- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
It's been so long ago I don't remember the exact programs but the skaters that drew me in were Peggy Fleming & Tim Wood, late 80's.
Now, you're making me get misty-eyed! What a wonderful bookend to my part of the story!
It's the magic of sport, and skating in particular, that can unite people of such different backgrounds.
Ok, so are you like me? Still chasing the high from that competition? Many great champions have come and gone, but those Olympics were so special. Nearly 40 years have come and gone, and I'm still waiting for a repeat! It was an absolute four-for-four on the Olympic podiums, such amazing champions in every event.
My very best to you, and to your mother and sister, as well.
Many thanks and best regards to you too! I agree it were special Olympics (I had a serious crush on Toller Cranston so imagine how I felt!) but I always get a thrill of watching live competitions maybe even more now when there is less excitement in life than it used to be in younger days. Also I have more time to follow the sport and with Internet so much info available now we could not dream back then, so I think I am actually a happier fan now, also this forum is great especially as Ireland is definitely a wrong place to live in for a fs fan.
The program that got me hooked was Liebenstraum by M&D at the 1992 Olympics. That program was so magical it literally mesmerized me.
This thread has been a thoroughly enjoyable read. Many thanks to the OP!
Count me among the dinosaurs. According to my mother, I was mesmerized at three years plus several months old by Peggy Fleming and the Protopopovs during the 1968 Olympics. I have one fuzzy memory of watching Peggy at that time; and I know that later on during the '70s I saw those performances repeated during flashback/highlight spots on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
From ’68 on I watched skating whenever we were home (in those pre-VCR and DVR days) and there was coverage; early on, that was basically the U.S. Nationals, the World Championships and the Olympics. I remember sitting through many installments of Wide World of Sports waiting on the skating segments. I watched all four disciplines and had many favorites among the different nationalities of skaters over the years. Particularly memorable for me from early on there was Janet Lynn at the Olympics in ’72; and then Dorothy Hamill, John Curry and Rodnina/Zaitsev at the Olympics in ’76. Ice Dance first really clicked for me with Regoczy and Sallay in the mid to late ‘70s…which is not to say that I didn’t appreciate the dominant Soviet teams during that time…I did, but I just really loved R&S’s style of dance.
Skating was always there, for me, through the '70s and '80s. Competitions, shows, professional and amateur, I watched it all.
By the early '90s, of course there was more coverage, more events. And then we had the Winter Olympics in ’92 and ’94. While at first I was very happy we would have Olympics only two years apart, by the end of the Lillehammer Games, I admit, I was fatigued (during those two Olympics I had watched many different sports and many, many hours of coverage) and I was very close to walking away from skating. The politicking, bloc judging, the glacial movement in the ice dance rankings…my dislike of all of this outside stuff had built up over time and I just wasn’t enjoying skating so much anymore. The Tonya Harding business added to it; plus it didn’t help that I strongly disagreed with the gold medal results in three of the disciplines, and mildly disagreed with the gold medal results in the fourth discipline (Pairs). I figured I would watch Worlds in ’94 and then take a break for awhile or, maybe, for good.
And then during Worlds I watched Michelle Kwan, the alternate in the stands in Lillehammer, who bore the weight of the hopes of the USFSA for that top 10 finish so we would be able to send two ladies to the ’95 Worlds. I had seen her before, sure, in ’93 and earlier in ’94 at Nationals, but the smiles on her face during her performances at ’94 Worlds, the control on those double Axel landings (particularly in the Short Program), the hands, with extension out to her fingertips…and just like that, just when I thought I was out, she pulled me back in.
For another 12 years, anyway. To say that I was devastated when Michelle had to withdraw from the Olympics in 2006 is putting it mildly. I was even more heartbroken for Michelle than I had been for Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner when they had to withdraw in 1980. I couldn’t bring myself to watch any of the Turin Olympics. Since then, I’ve mostly been away from skating. I thought I would take a break and eventually get back to it. It just hasn’t happened. The lack of, and inconsistency of, television coverage has made it difficult to get back into the routine. I don’t care for the judging system, which is somewhat ironic, because I remember thinking many, many years ago that a judging system that awards points for elements done properly would be a good thing. I feel like, somehow, the judging system has taken something out of skating. I intensely dislike Ottavio Cinquanta and feel his tenure as head of the ISU should have been over years ago. Since he seems intent on staying, I wish the Figure Skating division of the ISU would leave and set up its own shop.
Finally, I have to give a shout out to the posters who mentioned Mishkutenok and Dmitriev’s exquisite Liebestraum program. I watched it earlier and, after all this time, it can still bring tears to my eyes.
cheerknithanson, thanks for telling your story again!
Finally, I have to give a shout out to the posters who mentioned Mishkutenok and Dmitriev’s exquisite Liebestraum program. I watched it earlier and, after all this time, it can still bring tears to my eyes.
That's so cool that you became a fan of skating at such an early age! By the way you're not THAT old. I went to your profile and saw your birthdate and you're younger than both of my parents. And I'm almost 20.
It'll be interesting for me to see the changes of skating as I get older.
Thank you, cheerknithanson; that's nice of you to say. I enjoyed reading your story, too.
I agree, it will be interesting for you to see where skating goes as you get older. Hold on to your enthusiasm and enjoy the ride!
Which story? From the points of life during each of the winter olympics that I was alive for, how I became a fan of Yuzuru, Jason, and Kevin, or both stories.
And I'm glad you liked the stories (whichever one you were talking about).