Figure skating's best of the best performances
Allow me to preface this post by saying, while this post might be titled the "Best of the best performances" there's really no way to judge objectively what the best performances are. We could go by the ones with the highest scores, but then it'd be hard to compare against the old 6.0 system, not to mention all the behind-the-scenes politics that goes on in skating. The skating community has agreed as a sort of collective on a couple skates that are all time classics (Torvill and Dean in 1984 for instance), but let's not rehash what some of you may already know, plus I've limited myself to the last 20 years-keeps it relevant enough but allows for a bit of nostalgia (plus this accounts for the time I've been a figure skating fan so it works out nicely). Click headers for the video links and let's go:
Although Davis and White are my favorite ice dance team ever, even I have to admit Papadakis/Cizeron might be the best ice dance team of all time. And I'm not bitter at all that I was supposed to be in Boston to watch this performance and had to miss out-not at all (she says bitterly with a bitter look on her face). Someone at time tweeted that watching this was like watching a pair of ribbons dancing together. It is, in a word, mesmerizing. And I clearly remember someone else at the time saying "That was the most magical thing I've ever seen and I saw Hamilton on Broadway" and I just can't improve on that kind of endorsement.
I've always loved this piece of music (Parisienne Walkways), and American ice dancers Lang and Tchernyshev also used it for their 2002 Olympics performance-it's also really good, lots of cool lifts.
And Yuzu is another, like Yagudin who isn't the most beautiful skater. I really debated about putting Patrick Chan's Phantasia on here instead, but this performance from Hanyu is just cool. It's fun! It's what good skating is-not just jumps but athletic prowess and artistic excellence together (thank you for coming to my Ted Talk).
Most people point to her 1998 performance as the best of her career. I've seen both and I still maintain this one is better. Emotions are gross but this makes me tear up when I watch it. And like, obviously she's the first one on the list. I could make a list of top 10 Michelle Kwan performances...(that's a great idea Sara-put that one in the memory banks for later). The footwork sequence at the end with the falling leaf jump is just
This is another somewhat spicy take. Maybe like medium spice-like spicy for white people at an Indian restaurant, because I think most would pick her free skate as the definitive skate of her career-and it was very good! But I think she shows much more personality in the short program than in the free skate-which is another sort of "classical music boring pick for the Olympics" type of skate. This one is to James Bond-it's sassy! She never does sassy! I also considered picking her 2018 programs (SHE WAS ROBBED I'LL NEVER BE OK), but the sassiness won me.
To quote Chris Traeger "Davis and White are literally the greatest ice dance team of all time." And it's canon now there's nothing I can do about it-my hands are tied. Would most people choose their Olympic programs? Yes. But this is better, more lyrical, the ending arguably more powerful, THE ROTATIONAL LIFT ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It's all so good. My second choice would actually be the Samson and Delilah program from 2009 Worlds (should they have won bronze there? I don't know not for me to say except definitely yes), because honestly that's the performance that made me an ice dance fan (or stan as the kids say).
This is a sad one-Mao's mother had passed away in 2011 and she went on to have the worst season of her senior competitive career (and that's no judgement, it must've been really hard to finish out the season afterward). 3 years later, she dedicated the Olympic routines to her mother's memory and you can see after she finished the free skate how emotional that skate really was. She could've easily challenged for the podium but didn't have a great short program which put her all the way back in 16th place and out of the medals. She finished 3rd in the free skate but it didn't seem she was really skating with placements in mind. It was her finest performance.
The thing about this program is that Alexei is not the most beautiful or artistic skater. He's an athlete, but give him the right music, the right choreography and it is iconic. The snow throw? ICONIC. The straight line footwork? FAM I AM DEAD. This is just *chef's kiss*-this is how you create a program for a skater that isn't a natural artist on the ice.
I can already hear everyone with their angry "BUT WHAT ABOUT MOULIN ROUGE" and listen I hear you. I mean, I don't agree, but I hear ya. Clearly based on my previous post, I think the Moulin Rouge program is overrated. It's sexy and in your face and if that's your thing, congrats, a lot of people agree. I'm just not one of them. Personally, I always felt like the programs they did after changing to skate under Marie-France and Patrice were a little obvious and over the top. Moulin Rouge was a smart skate, especially in an Olympic year-it brought in a lot of 4-year skating fans who didn't know much about ice dance or figure skating. But it wasn't necessarily because their skating was the best (most people forget they lost the free dance portion to Papadakis/Cizeron), they picked a great song and then got everyone invested in their relationship.
The program I selected is, to be fair, also a bit of a romance baiting. That was kinda their thing! The difference in the 2008 program is the subtlety. Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a tragic movie and the music is tragic and beautiful and Marina Zoueva crafted them a piece of art. Their skating is so perfectly suited to the music, to the mood they're trying to portray. You hardly even notice the elements for how gentle and beautiful they are skating.
There's a lot of moments in sports when the star player is injured but decides to push through so the team can have their shot at the title. I don't know any of them besides this one, so just put them in the comments if you have any. Xue Shen messed up her ankle before the free skate practicing a quad throw jump (most teams find doing a triple hard enough) and you'll see in the video she had to have a bunch of cortisone shots to even skate, and that basically numbed her foot completely. Is that safe? Probably not! Probably that's pretty dangerous, and we shouldn't encourage athletes to risk their health and safety but I digress! They had the kind of performance that most athletes dream about-and put their best on the ice on the biggest stage in figure skating (sigh, ok the Olympics is the biggest, but Worlds is a close second). The best moment is at the end when she lunges right on the music-that's how you know it's good when the audience cheers for something that's not even difficult technically!
Although Davis and White are my favorite ice dance team ever, even I have to admit Papadakis/Cizeron might be the best ice dance team of all time. And I'm not bitter at all that I was supposed to be in Boston to watch this performance and had to miss out-not at all (she says bitterly with a bitter look on her face). Someone at time tweeted that watching this was like watching a pair of ribbons dancing together. It is, in a word, mesmerizing. And I clearly remember someone else at the time saying "That was the most magical thing I've ever seen and I saw Hamilton on Broadway" and I just can't improve on that kind of endorsement.
And Yuzu is another, like Yagudin who isn't the most beautiful skater. I really debated about putting Patrick Chan's Phantasia on here instead, but this performance from Hanyu is just cool. It's fun! It's what good skating is-not just jumps but athletic prowess and artistic excellence together (thank you for coming to my Ted Talk).
Pairs skating is far and away the hardest sport there is and you can't change my mind. And that makes it even more difficult because the athletes have to do jumps, pairs spins, synchronized spins, death spirals, throws, lifts, twists AND THEN still skate to the music and exhibit musicality and interpretation like. I'm tired just writing that sentence! I point this out because in the open ended scoring system there haven't been many pairs teams that could pull all that off well in my opinion (Shen and Zhao up there performed in the old 6.0 system and even then it was insanely hard). I mean it's no small wonder, but this team managed to do it, on Olympic ice! In Aliona's final performance after getting 2 Olympic bronzes and switching partners when her former partner Robin Szolkowy retired, these guys went out after finishing 4th in the short program and were like, "What like it's hard?" because YES IT IS VERY HARD AS YOU KNOW FROM THE BEGINNING OF THIS PARAGRAPH.
Honorable mentions and final thoughts
I mentioned above a lot of skates that would be in my honorable mentions and I won't repeat myself, so here's a couple others for your entertainment:
Wagner 2016 Worlds FS
Hubbell/Donohue 2017 GPF FD
Lipnitskaia 2014 Olympics FS (Team)
Weaver/Poje 2016 Cup of China SD
Kerr/Kerr 2008 Worlds OD
And it's clear reading between the lines (but also not really) that the best and the most memorable performances are not the ones where someone landed a record number of quads or triple-triple combinations. Those undoubtedly will win medals and titles, but they'll also be lost to the sands of time because ice jumping is not a sport (and yes, no one skates figures anymore) but to be a great and memorable skater you have to bring personality, interpretation of music, expression of mood or story. Without that, figure skating isn't remarkable.
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