Figure Skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics
| 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 dancing: Oksana Grishuk / Evgeny Platov
|
|
| Previous: 1994 Winter Olympics |
|
| Next: 2002 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.
The competitions took place on the following days:
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 flawlessly in a program which included a Quad Toe Loop to open the last session. Yagudin, who was one of several athletes suffering from the flu in these games, fell on his Quad attempt and his Triple Axel to immediately take himself out of contention. Eldredge was skating cleanly but popped what was to be his second Triple Axel and then fell again while trying to complete the jump again in the closing seconds. Candeloro, with the exception of a step out on his Triple Axel, skated his D'Artagnan program flawlessly to the delight of the crowd to end up second in the free skating. Stojko, who skated last, had the best opportunity to win mainly based on his signature Quad Toe Loop/Triple Toe Loop combination. However, a partial groin tear and the flu prevented him from attempting the combo and he downgraded his Quad to a Triple. Despite the injury, he skated a clean program but finished the free skating third, overall placing second 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.
...
Wikipedia