1976 Olympics Ladies Compulsory Figures

Dick Button on the art of figure skating. Dorothy Hamill and Dianne de Leeuw at the '76 Winter Olympics.

[@OceanbornAngel]

I loved hearing Dick Button on commentary.

[@dmmchugh3714]

Jim McKay was a great announcer.

[@avonee1976]

I practice figures on roller skates and it makes you a stronger, more elegant skater.

[@dolcevitausa]

many (many) years later I still have nightmares about paragraph brackets and paragraph loops....ended up on my butt more than once on loops...

[@purdygirlxo]

Me tooooo

[@rolo4945]

Rockers, counters double threes and brackets ! The judges I’m sure used these to jiggle those ordinals…most unfair way of judging. We knew !

[@theresabollman8061]

This is the BASIS of Figure Skating...something some people who could not reallly master but thought they could make up for it with back flips...that doesnt cut it folks.

[@cy8685]

Back in the 70s I'd never notice that Jim McKay was part of the Star Trek crew.

[@shane802]

The only thing I hated about compulsories was that you would have "Compulsory" queens who would pile up the points and suck at LP and SP. Biellmann skated in the wrong time perios. Such a great skater. 1980 was a joke with Ms. Poetzch winning

[@rolo4945]

The loop had to be one and a half blade length long and one blade width.

[@mattg.812]

Does anyone know why Dianne, who was American born and lived in America all her life, competed for Holland? The USA should have won gold AND silver in the 1976 Olympics.

[@chrisherrera9088]

Many skaters, past and current have the ability to skate for another country by heritage...they must be considered a "national." The IOC sets the rule.

[@mattg.812]

I already know that. I was asking why DIANNE chose to do it in 1975.

[@bufb]

Easier to make the team...win the title...less competition

[@metsdudenj]

From what I was told years ago, she didn’t want to go through all of the qualification, sectional, and the political BS. Plus the Netherlands paid for everything, and she was able to do a lot more competing in Europe.

[@lisabradshaw5105]

The ISU "voted after the 1988 Games to eliminate figures in July 1990. That change included a two-year period in which the figures phase went from three to two figures and from 30 to 20 percent of the final score." Quite some time after Dorothy... But their importance was questioned after Janet Lynn didn't win in 1972, and the the baffled French stamped and cheered for Janet Lynn whose skating won their hearts above even the French girl who was declared winner.

[@mattg.812]

"the French girl who was declared winner" Who are you referring to?

[@waynehentley4332]

@@mattg.812 Right? She made it all up!!😀😀😀

[@TommyThor9909]

After Dorothy Hamill's perfect double figure 8 they dropped the required figure 8 from figure skating and today Figure Skating is really just Ice Dancing.

[@Person-mh6xq]

Completely inaccurate comment. Figures continued until 1990 -- 14 years AFTER Dorothy competed. Also, figure skating is not just Ice Dancing. Ice Dancing is one of the four disciplines of the sport.

[@waynehentley4332]

What a comment! Total fantasy!! Geez!!😳😳

[@baritonebynight]

This put me to sleep. No wonder they don't do them anymore.

[@chrisherrera9088]

More difficult than they look and if you were the one doing, you wouldn't be the one falling asleep! I wish they still did them...maybe not as a compulsory, but as a separate competition. Some of the best at school figures were awful at free skating and vice versa.

[@OceanbornAngel]

Hence why they never aired the compulsory figures. It wouldn't hurt though in 2018 if skaters did figures on their own time to make their skating look crisp and elegant.

[@Person-mh6xq]

@@OceanbornAngel Figures were such an important part of the sport, but it certainly did not make anyone's freeskating more elegant! Had no bearing on that.