Perhaps music almost "belonging" to certain skaters should have a different criteria, that even people who don't follow the sport that well or a certain discipline of that sport that well, also know that program, that it then is deemed so iconic that that music belongs to that skater?
When I was a teenager, nobody in my family followed skating. Torvill and Dean recently ended their 94 Olympic season and were more popular than ever. My cousin from Britain was staying with us (in the Netherlands). I had a book about skating and when she saw their picture, she recognized them:"Hey, aren't those b******s Torvill and Dean? They were amazing!" She saw them once on telly and that was it.
Is a program really iconic when people who don't follow the sport or only watch the Olympics recognize its greatness?
Or are we as fans better equipped to recognize greatness? After all, we probably know more about the sport. People who don't really follow FS here, didn't know Gordeeva and Grinkov even after the Olympics, Baiul they only recognized when I mentioned The Swan and her Olympic lp. "Oh the crying orphan, wasn't her knee broken by a jealous American?" one of them asked.
My children recognize Hanyu because of social media. And some other skaters when their work is shared beyond the FS community. When that happens with an iconic program, like that of Riverdance by Brown, would that be more iconic than that of other amazing performances who aren't recognized/shared outside the FS community?
What really does make a program so iconic, that a piece of music "belongs" to that skater?
Personally, I also think of great performances I enjoyed, when I hear certain music. Even when I'm not watching skating. I do like to see what other skaters bring to the table, you never know that someone happens to have an iconic performance too:
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4 seasons for years belonged to Bonaly in my mind. No she wasn't a perfect skater but I liked her energy and speed and she did some elements even in combinations others didn't (I have a memory of her doing a split-triple-triple, or am I remembering wrong?)
Then along came Chan and his 2013 TEB performance, now that is my favourite 4 seasons program of all time. Yet many skaters would say 4 seasons belonged to Usova/Zhulin in 1992. Well, I only 'discovered' FS in 1994, it would take many years and online communities who sold videotapes of skating and when the net was better developed, shared online skating files for me to watch FS before 1994. Till then, all I had were books and documentaries. After having seen many many programs since 1994, Chan still has the best 4 seasons performance of all time as far as I'm concerned (and this is perhaps the first time I dare to write this down in public, but I would have loved to have his program as an Olympic gold program, it was my favourite program of that season).
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East of Eden, of course for years Kwan, couldn't imagine anyone else skating to that music. Flatt gave it a try and had a decent performance. Nobody came close to Kwan however until Machida had his 2013-2014 SP. Ever since that season, his is my favourite EOE program of all time. Enjoyed the efforts of Bell and Gold though (hm, Bell and Gold, why does that sound like a band name or a tv series name?).
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Bolero really belonged to Torvill and Dean. To this day when I say I watch skating, especially the older generations of non skating fans even in the Netherlands will recognize them, not all of them, but still a decent number of people will.
However, since Kostner skated her FS in 2013 to Bolero, hers has been my favourite performance (and in my mind she was the true 2014 Olympic Champion). My favourite performances of her Bolero are from 2013. Liked Valieva, but not more than that program of Kostner, can't remember who did her choreography.
Bolero is one of the pieces I am really tired of hearing, I'm always disappointed when people skate to this, not because of other iconic performances, but because I heard it too often and to be honest, am bored by this music, amazing as it is. So when a skater makes me enjoy this music again, that is truly a great skater (with Kostner skating to it, I even discovered new details in the music and began listening to it more attentively instead of sighing and whining 'no not that music agaaaain, please let it be over soon, where is the mute button').
So if nobody would skate to music that "belongs" to other skaters, then there won't be a chance of someone else creating another masterpiece to that music. I wouldn't want to miss Machida's EOE of Kostner's Bolero.
That said (yes I'm not done yet
), music that belongs to certain skaters can become distracting too. In 2010 Samuel Contesti used FS music I associated with the Duchesnays. While he was skating I kept thinking about the FD of the Duchesnays and didn't pay enough attention to his actual program. He did have a good program:
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In 2006 Chait/Sakhnovski had a FD to Bolero and that was perhaps the first time since T/D that ice dancers did that. Is this brave or is this asking for comparisons to icons which makes one seem even less good ice dancers? Either way, I did enjoy this performance too, though admittedly on mute:
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