Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerad Swallow 1998 Worlds FD

[intldawn]

Amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off them. So beautiful and I am aghast at how much speed they carried throughout the entire program. So underrated. As much as I love all the teams who medaled in this competition, I thought this was on par with or better than all of them.

[Ezrateach]

This is the best tango on ice that anyone has ever done; Davis and White's new program is very good, but it does not match this one.

[RUAmplified]

WOW!!! i got chills!

[StewNWT]

The speed they maintain throughout this dance is just breathtaking, and so superior to their competition. This would easily be one of the top 5 ice dance routines of all time.

[StewNWT]

These guys, along with Anjelica Krylova and Oleg Obsiannokov (sp?) were the best dancers at the time, they incorporated actual dance into their routines the way Davis and White and Virtue Moir do today. So annoying they got screwed in the placements.

[Ezrateach]

This is mesmerizing and magnificent. It is like they are the forerunners of the great North American couples who would come along in the next decade with their simple costumes and great music and finally get marks they deserved.

[voodoo4936]

Agreed, they were consistently underrated, but paved the way for North America to eventually dominate ice dancing. This is one of my favorite FDs of all time. So fluid, intricate, and passionate.

[espinaca79]

They were soooooooooo robbed here!!! In Comparison with Ilia and Lobacheva this pair was waaaaay superior.

[pooguy77]

This should be consider one of the classic Ice-Dance FP off all time.

TRUE ICE-Dance, True Sport right here!

This portion, they should have been rank 2nd or 3rd. Just like the Olympics, completely underrated.

[Ezrateach]

This is one of the best ice dancing programs ever performed. It's beautiful subtlety was appreciated by anyone who understands ice dancing--unfortunately, the judges weren't there to fairly judge but to push their own agendas.

[nondescriptnyc]

I, too, like this performance a lot, and I LOVE their skating very much.

I think they were rated fairly. It wasn't perfectly delivered in that their lines, scratchiness, unevenness, etc. needed to be smoothed out. Also, the program was too similar to Usova-Zhulin's FD from almost a decade prior to this, and it emulated a lot of U-Z moves--& you know how perfect U-Z were... So, in a sense, They did as well as they could, both performancewise and placementwise. Good for them!

[missdaisyfae]

Wow...flavorless AND overrated.

[nondescriptnyc]

Harsh, but not entirely untrue. I think we were extremely impressed by this program because we knew where they came from... They never seemed very strong internationally in their basic skating and dancing skills.

So we were pleasantly surprised when they showed a great deal of improvement over 1996-8. Dick Button was in love with them when they came back with this very strong program (for them) in 1998, with an entirely different outlook.

[futuristengineer]

This remains one of my all-time favorite dance programs. And it was my introduction to Astor Piazzolla! So, win-win for me!  The musicality of the choreography here just consistently blew me away.

[gk891]

I thought both Lobacheva & Averbukh and the Italians had stronger ODs (especially L/A) but their FDs were pretty weak IMO. This couple, IMO, had a fairly weak OD (I had them at around 6th place) but this wonderful FD definitely should've placed either 2nd or 3rd in the FD portion of the competition. Beautifully done.

[ChristineTheHippie]

I agree with that, the jibe wasn't their strength, but this tango was better than L/A or the Italians, so I'd have them top five

[skatesindreams]

Amen to Dick Button's comments here; they never received the credit which they deserved.

A fabulous performance!

[AnnaPavlovaFan]

This has to be one of the very few times I agree with Dick Button. This program is amazing!

[ChristineTheHippie]

I think they shuold have been top five, but the ice dances judges back then didn't allow it

[dcli23]

One of the most under-rated ice dancing teams. I vividly remember feeling like they should have placed much, much higher during the entire season.

[coppertop1]

I agree, I loved them and they were sooo underrated! They were way better than Fusar-Poli/Margaglio

[kwillyau]

I was in the audience for that and this dance blew me away.  It was just beautiful.

Not sure about the being on the podium but certainly should have been above Fusar-Poli and Margaglio at that event.

[MaeveNaz]

I cant believe that they have never been on the podioum I hate the jury they dontknow about ıce dancing they have never been on the podioum themselves when they were young now they are giving the points as they wish what do they know ha?..they disregarded them for years then triedto compensateitin the pros..at least they saw their wrong..liz and jerodis absolutely magnificent and PERFECT

[wickedsweet725]

THEY ARE MY 2ND COUSIMS!!!!! i see them all the time

[fishdude77]

omg they were so GOOD! how come they never medaled. i love tho that they were such great as a pair, they moved so well together, you can really see how their personal relationship made them better skaters

[sirgio]

Dick Button never went wrong on the commentary of this dance team. He was spot on with every generalized idea of the teams effort in the FD. I love this team. Aside from the top 2 teams, they should have been on the podium that year and previous years. They were the gold standard for American ice dancing.

[Sileeee56]

Do you have "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" with Liz and Jerod? I love it!

[Sileeee56]

So nice...

[yodabeesh]

This performance always takes my breath away. They really move to every note of the music. Simply beautiful ice dancing.

[akil3120]

Wow!!! What a pity we no longer see this kind of ice-dancing. The scoring system reform really killed it.

[Ezrateach]

You are so right; the ice dancing today is so cookie cutter because of point system now. It was almost worth the fact that great teams like this one always got screwed by the European judges.