Olympic Veterans

[mememe]

Valova & Vasiliev were not in the 1980 Olympics. They won the world championship in 1983 in their first appearance at worlds. The 1984 Olympics were their first Olympics.

Vash

Thanks -- I didn't think so, but didn't want to rob them of some credit if they deserved it.

 

[Jaana]

Unfortunately, Antmanb - from my observations, figure skating fans think more of skaters who are of a young age than those continuing in their sport. Most fans want them out before age 20 unless they are going to defend a title.

In other sports, longevity is well appreciated and usually gets a special ovation from the fans. I'm sure you can think of many such former stars who reined for years. It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game - at any age!

Joe

During the time I have watched figure skating the winners at the Olympics generally (with very few exceptions, e.g. Witt and Urmanov) left to turn pro, because they needed money. The same happened with those medalists that did not consider to succeed better at next Olympics, perhaps. Roughly, the winners left and the losers stayed. I would say that generally speaking the same still applies. Although today the matters are more easy, because some skaters can earn lots and lots of money as eligible skaters, so there is no need to turn pro. They try again and again for the elusive gold medal (or at least a medal) or the rest for a better placement to later be able to get a good contract in shows (if not in USA, at least in some European ones).

About longevity, I´m not that impressed just for a fact of skaters staying and competing in several Olympics. If a winner would stay to compete and win in two or three Olympics, that would impress me a lot. With the rest of skaters, my feeling is that they just stay for the purpose of doing better next time.

 

[SkateFan4Life]

I'm sure that a lot of us are well aware that this will be Michelle's third Olympics (not counting 1994 when she was the alternate and could not compete), and also Irina's third Olympics.

 

[thisthingcalledlove]

I'm sure that a lot of us are well aware that this will be Michelle's third Olympics (not counting 1994 when she was the alternate and could not compete), and also Irina's third Olympics.

For some reason, in 1998, I thought that if Michelle HAD won, she would have retired, and Tara would still be around today.

 

[STL_Blues_fan]

During the time I have watched figure skating the winners at the Olympics generally (with very few exceptions, e.g. Witt and Urmanov) left to turn pro, because they needed money. The same happened with those medalists that did not consider to succeed better at next Olympics, perhaps. Roughly, the winners left and the losers stayed. I would say that generally speaking the same still applies. Although today the matters are more easy, because some skaters can earn lots and lots of money as eligible skaters, so there is no need to turn pro. They try again and again for the elusive gold medal (or at least a medal) or the rest for a better placement to later be able to get a good contract in shows (if not in USA, at least in some European ones).

About longevity, I´m not that impressed just for a fact of skaters staying and competing in several Olympics. If a winner would stay to compete and win in two or three Olympics, that would impress me a lot. With the rest of skaters, my feeling is that they just stay for the purpose of doing better next time.

Lets' see, the 1990's, amatures can make as much money as the pros:

Petrenko won gold in 1992 but still went to 1994 Olympics. Dimitriev won gold in 1992 with Mishkutenuk and stayed on for 1994 games and then with Kozakova for the 1998 games. Urmanov continued to compete after his 1994 win. If it wouldn't be for the hip injury, I imagine that Yags would be going to the 2006 games - after all, he was the only 2004 gold medalist to stay as an "amature" following his win. Platov and Grishuk won gold in 1994 and won another one in 1998. I think the trend with gold medalists stops there. Very impressive, indeed!

Yana