Figure Skating Duels

[cocovica]

Hello everyone,
I thought it could be fun to vote for your favourite in the famous figure skating duels from the history. So, enjoy and feel free to comment as well if you take your votes. More are coming soon. Thanks!

First round
Michelle Kwan vs Tara Lipinski, olympics 1998
http://www.krasobru.4fan.cz/duel-mic...tara-lipinski/



In this one I would not be able to vote! I am huge fan of Michelle but Tara's free program always brings me to tears (specially with that crazy Hamiltons commentary)

[bartek]

Tara hands down. That particular night, Michelle's performance didn't held a candle to Tara's one. IMO, Tara's skate is the second best ever Olympic free skate right after Kim Yu-Na. Amazing technical content with extremely difficult triple-triple in the second half of the program! Besides, extraordinary joy and exuberance, a pleasure to watch. Michelle, on the other had, had much less difficult program and her jumps weren't super high either and she flutzed too.

[Nan]

Michelle. I always enjoyed watching her skate...I loved this. Tara seemes to push against the ice when she skates, Michelle flows across it like water.

[sk8ingcoach]

Tara 100% her Olympics was one of the best of all time. Great technical content.

[essence_of_soy]

Michelle skated the performance of her life at US Nationals a month prior to Nagano.

The difference in Japan (for me) was that Tara skated to win, and Kwan skated not to lose. Michelle seemed to skate a little more cautiously, and the magic from Philadelphia was missing.

[Canadask8er]

They seemed to switch after nationals.... Tara skated to be on the Olympic Team in Philly after a fall in the SP, and Michelle skated free without inhibitions.... At Nagano, Michelle skated not to lose (as previously mentioned), and Tara just went lights out and had a blast! A great Olympics duel for the ages!!!

[julieann]

Michelle. I always enjoyed watching her skate...I loved this. Tara seemes to push against the ice when she skates, Michelle flows across it like water.

I agree with this, Michelle seemed like wanted to be out there forever but Tara looked as if she just wanted to do her elements as fast as she could and get it over it. It was too frenetic. It barely looked like she left the ice when she jumped.

[berthesghost]

I agree with this, Michelle seemed like wanted to be out there forever but Tara looked as if she just wanted to do her elements as fast as she could and get it over it. It was too frenetic. It barely looked like she left the ice when she jumped.

Ita
Where others see spark in Tara's lp, I just see nervous energy. She always sped her way thru her lps like she had freddy kruger chasing her, but in nagano I think she was a bundle of nerves.

[blue_idealist]

I think it was right that Tara took it, she just skated with more exuberance that night, but it WAS very close and if Michelle had won it wouldn't have been a travesty. IIRC Michelle also only did a 3-2 while Tara did a 3-3 combo.

[Johnny_Fever]

Hello everyone,
I thought it could be fun to vote for your favourite in the famous figure skating duels from the history.......

Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy.

[bartek]

Ita
Where others see spark in Tara's lp, I just see nervous energy. She always sped her way thru her lps like she had freddy kruger chasing her, but in nagano I think she was a bundle of nerves.

I have the same exact feeling while I'm watching Michelle's performance. She was so nervous and afraid of making any mistakes. I feel the pressure before every single jump she landed there. And the technical content was really weak when compared to Tara. Actually Michelle made four technical mistakes even if only one of them was noticed under 6.0. She flutzed both lutzes, landed on the inside edge on her flip and had a sloppy landing on that and also, she was half a turn short of rotation on her solo triple loop. Tara only had two flutzes but the rest was wonderful. Some people say she jumped so low, but Michelle's jumps were also rather low and this is why she often cheated them a bit. Even if we used CoP to judge Tara's skate, her highly difficult 3L-3L would still be given credit. That's really amazing because it's so hard rotate the second triple loop. What's more, compare Michelle's cobos to Tara's. Michelle looks ridiculous with her weak content. 3Lz-2T and 3Lo with 2T in sequence. Tara had both of her tough combinations in the second half, and, in fact, 3T-0.5L-3S was at the very end.

[iarispiralllyof]

Tara deserved to win.

With that said, Michelle's program is much more sophisticated. It's a piece of art. Tara's not so much (although her presentation was great, filled with joy and exuberance)

[skateboy]

Tara.

[t.mann]

Tara's SP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBt7TGh3HWM

Kwan's SP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH6z-gwiSRc

[iarispiralllyof]

michelle's sp >>>> tara's sp

[cocovica]

Hello guys, second round of figure skating duels is up

Duel: Brian Boitano vs Brian Orser, Olympics 1988
http://www.krasobru.4fan.cz/duel-bri...jske-hry-1988/

Vote, comment and enjoy!

Thank you

[snoopysnake]

Brian Boitano. Orser had a noticeable jump landing error. I do not think their scores should have been that close.

[giselle23]

Tara was over-scored on the second mark. Her presentation was not sophisticated and her artistry was forced, not natural. The second mark was supposed to break a tie under the 6.0 system. If Tara was better in tech (not by that much--Michelle did 7 triples) Michelle was equally better in presentation. So, in my opinion, Michelle should have won.

[flipforsynchro]

Deleted

[flipforsynchro]

Tara was over-scored on the second mark. Her presentation was not sophisticated and her artistry was forced, not natural. The second mark was supposed to break a tie under the 6.0 system. If Tara was better in tech (not by that much--Michelle did 7 triples) Michelle was equally better in presentation. So, in my opinion, Michelle should have won.

Presentation doesn't need to be sophisticated