1983 Melissa Thomas US Nationals

Melissa was probably the last great 'figures' skater in the United States. She often lead after that portion of the competition, but then faltered with various aspects of the free skating....but her programs were lovely; and, in a different era would have held her up nicely.

She was part of a group of interesting young girls I used to call the "Gang of 6"! Up and comers would could never quite muster a satisfactory arsenal of strengths to dislodge the reigning Rosalyn Sumners and Elaine Zayak!! Girls like Kelly Webster, Jill Frost, Vicki DeVries, Jackie Ferrell, and Priscilla Hill all provided some exciting competitive highjenks during this period!! The expense of skating prevented fokes from staying over past their alloted 4 year Olympic cadre.......which in view of the current state of our rather boring and redundant professional, semi-pro system, I am not sure was a bad idea.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• figure
• skating
• 1983
• US
• Nationals
• Melissa
• Thomas
• ladies
• school
• figures

[GlossyiceIris]

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