- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Next CBS showed Doug Ramsay from the Detroit Skating Club, who wound up finishing 4th and taking [Tim] Brown's place at North Americans and Worlds. Ramsay is probably best known to many people nowadays as the skater who beat Frank Carroll to win the 1960 US Junior title. "Skating" magazine reported about that event:
"The culmination of the Junior Men's event on Friday night was an agonizing three-way tie in ordinal points between Douglas Ramsay, Bruce Heiss [brother of Carol and Nancy] and Frank Carroll. None of the skaters having a majority of first-place votes, Douglas Ramsay won a slim victory on subsequent majority, with a dazzling free style that rated him a first from the cheering crowd if not from the judges."
...Ramsay started out his program with a series of walleys in both directions into back cross rolls into a double lutz. He had very good speed into a nice double axel. I can't make out my notes for the next bit, but then he did a change sit spin, straight-line steps with hops, double loop, half lutz, and some dancey steps into a triple salchow with a slight two-foot on the landing. More edge steps, then some bracket steps, a flying camel in a layover position, and more dancey steps. A delayed axel, single axels in opposite directions, and still more dancey footwork. Then a series of an axel and a double axel with arms crossed, a single axel, double lutz, straight-line footwork. And then, at the end of the program, wham! -- he knocked off a double flip, double loop, double salchow, and another double flip one right after the other, and ended with a split jump into a flying sit spin. Not only was this program packed with both jumps and footwork, it was delivered with a great deal of boyish charm and self-confidence.
Ramsay was also a big hit at the North American Championships following Nationals. The "Skating" magazine report said:
"Douglas Ramsay was the darling of the audience. The foot stamping, applauding crowd acclaimed his every dextrous motion. His magnificent axel with arms folded, and his skillful bracket dance brought loud cheers. The captivating Ramsay unfortunately missed a double axel. He ended in fourth place" [due to not-so-strong compulsory figures.]
Thanks MM, Can't help but think Rohene is one big waste in competitive skating as he got older. But as always a brilliant performer - better than many World Champions whom I wont list - the worm can.If the two jumps are counted as a single jumping pass, then it is a jump sequence and it gets only 80% of the base value. So two double Axels in a row (worth 3.5 points each if done separately) give the skater only 5.6 points total as a sequence. :no:
Michelle Kwan had an exhibition number with COI in which she did four double Axels in a row (all the same way.) I think under CoP only three would count, and these would be discounted by the 80% factor.
IIRC Carol Heiss (the first lady to do a double Axel) was famous for being able to do an extended sequence of single Axels, alternating directions. Heiss was sort of ambidextrous anyway because she mostly jumped clockwise but spun counterclockwise.
Great thread, Joe!
Those were the days when I would humbly say figure skating is like ballet, and can you see the open door for more varied choreography?Doubles? Certainly if one looks back into some of the golden age for the sport, I recall from excerpts on videos that Carol Heiss did big beautiful singles in both directions in her competitive programs,... and didn't Tenley Albright do so as well? It seems such a wonderful choreographic tool that gets completely overlooked today. There are switch hitters in baseball... why not more in skating?
In the 70s, there was a Japanese Men's skater - Minoru Sano - who gave an amazing performance to capture a bronze at Worlds in 1977... when it was ... of course... in Tokyo. If I recall correctly, he did triples (toes?) in both directions during his free skate.
Amongst current/more recent skater - Rohene Ward can readily do double axels in both directions - fun to watch... but I don't think he's put them in his programs.
It's also the belief that skating is ballet on ice in the old days because dancers jump and pirouetter to both sides. No more, today will we see that in figure skating.
I'm a living testament. I got yelled at for trying, because when you practice with CoP, there is no point in practicing something that, well, won't get you more points.