@KathyKlamisme just a friendly correction, if they favored, it would be that rachael flatt looked like her since Elaine is older. LOL but i dont see a resemblance. I think Elaine had a whole different skating style, look on the ice and off the ice than rachael. Rachaels skating bores me (and i think she is a remarkable young woman otherwise!!) Elaines was exciting and beautiful! but thats only my opinion. :D
KUDOS to Elaine who really did have the last laugh over the corruption of the judges,the ignorance of Peggy Flemming and all the nay sayers with her brilliant return in 1994. She did not win the battle in '94 but she won the war and silenced her detractors. Not always consistent but always gave it her all...
elaine was exciting to watch but i have always prefered roz who was exciting to watch as well. roz did have heart she was unjustly punished in the short at the olympics. i would have perhaps done just what she did and move on. she never misssed a performance in 14 years with stars on ice. the consummate professional
By 1984 Elaine had really worked on her artistry and was never given her due at the Oly's where she probably should have medaled and at Worlds where she should have placed higher than 3rd, maybe even Gold, but those were the days of where the robotic Witt started taking over and intimidating her opponents, or did that start in 1985 with Tiffany Chin? LMAO
Shortly after this win(with four triple toe loop jumps),they enacted the "Elaine Zayak Rule" which limited skaters to only repeating a jump one time and in must be in combination with another jump.That is why she never won again.She didn't have great artistry, but she did have a nice layback, something you don't see a lot.Its sad to see Kira Ivanova trashed here so much.She was murdered in Moscow in 2001. Her biggest flaw in skating was that she would give up if she made a mistake.
I loved this performance with all of its youthful enthusiasm and technical skill, especially after Elaine's disastrous National's performance with the falls. She deserved to win the Worlds for sure. She also looks in good shape - Dick Button was always saying she was overweight during his commentary and Peggy Fleming always criticizing her style.....
Get some knowledge of skating and a brain cell. Neither Ivanova nor Kondrashova could jump to save their lives, and their spinning abilities were nothing special. Slut, whether you like her or not, was highly proficient as a technician and jumper, and Butyrskaya was far more advanced in every way than either of those cripples.
'russian skating', until Butyrskaya and Slutskaya, did not exist in the ladies' category.
Ivanova BIT; she was not only boring and cold but incompetent technically. Vodorezhova was almost as bad a jumper as Ivanova. Kondrasheva couldn't stand up straight, much less skate, under pressure.
There's always SOME imbecilic cretin who thinks nationality is all that counts, isn't there? LOL
Ivanova and Kondrashova were crap. Get a clue. Well Anna had some nice qualities but she had the competitive toughness of a newborn baby. Ivanova was just crap in every way, her skating was horrible in everyway.
I wouldn't say that EZ was not artistic. She was young and athletic and her enthusiasm and jumping ability were showcased in a charming way. This is certainly a good example of a program that suited her strenghts, but was still interesting to watch in it's simplicity and charm. Were there more artistic skaters, yes. But I loved EZ's heart and the way she really loved the sport. I always enjoyed her skating. Artistic skating without some athleticism can be boring as well.
Zayak was clearly known for her athletic ability and it shadowed focus on her presentation. She wasn't groundbreaking artistic, but she had natural presence on ice and ability to present her choreography. This is important. The skater who "isn't artistic" at all is the one who has no presence/appeal/poise at all even when there is choreography or little. Plus, she's the kind where young age played a role because they were lacking maturity. She became balanced as years went on.
Priscilla Hill, a skater in the late 70s and early 80s who went to the 81 worlds and finished 7th, she wasnt known as a strong free skater and excelled in the compulsaries. She had one silver medal breakthru in 81 and I think also in 78.
Sumners was always a thorn in Elaine's side, since she was more artistic, but she wasnt a good jumper, Chin was a very artistic skater, Hill, was at times unimpressive, but did have some nice moves
Yeah I know the rivalry with Sumners was hard on her, since Sumners being so artistic make the press hard on Zayak. You are right on Roz's jumps, even her biggest success skates she usually seemed to pop several of her jumps, it is why she lost the Oly gold to Witt in 84. Chin was very complete then, except for the silly figures which hurt her. Hill seemed to me to have lots of potential, but was not a strong competitor and couldnt put it together it seemed.
Sumners was arrogant. And she never had Elaines lion heart. After the Olympics in 1984 she just quit wheras Elaine kept on fighting and skated the programme of her life at the World Championship where she should have won the Gold!
@metsdudenj Sumners could regularly do triple salchows, triple toes, and double axels, some out of difficult entrances. For the time she was a good jumper. The only jump Elaine could do that many others couldnt was a triple loop and she was inconsistent at best with that.
@heninwarrior Sumners was NOT a consistent jumper. She landed every triple in the 83 worlds awkwardly. She was lucky the field was so weak there and Witt bombed the figures. Elaine didnt waste time setting up jumps and had lots of hard entrances ( spread eagle, Ina Bauer, double/triple combo). Elaine hit the triple loop during the entire 84 season. Her SP and LP were among the top three in the world that year and should have been placed as such. The judging panel in Sarajevo should be shot!
Ms. Zayak was a very athletic skater, not a very good artistic skater. She was an absolute powerhouse in her jumps. I never watched much skating back in the early 80's but became a huge fan in the later part of the 80's.
I grew up watching Elaine, her artistry was weak relative to her techincal prowess, she wasnt any less artistic than any of the European skaters except Witt, so I dont feel they were just in overly crticizing her in the US
You are forgetting the 3 Russian women at the time. Kira Ivanova, Anna Kondrashova, Elena Voderezova, were all so very artistic and beautiful as skaters. They had the whole package of great jumps and wonderful artistic skating.
what drug are you taking? ARTISTIC and RUSSIAN FEMALE SKATERS are words that never are found in the same sentence. Kira Ivanova was the worst free skater in history. Vodorezova couldnt do any triples and her Sarajevo free skate made me laugh. Kondrashova was the only one of the tree who was artisitic, but couldnt skate reliably in big competitoins and always made mistakes. Zayak was brilliantly athletic and artistic enough.
Ivanova was 3rd at the 84 Olympics and 2nd at 85 Worlds with Witt winning both. However she should have beat Witt for the gold at both events. She outskated Witt both times, but the East Germans made deals for Witt to win over Ivanova. They do same thing at Europeans, did you know Ivanova finished 2nd to Witt 4 straight years at Europeans. Coincidence?
Of course not, the East Germans always made deals to make sure Kira could never beat Witt.
Witt always beat Ivanova since she kicked her ass. She did everything better then Ivanova, expect often the figures, but she was never too far behind to not be able to catch her. Witt was the much stronger jumper, spinner, artist, you name it. That is even when Ivanova skated close to clean, rather then making 3 or 4 mistakes like she normally did. The 85 Worlds was the only close decision between them but I dont remember anyone saying the wrong person won.
I think you need to go re-watch Ivanova's performances at both the '84 Games and the '85 Worlds because she most definitely did not out perform Witt- her Olympic LP was frought with errors that I don't understand to this day who she held on to her overall 3rd place ranking going into the LP --- she so didn't deserve to be on the medal poduim at the '84 games -- that was a huge embarrassment in my opinion to the entire credibility of ISFU's accreditation of International Figure skating judges
You are right. Ivanova, Kondrashova, Voderezova, and Leistner were all embarassments in free skating at times. That crop of 80s Euro women, except Witt, were forgettable free skaters. The reason the 3 Russians had a medal shot at the 84 Olympics was they were able to beat Zayak and Chin many places in figures, and since the general field was so weak in free skating there might not be enough people to place between them to make up all the factored points even for much superior skates.
this is very true muffy cat. had the us skaters had a better compulsary finish, they would have finished with two medals; i wonder how much politics were done in the figures...
Well what I hate about it is the figures were so closed off. If they are such a big part of the sport back then, why are they not atleast made more accessible to the public. Frankly I found them boring, but still I would like to see them to see if so and so really did so bad to be down that low. That makes me think even more they had something to hide and the gaps between people were not always legit.
You have got to be joking about Ivanova - probably the weakest skater of the elite skaters of the 80s, got a major gift at the 84Games and strong figures helped but a very bad free skater, ditto to Kondrashova. Kondrashova had some elegance and charm but no jumps and could hack the pressure. Zayak could blow them all away one on one.
I was a baby when Ivanova won her Olympic medal and just started to watching skating after she retired but I have seen some of her performances here on youtube and she is horrible.
Brilliant performance and it was artistic enough...People attacked her for being a jumper, but she was always well positioned and had good content and choreography. A brilliant historical performance from the woman who CHANGED skating in the 20th century~
she looks like rachel flatt! :O
KathyKlamisme 7 months ago
@KathyKlamisme just a friendly correction, if they favored, it would be that rachael flatt looked like her since Elaine is older. LOL but i dont see a resemblance. I think Elaine had a whole different skating style, look on the ice and off the ice than rachael. Rachaels skating bores me (and i think she is a remarkable young woman otherwise!!) Elaines was exciting and beautiful! but thats only my opinion. :D
looneybun1 1 month ago
KUDOS to Elaine who really did have the last laugh over the corruption of the judges,the ignorance of Peggy Flemming and all the nay sayers with her brilliant return in 1994. She did not win the battle in '94 but she won the war and silenced her detractors. Not always consistent but always gave it her all...
dolcevitausa 7 months ago
Comment removed
dolcevitausa 7 months ago
Absolutely wonderful
rickram1961 1 year ago
WOW!
greekluv85 1 year ago
I have to say she and Rachel Flatt look SO similar!!!
muscleboi4use 1 year ago
Her performance was no surprise (sans 3loop),but her going from 7th to 1st was !
MrDolenz 2 years ago 2
Idk, watch Stephanie Rosenthal's sp from 2006...you might change ur mind.
mraurora 2 years ago
elaine was exciting to watch but i have always prefered roz who was exciting to watch as well. roz did have heart she was unjustly punished in the short at the olympics. i would have perhaps done just what she did and move on. she never misssed a performance in 14 years with stars on ice. the consummate professional
smokelean 2 years ago
from 7th to gold, that is pretty impressive, which was (almost) impossible in the 6.0 system.
Uglefanatikeren 2 years ago
By 1984 Elaine had really worked on her artistry and was never given her due at the Oly's where she probably should have medaled and at Worlds where she should have placed higher than 3rd, maybe even Gold, but those were the days of where the robotic Witt started taking over and intimidating her opponents, or did that start in 1985 with Tiffany Chin? LMAO
twilliger123 2 years ago 5
Shortly after this win(with four triple toe loop jumps),they enacted the "Elaine Zayak Rule" which limited skaters to only repeating a jump one time and in must be in combination with another jump.That is why she never won again.She didn't have great artistry, but she did have a nice layback, something you don't see a lot.Its sad to see Kira Ivanova trashed here so much.She was murdered in Moscow in 2001. Her biggest flaw in skating was that she would give up if she made a mistake.
nuttymom1966 3 years ago 4
I loved this performance with all of its youthful enthusiasm and technical skill, especially after Elaine's disastrous National's performance with the falls. She deserved to win the Worlds for sure. She also looks in good shape - Dick Button was always saying she was overweight during his commentary and Peggy Fleming always criticizing her style.....
BlueEyesDance 4 years ago 2
Dick Button and Peggy were basically two old crabby women
metsdudenj 3 years ago
Peggy and Dick Button are two bitches. When someone told me his was married, I fell off my chair.
metsdudenj 3 years ago
dick loved elaine and supported her thru the years
smokelean 2 years ago 3
Get some knowledge of skating and a brain cell. Neither Ivanova nor Kondrashova could jump to save their lives, and their spinning abilities were nothing special. Slut, whether you like her or not, was highly proficient as a technician and jumper, and Butyrskaya was far more advanced in every way than either of those cripples.
tightlygagged 4 years ago
'russian skating', until Butyrskaya and Slutskaya, did not exist in the ladies' category.
Ivanova BIT; she was not only boring and cold but incompetent technically. Vodorezhova was almost as bad a jumper as Ivanova. Kondrasheva couldn't stand up straight, much less skate, under pressure.
There's always SOME imbecilic cretin who thinks nationality is all that counts, isn't there? LOL
tightlygagged 4 years ago
Ivanova and Kondrashova are better then Butyrskaya and Slutskaya. Get a clue.
russianskatingfan 4 years ago
Ivanova and Kondrashova were crap. Get a clue. Well Anna had some nice qualities but she had the competitive toughness of a newborn baby. Ivanova was just crap in every way, her skating was horrible in everyway.
grafgirl27 4 years ago 9
I wouldn't say that EZ was not artistic. She was young and athletic and her enthusiasm and jumping ability were showcased in a charming way. This is certainly a good example of a program that suited her strenghts, but was still interesting to watch in it's simplicity and charm. Were there more artistic skaters, yes. But I loved EZ's heart and the way she really loved the sport. I always enjoyed her skating. Artistic skating without some athleticism can be boring as well.
zealot692002 4 years ago
Zayak was clearly known for her athletic ability and it shadowed focus on her presentation. She wasn't groundbreaking artistic, but she had natural presence on ice and ability to present her choreography. This is important. The skater who "isn't artistic" at all is the one who has no presence/appeal/poise at all even when there is choreography or little. Plus, she's the kind where young age played a role because they were lacking maturity. She became balanced as years went on.
delayedricochet 4 years ago
Priscilla Hill, a skater in the late 70s and early 80s who went to the 81 worlds and finished 7th, she wasnt known as a strong free skater and excelled in the compulsaries. She had one silver medal breakthru in 81 and I think also in 78.
metsdudenj 4 years ago
Sumners was always a thorn in Elaine's side, since she was more artistic, but she wasnt a good jumper, Chin was a very artistic skater, Hill, was at times unimpressive, but did have some nice moves
metsdudenj 4 years ago
who is Hill?
northtexasdude 4 years ago
She also was Johnny Weir's coach until just recently, where Johnny left her for Zmievskaya.
muffycat26 4 years ago
@northtexasdude Priscilla Hill
metsdudenj 1 year ago
Yeah I know the rivalry with Sumners was hard on her, since Sumners being so artistic make the press hard on Zayak. You are right on Roz's jumps, even her biggest success skates she usually seemed to pop several of her jumps, it is why she lost the Oly gold to Witt in 84. Chin was very complete then, except for the silly figures which hurt her. Hill seemed to me to have lots of potential, but was not a strong competitor and couldnt put it together it seemed.
muffycat26 4 years ago
Sumners was arrogant. And she never had Elaines lion heart. After the Olympics in 1984 she just quit wheras Elaine kept on fighting and skated the programme of her life at the World Championship where she should have won the Gold!
clarriona 2 years ago 8
@clarriona And helped the US keep 2 spots in the 1985 Worlds, and kept the US record of a medal in the Worlds intact which I think dated back to 1964
metsdudenj 3 months ago
@metsdudenj Sumners could regularly do triple salchows, triple toes, and double axels, some out of difficult entrances. For the time she was a good jumper. The only jump Elaine could do that many others couldnt was a triple loop and she was inconsistent at best with that.
heninwarrior 1 year ago
@heninwarrior Sumners was NOT a consistent jumper. She landed every triple in the 83 worlds awkwardly. She was lucky the field was so weak there and Witt bombed the figures. Elaine didnt waste time setting up jumps and had lots of hard entrances ( spread eagle, Ina Bauer, double/triple combo). Elaine hit the triple loop during the entire 84 season. Her SP and LP were among the top three in the world that year and should have been placed as such. The judging panel in Sarajevo should be shot!
metsdudenj 3 months ago
Ms. Zayak was a very athletic skater, not a very good artistic skater. She was an absolute powerhouse in her jumps. I never watched much skating back in the early 80's but became a huge fan in the later part of the 80's.
rickram1961 4 years ago
I grew up watching Elaine, her artistry was weak relative to her techincal prowess, she wasnt any less artistic than any of the European skaters except Witt, so I dont feel they were just in overly crticizing her in the US
metsdudenj 4 years ago
I think alot of that is because the U.S women at the time had such extremely "aristic" skaters like Sumners, Hill, Chin.
muffycat26 4 years ago
You are forgetting the 3 Russian women at the time. Kira Ivanova, Anna Kondrashova, Elena Voderezova, were all so very artistic and beautiful as skaters. They had the whole package of great jumps and wonderful artistic skating.
russianskatingfan 4 years ago
what drug are you taking? ARTISTIC and RUSSIAN FEMALE SKATERS are words that never are found in the same sentence. Kira Ivanova was the worst free skater in history. Vodorezova couldnt do any triples and her Sarajevo free skate made me laugh. Kondrashova was the only one of the tree who was artisitic, but couldnt skate reliably in big competitoins and always made mistakes. Zayak was brilliantly athletic and artistic enough.
metsdudenj 4 years ago
Ivanova was 3rd at the 84 Olympics and 2nd at 85 Worlds with Witt winning both. However she should have beat Witt for the gold at both events. She outskated Witt both times, but the East Germans made deals for Witt to win over Ivanova. They do same thing at Europeans, did you know Ivanova finished 2nd to Witt 4 straight years at Europeans. Coincidence?
Of course not, the East Germans always made deals to make sure Kira could never beat Witt.
russianskatingfan 4 years ago
Witt always beat Ivanova since she kicked her ass. She did everything better then Ivanova, expect often the figures, but she was never too far behind to not be able to catch her. Witt was the much stronger jumper, spinner, artist, you name it. That is even when Ivanova skated close to clean, rather then making 3 or 4 mistakes like she normally did. The 85 Worlds was the only close decision between them but I dont remember anyone saying the wrong person won.
muffycat26 4 years ago
I think you need to go re-watch Ivanova's performances at both the '84 Games and the '85 Worlds because she most definitely did not out perform Witt- her Olympic LP was frought with errors that I don't understand to this day who she held on to her overall 3rd place ranking going into the LP --- she so didn't deserve to be on the medal poduim at the '84 games -- that was a huge embarrassment in my opinion to the entire credibility of ISFU's accreditation of International Figure skating judges
kevinvisaman 2 years ago 2
Agree, agree and agree, someone was sucking some major dick behind the scenes
metsdudenj 2 years ago
true !!!
metsdudenj 2 years ago
You are right. Ivanova, Kondrashova, Voderezova, and Leistner were all embarassments in free skating at times. That crop of 80s Euro women, except Witt, were forgettable free skaters. The reason the 3 Russians had a medal shot at the 84 Olympics was they were able to beat Zayak and Chin many places in figures, and since the general field was so weak in free skating there might not be enough people to place between them to make up all the factored points even for much superior skates.
muffycat26 4 years ago 3
this is very true muffy cat. had the us skaters had a better compulsary finish, they would have finished with two medals; i wonder how much politics were done in the figures...
metsdudenj 4 years ago 2
Well what I hate about it is the figures were so closed off. If they are such a big part of the sport back then, why are they not atleast made more accessible to the public. Frankly I found them boring, but still I would like to see them to see if so and so really did so bad to be down that low. That makes me think even more they had something to hide and the gaps between people were not always legit.
muffycat26 4 years ago
ivanova was not so very artistic...she had no spark to her skating...
livuali 4 years ago 4
You have got to be joking about Ivanova - probably the weakest skater of the elite skaters of the 80s, got a major gift at the 84Games and strong figures helped but a very bad free skater, ditto to Kondrashova. Kondrashova had some elegance and charm but no jumps and could hack the pressure. Zayak could blow them all away one on one.
miloandtock1 4 years ago 6
This has been flagged as spam show
well aid milo, those commie kunts couldnt skate to save their lives
metsdudenj 4 years ago
I was a baby when Ivanova won her Olympic medal and just started to watching skating after she retired but I have seen some of her performances here on youtube and she is horrible.
gayskatingfan 3 years ago 5
Brilliant performance and it was artistic enough...People attacked her for being a jumper, but she was always well positioned and had good content and choreography. A brilliant historical performance from the woman who CHANGED skating in the 20th century~
metsdudenj 4 years ago
Perhaps the skate ofher life. That was Great!!!!!!!!
ft192 4 years ago