What PROGRAM made you a fan of figure skating? | Page 2 | Golden Skate

What PROGRAM made you a fan of figure skating?

Basics

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
It was Yuna's Tango de Roxanne and Reflection that got me interested in figure skating.
 
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silverlake22

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Mao Asada "The Last Emperor". I first became interested in this girl because I am also born in September 1990, and I heard this kid was a phenom, so I watched her performance at the JGPF and was hooked. Then I realized Yuna was also born in September 1990 and became a fan of her (at 2004 JGPF she wasn't nearly as good as Mao, but in the next year she improved so much). It's funny too because I've always been the same height as those two as well, since they were like 13, so it's kinda fun to watch them grow up.
 

cloudkicker09

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Tim Goebel "American in Paris" The guy, the jumps, the costume, the not overly done choreography, the music, Still my favorite program to this day.
 

clairecloutier

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 27, 2003
I watched figure skating as a kid, but I didn't become a true fan until the 1990-1991 season. That was a pretty big year in skating; it was the first year of competition without school figures, and it was the lead-up year to the Albertville Olympics. There were so many great performances, including Tonya Harding becoming only the second woman to land the triple Axel at 1991 Nationals (that was before her descent into mediocrity and knee-whacking). For me, the standout performances were at 1991 Worlds: Mishkutenok & Dmitriev's LP to Dream of Love and Kristi Yamaguchi's LP to Samson & Delilah. Also, an honorable mention to Klimova & Ponomarenko's LP to Lawrence of Arabia.
 

jennyszy

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Elvis Stojko's Dragon in 1994... the martial arts, power and quad... really got me into being obsessed with skating and waking up at any time to watch worlds live!!
 

yelyoh

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Michelle Kwan's Salome all year and Bolero of Torvill and Dean. Had been watching for years but these program's really made me a fan of the sport.
 

Wrlmy

Medalist
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
I can't say one particular program hooked me in, but Kristi's dress and spins got me watching. :)
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Yeah, no one ever accused him of over choreographing his programs....

(disclosure: I really liked his oly SP and 2003 LP)

ok i just spit water all over my desk.

his most beautiful program imho was his 2005 us nationals short program. Still sends shivers all over. A glimpse of what couldve been.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
The 1st skating I can remember watching is Scott Hamilton 1984 Olympics due to the hype - however, I didn't understand why he won LOL. Surprisingly, Torvill & Dean's Bolero captured me enough so that I continued to watch skating, even though they 'retired'.

Then G&G made me a fan if pairs. Also watched the Zayak vs Sumners years for the US ladies title. Battle of the Brians made a fan of men's skating. Kristi was probably the 1st lady that I was really a fan of, although I enjoyed watching Zayak vs Sumners, prefereed Caryn Kadavy over Trenary, etc.
 

Antilles

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I liked skating before I really knew any skaters or programs. What kick-started my love for the sport in childhood was Calgary in 1988, specifically both Brian LPs and Elizabeth Manley's LP.
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
I dont remember the first program I ever saw that made me an fs fan but I remember the last one that made me almost a non fan :mad::cool:
First big competition I sat and saw was 1998 worlds and the first I actually knew what I was looking at was Euros 1999 but if I squeeze my mind this is the first program that comes in mind from Olys 1998 without knowning who they were, and I have also an abstract memory of Kulik and Grishuk/Platov
but cant recall anything else than the impression I got for her hair. Which is funny that first programs to catch my attention were ice dance that I dont have a big interest anyway. I also have flashes of Grishuk/Platov doing an ex or program(also cause of hair) that she wore something like a circus dress cause I remember assuming this was circus show but I dont know from when is this or if it was them.
 

Layfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
I became a figure skating fan just because I studied ballet growing up so predictably figure skating was my favorite sport to watch at the Olympics.

It took a long time before I truly started paying attention to figure skating in between Olympics.

I do remember the run-up to the 1994 games (duh) and the run up to the 1998 games. I remember reading a lot about the Michelle Kwan-Tara Lipinski rivalry and remember reading a Washington Post story about how Tara fell at nationals and Michelle won her title back. (I didn't watch nationals.) That article said something about how Michelle had been the superior skater all along despite her rough 1997 season. I didn't know nearly enough about skating to know who was superior to whom. But I remember thinking, Tara's going to win the Olympics. I really did. I just had this feeling, reading about Tara and learning her story, that she was going to pull it out at the Olympics and win no matter what. I wasn't surprised at all that she won but I also wasn't in tune with all the insidery predictions back then.

From there, it really progressed. I think I started getting more into figure skating watching Michelle AFTER the 2002 games. She just kept winning all these national titles and breaking records and I started really following her career and her skating. Michelle is the one who made pay attention to nationals and worlds.

But there IS one program that finally got me completely hooked. And it's this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh3iW4I39DI&feature=related

I had never seen anything so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. It was pretty much all over for me after that.:)

Mao Asada "The Last Emperor". I first became interested in this girl because I am also born in September 1990, and I heard this kid was a phenom, so I watched her performance at the JGPF and was hooked. Then I realized Yuna was also born in September 1990 and became a fan of her (at 2004 JGPF she wasn't nearly as good as Mao, but in the next year she improved so much). It's funny too because I've always been the same height as those two as well, since they were like 13, so it's kinda fun to watch them grow up.

Okay. You are making me feel old, Silverlake. Born in the 1990s...:laugh:

Tara and Michelle are more my generation.
 
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Lilith11

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Born in the 1990's here too XD

Anyways, for me it started with Michelle in 2002. As an artist, I've always had had an affinity, an attraction to sports with some artistic elements in it (i.e. gymnastics, figure skating, etc). So naturally, I was drawn to figure skating. At the time though, when I watched MK, my first reaction was "hey she's Chinese too!" XD As shallow a reason as that was, MK was the reason I got into figure skating; her skating was just beautiful and stunning and just heart stopping :love: But after a while... as a kid with a short attention span and school eating up her time, I lost interest and moved onto other things (art, ANIME XD, etc).

Come 2009, February. And Yu-na. As a Kpop fan, I saw her name quite a few times in news article and one day, out of sheer curiosity, looked her up on YT. And suddenly, I was hooked. And once more, I fell for figure skating, but this time, a bit older and with a *hopefully* longer attention span, it griped me like nothing else. From Yu-na, I expanded my watchlist to other skaters and as such, am still catching up on old classics (i.e. Kristi Yamaguchi, John Curry, Kurt Browning, Katarina Witt, etc). And it's been that way since Feb. :3
 

Layfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Born in the 1990's here too XD

Anyways, for me it started with Michelle in 2002. As an artist, I've always had had an affinity, an attraction to sports with some artistic elements in it (i.e. gymnastics, figure skating, etc). So naturally, I was drawn to figure skating. At the time though, when I watched MK, my first reaction was "hey she's Chinese too!" XD As shallow a reason as that was, MK was the reason I got into figure skating; her skating was just beautiful and stunning and just heart stopping :love: But after a while... as a kid with a short attention span and school eating up her time, I lost interest and moved onto other things (art, ANIME XD, etc).

Come 2009, February. And Yu-na. As a Kpop fan, I saw her name quite a few times in news article and one day, out of sheer curiosity, looked her up on YT. And suddenly, I was hooked. And once more, I fell for figure skating, but this time, a bit older and with a *hopefully* longer attention span, it griped me like nothing else. From Yu-na, I expanded my watchlist to other skaters and as such, am still catching up on old classics (i.e. Kristi Yamaguchi, John Curry, Kurt Browning, Katarina Witt, etc). And it's been that way since Feb. :3


Yeah, that's pretty much how it worked for me, too. Once I was an adult I started paying attention more. (Only for me that well pre-dated the rise of Yuna. ;) )

But if you had asked me in high school/college to name a few figure skaters I probably would have said Kristi, Nancy, Tonya, Oksana, Tara, and Michelle. And for the oldies I probably would have been able to name Katarina, Dorothy, and Scott Hamilton (thanks to his professional career.) Oh yeah, and Nicole Bobek because of that Campbell's soup commercial, which you are probably too young to remember :biggrin:
 
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prettykeys

Medalist
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
My story mirrors Lilith and Layfan's. I started with Kristi Yamaguchi and Midori Ito, when they competed together...and Olympia's post in the "Signature Programs" thread reminded me of Kurt Browning's Singin' in the Rain which was another early hit in my childhood. Then I got interested in other things for a while--casually watching the Olympics now and then--until I experienced a renaissance when YuNa came around (Roxanne.) :biggrin:
 
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