Top Three Figure Skating Sagas Of All Time

In March, the 2023 World Figure Skating Championships will be held in Japan.

Figure skating is still highly entertaining for viewers, especially in the Olympic years, but it is not nearly as headline-grabbing as it once was.

Here are the top three figure skating sagas of all time in descending order.

3. The Battle Of The Brians, 1988

In honor of the 2023 USFS Champs in #SanJose, we look back at our HOF figure skaters and the moments that enshrined their place in Bay Area sports history…

For tonight, Brian Boitano and his gold medal victory in the “Battle of the Brians” during the 1988 Olympics. #SJSHOF pic.twitter.com/IQ35e23rHC

— San Jose Sports Hall of Fame (@sjshof95) January 29, 2023

USA’s Brian Boitano and Canada’s Brian Orser were the top competitors for the gold medal in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada.

Both were technically brilliant and excellent performers so it really came down to who performed the best under pressure in his long program.

In the end, Boitano edged the hometown favorite Orser in a congenial Battle of the Brians by a very narrow margin, one-tenth of a point.

Orser claimed the silver.

Here is what Orser recalls about the competition.

“It was such an awesome spectacle, and we lived up to every part of the competition. It could have actually gone either way. Everybody was on the edge of their seat. It just came down to that last-minute accounting to see where it all ended up. We gave everybody what they were looking for, from start to finish.”

2. Tara Lipinski And Michelle Kwan, 1998

On this date 20 years ago, 15-year-old @taralipinski became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in the ladies' singles event, upsetting out the favorite Michelle Kwan. pic.twitter.com/reAYWWfRVu

— ESPN (@espn) February 20, 2018

18-year-old Michelle Kwan was a household name in the United States and the presumed favorite to win the gold medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

15-year-old Tara Lipinski picked the right moment to have the competition of her life.

With a smile and a twinkle in her eye and none of the pressure Kwan faced, Lipinski skated away with Olympic gold while Kwan was awarded the silver.

Lipinski is grateful to Kwan for pushing her to be the absolute best she could be.

She said:

“We had a pretty intense rivalry, which I’m quite grateful for. I don’t think I would have pushed myself as hard as I did without Michelle Kwan. One of the best skaters of all time was making me work harder and harder.”

1. Tonya Harding And Nancy Kerrigan, 1994

Remember the congenial reference above to the Battle of the Brians?

Congenial would be the last word used to describe the battle between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan leading up to the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, France.

This conflict between the two was sometimes called the Battle of Wounded Knee II.

It all started in Detroit during the 1994 U.S. Championships.

At a practice session, fan-favorite Nancy Kerrigan was struck in the knee with a metal baton.

She could not compete which ultimately gave Tonya Harding the top spot on the women’s figure skating team for the 1994 Olympic games.

It was a sordid tale that was eventually solved with Harding admitting that she knew about the attack but failed to tell anyone.

The plan was hatched by Hardy’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly.

Kerrigan recovered in time to compete in the Olympics, but the pressure and spotlight because of the incident became too much.

She ultimately earned the silver medal behind Oksana Baiul.

Harding ended up competing in the Olympics despite the fact the U.S. Olympic Committee wanted to boot her off the team but could not because of a lawsuit filed by Harding and her team.

Public interest in this story has not waned over the years.

→I, Tonya
…Directed by Craig Gillespie pic.twitter.com/bffj5n9LxQ

— nic (@kitlvbot) February 3, 2023

A movie was made about Harding in 2017 called I, Tonya.