Apr 22, 2016

Here Are the Skating Routines We Can't Stop Watching

For our latest episode, we took a whirl through the wonderful world of figure skating and took a critical eye to the competitive career of French skater Surya Bonaly.

Here are some of the clips we feature in the episode.  

Surya Bonaly’s long program at the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships. One of the announcers says she's “here for business.” We agree.

 

Bonaly’s 1998 long program at the 1998 Olympics wasn’t her best performance but it does include her famous one-footed backflip. (Of course, she had been doing two-footed backflips since she was 12 years old.)

 

When we decided to do an episode about Bonaly, a lot of us really hadn’t paid much attention to the sport in years. But it wasn’t long before we were passing links to our faves back and forth.

Tracie Hunte:

Debi Thomas was the first black woman to medal in figure skating at the Olympics when she won the bronze in 1988.  I love this energetic and fun short program choreographed to Dead or Alive’s “Something In My House."

 

The Duchesnay siblings with their choreographer Christopher Dean (who is also an ice dancing legend) are credited with tackling more serious subjects with their routines. Their emotional performance at the 1990 World Figure Skating Championships was dedicated to the “disappeared” in South America.

 

Latif Nasser:

In his Dragonheart routine, Elvis makes these quad-triple combos look as easy as taking out the recycling.  For weeks after watching this performance in 1997, I jumped around my house, flailing my arms around and staring intently at my open palms. Try not to do the same.

 

I remember doing a double-take the first time I ever saw Emmanuel Sandhu skate. A half-Italian half-Indian figure skating for Canada.  He wasn’t always consistent as a skater, but when he was good, he was really really good. A dynamo. The footwork in this video alone will make you go cross-eyed.

  

Matt Kielty:

Tonya Harding's historic moment in my hometown when she becomes the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition. Her reaction after she lands her jump is priceless. Oh, and she’s skating to Tone Loc.

 

Patrick Chan’s 2015 performance at Skate Canada is just kind of perfect. The perfect balance of athleticism and artistry.

 

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