1982 World Pro artistic skate | Pro vs All Stars | Protopopovs, Hamill, Cranston, Lynn, Bezics & co

Описание: American coverage (commentators: Dick Enberg, John Misha Petkovich)
The World Professional Figure Skating Championships, often referred to as Landover, was an elite made-for-TV figure skating competition. It was created by Dick Button. The first professional championship was held in 1973 in Tokyo, Japan (aired in 1974 on ABC Sports). However the competition was not held again until 1980, when it moved to Landover, Maryland. It was held again from 1980 to 1982 as a two-team competition. For most of its existence, it was an unsanctioned professional event, meaning that skaters who participated lost their eligibility to compete in the Winter Games and other "amateur" skating events controlled by the International Skating Union.
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1982 World Professional Figure Skating Championships (Pro Stars vs All Stars), artistic portion. Skate order:
Dianne de Leeuw "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft"
JoJo Starbuck & Ken Shelley "Debussy's Claire de Lune" (Pairs)
Toller Cranston "Sibelius' Valse Triste"
Val Bezic & Sandra Bezic "Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue" (Pairs)
Charlie Tickner "My Way - Frank Sinatra"
Janet Lynn "The Blue Danube"
Lorna Wighton & John Dowding "Another Cha Cha" (Dance)
John Carlow "Devil went down to Georgia"
Krisztina Regoeczy & Andras Sallay "Ravel's Bolero" (Dance)
Donald Jackson "Gershwin's An American in Paris"
Dorothy Hamill "Perhaps Love"
Oleg & Ludmila Protopopov "Rachmaninoff's Elegy" (Pairs)
Linda Fratianne "Cats"
Tai Babilonia & Randy Gardner "Cats"
Group numbers - All Stars vs. Pro Stars
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[N.Y. Times, excerpts] Hamill, Carlow, Cranston and Co.: Fire on Ice
December 17, 1982
By Jane Leavy
Figure skating may be among sports' harshest taskmasters. Not only does it demand audacious triumphs over gravity, but a skater must make them appear effortless. The margin of error is as slim as a blade. A skater's grace must be precise or it is nothing.
The World Professional Figure Skating Championship for the Avon Cup at Capital Centre last night brought together skaters of different styles, different eras, and different levels of conditioning. Those who had seen better days were not necessarily those who had seen more days.
There was vamping and clowning, sequins and satin. There was a hot duet skated to the rhythms of "Bolero," facilitated by a orange-yellow boa. And then there were the Protopopovs, Oleg and Ludmilla, the pairs skaters who won Winter Games gold medals in 1964 and 1968. The Protopopovs, who brought classicism and line to skating, brought class and lines of autograph seekers to the competition.
It hardly mattered that their team, the All Stars, lost the competition (which will be seen on NBC television beginning in February. The All Stars, including Dorothy Hamill, 1976 Innsbruck champion, and Toller Cranston, the 1976 Innsbruck bronze medalist, led the team competition throughout the technical and artistic portions of the program.
But Cranston, who gave the best individual performances of the evening, completing three triple jumps in his emphatically dramatic style, "was at the wrong end of the ice" during the group finale, said Dianne DeLeeuw of the losers. So the Pro Stars, including Linda Fratianne, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, Janet Lynn and Charlie Tickner, won by 9/100ths of a point.
They each receive $20,000. The losers get $10,000 each.
"We'll be back," said Hamill.
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Carlow was infectious. The Protopopovs glided and seemed to make time stand still, their bodies moving in sychronized fluidity. It was hard to know which of their programs was better. The artistic presentation was to Rachmaninoff's "Elegy." They began in unison, beings intertwined. They swirled away from each other, crossing paths, then circled each other in the middle of the ice. They turned away again. Then he reached for her and she backed toward him. She ended on his knee, her back arched to the ice, his body hovering over hers.
"People tell me I make them cry," he said. "That's my mission."
Earlier, in the technical portion, they skated to the Moonlight Sonata. "It's not too big a number, three minutes," he said. "It represents another step in our skill, a step in our skating. When you are in amateurs, it is not just skating. It is push, push, push. We wanted to freeze it for a moment. It is exciting for people, when you try to stop it for a moment and people have the opportunity to see it without the rushing."
For just a moment, she curled up against his body and clung to his shoulder as they glided around the ice in inseparable motion. At the end, he lifted her above his head with one arm, and held her aloft, a mobile sculpture. Then he gently lowered her to the ice with that one arm, in one motion.
When they were done, there were flowers on the ice for Ludmilla Protopopov, who is 47. Her husband, who is 50, swooped them up and, on one knee, presented them to her.
#figureskating #フィギュアスケート #eiskunstlauf #фигурноекатание #pattinaggioartistico #patinageartistique
thanks to Kim!