Watching old tapes: today mens sp Salt Lake City 2002

**SmallFairy** · 04-12-2011, 08:08 PM

I'm at home in my sofa, I have chocolate, and one of my favourite vids in the vcr, does life get any better?

At the moment, Chenjiang Li is rocking the house with his so cool Kung Fu music. I always enjoyed that program of his, and ok, his spins are not all that, but his quad....oh MY!!!! so crisp and perfect, love the sound of his blade when it hits the ice!

Earlier Anthony Liu also did a beauty 4t, and Yosuke Takeuchi went mad with the neon orange feathers on his outfit!

Baby Stephane and Baby Brian, Davydov skating so clean, with the best 3a3t of the night, Michael Weiss flexing his muscles.....and this is just the beginning....because now Yagudin is on the ice! Li goes first, but he won't stay there for long!!

Those were SO the days!!

....and thinking of that somewhere on that tape is Sasha Abt with his masterpiece armenian program, with step sequences from heaven, and Takeshi Honda skating clean!!

will see if I can find some youtube links, will you enjoy it with me??

ETA: I forgot...how could I, Dmitrenko will be here too, in his flesh coloured body suit with flowers and a snake draped around his leg and upper body! legend outfit!! (complete with bird twitter!)

**SmallFairy** · 04-12-2011, 08:14 PM

**Patzeez** · 04-12-2011, 09:34 PM

What a treat, SmallFairy!! Thanks for making the links to these fabulous programs.
Yagudin's "Winter" is still incredible.

**Wiery** · 04-12-2011, 09:37 PM

Thank you so very much! I love these programs!!!!

Alexander Abt's camel spin position is so beautiful!

**Macassar88** · 04-13-2011, 12:29 AM

This year was definitely one of my favorite olympic years for men. The Free Skates were amazing as well

**blue_idealist** · 04-13-2011, 02:43 AM

I'm not really a fan of Yagudin in general, but that 'Winter' program was SO amazing.

I forgot how good Alexander Abt was too. It's kind of sucks for him that he had to skate during the Yagudin/Plushenko era and lost out on a time to shine, kind of. He's better than any of the Russian men they have now.

Timothy really skated lights out. I felt bad for Todd.

**Marco** · 04-13-2011, 03:46 AM

Yagudin, Honda, Abt and even Weiss were great! So much great choreography, artistry and footwork amongst these four! I would love for Honda and Abt to have medalled...

The two MJ programs this season put Plushenko's to shame.

**DickButtonFan** · 04-13-2011, 04:24 AM

Salt Lake was my fav for the men. Soooo many quads, so many men with quality skating and it doesn't get better than Yags. Even Todd was great even with the falls, and his attempts at the quad at such a late age. I loved it.

I think Salt Lake was my fav olympics even for the women, even though Sarah Hughes won who I'm not a fan of, it was one of the most exciting moments in sport to see the underdog win.

**misskarne** · 04-13-2011, 04:50 AM

'scuse me, I'm going to have my obligatory hissy fit:

#SASHAWUZROBBED

Seriously, how on earth did he end up 5th after SP when Plushenko was 4th with a fall? I love Plushy don't get me wrong, but...

Actually, I really like this performance of Plushy's MJ program (relative to his other MJ programs) because of the recovery effort. He could have really fallen to pieces after that fall but I think the rest of his performance was quite strong.

And of course I'll always love Yagudin's "Winter".

**SmallFairy** · 04-13-2011, 09:47 AM

I know....so many quads....and quads combined with artistry and great programs! Yagudin....love**

It's almost easier to recall who didn't have a quad, than who did...I mean, Zoltan Toth landed his quad!
Other skaters with quads (though not all landed) was Yags, Plush, Abt, Weiss, Goebel, Eldredge (wow, I was speachless, what a feat at almost 30!!!), Stojko, (Sandhu would have had one too if he could compete), Honda, Takeuchi, Li, Li, Zhang, Liu, Dinev, Dambier, Joubert... did I forget anyone?

(that leaves Davydov, Dmitrenko, Lambiel, Dolfini, Murvandize, Rylov, Chiper, van der Perren (what a sp he had, his happiness at the end is priceless!, Skorniakov, Lee and Hernits)

and how Sasha could end up fifth, I will never quite get over....his program was sooooo good, so groovy, and those steps and that basic...awwwww gushing voids!!

btw I too enjoyed parts of Plushys program, though not his pelvis shake

his 3a was so textbook flawless!

Will definitely watch the fs tape tomorrow!!

**PashaFan** · 04-13-2011, 10:33 AM

I have all the tapes to the 2002 Olympics which I'm now copying on to DVD.
It's such a treat to watch my old faves such as Marina & Gwendal, Michelle Kwan & Yagudin.
I watched the Ladies free skate last night. There is no doubt that Sarah Hughes was best on the night but over the short & free skate I'm not sure if she was my winner.
But I really enjoyed watching it & can't believe it's been 9 years since Salt Lake.
I've always thought that there should have been 4 Pro events at the Olympics (maybe on the perfect 10 scoring system to make it different, plus just two triples per programme) so we could still see these great Champions compete rather than in just shows.
Imagine watching Michelle Kwan, Katarina Witt & Shizuka Arikawa compete in the same event !.

**Zokko!** · 04-13-2011, 10:59 AM

Watching most of these tapes almost made me cry.

Yes, those!!! were the days, when Men's competition was "the event", when Olympic Champions actually used to deliver Olympic Champion performances to remember ...

PS: And how well Takeshi did! It wasn't easy ... he had to skate right after Alexei, but obviously that "inspired" him ...

**ciocio** · 04-13-2011, 11:27 AM

Great!!!! I love SLC Olympics! Honda, Abt, Yagudin, Plushy were great!
Back then I was a big Yagudin fan and I remember I enjoyed "Winter" a lot.

**mia joy** · 04-13-2011, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by Zokko!

Yes, those!!! where the days, when Men's competition was "the event", when Olympic Champions actually used to deliver Olympic Champion performances to remember ...

I know, right? I cannot believe we keep debating if choreo and transitions are more important than quads. One look at Yags and the whole debate seems funny and pointless.

Those were the times men skating was about MEN. Challenging each other. Powerful jumpers. And some great artists too.

Just put Yagudin's programs next to Lysacek's, realize Yags was 8 years earlier and don't cry of hopelessness... impossible!!! so much for men skating developing...

**shine** · 04-13-2011, 04:54 PM

Sasha Abt was SO a victim of reputation judging. When he was on, he was not any less of a skater than either Yagudin or Plushenko. I think he had better skating skills in general, too. But then inconsistency didn't really help him. Too bad he was plagued with injuries earlier in his career when he should've been building a name for himself. What a shame

I sill prefer men's skating in the late 2000's to circa 2002 though. I think skating has gotten more interesting and expressive.

**shine** · 04-13-2011, 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by mia joy

Those were the times men skating was about MEN. Challenging each other. Powerful jumpers. And some great artists too.

Maybe there's more to being MEN than powerful jumps? What an insult to those men who define themselves differently and want to be more than just that.

**blue_idealist** · 04-13-2011, 06:40 PM

It's not fair to compare Evan Lysacek's performance in 2010 with Yagudin's in 2002 and say figure skating has suffered a downfall. Yagudin is one of the best male skaters EVER. I don't see Lysacek's performance as inferior to Kulik's in 1998, Urmanov's in 1994, or Petrenko's in 1992. Re: Plushenko's 2006 performance, sure it had more quads than Evan's, but there wasn't much emotion behind it. Maybe Evan isn't the best Olympic champion EVER, but that doesn't mean that figure skating's gone downhill or he didn't deserve the gold medal.

**Daria** · 04-13-2011, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by blue_idealist

It's not fair to compare Evan Lysacek's performance in 2010 with Yagudin's in 2002 and say figure skating has suffered a downfall. Yagudin is one of the best male skaters EVER. I don't see Lysacek's performance as inferior to Kulik's in 1998, Urmanov's in 1994, or Petrenko's in 1992. Re: Plushenko's 2006 performance, sure it had more quads than Evan's, but there wasn't much emotion behind it. Maybe Evan isn't the best Olympic champion EVER, but that doesn't mean that figure skating's gone downhill or he didn't deserve the gold medal.

Well, the sport changed, that's all. It would be nice if someone her put these 2002 programs under the current scoring system. Everyone landed quads at the time and that competition had a remarkable quality of course, but nowadays skaters are more challenged to improve on the others components, I think. PS. Sorry for eventual grammar errors, my english is kinda awkward.

**Fandango** · 04-13-2011, 08:01 PM

Thank you, SmallFairy, for posting all these links and bringing back the glory days of male figure skating!

All those sweet memories came back to me; and I'm still having goosebumps while watching! Characters like Yagudin, Abt, Honda and even Plushenko (!

) who were easily in the position to combine technical difficulties (quads) with great artistry (or at least great presentation), and all that in the SP already, in the most important, most exciting competition of their life!

But that was "then" - and what do we have now? The slide rule generation. Lysacek the reigning "Olympic Champion", Chan almost surely the next World Champion. A lot of hesitant, boring 9-to-5-skaters and ardent point-collectors. Not enough real character's any more, and only a few rays of light in sight. Oh well, I cannot even blame them. It's the system. But the fun seems over (to me).

**Cloudy_Gumdrops** · 04-13-2011, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by Daria

PS. Sorry for eventual grammar errors, my english is kinda awkward.

Your English is very good.

I always thought Abt wuzrobbed in the SP. I adore his Armenian Dances program.

Li's 4toe is totally the best quad ever imo.

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