Nicole Bobek

[MacMadame]

I think the technical mark would have been held back with a solo 3T and flutz deduction.

Flutzes weren't hammered back then though.

 

[Maximillian]

It's difficult to answer that because earlier skaters and coaches would have adjusted their training regimens accordingly, some with more success than others.

Skaters competing before 1990 who had good basics like Dorothy Hamill and John Curry wouldn't have had to focus on compulsory figures and might have done very well under IJS.

But generally it was figures that gave them such good basics. See this is the thing, most skaters before the abolition of figures, save a few, would have had no technical issues, it was only after women's tech jumped significantly between 1988-1992 that questionable technique seemed to really come to the fore.

 

[barbk]

But generally it was figures that gave them such good basics. See this is the thing, most skaters before the abolition of figures, save a few, would have had no technical issues, it was only after women's tech jumped significantly between 1988-1992 that questionable technique seemed to really come to the fore.

In the 90s, there were a lot of women at Worlds who either didn't have a triple lutz or who only sorta-kinda had one or who would take a tremendously long and slow entrance into one to the point of crashing or nearly crashing into the boards. That was true even though many of the skaters through '95 or so had come up through figures. Judges were none too picky about edges...but you got totally hammered if you double footed the landing or even looked like you might have double footed.

And there was plenty of bad technique in other areas as well. Most spirals were terrible and spins often traveled around the world.

There were good things that came from figures, but great figure skills didn't necessarily lead to great free skating.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

It's difficult to answer that because earlier skaters and coaches would have adjusted their training regimens accordingly, some with more success than others.

Skaters competing before 1990 who had good basics like Dorothy Hamill and John Curry wouldn't have had to focus on compulsory figures and might have done very well under IJS.

Their interpretation, carriage and flow were amazing. Hamill and Curry would have rocked PCS.

 

[barbk]

Their interpretation, carriage and flow were amazing. Hamill and Curry would have rocked PCS.

Hamill and Curry would have rocked PCS, indeed. Toller Cranston would have, too -- and he was notably not that great at figures. Trixie Schuba won Olympic gold just four years before Dorothy Hamill won, and Schuba was a terrible, awful freeskater - but an absolute whiz at figures.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

Hamill and Curry would have rocked PCS, indeed. Toller Cranston would have, too -- and he was notably not that great at figures. Trixie Schuba won Olympic gold just four years before Dorothy Hamill won, and Schuba was a terrible, awful freeskater - but an absolute whiz at figures.

Conversely, I bet Janet Lynn would have rocked straight 10.0s across the board for her PCS.