2000 Goodwill Games | Golden Skate

2000 Goodwill Games

krenseby

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Hey does anyone here remember the ladies figure skating competition at the 2000 Goodwill Games? I came across Oksana and Nancy's programs on YouTube and I was hoping to find the other competitors' programs as well but they weren't there. For those who watched it, what did you think of it? Was it just another one of those endless pro skating competitions with the same skaters and programs? Or perhaps did you enjoy watching some of the performances? One thing that confuses me about competitions like that is the very idea of them being competitions. With so few triples attempted, should viewers really be impressed by the "technical prowess" of these so-called competitors? Michelle, Maria, Irina, and Sarah would have put all of these women to shame.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
This was the Winter Goodwill Games (I think it was the only one). It was held in February, when the active eligible skaters could not participate because of Worlds, etc. So, yeah, it was one of those pro exhibition type competitions.

The real Goodwill Games were held in the summer of 2001. Slutskaya beat Kwan in the ladies, Plushenko for the men, Berexhnaya and Sikharudlidze in pairs and Lobacheva and Averbukh in dance.

The Goodwill Games were stared by TV mogul Ted Turner in response to all of the cold war related boycotts of the Olympics. In 2000 he sold his enterprise to Time Warner, which did not put any effort into continuing the tradition. I think the 2001 edition was the last one.

Here's Michelle from the 1998 competition. :love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPTN9aL8gJI
 

russell30

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 14, 2004
Hey does anyone here remember the ladies figure skating competition at the 2000 Goodwill Games? I came across Oksana and Nancy's programs on YouTube and I was hoping to find the other competitors' programs as well but they weren't there. For those who watched it, what did you think of it? Was it just another one of those endless pro skating competitions with the same skaters and programs? Or perhaps did you enjoy watching some of the performances? One thing that confuses me about competitions like that is the very idea of them being competitions. With so few triples attempted, should viewers really be impressed by the "technical prowess" of these so-called competitors? Michelle, Maria, Irina, and Sarah would have put all of these women to shame.

Yes I still have that tournament on old VHS tape.

Surya Bonaly won the ladies with "Carmine Meo" by Emma Shapplin and was a beautiful performance.

Yuka Sato also had a lovely program to Holland's version of "Hatfull Of Stars"

In the Pairs Kazakova/Dmitriev won with "Spent Le stelle" also by Emma Shapplin that was a good performance

Woetzel/Steuer had a modern take on "Storm" by Vanessa Mae which was powerful and joyful to watch.

My best memory was the Ice Dance Punsalan/Swallow winning with "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" version by John Williams (Cinema Serenade CD) THAT WAS CLASS

The Men's Kurt Browning had a lovely program (dressed as clown) that was comedy
 

trains

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 2, 2004
I was there and watched the competition. It was great fun: one of those pro competitions from the heyday of skating. It was judged out of 10.0 by former skaters like Petra Burka, Barbara Ann Scott and Donald Jackson among others. The programs were more toward the show side of things.Ted Turner was in the audience watching with his family. Oksana had a tantrum after the competition when she didn't win. Lake Placid was beautiful in the snow and there was dog sledding and snow slides available on the frozen lake.
 
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