Nancy Kerrigan (USA) - 1992 Skate America, Ladies' Free Skate 

After this performance, this music was like a curse to her, she never did a program that was as clean as this one until she changed the music (not that this performance was flawless, but still, it was the best she did with this music)

I agree that this is a very nice program, and that she could have definitely won with it, but I actually liked her '92 Olympic Long "Born On The Fourth of July" program better. There's quite a long section in this "Beauty . . ." program where she skates with her hands stretched to the heavens for what purpose I am not sure, but I, myself, don't really find it especially pleasing, but - more than that - I would think it sapped her energy unnecessarily. Having said that, I think she would have won '93 worlds if she had skated this cleanly, but I also think there's a very good chance she would have won the gold at the '92 Olympics if she would have skated that long program cleanly, and I think she would have won the '94 gold if she had skated just as she did but started with a clean triple flip instead of a clean double flip. Don't mistake me; I think she won the gold anyway based on what she did, but it would have been almost impossible for them to have kept it from her had she landed a clean triple flip in addition to what else she accomplished that night.

@@genednomyar3383 Lots of ifs?🤔🤔🤔

@@genednomyar3383 Well you stress the important point. Nancy has NEVER skated a truly clean long program. The closest was the Olympics in 94 and Piruetten 93, and even there she doubled a major triple both times. And remember that was the only season she trained properly and did proper runthroughs by her own admission.

Her music was usually much cornier, specially the video game music 😁

Hahaha good one!

She skated this program at the Fall '92 Pro-Am, and it was enjoyable to watch, but she put her hand down on the flip, and doubled the lutz. Her performance at '93 Nationals was lackluster, but I wouldn't say she bombed it; however, I would say that her performance at Nationals contributed to the bad performance at Worlds.

Nope

she did it during the FS at the 1992 olympics

And at '92 Olympics long, as well as '94 Olympics long.

superior artistry. 🙅🏾‍♂️

I'm pretty sure this performance would have (along with her first place in the Original program) captured her the silver medal at '93 Worlds.

She also landed a triple loop in her '92 Olympic program, and there she also landed the triple flip. At '93 Pirueten (sp), she landed the flip, but doubled the loop. At the '94 Olympics, she doubled the flip, but landed the loop. Dick Button always spoke well of her jumping ability, and her jumping technique. I recently watched a couple of her programs, and trained my eyes on her upper body as she jumped; I was really impressed with the beauty of her upper body positions.

I didn't get that impression from the intro at all...

Incredible Mann neither did I. Too much time on your hands. Direct your anger towards Jeff (Tonya's husband) not her victim. Thanks!

I've never seen her do a triple flip. She always chickened it into a double.

@@shihlin1 See '91 Worlds long, '92 Olympic long, '93 Piruetten long. Sorry you never saw her land it, but she often did, and with good height.

Her '94 Olympic program was in no way marred by the double flip. It didn't take away from the enjoyment of the program; it only gave the program a touch less technical value. It was a "FREE" program. A triple flip was not required. She was "FREE" to substitute a double flip, a double toe, a double lutz or whatever else she chose. As to her spins, I never noticed any lack of rotations on them. What I did notice, is that on her last lovely scratch spin she ended it precisely in time with the music!!!!!!!

She only made 4 triples though so with that bumbling the double axel on top of that was a big mistake. It would be one thing if she did 5 or 6 triples. I am not sure she deserved to win the long program here, even though Sato also didn't skate great technically. Chen probably should have won the long over both, but was only 3rd and 3rd overall somehow.

@@grantgoffin4774 I went and watched Chen's program again. I believe I counted four clean triples. Hers included two lutzes and a flip so was more difficult than Nancy's. I also like Chen's choreography more. So I agree with you about Chen. She is one of the best artists in figure skating history. She got better and better and reached the height of her presentation at 1996 Worlds. Even in 1998, after struggles, she eked out a bronze with a technically flawed but brave performance that was also a wonderful work of art!

@@Dylvente People make a big deal of the URs in Chen's long program in 98 but forget under 6.0 thinking that sort of thing wasn't a big deal and in fact was ignored unless it was blatant. Surya Bonaly with no artistry at all wouldn't have won so many medals with just jumping otherwise, as she was a chronic cheater, must worse on the regular than Chen's 98 LP. Yeah it would have had a bunch of > calls and never medaled under IJS, but this was not IJS so people need to get over that. Hughes would be like 5th at best at the 2002 Olympics and won none of her medals under IJS but nobody ever comments on that. And she still went for and completed more clean (under 6.0 thinking) technical content than Butyrskaya, and in some ways Slutskaya, but alteast Butyrskaya, with 2 clean lutzes, 5 clean triples, and 7 triples stood up including a triple-triple. That combined with exceptional choreography, emotional, and beautiful artistry. Butyrskaya had only 1 lutz that was two footed, and only 3 clean triples, 5 stood up, and no jump combination. Slutskaya did have 5 excellent triples, but only 1 lutz, missed the only flip attempt (just as Chen did), although a great triple toe-triple toe. Butyrskaya's performance was by far her most subpar both technically and artistically of all her long programs that season, despite none being perfect, she was super tenative, slow, and put no emotion into it, along with lessened technical content and key mistakes, and it was like 50% the skate she would do to the same program to win worlds next year or even Europeans that same year. Slutskaya did still have superior technical marks but lower artistic marks. Some disapproved of the result and thought it was a pity medal but it made sense to me.

@@grantgoffin4774 All you comments are referring to the 1998 Olympics, right? I agree. As for underrotations, they never bother me. I could only notice them in slow motion in close-up view, and for me that's nitpicky. As an audience member, my impression of a jump is not affected by it being a bit underrotated. The problem with Bonaly's underrotations was that it was often evident even in real-time. Her jumps (and skating in general) were overrated. Her triple toe, half loop, triple salchow was good, and she did nice Bielmann spins and even an occasional very good spiral, but her jumps were often obviously underrotated and not as smooth because of her lack of good edges. She was a gymnast on ice (and a very good one!), but not a skater. In the 1994 Worlds where she had her meltdown, Bonaly landed fewer clean triples than Sato, in addition to Sato's having much better choreography. It was a 5 to 4 decision that shouldn't even have been close. Anyway, back to Chen, Chen most definitely earned her bronze at 1998 Olympics.

@@Dylvente Yes and seeing some people comment the 94 worlds result was racism on forums todays drives me insane. Especialy since Bonaly won over an Asian skater, making the argument even more ridiculous when the racism against Asians was even worse than against black skaters at that point probably. Bonaly was way overscored for her long program at the 94 worlds, she didn't even jump that well that day, and her technical scores were absurd. There is a case for her being robbed at the 93 worlds where she skated far better, and where her jumps were excellent that day.

Christina Cueto There were a few times Nancy would wear old costumes for early competitions (pro-am events, Skate America etc.) but by the time Nationals, Worlds or The Olympics came around she always had new costumes for both the short and long programs, even if the program was the same as the year before.

Nancy was one of the best-dressed and packaged skaters of the time. At this point in her career -- as an Olympic medalist and U.S. No. 1, she probably received a lot of funding and of course had endorsements (that she had to use towards skating). But as Justin mentioned, even she recycled dresses. The judges didn't really hold it against her for the above reasons. On the other hand, re-using dresses probably hurt Tonya Harding (who recycled the costumes her mother made quite a bit). It's all perception really. Sometimes a new costume can breathe life into an old program. Ashley Wagner had 4-5 different Moulin Rouge dresses, for example.

Zuranthium but she did and it's in the history books. Haterade.

Come on, she got her medals because of her nationality. If she's from other countries, she wouldn't even medal at the olympics and worlds. Remember? She won bronze at 92 olympics and silver at 92 worlds but she actually skated badly.

@@coldenbluu 92 Worlds wasn't good for her, but she skated GREAT in the SP at Olympics and her LP was still artistically better than most other people. That was a deserved Bronze.

@@coldenbluu Her first 2 min & 38 seconds of the long at '92 Olympics was actually quite good: good energy and speed, good jumps and her spins were even faster. She started that program with attack. Watch it and see how she was flying into the triple flip, which she landed beautifully. Later, unfortunately, she singled the lutz, and badly landed (she almost fell) a triple toe. She did, however, land the triple loop, Anyway, she landed 4 triples, and a beautiful double axel. The last triple toe looked great in the air, so I'm not sure what happened there. She would say years later that it was almost impossible for her to do the triple lutz in that beautiful white dress.