Denise Biellmann -- 1981 Worlds Short Program

[jubbadupa]

Her artistic marks were always too low, especially in 80 and 81, when she was by far the best of all the girls. And I know she missed the triple in her combo, which would probably be a automatic 3/10 deduction in this day, but a 5.2 and 5.3 for techinal ???

[westfaner]

The 2 judges that gave her the 5.4 for artistic should have been penalized and thrown off the panel !!!

[snowballwannabe]

What a beautiful ass *_* They don' wear thongs these days.

[netzgaenger]

knackiger Hintern;)

[HattieLovesCattie]

What is Denise doing now?

[MusikPiratCH]

@HattieLovesCattie

Still skating! :D

But her career will sure come to an end. Maybe one day she will comentating skating!

I once heard her comentating stars on ice she knew very well. And maybe one secret of her success at professional skating was analizing her oponents ... xD

[mlc2005]

Compulsory figures really pushed a lot of brilliant skaters down, and it's almost too depressing to think. They should have been eliminated in the 30's (or at least substantially reduced in importance). To think that it took until the 1990's!!! to get them out of here, wow.

[DarrenInCA]

And Denise never had to suffer through seven triple programs with triple/triple combinations. It was just a different era. And for the record, Michelle trained figures when she was younger as it was still used in competitions up until 1990.

Denise was ahead of her time, much in the same way Midori Ito was ahead of her time. But innovative doesn't always equal good. Some people won't like it regardless...

[CoCoNuTsiopatHic]

I agree with you about Biellmann, mostly, but I still don't think your "anyone who says differently doesn't have a clue" attitude is justified. Denise's style just may not appeal to the same emotions that plenty of fans consider skaters like Witt and Kwan capable of reaching. And even though Kwan never did figures, I don't necessarily think they would've held her back. I'm inclined to think that both Lipinski and Hughes likely could've had a much harder time with them than Kwan would've.

[HattieLovesCattie]

@CoCoNuTsiopatHic Lipinski and Hughes got gold medals which Kwan couldn't get but Kwan is far a more famous skater and had a longer career.

[FigureSk8rxx]

amazing!

[koolaidnhemlock]

that music!

[waddleduckie1]

I agree with you on that one... certainly Michelle Kwan lacks pure artistry to that of Denise. The second impressive skater to manage the Biellmann feat is Irina Slutskaya and the third, of course, is Sasha!

[DarrenInCA]

Other skaters managed the Biellmann spin before Irina. In fact several did. Irina is, however, the first skater to do the Biellmann on both legs. And I'm fairly certain that hasn't been done by anyone else.

And please, Sasha has the ugliest Biellmann I have ever seen. Her other spin positions are exceptional, especially her layback and I spin positions. But her Biellmann, well, I just wish she would have never learned it.

[barkingtree88]

The double axel was amazing.

[tsimshan]

This actually sort of reminds me of a Tonya Harding program in a good way.

[amexred]

Pretty neat routine. Idk if that music was wild for her day but I'd like to see that music used in a program in present skating.