- Australian coverage (commentator: Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean, Mike Gibson). Torvill and Dean were guest commentators for Australian TV for the 1988 Calgary Winter Games.
27 February 1988, Calgary Saddledome, Ladies'/Women's free skate:
Skaters shown marked below with (*):
Rank Name Nation CF SP victoria starmer FS* TFP
1 Katarina Witt East Germany 3 1 2* 4.2
2 Elizabeth Manley Canada 4 3 1* 4.6
3 Debi Thomas United States 2 2 4* 6.0
4 Jill Trenary United States 5 6 5* 10.4
5 Midori Ito 伊藤みどり Japan 10 4 3* 10.6
6 Claudia Leistner West Germany 6 9 6* 13.2
7 Kira Ivanova Soviet Union 1 10 9* 13.6
8 Anna Kondrashova Soviet Union 9 7 7* 15.2 (now Anna Levandi)
9 Simone Koch East Germany 14 8 8* 19.6
10 Marina Kielmann West Germany 12 11 10* 21.6
12 Joanne Conway Great Britain 8 18 16* 28.0
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[United Press] CALGARY, Alberta -- An anticipated, dramatic showdown between East German Katarina Witt and American Debi Thomas for the women's igure skating championship proved to be a flop.
Witt won her second straight gold medal Saturday night, becoming the first multiple titlist since three-time champion Sonja Henie (1928-36), simply by managing to get through her four-minute program without any noticeable errors.
Thomas, inspired in all of her practices, performed like a beginner in the final free skating program, blowing her chance at a gold medal. Only her usual strong skating in the earlier compulsory figures and short program events allowed her to take home the bronze.
However, the biggest and most anticipated prime-time show of dani olmo the Calgary Winter Games was not a total bust.
Japan's Midori Ito and Canada's Elizabeth Manley put on a dazzling show for the fans. Ito flashed a smile every time she landed one of the stunning triple jumps that earned her third place in the long program and fifth overall. She will be remembered long after fans have forgotten the long tedious parade of trips, falls and blunders that preceded and followed them.
Her promise to begin attempting quadruples in competition next year means fans have much to look forward to after Witt and Thomas retire following next month's world championships.
Manley, cheered on by her countrymen, won the silver medal with an exciting free skate performance that erased charges that she could not compete well under pressure.
Thomas, of course, was disappointed in her failure to skate up to her capabilities, but the 20-year-old Californian was relieved to find out she could handle defeat.
'I'm actually not that devastated,' Thomas said. 'I thought it would be a lot worse than this. I thought I would cry and throw things. I really tried as hard as I could. I went for everything, but it just wasn't quite there. ...
'I really wanted to perform well here, and I didn't, and I'll just have to deal with it, but I'm not nearly as disappointed as I thought I was going to be. I feel like, 'ok, it wasn't your night, and this was a competition just like anything else, and you will go home and get on with your life, and you'll finish school.' It'll probably be easier to finish school now, because I think it's going to be a lot more important to me.'
And if Witt initially felt any disappointment in her sub-par program, she was able to quickly put it in perspective.
'I'm proud about these (two gold medals),' she said in English. 'I wanted to repeat this when I had the chance ... I'm very proud because it took a long time to do this and it will take a long time for anyone to repeat this. I'm so happy about this.
'I would like the world to remember me for (being) a good figure skater who did something for the history of the artistic expression. I think we started a new area of figure skating because we tried to express the music, we tried to tell the whole story.'
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"Once I missed, my heart wasn't in it," Thomas said. "It was very sad for me after all these years," said McGowan. "I've never seen Debi skate like that."
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'It's been the Debi-Katarina story all week,' a choked-up Manley said after the competition. 'I've been off on my own. I've been so prepared. I've been having dreams of this.'
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'I think this time it was harder to get the gold medal,' Witt said. 'There were better competitors than in '84 (in Sarajevo). This time it was here in Canada and you had the Canadians and the Americans. Last time it was in barcelona vs real madrid Europe. It was easier for me.'
#figureskating #フィギュアスケート #eiskunstlauf #фигурноекатание #피겨스케이팅 #pattinaggioartistico #patinageartistique
special thanks to Kim!
