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Men's Compulsory Figures & Men's Short Program - 1988 Calgary Winter Games, Figure Skating (US, ABC)

3Axel1996

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Calgary, Alberta, CANADA - 1988 Winter Olympic Games, Figure Skating - Men's Compulsory Figures and Men's Short Program. Looking back at my VHS tapes, it appears that I may have missed taping some of the short programs, which is why there are only 8 skaters featured. Commentary by Dick Button, Peggy Fleming, Jim McKay and David Santee.
Skater (Nation) (Placements: CF, SP, and Going into LP) Time
Review of Competitive History of Brian Boitano (USA) and Brian Orser (CAN) 0:38
Review of Men's Compulsory Figures 3:20
Men's Short Program Required Elements Explained 18:50
Fluff: Christopher Bowman (USA) - Up Close and Personal 22:20
Christopher Bowman (USA) (8th, 5th, 7th) 27:15
Paul Wylie (USA) (12th, 8th, 11th) 31:55
Fluff: Aleksandr Fadeev Алекса́ндр Фаде́ев (URS) - Up Close and Personal 38:05
Brian Orser (CAN) (3rd, 1st, 2nd) 41:50
Aleksandr Fadeev Алекса́ндр Фаде́ев (URS) (1st, 9th, 3rd) 46:57
Grzegorz Filipowski (POL) (7th, 4th, 6th) 50:45
Brian Boitano (USA) (2nd, 2nd, 1st) 54:25
Viktor Petrenko Віктор Петренко (URS) (6th, 3rd, 4th) 59:39
Heiko Fischer (FRG) (4th, 11th, 8th) 1:02:18
Vladimir Kotin Владимир Котин (URS) (5th, 6th, 5th) 1:06:05
Interview with Brian Orser (CAN) and Brian Boitano (USA) 1:09:45

17 Comments

@sfhayesvalley 1 year ago (edited)

Filipowski was robbed!!!!!!!😘 And Dick Button said, "He reminds me of the urchin down the street." WTF?!!! Seriously? What an asshat!

@AmySparkman-xh4ei 1 year ago

Bowman the Showman

@AmySparkman-xh4ei 1 year ago

Love brian orser's short the best, i do love boitano also, but orser is my favorite, even though im american.

@AmySparkman-xh4ei 1 year ago

Victor Petrenko has a smoldering look at the end of his program, that's pretty hot!

@StalkaztheStallion 2 years ago

Brian Orsano, they merged into one 😂

@pianonine 2 years ago (edited)

So effing American...and not what the rest of the world acutally thinks. Anyway, I hate this sport now, but it was truly amazing back then. Never better skating form men or women.

@npe1 2 years ago (edited)

Boitano should have won the short. His "Les Patineurs" was a masterpiece of choreography, plus all his elements were much betters than Orser's elements: double flip with one hand raised, double axel from a spread eagle and landed with arms folded, much neater combo and immeasurably better spins, faster, more centered and better positions on both his sit and camel positions. Boitano should have beaten Orser in all 3 sections in 1988. It was clear the judges wanted Orser to win but they couldn't let him win the long because Boitano skated perfectly and Orser missed his triple flip, doubled his second triple axel and two footed his final triple toe loop - it worries me that if Orser didn't make those mistakes they would have given him the gold when Boitano was clearly the better skater. By the way, I'm not American nor Canadian so I don't have a national bias - I'm from the UK.

@michaelnugent890 2 years ago

Thank you!! I loved it all. The demo of the blade was excellent for the compulsories

@PerAllwin1963 2 years ago

For me, Bowman and Kotin had the most flair on the ice. Masculine flair. I wish there was more skating like that in men’s skating.

@dmp7252 3 years ago

And let's just talk about Brian's program for a moment - it was so detailed and choreographed with such meaning and nuance. We all remember seeing those images of more than a century ago of people skating on the ice with their arms crossed the way Brian did. The intricate figures in drew in the ice also paid tribute to a earlier day in skating. So, this was a program steeped in meaning and HISTORY, where as everyone else's programs were merely skating well go good music. Let us not forget, judges (OLYMPIC judges at that) are usually wealthy, well-educated people who know history, especially skating history. So, this is why this program will remain one of the legendary performances of all time. Bravo, Brian. Bravo a thousand times over.

@dmp7252 3 years ago

Man were we spoiled at this Olympics!!! The STYLE of the men was soooooo good. They all were so different. And to think - I thought men's figure skating was BORING then. My how naive I was. This was the golden era. Both Paul, Christopher and Boitano did American so, very, very proud this night. All of their performances were pitch-perfect brilliant. Oh, I am so overwhelmed right now, I'm getting emotional. Oh, I'm so happy for them. Job well done, boys! Job so very well done!