My enthusiasm for figure skating waxes and wanes, these days, but given the Worlds in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago, I ought to have considered the Bulgarian ice-dancing pair for a 'best of' mention.
Meanwhile, I thought I saw some of Robin Cousin's cheekiness in the young Tomas Verner of Czechoslovakia. He slowed down terribly toward the end, but he seems to have quite an alacrity:
Here is Robin Cousins when he was just a year older (1979, in Vienna). Remember, this was back when skaters still had "compulsories" - and it shows, yes? One wonders how different Robin's career would have been under today's structure.
These quad jumps are fantastic feats and watching Joubert toy with triples the way others used to with singles and doubles is amazing, but somehow at great cost. It's impossible to say how much the need to land a quad, even a quad combo, is crowding out the attention to artistry, but, via the miracle of youTube, have a look and decide for yourself (of course, Robin did throw a 20 foot jump or something, at one point, but he may be taller than Verner).
The sense of form, of composition, and control and mastery over the elements of it seem to me, at least, to make for something more compelling. I once saw Robin do a fancy footwork pass the entire length of the rink, that was just breathtaking for its difficulty and complexity. Somehow landing seventy switched edges in a row at fifteen miles per hour (or whatever) seared itself in my mind more than the first quad ever landed in competition.
Along the same vein, one wonders how the "poet on ice", John Curry, would have fared in today's world. Here he is during his 1976 Olympic triumph, about four years older than the others (but, as always, with the ubiquitous Dick Button on the soundtrack). He came out in that same year, but was lost in 1994 (diagnosed in '87), in the same epidemic that swept away so many of that generation's finest ...
