1988 Worlds Pairs FS (CBS) – Budapest | Farewell Triumph: Valova/Vasiliev Upset Gordeeva/Grinkov

Summary: The 1988 World Championships pairs free skate in Budapest produced a dramatic reversal only weeks after Calgary. Olympic champions and defending World champions Ekaterina Gordeeva (Екатерина Гордеева) / Sergei Grinkov (Сергей Гриньков) (URS) entered the free skate in first place despite Gordeeva skating with a heavy cold. Their trademark quality remained evident — particularly their speed, unusual bidirectional lifts and polished presentation — but Gordeeva fell on the throw triple Salchow. That mistake left the title unexpectedly vulnerable. Earlier, Jill Watson / Peter Oppegard (USA) endured a disastrous skate: Watson fell on both a double Axel and throw double Axel, the latter sending her sliding toward the boards and causing the pair to stop and lose roughly 20–25 seconds of choreography before resuming. Larisa Selezneva (Лариса Селезнёва) / Oleg Makarov (Олег Макаров) (URS) capitalised with a technically strong performance to move into medal position. The championship ultimately belonged to Elena Valova (Елена Валова) / Oleg Vasiliev (Олег Васильев) (URS). Skating last and with Valova’s injured ankle heavily taped, the 1984 champions delivered what the CBS commentary described as perhaps their finest competitive performance: clean side-by-side triple toes and double Axels, a successful throw triple Salchow, strong unison and assured lifts. Their marks carried them past Gordeeva/Grinkov and gave them a second World title in what the broadcast presented as their farewell competition. The final standings were Valova/Vasiliev gold, Gordeeva/Grinkov silver and Selezneva/Makarov bronze, completing a Soviet sweep; Gillian Wachsman / Todd Waggoner (USA) finished fourth, while Watson/Oppegard dropped from fourth after the short program to sixth overall. --- Chapters 00:00 Pairs Free Skate Preview – Scott Hamilton & Tim Ryan 00:54 Judy Blumberg with Coach Rita Lowry 01:35 Jill Watson / Peter Oppegard (USA) – 6th 08:38 Larisa Selezneva / Oleg Makarov (URS) – 🥉 3rd 14:45 Ekaterina Gordeeva / Sergei Grinkov (URS) – 🥈 2nd 20:40 Elena Valova / Oleg Vasiliev (URS) – 🥇 World Champions 27:16 Valova / Vasiliev – Winners’ Interview 28:05 Gillian Wachsman / Todd Waggoner (USA) – 4th --- #figureskating #フィギュアスケート #eiskunstlauf #фигурноекатание #피겨스케이팅 #pattinaggioartistico #patinageartistique #pairskating