Turkey, stuffing, and the USA versus the World
A look at the professional skating competition that used to rule Thanksgiving weekend
From 1994 - 2006, Thanksgiving weekend marked an international battle that many, (including myself) circled on their calendars every year. Who needed turkey and stuffing when there was Ice Wars, a professional figure skating competition set up to pit the U.S. versus the rest of the world, airing on CBS the night over Thanksgiving weekend.
Ice Wars1 was holds an important place in the history of professional skating competitions: one of the first and most highly publicized of the post-1994 Olympics skating boom, and the last man standing when it came to professional skating competitions.
Founded by promoter Mike Berg in the summer of 1994, Ice Wars was conceived as a chance to pit Olympic silver medalist Nancy Kerrigan against the Ukrainian who upset her for the gold medal in that year’s Lillehammer Games, Oksana Baiul. The first edition, filmed on November 9, 1994 in Uniondale, New York and November 12, 1994 in Providence, Rhode Island, offered its competitors strikingly large paydays, thus drawing the sport’s best names. Alongside Kerrigan and Baiul was 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi and 1984 and 1988 Olympic gold medalist Katarina Witt. The men involved were just as heralded, with 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano and 1992 Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie rounding out Team USA, and 1992 Olympic champion Viktor Petrenko and four-time World champion Kurt Browning completing Team World.
The first Ice Wars was a hit, and also offered several story lines for the future. It was the first time Kerrigan and Baiul would face Yamaguchi in a pro competition, and neither would come close to her prowess, either in Ice Wars or other pro competitions. Yamaguchi’s participation throughout the years was spotty, taking part in and dominating the first two editions, but then taking a three year break before returning, then taking another few years off before taking part for the last time in 2004.
Brian Boitano’s participation was the opposite of Yamaguchi’s: he was the lone skater to compete in every edition.
Browning had a disappointing outing in the first Ice Wars, just one in a string during a rough first pro season for the Canadian. But that season would turn out to be a blip - like Boitano, Browning would go on to be the standard-bearer of the event, only missing the 1998 edition. One could argue that his persistence in the event was a major impact in his popularity in the U.S., where he was still headlining skating shows in his mid-50s until June 2023.
And during that very first night of the very first Ice Wars, a young skater whose agent happened to be Berg, the event’s founder, performed an exhibition. That skater? A young Tara Lipinski, who would compete in the event four times after winning the 1998 Olympic gold medal.
During its heyday, Ice Wars was as reliable as canned cranberry sauce. Those first few years, you knew exactly what you would get: consistency and beauty from Yamaguchi, a surprising (in many ways) performance from Baiul, huge jumps from Boitano, a dramatic movie interpretation from Wylie, and something laid back and cool from Browning. (On another note, Boitano and Browning are two of the skaters who took part in this memorable Ice Wars opening from 1997.)
In its later years, Ice Wars was the last professional skating competition shown on network television. When the last edition was held in November 2006, it became the last American pro competition to be aired on broadcast television. Even the legendary World Professional Figure Skating Championships (a highly-regarded Dick Button-produced event that started in 1973) had shut down six years earlier.
This Thanksgiving Weekend, my “Me-Time” will include the 2004 Ice Wars, which I know I watched, but can’t remember. It’ll include remembering the Ice Wars party I once held for my friends Andrea and Amanda (thank goodness for high school friends who tolerated my skating obsession.) It’ll also include my own scheming about how we could bring this competition back, because to me, it is just not Thanksgiving without Ice Wars.
Ice Wars results are archived at both Golden Skate and Skate Guard.
Other notes
Gabbie Izzo, a former national and international competitor out of The Skating Club of Boston, recently retired from the sport after a career pivot towards pairs skating. Here’s my May piece on that change for the Boston Globe…In October, I previewed the second annual Dick Button Festival of Artistic Skating for Figure Skaters Online…Much of my work recently has involved another ice sport, women’s hockey. You can always read that work here. Thank you for your support.
This event has nothing to do with Ice Wars, the recent on-ice combat sports event. In fact, it was very much the exact opposite of that.
I attended the very first Ice Wars in November 1994. At the time, coming so soon after Lillehammer, it felt like a huge event! What I remember most is Kristi Yamaguchi's cool, beautiful skating. And Oksana Baiul commanding the moment in lavender harem pants and top to skate to "The Feeling Begins." The latter music was pretty new at that time and felt daring and different back then. Oksana either took forever to start her program, or took a dozen bows afterward, or both--very much demanding, or needing, the audience's attention. The event was held at Nassau Coliseum, which is still the best venue I have ever been in to watch skating events, and also home to the 1998 Goodwill Games a few years later. An event to remember. :-)