Tonia Kwiatkowski - 1996 U.S. Nationals Long Program

[getrealandsee]

Now SHE is a LEGEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 24....no groin owie.........no excuse after excuse......no breaks....earned marks......no propping up......no favortism so blatant it reeks and totally insults skating fans.........and then off to Worlds...24 years old....incredible and a true champion and again a true geniune legend. I wonder if she skated back in the day when amatuers couldn't rake in the bucks and were purists!!

[markbob120]

@getrealandsee You are an idiot. Tonia Kwiatkowski stunk on ice and was a major choke artist! She was a lousy skater and a dirty polock whore!

[Evancho08]

i skated to this music, loved it

[psbfan01]

This was a very nice performance. What comes to mind: I miss Dick & Peggy's commentating, and I miss the 6.0 system, despite its faults. The skaters of today are just not as interesting either.

[russianskatingfan]

I am stunned some of you think Kwiatkowski deserved to beat Kwan. Kwan probably skated an even better performance than she did to win Worlds considering she did the triple toe-triple toe. Tonia skated well but has no triple-triple, no triple salchow, and a few of her landings were off or two footed. The only time Tonia didnt beat Kwan when she deserved to was the 95 Nationals the year before. I agree she deserved to place way higher than 8th at Worlds though.

[getrealandsee]

@russianskatingfan a triple...a triple triple...Kwan did that?

[skaterdude1962]

Should have been National Champion and World Medalist that year!

[dtw1958]

@skaterdude1962 I agree and skated faster than Michelle

[skaterdude1962]

Beautiful program and skater. Tonia was always gracious to all her fans as well.

[caseyphx]

loved this program.  she did two-foot a few of her jumps. it's hard to tell with the iffy qualify of this vid, but i taped this program and watched it many times, including the jumps in slow motion. her feet are so close together in the air, it's almost impossible to see, but the toe pick of the free leg taps just slightly before it swings around. one of her cleanest jumps was the loop. i'd never seen her land it successfully before, and she was obviously thrilled!

[delayedricochet]

acuison1, correct, it's obvious which music is good music and bad,and why on earth people would choose bad music! However, this music to this program is not that bad. It has hooks, is flowing to the ear and the cuts work and flow. It's not the best, but it's fine. There are so many bad examples of bad tacky music in programs out there, and bad edits/cuts that don't work.

[dylanvalente]

Has anyone else noticed her resemblence to Nancy Kerrigan? Appearance and skating style.

[thomstephens]

@dylanvalente Minus the buck teeth and bitchy attitude however.

[acuison1]

I don't get why some skaters perform to such music. I mean most of the time you can tell who will win and who would lose by the choices of their music. Seriously?

[dragonfly0283]

hahaha... I saw this live! it was unbelievable!!! (long time ago, but I remember it!) she is such an amazing skater!!

[brunofttt]

LOVE TONIA! I miss this kind of glamorous skating. :(

[toonertoon]

A great program, delivered well, and nice to watch. 2nd place was the right decision, though, as there was no salchow jump in this program. Kwan did all triples including the salchow.

[gandy74]

The Blade Runner score is definitley "80's", but that doesn't negate the fact it's still great music and sends me to analog nirvana everytime

However, John Tesh has already gone the way of Yanni, Melrose Place and the Thighmaster.

[MissFit29]

I have a lot of respect for Tonia. She was very respectful of her coach and their relationship, of skating, and of her competitors. She's a very classy lady.

However, the program is dated-very late 80s/early 90s style of music, costume, and choreography. Michelle really showed improvement and change-her Salome program was just the beginning. Michelle's camp recognized the need to show a drastic change to the judges and public in order to show her growth. I think that was the difference.

[ants2876]

That plus the triple-triple Michelle did.

[rickram1961]

This was such a lovely LP for Tonia. She skated flawlessly.

[mec441]

Yes this was probably her best performance ever. She was very lovely and graceful.

[uwoeric]

The way she keeps her legs so tight and pointed in the air looks pretty, but it also makes her two-foot the jumps a lot.

Great performance here though, one of her best ever.

[thomstephens]

i loved this performance and feel she is to be admired for sticking with it and showing everyone that she could deliver a jam-packed program with elegance.

[sbe79]

This was an awesome program. If she could have skated this 5 years earlier, she would have been huge. But everything about this program seems a little bit 1991 -- down to the music.  I think she is a great and awfully underrated skater, though. Both of her Worlds performances were Bronze-medal worthy and she was underscored. Don't get me wrong.

[russianskatingfan]

I agree with all you said.

[ShaefDawg]

Yeah, I agree. I thought she was an awesome athlete, she just couldn't get out of the 1990 cliche! I mean, seriously? John Tesh? hahaha, great skater nontheless!

[Mikelandscaper]

This program blows me away. Tonia presents this program with so much class. Like Lu Chen's Silver at the 1996 Worlds, I can't stop watching this program repeatedly.

[dolcevitausa]

a very classy skater that ended a good career on a high note

[russianskatingfan]

This was a great performance and moment for her but those of you saying she should have won are smoking crack. A silver for Tonia is awesome in an era of Lipinski, Kwan, and Bobek, all generally superior skaters to her, the silver is a dream, just leave it at that. Kwan and Tonia both went to Worlds and skated this well again and Kwan won gold (should have been silver but still officialy gold) while Tonia was only 8th so obviously the judges made the right decision who to give the U.S title.

[Lilia96]

One of my favorite programs ever.

What I liked about Tonia was how she was so quietly elegant. Very calm, very beautiful, similar to Angela Nikodinov. I think she should have won, this program was underrated, IMO. I love love love the jazzy section. xxx

[anfjustin1981]

I so wanted her to win!

[iceamc]

Tonia is a beautiful skater and the best coach i ever had

[okhan001]

very very good quality skater

[visceraltuning]

I think most important however was that after then marks were displayed Tonia was still absolutely elated.

[visceraltuning]

This would have been very difficult to judge.

Michelle's program had more polish and her technique was acceptable.

Tonia's program demonstrated superior technique and but with less polish.

The entrance to Tonia's Triple Lutz is technically better than the typical common long edge and Mohawk entrances used today. The outside edge is so much deeper that in that entrance that is almost guaranteed that skater will fall before they flutz.

Pre-1991 Tonia would have won.

[visceraltuning]

Oops, typos.

The entrance to Tonia's Triple Lutz is technically better than the typical common long edge and Mohawk entrances used today. The outside edge is so much deeper than in the long edge entrance that it is almost guaranteed that the skater will fall before they flutz.

[kwadruple]

That's interesting...because Tonia still flutzed and she didn't fall!

[uwoeric]

You're right, Tonia did flutz!

[ShaefDawg]

did anyone notice that the guy next to Tonia (Glen Watts) sat soo close to Tonia, and that his hand was dangerously close to Tonia's derriere?! I noticed when I watched this live on tv years ago, and I just noticed it again.

[mec441]

OMG! He is practically patting her fanny isn't he?

[ShaefDawg]

HAHA I'm glad someone else noticed that

Yikes!

[lambielkwanfan]

I dont know if I agree there, but she certainly impressed the judges still. If you notice her scores were very close to Michelle's and way ahead of all the others. She skated almost this well at Worlds and was so robbed, she should have won the bronze medal at Worlds.

[slamballmanlita]

@lambielkwanfan I agree that Tonia was totally robbed when it came to the 1996 Worlds but if you look at the placesments a lot of people was robbed. I kind of disagree with your placements at worlds that year. I would have Tonia in 4th overall. I would have had her 5th in the Short Program and 4th in the Long. So my top 12 placements would have been overall Kwan, Chen, Butyskaya, Kwiatkowski, Slutskaya, Szewczenko, Bonaley, Yokoya, Vorobieva, Ito, Czakó, Lipinski,.

[raelynne04]

Love her! One of my all time favorites! :)

[sjkel]

I met Tonia at a charity event here in Cleveland and she was very gracious. When I told her "I really enjoy your skating", she replied "thank you... that is so very kind of you." She is a class act!

[Iceman8822]

I think had she done a triple-triple of some kind, it would be have been closer between her and Michelle.

Though I still think Michelle would have won. :)

[brunofttt]

Love her!

[diskplaying]

This was as good as a gold medal for her.