OK. I've been giving this some thought and would like to share my take on this. Some of this has been mentioned by previous posters on this thread, but I have no problem backing up their points.
First, one must take the "It" factor into consideration. Both Debi and Katarina had, in their own ways, the "It" factor that set them apart from most of their competitors (on whom I'll elaborate in my second point). One personally may not understand, get, or respond to the "It" factor in a certain skater, but most judges always do. (For example, I don't deny that both Oksana Bauil and Tara Lipinski had the "It" factor as well, but they both personally drove me up the nearest wall). [For that matter, so did Katarina Witt, long about 1988 onwards] Debi and Katarina were both very original, unique talents.
Secondly, let's look at their relative competition. Manley -- not good in figures until about '87 (And yes, we do have to take a bit of a leap here and assume that figures judging was more or less accurate). She was 3rd in the long program at the 86 Worlds, but was in 10th place at the time. Had much better position going into the long at the 87 Worlds, BUT the 1987 Worlds, in Ladies, was an INCREDIBLY well skated competition, IMHO, by just about the entire top 10 so her program kind of got lost in the shuffle. Ito -- even WORSE at figures than Manley and had even more catching up to do. Cadavy -- part of the problem here was the fact that international judges at that time in singles were reluctant to give a lot of support from 2 skaters from the same country, and Thomas was the Chosen One for the US. Karyn is one of my all-time favorites, but even I will allow that Thomas was more DYNAMIC a skater, and the judges responded to that better. Had Kadavy won a NATIONAL title, the international judges may have been more willing to put her more in contention. Trenary -- when you really think about it, she didn't skate well internationally in either 87 or 88. She came in in 87 as the upstart US National champion, bombed the figures, and couldn't come out of the hole created by that in a competiton where, as I mentioned, all the top ladies were pretty much ON. In 88, at both Olys and Worlds, she just didn't skate especially well. Not badly, just not well. (Bear in mind, she was NEVER the strongest competitor, from a mental perspective, that the US has ever seen. Way too prone to nerves.) Ivanova -- just a flat out mediocre, at best, free skater. Ironically, tho, in her later seasons, when she wasn't pulling great marks in free skating, I actually thought she was BETTER than her earlier seasons, when she was pulling pretty good marks. But she was never one to set the place on fire. Leistner -- IMHO, Leistner's best years were behind her by the time 86-88 rolled around; she was much better in 82 and 83. By the time the Witt-Thomas rivalry emerged, she was just kinda dull. Kondrashova -- I could never understand why SHE wasn't the Soviet skater being pushed over Ivanova; I personally found her to be a much better free skater. However, I have read many posts on this board over the years that totally disagree and found her skating dull and wooden.
I think, however, the main factor that could be taken into consideration is the SKATING GROUP factor. Debi and Katarina were ALWAYS in the last group skating the long program; many times, strong free skaters like Manley and Ito were NOT. Under 6.0, standard procedure was to more or less save the best marks for the 6 skaters in the final group; one or two from the second to last group might finish in the top 6, but not often because the best marks were always saved for the last group, and someone had to skate VERY VERY BADLY for a judge to give them marks too far out of that "final 6" scoring group. Then when you add the figures into this equation -- well, grouping for the short program would be based on figures results. So when you consider that Ito, Manley, and often Kadavy, would have to skate in an EARLIER group in the short program than Thomas or Witt, they probably got undermarked simply because they skated too early and the judges had to leave room in the marks for the skaters coming later. So this would have kept them down in a lower place after the short than they probably should have been.
So do I feel that Debi and Katarina were overmarked? Yes, on occasion, maybe A LITTLE BIT. Not, IMHO, too excessively. But they'd hardly be the only ones who were ever overmarked. What I always did find interesting, tho, was Katarina's figures rankings. She had to struggle and come from behind at Worlds just about every year, but gee, MIRACULOUSLY, when the Olys rolled around (at both Sarajevo and Calgary) -- top 3, no problem. I always found THAT more than a bit odd.......
