1996 Gold Championships

By Jennifer

Technical Program : Tango
Choreographed by Sandra Bezic


Review and Comments:

At the age of 25, Kristi was beginning to feel she had accomplished everything and had nothing left to do. However, in the 1996-97 season, she started to create new programs that reflected her personality. This tango was one of those programs in particular.

NBC commentator Rosalynn Sumners said this was an extremely difficult routine, and also noted that this was the first time she competed with it. Rosalynn remarked, "You don’t usually see a solo skater skating to tango music, it’s usually for ice dancers."

However, despite falling on the triple lutz and stepping out of the triple loop, Kristi still kept up with her fast-tempo music. It was later discovered that the cause of the two errors on her jumps was that of defective blades. Kristi said this of the situation in her book, Figure Skating for Dummies on page 26: "When I began training for my 1996-97 season in August, I was having problems with my jumps, especially my loop and my Lutz...but my jumping problems continued into the fall and rehearsals for the Stars on Ice Tour... The new set (of blades) that I had purchased over the summer were defective." After Kristi purchased new blades in November, the jumps came back, and she felt confident with her jumps again.

Overall, the program was very interesting to watch. It included as I mentioned earlier, lots of footwork, and it was the style, the finesse of the program that I really liked. I think this was a great routine for Kristi!



List of the elements included in this program:



The Scores for Kristi Yamaguchi are:

Technical Elements: 9.9, 9.9, 9.9, 9.9, 9.8, 9.9, 9.8
Artistry: 9.8, 9.8, 9.9, 9.8, 9.9, 9.8, 9.8
Total after the Technical Program: 98.6 (First place)




Rosalynn Sumners on Kristi’s scores:
-"A little high for two mistakes, but she did have four triples, and the other girls didn’t."
-"I think these marks should be a little higher (artistic marks)."



Interview with Elfi Schlegal after the technical program:

Elfi asked Kristi what was going on with the triple loop and triple lutz, the jumps she’s been having trouble with all season.
Kristi says, "I wish I knew otherwise I’d be landing it. That one felt great going up, I thought I had it. And just basically sat down in the end, I’ll just have to get it in my mind I’m gonna land it."


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