Retrospective: The 1968 Olympics

[skatesindreams]

Maofan, I think it is Patrick Pera.
I remember that he wore a turtleneck sweater, unusual for competitors at the time.

Here is the Men's podium from 1968:
http://photo.lejdd.fr/media/images/...808-1-fre-FR/Pera-brise-la-glace_pics_500.jpg

 

[judgejudy27]

Does anyone have an idea how Wolfgang Schwarz got such high marks for free skating at the 68 Olympics. I thought his skating was horrible compared to the other leading men like Wood, Danzer, Petkevitch, and others, and without a triple toe he had less jump content than Trixi Schuba.

 

[olympic]

I just realized that Patrick Pera and Philippe Candeloro have something in common - 2 back-to-back bronze medals for France in 2 consecutive Olympic games.

 

[floskate]

Here is the Men's podium from 1968:
http://photo.lejdd.fr/media/images/...808-1-fre-FR/Pera-brise-la-glace_pics_500.jpg

That's actually 1971 Worlds - Ondrej Nepela is on the top step and Sergei Chetveruhkin was the 3rd place finisher behind Pera. They're all wearing turtlenecks under their monkey suits which by then was becoming more popular.

 

[skatesindreams]

OOPS!

Sorry - it's Google listed as the 1968 podium.
I guess you can't always trust them!

 

[floskate]

OOPS!

Sorry - it's Google listed as the 1968 podium.
I guess you can't always trust them!

It's not you're fault, it's googles Probably as both competitions were held in France, that's were their confusion occurred.

 

[berthesghost]

That's actually 1971 Worlds - Ondrej Nepela is on the top step and Sergei Chetveruhkin was the 3rd place finisher behind Pera. They're all wearing turtlenecks under their monkey suits which by then was becoming more popular.

Thank you! It's straight-up Star Trek meets Lost in Space, both of which didn't come out until 66 and 67, so I was confused on why FS, which is always like 5 years behind the times, was so ahead of the style.

 

[nylynnr]

Does anyone have an idea how Wolfgang Schwarz got such high marks for free skating at the 68 Olympics. I thought his skating was horrible compared to the other leading men like Wood, Danzer, Petkevitch, and others, and without a triple toe he had less jump content than Trixi Schuba.

Schwarz did a triple as well as double Axel, so his jump content is roughly comparable to that of the other men's and superior to Schuba's. While I, too, prefer Wood's free skating, his triple was not as clean, and I'm guessing (?) judges were influenced by that. Petkevich had two disruptive falls, which likely hurt his score. As noted earlier, the scoring back then was such that even winning the free skate didn't lift Danzer to the medals. It was the only time Schwarz defeated Danzer, and Schwarz retired immediately, so it's likely he knew he had gotten lucky.

 

[Maofan7]

Someone posted just a link to an interview with Tim Wood in another thread, and it contains an explanation of what happened in 1968:



http://figureskating.about.com/od/f...th-World-Figure-Skating-Champion-Tim-Wood.htm

Many thanks - great article. Its always been my view that Tim Wood was the real winner of the 1968 Olympics. Have added your post to this 1968 Olympic restrospective.

Originally, when this thread was started, only the videos for the Ladies event were available. Accordingly, it covered only that competition. Later, when the videos for the mens and pairs events became available as well, it was extended to cover the entire Olympic figure skating event.

Here are the videos again from post 43 above and elsewhere in the thread:-

LADIES

Gold: Peggy Fleming - USA

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

Free Skate - 3rd Version

Free Skate - 4th Version

Silver: Gabriele Seyfert - East Germany

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

Bronze: Hana Maskova - Czechoslovakia

Free Skate (Complete)

Free Skate - 2nd Version - short clip at beginning of video

4th: Albertina Noyes - USA

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

5th: Beatrix Schuba - Austria

Free Skate

6th: Zsuzsa Almassy - Hungary

Free Skate

9th: Janet Lynn - USA

Free Skate

12th: Elena Shcheglova - USSR

Free Skate

16th: Galina Grzhibovskaya - USSR

Free Skate

MENS

Gold: Wolfgang Schwarz - Austria

Free Skate

Silver: Tim Wood - USA

Free Skate

Bronze: Patrick Péra - France

Still no video available apart from this very short clip (16 seconds in to the video)

4th: Emmerich Danzer - Austria

Free Skate

5th: Gary Visconti - USA

Free Skate

6th: John Misha Petkevich - USA

Free Skate

9th: Sergei Chetverukhin - USSR

Free Skate

18th: Sergei Volkov - USSR

Free Skate

26th: Jan Hoffmann - East Germany

Free Skate

PAIRS

Gold: Ludmila Protopopov & Oleg Protopopov - USSR

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

Silver: Tatyana Zhuk & Aleksandr Gorelik - USSR

Free Skate

Bronze: Margot Glockshuber & Wolfgang Danne - West Germany

Free Skate

4th: Heidemarie Steiner & Heinz-Ulrich Walther - East Germany

Free Skate

5th: Tamara Moskvina & Alexei Mishin - USSR

Free Skate

6th: Cynthia Kauffman & Ronald Kauffman - USA

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

 

[KimGOAT]

Tim Wood should have won those Olympics. He was such an elegant skater with more technical difficulty and artistry than the wooden Wolfgang Schwartz. Horrible judging.

 

[skatesindreams]

Tim would have won, if the judge who wanted to change the incorrect score he gave to Tim, had been allowed to do so.
The requested correction was denied,

 

[KimGOAT]

That is awful to hear. Why wasnt the judge allowed to change his score. Why wasnt he atleast awarded a 2nd gold like that synchro swimmer, I think Babb Sprague was her name, was after a judges error kept her from winning when the calculation later showed she would have.

 

[La La Candy]

Wasn't this Olympics the 1st time the pairs competition was a 2 part event, with a short & long? Also, according to wikipedia, ice dance was a demonstration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_skating_at_the_1968_Winter_Olympics

 

[Sylvia]

Thank you, @floskate! Re-posting from the Japanese skating thread in GSD:

Super rare video - Kumiko Sato 1968 Olympics LP. Please share; I think this will be popular

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi4G5K3HoiI

Here is a rare treat for Japanese skating fans. Kumiko Okawa finished 8th at the 1968 Winter Olympics and 5th at both the 1967 and 1968 World Championships. Here you can see her beautiful free skating from Grenoble, showcasing the technique and skating skills the Sato family has long been renowned for. Kumiko and Nobuo married and their daughter Yuka was the 1994 World Champion. Mr & Mrs Sato have gained great respect as renowned skating coaches, training a plethora of great Japanese skaters including Miki Ando, Yukari Nakano, Shizuka Arakawa, Takahiko Kozuka and perhaps most famously, Mao Asada.

 

[floskate]

Thanks for cross posting @Sylvia

 

[Bellanca]

Many thanks - great article. Its always been my view that Tim Wood was the real winner of the 1968 Olympics. Have added your post to this 1968 Olympic restrospective.

Tim Wood should have won those Olympics. He was such an elegant skater with more technical difficulty and artistry than the wooden Wolfgang Schwartz. Horrible judging.

I also agree that Tim Wood was beyond shortchanged. The judging was a travesty! The lengths they went to avoid a controversy only led to more, as it still resonates today. A shame, for Tim Wood and the sport.

 

[pollyanna]

Thank you, @floskate! Re-posting from the Japanese skating thread in GSD:

Here is a rare treat for Japanese skating fans. Kumiko Okawa finished 8th at the 1968 Winter Olympics and 5th at both the 1967 and 1968 World Championships. Here you can see her beautiful free skating from Grenoble, showcasing the technique and skating skills the Sato family has long been renowned for. Kumiko and Nobuo married and their daughter Yuka was the 1994 World Champion. Mr & Mrs Sato have gained great respect as renowned skating coaches, training a plethora of great Japanese skaters including Miki Ando, Yukari Nakano, Shizuka Arakawa, Takahiko Kozuka and perhaps most famously, Mao Asada.

Oooh, love the axel in both directions. That was a gorgeous free skate, she has beautiful glide over the ice.

 

[skatesindreams]

New to this thread:

French Documentary - Peggy Fleming - 1968 Olympics
20 March 1968 12min 37s
http://www.ina.fr/video/CPF04006372/peggy-fleming-video.html

Much rare footage!

 

[Nmsis]

The INA archives are a gold mine. The "memory of french television". Everything that has ever been broadcasted on french tv stations, since 1945, centralized and the oldies now nearly 100% digitalized for preservation.
A researcher would be able to extract sooo much out of them. What they have on their website is barely a scratch at the surface.

 

[skatesindreams]

I wish that they could be encouraged to share more of the skating that must be in their archives.

 

[Maofan7]

New to this thread:

French Documentary - Peggy Fleming - 1968 Olympics
20 March 1968 12min 37s
http://www.ina.fr/video/CPF04006372/peggy-fleming-video.html

Much rare footage!

Superb!

 

[Nmsis]

That would be possible if a skating institution had a partnership with the INA. Like the french fed or the ISU.
Otherwise, figure skating is a needle in a haystack of millions of hours of broadcasting and the INA has no reason to push skating videos forward.

 

[suki]

Great thread, thanks to all who fished up these vintage clips.

My favorite lady of the 1968 era is Hana Maskova . There is a bit of other-worldliness to her skating.

I guess for a modern comparison, (IMO) if Fleming and Seyfert were kind of like Kwan vs Slutskaya of their day, then Maskova might be a combo of Sara Meier+Carolina Kostner along with some of the musicality and inner torment of (dare I say) Nicole Bobek?

I loved Hana, too! Peggy was my favorite and the main reason I became a skater, but I always enjoyed Hana. It was devastating to lose her when she was so young. RIP Hana, Never forgotten

 

[Maofan7]

Updated set of video links, which both replace all of the dead links from the previous posts, but also incorporate some new additional material that has appeared since this thread was created over 8 years ago.

Sadly, since the thread was created, the following participants from the event have passed away:-

• Ludmila Belousova - 26 September 2017
• Aleksandr Gorelik - 27th September 2012
• Wolfgang Danne - 16 June 2019

Also, check out this superb article from the Skate Guard website (the webmaster is of course known on FSU as @SkateGuard) on the life and career of Hana Maskova, who died tragically in a car accident just a few years after this event on the 31 March 1972.


COMPULSORY FIGURES

Short Video


MENS

Gold: Wolfgang Schwarz - Austria

Free Skate

Silver: Tim Wood - USA

Free Skate

Bronze: Patrick Péra - France

Still no video available apart from this very short clip (16 seconds in to the video)

1971 World Championships FS

4th: Emmerich Danzer - Austria

Free Skate

5th: Gary Visconti - USA

Free Skate

6th: John Misha Petkevich - USA

Free Skate

7th: Jay Humphry - Canada

Free Skate

9th: Sergei Chetverukhin - USSR

Free Skate

18th: Sergei Volkov - USSR

Free Skate

26th: Jan Hoffmann - East Germany

Free Skate


LADIES

Gold: Peggy Fleming - USA

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

Free Skate - 3rd Version (video also includes practice and competition footage from a number of the competitors during the first minute, plus Peggy Fleming watching her scores after her skate)

French Profile

Interview (Looking Back 50 Years Later)

Silver: Gabriele Seyfert - East Germany

Free Skate

Bronze: Hana Maskova - Czechoslovakia

Free Skate

4th: Albertina Noyes - USA

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

5th: Beatrix Schuba - Austria

Free Skate

6th: Zsuzsa Almassy - Hungary

Free Skate

8th: Kumiko Okawa - Japan

Free Skate

9th: Janet Lynn - USA

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

11th: Sally-Anne Stapleford - Great Britain

No Video of FS

Interview: Part 1, Part 2

British Championships 1967 FS

12th: Elena Shcheglova - USSR

Free Skate

13th: Linda Carbonetto - Canada

Free Skate

15th: Patricia Dodd - Great Britain

No Video of FS

British Championships 1967 FS

16th: Galina Grzhibovskaya - USSR

Free Skate

28th: Sonja Morgenstern (East Germany)

Free Skate

29th: Beatrice Huștiu (Romania)

Free Skate


PAIRS

Gold: Liudmila Belousova / Oleg Protopopov - USSR

Free Skate (B & W Complete)

Free Skate (Colour - Partial, Plus Medal Ceremony)

Silver: Tatyana Zhuk & Aleksandr Gorelik - USSR

Free Skate

Bronze: Margot Glockshuber & Wolfgang Danne - West Germany

Free Skate

4th: Heidemarie Steiner & Heinz-Ulrich Walther - East Germany

Free Skate

5th: Tamara Moskvina & Alexei Mishin - USSR

Free Skate

6th: Cynthia Kauffman & Ronald Kauffman - USA

Free Skate

Free Skate - 2nd Version

13th: JoJo Starbuck / Kenneth Shelley (USA)

Free Skate

 

[Maofan7]

Thanks once again to @floskate for many of the videos. I cannot believe that he managed to get hold of the footage for Sonja Morgenstern's FS! Whilst she is better known for what she achieved during the early 1970's (see below), she finished 28th at these Olympics. Hence, its astonishing that this footage even exists at all.

Sonja Morgenstern - 1971 European Championships - FS (Finished 4th Overall, 1st in Free Skate)

Morgenstern landed a 3S in her FS at the 1971 Euro's. Whilst Petra Burka was the first lady to land a 3S (at the 1962 Canadian Nationals. She landed another at the 1965 World Championships), the 3S was still extremely rare at the time that Morgenstern produced one at the 1971 Euro's. It was decisive in her winning the FS in that event, although she was too far behind from the compulsories (in which she finished 8th) to make it on to the podium (finishing 4th overall)

Morgenstern was another example of a skater who suffered as a result of the continued presence of school figures at this time. She finished third in the FS at the 1971 Worlds, but a 9th placed finish in the compulsories dragged her down to 6th overall. It was then the same story at the 1972 Olympics - 3rd in the FS, but her 8th place in the compulsories left her in 6th position overall. Nevertheless, she did win bronze at the 1972 Euro’s and finished 5th at the 1972 Worlds

Injury forced Morgenstern into premature retirement in 1973. But for that, she could well have been a contender for the medals at the 1976 Olympics, as her compulsories would have improved over time, and the SP was introduced from the 1972/1973 season and reduced the contribution to the overall mark of the school figures

 

[briancoogaert]

I just realized that Patrick Pera and Philippe Candeloro have something in common - 2 back-to-back bronze medals for France in 2 consecutive Olympic games.

And Silver and Bronze at Worlds and Euros

 

[Maofan7]

Interview with Tim Wood, in which he also discusses how he lost the 1968 Olympic title on a technicality

Interview With Tim Wood

Interview with World Figure Skating Champion Tim Wood

skateguard1.blogspot.com

Tim Wood states: “They actually all thought I had won. Back then, at the Olympics the factor of scoring was ten and the factor was twelve at Worlds. You had a smaller margin you could give to someone if you were judging. The Canadian judge Ralph McCreath wanted me to win but he mismarked me and realized he made a mistake but it was on paper and you couldn't change it back then. He went to the referee Josef Dědič and there was nothing he could do. I lost the Olympics by one judge by one tenth of a point.”

 

[Maofan7]

A video to mark Jutta Müller’s 90th birthday (she is now aged 91)

Iron Lady in a fur coat - Jutta Müller's 90th birthday (ENG SUBS)

A report from the German "Sportschau"

m.youtube.com

A 90 minute documentary on Jutta Müller

The icequeen from Chemnitz. An evening for Jutta Müller (Documentary) ENG SUBS COMPLETE

Eine Legende zu Lebzeiten – auf Jutta Müller trifft diese Bezeichnung zweifellos zu. Die erfolgreichste Eiskunstlauftrainerin der Welt hat sich mit 57 Medail...

m.youtube.com

 

[Seerek]

I've always thought this was one of the events where the singles competitions free skate rankings would have been somewhat different under another era of 6.0 judging.

And as floskate noted, the Grenoble audience whistling at some of the marks were among the most bositerous ever as far as the Olympics go.

 

[Maofan7]

The video below takes a look at compulsory figures through the years. The name that springs heavily to mind when the subject of school figures comes up is of course Trixi Schuba, and she is amongst those featured in the video along with Peggy Fleming and others who took part in the 1968 Olympics. However, at the 1968 Olympics, it was Peggy Fleming who look a big lead from the compulsory figures and at that time, they accounted for 60% of the marks. Schuba was in 3rd place after the compulsories, behind Seyfert in 2nd. Despite a flawed FS from Fleming in which she turned a double axel into a single, and double-footed landing on an incomplete double lutz, Fleming also won the FS section to take the title. Seyfert finished 2nd in the FS to take 2nd place overall. Schuba could only finish 12th in the FS, to fall back to 5th overall, with Hana Maskova moving up from 4th to 3rd overall to take the bronze with a 3rd placed finish in the FS

Compulsory Figures - Through The Years

A look back at Compulsory Figures through the years going back as far as Arthur Cumming at the 1913 Nordic Games going right through to the 1979 World Champi...

www.youtube.com