Brian Boitano Tickets

Details of Brian Boitano and the Ticket Luck value

Brian Anthony Boitano (born October 22, 1963 in Mountain View, California) is an Italian-American figure skater. He is a four-time US National Champion (1985-1988), two-time World Champion (1986, 1988) and the 1988 Olympic gold medalist. He became a professional skater following the 1988 season and once again in 1994. Brian Boitano first won the bronze medal at the International 1978 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, beating out future rival Brian Orser for that medal. This debut brought many laurels to his hat of success.

In 1982, Boitano became the first American to land a triple axel. In 1987, he introduced his signature jump, the 'Tano triple lutz in which the skater raises his left arm above his head. He attempted a quadruple jump throughout the 1986-87 seasons and at the 1988 World Figure Skating Championships, but did not cleanly land the jump. Following the 1984 Olympics, several skaters emerged as likely medal hopes following the retirement of Scott Hamilton. Boitano won the 1985 United States Figure Skating Championships, the first of his four titles. At the first World Championships of the post-Hamilton era in 1985, Alexander Fadeev won, with Orser finishing 2nd and Boitano 3rd. At the 1986 World Championships, Boitano took the title, while Brian Orser had a disastrous free skate despite having been in an excellent position to win.

Boitano was known primarily as a jumper early in his career and he, along with several other skaters, helped push the technical envelope of men's skating. It was not until his failure to defend his World title in 1987 that he focused specifically on improving his artistry. The 1987 World Championships were held in Cincinnati, giving defending World champion Boitano a home-field advantage. The outcome of the event would set the tone for the 1988 Olympics. At Worlds, Boitano fell on his quadruple toe loop attempt and placed second. After losing the world title to Orser at home, Boitano and his coach Linda Leaver decided that some changes needed to be made if Boitano was to become the Olympic champion. Boitano had also been good at the technical requirements, but he was weak on the artistic. He was a self-described jumping robot. In order to help his growth as an artistic, he hired choreographer Sandra Bezic to choreograph his programs for the 1987-1988 Olympic season.

Going into the Olympics, Boitano and Brian Orser both had won a World title and both had excellent, balanced repertoire, with Boitano being known as the slightly better technician and Orser as the better artist. Adding to the rivalry, Boitano and Orser were both performing military-themed programs. The Battle of the Brians at the 1988 Winter Olympics was the highlight of Boitano's amateur career. Boitano and Orser were effectively tied going into the free skating portion of the event and whoever won that portion would win the event. Alexander Fadeev had won the compulsory figures section of the competition with Boitano second and Orser third. In the short program, Orser placed first and Boitano on the second.

Boitano's lobby proved successful and in June 1993, the International Skating Union (ISU) introduced a clause, commonly known as the Boitano rule, which allowed professionals to reinstate as 'amateur' or 'eligible' skaters. This had been the result of Boitano's active involvement during the early 1990s, which saw professionals being allowed in the Olympic Games in the sports of tennis and basketball. Boitano reinstated as an amateur to compete in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Following the Olympics, Boitano went on to dominate competitions in the professional ranks, winning 10 straight professional competitions, including 5 consecutive World Professional Championship titles and 4 consecutive wins at the Challenge of Champions. Boitano also appeared on Carmen on Ice, for which he won an Emmy. However, Boitano wanted to return to amateur competition and make another run at the Olympics.