What is the most heartbreaking moment in skating competition | Page 8 | Golden Skate

What is the most heartbreaking moment in skating competition

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
I don't find a so-called more matured and more decorated skater failing to win Olympic Gold heart-breaking at all. I remember Michelle Kwan gave comment on Sochi Men Free event saying Patrick spent so many years "blood, sweat and tears" just for an Olympic moment but lost to Hanyu with 2 falls. Hanyu started skating at four, he also worked for 15 years "blood, sweat and tears" for his Olympic moment.
Similarly, Zagitova won PeyongChang fair and square. If Medvedeva had had won that day, would people had felt sorry for Zagitova because she performed better but didn't win ? Or just because she was a senior just coming out of junior circut then she didn't deserve as much as other skaters who has spent more years in senior? At the end of the day, you don't deserve gold. You earn it.
Michelle Kwan 1998 and Yuna Kim 2014 are different story. I believe both of them should have won Gold.

Agree, while the Olympic gold medal is generally the pinnacle of a skaters career it's just another 2-skate competition like the Autumn Classic, it's not a lifetime achievement award for all the great skates that (insert name) has done for years - it's a about the 2 skates they put down for the Olympics and sometimes I feel like people forget that.
 

ejnsofi

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 23, 2016
Agree, while the Olympic gold medal is generally the pinnacle of a skaters career it's just another 2-skate competition like the Autumn Classic, it's not a lifetime achievement award for all the great skates that (insert name) has done for years - it's a about the 2 skates they put down for the Olympics and sometimes I feel like people forget that.

I understand when some skaters won everything except for OGM and are really emotional about it (Patrick in 2014 or Evgenia in 2018) but life threatning skater because your fav didn’t win is kind of too far.

My heartbreaking moment which wasn’t discussed here yet (or I missed a post) was Gubanova’s placement in Junior RusNats and Voronov missing Olympic Games and Worlds in 2018. I hate that RusFed doesn’t take body of work into consideration and bases its decision only on results of Nationals where politics play huge role.

Besides I add what was said before:
* Evgenia after Olympic free skate
* Yuzuru and CoC 2014
* Wakaba after her Worlds 2018 SP
* Mao in Sochi in general
*Nancy after the attack
* Michelle losing at Olympics (skater who had it all but Olympic Gold)
* Also Gracie’s FS in Boston. I didn’t even root for her but her face when results came up said it all. Also after that things just got worse for her...
 

Jeonghui Han

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
The most heartbreaking moment was definitely when Yuna Kim was robbed her rightful gold at the 2014 Sochi and the reaction of the audiences at the time. It was Yuna's last performance, but when I watched the fan cam, there are some people who yelled out to make her fell down. I was very disappointed to the audiences :(
 

Metis

Shepherdess of the Teal Deer
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
I don't find a so-called more matured and more decorated skater failing to win Olympic Gold heart-breaking at all. I remember Michelle Kwan gave comment on Sochi Men Free event saying Patrick spent so many years "blood, sweat and tears" just for an Olympic moment but lost to Hanyu with 2 falls. Hanyu started skating at four, he also worked for 15 years "blood, sweat and tears" for his Olympic moment.
Similarly, Zagitova won PeyongChang fair and square. If Medvedeva had had won that day, would people had felt sorry for Zagitova because she performed better but didn't win ? Or just because she was a senior just coming out of junior circut then she didn't deserve as much as other skaters who has spent more years in senior? At the end of the day, you don't deserve gold. You earn it.
Michelle Kwan 1998 and Yuna Kim 2014 are different story. I believe both of them should have won Gold.

That’s the thing — I was rooting for Zagitova and I think she won fair and square. That doesn’t mean I didn’t feel sorry for Medvedeva. The Olympics are such a long term goal and so much of who wins is, frankly, luck: avoiding injury, peaking at just the right moment, being dominant enough beforehand to win the judges’ favour (and high PCS), etc. It’s not like missing the GPF or finishing off the podium at Worlds — there’s no “next year.” The body can only take so much. If you happen to pull your yearly quota of disaster skates at the Olympics, you can’t even say you did everything you could but someone else was just... better. I actually don’t know which would be worse: finishing out of contention with error-laden skates or giving two clean performances that just aren’t enough to overcome the scoring difference between you and the podium. Either way, for many of those who leave disappointed, many don’t have a “next time.” Four years is an eternity. I think that’s why some Olympic losses grab the heart, even if you don’t feel the podium order or scoring was incorrect.

I feel sorry for Yuna, skating with the crowd against her and her forced smile in the K&C as she waited for her marks. And, again, I liked Sotnikova; I think she was truly talented and, much like Oksana, is there’s so much what if after her Olympic win. I don’t think she should have won, though I find her performance that night uplifting — it is possible to keep two thoughts in your head simultaneously: happiness for someone having the skate of their life and the belief that the judging was questionable. But disagreeing with the results shouldn’t be a devaluation of what the eventual winner did to achieve them (and skaters can’t control their scores): any Olympian has given their life, body, and mind to competing, and all have worked harder than most can comprehend just to make it to the games. Scoring is... always contentious, frankly, but it doesn’t follow that a given skater has given “more” than another, as they’ve all given themselves to the sport. But there’s only one Olympic gold medal every four years.

Personally, I try to keep the Olympics emotionally distant. That saves some heartbreak, although there are always exceptions to that rule (cough, Yuzuru 2018). In any event, some other heartbreaker skates:
* I know Todd Eldridge caused tears (my mother was a huge fan of his), but I can’t pin it to a specific skate. (She still asks me about him.)
* Kwan’s “Fields of Gold” EX — my parents were big fans of Sting, so I actually knew the song, and they were both tearful after that, especially given how the Olympics went. (Fun fact: they took me to a Sting concert when I was pretty young — like 10 or 11? And it was AMAZING.) It’s not a very clear memory, though, because I was so young.
* Yuzuru’s WC16 SP, because of what happened afterward and the fact that he was injured.
* Even worse: Otonal at Rostelecom this year. Everyone is so happy. Yuzu is glowing with health. And then I saw the fall on a live practice stream. It’s a beautiful performance, but knowing what happens after is a knife between the ribs.
* Kolyada after his short at Rostelecom this year. I just wanted to give him a hug and sit with him in silence if he wanted to be alone or whatever. It broke my pretty jaded heart to see him summon his Greek chorus of critics as soon as he was done skating.
 

bara1968

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
I was actually expecting Zagitova’s win in Pyeongchang, given her victory in Europeans. Even with that, I felt for Medvedeva even though I was not her fan.

I am not sure why some people still think that the complaints on Sochi ladies results have been only provoked by few fans of a certain skater. It is universal. Even in Pyeongchang, whenever journalists refered to Yuna, they added ‘controversy’ in Sochi in general. That is a shame. For me, Sochi result was not heart-broken. It simply made me sick. It was a definite proof that the judging system at the time was not working well, and scores could be easily manipulated (via some bad, selective technical calls and unacceptable PCS scores.) At least we got rid of the anonimous judging after that.

Additionally, watching Mao and Patrick faltered in Sochi was very difficult. Especially Patrick- the door was wide open and he made horrible mistakes...
 

vunhung3001

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 2, 2017
Every athlete works ”blood sweat and tears“. That‘s not the point, though. In the end, yes, it comes down to who performs best this day. And this person should win. That‘s it.

However, in Medvedeva‘s case or Patrick‘s case I found it to be particularly heartbreaking because yes, they were THE dominating force in the years leading up to the Olympics. People had basically been telling them they were the OGM years prior. No matter how focused and reasonable you are, it does get to your head and you start imagining. I don‘t know why it‘s hard to understand that it‘s heartbreaking to see a skater who was a heavy favourite and still skated their absolute best (like in Zhenya‘s case, I don‘t remember Patrick too much but I think he made mistakes) fall short, especially if the difference is so small. Even many people who aren‘t Medvedeva fans and rooted for Alina to win felt sad for her, seeing her cry in the K&C. Whether or not we find a situation heartbreaking or not has nothing to do with who we thought was better that day. Alina was technically stronger in a system that values technicall prowess the most. That‘s why her victory was well-deserved. I still cried for Zhenya and I was sad for Patrick even though I like Yuzu a lot more and was happy he won. Because in the end, most of us see the PEOPLE, the HUMANS behind these athletes. Who ALL worked incredibly hard and who ALL deserve nothing but respect. So, if someone comes so close to winning, so close to fulfilling their life-long dream, it will always be a heartbreaking situation for me. Maybe I‘m too soft for watching elite level sports, maybe I should start to see these people just as what they put out on the ice, only calculate the numbers and treat them as such. Not root for anyone. Well, I can‘t. And I‘ll probably suffer more heartbreaks this way but also more joy when a skater I particularly love does well.
It's sport. There are always winners and non winners. The chance that your absolute best isn't enough to win or even to podium always exists. Miyahara did her best at Olympics but failed to podium because Kaetlyn Osmond who rarely skates clean also did her best that day and podium. Javier Fernandez was only less than 3 pts away from polium at Sochi. He made mistakes but like Patrick, he just needed "a little more" to become Olympic Bronze medalist. If we think rightfully losing a competition is heart-breaking then we have many many broken hearts.
 

gotoschool

Medalist
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
One heartbreaking but also resilient moment of perseverance in the face of adversity for me was Elvis Stojko's freeskate at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano when he was forced to perform his freeskate with a painful injury and a gold medal so close, which he did very well considering his condition. I could really sense what he must have endured when I saw him wincing and bending over in pain waiting for the scores.

Overall, I don't consider that Mao faltered at Sochi when her Olympic experience culminated in the best Olympic performance I have ever seen in the freeskate which is 2/3 of the competition and her freeskate performance seems even more triumphant considering her abysmal training conditions in Armenia in a sandy and bitterly cold rink that wreaked havoc with her blades and her training as well as Akikios against the wishes of her team whose requests to train in Japan were denied, and the public insults from the former Prime Minister and the fact that she was recovering from a back injury in January. To my mind, Mao won the freeskate and set a world record in it regardless of the actual scores given.
 

Roast Toast

Medalist
Joined
Apr 13, 2017
Overall, I don't consider that Mao faltered at Sochi when her Olympic experience culminated in the best Olympic performance I have ever seen in the freeskate which is 2/3 of the competition and her freeskate performance seems even more triumphant considering her abysmal training conditions in Armenia in a sandy and bitterly cold rink that wreaked havoc with her blades and her training as well as Akikios against the wishes of her team whose requests to train in Japan were denied, and the public insults from the former Prime Minister and the fact that she was recovering from a back injury in January. To my mind, Mao won the freeskate and set a world record in it regardless of the actual scores given.

I completely get you. My biggest regret in skating is not being able to bring myself to watch her free skate that night and witness what is arguably the greatest, most memorable moment of her career live. I just didn't have the courage to turn on the TV after the short.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
... I mean, it would be pretty weird to be heartbroken when an athlete has just won an Olympic Gold Medal for your country, wouldn‘t it? ...

For me, the answer is No, it would not be weird.

I already have had an experience of feeling quite crushed when my favorites (who happened to not be from my country) placed second to the Olympic gold medalists (who happened to be from my country).
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
It's sport. There are always winners and non winners. The chance that your absolute best isn't enough to win or even to podium always exists. Miyahara did her best at Olympics but failed to podium because Kaetlyn Osmond who rarely skates clean also did her best that day and podium. Javier Fernandez was only less than 3 pts away from polium at Sochi. He made mistakes but like Patrick, he just needed "a little more" to become Olympic Bronze medalist. If we think rightfully losing a competition is heart-breaking then we have many many broken hearts.

Well, I only follow figure skating actively so I can handle a few heartbreaks here and there, no worries. ;)

No, seriously, for me, even though - or especially because it‘s sport - that‘s what matters. The joy and passion when people do well and reach their goals but also the sadness when they lose and miss out on their lifelong dream, regardless of whether it was “just“ going to the Olympics (like Elena Radionova or Polina Tsurskaya), missing on the podium (like Satoko) or barely missing the top (like Evgenia). Like I said, maybe I‘m too soft for watching sport. But honestly, I don‘t think so. Because it‘s not like I‘m sitting there, bawling my eyes out and not being able to function for days. It‘s just a feeling of sadness but it goes away, obviously. (in most cases. The fact that Medvedeva will probably never be called OGM still saddens me) But that‘s one case of my absolute favourite. The rest? I felt for them in the moment, I was sad for them in the moment but it wasn‘t a heartbreak per se. I do believe, however, that there will always be a few heartbreaks in sport when it comes to your favourites. You could, of course, opt to not have any as to be completely rationable but as soon as you start to root for somebody, you begin to care. How much depends on how much you allow yourself to. But I think, watching sports, it always happens. I don‘t know whether it‘s actually even possible to truly invest yourself in a sport and NOT have any favourites but rather watch it simply out of mere interest.

For me, the answer is No, it would not be weird.

I already have had an experience of feeling quite crushed when my favorites (who happened to not be from my country) placed second to the Olympic gold medalists (who happened to be from my country).

Thanks. That‘s interesting. I have never had such a situation (or at least I don’t remember any) because well, I‘m usually not a sports person and figure skating is the only thing I actively watch. And since there are no figure skaters from my country who challenge for podiums, I‘ve never experienced that. Only one thing I can remember. My dad‘s from Germany and that‘s why we were all rooting for Aljona and Bruno a lot. But I admired Aljona‘s history and her perseverance and I absolutely loved their freeskate anyway so I wasn‘t in the position to secretly want somebody else on top.
 

anonymoose_au

Insert weird opinion here
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Country
Australia
Though it was before my time, the Paul Binnebose incident haunts me...
Warning, graphic video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfihhAPBEoI

Wow I've never heard of Paul before, what an awful accident! And just when he and his partner were on the rise.

The video is graphic, but the story in it so uplifting! I'm really happy for Paul, coming back from that and becoming a coach. An inspiring individual for sure.
 

concorde

Medalist
Joined
Jul 29, 2013
When I read the title of the thread, I immediately thought of this situation.

Olympic (or Worlds) skater is currently in 3rd place and one skater is left to go. Will history remember the skater as a medalist OR as the 4th place finisher?

The most heard breaking moment to me is when the final skater's scores are announced and the earlier skater gets pushed to 4th place. I have always been told that 4th place finishes are the hardest. So close but yet so far.
 

nips

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 30, 2018
Very sad is to watch the russian girls crying in k&c even if they win or placed good. Not mentioning the look of their coaches when something is not at least 101%. It makes no sence to be the best in the world when you cannot enjoy it and everytime you accomplish just a little less then your best you are already a looser. That is heartbreaking, to see all the pressure they carry on their shoulder competition for competition without an end. I miss the confidence, happiness. Who deserves it more then they.
 

figurefan0726

Final Flight
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
When I read the title of the thread, I immediately thought of this situation.

Olympic (or Worlds) skater is currently in 3rd place and one skater is left to go. Will history remember the skater as a medalist OR as the 4th place finisher?

The most heard breaking moment to me is when the final skater's scores are announced and the earlier skater gets pushed to 4th place. I have always been told that 4th place finishes are the hardest. So close but yet so far.

I was heartbroken when Gracie got 4th at 2016 Worlds. IMO, it should have been Gracie 3rd, Pogorilaya 4th.
 

Fluture

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 26, 2018
I was heartbroken when Gracie got 4th at 2016 Worlds. IMO, it should have been Gracie 3rd, Pogorilaya 4th.

Why, though? I’m very sad this had to happen to Gracie, too even though I admittedly am happy Zhenya won. When Gracie missed the podium altogether, it was just tough to watch, though. You could basically see how this affected her. Her look in the K&C... I think everybody felt sorry for her in that moment. But in the end, no matter how tough and sad it was... being on the podium wouldn‘t have been right. Anna had a really good skate in both SP and FS whereas Gracie just made too many mistakes. It was heartbreaking but in the end it was a fair decision.

And btw, Anna had her fair share of heartbreaking results and competitions, too. So I’m personally very happy that she got a medal for her efforts she made at these World Championships. She just had two good performances.
 

concorde

Medalist
Joined
Jul 29, 2013
Why, though? I’m very sad this had to happen to Gracie, too even though I admittedly am happy Zhenya won. When Gracie missed the podium altogether, it was just tough to watch, though. You could basically see how this affected her. Her look in the K&C... I think everybody felt sorry for her in that moment. But in the end, no matter how tough and sad it was... being on the podium wouldn‘t have been right. Anna had a really good skate in both SP and FS whereas Gracie just made too many mistakes. It was heartbreaking but in the end it was a fair decision.

And btw, Anna had her fair share of heartbreaking results and competitions, too. So I’m personally very happy that she got a medal for her efforts she made at these World Championships. She just had two good performances.

I think it goes back to the title of the thread. Heartbreaking moments.

It really does not matter how the others skated or who actually win a medal, it is just heartbreaking to see the skater to move to 4th and go home without a final placement medal.
 

Imagine

Medalist
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
I was heartbroken when Gracie got 4th at 2016 Worlds. IMO, it should have been Gracie 3rd, Pogorilaya 4th.

Which competition were you watching? Gracie blew it, and Pogorilaya actually deserved silver. In fact, an argument could have been made for her to get gold.
 

rachno2

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
I was heartbroken when Gracie got 4th at 2016 Worlds. IMO, it should have been Gracie 3rd, Pogorilaya 4th.

I actually thought Pogo should have won that year and it should have been between Ashley and Gracie for the podium :slink: (even Satoko made a good case, but she was undermarked as usual). I was heartbroken for Gracie, though. I wonder if things might have been different had she not been first after the SP (which I feel Anna won) with that historically high score. Unfathomable pressure either way, and hard to rewatch knowing what came after :(
 

WhiteProphet

On the Ice
Joined
May 4, 2018
It's not really heartbreaking but I felt bad for Javi in 2018 Olympics. I love Shoma, but I would have preferred Javi to win the silver :(
 
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