Just watched videos from 1998 Oly's | Golden Skate

Just watched videos from 1998 Oly's

Doggygirl

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
There are so many great videos on this site.

http://www.cruelladekwan.com/index.html

Having just finished reading Edge of Glory, I decided to dig around and try to watch MK and Tara's Oly and US Nats LP's. (MK's '98 Nats LP is on this site, but not Tara's)

Wow.

I know we've had many discussions here about the significance (or not) of 3/3's in ladies. Watching these videos was a great reminder to me of just how important they can be sometimes. MK had the edge over Tara in presentation, but Tara got a bigger advantage with the 3L/3L and 3/3 sequence, with both of them skating clean.

Anyone else going back to watch these?

DG
 
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dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Link to Video Vault Forum


or

Rinkside's Video Vault Forum

If you liked the 1988 Olympics, you may enjoy these two forums as much as I have! Videos are loaded for downloading. It takes no especial computer skill.

I have been watching: 1978, 1981 and 1983 worlds, the first year of SOI (1987), Skate Canada 1980, a group of compulsory dances, the entire list of performances of Torvill and Dean and Toller Cranston. My only problem is not enough hard drive space!!
 
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Katya

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
While I agree the 3/3 may have been important, I don't think it was the deciding factor since a few of the other ladies were also doing them and didn't place higher than fifth. What I did find highly interesting was Surya Bonaly's artistic program and how she told the judges just what she thought of how they scored her technical program ;)
 

Skate@Delaware

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 4, 2004
DORISPULASKI said:
My only problem is not enough hard drive space!!

You can pick up an external hard drive from Best Buy or even Walmart. I got mine from Walmart-$150 for 150Mb USB drive. Very easy set up...Took about 15 minutes (cause I had to pull the desk out to plug it in...) That's where I put my videos-on this drive.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have any videos, or pictures.
 

tdnuva

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
150MB?? Sorry - but I have single video clips who are larger than that.... The problem with the space sums up in GB, not in MB... SIGH
 

Doggygirl

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
tdnuva said:
150MB?? Sorry - but I have single video clips who are larger than that.... The problem with the space sums up in GB, not in MB... SIGH

I think that may have been a typo. I see 200GB external drives on www.officedepot.com for around $150.

DG
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
I don't think Michelle had the edge artistically at all. Tara's spins were considerably better than Michelle's, plus she was faster on the ice and she had the 3-3s. I don't know why Lori put that opposite direction spin in MK's program because Michelle couldn't even do it well. If you're going to showcase a spin in both directions, at least be like Ilia Klimkin and do both spins with the same quality. That spin was really awkward and took away from the program. Tara's sit spin was of Eldredge quality (low and fast) and her illusion was to die for.
 

IDLERACER

Medalist
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
DORISPULASKI said:
Link to Video Vault Forum or Rinkside's Video Vault Forum
If you liked the 1988 Olympics, you may enjoy these two forums as much as I have! Videos are loaded for downloading. It takes no especial computer skill.

I have been watching: 1978, 1981 and 1983 worlds, the first year of SOI (1987), Skate Canada 1980, a group of compulsory dances, the entire list of performances of Torvill and Dean and Toller Cranston. My only problem is not enough hard drive space!!
I just downloaded an old clip of Liz Manley from the early 80s off of that site. It was virtually unwatchable. I don't know if it was the quality of the origianl clip, or just my computer's meager ability to play wav files, but it came out all pixilated. :sheesh:
 

chipso1

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
soogar said:
I don't think Michelle had the edge artistically at all. Tara's spins were considerably better than Michelle's, plus she was faster on the ice and she had the 3-3s. I don't know why Lori put that opposite direction spin in MK's program because Michelle couldn't even do it well. If you're going to showcase a spin in both directions, at least be like Ilia Klimkin and do both spins with the same quality. That spin was really awkward and took away from the program. Tara's sit spin was of Eldredge quality (low and fast) and her illusion was to die for.

Oh puhleez! You dislike Michelle so much that your arguments really aren't even valid. Saying that Lyra Angelica was LESS artistic than Tara's arm-flailing "The Rainbow" is absurd. It is true that that program was probably Tara's best choreographically, but it is still no where near Lori Nichol's masterpiece.

To this day, Michelle's program is hailed as one of the most beautifully choreographed and artistic of all time. It really is "the Gold standard." :rock:

By the way, since when did spins and 3-3's factor into the presentation mark? I must have missed that change. Darn that ISU . . . . . . :rolleye:
 

brad640

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
chipso1 said:
To this day, Michelle's program is hailed as one of the most beautifully choreographed and artistic of all time. It really is "the Gold standard."
Lyra is not “the Gold standard” or a masterpiece because it was not tailored to Michelle’s style of skating at all. After Michelle had success with Salome in 96 and a rough year with Taj Mahal in 97, Frank and Lori felt the need to take a different direction with her skating for the Olympics, so they cooked up Lyra as an homage to Janet Lynn, who they both idolized. The problem was that Michelle’s personality and style were nothing like Janet Lynn, who was not able to win gold because of her problems with compulsory figures. Even though she could not win, Janet took pride in her exceptional free-skating abilities, and skated with freedom and a natural smile. Frank and Lori tried to recreate the same feeling with Lyra, and the result was that Michelle had to skate with a forced airy smile that belied the fact that she was really a fierce competitor who was there to win. Where Janet Lynn had to be satisfied with the “joy of skating” because the rules prevented her from winning, Michelle was the gold medal favorite and was skating for the satisfaction of winning.

When Lori came up with Salome she listened to Michelle and watched her move spontaneously to different types of music, and selected the music to accentuate Michelle’s personality and natural movement. With Lyra, Lori heard the music first and then went nuts because it reminded her of Janet, so she decided to sell Frank on the idea because Michelle was the highest profile skater Lori was working with, and it was her dream to choreograph an Olympic gold medalist who would skate like Janet. That might have been fine as an exhibition, but Michelle deserved an Olympic LP that was choreographed with her abilities in mind. Instead, in addition to pursuing the gold medal, she was burdened that year with living out Frank and Lori’s fantasy. Even in interviews she repeated that she was skating for pure joy rather than pursuing a medal – sentiments that she has never repeated since she dumped Frank and took control of her career. To Lori’s credit, she did give Michelle the Rachmaninoff SP which truly was a masterpiece of creative choreography that brilliantly showcased Michelle’s ability.

chipso1 said:
You dislike Michelle so much that your arguments really aren't even valid.
Praising Tara is not the same as bashing Michelle. Tara was a great skater for all the reasons soogar mentioned as well as many others. It is not absurd to say that Tara had better artistry in the LP.
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
For Nagano I hoped very much that Michelle would win, because she felt a more mature skater and her skating was very beautiful to watch. I had to admit though that in freeskate the nerves seemed to get to Michelle rather badly. She looked slow and hesitant, had no attack and joy in her skating. Tara on the other hand showed nerves of steel and seemed to have fun on the ice. Besides Tara managed to skate technically a more demanding programme. Tara deserved her win over Michelle in that competition as well as in some others too, in my opinion.

I don´t think that Michelle´s place to skate first in the last group mattered at all. She only needed to put a strong skate she definetely was capable of, and she would have won although Tara skated later.
 
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dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Idleracer,

What year and program of Liz Manley do you want? I'll be glad to find it, check whether it works for me, upload it, you check if you can play it.

I haven't downloaded any Liz Manley, so about your particular clip I can't say. However, if the clip was made by floskate or LadyNit, they have been completely amazing. The clips are made by many different vid makers. Usually if there is a problem with the quality, the poster will say so. The only one I have gotten lately of questionable quality was of 1986 Josef Sabovcik's Europeans LP, which I had particularly asked for. It was still watchable but was not great.

My computer is 3 years old with Windows XP, and except in cases of extremely large files - usually listed as being of Perfect Quality, I have no problem playing them,

In general, vids on fsvids are .wmv files. Occasionally there are ..ogm, avi and .ram and once a quicktime movie.

You should go to the Microsoft website and download all updates to Windows Media Player. This is free.

For an alternative player, Media Player Classic is great. You will also need ffdshow with it. They are also free, and will play all the .avi and .ogm files that Windows Media Player won't, provided you have all the codecs. I believe there are directions at the top of the forums on where to get them.
Good luck! Doris
 

Doggygirl

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Just to clarify my own original comments...

When I commented that Michelle had the edge artistically, I was talking about the judges scores rather than my own opinion. From the judges scores, Tara won the competition based on getting slightly lower presentation scores, but bigger technical scores which put her ahead. While I'm sure there were other technical factors at play, the most obvious ones to me were the 3L/3L and the 3/3 sequence.

I don't know whether Tara "wuzrobbed" on her presentation scores, but overall my opinion is that the right skater won that day for that performance.

I too found the Janet Lynn connection with Lori Nichol very interesting. I think MK did a decent job "pulling off" that ethereal feeling at US Nats - but the sparkle was missing comparatively at the Oly's.

DG
 

purplecat

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
United-States
I thought Tara was amazing at the 1998 Olympics. And I didn't think it was a controversial win until I finally got online over a year later and found fans disputing the outcome! (Now it's over seven years later! LOL!) I also had no idea that there were so many other people like me who loved watching skating so much until I first got online! :love:
 

chipso1

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 20, 2004
brad640 said:
Lyra is not “the Gold standard” or a masterpiece because it was not tailored to Michelle’s style of skating at all.

Praising Tara is not the same as bashing Michelle. Tara was a great skater for all the reasons soogar mentioned as well as many others. It is not absurd to say that Tara had better artistry in the LP.

"To this day, this program is known as the Gold Standard." (quote from the ESPN bio on Michelle.

And IMO, it IS absurd to say that Tara's lp was more artistic than Michelle's. More exuberant and energized yes, but not more beautiful. Oh well . . . . . .
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
brad640 said:
Lyra is not “the Gold standard” or a masterpiece because it was not tailored to Michelle’s style of skating at all. After Michelle had success with Salome in 96 and a rough year with Taj Mahal in 97, Frank and Lori felt the need to take a different direction with her skating for the Olympics, so they cooked up Lyra as an homage to Janet Lynn, who they both idolized. The problem was that Michelle’s personality and style were nothing like Janet Lynn,..
That is a very interesting take. At seventeen, Michelle really had no choice but to follow the direction of her teachers. Lori Nichol is a music expert. Her husband is a professional musician, she got her start in chorepography with John Curry's company, and her trademark is to think deeply about her music choices for her clients. Michelle, as far as I know, has never really studied music and since 2003 has just gone with tunes that she likes and feels inspired by.

It was indeed widely reported that Michelle was not enthusiastic about the Lyra Angelica score and had to be talked into it, after many hearings, by Lori. I also got the feeling that with the Red Violin, and especially with the Black Swan, Michelle was fighting the music.

So maybe, indeed, the Aranjuez/Tosca Nationals Michelle is the true Michelle. Just go out there and kick butt, while some music happens to be playing.

Mathman
 

kyla2

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
Gold Standard

The National's perfomance of Lyra Angelica and Rach ARE the gold standard for figure skaters everywere. Her performance of Lyra at the Olympics was slow and tenuous at times. Because of that, it left the door open for Tara, who delivered a first rate performance, technically and artistically (joie de vivre comes to mind when I think of her performance). Even Frank Carroll acknowledged that. But Michelle's performance of Lyra at Nationals was one for the ages. To many people, it is simply the greatest single figure skating performance of all time. I agree.
 
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