Least Talented/Worthy Olympic Champion(s) ever?

Sarah was electric... no way is she least deserving.

Urmanov wasn't as bad as so many make him out to be, either.

Blades of Passion said:

I'd place Linda over Anett, but she wasn't GREAT either. Denise Beillmann should have won the 1980 Olympics! And Emi Watanabe should have won 1980 Worlds! Let's take a moment to appreciate this special Japanese lady:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzNDUiHkai8

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agreed! linda vs. anett is one of the most mediocre rivalries in women's skating. although, anett's "funny girl" free skate in '80 was actually a much improved vehicle for her, and she had clean, solid edges and jumps. linda, however, always struck me as milquetoast on ice, and while much has been made of how she "wuzrobbed" at the olympics, this revisionist history forgets that biellmann won the free in lake placid. the best free skaters of '76-80 were without a doubt biellmann, watanabe, lisa-marie allen, and for a brief moment, the prodigious excitement of elena vodorezova.

I would also go with Sarah Hughes. Urmanov at least skated better than the others at that event. But I didn't even think that Hughes skated better @ SLC, just that the scoring was not quite right. Even with Kwan and Slutskaya faltering, I think they were still better.

I would also echo that Sale and Pelletier were undeserving.

I do in general think one's reputation should not matter and that whoever skates best should win just like in all the other sporting events. My biggest hope is that everyone skates clean and the best one wins fairly and squarely..

Of the ones, I've seen..

Women - Oksana Baiul or Sarah Hughes. I actually prefer Sarah to Oksana. Oksana never would have won against Michelle or Tara in '98. I'm not sure if she would even have beat Kristi or Midori with their '92 performances. I've never seen Poetzsch.

Men - I was pretty moved by Lysacek's performance in 2010 so I don't want to say him, although you could make a case for him losing to Plushenko OR Takahashi OR both in the SP. I barely remember Urmanov's performance, besides that it wasn't earth-shatteringly wonderful. I guess I'll go with Scott Hamilton since his LP was horrid, and without the figures I doubt he would have won.

Pairs - I actually can't recall any pairs whom I think didn't deserve the title.. Shen and Zhao didn't skate a good LP in 2010 but they still deserved the title.. I think neither B/S nor S/P were unworthy in 2002. If I had to choose I guess I would go with K/D in 1998 since they were underwhelming in comparison with M/D.

Dance - Can't think of any, although Navka/Kostomarov weren't very interesting.

Grischuk/Platov's second gold was also well-deserved. The dance was very good, that was a real dance, they danced so close to each other, what is very difficult. And they were able to do that very fast. And for me Platov is the best dancer ever. And I disagre with the opinion on Navka/ Kostomarov, too.

Blades of Passion said:

I'd place Linda over Anett, but she wasn't GREAT either. Denise Beillmann should have won the 1980 Olympics! And Emi Watanabe should have won 1980 Worlds! Let's take a moment to appreciate this special Japanese lady:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzNDUiHkai8

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Wow, Emi was so good, this was like a textbook.

TontoK said:

Grishuk and Platov... the first time.

Their stirring rendition of "Rock Around the Clock" beats the sublime, and much more deserving U/Z, as well as T/D on their Olympic comeback.

I really can't say that much about the second OGM, since I had lost so much interest in ice dance by then that I hardly watched it at all.

I didn't enjoy their skating at all. I especially did not like her.

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U&Z was a sublime couple, but unfortunately, I don't think their Fellini program fully expressed their talents. It was a very mediocre and uninteresting program for their standards.

Pairs: Sale/Pelletier should have gotten silver
Men: Manfred Schwarz
Ladies: Sarah Hughes was way too up after the sp, silver for her would have been a big achievement
Dance: Gritshuk/Platov in 1994 (they were good, but did not deserve to win, IMO)

I donno know whether there should be any 'least talented' Olympic Champ. To reach that level and win gold is something most can only dream of.
Unworthy? That is very subjective. It sounds like 'wuzrobbed'.

Jaana said:

Pairs: Sale/Pelletier should have gotten silver
Men: Manfred Schwarz
Ladies: Sarah Hughes was way too up after the sp, silver for her would have been a big achievement
Dance: Gritshuk/Platov in 1994 (they were good, but did not deserve to win, IMO)

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I think G&P won by default. T&D would have won except they screwed themselves with that illegal lift. U&Z's program just wasn't up to par.

wordsworthgirl said:

I kind of agree with you. I could appreciate their speed and difficulty, but U and Z were indeed sublime. and I found Pasha superficial and mugging in her presentation-not a true artist. I did like Platov a lot, though.

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I think th eproblem was that the love was lost between Usova and Zhulin and they were forced to do no romantic programs which was their forte otherwise they would have won.

blue_idealist said:

Oksana never would have won against Michelle or Tara in '98. I'm not sure if she would even have beat Kristi or Midori with their '92 performances. I've never seen Poetzsch.

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I think Oksana is among the most talented all-around skaters ever to compete in the sport, and she won a world title, so I don't think she should be considered either the least talented or the least worthy champion. Any champion pre-1994 also would not have won in 1998 so I'm not sure what that has to do with it.

This seems like a thinly veiled bashing thread. The obvious answer is that if skaters won Olympic gold, they're all very talented. As far as being worthy, I would say Plushenko deserved to beat Lysacek (although, Lysacek maximized the rules and Plushenko left points on the table, so it's understandable why Lysacek won). I don't get the Hughes bashing... she had a decent SP, and in her FS, she was the only one who truly went for it - even with the URs. It would have been a bit of a downer if Kwan or Slutskaya won when their freeskates had visible errors and were tentatively skated.

Sarah Hughes for ladies. Evan Lysacek for men. S/P for pairs and Navka/Kostomarov for dance.

The entire whining by S/P was just riddiculous. Had they let it be and taken that silver home, they would've been much better remembered than they actually are IMO.
Sarah Hughes was by no means better than Slustkaya or Kwan and yet one stupid competition gave her the right to be among world's best skaters
Lysacek will go down in history as the champion without a quad. Not a very good thing to be remembered for.
And finally N/K. they were so mediocre and frankly, nobody even remembers them any more, nobody talks about them. they were simply so-so and yet beat many much better and more talented teams in Torino (both D/S, D/V, B/A).

CanadianSkaterGuy said:

This seems like a thinly veiled bashing thread.

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:yes: Why go back in time when there are so many untalented and unworthy boys and girls out there right now for us to bash.

Mathman said:

:yes: Why go back in time when there are so many untalented and unworthy boys and girls out there right now for us to bash.

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Or talented and worthy ones out there right now for us to still bash, for that matter!

drivingmissdaisy said:

I think Oksana is among the most talented all-around skaters ever to compete in the sport, and she won a world title, so I don't think she should be considered either the least talented or the least worthy champion. Any champion pre-1994 also would not have won in 1998 so I'm not sure what that has to do with it.

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I would contest your last sentence, actually. The level of skating in 1992 was actually higher than it was in almost everyone in 1998. Remember that Kristi had a triple-triple, and her jumps were bigger than Tara's. And Ito, of course, had a triple axel, which she managed to execute at the 1992 Olympics. So if those two ladies had shown up in 1998 at their 1992 peaks, they might have beaten both Michelle and Tara.

As for Oksana: I don't want to disparage her, but her world title in 1993 came because everyone else completely fell apart. It was a terrible competition, and her early skate held up after everyone else (especially poor Nancy Kerrigan) just couldn't measure up. Wasn't that the year that U.S. ladies lost their third spot for Worlds and Olympics the next year? This has nothing to do with whether or not Oksana deserved to win the Olympics the next year, but I don't think that the 1993 Worlds gold specifically was an indication of extraordinary talent on Oksana's part.

SimplyLex said:

The entire whining by S/P was just riddiculous. Had they let it be and taken that silver home, they would've been much better remembered than they actually are IMO.
Sarah Hughes was by no means better than Slustkaya or Kwan and yet one stupid competition gave her the right to be among world's best skaters
Lysacek will go down in history as the champion without a quad.

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agreed S/P whining and crocodile tears were disgusting
the most vile and nastiest pair that ever existed

I think Schuba triumphs over Hughes as the most underserved lady
no need to include Oksana she was a one World wonder even more than Tara

Trixie Schuba was absolutely the best ever in a sport (figure skating) that no longer exists on the competitive scene. She is no more undeserving than Gillis Grafstrom, who also excelled in that sport, and won 3 Olympics.

Anyone who thinks figures is not skating has never done figures. It's all about deep, correct edging and turns-something a lot of our current skaters could use more of, IMO.

No one who is the all time best at anything is undeserving, IMO. Outdated, maybe, but deserving.


I'm OK with dissing Wolfgang Schwarz though...who wouldn't be.

And I agree that the first Olympic win of G&P, (who were great, deserving, skaters and deserved their OGM win in 1998); their 1994 win was undeserved because they also had illegal moves, and they weren't penalized for them, while T&D were-I'd have docked both T&D and G&P for illegal moves, and given the gold medal to U&Z.

If you want to fault Sara Hughes for 2002, you should also fault Tara for 1998- if she skated today, her flutzing, UR's and most of all, the impossibility today of getting credit for a 3Lo3Lo combo would have sunk her in the standings. But I don't think either of them are undeserving, so I won't vote for either. They didn't skate under modern rules.

A case can be made for Oksana Baiul, because in her era you were not supposed to get credit for 2 footed jumps, and she had plenty of them, and appeared to receive credit. Also you were supposed to have a combination. Nancy should have won, as much as I have always found her a boring skater.

In pairs, the 2nd win of G&G in 1994 was probably the pairs win that I find most troubling-I would have given it to Mishketunok & Dmitriev. G&G just made too many mistakes and had lesser difficulty. They won the second medal on reputation. Their first win in 1988 was utterly sublime, though. They were, like G&P, deserving skaters, they just didn't deserve one of their 2 OGMs.

CanadianSkaterGuy said:

This seems like a thinly veiled bashing thread. The obvious answer is that if skaters won Olympic gold, they're all very talented.

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Agreed. I don't enjoy such mean-spirited threads.

wordsworthgirl said:

I agree with you that Alexei performed well in that Olympics. However, he never did well again and was not a truly great skater who will be one for the ages.

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Often being "one for the ages" comes down to having one's best skate on a big occasion, and also being embraced by the public. Of course, to some degree it depends which public we're talking about. The way the media set up the contest and react to the results will affect how the viewers perceive the winner. And there will be different media setups/reactions in different countries, in different media outlets.

As for Urmanov, I think he had quite a few better performances than the Olympic long program later in his career. But they weren't at Worlds---the pressure of being expected to live up to the Olympic title seems to have affected his competition nerves, and later injury.

It would be harder to argue with the worthiness of these performances vs. the Lillehammer long programs, apart from the matter of taste that one might prefer different styles of choreography and costumes -- and other skaters might have also skated better at those events.


1994 Olympics wasn't the strongest event despite the number of past and future champions competing -- perhaps because of the 2-year time gap, it involved skaters past their peak vs. those who had not yet reached their peak. Urmanov improved after 1994, but so did Stojko and Eldredge and sometimes Zagorodniuk and Candeloro, and then Kulik came along, and then Yagudin, and then Plushenko...