Sports-Related Sanity Checking (kinda)

[gnomi]

OK...without checking Google or anything of that type, if you're a fan of the Olympics, do you know who the following people are and/or approximately when they competed?

Winter Olympics

-- Kitty and Peter Carruthers
-- Paul Wylie
-- Brian Orser
-- Ekaterina Gordeeva

Summer Olympics

-- Bart Conner
-- Svetlana Boguinskaya
-- Matt Biondi
-- Joan Benoit


(I'm just trying to figure out if I've just got a freakish memory or if other people remember things like this.)

Comments

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Aren't all of the winter Olympians skaters? Gordeeva was in pairs with her husband, Grinkov, late '80s, early '90s, and after he died, she skated singles. The Carruthers... ice dancing? I don't remember the era, which suggests it was before I was paying especially close attention.

Bart Conner, gymnast. '84? Something is striking me about the mid-80s.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the winter Olympians are all skaters. That's basically the only winter Olympic sport I follow (and I follow it not just in Olympic years, but I figured that if I stuck to the Olympians, I'd have a better chance on other people remembering them). The Carruthers siblings were pairs skaters in the 80s (from my hometown, actually; I remember their faces plastered all over the local highschool).

And, yeah -- Conner was going to be in '80, but then we boycotted those, so he was on the team in '84.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

The Carruthers were a brother and sister pair of figure skaters. 1980?

Paul Wylie was a solo men's skater, second-rung during the Boitano era. Brian Orser much the same.

Ekaterina Gordeeva: pairs skater with her husband, Sergei Grinkov. Either 1984 or 1988, forget which. He died young in some sort of accident, I think.

Bart Conner: Part of the US men's gymnastics team that won team gold because the entire Soviet bloc was boycotting. 1984.

Svetlana Boginskaya: "the Belorussian Swan," gymnast who competed in the Olympics successfully well into her 20's. Built like a woman rather than a little girl, she was one of the first of the recent renaissance of older female gymnasts after a wave of fourteen-year-olds had dominated the sport. Mid 1990s.

I don't know the others. Matt Biondi's a name I recognize -- recent, swimmer I think? -- but Joan Benoit isn't at all.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

OK, cool. So it's not just me who remembers these folks.

And, yeah -- Biondi was a swimmer. And Joan Benoit (now Joan Benoit Samuelson) was the first woman to gold medal in the Marathon (she ran/runs the Boston Marathon, as well).

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

That explains it; I watch sprint but not usually marathons, even on the Olympics. The others I remember because they were in sports I actually watch.

[cicirossi.livejournal.com]

carruthers were pairs skaters, late 70s

wylie 90s men's figure skating and orser lost to boitano in what 84? 88?

gordeeva and grinkov were pairs 90s

connor and svetlana were gymnasts, connor in the 80s

and uh... was biondi a swimmer?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yup on all of those (though the Carruthers sibs were in the early 80s). And yeah -- Biondi was a swimmer and Orser and Boitano had the "Battle of the Brians" in 1988.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I recognized the skaters (already ID'd by those who commented already).

Bart Connor: gymnast, late 80s
Matt Biondi: I want to say he's a diver, but I don't really know.
Joan Benoit: long distance runner, 70s, maybe? It's cheating a bit for me, though, because she's known locally for running the Boston Marathon, as Joan Benoit Samuelson.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Biondi is/was a swimmer. Joan Benoit won the first running of the Marathon by women (1988, if I recall correctly).

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

I'm not an Olympics fan, but I recognize
-- Paul Wylie
-- Ekaterina Gordeeva
-- Joan Benoit

I'd have to look up the years, though.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Question -- do you recognize Wylie and Benoit (now Benoit Samuelson) because of their local connections?

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

yes.

[bitty.livejournal.com]

yes, yes, yes, no, no, yes, yes, no

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks!

[doeeyedbunny.livejournal.com]

Brian Orser: Calgary '88 (silver medal)
Ekaterina Gordeeva: Calgary '88 (gold medal)
Bart Conner: LA '84 ( >1 gold medal)

How did I do?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Very well. The only bit I'm not sure of was whether Conner medaled. I know it was a weird Olympics for the men's gymnasts, because a number of the Eastern Bloc countries boycotted (in retaliation for the US' boycott of the '80 Olympics in Moscow). But the rest, you're spot on.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Conner was on the US men's team that medaled as a team, basically because everybody better stayed home that year. He got an individual event medal too... I forget which event, though.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ah. I hadn't remembered that part. Oddly, while I remember these people as competitors, I don't always remember where or if they placed. Thanks for the info!

[doeeyedbunny.livejournal.com]

The men's gymnastic team won the team medal in '84. I don't remeber whether Wylie was competing in '88 (Battle of the Brians) or '92. My brother, the Olympics nut, was in Israel and thus I was not forced to watch Olympics in '92.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I think that Wylie did compete in 88 but didn't medal. I remember 92 being his big year.

I'm less an Olympics nut and more a skating/swimming/diving/gymnastics nut. So I tend to remember who the competitors were but not necessarily how they did in the final standings or if they medaled.

[donovanstitch.livejournal.com]

Of course, Brian Boitano was the only one of the bunch immortalized by the creators of South Park. The movie included the memorable musical query "what would Brian Boitano do?"

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Which is why, actually, I went with Brian Orser -- I figured more people would remember Brian Boitano from "South Park" than from his skating days. :-)

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

Paul Wisey, Figure Skating Mens. 1998? 2000? Somewhere in there, with Scott Hamilton & Elvis ____ (Canada) & really cool guy from France.

Or I'm full of shit.

Zhaneel

Wiley

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

I can't spell, obviously.

I wasn't around for the 1980s stuff as I was very young [though I remember Brian & Kristi as they were both local to me], but I *thought* Paul did some comeback stuff in the late 1990s.

Zhaneel

Re: Wiley

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I don't recall him doing a comeback, though honestly around here it's hard sometimes to remember that he retired -- he's still running his various local things that are skating-related, so his name pops up once in a while.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Scott Hamilton was the 1980 and 1984 Olympics; I think you mean Elvis Stojko (which I've most likely misspelled). And I'm not sure who the French guy is. I remember a French woman (though I'm completely blanking on her name; she did backflips, like Hamilton), but no French guy.

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

Scott did a comeback tour. I thought I remembered the olympics, but I must be remembering the Open Professionals in 1990.

And here is a list of Figure Skating Olympians, showing that I'm remembering & merging the 1992 & 1994 stuff. With Paul (silver, 1992) & Elivs (silver, 1994) & Fellipe (bronze, 1994).

I was very into watching skating from 1988 through 1996 or so. And then I got very busy. I miss it and still find it a gorgeous sport.

Zhaneel

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean -- I love watching skating, and I don't watch nearly as much as I used to. I think it's gorgeous.

And I forgot that Scott Hamilton done a comeback tour.

Thanks for the link! I'm definitely gonna file that somewhere that I'll remember.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ha! I finally remembered the French skater I couldn't remember (though I'm likely to completely destroy the spelling of her name): Suriya Bonali.

[tiptoe39.livejournal.com]

Paul Wylie is a hunk, and he and Nancy Kerrigan did a really sappy show where they skated to Miss Saigon and Jekyll & Hyde. My sister and I still occasionally parody them. :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Hee! My parents and I went to Ice Chips (The Skating Club of Boston's annual show) a number of years while Wylie and Kerrigan were still actively competing. They'd always appear in the show (Wylie was a member of the club, I believe, and they'd bring Kerrigan in for the show).

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

I know that Paul Wylie is an ice skater, and I've seen him live. I think Ekaterina Gordeeva is an ice skater, too. But I never remember dates, and I rarely remember (or even know, to begin with) anything sports-related, so that's all I can tell you about what I know. :)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's partly what I was trying to figure out as well -- are there sports figures (not the plastered-all-over-the-paper ones, the second-tier, kinda) that people remember even if they're not followers of the sport.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Kitty and Peter Carruthers - pairs skaters, mid-80s I think

Paul Wylie - won silver in '92, below Victor Petrenko

Brian Orser - won silver in '88, below Brian Boitano

Ekaterina Gordeeva - former partner and wife of Sergei Grinkov (now deceased), has since done some independent skating

The others I don't know... I only watch the skating. :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Hee! I figured you'd know the skaters. I wasn't sure if you followed gymnastics, as well, but the skaters I knew you'd know. :-)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I casually watch gymnastics once in a while, but not enough to remember people's names.

[celli]

Carruthers--Pairs skating? I don't think ice dancing. Dunno when.
Wylie--men's skating, silver medal, um, 92?
Orser--men's skating, silver to Boitano's gold (battle of the Brians!), so that would be...84?
Gordeeva--pairs skating with Sergei Grinkov, gold in 84 or 88, then again in, um, 94.

Conner--a member of the Boys of Summer men's gymnastics team, team gold 1984
Svetlana is a female gymnast I think but I can't place her.
Biondi was a swimmer, but I don't remember when
Benoit--was she the marathon runner from 84 that fell before the end?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Cool -- you knew all of them.

Benoit was the one who won the first Women's marathon (in 84); she may have fallen another year, but I don't remember that.

[sharonaf.livejournal.com]

Paul Wylie -- men's skating
Gordeeva -- former pairs skater, now women's skater since death of husband and partner of heart attack.

Boguinskaia -- women's gymnastics
Benoit -- women's track

How'd I do?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

You're right on all of them.