1980 Winter Olympics / Figure Skating

Figure skating at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games
information
venue	Lake Placid
Competition venue	Olympic Center
Nations	20th
Athletes	84 (40 , 44 )
date	16.-23. February 1980
decisions	4th
← Innsbruck 1976 Sarajevo 1984 →

With the XIII. The 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid hosted four figure skating competitions. The venue was the Olympic Center .

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Soviet Union	2	1	1	4th
2	GDR	1	1	1	3
3	Great Britain	1	-	-	1
4th	United States	-	1	1	2
5	Hungary	-	1	-	1
6th	BR Germany	-	-	1	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Men's	Robin cousins	Jan Hoffmann	Charles Tickner
Ladies	Anett Pötzsch	Linda Fratianne	Dagmar Lurz
Couples	Irina Rodnina / Alexander Saizew	Marina Cherkassova / Sergei Shachrai	Manuela Mager / Uwe Bewersdorf
Ice dance	Natalja Linitschuk / Gennady Karponosov	Krisztina Regőczy / András Sallay	Irina Moissejewa / Andrei Minenkow

Results

• K = freestyle
• KP = short program
• P = compulsory
• PT = compulsory dance
• Pz = place number
• Pts = points

Men's

space	country	athlete	P	KP	K	Pz	Pt.
1	GBR	Robin cousins	04th	01	01	013	189.48
2	GDR	Jan Hoffmann	01	02	02	015th	189.72
3	United States	Charles Tickner	02	05	03	028	187.06
4th	United States	David Santee	03	03	05	034	185.52
5	United States	Scott Hamilton	08th	04th	04th	045	181.78
6th	URS	Igor Bobrin	07th	06th	08th	055	177.40
7th	FRA	Jean-Christophe Simond	06th	10	06th	064	175.00
8th	JPN	Mitsuru Matsumura	11	07th	07th	075	172.28
9	JPN	Fumio Igarashi	13	08th	06th	077	172.04
10	URS	Constantine Kokora	10	11	10	091	168.18
11	GDR	Hermann Schulz	09	09	13	098	166.70
12	CAN	Brian Pockar	12	12	12	107	163.26
13	FRG	Rudi Cerne	15th	13	11	116	159.30
14th	SWE	Thomas Öberg	14th	14th	14th	127	149.80
15th	GBR	Christopher Howarth	16	15th	15th	134	145.66
16	CHN	Xu Zhaoxiao	17th	16	16	144	117.16
	URS	Vladimir Kovalyov	05	withdrawn

Date: February 21.

Runners from Austria and Switzerland did not start.

In a preview it was stated that Charles Tickner was the great hope of the Americans and a great unknown to the Europeans. Jan Hoffmann was already a European and World Champion, but never an Olympic Champion - he had been pursuing this title since 1968 (Grenoble). After the short program, Hoffmann was still in the lead, but Cousins ​​had made a giant leap to second place (one grade 6!), Tickner was third and he had “home advantage”, but he disappointed in the freestyle with an average performance. In the duel for gold, the better skater won - Cousins ​​and Hoffmann ran one after the other. The Englishman ran almost flawlessly, his main accent was on the artistic impression, but he had to worry because he had put the triple Rittberger on both legs, the Lutz had only jumped twice. Hoffmann lost gold in the B-note, where it was twice 5.6 and once even 5.5. He had presented the greatest difficulty with five triples, but despite a clear improvement in the dance elements, the elegance was lacking. After Tickner's performance it was clear that this was only enough for bronze - only the grading provided some amusement, because some jury members seemed to have applied the principle of chance here. The freestyle was already a talent show for tomorrow, because some of the runners (cousins, Hoffmann and also the absent Kowaljow) were about to end their careers, others (Matsumura, Igarashi and Bobrin, who came up with an idiosyncratic performance) were possibly the medal winners of the Future.

Ladies

space	country	sportswoman	P	KP	K	Pz	Pt.
1	GDR	Anett Pötzsch	01	04th	03	011	189.00
2	United States	Linda Fratianne	03	01	02	016	188.30
3	FRG	Dagmar Lurz	02	05	06th	028	183.04
4th	SUI	Denise Biellmann	12	01	01	043	180.06
5	United States	Lisa-Marie Allen	08th	03	04th	045	179.42
6th	JPN	Emi Watanabe	04th	08th	05	048	179.04
7th	AUT	Claudia Kristofics-Binder	05	07th	09	060	176.88
8th	ITA	Susanna Driano	06th	14th	10	077	172.82
9	United States	Sandy Lenz	11	06th	07th	082	172.74
10	FIN	Kristiina Wegelius	07th	11	12	087	172.04
11	YUG	Sanda Dubravčić	13	10	08th	100	170.30
12	GBR	Karena Richardson	10	09	04th	109	168.94
13	FRG	Karin Riediger	15th	13	11	120	166.32
14th	SUI	Danielle Rieder	09	15th	16	125	165.46
15th	CAN	Heather Kemkaran	16	12	15th	128	164.64
16	URS	Kira Ivanova	18th	16	13	144	161.54
17th	FIN	Susan Broman	14th	17th	17th	152	157.54
18th	FRG	Tina Riegel	17th	19th	18th	162	149.50
19th	ITA	Franca Bianconi	19th	18th	19th	171	144.82
20th	COR	Shin Hae-sook	20th	22nd	22nd	186	128.18
21st	ESP	Gloria Mas-Gil	21st	20th	21st	190	126.56
22nd	CHN	Bao Zhenghua	22nd	21st	20th	191	126.96

Date: February 23

Anett Pötzsch surprisingly won by defeating the reigning world champion Linda Fratianne. There was no majority from the Eastern Bloc among the judges . Contrary to expectations, Linda Fratianne could not win the freestyle. So the backlog from the compulsory program was too great. Another surprise was Denise Biellmann, who won the short program and the freestyle.

It was the hundredth Olympic gold medal for the GDR (of which the summer athletes had won 76).

The level of this competition did not match some of the performances of previous runners.

From the US point of view (especially after the failure of the pair runners Babilonia / Gardner) everything was bet on Fratianne, whereby the home advantage should have been decisive (although Fratianne had not been able to convince in the US championships before).

The winner showed a sporty, fast-paced freestyle, which, however, did not achieve the charisma of Fratianne in dance.

Biellmann was the last to start, she jumped four triple , she jumped the triple Lutz as the only one of all runners - and she again showed fantastic new creations of pirouettes.

Kristofic-Binder (she reminded one of a student who only starts to study in the last minute before the exam) was ranked 5th after the compulsory and the short program and fulfilled the expectations placed in her with final rank 7. She started as the penultimate of the penultimate group and didn't seem as nervous as in previous competitions. After the short program, the final score was already given for the medals.

Couples

space	country	Pair	KP	K	Pz	Pt.
1	URS	Irina Rodnina / Alexander Saizew	01	01	09	147.26
2	URS	Marina Cherkassova / Sergei Shachrai	02	02	19th	143.80
3	GDR	Manuela Mager / Uwe Bewersdorf	04th	03	33	140.52
4th	URS	Marina Pestowa / Stanislaw Leonowitsch	03	04th	31	141.14
5	United States	Caitlin Carruthers / Peter Carruthers	05	05	46	137.38
6th	GDR	Sabine Baeß / Tassilo Thierbach	06th	06th	53	136.00
7th	United States	Sheryl Franks / Michael Botticelli	07th	07th	64	133.84
8th	FRG	Tina Riegel / Andreas Nischwitz	08th	08th	71	131.70
9	CAN	Barbara Underhill / Paul Martini	09	09	78	129.36
10	GBR	Susan Garland / Robert Daw	11	10	91	124.36
11	OUT	Elizabeth Cain / Peter Cain	10	11	98	131.70
	United States	Tai Babilonia / Randy Gardner	withdrawn

Date: February 17th - the short program was on the program on February 15th at 5:30 pm local time.

The professional world had expected an exciting duel between the URS couple Irina Rodnina / Alexander Saizew and Tai Babilonia / Randy Gardner from the USA, it was said, “Here two worlds would collide - on the one hand elegance, harmony, artistry, there youth "Swing, grace". But it did not happen because when Gardner was running in for the short program on February 15, a groin strain he had suffered two weeks ago became acute: he fell on two double flips with which he had never had any problems. The duo got on the ice as planned, Gardner made another attempt, after which he had to give up. However, it would not have been easy for Babilonia / Gardner to defeat Rodnina / Saizew, because the Soviet couple showed a strong performance in the short program, received grades between 5.7 and 5.9 and were ranked first by all judges; there was a triple tour for the URS, because Cherkassova / Shakhtai and Pestova / Leonowitsch followed.
With this victory, Irina Rodnina discontinued the three Olympic gold medals (1928, 1932, 1936) won by Sonja Henie . The Norwegian had won this individually , however , and Rodnina had won this gold eight years ago in Sapporo with Alexei Ulanow , in 1976 she had already won with Saizew.
The winning couple didn't have to go out of their way in the freestyle, a lot was more of a routine - the challenge that might have arisen from the involvement of Babilonia / Gardner was missing - so it was not surprising that none of the judges drew the highest marks. Rank 3 was controversial, the majority of the better places decided in favor of the GDR couple Mager / Bewersdorff, which impressed with a decidedly sporty program.

Ice dance

space	country	Pair	PT	K	Pz	Pt.
1	URS	Natalja Linitschuk / Gennady Karponosov	01	02	013	205.48
2	HUN	Krisztina Regőczy / András Sallay	02	01	014th	204.52
3	URS	Irina Moissejewa / Andrei Minenkow	03	03	027	201.86
4th	TCH	Liliane Řeháková / Stanislav Drastich	04th	04th	039	198.02
5	GBR	Jayne Torvill / Christopher Dean	05	05	042	197.12
6th	CAN	Lorna Wighton / John Dowding	06th	06th	054	193.80
7th	United States	Judy Blumberg / Michael Seibert	07th	07th	066	190.30
8th	URS	Natalja Bestemjanowa / Andrei Bukin	09	09	075	188.18
9	United States	Stacey Smith / John Summers	08th	08th	075	188.38
10	FRG	Henriette Fröschl / Christian Steiner	10	10	094	178.38
11	AUT	Susanne Handschmann / Peter Handschmann	11	11	096	177.78
12	GBR	Karen Barber / Nicky Slater	12	12	104	176.92

Date: February 19th.

The Austrian siblings Handschmann had hoped for a place in the top ten, but already in the first compulsory dance it got out of step with the “Starlight Waltz”. The bottom line was that the effort he had made was not worth it because it had its costumes made at the Vienna Opera. The ranking of the first three after two compulsory dances was identical to the final result, i.e. Linitschuk / Karponossow before Regőczy / Sallay and Moissejewa / Minenkow. At the freestyle, the grades were again criticized, the audience expressed their displeasure with those for their declared favorites Regőczy / Sallay, whose lively, original presentation was given weaker marks than that of the Russian winning couple, in which the lady even slipped once. The British judge unabashedly showed a ridiculously low grade for Moissejewa / Minenkow, but it wasn't enough to win a medal for "his" duo Torvill / Dean.

Web links

• Figure skating at the 1980 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Hoffmann fights for his gold" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 19, 1980, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
2. ↑ Column 5: “The highlight of the men's freestyle” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 21, 1980, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ↑ "Poet beat the artist" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 23, 1980, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Column 5: “Fratianne Favorite” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 21, 1980, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ Middle right: "World champion couple failed", penultimate and last paragraph . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 17, 1980, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
6. ↑ "Pötzsch got 100th gold for GDR" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 25, 1980, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
7. ↑ "Poet beat the artist" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 23, 1980, p. 10 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
8. ↑ “Two worlds want gold medals. Rodnina-Saizew against US stars ” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 15, 1980, p. 07 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
9. ↑ Middle right: "World champion couple failed" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 17, 1980, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
10. ↑ “Again and again Rodnina” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 19, 1980, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
11. ↑ middle right: "World Champion Couple failed"; from the last paragraph in column 1 of the article . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 17, 1980, p. 8 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
12. ↑ “Opera costumes were useless. Handschmann remained penultimate ” . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 21, 1980, p. 14 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).