What Was Your Intro to Figure Skating?

[Dr. Jenn]

I have a very vague memory of Elizabeth Manley's FS at the 1988 Olympics. I would have been five at the time, and I remember my parents being excited when the Canadian girl in the pink costume (my impression of her) did so well. I went back and watched the top four FS the other day, and I would have had Midori first by a large margin (although with Katarina with the highest artistic impression mark). Midori was so far ahead of the field and did lots of interesting things in her skating. I was struck by how many crossovers the others did.

My main memories of watching skating come from the mid- to late 1990s, particularly the 1998 Olympics. I remember Elvis and his injury, Shae-Lynn and Victor's Riverdance (still a favourite!), and Tara's win. I remember being really excited by that since we are the same age. My sister and I used to record music videos from a TV show called Video Hits, and during this time period, our 'music videos' VHS tape ended up with lots of skating videos on it.

 

[LadyB]

I fell in love with all things Winter Olympics just before Innsbruck 1976. Then they had a documentary about Toller Cranston on the telly and that was that. I was 12, Rodnina/Zaitsev were also faves of mine.
I watched until after Calgary 1988, then nothing for years.
Got back into it sporadically before Sochi, watching old Toller videos, Brian Orser stuff. Then learned that Orser was coaching two brilliant skaters. That got me watching again. I fell in love with everyone on Team Canada. At Rostelecom 2015, I saw Ksenia and (in particular) Fedor for the first time properly. The rest is history....

 

[GracieGoldIsBAE]

When i was a little kid, i watched skating with my grandmother a lot. She died last year, and i wanted to
watch a figure skating performance for some nostalgic memories. I watched Yulia Lipnitskaya's Schindler's List FS on the Sochi team event, and i fell in love with the sport immediately. I couldnt stop watching Yulia's, Gracie's, Yuzuru's and Yuna's performances. I started skating because of them.

 

[NanaPat]

I was in a motel room on a ski trip watching on TV when Underhill/Martini fell in the 1984 Olympics (actually as I recall she fell, but she took him out as well). Got really interested when we got a TV to watch the 1988 Olympics is Calgary.

Went to Canadian Nationals in Vancouver in 2008. I had a place to stay in Vancouver for free at the time.

But I didn't start watching online until I joined Golden Skate after the 2014 Olympics. It's a good thing I'm retired!

 

[xibsuarz]

Coming from a country without any winter sports’ tradition, my first memory of figure skating was watching Plushenko’s FS in Vancouver. No one in my family knew much about figure skating or understood how the scoring system worked but they knew Plushenko and cheered so hard everytime he landed a jump I thought he was amazing
Unfortunately for me that’s where it all stayed at that time until the Olympics came around again in 2014. It was actually the men’s SP that I watched first (throughout my whole lunch break, History and Biology classes ). In the last group a guy named Yuzuru Hanyu appeared and I had heard he was pretty good so I was interested in watching him, never looked back ever since

 

[TylerW]

My first experience was with Sochi 2014. I caught the FS of both Ladies and Men. I had no idea what was going on other than I knew the name Yuna Kim because my 4th grade teacher had a poster of her in our classroom. She was one of the first skaters to make me feel something after watching her performance. I also vaguely remember being upset that Gracie Gold got 4th (because I'm only patriotic when it comes to the olympics lol).

After the 2014 olympics I didn't really keep up with figure skating. Every now and then I would look at World Champs results and see who was on top but I could never get my attention off of gymnastics. I think the biggest reason I didn't get into it was because all the terms and lingo and understanding the scoring system intimidated me. It wasn't until after watching Yuri On Ice that I actually tried to watch Figure Skating. So I hopped on board around September of 2017? And now I'm hooked lol.

 

[yoloaxel]

2009 Euros in Helsinki won by Laura Lepisto! They were airing during an afternoon I was spending at home and I fell in love! But I really started following super closely during Sochi!

 

[DiamondDust]

I've seen Yuna Kim's Scheherezade program first, but it was after seeing Yuzuru's Sochi SP that I really got into FS. :luv17:

 

[Lester]

Denkova / Staviski were very famous here in Bulgaria when they were winning stuff. I guess you could say that was my proper introduction to skating.
Although back in the age when TV still mattered (and I was still a child) figure skating got some air time during Euros and Worlds, or at least I vaguely remember this to be the case.

 

[livingonedges]

I was watching Sochi 2014 on TV. Yuzuru Hanyu popped up and performed Parisienne Walkways. The way he flowed on the ice and jumped effortlessly was mesmerising. Since then, I have been a fan and following figure skating. I've also learnt about other skaters too.

 

[RedDress]

When I was a child all I wanted for my birthday was a Sound of Music LP and tickets to see Karen Magnussen and Toller Cranston at Maple Leaf Gardens. My mom and dad complied and it was my best present ever. I was hooked.