Figure skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics
The figure skating events in 1998 Winter Olympics were held at the White Ring in Nagano. There were no changes in the format or scoring systems from 1994. Professionals were again allowed to compete, although they had to declare that intention and compete in ISU-approved events to do so. Most of the top competitors by 1998 were now openly professional.
| Figure skating at the XVIII Olympic Winter Games | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Olympic Games |
| Venue: | White Ring |
| Champions | |
| Men's singles: Ilia Kulik | |
| Ladies' singles: Tara Lipinski | |
| Pair skating: Oksana Kazakova / Artur Dmitriev | |
| Ice dance: Oksana Grishuk / Evgeny Platov | |
| Previous: 1994 Winter Olympics | |
| Next: 2002 Winter Olympics | |
The competitions took place on the following days:
- Pairs: 8–10 February 1998
- Men's singles: 12–14 February 1998
- Ice dance: 13–16 February 1998
- Ladies' singles: 18–20 February 1998[1]
- Exhibition gala: 21 February 1998
Medal summary
Medalists
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's singles | Ilia Kulik Russia | Elvis Stojko Canada | Philippe Candeloro France |
| Ladies' singles | Tara Lipinski United States | Michelle Kwan United States | Chen Lu China |
| Pair skating | Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev (RUS) | Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze (RUS) | Mandy Wötzel and Ingo Steuer (GER) |
| Ice dance | Oksana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov (RUS) | Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov (RUS) | Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat (FRA) |
Medal table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 2 | United States | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Canada | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | France | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | China | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Germany | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (6 entries) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 | |
Participating NOCs
Thirty-five nations competed in the figure skating events at Nagano.
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- China
- Chinese Taipei
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Great Britain
- Hungary
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- Ukraine
- United States
- Uzbekistan
Results
Men
The favourites and top two after the short program were Ilia Kulik and Elvis Stojko, who would skate first and last, respectively. Medal contenders Alexei Yagudin, Todd Eldredge and Philippe Candeloro went in between. Steven Cousins was the other skater in the final draw, but he was not considered to have a realistic chance of making the podium.
Kulik skated a flawless program which included a quad toe loop to open the last session. Yagudin, who was one of several athletes suffering from the flu during these games, fell on his quad attempt and his triple Axel, which took him out of medal contention. Eldredge was skating cleanly until he popped what was to be his second triple Axel, and then he fell again when he tried to complete the jump again in the closing seconds. Candeloro, with the exception of a step out on his triple Axel, skated his program flawlessly to end up second in the free skating. Stojko, who skated last, originally intended to perform a quad toe loop/triple toe loop combination. However, a partial groin tear and the flu prevented him from attempting the combo, so he downgraded his quad to a triple. Despite his injury, he skated a clean program but finished the free skating third, placing second overall behind Kulik.
The countries represented by the podium finishers were the same as in the men's competition at the Lillehammer 1994 games, with Stojko and Candeloro getting their second consecutive silver and bronze medals, respectively. In a noteworthy instance, Stojko had to limp to the podium on sneakers at the medal presentation. He also did not skate at the figure skating gala, although he did take the ice briefly to announce that he would skip the World Championships next month.
Referee:
- Britta Lindgren
Assistant Referee:
Judges:
- Margaret Worsfold
- Vladislav Petukov
- Sally Rehorick
- Mariana Silvia Chita
- Mieko Fujimora
- Sviatoslav Babenko
- Evgenia Bogdanova
- Paula Naughton
- Marie-Reine Le Gougne
- Zsofia Wagner (substitute)
Ladies
The primary contenders for the gold medal were Americans Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan.[2] Kwan and Lipinski were in first and second place respectively after the short program. In the free skating, both Lipinski and Kwan skated clean. 6 judges placed Lipinski ahead of Kwan, and three placed Kwan ahead of Lipinski, which meant Lipinski won the gold medal, and Kwan took the silver.
The primary competitors for the bronze medal were Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya from Russia, and Chen Lu from China. In the free skating, they all skated well, but had mistakes. The final placements were very close. The 3rd–5th place votes were split unevenly between Chen, Butyrskaya, and Slutskaya. Chen beat Butyrskaya by the tally of 5 judges to 4 and beat Slutskaya 6 judges to 3, giving Chen her second straight bronze medal in the Olympic Games.
Tara Lipinski (gold), Michelle Kwan (silver) and Chen Lu (bronze) were the World Champions in 1997, 1996 and 1995, respectively. Lipinski also became the youngest competitor in Winter Olympics history to earn a gold medal in an individual event.[3]
While not a medal winner, France's injured Surya Bonaly, who placed 10th, completed an (illegal) backflip during her long program, making her the fourth person and only woman to ever land a backflip in competition. She is the only person to land on one foot and to do a split mid-air (now colloquially referred to as a 'Bonaly'). She performed the unorthodox maneuver as a result of a previous fall and poor program due to an injured foot, however given the illegal nature of the move, her backflip was not considered when grading her technical merit.
| Rank in FS | Skater | Judge (Australia) | Judge (Hungary) | Judge (Austria) | Judge (Germany) | Judge (United States) | Judge (Russia) | Judge (Ukraine) | Judge (Poland) | Judge (France) | Average |
| 1 | Tara Lipinski | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.3 |
| 2 | Michelle Kwan | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1.7 |
| 3 | Chen Lu | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.8 |
| 4 | Maria Butyrskaya | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4.0 |
| 5 | Irina Slutskaya | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4.2 |
FS=Free Skating
| Final Rank | Skater | Rank in SP | Rank in FS | Total Score |
| 1 | Tara Lipinski | 2 | 1 | 2.0 ( 2 * 0.5 + 1 = 2.0 ) |
| 2 | Michelle Kwan | 1 | 2 | 2.5 ( 1 * 0.5 + 2 = 2.5 ) |
| 3 | Chen Lu | 4 | 3 | 5.0 ( 4 * 0.5 + 3 = 5.0 ) |
| 4 | Maria Butyrskaya | 3 | 4 | 5.5 ( 3 * 0.5 + 4 = 5.5 ) |
| 5 | Irina Slutskaya | 5 | 5 | 7.5 ( 5 * 0.5 + 5 = 7.5 ) |
SP=Short Program, FS=Free Skating
Referee:
Assistant Referee:
- Tjasa Andrée-Prosenc
Judges:
- Frank A. Parsons
- Judit Furst-Tombor
- Karin Ehrhardt
- Jan Hoffmann
- Susan A. Johnson
- Anatoli Bogatyrev
- Alfred Korytek
- Maria Miller
- Anne Hardy Thomas
- Liliana Strechova (substitute)
Pairs
Artur Dmitriev won his second Olympic gold here. He had previously won in 1992 with a different partner. He was the first man to win the Olympics more than once with different partners.[4] The first woman to do so was Soviet skater Irina Rodnina, who won three Olympics with two different partners.
Full results
Referee:
- Walburga Grimm
Assistant Referee:
- Ronald T. Pfenning
Judges:
- Yang Jiasheng
- John Greenwood
- Heinz-Ulrich Walther
- Anna Sierocka
- Roger A. Glenn
- Olga Záková
- Donald McKnight
- Marina Sanaya
- Alfred Korytek
- Marie-Reine Le Gougne (substitute)
Ice dance
Grishuk and Platov became the first pair ever to repeat as champions in Olympic Ice Dance. They won 21 straight events before they won in Nagano.[5]
The judging was marred by accusations that the Europeans colluded in "bloc voting" (where judges tend to favor skaters from their regions), so that the dance teams representing their countries would take the medals, while keeping the Canadians off the podium.[6][7]
Full results
Referee:
- Wolfgang Kunz
Assistant Referee:
Judges:
- Jean Senft
- Halina Gordon-Półtorak
- Eugenia Gasiorowska
- Yuri Balkov
- Ulf Denzer
- Jarmila Portová
- Alla Shekhovtsova
- Walter Zuccaro
- Jean-Bernard Hamel
- Robert J. Horen (substitute)
References
- ^ . Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ "The Women Who Would be Queen - New York Daily News". from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
- ^ "Tara Lipinski becomes youngest Olympic figure skating gold medalist".
- ^ Longman, Jere (11 February 1998). "THE XVIII WINTER GAMES: FIGURE SKATING; Dmitriev Rises to Occasion in Pairs Once Again". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
- ^ Longman, Jere (17 February 1998). "THE XVIII WINTER GAMES: FIGURE SKATING; Russian Duo Remain Unbeatable". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ Canadians dig for gold on ice: Bourne and Kraatz will battle opponents and judges in Nagano 25 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Steve Milton, 7 February 1998
- ^ Skating federation to investigate judging 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, sportsillustrated.cnn.com, 12 February 2002
External links
- 1998 Winter Olympics at Skate Canada
- Judges Scoring of Ladies Free Skating-all skaters
Men
- THE XVIII WINTER GAMES: FIGURE SKATING; Kulik of Russia Rides His Quad to Figure-Skating Gold
- Stojko wins silver for second time L.A. Times
Ladies
- Kwan Lipinski Short program Washington Post
- Lipinski wins Sports Illystrated
Pairs
- Dmitriev Kazakova New York Times
- Gold and Silver go to Russia New York Times
Dance