Linda Fratianne - 1980 World Championships Long Program

[sloams]

Linda was definitely robbed at the Olympics and the World Championships!! Annett Poetzsch has nowhere the style of Linda!! And I would say if she there had been drug testing at this time, Annett would have been banned from the sport for failing a steroid test!!!

[dsfddsgh]

Wow i didn't even recognize Frank Carroll with the beard. LOL

[MTVMANN]

What happened in her SP?

[peppe201]

@MTVMANN She did only a double salchow/ double loop jump combination in the short.

[Rouben19]

I was in a show with Linda for 3 years on the road, she almost never had friendships with other skaters and as the highest paid person by thousands -never once did anything for the supporting cast at that time she was controled by NM

[metsdudenj]

I did hear she was not an overly friendly person and kept to herself most of the time.

[nondescriptnyc]

@Rouben19 I know what you mean, and I myself have seen her in action... But I think she is just pathologically shy. There are people like that. I don't think she was being arrogant. She often appeared to be terrified of talking to people. With this said, I do think she was way over-rated as a free skater.

[smokelean]

frank carroll said that as her coach if he said go jump off that roof shed say that one ther or the higher onw? a fearless competitor the reason women had to start doing multiple triples carried on by zayak and sumners

[savvyspirals]

The ladies free skate was poorly marked in my oppinion.

My marks would have been:

1st: Emi Watanabe - 5.7 and 5.9

2nd: Linda Fratianne - 5.7 and 5.7

3rd: Annett Poetzsch - 5.5 and 5.7

4th: Dagmar Lurz - 5.6 and 5.3

[Zuranthium]

What about Beillmann? Does anyone have a video of her performance from this Worlds?

[savvyspirals]

Hey Sam... you're using my account... LOL I don't know shit about skating, so I assume I must have left myself logged in on your computer. Silly boy.

[russianskatingfan]

Yes Watanabe absolutely should have won the long program here. Placing her below even a subpar Poetzsch was a farce. It was too bad Marie Allen and Biellmann did not have better skates. Yeah I pretty much agree with your long program marks for the top 4 though.

[nondescriptnyc]

@russianskatingfan I've seen the ISU footages of the SP, and Watanabe probably should have won SP as well--by a large margin.  Denise did a 3T combo but Watanabe's overall quality and speed were far beyond everone else's. I think It helped that Watanabe had switched the placement of her jumps after Lake Placid.

[grafgirl27]

The most boring skater in history and a bigtime whiner when she didnt get the results she wanted.

[grandmagrumpy]

results were often tainted with favoritism and judges who didn't even know what they were looking at. Linda was more energetic than most, and she did have a flair/style, along with triples not often done.

[grandmagrumpy]

And Linda had at least 2 super supporters. Her mom was the most gracious lady in the rink, and Frank Carroll, her coach was the penultimate gentleman. Love his beard!

[grafgirl27]

Her Mom? You mean the one who made up a story about hearing a conversation fixing the results were fixed at the 1980 Olympics in a sour grapes campaign when here incredibly boring daughter did not win the Olympic gold. Frank Carroll, the overly obsessed Linda mentor, who still cant get over her loss almost 30 years later, when in reality there are far more special and talented skaters who missed Olympic gold then her.

[grandmagrumpy]

Your name doesn't happen to be Shelly, does it?

[grafgirl27]

Triples not often done? Poetzsch, Lurz, Biellmann, Watanabe, could all do triple toes and triples sals which are all Linda did. Biellmann even did a triple lutz, and many triple-doubles so she would be a better example for that then Linda. More energetic the most? This is possible, but that reflects on the sad field of ladies then that Linda would be considered one of the more energetic. Her own style? I guess that would be stilted, awkward, and stiff. Definitely her trademark style.

[grafgirl27]

I do agree with you on one thing though. Results were often tained by favortism by judges. This explains how a boring and average free skater like Linda, who wasnt even great at figures like Poetzsch who was also an average free skater, could become a World Champion twice. Also how a dreadful skater like Lurz could become a World medalist. Any sane eye can see that Watanabe, Marie-Allen, Biellmann, were more interesting and exciting free skaters. Atleast Poetzsch was great at figures.

[barkingtree88]

I personally think Watanabe should have won the freeskate.

[russianskatingfan]

I agree totally. What was pathetic was she even lost 2nd in the free skate to Poetzsch who had mistakes in her performance.

[metsdudenj]

This was a more inspired performance than Lake Placid and she got fucked with the judging, Dagmar Lurz sucks and got silver because she was a NATIVE of Dortmund; skating was and is such a sham!

[russianskatingfan]

This was just a boring era for womens skating. Fratianne and Poetzsch were good skaters but I actually prefered Watanabe, Lisa Marie Allen, Biellmann, to both of them, but I guess those others were not good enough in figures or something else. Fratianne and Poetzsch were the top two of this era and both were good but forgettable. Lurz you are right totally sucks and the fact she was on the podium so often in this era really shows how lacking it was.

[beckerbombs]

Linda is just a boring and overrated skater. She does absolutely nothing for me. And her attitude SUCKS. Even today she is still a bitter whiner when really she was just an overrated and overhyepd skater in the first place.

[lexlib]

how the heck did she finished 3rd overall when her overall points total is higher than Dagmar Lurz?

[3370433704]

Lurz beat Fratianne on ordinals, which were more important than points at the time.

[muffycat26]

Who won the short program?

[christopher1980]

Denise Biellmann was 1st in the short program. I have to correct the description above, Linda was only 3rd in the short program (Emi Watanabe was 2nd)

[muffycat26]

OK thanks.