- Joined
- Jan 25, 2013
Mainly asking in reference to Lipnitskaia/Machida, but I'm curious about this.
Kira Ivanova of the USSR, who won the bronze in 1984 behind Katarina Witt and Rosalyn Summers, is the only Olympic medalist in the last 50 years who did not have previous Worlds experience.
Kira competed in the 1979 and 1981 World Championships, and the 1980 Olympics
Just goes to show how fast those two have progressed, but also how the new system can benefit skaters if they've got the technical chops, whereas under 6.0 they would have likely been held back no matter how well they skated (a la Kwan in her Worlds debut).
Question: Did something extraordinary happen?
Answer: Klimova/Ponomarenko
They had never attended a Worlds before attending the Olympics in Sarejevo, and won the bronze medal there