The Olympic skates people still talk about include Torvill and Dean's Boléro in 1984, Yuna Kim's record-breaking free skate in 2010, Yuzuru Hanyu's Seimei in 2018 and Alysa Liu's comeback gold in 2026. Some won by a mile, some won by a fraction, and one of the most loved didn't win at all. Here's what made each of them special.
Key takeaways
- Torvill and Dean's Boléro in Sarajevo earned twelve perfect 6.0s, nine of them for artistic impression, a mark no one has matched.
- Yuna Kim's 2010 free skate scored 150.06 and her total of 228.56, both world records at the time, won by more than 23 points.
- Yuzuru Hanyu won his second Olympic title in 2018 with Seimei, three months after an ankle injury, the first man to repeat in 66 years.
- Not every great Olympic skate won gold. Michelle Kwan's Lyra Angelica in 1998 is still loved, even though she took silver.
- Milano Cortina 2026 added new classics: Alysa Liu's free skate from third to gold, and a pairs world record from Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara.
Ask ten skaters for the greatest Olympic performance and you'll get ten answers, usually with a story attached about where they were watching. That's part of the fun. This list leans on performances that did something measurable, like a record score, a perfect mark or a comeback, along with a couple that simply stayed with people.
We've grouped them by era, because a 6.0 from 1984 and a score from 2026 aren't the same kind of number. The old system ranked skaters against each other, and the current one adds up points for each element, so records from the two can't be compared directly.
Classics from the 6.0 era
Torvill and Dean, Boléro, Sarajevo 1984
On Valentine's Day 1984, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of Great Britain skated their free dance to Ravel's Boléro and received twelve perfect 6.0s, including nine for artistic impression. No one has matched that, and it's still the most famous score in the sport.
Katarina Witt, Carmen, Calgary 1988
Calgary had the "Battle of the Carmens", because Katarina Witt of East Germany and Debi Thomas of the United States both skated their free programs to Bizet's Carmen. Witt won and became only the second woman, after Sonja Henie, to win two Olympic singles titles in a row. Elizabeth Manley of Canada skated the best free program of the night to take silver, and Thomas won bronze, the first Winter Olympic medal for an African American athlete.
Michelle Kwan, Lyra Angelica, Nagano 1998
Michelle Kwan arrived in Nagano as the favorite and led after the short program. Her free skate to William Alwyn's Lyra Angelica was quiet and lovely, but six of the nine judges put Tara Lipinski first, and Lipinski became the youngest Olympic figure skating champion at 15. Kwan took silver. Her Lyra Angelica is still a favorite with a lot of skating fans, which tells you a medal isn't the only way to be remembered.
Alexei Yagudin, The Man in the Iron Mask, Salt Lake City 2002
Alexei Yagudin of Russia won the short program and then the free skate, set to music from The Man in the Iron Mask, with every judge placing him first. Four of the nine judges gave him a perfect 6.0 for presentation. His rival Evgeni Plushenko fell in the short program and climbed back to silver, and Timothy Goebel of the United States took bronze.
Under the new judging system
Yuna Kim, Gershwin, Vancouver 2010
Yuna Kim of South Korea skated to Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and scored 150.06 in the free skate, a world record, for a world record total of 228.56. She won by more than 23 points over Mao Asada of Japan. It was South Korea's first Olympic gold in figure skating, and the free skate still comes up whenever people talk about the most complete performances in the sport.
Nathan Chen, Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022
Nathan Chen has two Olympic skates on this list for different reasons. In 2018 he was 17th after the short program, then landed six quads in the free skate and climbed to fifth. Four years later in Beijing, he set a short program world record of 113.97, landed five quads in his free skate to Elton John's music from Rocketman, and won gold with 332.60.
Yuzuru Hanyu, Seimei, Pyeongchang 2018
Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan damaged ankle ligaments in a fall in practice at the NHK Trophy in November 2017 and missed about three months before the Games. He came back with Seimei, a free skate built on music from the film Onmyoji, scored 206.17 and won with 317.85. He became the first man in 66 years to win two Olympic singles titles in a row, and said afterward that the ankle had never fully healed.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Moulin Rouge, Pyeongchang 2018
Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir skated their free dance to music from Moulin Rouge and won with a world record total of 206.07, just 0.79 ahead of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France. Papadakis's costume came unhooked at the neckline in the short dance, and the French team still scored 81.93 for second place behind Virtue and Moir, with no deduction on the ISU score sheet. It was Virtue and Moir's fifth Olympic medal, and the Associated Press called them the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history.
Your water bottle is looking a bit bare
Holographic skating stickers, kiss-cut and water-resistant. Pick three and the price drops on its own.
Build a bundleNew classics from Milano Cortina 2026
Alysa Liu came into the women's free skate in third, skated to a long version of MacArthur Park, choreographed by her coach Massimo Scali, and scored 150.20 to win with 226.79. She had retired at 16 and come back on her own terms, and she became the first American woman to win Olympic singles gold since Sarah Hughes in 2002. Our story on Liu's comeback tells the whole thing.
In pairs, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan were fifth after a lift error in the short program. Their free skate scored 158.13, a pairs world record, and won Japan its first Olympic pairs medal of any color. In the men's event, Mikhail Shaidorov landed five quads to win Kazakhstan's first Olympic figure skating gold, after trying that layout about three times that season without getting it clean.
The performances at a glance
Here they are in one place. Scores are only shown for the current judging system, since 6.0 marks were placings rather than points.
| Games | Skater | Program | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarajevo 1984 | Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean | Boléro (Ravel) | Gold, twelve 6.0s |
| Calgary 1988 | Katarina Witt | Carmen (Bizet) | Gold, second in a row |
| Nagano 1998 | Michelle Kwan | Lyra Angelica (Alwyn) | Silver |
| Salt Lake City 2002 | Alexei Yagudin | The Man in the Iron Mask | Gold, four 6.0s |
| Vancouver 2010 | Yuna Kim | Piano Concerto in F (Gershwin) | Gold, 228.56 |
| Pyeongchang 2018 | Yuzuru Hanyu | Seimei | Gold, 317.85 |
| Pyeongchang 2018 | Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir | Moulin Rouge | Gold, 206.07 |
| Beijing 2022 | Nathan Chen | Rocketman (Elton John) | Gold, 332.60 |
| Milano Cortina 2026 | Alysa Liu | MacArthur Park | Gold, 226.79 |
| Milano Cortina 2026 | Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara | Pairs free skate, world record 158.13 | Gold, 231.24 |
Why these skates stick
Look at the list again and the jumps aren't really the common thread. What these skates share is a program that fits the skater, music that carries a story, and a skater who delivered it when it counted most. Kwan didn't win, and people still talk about her. Liu went from third to first with a program she clearly loved skating.
That's good news for the rest of us, because a program that feels like you is something any skater can work on. If you're choosing music for your own program, our guide to choosing skating music is a good start, and our page on famous Olympic music choices has more of the stories behind these pieces. The costumes have their own page too, on iconic Olympic costumes.
Scores and placements here come from official results and contemporary reporting. If we've left out your favorite, you're in good company, because every skater has one.
Sources
Results and scores come from official Olympic results and reporting at the time. Where sources disagreed, we left the detail out.
- Olympics.com, Torvill and Dean steal hearts on Valentine's Day, Hanyu edges out YOG star for skating gold and Virtue and Moir smash record for gold.
- Olympics.com, Figure skating medallists, Milano Cortina 2026.
- Britannica and Wikipedia, figure skating at the 1984 Winter Olympics (the twelve 6.0s).
- UPI, East Germany's Katarina Witt easily outdueled American Debi Thomas (February 1988).
- NPR, Skating upset (February 1998), and Team USA, A look back at Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan in Nagano.
- Dawn and the Lawrence Journal-World on the 2002 men's event, and Olympedia's 2002 results.
- Christian Science Monitor, Kim Yuna record score (February 2010).
- Sports Illustrated on Nathan Chen's 2018 free skate, and AP reporting on his 2022 gold.
- CBC on Hanyu's 2017 ankle injury, and Kyoto Shimbun on the music for Seimei.
- International Skating Union, Incredible Alysa Liu strikes gold in spectacular finale and Miura and Kihara soar to historic Olympic pair skating gold for Japan (February 2026).
