A Look Back (Video List)

[reynycpr]

I did this in the U.S. Nationals section and thought it would be nice to do it again seeing as how Worlds is fast approaching! (Maybe Mrs. P‎ can link up the Men's videos like last time too

Video list of past World Champions - 30 Years of Champions
1981 - Denise Biellmann
*First Ladies Triple Lutz
1982 - Elaine Zayak
1983 - Rosalynn Sumners
1984 - Katarina Witt
1985 - Katarina Witt
1986 - Debi Thomas
1987 - Katarina Witt
1988 - Katarina Witt
1989 - Midori Ito
*First Ladies Triple Axel
1990 - Jill Trenary
1991 - Kristi Yamaguchi
*I believe the last time any country swept the podium at Worlds (USA - Kristi, Tonya, Nancy)
1992 - Kristi Yamaguchi
*Still stands as the last woman to win Worlds & Olympics in the same year, but then again, Yu-Na has been the only OC since then to try.
1993 - Oksana Baiul
1994 - Yuka Sato
1995 - Chen Lu
1996 - Michelle Kwan
1997 - Tara Lipinski
1998 - Michelle Kwan
1999 - Maria Butyrskaya
2000 - Michelle Kwan
2001 - Michelle Kwan
2002 - Irina Slutskaya
2003 - Michelle Kwan
2004 - Shizuka Arakawa
2005 - Irina Slutskaya
2006 - Kimmie Meissner
2007 - Miki Ando
2008 - Mao Asada
2009 - Kim Yu-Na
2010 - Mao Asada
2011 - ????

Enjoy!
& Good Luck to all the Ladies!

edited...found Meissner's LP

[prettykeys]

Wow, thank you, reynycpr! That must have taken some time.

So many Michelle Kwans and Katarina Witts...hehe.

[reynycpr]

No prob! More thanks goes to those who uploaded the videos on YouTube. Its just nice to be able go to a website and take a quick look at a Championship program some 50+ years ago!
Yea Michelle and Katarina made it a little easier adding and searching for vids. lol

[Layfan]

Wow, thank you, reynycpr! That must have taken some time.

So many Michelle Kwans and Katarina Witts...hehe.

I always can't help but to wish for someone like that again. On the one hand, it's great to see more people have their days. On the other hand, it's exciting to watch people like Michelle and Kat and Dick Button and Michael Phelps become legends.

I think it is particularly impressive that Katarina stuck around to defend her gold medal. I wonder if we we will ever see that again. Well, I guess Plushenko gave an astonishingly impressive go at it but he took time off in between.
It must be so difficult, once you've won the top prize in your sport, to find the motivation to go through that gruel for four more years. Especially in a sport where your prime years can be so short.

I also am always so impressed that Irina and Michelle stayed at the top of their game, or near it, for so long. Irina was at three Olympics! In their case, I'm sure the elusive Olympic gold medal was something of a motivation. But whatever the motivation, it was great to be able to see them skating competitively as long as they did.

If there is one skater who I wish had stuck competitive skating around it is Oksana Baiul. She won an Olympic Gold medal but I always thought she wasn't even the best she could be in 1994.

[reynycpr]

If there is one skater who I wish had stuck competitive skating around it is Oksana Baiul. She won an Olympic Gold medal but I always thought she wasn't even the best she could be in 1994.

Agreed!

[Layfan]

What a glorious skate by Denise Biellmann! Does anyone know why she didn't stick around for the next Olympics? I noticed she had competed in five previous world champions (and an Olympics). Did she just decide she was through with competitive skating?

[reynycpr]

^^yea I'm not sure why she didn't stick around either, but I do remember when watching her skate in pro-competitions, Scott Hamilton was commentating on how at the 1980 Olympics she was so close to a medal considering she won the LP but had a crappy compulsory skate.

Also, I know I put *first ladies 3lz under her link but she first did it in 1977 or 78 I think

[dorispulaski]

What a glorious skate by Denise Biellmann! Does anyone know why she didn't stick around for the next Olympics? I noticed she had competed in five previous world champions (and an Olympics). Did she just decide she was through with competitive skating?

AFAIR, from back in the day, she had competed at the Olympics the year before, and had won a World Championship. In 1981, you couldn't get paid to skate, and skaters left the sport because it was expensive to train, and the money just wasn't there. You had to go pro. (And Denise had an amazing pro career!)

[Joesitz]

All that was in the 6.0 system, never to be seen again since the scores are by the numbers and not by musical appreciation.

The FREE Skate told us more about the skater and her skating than the robotic numbers of individual tricks.

[jatale]

I respectfully disagree about the 6.0 system which was fundamentally flawed and riddled with political intrigue. I think the new COP is an improvement in every way. Politics have not been completely eliminated, but have been reduced to noise level and the COP can be adjusted to give more weighting to artistic elements if need be. Frankly, to my eyes, skaters like Yu-Na have demonstrated that athleticism and artistry can be successfully combined under the COP to craft beautiful programs. While technical tricks can be successfully taught and learned, artistry is more inate, some skaters have it and others don't. I don't think you can blame the COP system if artistry is lacking, it points more to skaters who feel safer trying to do tricks than bare their soul.

[miki88]

I respectfully disagree about the 6.0 system which was fundamentally flawed and riddled with political intrigue. I think the new COP is an improvement in every way. Politics have not been completely eliminated, but have been reduced to noise level and the COP can be adjusted to give more weighting to artistic elements if need be. Frankly, to my eyes, skaters like Yu-Na have demonstrated that athleticism and artistry can be successfully combined under the COP to craft beautiful programs. While technical tricks can be successfully taught and learned, artistry is more inate, some skaters have it and others don't. I don't think you can blame the COP system if artistry is lacking, it points more to skaters who feel safer trying to do tricks than bare their soul.

really? I don't see it. The CoP didn't reduce political involvement much; it just complicated the process a bit. At least in the 6.0 system, it was clear to us all and we can laugh about it at times.

[jatale]

really? I don't see it. The CoP didn't reduce political involvement much; it just complicated the process a bit. At least in the 6.0 system, it was clear to us all and we can laugh about it at times.

The random selection of 9 of 12 judges and the discarding of the high and low scores leaving only 7 judges seems like a pretty effective method to minimize the possibility of politically aligned voting. You would have to have a clique of block voting that comprised probably at least 5 out of the 12 judges to have much of a chance of having a determinative effect on the results. Not very likely it seems to me.

[Joesitz]

In spite of the skullduggery of the 6.0 system, it produced many more beautiful Ladies performances. That's what I and others are writing about. We are not comparing which system is more honest. That's another topic and well written about. You can start a new post and rekindle the scandal(s) of the 6.0 system, if you wish, but for this topic it is of my opinion that

The best performances of Ladies Skaters are found in the 6.0 system. (on topic).

Since then, Mao has given us a 3A, and Yuna has given us Speed. but no other skaters perform more than what the points allow.

[Layfan]

AFAIR, from back in the day, she had competed at the Olympics the year before, and had won a World Championship. In 1981, you couldn't get paid to skate, and skaters left the sport because it was expensive to train, and the money just wasn't there. You had to go pro. (And Denise had an amazing pro career!)

Thanks She did indeed have a great pro career. The pro videos were how I was introduced to her skating and then I went back and watched some of her competitions, although rarely. Fantastic the way she stayed in such great shape for so long. She definitely could have kept competiting had things been different.

[Joesitz]

Thanks She did indeed have a great pro career. The pro videos were how I was introduced to her skating and then I went back and watched some of her competitions, although rarely. Fantastic the way she stayed in such great shape for so long. She definitely could have kept competiting had things been different.

That's the way it was. I remember donating money to a campaign for Stephane Lambiel when he first began to show his talent. The Swiss Fed never gave him a sou.