Retrospective: The 1984 Olympics

[olympic]

Speaking of Pros and the '84 Olympics together in this thread - It's too bad Denise Biellmann couldn't stick around until Sarajevo. She had a good chance of winning ... if she stayed vertical

[skatesindreams]

Holiday on Ice, Europe, must have offered her an awful lot of $$$$!

[eurodance2001]

Speaking of Pros and the '84 Olympics together in this thread - It's too bad Denise Biellmann couldn't stick around until Sarajevo. She had a good chance of winning ... if she stayed vertical

She has a good chance of winning TODAY if she could land her usual two toe loops and two salchows in combination in competition..

[olympic]

She has a good chance of winning TODAY if she could land her usual two toe loops and two salchows in combination in competition..

Don't forget about the lutz, and she was able to do a loop at one point

[berthesghost]

You have to take into account that the pros were only performing elements that they were good at. For example, how many pro pairs were attempting SBS 3toes or even 2A? Zilch! You hear people say how B&P or Kadavy was so much better as a pro than as eligble skater, etc. Well Karen was usually only doing one 3toe per program. B&P was doing SBS 2flip and throw 3sal, but they rarely had issues doing those during their eligible days.

I'm willing to meet you half way on this one.

Kadavy for example usually attempted 5 triples with 2 3r, 2 3t and a 3s, but never iirc ever pulled. It off once. As a pro she usually tried 3 triple programs, abandoning the pesky 3s and could always at least land a 3r her most difficult triple and money jump.

Similarly, kristi went from the 7 triple lp she usually tried and only once ever pulled off, to 5 triple tech programs, abandoning the pesky 3s and pretty much always landing the 3z her money jump.

I know detractors love to act like pro skaters are lazy gits who quit all the hard stuff the day they turn pro, but it's not really true and it definitely IMHO does damage to all of skating to abuse the pros. $peedy killing off pro skating pretty much took eligable skating down with it, sooo

[matti]

I got this impression that 3loop was the easiest triple for Caryn Kadavy, like 3flip and 3lutz were for Kristi Yamaguchi (well, excepting 3toe). Kay Thomson only could do 3lutz. And so on... It all so personal.

BTW - I hate how mastering 3flip and 3lutz gives skaters unfair advantage, because they are so similar...artificial...less than spectacular... Vive Axel jumps!

[berthesghost]

They're not that similar, not in this context. Back in the day, you either had one or the other. I'm not sure anyone pre-hamilton/Ito actually had both.

[Seerek]

They're not that similar, not in this context. Back in the day, you either had one or the other. I'm not sure anyone pre-hamilton/Ito actually had both.

If we're talking about Lutz + Flip the only ones I could think off might have been Minoru Sano in the 1970s (landing both in 1977) and maybe Vern Taylor - Jan Hoffman had 3 lutz but no 3 flip