Michelle Kwan's most memorable Olympic figure skating programs include Brian Boitano, Peggy Fleming, Katarina Witt
In her illustrious career, figure skater Michelle Kwan won two Olympic medals, five world championships and nine national titles. But Kwan is more than one of the greatest skaters in history. She also is a skating history buff.
Growing up, she and her sister Karen and the other skaters at Ice Castle International Training Center in Lake Arrowhead, California, used to watch VHS tapes of the greatest moments in figure skating history. “I devoured those tapes, watching them over and over again,” she said.
So when Paste BN Sports asked Kwan to give us her five favorite Olympic skating performances, she decided to pick some of the programs and moments that inspired her to become a skater.
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“To pick a top five is impossible because there have been so many great performances, from the days of legends like Dick Button and Sonja Henie to the programs of my peers, competitors and friends. But I can go back into the history of our beautiful sport and remember the Olympic performances that really stood out for me as memorable moments for the ages.”
Here then are Kwan's five favorite Olympic figure skating programs as told to Christine Brennan:
1. Brian Boitano’s long program at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics
I have to start with Brian because that was the first Olympics I remember watching. I was 7 years old and by that time, I had been skating for a couple years and had started taking private lessons so the timing was perfect. I remember where I was, watching it live with my family in our home in Southern California.
The men’s competition was called the Battle of the Brians: Brian Boitano of the United States vs. Brian Orser of Canada, and they were both so good that it’s forever seared in my mind. Of course I was cheering on the American skater. I remember how commanding and in control Brian Boitano was, even in his starting pose, his beautiful spread eagle, the triple lutz with one arm held high over his head — everything about what he did that night. He was perfect, and he won the gold medal.
What made it even better was that when I started competing at a high level, who became one of my dear friends and mentors? Brian Boitano.
2. Peggy Fleming’s long program at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics
If you love figure skating, you know about Peggy’s amazing gold medal at the 1968 Olympics — and you especially know about Peggy’s famous chartreuse dress. It sounds strange to say this now, but Peggy’s gold-medal winning performance in France was the first time many Americans watched a sporting event on TV in color, which made her lime green dress even more memorable. Peggy was the epitome of elegance and sophistication, and how she commanded the ice made a huge impact on me. Getting to know her as I was rising through the ranks is one of the highlights of my life.
I remember asking my coach, Frank Carroll, if I could wear a chartreuse dress one season. Frank said wearing green isn’t good luck. But I still wanted to go for it so I wore a lime green dress for one competition back in 2002. I didn’t skate very well so that was it, and I switched to red the rest of that season.
3. The Battle of the Carmens — Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas’ long programs — at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics
The 1988 Olympics were big for me, and not just because of the men’s competition. Later on in those Games was the women’s long program and the competition between Katarina of East Germany and Debi from the United States. Debi was someone you wanted to cheer for, a woman of color, a very athletic woman who was juggling her skating with her studies at Stanford. I was in awe of that. Katarina had won the Olympic gold medal in 1984 and was back to try to win another.
Both women skated to “Carmen” for their long programs. Katarina captivated the judges as always yet left the door open for Debi, but Debi unfortunately made a couple of mistakes and finished third, winning the bronze, with Canadian Liz Manley sneaking in to win the silver on home ice.
Katarina earned the gold, and what I’ll always remember is how she finished her program, by “dying” in the end. No one ever died as gracefully on ice as she did. My sister Karen and I recorded the broadcast and replayed it over and over, mimicking Katarina’s death scene. After the 1988 Olympics, it was “sign me up for this” — I couldn’t get enough of figure skating.
4. Dorothy Hamill’s long program at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics
This was another of the magical programs that came to life on those VHS tapes of my childhood. Before the 1976 Olympics, there was a clip of the 1974 world championships in Munich, where the crowd was booing the judges’ scores for a West German skater right before Dorothy had to come out and skate. I think Dorothy thought the crowd was booing her, which was understandable, and that got to her until she pulled herself together and skated well and won the silver medal. I was so impressed with how she handled that pressure.
Then, two years later at the Olympics, she was just so on top of her game: her energy, her pep, her smile, her talent of course, the simplicity of her costumes, her famous haircut, the Hamill camel spin that she invented — all of it. People remember her performance to this day, and they should, because it was so much fun to watch, and so deserving of the gold medal and all the fame that came afterward.
5. Janet Lynn’s long program at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics
One more program from the VHS archives, one more program that is forever embedded in my memory, even becoming an inspiration for one of my Olympic programs. Back in 1972, there was no short program, just the compulsory school figures and the long program. Like many of us across the generations, Janet was not great at figures, so she was in fourth place going into the long program.
She won the long program but because figures counted for so much of the total score back then, she earned the bronze medal — not the gold or silver — yet her performance that day truly has become the gold standard of skating programs.
Why? Because of Janet’s joy. The joy of skating was written on her face. She had one fall in the program, on a flying sit spin, but she got up smiling. Who does that? Japanese fans and people around the world instantly fell in love with her. The skating world still remembers that moment 50 years later.
Move ahead to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. I started my long program that season looking up to the rafters with a big smile on my face. It was an homage to Janet. Her sense of freedom on the ice made it look like she was floating, which was what I was trying to emulate in my Olympic program. Everything Janet was, I wanted to be.