I have to admit that figure skating in the winter olympics is my favorite event to watch. Here are the winning performances dating back to 1988! These are some fantastic Medalists every bit deserving of their medals! Who can forget all the Nancy Kerrigan Tonya Harding drama either! Or Surya Bonaly and her infamous sass attitude and backflip on ice.
Surya Bonaly was infamous for (among other things) doing aone blade backflip in the 1998 Olympics, and is the ONLY figure skater who’s ever pulled that off. Not just the only woman, the only figure skater PERIOD. There’s like all ofthree Olympic-class male skaters who did backflips in their routines, and NONE of them could do it one blade.
But wait, there’s more.
Backflips were banned from the 1976 Olympics onward on the official justification that skating jumps are supposed to be landed on one blade, whereas backflips are landed on both blades. The unofficial justification was it was too dangerous, both to the athlete and to the rink — if you didn’t land it perfectly, you could not only break your ankle, but also punch THROUGH the ice surface.
Surya Bonaly was openly contemptuous of the figure skating judges, because they were a bunch of openly racist white men who always screwed her over by giving her lower scores than she deserved. That one-blade backflip was her ultimate Eff YOU! to the Olympics judges, because she took an “illegal” backflip and made it legal by landing it on one blade. Pretty much DARING them to mark her down for being epic awesome and pulling a move that their precious coddled white girls didn’t have the guts to even think about.
Surya Bonaly was infamous for (among other things) doing aone blade backflip in the 1998 Olympics, and is the ONLY figure skater who’s ever pulled that off. Not just the only woman, the only figure skater PERIOD. There’s like all ofthree Olympic-class male skaters who did backflips in their routines, and NONE of them could do it one blade.
But wait, there’s more.
Backflips were banned from the 1976 Olympics onward on the official justification that skating jumps are supposed to be landed on one blade, whereas backflips are landed on both blades. The unofficial justification was it was too dangerous, both to the athlete and to the rink — if you didn’t land it perfectly, you could not only break your ankle, but also punch THROUGH the ice surface.
Surya Bonaly was openly contemptuous of the figure skating judges, because they were a bunch of openly racist white men who always screwed her over by giving her lower scores than she deserved. That one-blade backflip was her ultimate Eff YOU! to the Olympics judges, because she took an “illegal” backflip and made it legal by landing it on one blade. Pretty much DARING them to mark her down for being epic awesome and pulling a move that their precious coddled white girls didn’t have the guts to even think about.
They did, of course.
I have to admit, when I was younger, Tara Lipinski's performance was one of my all time favorites along with Sarah Hughes. Top notch skating in my book!
1988 Calgary Katerina Witt
1992 Albertville, France
1994 Oksana Baiul Lillehammer
1998 Tara Lipinski Nagano
Sarah Hughes performance 2002 Salt Lake City, Utah
Shizuka Arakawa "torino 2006
2010 Vancouver Kim Yuna
Who will the winner be for the ladies tonight? I will have to post the winner tomorrow!
Who will the winner be for the ladies tonight? I will have to post the winner tomorrow!
I know Michelle Kwan never won gold at the Olympics but she was by far my favorite skater. I use to love watching her perform! I thought last night the ladies did great!
ReplyDeleteWow, I really enjoyed watching these--takes me back to my childhood and watching them on tv! So awesome. I can't pick a favorite, I just can't!
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