Phiippe Candeloro (FRA) - 1994 Lillehammer, Figure Skating, Men's Free Skate

[faeryquene]

I would've had him in second behind Urmanov but Olympic bronze isn't shabby. :)

[AmyLilies]

I was in the audience here!!!!

Right next to all the telly crew commentators! :))

[barkingtree88]

would've been gold if he had landed that last jump.

[intldawn]

@barkingtree88 Ooh, I don't know about that. I feel like those marks demonstrated how conservative the judges were and they just weren't in his corner. That was a significant mistake and I can see him jumping up to second if he'd hit that last jump, but I have a hard time believing that the judges would have put him over Urmanov. Just a thought.

[russianskatingfan]

@intldawn If anything he is overrated and overmarked. On the technical side his jumps are huge but the technique on them is horrible, especialy when compared to the faultless jump technique of people like Stojko, Boitano, Elredge, and Urmanov. His spins suck, does he even do footwork. Artistically I love this particular program but his basic skating is poor, his posture is a mess, and he poses on centre ice often.

[intldawn]

It's been a long time since I've seen all of these performances again, but the judging was really screwy throughout this competition. Philippe definitely erred in trying a triple axel right at the end of the program, especially after landing seven triples beautifully. He would have blown the roof off the place had he landed it, but instead he killed the mood of the performance. Still, those marks are too low. He skated really well and it doesn't justify 5.5's and 5.6's at all.

[russianskatingfan]

@intldawn He is a hard skater to judge. Other than the glaring mistake the program was genius and wonderful to watch, and he had huge jumps. However the positions in the air on many of his jumps and the quality of his spins are not the best. He has some obvious technique and stylistic flaws to his skating. That combined with the one big mistake right at the end. It was hard to judge him. I think he ended up in the right spot. He might have won without the final mistake anyway.