XIV Winter Olympics - Sarajevo 1984 | Pairs' Highlights (Top 3 SP&LP)

Figure skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics took place at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

A major change in the figure skating scoring system was in effect for the 1984 Winter Olympics. Previously, skaters and couples had been judged by a majority placement system for total scores. After all phases of the competition were skated, all the scores were added up, with percentages applied to each phase, and each judge ranked the skaters from first to last. The 1st place in the competition went to the skater who was chosen first by a majority of the judges (there were tie-breakers in case this did not occur). But by 1984, the scoring system was changed to one of factored placements. Majority placement was still used for each phase. But after each phase, the placement was multiplied by a factor for that phase – 30% for compulsory figures, 20% for short program and 50% for free skating for men and women in 1984. The effect of this was to place greater emphasis on the free skating.

The pairs were ranked on Ordinal Placement for each section of the competition, based on judges' points, with final placement for each section determined by Majority Placements. The tiebreaker for the Original Program was the Required Elements score, while the tiebreaker for the Free Skating was the Artistic Impression score. Thus, if a pair was ranked first by a majority of the judges, that skater was placed first overall for that section. Ties were broken by a Subsequent Majority rule. The tiebreakers were then, in order, 1) Number of Majority Placements, 2) Total Ordinals of Majority, 3) Total Ordinals. Final placement was determined by factored placements. The placement for the Original Program was factored by 0.4 (28.57%), and the placement for Free Skating was factored by 1.0 (71.43%). The sums of the factored placements were then used to determine final placement, with the Free Skating being the tiebreaker.

The last five World titles had been won by five different pairs. Since the retirement of Rodnina and Zaytsev no couple had come to the fore as the top skaters. In Sarajevo, the 1983 World Champions, Yelena Valova and Oleg Vasilyev won both the short program and the free skate to win the gold medal. They would also win the 1985 World Championships. The silver medals went to the US brother-sister tandem of Kitty and Peter Carruthers, who had been third at the 1982 Worlds. Another favored pair, Canada’s Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, struggled with a fall in the short program and would finish only seventh. A few weeks later they would defeat Valova and Vasilyev to win the World Championships. Valova and Vasilyev were coached by Tamara Moskvina, while the bronze medalists, Larisa Seleznyeva and Oleg Makarov, were coached by her husband, Oleg Moskvin.

Medalists:
1. Yelena Valova / Oleg Vasilyev (USSR)
2. Kitty Carruthers / Peter Carruthers (USA)
3. Larisa Seleznyova / Oleg Makarov (USSR)