Retrospective: The 1984 Olympics

[Maofan7]

Retrospective moves onto the 1984 Olympics.

Here are the key facts:-


Scott Hamilton entered the Olympics as the 3 time world champion and added the Olympic gold to his medal collection. A few weeks later he would retain his world title to become a 4 time world champion. He retired after the 1984 Worlds to tour with Ice Capades. After winning the 1981 US Nationals, he never lost another competition as an amateur.

Brian Orser took the silver and he would win another olympic silver medal 4 years later in the 'battle of the Brian's' at the 1988 Olympics. Orser won the SP & LP at the 1984 Olympics, but a 7th place finish in the school figures cost him the Gold

Katarina Witt becomes Olympic champion having not previously won the World title. She would nevertheless become world champion for the first time at the 1984 Worlds - just a few weeks after winning Olympic Gold. Rosalynn Sumners had entered the Olympic competition as the favourite. However, in the Free Skate, Sumners scaled back 2 of her jumps and Witt won the Gold medal by just one tenth of a point on one judge's scorecard. Sumners, retired immediately after the 1984 Olympics, but Witt carried on for another 4 years and became the first Ladies singles skater since Sonja Henie to retain the Olympic title at the 1988 Olympics.

Kira Ivanova wins the Bronze. Tragically, she was later murdered in her own apartment at the age of just 38 on the 18th December 2001. Although she had a reputation as a strong compulsories skater, early in her career she was also a strong free skater. For example, in 1982 at the Moscow News Trophy she landed a triple triple combination - very rare at the time. Nevertheless, as time went by, her free skating became very inconsistent.

Valova & Vasiliev win the pairs title, having won the world title for the first time the previous year. However, just a few weeks later at the 1984 World Championships, they had to settle for 2nd place behind Underhill & Martini who had finished 7th at the 1984 Olympics. Valova & Vasiliev continued as amateur's for another 4 years, regaining the world title in 1985. Thereafter, however, they were eclipsed by Ekaterina Gordeeva & Sergei Grinkov who beat them at the 1986 & 1987 worlds, and at the 1988 Olympics. Nevertheless, Valova & Vasiliev gained a measure of revenge over Gordeeva & Grinkov when beating them to win the 1988 world championships. It was there last competition before retiring.

Like Scott Hamilton, Torvill & Dean entered the Olympic competition as the 3 time world champions, and like Hamilton, they won the Olympic Gold medal and then retained their world title a few weeks later at 1984 Worlds and then retired. Their Free Dance during the 1983/84 season was the legendary Bolero. Somewhat fittingly, they skated the program at the Olympics on St. Valentine's Day. When choosing and choreographing Bolero, there were concerns that the program was too radical. However, they needn't have worried as when they got to the Olympics, their Bolero performance garnered them twelve 6.0's (with all 9 judges awarding them 6.0's for artistic impression) and six 5.9's

Extremely close between Klimova & Ponomarenko and Blumberg & Seibert, with Klimova & Ponomarenko just winning the Bronze medal by a small margin. The result for Bronze remains very controversial to this day.


Mens

Gold: Scott Hamilton - USA

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG-lzKrFi4A)

Free Scott (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2CyJVuFjhY)

Silver: Brian Orser - CAN

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqJbIefnsi0)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFgEPqw09IU)

Bronze: Jozef Sabovčík - CZE

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6k6gYN77s)

5th: Brian Boitano - USA

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbbHlguZl4Q)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE-23hGJh_w)

Ladies

Gold: Katarina Witt

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K422CijA558)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLS0nUK_syA)

Exhibition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYU32WIqFnU)

Silver: Rosalynn Sumners - USA

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zep2Fb-hsl8)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k4cBjtJ2WI)

Exhibition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41CX7utFJzQ)

Bronze: Kira Ivanova - USSR

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc6neZWi05w)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDw0_ZpjU8Q)

Exhibition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx3aebSobps)

4th: Tiffany Chin - USA

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5MAIHkFQmU)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLAEGPYjEqM)

Exhibition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpW5rNNbBQ)

5th: Anna Kondrashova - USSR

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXa5U4BbP5Q)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h17MwRSUjyQ)

6th: Elaine Zayak - USA

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhKgw-UE_GY)

Free Skate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MBbng2Mzj8)

Pairs

Gold: Elena Valova & Oleg Vasiliev - USSR

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezhFGMWXSV4)

Long Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EhxI-KD59A)

Silver: Kitty Carruthers & Peter Carruthers - USA

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EQwo5wjyM)

Long Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jer97vmp2ZY)

Bronze: Larisa Selezneva & Oleg Makarov - USSR

Short Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dxg1XG18HM)

Long Program (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzFYQicab58)

Ice Dance

Gold: Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean - GBR

Compulsory Dance No 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duA9IvzH4u4)

Compulsory Dance No 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3-3AahwHTo)

Compulsory Dance No 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3OYfX04G34)

Compulsory Dances - all 3 (2nd Copy) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vaLrAzlsSo)

Original Set Pattern (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_8AsMSn1ys)

Free Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUsXLQ9NItg)

Free Dance - 2nd Copy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98)

Exhibition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrR5PlRkzM)

Exhibition (Encore) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSGMwwlHKfw)

Post Event Interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpChhKjPw5U)

2nd Interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0_uR6GrWUo)

Medal Ceremony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpnalqB8uqk)

Silver: Natalia Bestemianova & Andrei Bukin - USSR

Compulsory Dance No 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5q-5ANAPBM)

Compulsory Dance No 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnOeR88n6TU)

Compulsory Dance No 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDfUeDWDpzQ)

Original Set Pattern (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rhVdi3cGUg)

Free Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiAP0W7rWzs)

Bronze: Marina Klimova & Sergei Ponomarenko - USSR

Compulsory Dance No 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDg18vN3LDA)

Original Set Pattern (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yHkQapQKT0)

Free Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHtjRmkBV_E)

Exhibition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C276YWLXeQk)

4th: Judy Blumberg & Michael Seibert - USA

Compulsory Dance No 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZNSoPwkB-E)

Compulsory Dance No 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDyrwi1kprs)

Compulsory Dance No 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlHyuB1jPaw)

Original Set Pattern (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH2LkBofPHU)

Free Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyfosI-IcYY)

[briancoogaert]

No real point of view, but I'm just sad Brian Orser didn't win. He was clearly the best of the competition, too bad about compulsories.

[olympic]

T/D were the highlight of the Olympics with their 'Bolero' FD. But, the situation with the Ice Dance bronze medal was one of the biggest wuzrobbed's in skating history.

I thought the Ladies competition was one of the least interesting; Sumners wasn't at her best in either of the SP And LP. Witt would be a better skater by '87. Ivanova and Kondrashova were pretty boring. Chin was a bright light in the SP and LP, but took herself out of the running with a 12th place finish in Figures. Zayak was undermarked at least in the SP, if not the LP too. Leistner was an up and comer who was disastrous in the SP. Ito missed the competition due to a disaster at JPN Nats earlier in the year.

Scott wasn't at his best in the SP or LP either, but managed to win. I loved seeing Brian Boitano get as high as 5th. Orser was on fire, and I remember he was played up as the heir apparent for the next quadrennium. Didn't quite happen that way

Also happy for C/C getting silver in the Pairs event. I didn't think Pairs was all that interesting in comparison to other competitions - U/M and B/T were subpar which left the door open for V/V waltzing to the gold medal

[taf2002]

If you watch V&V and the Carruthers back to back it's hard to believe V&V won. The Carruthers did a lot more technically & were much cleaner. Valova had 2 visible mistakes - the 2foot on the throw salcow & the step-out on the 2As. All the Carruthers' elements were bigger & nicer. Plus I always thought Valova was kind of mediocre whereas Kitty was a :glamor:, esp in the death spiral. I remember watching that performance & just bursting into tears when they were finished.

I talked to Ron Ludington about my anger that boring & boring won that year & he told me that he was told about 6 mos before the Olys that V&V were going to win.

[skatesindreams]

I was sorry that Scott didn't skate particularly well in the LP.
His big lead after the figures secured the OGM, despite Brian Orser's great performance.

IIRC, Scott had developed an ear infection, which affected his jumps.

[pollyanna]

T/D were the highlight of the Olympics with their 'Bolero' FD.
It was a highlight and it's what most people remember. But for me, the highlight was their OSP Paso Doble where Jane became the cape to Chris' matador. Chills.

[falling_dance]

IIRC, Scott had developed an ear infection, which affected his jumps.

Major :rockstar: points for anyone who can skate even that well under those circumstances.

[orbitz]

I remembered how painfully slow Scott's camel-change-camel was in the SP. I was afraid he wasn't going to be able to complete the required revolutions on each foot and still had time to complete the rest of the elements.

Roz was a big disappointment. The gold medal was definitely hers for the taking.

I agree that D&T Paso was a highlight. I'd much prefer re-watching that program than Bore-lero :P.

[essence_of_soy]

Roz was a big disappointment. The gold medal was definitely hers for the taking.

I remember reading somewhere an interview with Sumners quite some time later that the lack of ice time in Sarejevo really affected her preparation and training for the competition. With a skater of her calibre used to 4 or 5 hours practicing freestyle a day, I believe athletes were limited to one 45 minute freestyle session only.

[olympic]

^Wasn't there a story that Roz had an amazing runthrough of her LP the day before, and after the fact she felt she left her skate on the practice ice?

Also weren't there stories after the fact that Roz didn't feel a lot of support from her coach?

[orbitz]

ABC showed a bit of Roz final LP practice the day before the final. Dick Button said that she did a perfect run-through. It was obviously nerve that caused Roz to pop two 2As and reduced 2 triples to doubles.

I don't remember reading anything about Roz feeling a lack of support from her coach. She and her coach Loraine Bowman were very closed.

[Yazmeen]

Here you go: Fire on Ice Part 6, Roslyn, and her take on her Olympics. She did feel she left her best performance at that practice. And she didn't feel her coach was supportive after the short, and after Katarina skated her long, she interpreted her coach's reaction as "you have no chance" and that also affected her. Overall, neither she nor her coach handled the situation well, they both let the pressure get to them. Roz comes off both sad and annoying here - she was the on who "gave up," but she still snarks about the judges holding Kat up to much in the short.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0_iCNHIk7k

[berthesghost]

Roz lost the ogm with the narrowest of margins on a 5/4 split, and afterward everyone was like "Why? Why? Why?" so it's not really that surprising that she was all "um... Uh...um... Maybe it as because it was a Tuesday and I usually win on Wednesday... Uh ... Uh... Uh...". At least she didn't blame the bus schedule or claim a ghost was in her hotel room. :lol:

[Mafke]

Roz lost the ogm with the narrowest of margins on a 5/4 split, and afterward everyone was like "Why? Why? Why?"

Jutta Muller put a voodoo spell on her...

[olympic]

Watch the K & C of Roz after the LP. The normally cool as a cucumber Roz got extremely happy after the Artistic marks went up. I wonder if she thought she won (it was a very close 5-4). Or maybe she was just happy with a 6.0? Those marks were all over the place - 5.6 from the YUG judge and a 6.0 from the ITA judge. LOL that the YUG judge put her behind Ivanova. Also interesting that the ITA judge gave out the 6.0: Penance for the ITA judge in Ice Dance? :EVILLE: