weirdly specific and entirely subjective top five list of the week
i'm too lazy to figure out how to embed more than one video in a tumblr post (is that even a thing you can do) so this is going here! i keep finding people's skating-related top-ten lists and they're all varying degrees of boring and infuriating, so i'm doing my own that are neither. but top fives because that's easier to do than tens.
weirdly specific category for the week: top five second-place finishes by canadians at major international competitions, 1980-2002
(feel free to suggest categories! i think next week is going to be "top five skaters wearing hats.")
going chronologically this week because numbering them was otherwise making my heart hurt
1. brian orser, 1984 olympics:
now, the official story here is that brian's figures were disastrous. which, okay, a believable story. but toller cranston attests-- not that he's a particularly reliable narrator-- that scott hamilton's weren't actually much better but you don't give a three time world champion a low figures mark. i will leave it to you the viewer to judge whether you think there was corruption or just fucking figures at work here. (i'm inclined to believe corruption but i kind of always am. i hate this sport.)
2. liz manley, 1988 olympics:
just goes to show what home ice can do to a person. nobody expected much from liz manley in 1988. they definitely weren't expecting this. she had no major sponsors. she was not anybody's idea of a medal favourite. she was supposed to be washed up, too inconsistent and nervous to ever live up to her potential. all the focus was on kati and debi and their carmens. and then THIS HAPPENED. absolutely fucking iconic. i've been a huge katarina witt fan basically my entire life and even i wouldn't have begrudged liz the gold here if she'd got it.
3. isabelle brasseur and lloyd eisler, 1994 worlds
their final amateur performance. (which was good, because the pro circuit allowed them to do all the really terrifying moves banned from competition, and to develop their sense of humour. their professional work is some of my favourite pairs skating ever just because of how much fun they always seem to be having.) went out with a fucking bang. of note: isabelle had a broken rib this season and skated anyway, without changing a single lift or throw.
4. elvis stojko, 1998 olympics
and SPEAKING of skating on an injury. fucking hell. who skates on a pulled groin without telling anybody? who DOES something like that? elvis, apparently! fuck. i'm not his biggest fan-- that would be my mother-- but this performance is just. wow? it's possible i'm tearing up? if ilia had been his usual inconsistent self elvis would even have won even with the injuries, but ilia had the skate of his career here. of note-- obviously, skating on it aggravated elvis' injury, to the point where he couldn't even skate to the medal presentation, he had to accept his medal in sneakers and leaning on his coach.
5. shae-lynn bourne and victor kraatz, 2002 worlds
SHOULD HAVE BEEN THEIR FUCKING YEAR. both programs were excellent. i can accept second place here actually (after what happened in salt lake i guess people were paying more attention to the judges and not letting them get away with as much shit) but okay can i talk about the olympics for a second?? i keep hearing about how, oh they lost out on a medal because of the one fall in the last five seconds of the free dance. and okay sure that's a believable narrative!! but if that's the case why were they fourth at every stage of the event. i'm just saying. i'm happy for you jamie and david but where are my babies' apology medals.
This entry was originally posted at http://gwenfrankenstien.dreamwidth.org/69378.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
weirdly specific category for the week: top five second-place finishes by canadians at major international competitions, 1980-2002
(feel free to suggest categories! i think next week is going to be "top five skaters wearing hats.")
going chronologically this week because numbering them was otherwise making my heart hurt
1. brian orser, 1984 olympics:
Click to viewnow, the official story here is that brian's figures were disastrous. which, okay, a believable story. but toller cranston attests-- not that he's a particularly reliable narrator-- that scott hamilton's weren't actually much better but you don't give a three time world champion a low figures mark. i will leave it to you the viewer to judge whether you think there was corruption or just fucking figures at work here. (i'm inclined to believe corruption but i kind of always am. i hate this sport.)
2. liz manley, 1988 olympics:
just goes to show what home ice can do to a person. nobody expected much from liz manley in 1988. they definitely weren't expecting this. she had no major sponsors. she was not anybody's idea of a medal favourite. she was supposed to be washed up, too inconsistent and nervous to ever live up to her potential. all the focus was on kati and debi and their carmens. and then THIS HAPPENED. absolutely fucking iconic. i've been a huge katarina witt fan basically my entire life and even i wouldn't have begrudged liz the gold here if she'd got it.
3. isabelle brasseur and lloyd eisler, 1994 worlds
their final amateur performance. (which was good, because the pro circuit allowed them to do all the really terrifying moves banned from competition, and to develop their sense of humour. their professional work is some of my favourite pairs skating ever just because of how much fun they always seem to be having.) went out with a fucking bang. of note: isabelle had a broken rib this season and skated anyway, without changing a single lift or throw.
4. elvis stojko, 1998 olympics
and SPEAKING of skating on an injury. fucking hell. who skates on a pulled groin without telling anybody? who DOES something like that? elvis, apparently! fuck. i'm not his biggest fan-- that would be my mother-- but this performance is just. wow? it's possible i'm tearing up? if ilia had been his usual inconsistent self elvis would even have won even with the injuries, but ilia had the skate of his career here. of note-- obviously, skating on it aggravated elvis' injury, to the point where he couldn't even skate to the medal presentation, he had to accept his medal in sneakers and leaning on his coach.
5. shae-lynn bourne and victor kraatz, 2002 worlds
SHOULD HAVE BEEN THEIR FUCKING YEAR. both programs were excellent. i can accept second place here actually (after what happened in salt lake i guess people were paying more attention to the judges and not letting them get away with as much shit) but okay can i talk about the olympics for a second?? i keep hearing about how, oh they lost out on a medal because of the one fall in the last five seconds of the free dance. and okay sure that's a believable narrative!! but if that's the case why were they fourth at every stage of the event. i'm just saying. i'm happy for you jamie and david but where are my babies' apology medals.
This entry was originally posted at http://gwenfrankenstien.dreamwidth.org/69378.html. Please comment there using OpenID.