Michelle Kwan 1998 Nationals SP- Rachmaninoff

Beautiful! I love Michelle!
Really good video!

Sheer perfection,I have watched this 100's of times & I still get goosebumps.I miss watching Michelle, one thing to improve ratings or audience attendance would be to bring back ORDINALS and 6.0 judging system.

FLAWLESS. The very best program she ever skated.

Agreed!!!
A decade; MAN.

I can't believe it's been 10 years since she did this. A decade later and this is still an awesome program. it's just amazing to compare this to the programs at the 2008 nationals, the detail in this program is so perfect

I agree! But I do want to point out that I don't think sex appeal should factor into who wins competition (and I really don't think it does) but unfortunately, women are still judged on their looks, and if you happen to be beautiful, over 18 and successful, you're going to be considered somehow "better" than other females. Sad.

I wasn't being angry; I was being emphatic. That was because the idea that skating has fallen to such a level really irritated me. I still don't agree with any of your arguments, I still don't believe sex appeal should factor into who wins competitions and who doesn't, but it's very apparent neither or us will change our minds and should therefore stop talking about it. Sometimes you have to agree to disagree.

Not so much anymore. Kurt Browning won four world championships without ever winning an Olympic medal. Neither Robin Cousins or Ilia Kulik ever won the World title. To the casual fan, only the Olympics matter. The real skating fan knows better.

And you're a pretty angry person. Pipe down and have a martini and everything will be better.

Today's female competitors tend to have flat chests - easier to land those jumps. Since they pitched the school figures, the ladies' winners have become younger and younger. Thin ladies were at a disadvantage in the school figures. Dorothy Hamill said that if school figures still "figured," no way would a teenager win the Olympic gold medal.

And BTW, the men's competition was nowhere as popular as the ladies because few of the men were considered sexy. That's changing, thank god.

Johnny Weir said the same thing. He said (and I agree) that the audience for ice skating has decreased significantly because it no longer has any glamor. Back in the day, most of the competitors looked like women which was a big part of the sport's appeal - Sonja Henie, Carol Heiss, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Katerina Witt - all very sexy women. Now that little girls (or women who look like little girls because they have no boobs) dominate, far fewer people are watching.

Also, how can you down-grade the Olympics to such an extent that it is nothing more than a "foot note?" The Olympics is the competition every competitor and every fan looks forward to the most. If Michelle Kwan truly felt that way, she never would have continued competing after Nagano and Salt Lake, and if the fans truly felt that way the big dispute about who should have won the '98 Games wouldn't still be continued!

Is quality skating so meaningless now that you suggest teenagers should barely be allowed to compete because they have no "sex appeal?" I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that is the case, I refuse to acknowledge such a beautiful art form has been reduced to such a disgusting standard.

Sex appeal?! Sex appeal! Is that what skating has become? Has it joined the ranks of such programs as "Dancing With the Stars" where the only real reason it is on the air is because people want to watch the half naked women prance about doing lurid dance moves?

Let's also face the fact that if the current scoring system was in effect in 1998 no way would Tara have won. She flutzed repeatedly and her spins and spirals were laughable. The quality of Michelle's skating was so far ahead of Tara's or Sarah's, a gold probably wouldn't have been possible today. Heck, even Slutskya would have been Hughes.

20 years ago, you might well be correct. But then 20 years ago, they didn't have the myriad of competitions that they do today. And really - will anyone seriously remember Tara Lipinski or Sarah Hughes in retrospect? The Olympics are fast becoming an overrated, overblown footnote. And the teen girls are ruining the sport - no sex appeal.