1970 Worlds Ice Dance - You be the judge!

[floskate]

I had read about this controversy many moons ago in various books and magazines of the time, but until you see it, you don't really get an idea of the scale of it. This was a biggie!!

To set the scene, Pakhomova & Gorshkov had finished 2nd to the retiring Diane Towler and Bernard Ford at the 1969 Worlds in Colorado Springs. As such they were the supposed heir apparent's to the title and winning the 1970 Europeans didn't do anything to dissuade the judges from this assumption.

Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky of the US had finished 3rd in the same event and heading into the 1970 Worlds were the main competition for the Soviets. After both compulsories and OSP, the Americans had a 1.5 point lead over P&G. All they had to do was win the free and they would be World Champions. So judge for yourselves. These are the performances of the top two teams in the FD:

Schwomeyer & Sladky 1970 Worlds FD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQtsCOm9Byk&t=102s
Pakhomova & Gorshkov 1970 Worlds FD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhUo7nkM28g&t=89s

The Soviet Judge placed the Americans 4th in the free dance, but others placed them third as well. It was a 5/4 panel and Mollie Phillips of Great Britain who was judge number 1 as you look at the scores is the judge who placed the Russians ahead in the free and thus swinging it in their favour. According to Lynn Copely-Graves in her book 'Evolution of Dance on Ice', Phillips' reasoning for this placement was that Judy's behind stuck out!!! All of this meant that Pakhomova & Gorshkov gained 1.6 points on their American rivals in the free dance thus giving them the victory by one tenth of a point and one vital ordinal.

Now Ice Dance is littered with controversial results as we all know, but what bothered me about this is that the Americans showed the judges the future of the sport.....and the judges shut the door on it. How different would the sport have been if the Americans had won and been the dominant pair up to 1972. The fact that Pakhomova & Gorshkov lost the 1972 Europeans to Buck & Buck of West Germany shows that not everyone was convinced, particularly by Gorshkov. As Ian Phillips wrote in the April 1970 edition of Skating World;

"It will always be a mystery to me what happened in the free.......when Britain marks them (Schwomeyer & Sladky) down in the free as well it is totally beyond my comprehension. Pakhomova is a brilliant performer, but her partner is no skater!"

Ouch!!

Thoughts?

 

[gk_891]

Wow, Gorshkov is a pretty terrible skater for that level. He improved quite a bit by the time the 1976 Olympics came around. But still, I think first place was pretty generous. I probably would've given it to the American team.

 

[Braulio]

No comparison

Americans: speed, unison, tricks, flow and intricate footwork, nice change of holds and variation of rhythm. Ended their program in such a nice high of energy that it looked as if it was the begining of their dance, nice performance!

Russians: Pakhomova doing everything, Gorshkov uggghh stiff, stiff, zero knee bend, shallow edges, shaky skating almost compared to Margaglio, zero charisma from him.

Five judges awarding 5.9 for technical merit to the russians?? really??

And come on brit judge? american girl showing butt? Ludmila showed butt AND hips so!

 

[Vagabond]

Pakhomova & Gorshkov 1970 Worlds FD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhUo7nkM28g&t=89s

Thoughts?

How many weeks had it been since Gorshkov started skating?

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

Five seconds in, and I became an instant fan of Judy's and James's skating.

Just as an aside, thank you floskate for posting so many amazing clips from your treasure trove.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

I would love to see the free dances of Pahkomova / Gorshov and Angelika and Erich Buck from the 1972 European Championships, when the West German team beat the Soviets.

 

[gk_891]

No comparison

Americans: speed, unison, tricks, flow and intricate footwork, nice change of holds and variation of rhythm. Ended their program in such a nice high of energy that it looked as if it was the begining of their dance, nice performance!

This is what I also liked about the American team. They had really nice speed and flow over the ice.

I would love to see the free dances of Pahkomova / Gorshov and Angelika and Erich Buck from the 1972 European Championships, when the West German team beat the Soviets.

Same here.

 

[floskate]

I would love to see the free dances of Pahkomova / Gorshov and Angelika and Erich Buck from the 1972 European Championships, when the West German team beat the Soviets.

I hate to disappoint you but......so would I! Sadly I don't have them but you never know what might surface in the future.

 

[Seerek]

In some ways, 70s era ice dance is my favourite era, as I can better focus on quality of edges, unison, closeness of feet and leg line and not be distracted by "overuse" of upper body or facial expressions.

 

[aftershocks]

Thanks for bringing some much needed historical perspective to the fore @floskate. So very sorely needed these days in order to speak intelligently about the sport.

 

[floskate]

In some ways, 70s era ice dance is my favourite era, as I can better focus on quality of edges, unison, closeness of feet and leg line and not be distracted by "overuse" of upper body or facial expressions.

Mine too. (Apart from the T&D glory days of course ) I love watching the edging and how much the sport developed in such a short space of time.

Thanks for bringing some much needed historical perspective to the fore @floskate. So very sorely needed these days in order to speak intelligently about the sport.

Thank you so much for this, it's much appreciated and I'm so glad some people still enjoy the older videos. I agree that to fully understand the sport you have to have some grounding in its history. Isn't it great that this stuff is appearing after so many years?

 

[aftershocks]

Thanks again @floskate. The disparity is so obvious. Quite clearly politics was involved, and perhaps even collusion/ quid pro quo. Schwomeyer/Sladky were superior performers with such fast skating, close holds, intricate steps and much better choreo and music. I loved seeing those unique lifts which must have been unusual at that time. It's so interesting to look back and see the differences between now and then.

The judging was a total rip-off against Schwomeyer/Sladky. And what was up with the Brit judge's reprehensible body-shaming directed only toward Schwomeyer at the same time this Brit 'beauty contest' judge rewarded inferior skating by the male on the Russian team!? And yes, @Braulio, neither were Pakhomova/Gorshkov as well-matched physically and ability-wise as Schwomeyer/Sladky! What a lame, offensive excuse from the Brit judge.

Probably a whole book could be written on skating controversies, large and small, as well as those lost to history.

 

[VGThuy]

It took decades, but it seems like ice dance corrected itself now with emphasis on both partners being as close to equally matched as possible and speed and flow and changing holds throughout being important...at least in theory.

 

[skatesindreams]

Thank you so much for this, it's much appreciated and I'm so glad some people still enjoy the older videos. I agree that to fully understand the sport you have to have some grounding in its history. Isn't it great that this stuff is appearing after so many years?

Amen, floskate.
It's a shame that Schwomeyer/Sladky were denied a World Championship which they truly earned and deserved.

 

[gk_891]

It took decades, but it seems like ice dance corrected itself now with emphasis on both partners being as close to equally matched as possible and speed and flow and changing holds throughout being important...at least in theory.

I would've thought that with teams like Torvill & Dean, Klimova & Ponomarenko, and Grishuk & Platov, strong male ice dancers would've been more of a trend sooner. Although there were definitely a lot more of them in the 90s and early 2000s compared to the late 70s and most of the 80s, we still had teams like Navka & Kostomarov, Grushina & Goncharov, etc racking up big scores and getting the big medals.

 

[Dobre]

I would've thought that with teams like Torvill & Dean, Klimova & Ponomarenko, and Grishuk & Platov, strong male ice dancers would've been more of a trend sooner. Although there were definitely a lot more of them in the 90s and early 2000s compared to the late 70s and most of the 80s, we still had teams like Navka & Kostomarov, Grushina & Goncharov, etc racking up big scores and getting the big medals.

I don't recall Kostomarov being weak. Mostly I just remember him being buried in the choreography like Evan.

Would I have preferred for Denkova & Stavisky to get their act together consistently and start earning the scores a little earlier? Yes.

But Torino was Torino. Even Carmen rehash couldn't lose to the mess that was everyone else at Torino.

 

[Skate Talker]

Maybe the British judge was simply practicing European protectionism. iirc at this point no non-Euro team had ever won a world or Olympic gold. Is that correct, @floskate? Thanks for these vids, very interesting.

 

[VGThuy]

Maybe the British judge was simply practicing European protectionism. iirc at this point no non-Euro team had ever won a world or Olympic gold. Is that correct, @floskate? Thanks for these vids, very interesting.

If that was the case, then it sure did work as that lasted for the next three decades. Would have been four if not for B/K's 2003 Worlds title.

 

[gk_891]

I don't recall Kostomarov being weak. Mostly I just remember him being buried in the choreography like Evan.

Would I have preferred for Denkova & Stavisky to get their act together consistently and start earning the scores a little earlier? Yes.

But Torino was Torino. Even Carmen rehash couldn't lose to the mess that was everyone else at Torino.

I found Kostomarov kind of weak, especially relative to Navka who was a superlative skater. But yes, he was also buried in the choreography as well.

Part of Denkova & Staviski's problem was that at the 2000 Worlds, they weren't able to skate their free dance due to a practice accident she had with Peter Tchernyshev that required her to be hospitalized for quite a while. They looked to be heading towards an 8th or 9th place finish at those Worlds. A year later, they finished 10th at the 2001 Worlds and then 7th at the Olympics. I think that accident stalled their climb up the rankings as I honestly think they could've pushed for top 5 status at the 2002 Olympics if it hadn't happened and it would've put a much larger gap between themselves and N&K before all of the retirements in 2002.

But even all of that might not have helped them in 2005 when their material seriously started to suck.

 

[VGThuy]

I remember rewatching "Bach to Africa" some time ago and it was a lot worse than I remembered and I remembered it being a pretty bad program.

 

[Bellanca]

Judge corruption has been a part of ice dance for a long time, as this demonstrates.

 

[gkelly]

Maybe the British judge was simply practicing European protectionism. iirc at this point no non-Euro team had ever won a world or Olympic gold. Is that correct,

As of 1970, no ice dance team of any kind had won any Olympic medals because ice dancing did not become an Olympic sport until 1976.

Ice dancing was first officially included in the World Championships beginning in 1952. So for the 17 titles won between then and 1969 (not counting 1961 when Worlds was canceled), 13 went to British teams and 4 to Romanova/Roman of Czechoslovakia.

There were unofficial ice dancing competitions at 1950 and 1951 Worlds. The 1951 event was won by Westwood/Demmy, the same British team that won the first 4 official titles. The 1950 event, however, was won by Lois Waring and Michael McGean of the US. There were only 6 teams at that event, though, and all were either British or American. Make of that what you will.

 

[gk_891]

I remember rewatching "Bach to Africa" some time ago and it was a lot worse than I remembered and I remembered it being a pretty bad program.

It was extremely bad. So even if that prcatice accident hadn't happened, I could see N&K overtaking D&S anyways at those Worlds, even more so since they were held in Russia.

Does anyone remember what the consensus was on N&K's free dance that year to Tosca? I remember not being a fan of it but it's been years since I've seen it. Navka is a great skater but I wasn't fond of her interpretation of the music.

 

[VGThuy]

I don't think anyone really liked it, but just accepted the win because what other choice did we have? I thought Delobel/Schoenfelder should have won the FD based on the execution of elements and just having the best choreographed program that night. It was amazing how sloppy most of the ice dance teams were when trying to do IJS elements at 2005 Worlds. Among the top group, I think only B/A and D/S didn't stumble or look labored.

 

[Vagabond]

D/S

Back then, I was always as to whether a particular reference to "D/S" meant the French, the Bulgarians, or the Russians.

 

[VGThuy]

Back then, I was always as to whether a particular reference to "D/S" meant the French, the Bulgarians, or the Russians.

Haha. I used D/S AFTER I mentioned Delobel/Schoenfelder and they were the only D/S I mentioned so I figured people could figure that one out. I didn't spell out Belbin/Agosto before I used B/A though...

 

[MAXSwagg]

Schwomeyer/Sladky by a long shot. Much superior posture, edges, deep fluid knee bend that gives them an ease and flow across the ice. Gorshkov was atrocious. Corrupt judging...