Favourite Past GPFs/Worlds | Golden Skate

Favourite Past GPFs/Worlds

synteis

Medalist
Joined
Dec 9, 2017
It's the off season and there are some great you tubers out there who've posted the final groups of past GPFs/Worlds/Olympics/Europeans/4CCs and I was wondering what everyone's favourite competitions from the past have been and why?

ETA:
People's favourites so far:
- 2016 Worlds (8)
- 2015 GPF - Men (7)
- 2018 Olympics (6)
- 2017 Worlds (5)
 

Kara

Final Flight
Joined
Jun 13, 2017
Last season's JGPF 2017 was one of the best ladies competitions I've ever seen.:) High level skating one after another, twas amazing.
 

AshWagsFan

Edges for days.
Final Flight
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Country
United-States
Barcelona both times was great, boston was fun, Tokyo, Gothenburg, and i liked Marseilles and Fukuoka a lot too
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
Going by skates I re-watch the most, it would be 2016 Worlds.

Javier Fernandez FS ... Incredible charm and beautiful smooth quads, Perfection. (and his SP just to remind myself of what he had to do in the FS)

Adam Rippon FS .... Beatles ... and his pluperfect, ethereal interpretation of McCartney's "Blackbird"

Ashley Wagner FS to Moulin Rouge ... Exquisite, dramatic, thrilling ... all of which applies to the program, then to watching the scores come up. Raf showing how much he cares.

Ashley's SP ... ending HHCC perfectly after nailing everything, then jumping up and down, falling, shock for split second then, she flips her ponytail and laughs. Kurt Browning on the cbc broadcast saying .... "And that shows exactly what Ashley Wagner is like" ... or words to that effect.

Papadakis and Cizeron FD. Like an eternal moment of being on the ice, and inside a work of art. Never wanting it to end.

Grant Hochstein's Les Miserables FS. Pure emotional power.
 

Danny T

Medalist
Joined
Mar 21, 2018
Men' FS at GPF 2015 was truly god-tier. :bow:

PC Olys FS is not bad either, just not as nearly thrilling as GPF 2015 for me.
 

iluvtodd

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary - still my favorite Winter Olympics - - The Battle of the Brians, Midori Ito, & G&G!

2016 Worlds - being there for so many wonderful performances! Especially ecstatic for Javi, Ashley, and the US men all finishing in the top 10!

1996 Worlds - wish we could have been there to see Todd & Michelle win Worlds!
 

yume

🍉
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
2007 GPF ladies: Gold and Silver delivered strong technicals contents in FS. The rivalry would have been more interesting if Mao still had this level during all the quad.

2015 GPF Men: There is not enough words for this.

2016 Worlds ladies: Top 8 was incredible. Very deep field.

2017 Worlds Men: Man, with 300 points you are not even on podium.

2017 worlds pairs: That was the best pairs competition that i've seen at worlds. everyone should have skated the free. Tied with 2018 olympics for the best competition of the decade.

2017 JGPF ladies: The future.
 

dobrevaria

Rinkside
Joined
Jun 27, 2017
2015 GPF Men
2017 Worlds - all disciplines (especially Men & Pairs but everything was wow)
2016 Worlds
2017 JGPF
Olympics 2018 All disciplines
 

NoNameFace

GS given name - Beatrice
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
From those I re-watched lately...

- both GPFs in Barcelona - even watching it on TV/computer screen, the atmosphere was AMAZING, just so much enjoyment. Watching Yuzuru, Javier and WeaPo's performances moves me still even after few years:)

- Worlds 2016 in Boston - mainly due to this sentiment I have for Shibutanis, Anna Pogorilaya and Sui/Han

- Worlds 2017 in Helsinki - again, personal sentiment for Virtue/Moir, Sui/Han, Savchenko/Massot, Canadian ladies, Mai Mihara's come-back...

- Worlds 2008 in Gothenburg - immortal and iconic 'Umbrellas From Cherbourg' and Cyber 'Swan Lake' :love:

- Worlds 2007 in Tokyo - that senior debut from Tessa and Scott, Mao Asada and Romanza SP by Shen/Zhao which is probably my most frequently re-watched performance from Pairs of all time, just timeless emotion and elegance in every movement!
 

likevelvet

#Bless this mess
On the Ice
Joined
Feb 13, 2018
Country
United-States
2013 Worlds for ladies comp. Loved it. Kaetlyn Osmond's debut with awesome programs, and great skates from everyone.
 

temadd

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 19, 2015
2016 Worlds Women - not just because my fav won the silver but also because there was so much, beautiful clean skating and great performances. Evegenia, Anna, Rika, Ashley, Mao . . .
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
1999/2000 season GPF, when Irina S regained her place at the top of the sport and became a legitimate rival to Michelle. I think that fueled Michelle at 2000 and 2001 Worlds, where she had to skate her best to top Irina's strong performances.
 
Joined
May 7, 2018
GPF 2015 - this is like the best competition ever in men discipline
Olympics 2018 - a roller coaster of emotions, all disciplines were amazing, I cry, I laugh*, I Scream, I die
Worlds 2016 - even when my heart break a lot, I really like it, mostly because Javier's amazing FS
Worlds 2017 - that was a good one too, but my heart broke again, this time because of Javier's FS
Worlds 2015 - it was a good one
Olympics 2014 - it was a bittersweet competition, I like the winners on ID and men, but the rest was meh, BUT Yulia's amazing FS in the Team competition... simply outstanding
 

AnalyticalMind

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 11, 2017
One GPF that I'll always find underrated is the ladies' FS at the 2008/09 GPF (the SP was sloppy AF).

You'll get that Mao landed two 3As by just looking at the protocols, but Yukari and Miki also landed a 3A and a 4S, respectively. Underrotated, but still very exciting that half of the field was doing 3As and quads (and this was before the introduction of the </<< distinction, so they got scored as if they were <<s, which I don't think they were).

And then you had Yuna Kim on the verge of being the dominant force that she became (in a season where, as a set, I think she had her two best programs), and Joannie and Carolina showing their regular flashes of brilliance.
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
This is difficult, as there has been much to enjoy. I remember the Olympics of 1994 very well, not because of the Nancy-Tonya scandal, but rather for the great pairs competition then with the two Russian pairs and the Canadian one. I'll never forget those free skates. The WC after that was also great with Yuka Sato showing her worth (and immediately retiring after that success regrettably), and the wonderful Sophie Moniot and Pascal Lavanchy foreshadowing the great Papadakis and Cizeron. In 1996 we had the wonderful Rudy Galindo...a lovely world championship, also with the rivalry between Chinese Lu Chen and American Michelle Kwan. They were really close, and both graceful skaters.

More recently I have great memories (albeit of just a few months ago) of the OG 2018, not in the least by the pairs OGM's with lovely, original, music and a programme that's just unforgettable. I suppose that's the main reason I like the GPF 2017 and the WC 2018 a lot too. The OG 2002 were also memorable to me because of Yagudin's great performances which he repeated at the WC a month later. A great WC too, if only because you could already see the promise of skaters such as Lambiel, Joubert and Buttle (who didn't skate their best then, but still were pretty memorable).The pairs OG competition was less than impressive in 2002 (I prefer the OG 1998 for that particular competition) and got all the wrong kind of attention because of the scandal involved. One of the least memorable competitions for me were the OG 2006. Not so well skated to be honest (in my view), and I keep forgetting the names of the medallists (except for Pluschenko who will Always be remembered). But as an Olympic Games? Nah. I preferred the WC in that year. The Chinese finally got a well deserved title even if one of them fell in the Free.

I rather liked the WC in 2010 too...better than the OG in the same year.

Hihi...it seems as if I'm making a case for the maintaining of a WC after an OG. Though that is definitely my wish, I hadn't realised myself just how much I like the WCs after the games! But there's quite a few of them in my list of favourite competitions!
 

NaVi

Medalist
Joined
Oct 30, 2014
This post will go off in a bit of a tangent...

I only became a fan of skating after Sochi(and it seems like many are picking events from this last quad)... but it seems to me that for ladies the PyeongChang quad was much better than the Sochi quad. The Sochi quad seemed quite lame up until the 2013 Worlds... you never had top form Kostner, Kim, or Asada skating against each other until then. The Vancouver quad seemed good when I binge watched through all the world championships but I have a hard time remembering it to compare it to this last quad.

I'm bringing this up because of the proposed age rule change. It's worth going through the thought experiment on how the rule changes would change the field. With the rule changes there is no Mao or Yuna on the senior circuit until 2008-2009(season before Olympics).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006–07_Grand_Prix_of_Figure_Skating_Final#Ladies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–08_Grand_Prix_of_Figure_Skating_Final#Ladies

It's pretty obvious that the quality of these events would greatly diminish. And I think the quality of the PyeongChang Grand Prix cycle would have been greatly diminished with the higher age(the minimum age or the Grand Prix was raised to 15 starting the 2014-15 season which IMO was good. The Junior Grand Prix was already getting to be good and it make it twice as good).

But there is an ideal scenario where with the age minimum at 17 there's a better chance Yuna would have kept skating in the grand prix circuit after Vancouver... and there would have been no Sochi controversy... and pressure from Russian youngsters wouldn't come until right before PyeongChang. But this is the ideal scenario and if it didn't come to pass exactly like this then I think the period would have been worse off than what happened historically.

So as far as "figure skating idols" go, post-Vancouver was kind of a breakdown of that model. Mao struggled. Yuna wins Olympics and misses the grand prixs and one worlds... Kostner wins worlds(with a 5 triple LP) and then misses the next grand prix season after pondering retirement. No one else was really stepping up.

I think having high technical, competitive events matter more than attempting to create(and protect) stars. To me, it makes no sense to raise the age unless the 17+ age skaters can guarantee a high technical performance(7 triple LPs with a 3-3) from every medalists at every grand prix event. Are we there yet? Maybe, but weren't there in the Sochi cycle or really earlier.

-----

Uno, Jin, and Chen would not have been affected by the rule change... and it was a great quad for Men's skating.

Ice Dance quad was great with the new french team dominating the first two years and then being edged about by Virtue/Mior in the final two years. I wish Ilinykh and Katsalapov hadn't broken up though.

Pairs were good... could have been made better without Candyman... and Trankov/Volosozhar would have been great at the Olympics but I'm glad they came back for one season and then had their child.

------

For the next quad, the Men will be good but not as good as the last quad. Ice Dance will be good but it may be lacking competition at the top. Pairs may decline quite a bit but it may end up surprising. Ladies will end up being great but there will be more controversy which will make it less fun IMO.
 
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