Albertville, FRANCE - 1992 Winter Games, Figure Skating, Men's Free Skate - Kurt Browning of Canada struggled through his Free Skate and dropped from 4th to 6th Place overall.
Agreed. I kind of chuckle at all the super high marks given out throughout the Mens and Womens competition, here. It also was a competition full of wide score ranges.
The shame of it all is that had he landed a big Double Axel instead of the Single ... the Triple Sal Double Loop instead of Double/Double ... and maybe threw in another Triple Toe somewhere ... he could've got enough scores and ordinals to perhaps get Bronze ahead of Barna. The Artistic Impression marks would've been higher too, because the overall impression of the free skate would've felt more positive.
Choker Browning! Let's just call it like it is the guy choked when the pressure got too great for him , he did the same thing in Lillehammer in 94. He just couldn't get it done when the pressure was on.
@@vickenator Objectively speaking, if you go back and look at Kurt's World performances, they weren't that great either and filled with mistakes. I never understood all the high esteem for Kurt Browning as one of "the greatest". He's really not when you look at the overall quality and technical inconsistency of his competitive programs. He was a MUCH better professional skater and showman once the pressure of amateur competition was past.
All these years later and I still think it was extremely classless of Verne Lundquist and Scott Hamilton to declare his quest for the gold effectively over mid-performance. Seriously, what the hell was that? "Is it over?" "I think it is." SHUT UP, HE'S STILL SKATING!
Oh, come on. At that point in the program where weren't enough elements left, even if performed perfectly, to make up for all the previous mistakes he'd made. I don't like commentators who coddle skaters. It's better when they call it like it is. As Hamilton said, Kurt himself knew his chance of winning a medal was over halfway through the program which is why he gave up and downgraded the rest of the elements to easier ones. The skaters understand the scoring system and know full well when they've still got a legitimate chance of making the podium and when they don't.
It wasn't just the pressure, he also was dealing with a back injury that entire season that hampered him the entire season. I do think the pressure must have been HUGE, he was three time world champion, I'm sure people thought him a shoo-in for a medal. So unfortunate. He never had any luck at the Olympics.
Everything Christine says is true, plus, this program was choreographically challenging, a lot more than most other skaters so it was pretty difficult. I think if he had skated it perfectly it might have gone down as one of the greatest Olympic programs of all time ...maybe a masterpiece? Maybe?
I always thought that he beat skaters like Todd Eldridge right into the ground. Great footwork and choreography--he never seemed to just skate from required element to required element the way I felt Eldridge did. While he never became an Olympic champion, his consistency at the world and Canadian shampionships made him someone to remember.
His artistry was gorgeous, the choreography was intricate - much more so than his previous programs in years before. Look at the spin positions and the body positions between the jumps and the musical interpretation. Yeah, the technical marks were very generous. He has back problems in the fall season leading up to this. He never got it together for this season.
Tammy LaRonde he was a great artistic skater, but when you make that many technical mistakes, it impacts the whole program and should cause those marks to drop, in my view. I agree with the original poster that 5.8 was way too high and 5.3 was about right. So, I would’ve gone 5.3 in technical merit and up slightly to a 5.5 in artistic merit. To me, that would’ve been a fair score.
What do you expect?? Look who gave him the 5'8...It was the Canadian judge. No surprise there. They couldn't be more obvious. He had a multitude of errors in this performance. There's no way he could have won a medal.
I think so. Kurt was always brilliant, too. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be at the Olympics for Kurt. His programs were always well-constructed. He was a well-rounded skater.
Watching the programs, there has got to be some music out there (even classical) that has yet to be used. The Firebird is right up there in overuse with Carmen and Swan Lake.
I agree some music just needs to retire. Carmen has definitely been overdone. Also, BOLERO!! That has two things going against it: Overuse and plus it's a signature number, only Torvill and Dean should dance do that. Phantom of the Opera, Romeo and Juliet (Nino Rota version), Tosca, to name a few.
As someone from the U.S., I was very happy to see a skater of Paul Wylie's caliber finally win an Olympic medal. But the Olympics would have been so much better if Kurt Browning could have the gold I suppose the pressure just got to him
I don't think Kurt looked primed for Gold, here. Petrenko is/was a fantastic skater and, I'm glad he won Gold. But I def wouldn't have minded Bronze for Kurt. He simply needed an extra 2 triples or so in there to give the judges reason to get up over Barna.
