Skaters' Best Performances
Louis Epstein
I don't think there has ever been,or ever will be,
a competition in which every skater produces the
performance of a lifetime.But can we agree on the
performances of various skaters' lifetimes,if not
judge them against each other?
This year for example I considered Yagudin's
Worlds performance better than his Olys performance...
when the marks went up after his short,cautious in
content and flawed in execution,and were all 5.9s
and 6.0s,I couldn't believe it...it was as if the
judges,after the pairs furor,had decided to all
put him clearly first to avoid a new argument.
While others had their better performances at
Olys,and others perhaps at their nationals or
in practices.
There are different ways to go about this.
What's the best long or short program Skater X has ever done;
what's the best performance of a given program Skater X has ever done;
what's the best competition as a whole Skater X has done...
and then perhaps the daring can compare Skater X's best
to Skater Y's best and explain why their favorite would
win this all-time peak competition,though I won't bother.
(So judge it by pre-1905 rules...Ulrich Salchow piles up a
lead in the figures,which were then 2/3 of the mark,and
gets gold:-)).
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Robert Dister
Louis Epstein <lep...@PUF.FCC.NET> wrote:
Well, for Women's LP's for a start, I'd list
Tonya Harding 1991 Skate America
Kristi Yamaguchi 1992 Nationals
Midori Ito 1989 Worlds
Chen Lu 1995 Worlds
Michelle Kwan 1998 Nationals or 1996 Worlds
Tara Lipinski 1998 Olympics
Sarah Hughes 2002 Olympics (my vote for the best performance ever by a
ladies' skater)
Irina Slutskaya (the GP final in which she landed two 3-3's -- I always
forget the year
Maria Butyrskaya 1999 Worlds
Yuka Sato 1994 Worlds
Oksana Baiul 1993 Worlds
Peggy Fleming 1968 Nationals
Dorothy Hamill 1976 Olympics
Bob