1989 European Figure Skating Championships Costume Skandals!

I just can't remember a championship that had as much media furore over costumes as this one did. Fadeev's visible undergarments and Vanessa Riley's 5.6 as a result are already firmly established in the annals of skatings more bizarre happenings, but there was so much more to this competition. Notable also because we see Surya Bonaly doing figures......well trying anyway ;)

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Katarina
• Witt
• Maia
• Usova
• Alexander
• Zhulin
• Surya
• Bonaly
• Vanessa
• Riley
• Joan
• Slater
• Bobby
• Thompson
• 1989
• European
• Figure
• Skating
• Costume
• Scandal
• Birmingham
• United
• Kingdom

[mlc2005]

How pompous and uptight to the British people want to be? Talk about confirming a stereotype!

[floskate]

@mlc2005 As a Brit myself, I can totally see the funny side and laugh at our own quirks. Shame you can't.

[funindc]

Wow! In all the times that I've seen Fadeev's free skate from this event over the years, I never noticed his costume issue. Of course, I've only ever seen the CBS (US) version. They never brought it up. Pretty silly stuff twenty years later.

Still it's interesting how much more accessible the sport was back then.

[dylanvalente]

I agree. The 6.0 system with the judges identified by country made the sport more interesting and generally produced the correct results. Ms. Riley made good points in this interview. The number wasn't as important as the ordinal. And it was interesting to see the face behind those often notoriously low marks.

[mlc2005]

Yeah, but Riley and Stapleford were rather mediocre skaters, so it's a bit infuriating that they were able to judge great skaters so harshly. Perhaps they were jealous.

[premierrules]

VANESSA RILEY was a legend! Her and Sally Stapleford did not suffer fools gladly and were ruthless with their marking. Low but fair - as it should be.

[mlc2005]

Actually, I was sort of making a joke. One the one hand I think it's fabulous that Vanessa R. stuck to the rules, but the rules shouldn't be there to begin with! It's just funny that the Brit judge was the one who caught it!

[MadZiggyStardust]

Hahaha, this is hilarious. :D

[ccfcrule223]

Joan looks so different now...wow, i spoke to her the other day but i never thought she would have changed so much since then :)

[belle19822000]

Well, it looks silly now. Thank God times have changed!

[spenceAMS]

oooh what fun - figure skating doesn't make 'em like that anymore! Just hilarious