Don Winn <dwinn10@...> writes:

> Hmm, I can't agree.  Fadeev had, what, 7 triples (?), no second 3A,
> and a mistake on the 3S.  Although he had a many interesting moves
> (e.g. 2A-flying sitspin) and wonderful speed, the choppy,
> disco-esque music cuts were excreable.  He really had no tempo
> variations, no highs and lows, no mood changing, and no elegance. 
> He basically just barreled through the program, showman style, short
> limbs flailing...just like Scott Hamilton, and the kind of program
> that was his trademark!  Maybe that's why Hamilton just raved about
> it while commentating.

It's easy to poke holes in Fadeev's skating looking back 20+ years on
it. But, if you look at it in the context of his time, he really was
an amazing skater compared to the standards back then. Maybe he
didn't do so much on the music or choreography side, but he was the
one who really started pushing the technical boundary for men.

I'm pretty sure I remember Hamilton saying at some point that he was
glad he retired because he was afraid of Fadeev, and he was right to be
afraid. Hamilton never really had more than 3 different triples in his
repertoire, which was pretty typical of most of his peers in the late
70s and early 80s. In his program in 1982 he did 3 toe loops, 2
salchows, and a lutz. The next year, because of the Zayak rule, he had
to take out one of the toe loops and was trying to add the flip to make
up for it. A lot of guys were still filling out their programs with
double jumps at that time. Meanwhile, I think Fadeev was already
attempting a complete set of triples by 1983; it wasn't just that he had
the axel and Hamilton didn't. In fact the jump content Fadeev was
attempting ca 1983-84 was head and shoulders above what any of the other
guys were putting in their programs, even Orser. I have video of one of
his performances of that era with Toller Cranston commentating, and by
the end of the program Toller is totally raving over the amount and
difficulty of the technical content. Anyway.... in Tokyo in 1985,
Orser pretty much took himself out of contention, Boitano was not "soup"
yet, and Fadeev gave one of his best performances ever, so it was a
well-deserved win. And heck, I don't even think his music was that awful
compared to what other skaters of that era were using! :-P

-Sandra