I'm from the DC area, so I've been fortunate enough to attend several World Pro Championships from its years in Landover, Maryland at the old Capital Center.
1. World Pros, 1991, Landover, MD (Capital Center)
2. Men, Ladies, Pairs, Dance
3. This was my first competition. I'd watched skating on TV casually as an kid in the 80s, but really fell in love with it during the 88 Olympics. NBC broadcast the event each year and I watched religiously. However, this was my first chance to go. The Capital Center was the venue for almost all the the event's history. It was a very bland concrete structure by today's standards, but the acoustics were fantastic and amplified the enthusiasm of crowd dramatically. Nevertherless, because it wasn't cavernous, it had an intimate feeling. There wasn't a bad seat in the house.
Much of the crowd were regulars who really knew their skating. The skaters knew that and really took the event seriously. For those who weren't around back then and never experienced pro skating, this was major competition. It was invitation only (from Uncle Dick who was the overlord of pro skating at the time) and if you bombed, you probably wouldn't be invited back for a while.
Brian Boitano was at the peak of the untouchable period of his pro career. His jumps were brilliant. I remember the speed he carried over the ice and just how powerful he seemed. He hit the crescendos of his music so beautifully, especially with his spread eagles and that monster of a death drop. He obviously won easily and the crowd adored him. Robin Cousins and Brian Orser also competed. Orser skated to My Buddy as a tribute to Rob McCall who had passed away the month before from complications of AIDS . Tracy Wilson was on the judging panel (two facts I learned when watching the NBC broadcast. It was extremely poignant for me as a not-yet-out gay teen growing up in very scary time and given that we now know that both Brians were gay as well. Remember this was the height of a period when gay skaters (Ondej Nepala, Shaun McGill, Dennis Coi, Brian Pockar, and later John Curry) and gay men in general were dying in quick succession.
Debbi Thomas won her final World Pro title after losing it the previous year to Denise Beillman. Debbi and Denise were both crowd favorites. Denise has finally won the year before. Everyone knew Debbi wanted to close out her pro career with another win before retiring to focus solely on medical school. My mother and grandmother were really pulling for her.
G &G won their first world pro title that year. They skated their Nutcracker technical and Pagliaci artistic programs. Speed, grace, unison. Their technical program was perfection is still one I'll pull up online to rewatch.
Bestemianova and Bukin won the dance event. To be honest, my clearest memory of them is confusion. Their pro programs were really heavy on theatric and not very accessible to me or most of the audience.
I'll post about the other events later.
1. World Pros, 1991, Landover, MD (Capital Center)
2. Men, Ladies, Pairs, Dance
3. This was my first competition. I'd watched skating on TV casually as an kid in the 80s, but really fell in love with it during the 88 Olympics. NBC broadcast the event each year and I watched religiously. However, this was my first chance to go. The Capital Center was the venue for almost all the the event's history. It was a very bland concrete structure by today's standards, but the acoustics were fantastic and amplified the enthusiasm of crowd dramatically. Nevertherless, because it wasn't cavernous, it had an intimate feeling. There wasn't a bad seat in the house.
Much of the crowd were regulars who really knew their skating. The skaters knew that and really took the event seriously. For those who weren't around back then and never experienced pro skating, this was major competition. It was invitation only (from Uncle Dick who was the overlord of pro skating at the time) and if you bombed, you probably wouldn't be invited back for a while.
Brian Boitano was at the peak of the untouchable period of his pro career. His jumps were brilliant. I remember the speed he carried over the ice and just how powerful he seemed. He hit the crescendos of his music so beautifully, especially with his spread eagles and that monster of a death drop. He obviously won easily and the crowd adored him. Robin Cousins and Brian Orser also competed. Orser skated to My Buddy as a tribute to Rob McCall who had passed away the month before from complications of AIDS . Tracy Wilson was on the judging panel (two facts I learned when watching the NBC broadcast. It was extremely poignant for me as a not-yet-out gay teen growing up in very scary time and given that we now know that both Brians were gay as well. Remember this was the height of a period when gay skaters (Ondej Nepala, Shaun McGill, Dennis Coi, Brian Pockar, and later John Curry) and gay men in general were dying in quick succession.
Debbi Thomas won her final World Pro title after losing it the previous year to Denise Beillman. Debbi and Denise were both crowd favorites. Denise has finally won the year before. Everyone knew Debbi wanted to close out her pro career with another win before retiring to focus solely on medical school. My mother and grandmother were really pulling for her.
G &G won their first world pro title that year. They skated their Nutcracker technical and Pagliaci artistic programs. Speed, grace, unison. Their technical program was perfection is still one I'll pull up online to rewatch.
Bestemianova and Bukin won the dance event. To be honest, my clearest memory of them is confusion. Their pro programs were really heavy on theatric and not very accessible to me or most of the audience.
I'll post about the other events later.
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to be continued
and died. I was such a huge fan of her (still am!!!) that I couldn't find the will to care about other skaters. She finished second and she fell on triple axel and maybe something else but she was magnificent still 
Also it was the LP to Khachaturian waltz, I am just so happy i got to see her skate even if it wasn't her best. I remember that Caroline Zhang skated as well and that I really enjoyed her performance. I got to meet Florent Amodio who was in the public for a few programs. He was nice and cocky.
almost made me cry...
