Denver, Colorado, USA - 1988 United States Figure Skating Championships, Men's Long Program - Paul Wylie moved up from 3rd Place to win the Silver Medal.
I could watch him all day long. My absolute favorite. He had a minor weakness unfortunately with few to no combinations in his free skates and he always struggled with Edge jumps, but his artistry and strength in other technical moves Beyond jumps more than made up for this.
Back when skating had emotion & style. Now, it is all jumps, jumps. Jumps. Why do they even call it "figure skating" these days? Jackson Haines would surely shake his elegant shoulders, ditto Gubert Fuchs. It needs to be renamed what it is: athletic skating. After Yuna Kim's brilliance in 2010, it isn't even artistic, as most winning skaters are heavy on athleticism & light on beauty. Brian Boitano & Yuna Kim were perhaps the final skaters that combined elegance & athleticism. What a pity, as Mr. Buttons would say.
My all time favorite skater. He NEVER gave up. Probably only second to the incomparable John Curry in terms of artistry and a true feeling for the music. The portion where he skates to the score of “The River” is inconceivably lovely. Should have been the Olympic gold medalist in 1992, but they were NEVER going to give it to a guy whose highest finish in the world was ninth. So they gave it to Viktor Petrenko, who skated a swell short program, but my god! His long program was the worst of all time for an Olympic medalist, never mind the GOLD medalist. After two nice combinations, he fell apart. 2 falls & plenty of sloppy spins & two footed landings. If I’d been a judge I would have scored it Wylie, Elvis & Chris Bowman (R.I.P.), followed by Petr Barna & Petrenko. But the eastern block often votes as one which explained Victor’s win as well as Oksana Baiul’s victory over Nancy Kerrigan two years later. Baiul deservedly won the artistic mark but was scored almost identically with Kerrigan technically - even though Nancy landed two very difficult combos. Her jumps were spot on, as were her spins and EVERYTHING technically in her arsenal. Meanwhile, Baiul two footed several jumps, one so badly, she almost fell. Her spins were sloppy and uncentered & her spiral was very humdrum. She sorta did a weak combination at the end. Kerrigan created one of the most fantastic & groundbreaking spirals ever.Her spins were very difficult and perfectly centered. Such a joke. Baiul was a mess, and she deserved to finish no higher than third. Surya Bonnally was ripped off at the 93 world’s - yet Oksana won, even though once again, it was a performance full of slop. Baiul & Petrenko are among the most undeserving Olympic gold medalists of all time. Few people really remember them, bcz they were messy, sloppy winners over precise, much better skaters. Eastern block again. The Russian girls have all but ruined “women’s” skating - their careers are over by 16 bcz they can no longer do the quads. The men are pretty much the same. Beautiful, beautiful Jason Brown was superb in 2022. I think it’s come to this: divide the sport into two events: athletic & artistic skates. Granted, the brilliant Nathan Chen would have been competitive in both as would Shoma Uno (who’s gonna be the next gold medalist -beautiful to watch & a gritty athlete), but few others can. Let skaters like Jason Brown be rewarded for what they do best - sans a quad, he STILL finished sixth, which is remarkable. I like the Jason Browns of the world; the quad gods & goddesses are very Meh to me. Yuna Kim was both an athletic & artistic skater. She, not Adelina Sotnikova, deserved the gold, after favorite Julia Lipnipskaia bombed in the short. So the East block judges highly inflated Sotnikova’s short program. She deservedly won the free skate. However, her short program was so weak, she should have placed no higher than sixth, which would have virtually assured Yuna Kim’s second gold, especially after her incredible free skate. Sotnikova MAYBE deserved the bronze - but no more. “Figure” skating (please retire the figure part of the title since no one does figures as a competitive part of the sport) - as I said, should be two events, artistic & athletic & maybe an overall winner who does the best in both elements. More medals, more competition & more interest. Frankly I think the artistic skaters would get higher ratings than the athletic skaters who are pretty much D-U-L-L unless you have the rare skater who does both equally well. John Curry was really the last male skater who could do both elements superbly PLUS he did figures and longer short & free skates. Best skater ever, IMHO. Sorry for the long rant…
