There is just something so calming about these ding dong Diet Pepsi commercials from the early 80s. I’m mostly Diet Coke for life, but every time I watch this set of commercials, I want a Diet Pepsi.
The inspiration behind this one came from a video on YouTube I saw last week entitled, “The 1992 world championship ladies was a mess” by user joccskates. I remembered watching this competition on TV the night it aired.
OR SO I THOUGHT.
I had a false memory about watching this! My whole life I thought my parents and I had come home from a rare Friday night shopping trip and the tail end of the ladies competition was on, right as Kristi Yamaguchi won, right as her, Nancy and Chen Lu were doing their victory skate around the rink:
NOP.
I looked at the dates of the competition and my father was not home or even in the country, he was still out to sea. I got into Super Dork mode, and looked up the tv listings from my local newspaper on ProQuest thinking “oh, NBC showed the competition a few days later.” Nope, the night the ladies competition aired was on March 27th. My father would not get home from being out to sea for six months until April 2nd. Why do I know that, cuz I looked up the history of my dad’s Navy ship. All for this blog entry that nobody is going to read.
ANYWAY, this competition was full of events outside of the competition. The events were almost their own event?
Christopher Bowman injuring his knee during the long program:
Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys, who injured his left knee during Friday’s freestyle program while on his way to a fourth-place finish, is not expected to perform in tonight’s exhibition. X-rays revealed no ligament damage, but he has pain from a bruised nerve. 1
This was his last performance before turning professional. That’s a shame. Sadly, Christopher died in 2008 from a drug overdose.
Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie wasn’t invited.
Bowman, Wylie and Eldredge were picked for the Olympics, while Bowman, Eldredge and Mitchell were chosen for the worlds.
The official explanation for Mitchell’s inclusion was that he had three times been an alternate and needed international competition. Left unsaid was the feeling that, at 27, Wylie’s days were over.
But at the Olympics it became clear that Wylie, since graduating from Harvard with a degree in political science, had also enrolled in the triple-axel school. 2
[…]
Although that decision, which was made before the Olympics, might have been well-reasoned, it came back to haunt the federation Friday, when no U.S. man won a medal for the first time at the World Championships since 1979. The silver and the bronze medals were won by Canadians, Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko. As a result, the United States will have only two representatives in next year’s World Championships at Prague, Czechoslovakia. 8
Paul retired after the Olympics and competed as a professional skater. Apparently he spent the time skiing instead of being upset he wasn’t at World’s. 3 E.M. Swift of Sports Illustrated creatively used this in their writeup of the competition, a short of “wish you were here” letter to Paul:
As the article above states, Tonya Harding threatened a driver with a whiffle bat shortly after the Olympics. 4
Tonya had disappointing performances, and wound up placing sixth over all. This would be her 2nd and final Worlds.
Euro Disney being a sponsor
Since Tonya skated by it in the above gif, I have to bring it up.
Olympic Silver Medalist Midori Ito being too sick to compete. 5
Okay, so Midori had a disastrous 1991 Worlds. In warm ups, she collided with France’s Laeticia Hubert, causing a cut on the side of her foot.
Then, THEN, during a combination jump, she … jumped off the ice and into the cameras. She wouldn’t get redemption at at Worlds until 1996 when she attempted a comeback. She still competes as an adult figure skater!
Kristi had the hometown advantage at this competition with it being in Oakland, California. Kristi grew up in nearby Fremont.
1992: Lu Chen of China does her routine during the World Figure Skating Championships. Mandatory Credit: Mike Powell /Allsport
15 Year old Lu Chen surprises with a third place finish.
NBC commentator Sandra Bezic said of her “this young lady is on her way to becoming a star.” she was right, she would go on to win 2 Olympic bronze medals, and the 1995 Worlds. In total, she has four worlds medals.
Laëtitia Hubert had a small redemption from her horrible Olympic performance
Laetitia had a terrible time at the Olympics in her home country. She finished fifth at the short program, but during the long program, she fell on nearly every jump. She went from 5th to 12th. Very upsetting. CBS commentator Verne Lundquist said “bless her heart, she’s exhausted!” after she fell during a dance portion. That’s kinda sweet, in an odd endearing way. She was only 16.
At the world’s Laetitia entered the long program in a respectable 5th place. What music is she skating to? I can’t pinpoint it. After only a couple of falls, she would place fifth. She continued skating until the 2002 Olympics, however she was never consistent.
She was 15 and he was 28. A bit of an odd pairing, but they made it work, placing 3rd at the 1991 Worlds and getting a spot on the 1992 Olympics. This was probably one of the final times they skated together. He would later skate with Jenni Meno, and eventually they would marry.
Was Nancy and Tonya overscored in the short program?
It was the second time within three days that the judging has been under a microscope. In the men’s original program Thursday, Kurt Browning of Canada, who eventually won the silver medal, was obviously overscored by a Canadian judge. But no one could blame nationalistic fervor for the generous marks awarded to Kerrigan and Harding because there was no U.S. representative on the nine-judge panel. Gilles Beyer, who coaches Laetitia Hubert of France, was particularly critical of Harding’s scores. Hubert, who is in fifth place, is one of two skaters, along with Josee Chouinard of Canada, who, based on their performance of the elements required in the original program, should have been ranked ahead of the two Americans. “It was a game of placements,” Beyer said. “In the States, (the judges) wanted to support Harding. Objectively, Laetitia was third. It’s a shame.” He had an ally in one of Kerrigan’s coaches, Mary Scotvold, who said: “The judging was horrible. I would have been very happy with fifth place, but not if it was behind Harding. Laetitia was third.”
Both Hubert and Chouinard, who is in sixth place, skated relatively clean 2 1/2-minute original programs, which neither Kerrigan nor Harding did. Kerrigan almost fell before completing the second jump of her required combination, and Harding turned her planned triple jump into a double and did not even attempt a combination. As required, the judges gave them low scores for their required elements but propped them up with high marks for presentation. That is not unusual for Kerrigan, who is known for her style, but it might have been the first time Harding has ever received better scores for art than for athleticism. 7
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