Urmanov is the more elegant skater of the two but Stojko had the better choreography, spins and jumps. Stojko should have won the Gold Medal in my opinion.

The first 10 seconds of this program are amongst the most frightening and embarrassing in figure skating history

Over the years people have come to view the authenticity of figure skating outcomes, the way they view the authenticity of wrestling. Not highly. Primarily in judging. Urmanov was over marked technically and artistically. Because you skate to classical music in the background does NOT make you an artistic skater. When Urmanov kept buckling his knees at the beginning in some sort of Charleston dance move and had those stiff jerky arm movements, and then when he bizarrely looked like he was answering a telephone later in the program along with spastic head jerks, I cringed in pain. Stojko won but was denied the gold due to erroneous judge bias and error.

I had wondered if time would enamour this programme to me a bit more but, nope, I still dislike it as much as I did at the time. I hated the choreography, that knee knocking nonsense was just horrible and overall there were so many boring pauses and dead spots. Where was an Olympic Champion's footwork and/or spins because they weren't here. Some of the jumps were good quality but questionable landings on more than just that hideous flip couldn't save a programme that I found just so lacking in any excitement or star quality. Seems like the judges were determined to get all four figure skating results wrong in Lillehammer!

1994 was the most exciting year in figure skating. Makes me sentimental for the good old days, despite scoring flaws.

Urmanov has one of the best 3Axels ever, perfect form....

The reason he won was purely political... the judges favored the Soviets, and once Petrenko (who won every other competition that season) was out of contention, Urmanov became plan B. It happens all the time in skating!!

Sometimes you go back to those brilliant programs performed by Olympic champions and you totally get why they won. There's a charisma, a magical quality about how they skated that still gives you chills 20 years later. Urmanov's program is not one of them. I hated the program then, I hate it even more now. No one would be caught dead with that choreography and quite honestly, most of it was so poorly executed I think the judges were blindfolded whilst judging if they give this mess the gold medal.

Yeah, I'm not a huge Stojko fan - he's not my cup of tea - but in this competition everything he did was better than Urmanov. Urmanov's classical style appeals to judges but Stojko really had more authentic choreography. Urmanov just seemed insincere and be flailing about. It's like he was doing his movements because a choreographer told him this is artistry.

Oh man. I was never a fan of most of Mishin's students but good lord the choreography in this program is so hacky and odd. I don't get all the discussion about how his skating was so aesthetically pleasing and classical. The music, yes, but the choreography was just odd. 5.9s for this? No way. And even though his jumps were excellent (those triple axels are extraordinary) his spins were awful. There was little value in those spins at all. That's technical, too, and just should have put him even further behind Stojko on that mark.

Алексей Урманов моя любовь в фигурном катании❤️❤️❤️ Великолепен!

Urmanov was so unfortunate. He should’ve achieved much more than what he did. Had he not injured in 97 Worlds FS, he easily could’ve won 97 Worlds and 98 Olympics and regarded as a legend.

Urmanov was excellent, but I prefer Philip Candeloro' performance. He was so strong, emotional

How far men's figure skating has progressed in 30 years ; Ilia Malinin just won the gold medal at the 2024 World's with six perfect quadruple jumps.

What is the music name of the last part?

I remember watching this at the time and thought Urmanov had a ridiculously choreographed program. Just watched it again to see if age has changed my opinion. (It didn't.)

No emotion from either of them after Urmanov gets his artistic marks.

The first 🇷🇺 man to win the 🥇medal in Lillehammer ever

No way this guy should have beaten Elvis Stojko.

He actually deserved this gold medal