Elaine Zayak (USA) - 1980 Worlds, Ladies' Long Program

Dortmund, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY - 1980 World Figure Skating Championships, Ladies' Long Program - Elaine Zayak of the United States placed an amazing 4th in the Long Program and moved up from 15th to 11th Place overall in her Worlds debut.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Elaine
• Zayak
• 1980
• figure
• skating

[premierrules]

What a great peformance. Two combinations which we never see anymore and both very difficult: double lutz-triple toe and double axel-triple toe. Why have they all taken out the double-triple combos? Surely they are given more credit than triple-double?

[3Axel1996]

@premierrules Contrary, quite a few women these days are attempting the 2Axel/3ToeLoop combination such as Miki Ando and Mirai Nagasu...

[premierrules]

@3Axel1996 Thanks for that. It shows how much interest I show in the skaters of today. The performances are not as memorable as those years ago and do not leave the same impression like Midori Ito, Katarina Witt, Liz Manley and Tonya Harding to name but a few. The scoring system, although now a litte more understandable than it was, has killed the sport. The old 6.0 system, although victim to corruption was much more exciting.

[jayawr]

Thanks for the response! That's interesting. Sandy was ninth because the judges screwed her over, not because she didn't skate well. I can see the no-triples thing, but what she did she did so exquisitely. I love Elaine, too, but she only finished 11th at these worlds because of bad figures. I suspect Sandy would have placed at least 2-3 spots higher. However, this really did set Elaine up for major success in '81 and '82, so I guess it ended up being a good decision.

[metsdudenj]

they yanked her because she had no triples. Many people at naitonals felt that Lenz didnt belong on the team because she had no triples. Sandy finished ninth in the Olympics, which was low for US standards.

[jayawr]

Great performance! Does anyone remember why Sandy Lenz did not compete in these worlds? The commentators seem to imply that she was pulled off of the team in favor of Elaine, but given Sandy's excellent performances at the Olympics, I find it hard to believe that they would yank her.