FS Archive

Commentators: Jim McKay, Dick Button, and Peggy Fleming (ABC). Skating order: 1. Denise Benning / Lyndon Johnston (CAN) 2. Larisa Selezneva / Oleg Makarov (URS) 3. Isabelle Brasseur / Lloyd Eisler (CAN) 4. Christine Hough / Doug Ladret (CAN) 5. Peggy Schwarz / Alexander König (FRG) 6. Natalie Seybold / Wayne Seybold (USA) 7. Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov (URS) 8. Jill Watson / Peter Oppegard (USA) 9. Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (URS) 10. Gillian Wachsman / Todd Waggoner (USA) Medalists: 1. Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov (URS) 2. Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (URS) 3. Jill Watson / Peter Oppegard (USA)

Random draw within each group or competitors skating in reverse order.

Skating order: 1.Brian Orser (CAN) 2.Alexander Fadeev (URS) 3.Grzegorz Filipowski (POL) 4.Brian Boitano (USA) 5.Viktor Petrenko (URS) 6.Heiko Fischer (FRG) 7.Vladimir Kotin (URS)

Skating order: 1.Christopher Bowman (USA) 2.Paul Wylie (USA) 3.Richard Zander (FRG) 4.Axel Médéric (FRA) 5.Lars Dresler (DEN) 6.Oliver Höner (SUI) 7.Kurt Browning (CAN)

Skating order: 1.Cameron Medhurst (AUS) 2. Neil Paterson (CAN) 3.Paul Robinson (GBR) 4.Petr Barna (TCH) 5.Michael Huth (GDR) 5.Alessandro Riccitelli (ITA)

Skating order: 1.Ho Kang (PRK) 2.Boyko Aleksiev (BUL) 3.David Liu (TPE) 4.Riccardo Olavarrieta (MEX) 5.Zhang Shubin (CHN) 6.Jung Sung-Il (KOR)

Figure skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics took place at the Stampede Corral, the Olympic Saddledome and the Father David Bauer Olympic Arena in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Skating order: 1. Mei Zhibin / Li Wei (CHN) 2. Denise Benning / Lyndon Johnston 8CAN) 3. Lisa Cushley / Neil Cushley (GBR) 4. Brigitte Groh / Holger Maletz (FRG) 5. Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov (URS) 6. Christine Hough / Doug Ladret (CAN) 7. Cheryl Peake / Andrew Naylor (GBR) 8. Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (URS) 9. Jill Watson / Peter Oppegard (USA) 10. Natalie Seybold / Wayne Seybold (USA) 11. Peggy Schwarz / Alexander König (FRG) 12. Gillian Wachsman / Todd Waggoner (USA) 13. Larisa Selezneva / Oleg Makarov (URS) 14. Isabelle Brasseur / Lloyd Eisler (CAN) 15. Lenka Knapová / René Novotný (TCH) * *WD from the Long Program. Commentators: Jim McKay, Dick Button, and Peggy Fleming (ABC).

Medalists: 1. Natalia Bestemianova / Andrei Bukin (USSR) 2. Marina Klimova / Sergei Ponomarenko (USSR) 3. Tracy Wilson / Robert McCall (CAN)

Medalists: 1. Katarina Witt (GDR) 2. Debi Thomas (USA) 3. Caryn Kadavy (USA)

Medalists: 1. Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov (USSR) 2. Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (USSR) 3. Jill Watson / Peter Oppegard (USA)

The 1987 World Figure Skating Championships were held at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, USA from March 10 to 15. Medalists: 1. Brian Orser 8CAN) 2. Brian Boitano (USA) 3. Alexander Fadeev (USSR)

Medalists: 1. Debi Thomas (USA) 2. Katarina Witt (GDR) 3. Tiffany Chin (USA)

Medalists: 1. Natalia Bestemianova / Andrei Bukin (USSR) 2. Marina Klimova / Sergei Ponomarenko (USSR) 3. Tracy Wilson / Robert McCall (CAN)

The 1986 World Figure Skating Championships were held in Geneva, Switzerland from March 18 to 23. Medalists: 1. Brian Boitano (USA) 2. Brian Orser (CAN) 3. Alexander Fadeev (USSR)

Medalists: 1. Katarina Witt (GDR) 2. Kira Ivanova (USSR) 3. Tiffany Chin (USA)

Medalists: 1. Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (USSR) 2. Larisa Selezneva / Oleg Makarov (USSR) 3. Katherina Matousek / Lloyd Eisler (CAN)

The 1985 World Figure Skating Championships were held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan from March 3 to 10. Medalists: 1. Alexander Fadeev (USSR) 2. Brian Orser (CAN) 3. Brian Boitano (USA)

Medalists: 1. Katarina Witt (GDR) 2. Anna Kondrashova (USSR) 3. Elaine Zayak (USA)

Medalists: 1. Scott Hamilton (USA) 2. Brian Orser (CAN) 3. Alexander Fadeev (USSR)

The 1984 World Figure Skating Championships were held at the Ottawa Civic Centre in Ottawa, Canada from March 20 to 25. Medalists: 1. Barbara Underhill / Paul Martini (CAN) 2. Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (USSR) 3. Sabine Baeß / Tassilo Thierbach (GDR)

1. Miljan Begovic (YUG) 2. Sanda Dubravčić (YUG) 3. Tiffany Chin (USA) 4. Sabine Baeß / Tassilo Thierbach (GDR) 5. Brian Boitano (USA) 6. Carol Fox / Richard Dalley (USA) 7. Kira Ivanova (USSR) 8. Larisa Selezneva / Oleg Makarov (YUG) 9. Marina Klimova / Sergei Ponomarenko (USSR) 10. Rosalynn Sumners (USA) 11. Kitty Carruthers / Peter Carruthers (USA) 12. Brian Orser (CAN) 13. Natalia Bestemianova / Andrei Bukin (USSR) 14. Katarina Witt (GDR)

British skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean had interrupted the Soviet dominance of pairs and dance skating by winning the Worlds in 1981-83. T&D were the most innovative dance couple ever. They restored British pre-eminence in this event, as it was almost completely dominated by British couples prior to it being placed on the Olympic program. At the 1984 European Championships, shortly before Sarajevo, they had won and received 18 perfect 6.0 scores for their free dance routine, performed to Ravel’s Bolero. In Sarajevo, they easily won the Compulsory Dance, OSP (Original Set Pattern) and the Free Dance. Torvill and Dean turned professional after Sarajevo. When professionals were allowed to skate in international competition, they returned to win the 1994 European Championships and placed third at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Medalists: 1. Jayne Torvill / Christopher Dean (GBR) 2. Nataliya Bestemyanova / Andrey Bukin (USSR) 3. Marina Klimova / Sergey Ponomarenko (USSR)

The last two World Champions had been Elaine Zayak (USA-1982) and Rosalyn Sumners (USA-1983), and they were in Sarajevo, looking for gold. Zayak lost her chance in the compulsories when she placed 13th. Sumners won the compulsories over West Germany’s Claudia Leistner, with East German Katarina Witt, who hadplaced second to Zayak at the 1982 Worlds, third. Witt, who had been 1983 and 1984 European Champion, then won the short program, while Sumners placed only fifth, falling to second overall. The gold medal would come down to whichever of them could win the free skate. The free skate was very close. Witt was voted first in the free skate by five judges to four for Sumners, giving Witt the gold medal. Witt would return in 1988 to win a second gold medal. Medalists: 1. Katarina Witt (GDR) 2. Rosalynn Sumners (USA) 3. Kira Ivanova (USSR)

Figure skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics took place at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. A major change in the figure skating scoring system was in effect for the 1984 Winter Olympics. Previously, skaters and couples had been judged by a majority placement system for total scores. After all phases of the competition were skated, all the scores were added up, with percentages applied to each phase, and each judge ranked the skaters from first to last. The 1st place in the competition went to the skater who was chosen first by a majority of the judges (there were tie-breakers in case this did not occur). But by 1984, the scoring system was changed to one of factored placements. Majority placement was still used for each phase. But after each phase, the placement was multiplied by a factor for that phase – 30% for compulsory figures, 20% for short program and 50% for free skating for men and women in 1984. The effect of this was to place greater emphasis on the free skating. The pairs were ranked on Ordinal Placement for each section of the competition, based on judges' points, with final placement for each section determined by Majority Placements. The tiebreaker for the Original Program was the Required Elements score, while the tiebreaker for the Free Skating was the Artistic Impression score. Thus, if a pair was ranked first by a majority of the judges, that skater was placed first overall for that section. Ties were broken by a Subsequent Majority rule. The tiebreakers were then, in order, 1) Number of Majority Placements, 2) Total Ordinals of Majority, 3) Total Ordinals. Final placement was determined by factored placements. The placement for the Original Program was factored by 0.4 (28.57%), and the placement for Free Skating was factored by 1.0 (71.43%). The sums of the factored placements were then used to determine final placement, with the Free Skating being the tiebreaker. The last five World titles had been won by five different pairs. Since the retirement of Rodnina and Zaytsev no couple had come to the fore as the top skaters. In Sarajevo, the 1983 World Champions, Yelena Valova and Oleg Vasilyev won both the short program and the free skate to win the gold medal. They would also win the 1985 World Championships. The silver medals went to the US brother-sister tandem of Kitty and Peter Carruthers, who had been third at the 1982 Worlds. Another favored pair, Canada’s Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, struggled with a fall in the short program and would finish only seventh. A few weeks later they would defeat Valova and Vasilyev to win the World Championships. Valova and Vasilyev were coached by Tamara Moskvina, while the bronze medalists, Larisa Seleznyeva and Oleg Makarov, were coached by her husband, Oleg Moskvin. Medalists: 1. Yelena Valova / Oleg Vasilyev (USSR) 2. Kitty Carruthers / Peter Carruthers (USA) 3. Larisa Seleznyova / Oleg Makarov (USSR)

The 1983 World Figure Skating Championships were held in Helsinki, Finland from March 8 to 13. Medalists: 1. Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (USSR) 2. Sabine Baeß / Tassilo Thierbach (GDR) 3. Barbara Underhill / Paul Martini (CAN)