Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

In 1984, World's were held in Ottawa, a relatively short drive from where we were living in Vermont. We got our tickets so far in advance that we were basically sitting in the CBS booth. The commentators for the event were John Mischa Petkevich and John Tesch. Jirina Ribbens was doing details off ice. Tesh could not say Petkevich's name correctly, and was endlessly practicing hisintroduction to each segment of the event prior to ice time. It was very exciting to see how the both was run and how the camera work was integrated. This was a superb championship for quality of skating, and some day I may spring for thenridiculous prices on skatetape.com to get tapes of the whole thing.

LADIES
In the ladies event, things seesawed in the figures. Elaine Zayak and 2 good figures and one very bad one (as you might expect with her foot, it was one on forward outside edges. Both Kondrashova and Ivanova had excellent figures but a lot of trouble in the LP. With Rosalyn Sumners retired after Olympics, as you might expect, Kat Witt won, and Elaine Zayak was 3rd. Kat gave her usual sexy performance. Usually the most vivid memories you would have of an event you watched would be the ladies. In Ottawa, that wasn't the case for me. What I most remember of the ladies are Katarina Witt and Elaine Zayak showing up at the CBS booth to be interviewed after the LP. Our seats were directly next to the booth. Elaine had to wait to be interviewed, and sat down in the vacant seat next to Ski. She was very pleasant and approachable. He was so impressed that he ran out to buy a skating calendar so that she could sign it for him. This is the only autograph that either of us ever got from a skater.
Kat stood in the aisle, and she was really stunning in her costume. Here's a picture of her:
news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1565000/images/_1569241_witt2_300.jpg

Notables: Midori Ito appeared at this Worlds and was a tiny little mite, racing around with great energetic jumps. Kay Thompson, the Canadian champion, had really great spins. One of her spins was a super exaggerated crossfoot spin with
the feet really wide spread apart. Liz Manley was at this event, but I don't remember her skating.
1 Katarina Witt GDR
2 Anna Kondrashova URS
3 Elaine Zayak USA
4 Kira Ivanova URS
5 Kay Thomson CAN
6 Manuela Ruben FRG
7 Midori Ito JPN
8 Elizabeth Manley CAN
9 Sanda Dubravcic YUG
10 Sandra Cariboni SUI
11 Myriam Oberwiler SUI
12 Susan Jackson GBR
13 Karin Telser ITA
14 Constanze Gensel GDR
15 Katrien Pauwels BEL
16 Parthena Sarafidis AUT
17 Agnes Gosselin FRA
18 Cornelia Tesch FRG
19 Elise Ahonen FIN
20 Susanna Peltola FIN
21 Tamara Teglassy HUN
22 Diana Zovko AUS
23 Hyi Sung Kim KOR

MEN'S
www.canadianexcellence.com/gallery/84podium.jpg
Here's a podium picture.

The men's LP was a great program. And it was Orser vs.Hamilton, just as at Sarajevo Olympics. And again, Orser was better in the LP. And again Scott won because he was better at the figures. However, I thought he skated better than he had at Sarajevo. Scott was in the blue jump suit
with red trim. His short was to Samson and Delilah and his long was according to his fan website "Overture from Guardian of the Light - George Duke/Ren - Hiroshima/Emporer's Waltz - Strauss/Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky Yes, they had many,many cuts in programs in those days. Orser skated his
SP to Jellicle Ball from Cats, and his LP to primarily King of Kings,Pulstar, Magic Bird of Fire. He had on a purple jumpsuit with gold verticle rectangles in different sizes around his neck and wide gold cuffs. Fadeev was 3rd and I don't really remember his skating. The person I found most memorable, was Gary Beacom, skating a perfect program (although without a triple axel) to rather Oriental music. His positions and moves in field were already very unique. I understand that you can see a large section of this program in the tape "Gary Beacom: A Life At the Edge." A sad thing was that Norbert Schramm had to withdraw due to injury. Josef Sabovchik skated a memorable program with his long limbed angular good looks and huge jumps.

Brian Boitano (6th)appeared at this World's and I believe he was doing his triple axel, but I don't remember his program. Remember this is the timeframe that Tom Collins COI said of him "This skater will never amount to anything in the figure skating world. I just don't think he's going to go far (in the sport). Collins describes this statement as his "worst prediction ever".

Mark Cockerell USA finished 13th. I think his SP was the one in which he mimed shooting the judges at the end. Other notables: Kotin (8th), Filipowski (11),Barna (16th)

1 Scott Hamilton USA
2 Brian Orser CAN
3 Alexandr Fadeev URS
4 Jozef Sabovcik CZE
5 Rudi Cerne FRG
6 Brian Boitano USA
7 Heiko Fischer FRG
8 Vladimir Kotin URS
9 Gordon Forbes CAN
10 Gary Beacom CAN
11 Grzegorz Filipowski POL
12 Fernand Fedronic FRA
13 Mark Cockerell USA
14 Masaru Ogawa JPN
15 Didier Monge FRA
16 Petr Barna CZE
17 Thomas Hlavik AUT
18 Alessandro Riccitelli ITA
19 Miljan Begovic YUG
20 Paul Robinson GBR
21 Andras Szaraz HUN
22 Perry Meek AUS
23 Lars Dresler DEN
24 Fernando Soria ESP
25 Hae-Hyung Cho KOR
WDR Norbert Schramm FRG

PAIRS

The most amazing thing about the pairs was the performance of Canada's own Underhill and Martini. The event did not start auspiciously, because the rink lost power. The CBC staff was interviewing Underhill and Martini under an umbrella looking reflector with battery powered lights at the far end of the rink from us. This delayed the start of the show. However, U&M skated the absolute performance of their life with the crowd going absolutely wild and standing for at least the last 30 seconds of their performance to win the gold. Their skate was to Gershwin's Piano Concerto. Valova and Vasiliev couldn't recreate their program of the Olympics, although they were still very good. The Carruther's, having skated the performance of their life at Olympics, had retired and didn't come to World's. Jill Watson, who later skated with
Peter Oppegard, skated with Burt Lancon. They were doing this very scary spinning platter lift and she spun off and went into the boards. They had to withdraw.

1 Barbara Underhill/Paul Martini CAN Gershwin Piano Concerto
2 Elena Valova/Oleg Vasiliev URS
3 Sabine Baess/Tassilo Thierbach GDR
4 Larisa Selezneva/Oleg Makarov URS
5 Katherina Matousek/Lloyd Eisler CAN
6 Birgit Lorenz/Knut Schubert GDR
7 Cynthia Coull/Mark Rowsom CAN
8 Veronika Pershina/Marat Akbarov URS
9 Babette Preussler/Tobias Schroter GDR
10 Lea Ann Miller/William Fauver USA
WDR Claudia Massari/Leonardo Azzola FRG
WDR Jill Watson/Burt Lancon USA

The best and most memorable event of World's 1984 was without doubt the ice dance. Everyone was in love with the Olympic performance of Tovill and Dean and knew just what to expect. It is amazing to recall, but even the compulsory dances played to a nearly full house. And T&D's compulsories were truly, truly amazing; great speed, amplitude, and absolutely with everything done in exactly the same place on the icein each repetition. The OSP was to the Paso Doble.
www.franceolympique.org/SaltLake/home/images/torvill-dean3.jpg
In which Jayne had one of the great all time costumes to dress as the
cape to Chris's matador suit. As he strode up the ice to the
Da ta Da tada Tadatada section she literally fluttered behind him-if you didn't see them do it twice the exact same, you'd think it was a mistake. It was amazing. It was exciting. The crowd stood for the entire dance and applauded for the whole second repetition. The energy in the arena was so high the crowd was exhausted afterward. I have never experienced anything like this since. S&Z at World's 2003 was close, but not quite. The LP could have been an anticlimax, but wasn't. The crowd was just as excited as T&D skated their wonderful and beloved Bolero in the floating purple costumes. But for me, their Paso Doble was the very best. Blumberg and Siebert had the misfortune to also skate to Ravel's Bolero and to finish 3rd, one place above their Olympic finish. It was a lovely performance with Judy finishing with her body in a donut around Michael's body, holding her ankles and then sliding down his legs to the ice. B&B were 2nd with a typical drama program. Klimova and Ponamarenko, very young in their first World's, repeated their bronze medal performance of Sarajevo. It was a very lovely waltz program, and this time they placed behind Blumberg and Siebert in 4th. Basically, B&S's program was just a lot harder technically than K&P's.

Wilson and McCall were 6th. Fox and Dalley 8th. Elisa Spitz and Scott Gregory (who skated in 1988 with Suzie Semanick) performed a very exciting program to folk dances to finish 10th.

1984, Ottawa, Ontario
1 Jayne Torvill/Christopher Dean GBR
2 Natalia Bestemianova/Andrei Bukin URS
3 Judy Blumberg/Michael Seibert USA
4 Marina Klimova/Sergei Ponomarenko URS
5 Karen Barber/Nicholas Slater GBR
6 Tracy Wilson/Robert McCall CAN
7 Elena Batanova/Alexei Soloviev URS
8 Carol Fox/Richard Dalley USA
9 Petra Born/Rainer Schonborn FRG
10 Elisa Spitz/Scott Gregory USA
11 Kelly Johnson/John Thomas CAN
12 Wendy Sessions/Stephen Williams GBR
13 Isabella Micheli/Roberto Pelizzola ITA
14 Marianne van Bommel/Wayne Deweyert NED
15 Antonia Becherer/Ferdinand Becherer FRG
16 Kathrin Beck/Christoff Beck AUT
17 Noriko Sato/Tadayuki Takahashi JPN
18 Klara Engi/Attila Toth HUN
19 Salome Brunner/Markus Merz SUI
20 Martine Olivier/Philippe Boissier FRA
21 Liane Telling/Michael Fisher AUS

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

DPP, this is also a World's Tape that I would like to own. Did you see on Skatetape. com.? I went there but could not find it.

I read Skatetalk where Underhill and Martini talk about their Olympics and their experience leading into World's. Underhill had a boot problem and it was causing pain to skate hence part of the reason for their poor performance at Oly's. Underhill's confidence was shaky in pratices afterwards and Martini was frustrated. And at one point it looked as though they would dissolve the partnership and not go to World's. As her coach and Martini were talking about it in the office Underhill couldn't take it anymore and left crying. Brian Oser happened to be training at their rink that day (the Granite) and she was crying to him and he said " Well, don't you have last year's boots? They worked last year." Barb did have last year's boots and they were in the trunk of her car! She tried them on and she said they felt incredible they practiced till midnight last night and skated a clean program. They went to Ottawa, kicked butt and the rest as they say is history.

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

My memories of the 1984 Worlds centered on a few points:

(1) Katarina Witt proved without a doubt that her Olympic victory at Sarajevo, while perhaps a surprise, since she won over then-defending World champion Rosalyn Sumners, was no fluke. She dominated the competition and skated her very delightful long program to the "Gershwin" medley. Elaine Zayak won her final World medal, a bronze, to end her amateur career on a high note.

(2) Scott Hamilton won his fourth World title, thanks in part to his strength in the school figures and Brian Orser's relative weakness in this aspect of the competition. Hamilton very graciously told the press, "I have to retire, because I know I can't defeat Brian Orser too many more times".

(3) Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini's stunning victory in front of their home crowd. WOW! What a Worlds moment. I watched the competition at home on television, but the din from the audience came through, loud and clear. It was one of the best pairs performances I've ever seen. An absolute triumph for Barb and Paul, and it was so wonderful to see them win, after their disastrous Olympic short program. When the medalists stood for the playing of "O, Canada", a spotlight shone directly on Barb and Paul. Both of them looked very emotional, proud, and joyful. Again, what a Worlds moment!

(4) "Their Greatnesses", Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, won their fourth World ice dance title. Sheer brilliance, in my opinion. 6.0s across the board for presentation, well deserved.

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

I for one was sorry that Roz Sumners skipped the 1984 Worlds and turned pro right after the Olympics. I would have liked to see her compete one more time against Katarina Witt. Had Roz skated the kind of long program she was capable of skating, perhaps she would have won the '84 World title.

On the other hand, I guess Rosalyn was so devastated at having lost the Olympic title - and the trashing she received from her local Seattle press - that she needed to get away from the competitive scene.

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

SkateFan, I am sure that Roz had had enuf. When she is interviewed about that Olympics, she still says that she left her performance on the practice ice. She still almost 20 years later, and after good success, both in the pros and as a commentator, obviously has unhappy feelings about it.

What did the Seattle Press do to her? Was it worse than what was written in the rest of the country?

dpp

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

Indeed, Rosalyn Sumners has stated that the final practice before her 1984 Olympic long program was the best skate of her life. She said, "I skated the performance of my life, nailed every triple, and hit everything. I just skated this performance one day too soon."

The Seattle press blasted her for finishing second to Witt. One headline screamed "Faulty Finish Finishes Sumners", and another proclaimed "Sumners Blows Olympic Opportunity". The reports sounded rather disgusted with her performances and suggested that she just copped out of the competition and did not really try to win. One would have expected that her hometown papers could have shown a little support for their local Olympic hero. But no -- she was considered a failure because she did not bring home the gold medal. :x

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

SkateFan4Life-Those Seattle papers are really disgusting. Heck if the silver were that bad, where would Kurt Browning, Brian Orser and Michelle Kwan be?

In the USA, it always seems to be that the crossword clue, finish second, 4 letters, is "LOSE", but it isn't right.

dpp

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

Seattle Press are dummies. Anyone who knows sports is aware that the winner was the best <strong>THAT NIGHT</strong>. No one is going to tell me that the Yankees are not the best, and I hate the Yankees, and the same goes for Tiger Woods. The BEST is not measured by one competition.

I think there should be an award for the most distinquished "Body of Work" over the years.

Joe

Re: Flashback-1984 World Championships Ottawa

I agree with you, Doris, the American press sometimes acts as if the only Olympic athletes who "win" are those who win the gold medal. Doesn't the Olympic spirit celebrate all of the athletes and bestows praise on all of them for competing?

Roz Sumners really took a beating from the Seattle press, and it took her years to recover from her silver-medal disappointment and rediscover the love of figure skating.

Brian Orser, Nancy Kerrigan, and Michelle Kwan all won "only" silver medals, but they are all wonderful, wonderful champions,
plain and simple. Kurt Browning, sorry to say, never did win an Olympic medal, but he's a champion of the first order. Four World titles, and an abundance of great programs.