1992 Worlds: Ladies Short Program

[TheIronLady]

All this talk of Laetitia Hubert got me looking for a program by her that I enjoyed watching, and I believe I found one in her energetic performance at 1992 Worlds. The judging of the SP at 1992 Worlds was interesting to say the least, especially Hubert's placement. What do you think of the judges' rankings?

1st Place Ordinal, Kristi Yamaguchi, USA

2nd Place Ordinal, Chen Lu, CHN

3rd Place Ordinal, Nancy Kerrigan, USA

4th Place Ordinal, Tonya Harding, USA

5th Place Ordinal, Laetitia Hubert, FRA

6th Place Ordinal, Josée Chouinard, CAN

7th Place Ordinal, Karen Preston, CAN

8th Place Ordinal, Alice Sue Claeys, BEL/USA. Her 92 Worlds SP does not appear to be on YouTube.
The best alternative I could find was this clip of Claeys' 1992 Euros SP

9th Place Ordinal, Patricia Neske, GER

10th Place Ordinal, Surya Bonaly, FRA

11th Place Ordinal, Yuka Sato, JPN

[Loves_Shizuka]

I've never seen this Harding SP before - I had no idea she changed the SP after Albertville. I don't know that it was ... "her".

I really liked Lu Chen's SP, I always loved the way she used her arms, and even this SP had it's voidy moments - full marks for the costume too

[briancoogaert]

I don't know what Nancy and Tonya are doing so high in the standings.
Really, it was a SP, with required elements.
IMO, the standings should have been more :
1-Kristi
2-Lu Chen
3-Laetitia Hubert
4-Nancy Kerrigan
5-Josee Chouinard
6-Karen Preston
7-Tonya Harding

[TheIronLady]

I am most struck by Yuka Sato's headband. She looks like she just walked off a 1988 fashion runway. In other words, she looks zany. I think Yuka is dazzling in spite of the choreography and bad early 90s cut dress.

[olympic]

I watched the video of Tonya Harding. There was always so much drama associated with everything she did!

BTW, she and Rosalynn Sumners were from the same area of the country. Did Tonya and Rosalynn ever share coaching staff / choreographers, etc.??

[falling_dance]

I watched the video of Tonya Harding. There was always so much drama associated with everything she did!

BTW, she and Rosalynn Sumners were from the same area of the country. Did Tonya and Rosalynn ever share coaching staff / choreographers, etc.??

I believe that Barbara Flowers choreographed for both.

[judgejudy27]

I thought the short program standings should have been:

1. Yamaguchi
2. Chen
3. Chouinard
4. Preston
5. Hubert
6. Kerrigan
7. Harding

[judgejudy27]

With the event in the U.S it was always predictable even if any of Yamaguchi, Harding, and Kerrigan had a huge mistake (and in the case of Harding and Kerrigan only trying a double lutz combo and still missing it apparently was not enough) they were going to be held up into the top 3 or 4 after the SP, while the others who made even smaller mistakes (eg- Josee`s double flip, Sato`s combination) were going to be hammered for it.

[Marco]

I don't know what Nancy and Tonya are doing so high in the standings.

I had to giggle when Harding first bobbled at her free leg in the first spiral and then on her edge in the second while she forced herself to smile through the whole thing. I actually quite like the program. At least there was no fierce high kicks anymore. Most elements were strong. Still, no combo at all is such a killer.

Besides Yamaguchi and Chen, I would also have Chouinard in the top 3. Her mistake was minor and her triple combo was clean. Everything else was perfect. Her program was complex and her execution was solid and much more polished than Chen.

Sato was glorious and probably the best skater that night along with Chouinard. If her combo was clean she would be at least 2nd in my score card.

I had issues with many of Hubert's elements. The spiral sequence was virtually non existent and she never bothered to arch her back in the layback spin. Her 2axel landing wasn't so solid either and her combo, while perfect, was much easier than Chouinard's. And then she never held any position in her combo spin. Little deductions here and there should accumulate to prevent her from scoring too high despite skating a seemingly clean program.

Kerrigan was just the most average skater ever and this is even more apparent when she doesn't skate clean. Perhaps if the judges weren't so unreasonably favouring her in 1992 at the Olympics and at Worlds here, they probably would have some love left for her in 1994.

My take:

1. Yamaguchi 5.8/5.9
2. Chouinard 5.5/5.8
3. Chen 5.6/5.6
4. Sato 5.3/5.8
5. Harding 5.2/5.7
6. Kerrigan 5.2/5.5
7. Hubert 5.0/5.6

(I haven't watched anyone else)

[Louis]

Wasn't Alice Sue Claeys clean? I thought she was under-marked throughout the entire competition and could've conceivably ended up on the podium, as crazy as that sounds. The bells on her short program make me .

[Seerek]

I believe the ordinals were all over the place, so there might have been flip-flops

Note Vanessa Riley's ordinals - pretty much in line with how she judged the same skaters in Albertville...

[Tony Wheeler]

Wasn't Alice Sue Claeys clean? I thought she was under-marked throughout the entire competition and could've conceivably ended up on the podium, as crazy as that sounds. The bells on her short program make me .

I think so. Vanessa Riley put Sato 2nd in the long and Claeys 3rd, and I think my own judging scorecard would have been most similar to hers. Alice Sue managed 4 quality triples in the long program, although nothing more difficult than the loop.

Hubert, 6 triples and all (or whatever it was), had absolutely no refinement and still managed to fall twice. I loved her later in her career, but here I think she should have been about 8th or 9th in the free skate at best.

FWIW- a few years ago I put up the of the top 12 skaters in the LP in relation to each other-- listed by final placement. Here they are:
http://www.flutzingaround.com/2010/0...school-me.html

[FSfan107]

I really liked Lu Chen's SP, I always loved the way she used her arms, and even this SP had it's voidy moments - full marks for the costume too

Interesting contrast of music with the two pieces used in the program. Does anyone know the name of the music that is used in the second half of Lu Chen's program? Sounds so 80's.

[gkelly]

Does anyone know the name of the music that is used in the second half of Lu Chen's program? Sounds so 80's.

Beetlejuice soundtrack

[FSfan107]

Beetlejuice soundtrack

Thanks. I thought it sounded familiar but I couldn't put a name on it.

[TheIronLady]

Whatever happened to Alice Sue after 1992? She seems to be an accountant in Atlanta now. It looks like she was very bright and attended university at age 14.

[gkelly]

Whatever happened to Alice Sue after 1992? She seems to be an accountant in Atlanta now. It looks like she was very bright and attended university at age 14.

She competed at US Nationals in 1996; short program was televised. She also qualified for 1998 Nationals and practiced earlier in the week but withdrew before the competition started.

[TheIronLady]

Did anyone watch Sandra Bezic's educational piece following the Nancy Kerrigan SP clip? It's at 7:22. Sandra uses clips of Surya's jumps to illustrate the technical errors a skater can make. I would be so offended at Canadian television if I were Surya!

3rd Place Ordinal, Nancy Kerrigan, USA

[TheIronLady]

She competed at US Nationals in 1996; short program was televised. She also qualified for 1998 Nationals and practiced earlier in the week but withdrew before the competition started.

Did she give up on Belgium? Or can you compete in multiple nationals and take the best offer?

[gkelly]

I believe she did give up on Belgium.

Whether a skater can compete in more than one federation's national championships in the same year depends on the rules of that federation at the time. But whether they could compete internationally would also depend on ISU rules at the time.

Usually when a skater switches mid-season it's someone who hadn't competed internationally at all yet or not within the last year or two.

I seem to remember reading or hearing that Claeys had tried to make the 1994 Olympic team for Belgium and when it became clear that wasn't happening (some combination of injury and Belgian Olympic Committee rules?), she turned her focus back to the US. But I don't remember details.