Remembering the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid - Skating | Golden Skate

Remembering the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid - Skating

labgoat

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Figure Skating at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games:
Lake Placid, United States, Olympic Field House International Ice Rink, Lake Placid


ABC commentary by Jim McKay & Dick Button
CBC commentary by Debbi Wilkes & Johnny Esaw

Mixed Pairs Short Program - Date Started: February 16, 1980 in skate order mostly

Feature - 1980 Ludmilla and Oleg Protopopov - Russia/America
(The Protopopovs give us some sage wisdom regarding the correct approach to pairs figure skating. Not many listened over the years, but perhaps we can encourage some new, young skaters. - Thanks to k9henrydog)

1 Christina Riegel Andreas Nischwitz West Germany
ABC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYi-W62HoCw&list=PL4A24556FBF76CFB4&index=45&t=0s

2 Sabine Baess & Tassilo Theirbach East Germany
ABC = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1GxlPgKLjM&list=PL4A24556FBF76CFB4&index=43&t=0s

3 Susan Garland & Robert Daw Great Britain
ABC - [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXPBDNOP2s&list=PL4A24556FBF76CFB4&index=49&t=0s
[/URL]
4 Tai Babilonia Randy Gardner United States -WD due to injury
ABC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjM6CW_xfa0 (Account terminated)
Alternate link from Magic memories on Ice https://youtu.be/rOeI8hGsDPQ?t=2360

5 Sheryl Franks & Michael Botticelli United States - unable to find
Music was Freedom(?) by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

6 Caitlin (Kitty) & Peter Carruthers United States - unable to find
Music was Fanfare for the Common Man by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

7 Manuela Mager & Uwe Bewersdorff East Germany - unable to find

8 Barbara Underhill & Paul Martini Canada
CBC- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN2bM35csJo

9 Elizabeth & Peter Cain Australia
CBC -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTI7Sbw5BMg

10 Marina Cherkasova & Sergei Shakhrai Soviet Union
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35kSvTVCeks

11 Irina Rodnina & Alexander Zaitsev Soviet Union
CBC- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lbgbi166tE

12 Marina Pestova & Stanislav Leonovich Soviet Union
CBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpOD0foer4A&list=PL1C5176B308D62F3A&index=6&t=0s

I still get teary over Tai & Randy...
 

labgoat

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1980 Olympics Mens Compulsory Figures - Part A
Date Started: February 16, 1980
(Jan Hoffman (East Germany) and Vladimir Kovalev (Russia) battle it out in the first two figures. David Santee (USA) takes a surprizing third!! - Thanks to k9henrydog)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgowYVDlvP0


1980 Olympic Mens Compulsory Figures - Part B Date
Started: February 16, 1980
(Charlie Tickner and Robin Cousins finish up the third figure.- Thanks to k9henrydog)
​https://youtu.be/bDHJg-GuJX4
_____________________________________________________
Figure Skating at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games:
Mixed Ice Dancing Compulsory Dances & OSP - Date Started: February 18, 1980

1980 Olympics Kilian - Torvill and Dean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Qp_t0qrZ4

Jane Torvill & Christopher Dean Tango Romantica (1980)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0-3AETWXWU

Natalia Linichuk Gennadi Karponosov OSP olys 1980 Fox Trot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vN6XQ0CbtU


Also competing were Irina Moiseeva & Andrei Minenkov, Kristina Regoezy & Andras Sallay, Natalya Bestemianova & Andrei Bukin, Judy Blumberg & Michael Seibert, Stacey Smith & John Summers, Lorna Wighton & John Dowding, and Karen Barber & Nicky Slater
 

labgoat

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Figure Skating at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games: in skate order
Mixed Pairs Free Skating - Date Started: February 18, 1980


Olympics - 1980 - Lake Placid Games Ice Dancing - Jim McKay + Dick Buttons Discuss Lift Controversy in Pairs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8i9tROe6NU


1 Elizabeth & Peter Cain Australia - unable to find

2 Susan Garland & Robert Daw Great Britain - unable to find

3 Barbara Underhill & Paul Martini Canada - unable to find

4 Caitlin (Kitty) & Peter Carruthers United States - unable to find OLYMPIC
(same program as Olympics BUT from National Sports Festival )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRbEVjULbyo)

5 Sabine Baess & Tassilo Theirbach East Germany
ABC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc9uDl35fS4

6 Christina Riegel & Andre Nischwitz West Germany
ABC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgJ-8Key9AQ

7 Sheryl Franks & Mike Botticelli United States
ABC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPCCWijylsY

8 Irina Rodnina & Alexander Zaitsev Soviet Union
ABC -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZ3yRf0sTk
CBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQSfbxP7MzU

9 Manuela Mager & Uwe Bewersdorff East Germany
CBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0MsgFDdFYk

10 Marina Cherkasova & Sergei Shakhrai Soviet Union
CBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcOjtMYdTNo

11 Marina Pestova & Stanislav Leonovich Soviet Union
CBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hviQMdw36SI

Its a pity I can't find the Dick Button (ABC) commentary online as it was both insightful and brutal in its criticism of the event.

(I have an audio tape recording, no video of the event with comments about Underhill & Martini and how sometimes young teams go out too fast, and then they cannot control it and blow it usually in the first 30 seconds of the program. He also says during the Carruthers surprise high placing - nobody has to pay their dues when they are very good, it is only when you are equal with the others, and a general comment about Carrutheres, Cherkasoava/Shakrai, Baess/Theirbach, Mager/Bewersdorf and Pestova/Leonovich as a group - All of these pairs have the potential to be great...with comments on how difficult it is for young people to be great technicians and artists by age 20. He finishes by saying that "This competition needed Tai Babilonia & Randy Gardner. The spark is out of it and the spunk is out of it." )
 

labgoat

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Figure Skating at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games:
Mens Short Program


Igor Bobrin Soviet Union
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy626YoRxA8

Charlie Tickner United States (may be geoblocked)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlyGMrBeM9w&list=PLDA6133590C43A79E&index=30&t=0s

Jan Hoffmann East Germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OuNWxqeN7o&list=PLDA6133590C43A79E&index=32&t=0s

Robin Cousins Great Britain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj8DY0J3dAA&list=PLDA6133590C43A79E&index=33&t=0s

Fun fact: Making Olympic appearances were David Santee, Scott Hamilton (1979 NHK SP), Fumio Igarashi (1979 NHK SP), Mitsuru Matsumura (1979 NHK SP), Jean-Christophe Simond, Brian Pockar, Rudi Cerne, & Christopher Howarth!

See results here...https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/1980/FSK/mens-singles-short-program.html

more to follow later...
 

Olympic

On the Ice
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Nov 1, 2006
The 1980 Olympics wasn't a flashy competition compared to some others. On the ladies side, the past 3 Olympics showcased skaters like Peggy Fleming, Janet Lynn and Dorothy Hamill who all had a star quality, which I don't think any of the ladies in 1980 really had. Not a slam because the jump content had increased and those ladies should be commended for that: To challenge for a medal in 1980 for the first time, they needed a triple, preferably 2 different types.

At any rate, I was 10 yrs old in 1980 and it was not only my first Olympics, but my first time watching an FS event. I was introduced to skating with the first event, the Pairs SP. That was devastating. My mom put me to bed early because I was overwrought by Tai and Randy's WD!

I recall the one 'star' was Robin Cousins. He seemed like the perfect skater.

But, I was hyper-focused on the ladies event and was sure as a 10 yr old that Linda would win and couldn't believe she lost to Annett Poetzsch. I actually had an Olympic book where you jot down the medalists on lines for each Winter Olympics event. After the SP, I wrote Linda's name on the gold medal line. LOL

It was the Cold War and as a young kid I was all about Team USA, and remember being disappointed that the US didn't win any event. My fandom would continue uninterrupted ever since ....
 

labgoat

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The 1980 Olympics wasn't a flashy competition compared to some others. On the ladies side, the past 3 Olympics showcased skaters like Peggy Fleming, Janet Lynn and Dorothy Hamill who all had a star quality, which I don't think any of the ladies in 1980 really had. Not a slam because the jump content had increased and those ladies should be commended for that: To challenge for a medal in 1980 for the first time, they needed a triple, preferably 2 different types.

At any rate, I was 10 yrs old in 1980 and it was not only my first Olympics, but my first time watching an FS event. I was introduced to skating with the first event, the Pairs SP. That was devastating. My mom put me to bed early because I was overwrought by Tai and Randy's WD!

I recall the one 'star' was Robin Cousins. He seemed like the perfect skater.

But, I was hyper-focused on the ladies event and was sure as a 10 yr old that Linda would win and couldn't believe she lost to Annett Poetzsch. I actually had an Olympic book where you jot down the medalists on lines for each Winter Olympics event. After the SP, I wrote Linda's name on the gold medal line. LOL

It was the Cold War and as a young kid I was all about Team USA, and remember being disappointed that the US didn't win any event. My fandom would continue uninterrupted ever since ....

I think their were many rising stars- for the men were David Santee & Scott Hamilton who were absolutely on fire - unfortunately i don't have video for them. The rising stars of Torvill & Dean, Bestemianova & Bukin, Blumberg & Seibert for dance set up quite the contest. In pairs, Kitty & Peter Carruthers and Underhill & Martini seemed ready to do battle with the rising German stars Baess & Thierbach, my faves Riegel & Nischwitz and the new Russians Pestove & Leonovich.
 

labgoat

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Figure Skating at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games
Mixed Ice Dancing Free Dance ( in order)
Date Started: February 20, 1980

1 Karen Barber & Nicky Slater GBR - unable to find
2 Susi & Peter Handschmann AUT - unable to find
3 Henriette Fraschl & Christian Steiner FRG - unable to find

4 Stacey Smith & John Summers USA - unable to find
1980 US Nationals version of same program

5 Judy Blumberg & Michael Seibert USA - unable to find
1980 US Nationals verison of same program

6 Natalya Bestemianova & Andrei Bukin URS

7 Lorna Wighton & John Dowding CAN

8 Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean GBR
non commentary version

9 Irina Moiseeva & Andrei Minenkov URS

10 Natalia Linichuk & Gennadi Karponosov URS

11 Kristina Regöczy & Andras Sallay HUN

12 Liliana Rehakova & Stanislav Drastich TCH
 

labgoat

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1980 Gus Lussi - Pioneer American Coach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxNN2XgDLkU

1980 Lake Placid Winter Games: February 21, 1980
Men's Singles Free Skating

Xu Zhaoxiao CHN - unable to find
Christopher Howarth GBR - unable to find
Thomaz Ãberg SWE - unable to find
Hermann Schulz GDR - unable to find
Rudi Cerne FRG - unable to find
Jean-Christophe Simond FRA -unable to find

Fumio Igarashi JPN - unable to find
same program from 1979 NHK Trophy FreeSkate

Mitsuru Matsumura JPN - unable to find

Brian Pockar CAN
Konstantin Kokora JPN
Robin Cousins GBR
Jan Hoffmann GDR
Igor Bobrin URS

Scott Hamilton USA -unable to find
same program from 1980 Worlds FS

David Santee USA - unable to find
part of same program from 1980 Worlds

Charlie Tickner USA
 

labgoat

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Sorry folks, there used to be more skates available just not anymore.
 

dorispulaski

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Some are coming back, especially of these older competitions!

I hsd not seen any of the 1979-80 foxtrot OSPs before, so thank you for Linichuk & Karponosov's - much more interesting than their FD for me :)
Natalia Linichuk Gennadi Karponosov OSP olys 1980 Fox Trot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vN6XQ0CbtU


So I looked and here are a few other foxtrots from that season:

Moiseeva & Minenkov NHK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdlV6PZJSMY

Stacey Smith and John Summers 1979 NHK Trophy - OSP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=420zTVelxzE

阿部美千子 堺望 Michiko Abe and Nozomi Sakai 1979 NHK Trophy - OSP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox9yFxntLQQ
 
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labgoat

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Some are coming back, especially of these older competitions!

I hsd not seen any of the 1979-80 foxtrot OSPs before, so thank you for Linichuk & Karponosov's - much more interesting than their FD for me :)

So I looked and here are a few other foxtrots from that season:

Moiseeva & Minenkov NHK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdlV6PZJSMY

Stacey Smith and John Summers 1979 NHK Trophy - OSP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=420zTVelxzE

阿部美千子 堺望 Michiko Abe and Nozomi Sakai 1979 NHK Trophy - OSP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox9yFxntLQQ

I actually know that nearly the entire ladies FS was once out there. There was also the ABC version of Fratianne, Allen & Tickners SP and the live call of Tai & Randy. Also why is there nothing on David Santee and Scott Hamilton? What I hoped to find was the Carruthers SP & FS and the SP for Franks & Botticelli but I think there may have been copyright problems with the music. I have the audio for Garland & Daw FS and Underhill & Martini FS so I know those were televised. Since some of the videos are Canadian, I know there must be video of Canadian skaters too. I wish there was such a thing as a online skating library where folks could check out a video and return it.
 

labgoat

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Check out back spiral entry into BI death spiral by Underhill & Martini in SP above. It is really beautifully done.
 

iluvtodd

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Too bad that we didn't follow figure skating in between the Olympic years. We missed most of the 1980's. After watching the Battle of the Brians in 1988, we started watching everything we could!
 

ManyCairns

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Revisiting Lake Placid has been so much fun for me this week! I'll poke the bees nest a little, just for fun. Revisiting Linda Fratianne, I think I'm enjoying her even more now than I did then!

At the time, especially as a casual every 4 years fan (cause the Olys were mostly all we had on TV), I was willing to accept the role the figures results played, so though I was disappointed, Poetzsch over Fratianne wasn't one of those wuzrobbed results that rankled for me personally as a fan, like, say, Nancy's silver did, though I well remember the general American public's wuzrobbed feelings re: Fratianne, for sure.

However, as of the last day or so, and having just watched TSL's 2-part interview with her, and reviewing lots of youtubes and looking at results, I either forgot or was never aware that Linda was actually second in the figures initially, then was flipflopped to 3rd. In the TSL interview she describes how she and Frank went back out on the ice to look at the tracings, and she listed some specifics about why she and Frank felt the change in placement wasn't correct, but they decided to put it behind them and move on to the sp and lp. But then there she was in the LP with the same panel that had put her second at Worlds two years before (I believe it was), believed to have a heavy German bias, and the whole deal about how Fassi was the one with the political clout, and she hadn't gone with him but had stuck with Frank, etc. Again, stuff I wasn't close to being aware of way back when as a TV-only fan.

So then I also rewatched Frank's TSL interview, and he spoke about how he considered either withdrawing Linda or at least protesting the judging panel/asking for a different panel, but decided he was just being difficult/worried for nothing, and didn't do anything. With these new to me observations, plus watching her several of her programs -- I'm actually finding Fratianne very enjoyable to watch, really even more so than than some recent Dorothy programs I've rewatched. So I'm declaring myself (lol) a new member of the Fratianne wuzrobbed camp -- I think she was a dynamic skater for her time, don't think she was overscored in her sp's and lp's at the time. And I apologize to Frank (as if peon me matters) for sometimes criticizing him for holding on to the Linda wuzrobbed sentiment for far too long. He was right, I was wrong, I now strongly agree with him - 40 years later.

And I'm just scratching the surface of the Lake Placid review -- kinda started with ladies and dance. Now getting into scraping up all the men's I can find -- not necessarily just Lake Placid performances, but any performances by some of the competitors there.

Thanks for some great threads about Lake Placid!
 

labgoat

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Revisiting Lake Placid has been so much fun for me this week! I'll poke the bees nest a little, just for fun. Revisiting Linda Fratianne, I think I'm enjoying her even more now than I did then!

At the time, especially as a casual every 4 years fan (cause the Olys were mostly all we had on TV), I was willing to accept the role the figures results played, so though I was disappointed, Poetzsch over Fratianne wasn't one of those wuzrobbed results that rankled for me personally as a fan, like, say, Nancy's silver did, though I well remember the general American public's wuzrobbed feelings re: Fratianne, for sure.

However, as of the last day or so, and having just watched TSL's 2-part interview with her, and reviewing lots of youtubes and looking at results, I either forgot or was never aware that Linda was actually second in the figures initially, then was flipflopped to 3rd. In the TSL interview she describes how she and Frank went back out on the ice to look at the tracings, and she listed some specifics about why she and Frank felt the change in placement wasn't correct, but they decided to put it behind them and move on to the sp and lp. But then there she was in the LP with the same panel that had put her second at Worlds two years before (I believe it was), believed to have a heavy German bias, and the whole deal about how Fassi was the one with the political clout, and she hadn't gone with him but had stuck with Frank, etc. Again, stuff I wasn't close to being aware of way back when as a TV-only fan.

So then I also rewatched Frank's TSL interview, and he spoke about how he considered either withdrawing Linda or at least protesting the judging panel/asking for a different panel, but decided he was just being difficult/worried for nothing, and didn't do anything. With these new to me observations, plus watching her several of her programs -- I'm actually finding Fratianne very enjoyable to watch, really even more so than than some recent Dorothy programs I've rewatched. So I'm declaring myself (lol) a new member of the Fratianne wuzrobbed camp -- I think she was a dynamic skater for her time, don't think she was overscored in her sp's and lp's at the time. And I apologize to Frank (as if peon me matters) for sometimes criticizing him for holding on to the Linda wuzrobbed sentiment for far too long. He was right, I was wrong, I now strongly agree with him - 40 years later.

And I'm just scratching the surface of the Lake Placid review -- kinda started with ladies and dance. Now getting into scraping up all the men's I can find -- not necessarily just Lake Placid performances, but any performances by some of the competitors there.

Thanks for some great threads about Lake Placid!

Thanks for your comments. Some of the background I didn't know. I thought it was an interesting event with the emphasis on triples beginning in earnest in men's and ladies. The technical in pairs - one pair didn't do any lifts until late in the program, but many, many throws. I think the pairs suffered for a few years with too much emphasis on the technical and not enough on style. So many young teams looked like tricksters. What was lost was the artistry and maturity that Tai & Randy had. As a result, pairs had very little artistry until Valova & Vasiliev, Underhill & Martini and later Watson & Oppegard, Gordeeva & Grinkov. You could really see the rag doll pairs in full force and see how the girls growth affected these teams as the years progressed. To compare Cherkasova & Shakrai and Pestova & Leonovich of 1979 to 1981 was quite striking. In the dance, it seemed to be figuring out that it needed more than just posing - frankly we needed Torvill & Dean with their quickness,sharpness and beautiful edges.

There used to be links to 1981-1984 in the oldies fan fest of Walts lists,but the YouTube who owns them has chosen to make most of them private. One competition that is still available is the dance event of 1981 which looked radically different from 1980.

1981 FD in its entirety featuring Torvill & Dean, Bestemianova & Bukin, Karen Barber & Nicky Slater, Rob McCall and partner other than Tracy Wilson, Blumberg & Seibert, Moiseeva & Minenkov and Fox & Dalley.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUD7XGoCpbTVC7xL7T9ARa94abW8OedcR
 
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SorrySkater

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Mar 30, 2014
I have only vague recollections of the women’s competition, so I watched Fratianne and Poetzsch’s programs. Linda definitely should’ve won IMO. Poetzsch had several visible errors in both programs and was over marked for what she put on the ice. I didn’t watch figures and cannot comment on that. However, if Linda’s initial placement was changed from 2nd to 3rd, that is indeed suspicious. This event appears to have been rigged from the outset.
 

labgoat

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I have only vague recollections of the women’s competition, so I watched Fratianne and Poetzsch’s programs. Linda definitely should’ve won IMO. Poetzsch had several visible errors in both programs and was over marked for what she put on the ice. I didn’t watch figures and cannot comment on that. However, if Linda’s initial placement was changed from 2nd to 3rd, that is indeed suspicious. This event appears to have been rigged from the outset.

I'm with you, my vote was for Linda and it hasn't changed in many years. How about Denise Biellmann, how ahead of time was she?
 
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