The 1987 World Figure Skating Championships were held in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 10 – 15….as medals were awarded in men’s singles, ladies’ singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. In men’s singles, Brian Orser of Canada won gold….USA Brian Boitano captured the silver medal…..and Alexander Fadeev of the USSR garnered the bronze medal……whereas in the ladies singles….East Germany Katarina Witt captured the gold medal….while USA Debi Thomas won the silver….and USA Caryn Kadavy received the bronze medal In the pairs skating competition the Russians won gold and silver with Ekaterina Gordeeva + Sergei Grinkov and Elena Valova + Oleg Vasilliev respectively…..while the USA pair of Jill Watson and Peter Oppegardice capturing the bronze medal. The Ice Dancing competition gold and silver again were won by the Soviets….with legendary ice dancers Natalia Bestemianova + Andrei Bukin winning gold….while Marina Klimova + Sergei Ponomarenko winning silver…..while the Canadian pair of Tracy Wilson + Robert McCall taking the bronze.
This World Figure Skating competition provided a foreshadowing of who the top contestants would be when they all faced off again at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics from February 13 – 28 the following year. Any way you cut the pie…..these 1987 World Championships are well worth the watch by any and all fans of figure skating.
