What is so amazing is that they manage to sync their strides in spite of the huge differences in height/weight; their timing is phenomenal. Her power and his finesse on the landing is awesome. They are showing the artform of ballet on ice, in fact, not in theory.
Yes, the female commentator seemed very prejudiced. Also, she misinterpreted the dynamic between Ekaterina and the coach - he directed comments at her during practice because Sergei loathed him and refused to have dialogue with him. Ekaterina was frightened of the coach and tried to appear dutiful/attentive. She writes in her book about how Sergei always protected her physically, even when they were both very young.
The woman commentator did nothing but make snide comments for no reason other than what seemed like she was biased. They skated beautifully and when the man announcer kept praising them the woman would make a smart ass remark about Katias age or inexperience. Well they beat all the other elite Soviet pairs. Eat your words witch!! Im going to try and find out who the woman announcer was.
They skated beautifully. I agree with you that the woman commentator was not fair to Sergei and Katia. Her comments make me want to cry when I think of what happened to Sergei. The man certainly was fair to them and tried to balance out her unfair remarks.
The female commentator is Debbi Wilkes, a Canadian pairs skater and 1964 Olympic Silver Medallist. Look up the complete 1985 Skate Canada pairs short program where she laughs at herself and the other commentators for what they said the first time they saw Gordeeva and Grinkov.
The coach from Hell. It wasn't for nothing that Katia called him 'the miserable, pitiless Zhuk'. And, they hated this program. For good reason, too. She and Sergei, according to what she wrote in "My Sergei", when they skated this program, they skated without any feeling, trying not to make any mistakes.
@2:40. Who is this witch commentator? She said her money is with the other (then) Soviets? Well you must have eaten your words and lost all your "money", you fool. G&G FOREVER🌹
I think some of Debbie’s comments were legit and HER thoughts at the time - she’s not a witch. I’m a HUGE G/G fan and I even think some of their early stuff was seemingly almost robotic and without emotions. They were just young and not as expressive and I think that’s what Debbie was seeing at the time. G/G had superior skills right out of the gate but they were reserved skaters. Beside, Debbie called herself out not that long after this. And if you watched G/G all the way through their professional career, you’d know that Debbie Wilkes became a great and vocal admirer of G/G. Marina had mostly simple footwork for G/G in those early days but had more complicated and very fast footwork in the footwork section.
Dossen A Thank you for the info. She really let it be known she didnt like Katia. Thats hilarious that she said V and V were superior to G and G. We all know who won, even at their young age. Her horrible commentary ruined this great performance.
This was the early years - Ekaterina was afraid of their first coach and Sergei loathed him. The reason for 'direction' during practice being aimed at Ekaterina was because Sergei refused to have much dialogue with the coach. I don't think this female commentator would have known anything about what was really going on.
Marina Zueva worked with them in later years...first as choreographer and in tandem w coach Stanislav Leonavich, and then later as coach/choreographer.
