Birmingham, England, GREAT BRITAIN - 1995 World Figure Skating Championships, Ladies' Free Skate - Chen Lu of China won the Free Skate in order to move up from 3rd to win her only World Title.
Funny it never occurred to me what a gem and rarity Lu Chen was. To have come from a country that had little to no figure skating background and resources, and to shine on the world stage the way she did - she really was one in a million kind of talent.
In an interview, she said that the whole city had only one training ice outdoor. Over 20 sports teams shared it. Figure skaters' schedule is at 1am every day. She literally got up at midnight to train outdoor in negative degrees in the dark.
She is also a skating prodigy. She was able to do triple jumps when she was just 9 years old. Yeah she really is one in a million skating talent. It's been almost 20 years since she won her Olympic bronze medal in the Women's single skating event in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano Japan and there has not been another female skater since from China who's ever made it into even the top 10.
This is one of those thrilling, never forgotten, signature skating programs. I got goose bumps the first time I saw it on TV in 95 and I get goose bumps even now. She has such grace, poise and beauty on the ice. I think this choreographed program was better than the one she won the 94 Olympic bronze medal with. Because of her humilty, people remember Oksana and Nancy but they forget how wonderful Chen Lu's skating was.
I still love this programs, so many years later. And this red dress is one of my favourite costumes worn by Lu Chen. It fits the theme of the program and even in 2023 it still looks lovely. We don't see beautiful simple costumes often, nowadays.
Love how she used her arms danced a classic life in a place in forbidden city. Such a great story teller. The emperor might be the last one but she's a real empress on ice.
I always loved this program. The Last Emperor was such a beautiful film and the soundtrack was amazing. Her choreography was well done. I was never a fan if her layback spin, but she was a very lyrical skater.
For me her 1993/1994, 1995 and 1996 programs are all among the best coreography ever. Not only the programs are outstanding, but the music choices are wonderful and obviously she has total ability to deliver these programs with insane quality and artistry.
I watched her dancing live to the music of the movie last emperor when I was the spots reporter for china daily, and I came back to watch her again and again. Her movement goes so well with the music, like the whole history is behind her - my favourite of all time!
If I remember correctly this was actually choreographed by Sandra Bezic. Near perfect performance and near perfect choreography ( have to say that that last footwork sequence was very “throw-away” and unmemorable). It’s routines like this that make figure skating an amazing sport. Bring more of this back!!
As Mary said, it was choreographed by Toller Cranston. I'm glad Lulu found choreographers such as Toller and Sandra Bezic who brought out her unique artistry, as her previous choreographers didn't do her justice. Sandra choreographed Lulu's 1996 programs, which are among figure skating's greatest programs of all time. In any other year, Lulu would have won 1996 too, but she lost by 6-3 to none other than Michelle Kwan.
I love the way she uses her body. She really used those Chinese dance steps. Must be very difficult. Is i true that most skating movment is based on Western ballet tradition?
@@hongkongnananewterritories1513 no the short and long in 1994-5 were both choreo by Toller he even designed her free skate dress; sandra chored other program for Lu
She was so gorgeous. 03:10 when lu was doing that standing posture, there were audiences applausing along the music. I cried everytime when I watched this part. I have no idea why. Maybe for the performance, or music, interaction.
For me, this year was her artistic peak, her style came on a bomb between 1994 and 1995. But technically, you can see that her jumps were already getting a bit iffy here - she struggled to rotate the lutz and flip fully, and by 1997-1998 she was struggling to rotate anything properly. I was never keen on the sit spin portion of her combination spins, she didn't really bother sitting down and only held the position for a split second.
@MsKendra79 She worked closely with Cranston this year with the choreography, and he even designed both of her costumes for this season. She didn't start working with Bezic until the next season.
I know right? And I loved Cranston's style of skating, as well as his own programs. It's not that I hated it, but compared to her others, it just didn't grab me as intensely. Maybe the doubling out of the second lutz has something to do with it, as the 1994 and 1996 programs I was able to see skated flawlessly. Anyway, thanks for the fantastic uploads.
too bad her 1998 olympic lp gets deleted. Really enjoy that one too. I found a version with no sound and open the music sound track to enjoy her 1998 lp. But the soundless version I found is in low qulity, I miss your clip which is higher quality.
The marks were so right, because it isn't supposed to be just about the jumps. But it anything, it would be the second set of marks to criticize because there should have been a few 6.0s.
3Axel1996- Something I have wanted to know for years about the 1995 Worlds. That is, what was the music for NBC’s opening? Was it from a movie of that time? Any chance you know what it was? Any chance you could post that opening NBC sequence? Thanks so much.
It's the music -- it's a bit repetitive in parts for a minute or two on end - the same 8 bars over and over. There's no emotional swell. It just seemed to go nowhere. That said, I love her skating, and she should have gotten 1st place ordinals across the board. I just watched Kwan's 1995 performance, and Kwan got a 5.9 for presentation from the same judge who gave Chen a 5.8 for presentation. in 1995!!! Like SERIOUSLY? I miss the old 6.0 days but the judges couldn't be trusted.
I agree with you about missing the 6.0 days, because at the end of the day, it's not about the scores... but about who was the best overall (short and long). If they can somehow incorporate the ordinal system to the CoP, then maybe it should improve things. But with regards to cheating, I think that it is still rampant to this day. For example, there really was no way to justify Sotnikova's Olympic gold medal. But on the flip side, skaters are doing more quads now.
It has been 25 years since Lu Chen won her gold medal. Ironic that China hasn't produced another champion female Chinese figure skater. I thought their would be a surge of Chinese girls wanting to be the next Lu Chen. I mean, you see other countries like Russia and Japan who back in the 90's were not as strong competitors as they are today. You saw a surge and currently dominate the sport..
Chen Lu is a beautiful skater but there was two things I never understood, 1. why she didn't work harder to improve her spins and 2. why she always got in such bad physical conditioning off season.
Again, this commentator needs to learn how to count. She did not do 6 triples. She did 5. She maybe just reading from her script of planned triples but still she should know better than to say a wrong number after the performance.
+Buggerbeef Well, the commentator is a former skater and a choreographer...I don't think she read from a script. But you're right, she should have known better.
The 93 Worlds should have been a toss up for gold between Bonaly and Chen, so Chen no worse than silver, and Baiul only bronze. The 94 Olympics Chen should have won silver behind Kerrigan, and Baiul again only bronze. The 92 Worlds she desrved silver behind Yamaguchi, but was placed 3rd behind Kerrigan who skated horribly, and only even got the bronze due to a fluke ordinal flip.
This was, ironically, my least favorite program of Lu Chen's. For some reason, I found it much more boring and less emotionally rewarding than her other free skates. Perhaps it was the music. I particularly adored her 1994 and 1996 free programs, and I agree that before 1995, she was grossly under marked.
