Great Short Programs by Pairs in the Olympics

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Vash01

Fan of Yuzuru, T&M, P&C
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I don't want to make this into a poll. I just want to list some of the best short programs skated by pairs (regardless of rankings) in the Olympics. Links would be nice but not necessary.
I will add links later. My list may be incomplete.

I will start with the most recent, and go backward.

Tarasova Morozov 2022 (Pygmalion Galatea)and
2018 (Rachmaninov 2)

Mishina Galliamov (Esmeralda)

Volosozhar Trankov 2014 (Masquerade Waltz)

(I don't remember the 2010 Olympics at all. Sorry)

Totmianina Marinin 2006 (Snowstorm)
www.youtube.com

T. TOTMIANINA & M. MARININ - 2006 OLYMPIC GAMES - SP

TATIANA TOTMIANINA & MAXIM MARININ - 2006 OLYMPIC GAMES - SHORT PROGRAM
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Inoue Baldwin (they skated to Albinone and landed the first throw triple axel by a pair in the Olympics)

Berezhnaya Sikharulidze 2002 (Lady Caliph)

1998? I don't think there was a really great SP, unless I am forgetting something.

Gordeeva Grinkov 1994 Flamenko

Mishkutenok Dmitriev 1992 and 1994 (Don Quixote)


Shishkova Naumov 1992 (Take 5)

Kovarikova Novotny 1992

Gordeeva Grinkov 1988 (Carmen)


I don't remember others.
 
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michalle said:
WHERE IS LIEBESTRAUM (M & D), THE GREATEST PROGRAM IN THE HISTORY OF ICE SKATING?!?!?!

Ahem.

I would like to politely and calmly and in a very normal fashion nominate Liebestraum by M & D from 1992.
Click to expand...
Short program? :)
 
Shen and Zhao did Who wants to live forever in 2010 but I don't know if anyone considers it one of their best SPs.

ETA: Pang and Tong skated to Pearl Fishers (Bizet). Sandra Bezic loved it! But they really brought the house down with their FS to The Impossible Dream. They had a case to win gold over Shen and Zhao but the latter owned the hearts of the skating world and the judges gave it to them. Anyway here is Pang & Tong's SP.
 
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B&S's short program from 2002 still gives me goosebumps. It was just so unwordly incredible in every way from the quality of nearly all the elements, particularly the 3 big, most important elements off the top, to the lines and flow throughout, to the stellar music selection and edits, to how well the interpreted and performed up to that demanding music choice. The top 3 short programs from these Olympics and top 2 from the TE were insanely good all. Totmianina & Marinin's short program from Turin was an all time high point for them. Even Barb Underhill who usually can't spare a kind word for them said "they really left an effect, a huge emotion, which is a rare thing for them to do."

Even though it only placed 5th (I would have placed it 3rd or 4th since Isabelle fell on a double axel) Shishkova & Naumov's short program from 92 was my personal favorite one of the whole event. It was just so relaxing and chill to see someone skate to Dave Grubic in a competitive short program, you would normally expect that in an exhibition piece, and they performed all the elements so easily and the overall program had such relaxation and an easy, relaxed feel to the easy, relaxing music.

Miskutienok & Dmitriev's short program to Don Quixote in both the 92 and 94 Olympics was a very snappy, original piece, with innovative moves and fabulous expression throughout, very challenging choreography, and while completing all the big elements fine, also with some spectacularity in the less marquee elements like the spins, footwork, spirals.
 
I don't watch dance, but in the other three disciplines I think Pairs is the only one where you rewatch 6.0 programmes and the top pairs are really fantastic and the programmes still hold up because they are faster, they are more completely in synch two skating as one shadowing each other perfectly. Lifts cover much more ice and are considerably faster, spin rotations are faster. Yes there are fewer transitions in the programmes but well matched smooth crossovers are a fantastic show of great skating skills. Even lower down ranked pair teams are covering more ice with their lifts.

That isn't to say that I advocate moving back to 6.0 at all, i don't, i just mean the pairs programmes hold up pretty well whereas the singles programmes really don't.
 
B/S 2002 is probably the greatest for me. Quality of elements and movement combined is simply unmatched anywhere. The lift was probably not as perfectly executed as other technical elements in that program. But the "plastique" quality of every move was sublime, especially from him.

Snowstorm is a program I'd go back to watching even though I find T/T otherwise utterly boring.
Really liked The Pearl Fishers partly because that aria is my favorite tenor aria, and it suited P/T.
 
I did enjoy the playfulness of Sale/Pelletier's Jalousie SP.

IMO I would not include Mishina/Galliamov's Esmaralalda. The twee-ness of parts of it made me cringe.
I always loved Tarasova/Morozov's classical programs and remember enjoying their 2018.
 
screech said:
I did enjoy the playfulness of Sale/Pelletier's Jalousie SP.

IMO I would not include Mishina/Galliamov's Esmaralalda. The twee-ness of parts of it made me cringe.
I always loved Tarasova/Morozov's classical programs and remember enjoying their 2018.
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A very kitschy program performed with on the nose twee-ness. A total miss. Can't believe it came from Moskvina.
 
Mishina & Galliamov's short program is the kind you either really love or you probably find it cheesy and maybe a bit annoying. There is very little in between. I will say for what they are actively trying to do, they do it about perfectly.
 
I did really like Sale & Pelletier's 2002 short program too. I far more enjoy it personally than their sappy and overwrought Love Story program,with its overly simplistic choreography.
 
antmanb said:
I don't watch dance, but in the other three disciplines I think Pairs is the only one where you rewatch 6.0 programmes and the top pairs are really fantastic and the programmes still hold up because they are faster, they are more completely in synch two skating as one shadowing each other perfectly. Lifts cover much more ice and are considerably faster, spin rotations are faster. Yes there are fewer transitions in the programmes but well matched smooth crossovers are a fantastic show of great skating skills. Even lower down ranked pair teams are covering more ice with their lifts.

That isn't to say that I advocate moving back to 6.0 at all, i don't, i just mean the pairs programmes hold up pretty well whereas the singles programmes really don't.
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I think half of it is that pairs haven’t technically progressed as a whole as much as the singles disciplines have and simplistic beauty was more apparent when you had two people holding out their moves. I also think the best 6.0 programs in singles still hold up. I actually rewatch a lot of them quite often.
 
I agree with B/S 2002 lady caliph? Beautiful. How they didn't win the Olympic sp is beyond me...

I preferred G/Gs 1988 Carmen and 1989 barber of Seville to their 1994 flamenco, personally. The speed and confidence and synchronicity....

M/D sp from 1992 and 1994 was good too... her spirals were fab even if their lift wasn't top notch.
 
liv said:
I agree with B/S 2002 lady caliph? Beautiful. How they didn't win the Olympic sp is beyond me...

I preferred G/Gs 1988 Carmen and 1989 barber of Seville to their 1994 flamenco, personally. The speed and confidence and synchronicity....

M/D sp from 1992 and 1994 was good too... her spirals were fab even if their lift wasn't top notch.
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B/S did win the SP at the 2002 Olympics (7-2 I think).
 
Vash01 said:
…

(I don't remember the 2010 Olympics at all. Sorry)
….

1998? I don't think there was a really great SP, unless I am forgetting something.

….
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I quickly checked notes within my DVD cases, in which I always rank the programs within each event (*** 3 stars highest):

2010: Pang/Tong’s The Pearl Fishers…best by a mile that night…no team came close, IMO. I gave Shen/Zhao ** for Born to Live Forever.

Pang/Tong 2010:

1998: Ina/Dungjen’s Kodo Drums got my best *** that night, but I had Shen/Zhao (Hungarian Dance) and Zagorska/Siudek (Swan Lake Russian Dance) close, with 2.5 stars each.

I/D’s 1998 Kodo Drums -
 
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Vash01 said:
B/S did win the SP at the 2002 Olympics (7-2 I think).
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While I did enjoy Sale & Pelletier's short as well, and they skated very well. It was still a total joke they got any 1st place ordinals over B&S's total technical and artistic masterpiece, especialy with that fall at the end (not a big deal as it wasn't an element, but again up against B&S's historic performance), when the big 3 elements (twist, SBS jump, throw) were all slightly weaker, and when their side by side triple toes were visibly a bit out of unision which was super noticeable compared to not only B&S but Shen & Zhao who are so in sync on those jumps they literally blind the other from view. Of course one was from Canada though, expected.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
I do think B/S's 2002 SP was the greatest at the Olympics, but even though he fell on the SBS jump during their 1998 Olympics SP, I thought B/S's Swan Lake program was otherwise exquisite.
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I thought of that SP too. It was beautiful, except for the fall on the sbs 3t. They skated it clean in Some other competitions, but just not in the Olympics.
 
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