15 of the Best Olympic Figure Skating Performances of All Time (2024)

The British ice dancers —skating legends worldwide and now judges of a British figure skating reality competition called Dancing on Ice — won gold at the 1984 Olympics with this mesmerizing free dance to Ravel’s “Bolero.”

At the time, this was a radical choice of music, because of its repetitive beat. Torvill and Dean were known for their groundbreaking artistic choices, and this routine was no exception. Among skaters, it is regarded as the most original, passionate ice dance performance ever.

In another memorable moment from the 1988 Games, East Germany's Katarina Witt successfully defended her 1984 Olympic title and grabbed her second gold medal with this stellar performance of “Carmen.”

American Debi Thomas was also performing to “Carmen," so this matchup was dubbed the “Battle of the Carmens.” Witt came out on top, and Thomas earned the bronze.

At the 1994 Lillehammer Game, Team USA's Nancy Kerrigan skated the performance of her life in the long program and earned the silver medal (that some said should have been gold — it was such a close decision by the judges, who picked Ukraine's Oksana Baiul in a split 5-4 across the panel).

It was all the more impressive because she had to come back from the attack that injured her knee at the 1994 U.S. Nationals, orchestrated by people close to her rival, Tonya Harding.

Lipinski became the youngest winner of an individual medal at a Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. At 15 years old and 255 days, she won gold with this exuberant skate and a triple loop-triple loop jump combination. It’s such a difficult combination that few skaters attempt it today, even 20 years later.

Read more about Lipinski's Olympic journey in her exclusive interview with Cosmopolitan.com here: Tara Lipinski's Life After Gold.

Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier are synonymous with the judging scandal that rocked the Salt Lake City Olympics where the French judge unfairly placed Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze in first in exchange for better scores for the French ice dance team in a later event.

To remedy the situation, Sale and Pelletier received a gold medal of their own, and both teams are listed as the 2002 Olympic Champions.

Fellow American Evan Lysacek faltered in the short program in Torino, falling on his triple axel and doubling an intended triple flip. He finished in 10th place — a major disappointment after winning bronze at the World Championships a year earlier.

But he staged an incredible comeback in the free skate, vaulting all the way up to fourth place with a perfect performance to “Carmen.” Not only did he land all his jumps and get a great technical score, but he performed with passion and emotion and earned high program component scores.

At that point in time, moving up six places after the short program was nearly unheard of — it was next to impossible in the old 6.0 judging system, because judges would save their highest marks for skaters late in the competition. But Torino was the first Olympic Games to use the new judging system, and the value-based scoring worked in Lysacek’s favor and helped him make the comeback.

Sasha Cohen, also of Team USA, took the lead at the 2006 Olympics with this stunning short program, showcasing her musicality, flexibility, and performance skills — not to mention some great jumps.

She finished with the silver medal, after dealing with an injury and fighting back from falls on the first two jumps her in free skate.

Japan’s Mao Asada, a medal favorite going into the Olympics, had a disastrous short program in Sochi, making mistakes on two of the three required jumps and plummeting to 16th place.

But she completely turned it around in the free skate, delivering this emotional, career-best performance. She earned the highest free skate score of her career up to that point and jumped up 10 spots to sixth place overall.

During the inaugural figure skating team event in Sochi, 15-year-old Russian Yulia Lipnitskaya won acclaim from Russians and figure skating fans across the globe with her free skate performance to “Schindler’s List” (though it was a choice of music that didn't come without some controversy). Not only did she pull off seven triple jumps, but Lipnitskaya's performance drew movingly from the movie's "Girl in the Red Coat" character.

Her first place finish in the women’s portion of the team event helped lock up the team gold for Russia. She wasn’t able to recreate the magic in the ladies’ event later in the Games, however, finishing just out of contention for a medal in fifth place.