1970 World Figure Skating Championships - Ladies' Free Skate

March 3-8, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
Skater Order: Elena Shcheglova, Eileen Zillmer, Beatrix Schuba, Dawn Glab, Patricia Dodd, Gabriele Seyfert, Janet Lynn, Zsuzsa Almássy, Julie Lynn Holmes, Rita Trapanese, Karen Magnussen

[@marishanameyer6132]

Janet Lynn here is actually better than Dorothy hamill. She has more grace and elegance.

[@MichaelWDupre]

So good to see this video posted. Dawn Glab (19:08) was my first skating instructor, back in 1980. What a joy to see her skating!

[@jondavwal13]

Fleming was balletic but with Lynn you can watch the birth of modern figure skating. This video is almost unwatchable except for Janet Lynn, who had everything the judges want and continue to want without seeming to try at all. Everything held forever, every position beautiful, daring but controlled. It's such a shame she didn't win on the World or Olympic stage.

[@larciabella]

Lynn was the most athletic and creative skater here.Was she robbed?Her downfall was the school figures.Schuba was not very graceful yet she was always good at school figures.Back then school figures meant a lot more.

[@ladbeethoven9]

Don't leave Karen Magnussen out! She was a beautiful, graceful skater

[@SingingAudball]

It’s amazing to see how different it is today than back then. Their positions in the air for jumps are so strange to me. Leg bent beside the other instead of crossed over. Their crossovers are also much smaller. The artistry back then though was so much better than today in many ways. Their choreographed sequences were like they were floating on air. Very pretty.

[@nondescriptnyc]

That’s how skaters used to jump before Gustave Lussi’s jumping method became mainstream. Until 1976 or so, some skaters were still using the old method (e.g., Dianne de Leeuw’s 2A) but, by 1978 or so, you could no longer find skaters that didn’t embrace the Lussi method!

[@npe1]

@@nondescriptnyc Very true. I was lucky as I began skating in 1974 so by then coaches were teaching us to cross legs in jumps. But the contrast in jump technique between the early 1970's and the late 1970's, especially in the ladies, is massive. Here in 1970 the only ones that would have stood any chance of a medal four years later in 1974 Worlds would have been Seyfert, Lynn, Magnussen and Almassy. It's amazing to see some women in this video couldn't even get the rotation on double loops and toe loops, yet only 6 years later Denise Bielmann was trying triple lutz!

[@lexiekrewitt1735]

Gaby is so much of a queen!!!! I love her so much!!!! & I feel bad for the Italian girls, she was pretty great as well & so underscored... Anyways, thank you so much for this video, it’s a pure gem!!!!!

[@slytherinnyc]

My god, JANET LYNN was in a class all her own.... really the godmother of modern ladies figure skating.

[@alanazarin7761]

Karen Magnussen and Gabby Seyfert were quite good too, but I don't understand why Janet did not have all 6.0s compared to the rest. What were the judges smoking?

[@littlebroSW1]

@@alanazarin7761 Gabby was as good...

[@waynehentley4332]

@@alanazarin7761 They weren't smoking anything. That's why Janet didn't get all 6s!!!

[@TruWatcher]

I didn't really get into watching figure skating until 1971 but a friend told me what Trixi Schuba used to skate like, as my memory of it as a 9-year-old was dim. "She wore a WATCH on the ice," I was told. "A watch? You're kidding," I said. "Why?" "I don't know. Maybe she wanted to keep track of how many minutes she had left to go in her program!" Well, I watched this video and there you have it...indeed, she is wearing a watch. Go figure. Literally.

[@sabineseeger6163]

1¹¹

[@ilovebeinagirl]

I saw a skating documentary where someone commented on her wearing a watch. What's wrong with wearing a watch while skating?

[@romanop9173]

The commentator is Austria's Eva Pawlik (the 1949 European Champion and 1948 Olympic runner-up). Pawlik was the world's first lady figure skater to be a TV sportscaster.

[@sgsmozart]

Like American commentators, she can never just SHUT UP, so we can enjoy the skating coordinated with the music.

[@master-key4498]

48:10 Amazing double Cartwheels in LP!! her technical is perfectly...

[@user-cl2ql4hu6d]

Я обожала Елену Щеглову ,тогда я была совсем малышкой ,однако как советскую одиночницу я очень помню . Класс!

[@3Axel1996]

Ah the era where 1 1/2 jump revolutions were still the norm. 1 1/2 flip-2 toe. And back in the era when the toe Wally was a jump that was distinguished as a separate jump from the toe loop.

[@nickeynicky1532]

You can see how much the sport has evolved since then

[@scook5599]

Beautiful.

[@russcohen3779]

Skating was really skating back in the seventies and the eighties today skating is cross overs and jumps you don’t even need music

[@NatashaEstrada]

It's interesting how it's the arms themselves that make all these movements look small and contained.

[@_figureskatingfan_]

48:09 I'm speechless, I've never seen that...wow

[@LiamForeman]

I've never seen this move either! I wonder if it's not allowed anymore? I don't know why it wouldn't be, but that looks like a cool move that others certainly would have used.

[@miloandtock1]

Janet was in 8th place after the compulsory figures, and they counted about 2/3 of the total score, so it's not a surprise that she moved up only to 6th.

[@sweetpapayasourpeach]

It's nice to see a figure skater that isn't a size 00

[@romanop9173]

At the microphone: 1948 Olympic runner-up Eva Pawlik (Austria), the world's first lady figure skater to be a commentator on TV

[@dmmchugh3714]

Schuba was an uninspiring free skater. But she was an unmatched compulsory skater. The system favored her in this era. I wish a program were available on how she skated figures. I was a young skater in this era and miss it a great deal.

[@alexsdb9712]

Seyfert, Lynn, Trapanese and Magnussen were not only the most complete skaters and true free skaters here, but from this championship they were the modern skaters. They were the modern (modern era being starting 1970s to present) technique, approach and style from the rest of the skaters.

[@LiamForeman]

I am so happy to finally see a whole program from Gaby Seyfert. She was the "It" girl of skating. Her power, grace, musicality and athleticism was wonderful. It's strange that Poetzch was Mueller's next big thing, but lacked the grace and then Witt was more a model of Poetzch than Seyfert with her ungainly crossovers and unnatural arm positions. Janet Lynn was a joy to watch, but she really lacked the power of the others like Magnussen. If I had to rank them based on the LP I'd call it Seyfert, Magnussen, and then Lynn. What were the placements in the LP? I don't want to add the scores all up.

[@LPSDMP]

Her single axle is lovely. She floats in the air.

[@greysonunlucky1876]

Janet Lynn at 38:15

[@ThatClassic70sGirl]

Thank you so much!! =)

[@MADHAUSMARKALLAN]

She was simply JOY. Karen Magnussen as well. Haven't ever seen skaters recently smile so sincerely throughout their program! Janet was smiling long after she finished. Alot of the other women were so Wagnerian! Yikes!

[@sunkai8845]

The female skaters looked stronger than nowadays'

[@tyronebranch2946]

YASSSSS Zsuzsa Almássy!!! YOU BETTA COME THROUGH THICK GIRL!!!

[@waynehentley4332]

She sure did! 3 double axels!

[@user-cl2ql4hu6d]

Лена лучшая !

[@tatteredquilt]

I was skating back when Janet Lynn was skating at the same rink, and what strikes me most is the age and body types in the above clips vs today... it's gone from "ladies" to "prepubescent sticks"...

[@AT-jm4dl]

Frau Mueller was so beautiful here. And her daughter Gabby too.

[@extra_ice_girl]

Ahhhh, back when it was about the skating and not the jumps and flashy costumes.

[@LPSDMP]

Too bad the video was messed up when the Italian girl skated, She had some nice moves. I like her skating style.

[@dianec5382]

The first woman landed almost all of her jumps on 2 feet. It's amazing how far skating has come. Now you would see 4-year-olds doing single axels and one-foot spins.

[@marishanameyer6132]

My thoughts exactly!

[@marishanameyer6132]

But to actually to this is hard. So for your average person today this would still be hard for them to accomplish.

[@3Axel1996]

Need to go back and view again, but I'm sure many of the jumps were 1 1/2 revolutions and not 2. Back then this was rather common.

[@sunkai8845]

Half century ago. 😱😱😱😱😱

[@daphenaxa]

Janet and Gabby skated really modernly

[@skatefan9495]

Janet's marks are a joke. She skated a flawless program. She should have had all 5.9s in tech and a few 6.0s in the second mark.

[@Person-mh6xq]

Absolutely!

[@ilovebeinagirl]

I wonder how much AquaNet they sprayed in their hair before stepping out onto the ice....

[@romanop9173]

You can have a look on the commentator Eva Pawlik's skating style: 4gG5gLVrM9M at 1h 22 minutes (from the movie "Traumrevue" produced in 1959)

[@marishanameyer6132]

You have to put this in perspective. Most of the time was waste of figures so skaters didn't have the time to practice their free skating as much.....also training, diet..etc.....has improved over time.....and on a darker note, some skaters have been caught using banned substances......

[@3Axel1996]

Not to mention that the length of the Free Skates have been shortened by 30 seconds (men and pairs were 5 minutes, not sure if women were required to skate 4:30 then) after the 1979-80 season.

[@marylunsford8132]

Figures were not a waste of time in the slightest. The sheer intensity of the figures program required skaters to learn body control, precision in their movements, and edge quality. In reality, much of the reason behind the disparity of jump and spin abilities comes from the quality of skates and blades. The skates back then didn't have anything close to the support or the advanced technology that today's skates are built with.

[@janiceearley8724]

Were you a pro. skater Mary Lunsford?

[@ThatClassic70sGirl]

@@marylunsford8132 I was thinking along those same lines. The figure skate uppers of yesterday were taller; some of them going halfway up the calf during/around the time of Sonja Henie. Seems like they'd be kind of restrictive on the skater's flexibility and movement.

[@blueclover9918]

@@marylunsford8132 fine, let people practice them if they want but requiring it, not to mention 2/3 of the overall score, is absurd.

[@sandragarrett5633]

is there any footage of the men's Free Programme?

[@GoldenAgeofFS]

I only have Petkevich.

[@lilbatz]

Sobs...I was hoping to see Toller.

[@wendyleeconnelly2939]

33:39 Why on earth do they (the cameras) do that? For decades it seems the cameras have been cutting away from a beautiful layback spin to focus on the skater's foot? Why?? (And again at 41:16) Does anybody know the reason the cameras habitually but away from layback spins?

[@ivanlavouras]

Maybe to see the edge

[@lilbatz]

A spin is judged on how centered it is and speed not so much the position. (At least back then) If you want to know how truly good ice dancers are, you watch the feet, not the upper torso. Probably why the camera focused on the spinning foot.

[@snopesshop1903]

Before stretch in materials

[@romanop9173]

m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/apiqZpqCi9eAb68 is perhaps a better link. The commentator Eva Pawlik can be seen on the ice from 1 hour 22 minutes on.

[@HowsaBowsaYowsa]

How did Janet Lynn not make the podium? Her scores are much higher than the woman who won silver. It makes no sense. I guess the short program made the difference on second thought.

[@kamwrites]

School figures counted the majority back then. They were Janet's weak spot.

[@npe1]

@HowsaBowsaYowsa There was no short programme back in 1970, it wasn't brought in until 1973. By your comment I think you must be quite young because you can't remember school figures which in 1970 counted for most of the scores. Janet Lynn was unlucky to have competed at that time when figures were more important plus she and others had the misfortune to be in the same era as Trixi Schuba who was regarded as probably the greatest exponent of school figures in the history of our sport.

[@roda335]

+npe1 omg. Trixi skated like a broken airplane, it's painful to watch, and still won over the beautiful skaters? stupid rules.

[@michaelvaughn2091]

@@roda335 You can claim "stupid rules" if you like but, the fact is that Trixie excelled at that discipline which counted for 60% of the score. Though she may not have been as talented a free skater as Janet Lynn or Gabby Seyfert, that should not detract from her position as possibly the greatest exponent of figures the world has ever seen.

[@blueclover9918]

@@michaelvaughn2091 no one is saying she isnt great at school figures or taking away from her accomplishment in that area.

[@marishanameyer6132]

And Gabrielle seyfert beats Peggy Fleming and hamill hands down too.

[@notnek202]

marishana meyer Gabby never beat Peggy always came in 2nd and in this video Janet is way better!!!!!

[@waynehentley4332]

Are you Gaby's cousin?

[@marishanameyer6132]

Does anyone else notice that after they come off the ice they are sweaty and red faced and out of breath? Compared to today's skaters who barely break a sweat? Odd.

[@moxie96]

Also their outfits were not made of lycra/spandex or thinner breathable/preforated fabrics back then like they did in the early mid 80s and today

[@ns2110theonly]

marishana meyer its because today they do more core and strength training. All they did back then was ballet. Nothing to do with make up there just more in shape & conditioned today. Signed, a figure skating mom and former skater.

[@gertieshaw90]

Yes I agree it is odd but these ladies in general seemed heavier with a higher BMI and less muscle mass, less weight training. Benefit of the doubt.

[@lilbatz]

@@ns2110theonly plus how much aerobic conditioning did you need for school figures? Schuba showed you crushed with school figures and hang on for the free program. You spend your effort for the bigger pay back.

[@LPSDMP]

The placement does not add up. I guess we would have to see the figures...

[@lilbatz]

The top three who won were are terrific at figures. I FF through Holmes program, because I can't stand watching someone pop jumps. Life's too short for that. Then I find out she came in third! And also regularly beat Lynn in international competitions. Fassi was also her coach, which I'm sure helped. No problems with Seyfert winning. She attacked her free program, and I enjoyed watching it.

[@lilbatz]

I enjoy this. Seyfert and Magnussen were fun to watch. Loved seeing a young John Nicks and Dick Button. I'm the biggest Janet Lynn homer on the planet. Girlfriend stunk at figures. Unless someone had a total meltdown, and Lynn exceeded her expectations, no way was she ever going to be in the top two international. Especially with Schuba and Seyfert around. I don't know why Lynn didn't get a better figures coach like Fassi. Maybe money? Maybe no interest? Maybe getting as high as 10 in figures was where she topped out, and no one could make that magic happen. I watch the old vids and enjoy them for what they are. I'm embarrassed I blew through Holme's program to find out she came in third. Having Fassi as a coach had it's advantages.

[@bavarianmod]

Janet's coach said that because she was short she couldn't look at her figures properly while tracing them as well as being unable to line up her circles and turns due to the figures being so big. And there was no way Fassi would train Janet in figures when his student was Julie Lynn Holmes at the time. It was Pierre Brunet who helped improve Janet's figures which was how she was able to place higher in later competitions.

[@Person-mh6xq]

Not entirely correct. Janet finished 2nd in figures in 1973! A far cry from 10th. Also, figures were never captured on camera or video so no one truly knew the quality of each skater. A lot of it was hearsay and reputation.

[@waynehentley4332]

@@Person-mh6xq She was placed 2nd because everything was being set up for a Janet gold medal. Then it all came crashing down with 2 falls in the SP!!

[@arielperk7958]

for all we know these were our grandparents friends

[@will74lsn]

interesting skating order....lol

[@3Axel1996]

Top 12 after Compulsories were placed in a complete random draw, which was why the Top 2 ladies were in the 2nd to the last group to skate.

[@kevinbarton9052]

This is German commentary.

[@user-vr7zi3nz5k]

Сколько же она весит, что подпрыгнуть не может повыше??

[@vistaprime]

was any of this considered difficult?

[@marishanameyer6132]

Lol yes!

[@NatashaEstrada]

Yes especially when you consider how paper thin their skate boots were. Needed good ankle strength for that. Of course, skate technology and jump technique has changed a lot allowing higher jumps with more rotation and also the fact that they are encouraged to be athletes now not just "ladies".

[@krisb4623]

Of course it was, back then.

[@waynehentley4332]

This is about 50 years ago! Geez!!! What a question!!

[@vistaprime]

@@waynehentley4332 It's called being facetious.

[@deborahshankovich8442]

there's no enthusiasm

[@samuelgedevanishvili1981]

Vaya que eran eventos aburridos.

[@user-bv3pd6zy2r]

Толстушка и коньки?!,.. Смело!

[@russcohen3779]

Skating sucks today