The greatest free skates in ladies' figure skating

treeloving · Aug 22, 2011

miki88 said:
My list includes pretty much all of her Michelle's freeskates.
Definitely Lyra Angelica and Salome.
Also Lu Chen's Butterfly Lovers LP.

Totally agree, especially at Olympic. It not matter whether she landed her jump cleanly or not, as the emotion, the love of skating, the respect she had for her coach and the pride of being able to come back shown in this routine is already make it one of the most memorable performance. It can be said the same for Midori Ito 1992 olympic performance, where she failed to land 3A and then try it again and landed it after 3 minute of her program. Both of this performance show a great human spirit and for me this define greatness!

Olympia · Aug 22, 2011

treeloving said:
Totally agree, especially at Olympic. It not matter whether she landed her jump cleanly or not, as the emotion, the love of skating, the respect she had for her coach and the pride of being able to come back shown in this routine is already make it one of the most memorable performance. It can be said the same for Midori Ito 1992 olympic performance, where she failed to land 3A and then try it again and landed it after 3 minute of her program. Both of this performance show a great human spirit and for me this define greatness!

I think this is one of the factors that makes skating such a supreme sport for me. Even a flawed performance can be a masterpiece because of other dimensions besides perfect technical execution. Of course, the technical element is very important, and our favorite skaters tend to be those with excellence that can be savored: Kwan's stroking and edges, the purity of YuNa's jumps, the lightness and air speed that Asada musters when she jumps and lands, Cohen's spiral. But there's all that other stuff as well--all the musicality, the emotional connection with the audience and with the music (and with a partner in pairs or ice dance), and at certain moments, a determination that seems almost superhuman. All those decimals are swell to quantify things, but you can no more capture a skating performance with the scores than you can understand a firefly's glow by pinning one to a display card.

islandpaddler · Aug 22, 2011

What a wonderful treat. As I sit here in recovery mode from Tropical Storm Irene - my high speed Internet just came back on - it was wonderful to have this very pleasant diversion. Nothing like Michelle to put a smile on my face. Thank you.

silverpond · Aug 22, 2011

What a great list!! I would add a few personal favorites of mine, some of which have already been mentioned:

1968 US Nationals - Peggy Fleming. She herself has said this was her best competitive performance, and it sure was magnificent. She flowed across the ice, landed all of her jumps, and looked every bit the future Olympic champion, which she was.

1970 US Nationals - Janet Lynn. Janet delivered several memorable competitive performances, including this one. Her 1972 Olympic long program included a fall from a flying sit spin, which she recovered from quickly, with a beautiful smile.

1976 Olympic long program - Dorothy Hamill. Just loved her "American beauty rose" costume and her skating. She was strong, powerful, landed all of her jumps with ease and confidence. It was so great to see this girl put it together and show the world how great a skater she is.

1982 US Nationals - Rosalyn Sumners skated beautifully and defeated Elaine Zayak, who had a very poor outing. Sumners was another powerful, graceful skater.

1984 Olympics - Katarina Witt's "Gershwin" long program. Loved her rose costume and her skating. She was beautiful, and she skated with power and confidence. IMHO, she was one of the best champions of all time.

1989 Worlds - Midori Ito skated brilliantly, landing the first-ever triple axel by a woman, and brought down the house in Paris. Great, great skating. Ito had also improved her artistry, so she was not just (?!) a jumper, but a great all-around skater.

anyanka · Aug 23, 2011

I would also like to add another program by:

Lu Chen - 1995 worlds - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzUzMOdtqNg

pangtongfan · Aug 23, 2011

Here is some programs I love regardless of placements and scores:

Sandy Lenz 1980 Olympics LP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMSiL0eZtHk

Lisa Marie Allen 1978 Worlds LP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxQc3Lvj6sk

Denise Biellmann 1980 Olympics LP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1_QiK85KRg

Denise Biellmann 1981 Worlds LP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucCMZffihRA

Denise Biellmann 1988 Challenge of Champions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VANy2DIMSLg

Denise Biellmann 1992 Worlds Pros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKYQxRteuis

Midori Ito 1994 Challenge of Champions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mexyWdXbCmQ

Yuka Sato 1994 Challenge of Champions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhcOoK7eMBU

I am a huge fan of Denise Biellmann btw.

christinaskater · Aug 23, 2011

feraina · Aug 23, 2011

genki said:
Mao Asada Bell of Mascaw Worlds 2010
With 2 triple axles and passionate steps, I believe this FS should be considered to be one of the true masterpieces in the history of women's figure skating.
Totally underrated by the judge!!

ITA on all points. I think history will do this skate justice sooner or later. The standard of skating Mao exhibited in this program, when all the technical and artistic aspects are considered as a whole, will be unmatched for many years to come. I believe one day people will look back on this performance and exclaim, "How could this skate not have won the FS? The judging system in place in 2010 must have been really stupid!"

jenaj · Aug 23, 2011

I'm going to add Janet Lynn's 1972 Olympic free skate, which is hard find in its complete form on YouTube. Here is a spliced version that is the best I have seen. It includes her marks. She placed first in the free skate; bronze overall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0HbRQk0oFs&list=FLT2IFgeponCwsOmaGDVXmoQ&index=6

pangtongfan · Aug 23, 2011

feraina said:
ITA on all points. I think history will do this skate justice sooner or later. The standard of skating Mao exhibited in this program, when all the technical and artistic aspects are considered as a whole, will be unmatched for many years to come. I believe one day people will look back on this performance and exclaim, "How could this skate not have won the FS? The judging system in place in 2010 must have been really stupid!"

Especialy since Kim didnt even skate that well. It would have been one thing if Kim had given her Olympic free skate. The judges were going out of their way to try to pull her way up from 7th place though, even for a mediocre effort.

backhand45 · Aug 23, 2011

Love her or hate her. Tonya's 1991 Nationals as well as her 1991 Skate America Free Programs definitely belong in this group.

cooper · Aug 24, 2011

just want to add from christinaskater's list..yuna's the lark ascending.. my favorite fs of yuna.. even better than gershwin IMO.

Jammers · Aug 24, 2011

Midori Ito's 1990 Worlds LP might have been even better then the year before. She landed the biggest triple axel any woman has ever landed and decimated everyone in the LP. Sadly she didn't win Worlds that year because of the compulsories but it didn't matter.

Olympia · Aug 24, 2011

That's an interesting point, Jammers. I think one definition of a great free skate is that it might or might not win the competition, but that doesn't even matter. I'm only half joking. Of course some of the best free skates of all time have earned gold medals (Michelle at 1998 Nationals with Lyra Angelica, for example), but many truly immortal free skates have ended with a silver medal or even lower. In Ito's case, in the 1988 Olympics, there was no medal at all--and that's practically irrelevant to the glory of the program.

christinaskater · Aug 24, 2011

THIS LP OF SASHA COHEN TO SWAN LAKE is simply one of the best free skates ever!

Even if it was not skated in the Olympics , Worlds or Nationals- I would also place this skate in my top 3 skates ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouNL5ux17c4

1. Lyra Angelica 1998 US Nationals Michelle Kwan
2.Swan Lake 2004 Marshalls Sasha Cohen
3. Rachmaninoff 1996 Chen Lu
4. Salome 1996 Worlds Michelle Kwan
5. Tosca-2004 US Nationals Michelle Kwan/ Gershwin 2010 Olympics Yu-Na Kim
6. Song of the Black Swan 2002 Worlds Michelle Kwan
7 Concerto de Aranjuez- 2003 US Nationals Michelle Kwan
8. The Raibow- 1998 Olympics Tara Lipinski/ Rachmaninoff 2010 Worlds Mao Asada
9. Miss Saigon 2008 Cup of Russia Yu-Na Kim/ Daphnis et chloe 2002 Olympics Sarah Hughes/ The Red Violin 2000 Worlds Michelle Kwan
10. Malaguena-1992 US Nationals Kristi Yamaguchi/ Turandot 2004 Worlds Shizuka Arakawa

100yen · Aug 25, 2011

I got the chills so many times watching videos on this thread that I feel a bit lightheaded now, haha!! :laugh:

christinaskater · Aug 25, 2011

So nostalgic! Thank GOD for youtube.com and all those who have been posting videos!

I hope we could have much clearer videos of Michelle Kwan.

Jaana · Aug 25, 2011

To me the greatest freeskate so far has been performed by Yu-Na Kim in 2010 Olympics.

jatale · Aug 25, 2011

Jaana said:
To me the greatest freeskate so far has been performed by Yu-Na Kim in 2010 Olympics.

I agree.

This is good thread. I've been looking at all the links, so many great ladies free skates!

dlgpffps · Aug 25, 2011

Jaana said:
To me the greatest freeskate so far has been performed by Yu-Na Kim in 2010 Olympics.

In the sense that it combined a good amount of musicality, a flirtatious and carefree form of artistry,some of the best tech yet to be seen on Olympic stage, a gold medal at one of the best Olympics for ladies and conclusively coronated the "Queen" with a smashing victory, yes, it was a great free skate for Yu-na and the history of ladies figure skating, but I think there's been better - even from Yu-na herself.

Arirang had the potential to join this group of phenomenal free skates, only if she'd worked the mileage on it and performed it to full potential. What a shame she might not return this season. It's a pity since Arirang could have become Yu-na's signature piece & joined my short list of Michelle, Lulu and Janet.

As a fan who dotes on Yu-na, I wish we had a GREATEST SHORTS IN LADIES FIGURE SKATING so I could post three Yu-na clips without any qualms of looking like an obsessed bot (Roxanne, Danse and Bond!).

The greatest free skates in ladies' figure skating

treeloving

Olympia

islandpaddler

silverpond

anyanka

pangtongfan

Match Penalty

christinaskater

feraina

jenaj

pangtongfan

Match Penalty

backhand45

cooper

Jammers

Olympia

christinaskater

100yen

You can't explain witchcraft

christinaskater

Jaana

jatale

dlgpffps

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