The performance that got you hooked | Page 4 | Golden Skate

The performance that got you hooked

yhmafan

Medalist
Joined
Apr 22, 2014
I was a very lazy casual viewer of this sport and I had even stopped watching it after Vancouver.

but Yuzuru and Mao’s Sochi performances, My life has been dramatically changed by them. (It’s pretty obvious at my user name.:laugh:)

Then I decided to join the forum, even though I am not good at English lol because I like the people on the GS and the forum itself. excellent :thumbsup:
 
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jenaj

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
Country
United-States
I started watching during the whole Nancy/Tonya thing, but it was Michelle's Salome and Lu Chen's Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto at 1996 worlds that got hooked. They both skated so beautifully and the scores were fairly close, so that event had everything for me. Great skating and suspense. What more could one want? :)
I remember watching Nancy and Oksana at the 1994 Olympics but I wouldn't say it hooked me. Michelle Kwan is what hooked me. I was so sad that she didn't win the gold medal in Nagano and I started following her career after that. With the advent of YouTube and skating boards, I became an uber-fan of skating past and present.
 

Sandpiper

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 16, 2014
Something by Michelle Kwan. Too young to remember what it was, exactly.

In terms of the men's field, Plushenko in 2002 ("Hey, that's kinda cool...") and 2010 ("This guy's still competing?!")
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
Then I decided to join the forum, even though I am not good at English lol because I like the people on the GS and the forum itself. excellent :thumbsup:

Your English is very good!
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Well, the first live performance I went to was Skate America in 1991 and of course Tonya Harding was the fastest most exciting thing I'd ever seen. However, it Maria Butyrskaya's performance in Helsinki that made me fall in love with her and see how beautiful skating could be. I'd seen Michelle,Tara and others on TV but I mainly saw them as cute and very talented little ballerina's. Maria was a woman and probably because she was closer to my age, I fell in instantly in love with her and have never stopped. She was much more beautiful in person than she looked on TV.
 

MK's Winter

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
In 88 it was Katerina's stare and Liz Manly's energy topped with the beautiful and precise G&G. Kristi/Tonya/Nancy and of course Michelle Kwan.
 

shiroKJ

Back to the forest you go.
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 9, 2014
Michelle Kwan introduced me to figure skating as a kid, but I only watched it sporadically (mainly Olympics)

Fast forward to 02/2014, I was watching the team event with a group of people and this kid comes out looking like a baby compared to everyone else and killed us with his performance ;) Then he delivered a world record SP a few days later and that was it for me. I haven't looked back since :yay:
 

blue_idealist

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
I watched figure skating sometimes when I was a kid, but I became a huge fan after seeing Bourne/Kraatz's Riverdance.
 

alia jackson

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
I was a casual fans back then. I remembered watching Witt, Petrenko, Hamilton, rivalry between Canadian&American men skaters, Torville/Dean; then events such as the Nancy/Tonya incident, Michelle didn't win Olympic, Oksana and her story, Mao too young for Olympic. The last time I watched FS was when MJ passed away in 2009, searched and saw some youtube of figure skaters skating to his songs such as Plush, Bourne/Kraatz etc.

Then in Dec 2013 I read about the coming Sochi Olympics, but I just cannot recall how did I ended up watching Yuzuru's GPF 2013 SP followed by his Worlds 2012 LP....that 10min on youtube in Dec 2013 got me hooked.
 
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Maria Victoria

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Yuzuru Hanyu’s 2012 Worlds LP. I knew next to nothing about him and had no expectations whatsoever when I started watching the performance. And then I could literally not look away; it was dramatic, powerful and riveting stuff. I felt as if he took me with him during the entire skate – the jumps, the spins, the primal scream, even the fall – experiencing with him the full gamut of emotions of the program. In the end, when Simon Reed said, “Surely in the future this guy is going to be World Champion,” I was even sort of expecting it.
 

anonymoose_au

Insert weird opinion here
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Country
Australia
I've always enjoyed watching figure skating at when the Olympics was on (the only time it's shown on Australian TV!), but I only really got into it around Sochi and the whole Plushy withdrawing from the individual event bruhaha, I always enjoyed watching his programs at the Olympics the most, so I went on Yotube to look at some of his old programs and when I saw his Junior Worlds program with the Beilmann spin I was like "This is awesome!!!" And after that I watched anything Plushy. :dance:

And when I managed to get the World Championships to stream here (even with my less then fabulous internet connection) I watched that as well and really got into the current skaters too. :biggrin:
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
If any of the powers that be in US figure skating read this thread, I hope they notice how important viewing youtube videos and internet streaming has been to attracting new fans :biggrin:
 

padme21

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 8, 2014
I was a once every 4 years for the Olympics viewer until I stumbled upon skate Canada 2013 on tv. That is when I first saw Yuzuru Hanyu and that's how I got hooked.
 

OS

Sedated by Modonium
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Torville and Dean, pretty much been told the best of Britain since children. May be it was age thing, but I was allergic to too much romantic stuff at young age but I really grew to appreciate their performance over time. Total legend.

Kurt Browning's Casablanca at the Olympics. Maybe it is the white tux, and golden blond hair, I thought he reminded me of Anthony from Candy Candy :)laugh2:) Too bad, messed up his SP, but for me he is a winner in my eyes, since he leaves the biggest impression. I didn't care so much for the medalist actually, although the french chap was mildly entertaining and was a total ham.

After following her for 2 Olympic cycles. Michelle Kwan's field of gold. I bawled so much my mother came running into the living room and wondered what went wrong. I promised myself never to watch figure skating again, it is too painful! Of course 4 years on, can't help myself and came back to watch Arakawa claim the throne, but overall was just bored by the competition in general so didn't follow up on things.

4 years later. Vancouver. Totally accident, didn't mean to watch it but was it was playing the background while I was working on some report one late night. Yuna Kim, Mao Asada + pretty much every lady at the final flight at Vancouver. Oh how can one not :hopelessness: at what Joannie did. I haven't been following their career. Didn't know about the rivalry, their history, their competition record. Initially was HUGELY impressed by the 3 axel and thought Mao killed it at the SP and would be the default winner in any other Olympics, but then Yuna came on and :jaw: the stake was higher and the NEW standard was a total shock to the system. Impressed by how much the sporting standard appear to have grown and the programs/performances feel more dynamic than ever. LP, again, was hugely impressed by both ladies for different reasons. Mao made me respect the sport, something that is clearly out of her comfort zone, reaching for the sky to aim for something that is clearly difficult. It felt like a serious procession, being examined. Yuna's incredible Gershwin on the other hand felt completely playful, totally immersive in the musicality. Elegant and quietly powerful. How she was able to tinkering the moment like a fine jazz musician, with such effortless ease to make best of every note. The musician / dancer in me was really moved by that virtuosity and command of her craft. Extraordinary night of skating really.
 
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anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Then I decided to join the forum, even though I am not good at English lol because I like the people on the GS and the forum itself. excellent :thumbsup:

We like you too! Keep posting and rooting for your faves. :)
 

Rissa

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
the 1st time, it was Grishuk/Platov Memorial Requiem. I became a more-than-casual fan.

the 2nd time, it was Hanyu's Parisienne Walkways. I became an avid fan.
 
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