Figure skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics

Medal summary

Medal table

Medalists

Participating NOCs

Thirty-five nations competed in the figure skating events at Nagano.

• ARM
• AUS
• AUT
• AZE
• BUL
• CAN
• CHN
• TPE
• CRO
• CZE
• DEN
• EST
• FIN
• FRA
• GBR
• HUN
• ISR
• ITA
• JPN
• KAZ
• LTU
• LUX
• POL
• ROU
• RUS
• SVK
• SLO
• RSA
• KOR
• ESP
• SUI
• SWE
• UKR
• USA
• UZB

Results

Men

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 a flawless program which included a quad toe loop to open the last session. Yagudin, who was one of several athletes suffering from the flu during these games, fell on his quad attempt and his triple Axel, which took him out of medal contention. Eldredge was skating cleanly until he popped what was to be his second triple Axel, and then he fell again when he tried to complete the jump again in the closing seconds. Candeloro, with the exception of a step out on his triple Axel, skated his program flawlessly to end up second in the free skating. Stojko, who skated last, originally intended to perform a quad toe loop/triple toe loop combination. However, a partial groin tear and the flu prevented him from attempting the combo, so he downgraded his quad to a triple. Despite his injury, he skated a clean program but finished the free skating third, placing second overall 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.

Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Britta Lindgren

Assistant Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Junko Hiramatsu

Judges:

• UK Margaret Worsfold
• UKR Vladislav Petukov
• CAN Sally Rehorick
• ROM Mariana Silvia Chita
• JPN Mieko Fujimora
• RUS Sviatoslav Babenko
• AZE Evgenia Bogdanova
• USA Paula Naughton
• FRA Marie-Reine Le Gougne
• HUN Zsofia Wagner (substitute)

Ladies

The primary contenders for the gold medal were Americans Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan. Kwan and Lipinski were in first and second place respectively after the short program. In the free skating, both Lipinski and Kwan skated clean. 6 judges placed Lipinski ahead of Kwan, and three placed Kwan ahead of Lipinski, which meant Lipinski won the gold medal, and Kwan took the silver.

The primary competitors for the bronze medal were Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya from Russia, and Chen Lu from China. In the free skating, they all skated well, but had mistakes. The final placements were very close. The 3rd–5th place votes were split unevenly between Chen, Butyrskaya, and Slutskaya. Chen beat Butyrskaya by the tally of 5 judges to 4 and beat Slutskaya 6 judges to 3, giving Chen her second straight bronze medal in the Olympic Games.

Tara Lipinski (gold), Michelle Kwan (silver) and Chen Lu (bronze) were the World Champions in 1997, 1996 and 1995, respectively. Lipinski also became the youngest competitor in Winter Olympics history to earn a gold medal in an individual event.

While not a medal winner, France's injured Surya Bonaly, who placed 10th, completed an (illegal) backflip during her long program, making her the fourth person and only woman to ever land a backflip in competition. She is the only person to land on one foot and to do a split mid-air (now colloquially referred to as a 'Bonaly'). She performed the unorthodox maneuver as a result of a previous fall and poor program due to an injured foot, however given the illegal nature of the move, her backflip was not considered when grading her technical merit. Youtube video

FS=Free Skating

SP=Short Program, FS=Free Skating

Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Sally-Anne Stapleford

Assistant Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Tjasa Andrée-Prosenc

Judges:

• AUS Frank A. Parsons
• HUN Judit Furst-Tombor
• AUT Karin Ehrhardt
• GER Jan Hoffmann
• USA Susan A. Johnson
• RUS Anatoli Bogatyrev
• UKR Alfred Korytek
• POL Maria Miller
• FRA Anne Hardy Thomas
• CZE Liliana Střechová (substitute)

Pairs

Artur Dmitriev of Russia won his second Olympic gold here. He had previously won in 1992 with a different partner. He was the first man to win the Olympics more than once with different partners. The first woman to do so was Russian skater Irina Rodnina, who won three Olympics with two different partners.

Full results

Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Walburga Grimm

Assistant Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Ronald T. Pfenning

Judges:

• CHN Yang Jiasheng
• CAN John Greenwood
• GER Heinz-Ulrich Walther
• POL Anna Sierocka
• USA Roger A. Glenn
• CZE Olga Žáková
• AUS Donald McKnight
• RUS Marina Sanaya
• UK Alfred Korytek
• FRA Marie-Reine Le Gougne (substitute)

Ice dance

Grishuk and Platov became the first pair ever to repeat as champions in Olympic Ice Dance. They won 21 straight events before they won in Nagano.

The judging was marred by accusations that the Europeans colluded in "bloc voting" (where judges tend to favor skaters from their regions), so that the dance teams representing their countries would take the medals, while keeping the Canadians off the podium.

Full results

Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Wolfgang Kunz

Assistant Referee:

• [[File:International_Skating_Union.svg|20px]] Alexander Gorshkov

Judges:

• CAN Jean Senft
• POL Halina Gordon-Półtorak
• LIT Eugenia Gasiorowska
• UKR Yuri Balkov
• GER Ulf Denzer
• CZE Jarmila Portová
• RUS Alla Shekhovtsova
• ITA Walter Zuccaro
• FRA Jean-Bernard Hamel
• USA Robert J. Horen (substitute)

References

References

1. (1993). "Rewriting Soviet Sports History". Journal of Sport History.
2. Knisley, Michael. (March 7, 1994). "1998 Ad".
3. "Figure Skating at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games {{!}} Olympics at Sports-Reference.com".
4. "The Women Who Would be Queen - New York Daily News".
5. "Tara Lipinski becomes youngest Olympic figure skating gold medalist".
6. Longman, Jere. (1998-02-11). "THE XVIII WINTER GAMES: FIGURE SKATING; Dmitriev Rises to Occasion in Pairs Once Again". The New York Times.
7. Longman, Jere. (1998-02-17). "THE XVIII WINTER GAMES: FIGURE SKATING; Russian Duo Remain Unbeatable". The New York Times.
8. link. (25 October 2012 , Steve Milton, 7 February 1998)
9. [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2002/news/2002/02/12/skating_judging/ Skating federation to investigate judging] {{webarchive. link. (4 June 2011 , sportsillustrated.cnn.com, 12 February 2002)