Worlds 2001 Ladies LP Michelle Kwan USA 

She was and is in a class of her own. Indeed the great Michelle Kwan.

I miss watching Michelle skate

it was her best, i have watched it for dozens of times, love it

I agree.....so graceful and effortless. Technically Outstanding!! Loved Michelle!

Michelle totally deserved the Olympics gold, she just with bad lucky. Actually she deserved more than one Olympics gold, at least two I sure .

@@TT-ee4qp I agree!

Same is true for gymnastics… I don’t enjoy those routines anymore either

If Michelle didn't fell at the Olympics 2002, she could win. Unfortunately, some people deserved the Olympics gold but never got it.

I blame Danny for making her leave Frank. Biggest mistake ever!

@@johnispo I don’t know if Danny “made“ her leave but, however they reached that decision, it was a mistake. Patrick Chan did the same thing leaving his coaches at the most inopportune time

@@donnyhathaway5710 Exactamundo. Hit the nails in the head. Well said.

Truth.

True but I would take one of Slutskayas programs over the shite we see today. At least her jumps were real and her speed dynamic.

Jude74 Slutskaya’s loop jump alone is better than what we see today.

Michelle delivered a performance with jumps.

Amen!

Even Irina Slutskaya was better then the current crop competing at the world level and that is saying something.

+Jose Hill That's because her jumping ability is superior compared to today's crop of female skaters. She had natural spring and crazy airtime to her jumps. no underrotations when it came to Slutskaya.

Troy Turner except on those loop combinations. She would always under rotate her 3sal/3loop combo.

Exactly! After watching 2021 Worlds and the sloppy mess, I had to rewatch Michelle’s grace, elegance, flow, lines, her unmatched artistry! The COP has destroyed Figure Skating!

Absolutely.

***** That's an interesting theory, and it could be true. Michelle was more reserved, Tara skated with energy and exuberance, combined with technical difficulty. As much flack as Tara gets, she did skate the performance of her life. There will only ever be one Michelle Kwan, and Michelle is Yu-Na's idol.

The reigning US Ladies' Champion in an Olympic year, which Michelle was in 1998, has the gold medal hung around her neck by the media before she even arrives at the Olympic Village. It's not fair to any athlete to be proclaimed winner of an event before it's begun, but it has happened to every US frontrunner since Peggy Fleming in 1968, (and even before the 1961 plane crash that killed the US team.) I think Michelle was rattled by Tara, who came on like gangbusters. I think most people believed Tara would be the one to beat in SLC in 2002, not Nagano in '98. Tara seized upon Michelle's tentativeness and won gold. If Michelle had won gold in 1998, would she have skated to 8 more US and 4 more World titles? I guess only Michelle knows for sure, but I'm sure glad she did. As for 2002, had Michelle been successfully incorporating a 3x-3x combination on a regular basis, her chances of winning the OG would have been greatly improved, because by that point it was vital. Sarah Hughes had none of the suffocating pressure, but so many other factors were involved in her winning the gold over Michelle that night. I think Michelle is far less bitter over not having an OGM than I am for her at times!

LWOPP I know what you mean about hanging the gold medal before someone even at the Olympics. It's like Men's skating in Canada. Orser, Browning and Stojko were all touted as the Olympic Champion, but it didn'dt happen. Athletes have enough pressure at the Olympics without that! Michelle also had to skate first and in the old system the judges would "save room". Had she skated later she may have won, or may not. Tara deserved her gold. I think the pressure of being the World Champion with the Olympics in your home country definitely affected Michelle in 2002, I don't think not having a coach helped and she did need a 3x-3x combo. Sarah was under the radar, with Michelle and the hype over Sasha Cohen's debut. Sarah rose to the occasion. It is frustrating that Michelle didn't win Olympic gold. It drives all her fans (myself included) crazy, but she's fine with it. Would she have stuck around after Nagano? Who knows. She was only 17, so she might have, had she won in 2002, I do think she'd have retired.

People's ideas of what constitute real success are pretty limited. "Success" isn't the same thing as talent, although the two do often go together. I saw all three of the skaters you mentioned in ice shows over the years. Multiple medals and titles, all great; Stojko especially was incredibly powerful, and he really was robbed in '92. I saw that year's gold medal winner, Urmanov, in an ice show a few years later. He fell out of a scratch spin. Not kidding. In any case, it seems very likely that in 2014 Canada will have its first male Olympic gold medalist. I don't want to jinx him, but it would certainly appear to be Patrick Chan's year! My husband and I were married in 2012, so he has never seen me in full Olympic figure skating mode. I've told him to watch out -- it will be all I want to see or talk about for half of February!

Alas.....if you can't stay 21 forever but then again it'll be real inspiring to see a 42 year old woman compete in a "sport" ruled by baby ballerinas no older than 22.

Exactly. Its too bad injuries took Alissa Czisny out too.

I was never a fan of her skating nor Kostner nor Yuna Kim's, whose horrible layback I could never get over. But I can see what people see in Kwan's skating the others you mentioned less so.

Yuna's layback wasn't THAT bad. Her foot was mostly pointed down instead of turned-out, but her back position was actually pretty good and she had good speed on it when she was with Brian. It was her spirals that were mediocre/bad. A horrible layback would be like Miki Ando's.

@@rolandgreen7484 Exactly! That's the issue that I have with the scoring system. It favors athleticism & technical ability over artistry. There has to be some happy medium or balance because it definitely isn't there!

correct

Indeed. Not to mention that that triple-triple is the best one I've seen her do.

genki2genki she was for me as well, then I saw Hanyu at the worlds last year.

Yes. Michelle got into the World Figure skating Hall of Fame, at least she was one of the greatest skaters in the history. And Michelle was the most important and popular skater in her era.

Boy this comment aged well considering what is going on currently.

Michael Cain you are not wrong.

Edward A. The ISU has been giving Skutskaya higher presentation marks all year which was BS to me

Oh she got 2 of them in 2002 at worlds, lol. Was a late gift for not winning OG

lu chen had 6.0 as well, they are amazing

E Rivera I don’t think Slutskaya got 6.0s at worlds.

For sure💯👍

I miss watching Michelle skate

@user-yx8yr2cy2d Me too. I so wish I could have watched one of her performances in person.

Me too. Seeing Michelle skate in person would have been wonderful.

@@user-yx8yr2cy2d 😊⛸️❤️

MrTurtledove1983 Michelle landed a 3 Salchow/3 Loop in the warm-up for this free skate. The uploader posted the entire warm-up but unfortunately cameras don't catch it. There was likely a camera isolated on Michelle, but I suspect that footage is long gone. When Michelle started trying new triple-triple combinations in 2001, it actually made sense for her to do loop combinations. Her triple toe-triple toe was already secure, plus if she missed it she could always throw in her "plan B" triple toe. The loop was always her least consistent triple. Slutskaya was attempting triple Lutz-triple loop, so at least in terms of layout, it made sense for Kwan to try that. But Kwan never got the same "pop" that Slutskaya and Hughes did with their loops, and she abandoned that combo (she reportedly was getting hip injuries attempting it). She ended up going just for the toe combo, but did upgrade her Lutz combo to at least include a double loop.

Totally agree, and I always love the music.

Meghan Elizabeth she was placed at the top though. Slutskaya skated after her and no one had any idea what she would do.

@ziba YOU are not special...actually, you are...

ziba if you don’t appreciate her lines and her flow and elegant simplicity then you’re the special one

Back to 1998, Michelle was robbed and Tara was overrated.

@@TT-ee4qp Tara's presentation marks were way too high imo. Give her higher technical marks, fine, but on the artistic mark? No comparison to Michelle.

She was 2nd of 6, so they did leave room for Irina who was next. And, Irina did stumble. They both were pretty evenly matched; Michelle is usually more artistic but her technical skills were good; Irina was usually known more for her her technical ability but her artistry was good (I thought). So to me it just came down to that stumble, if I were judging.

She was actually 3rd. Sarah Hughes was first and Nikodinov was 2nd.

My guess is he was trying to push her technically to places she was not comfortable in going. Frank saw the writing on the wall, but Michelle just didn’t want to go. In the end though Frank was correct.

@@jjh2456 That's probably true. Michelle had stopped doing a triple-triple years before Salt Lake, and didn't perform one in Nagano either. She skated safe in '98 and expected her reputation and artistry to make up where she lacked technically, but there wasn't enough distance between Michelle and Tara artistically that Kwan could afford to pull back technically and yet, that's what she did and lost. Skating safe almost never pays off, especially when your competition doesn't make any mistakes. I'm surprised she didn't learn from that between '98 and '02. I've also heard some say Michelle's father had a lot of influence in her leaving Frank. Still, it's one thing to switch coaches, but to go it alone thinking you can direct yourself in an Olympic year is something very different. To me it was very foolish.

@@L1623VP yeah she has stated time and time again that was a foolish move on her part.

@@L1623VP incorrect. Michelle performed triple-triples at Worlds in 2000 and 2001.

@@bordeauxhouse On the rare occasion that she did a triple-triple, it was a triple toe loop, triple toe loop, far easier than triple lutz, triple toe loop that nearly all the other ladies were doing.

@@harveychadbourne5180 Yes, she did. Both Nancy and Michelle competed at 1993 US Nationals.

Michelle kwan was robbed at the 98 Olympics. Michelle's artistry is the most difficult technique which Tara Lipinski never touched the level. Tara skated like a happy puppy. And Tara's technique wouldn't get marks today, Tara's flip and lutz would be called out for under rotation. Tara's triples were cheap.

Song of the Black Swan by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

And Dvorak Dumky Trio.

Ravel?

Yes. Still together here.

The ISU raised the age limit to 17 NOW, which means Tara Lipinski and the Russian girls today all should go to the kid's Olympics. 😆 Tara and the Russian girls today all got hurt by the jumps and retired one by one. No one of them could be the next Katarina Witt or Michelle Kwan. 😎😎😎

Actually, artistry is the most difficult technique which the Russian girls today never touched.

@@TT-ee4qp Even Kwan's artistry is quite simplistic compared to what some of the better ones of today can do. Kwan was good in her era compared to her peers, but the sport has moved on and been elevated to a totally different level in all aspects. Things do change, and we have to go with that. Otherwise one can always look back to the 60s or 30s and find even 'better' skating because things were ever simpler back in the days and people had a different focus. Speaking of the 'Russians', Tarasova back in her days was an absolute goddess with the looks to match it, better than those in the 90s, though with much simpler elements.

@@aatsw Seriously ?😇 Peggy Fleming, Katarina Witt and Michelle Kwan are great artists on ice in the history. 👍 They all got into the World Figure skating Hall of Fame. 😎😎😎 Where are the Russian girls today ？🤭🤭🤭 Michelle kwan finished no lower than 3rd place between 1995 ~2004 , her longevity was unreal and hard to close for the Russian girls today. 😆 Irina Slutskaya is the greatest skater in the Russian history. She also skated under Michelle's shadow. 😎 And the Russian girls today all should go to the kid's Olympics with their Disney Cartoon program. 😅😅😅 The Russian girls had bad landing, less coverage, terrible jumps, ZERO spiral......But, who cares ? ☻️💤☻️💤☻️💤

@@aatsw Michelle kwan and Yuna Kim had triple triple combo for 10 years...... Could the Russian girls today make triple triple combo after they grow up ？ 😆😆😆 The Russian girls today had terrible artistry, up and down jumping beans. And their skating...... ugly. 😆😆😆