Elvis Stojko

When Stojko graduated to the adult level of competition, he quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with there as well, finishing ninth at the 1990 world championships. He moved up in 1991, but only to sixth, despite landing an unprecedented quadruple-double jump combination. Then he suffered a major disappointment at the 1992 Olympics. In sixth place after the short program, he finished seventh despite being the only competitor not to make any mistakes during the long program. The international judges, who were used to elegant costumes, classical music, and ballet-style dancing on ice, "ridiculed" Stojko's uncut hair and the punk-inspired costumes that his mother sewed for him, he said. "I was told to get in touch with my feminine side," Stojko later recalled to Time magazine's Robert Sullivan. "I said, 'Buddy, I don't have a feminine side.'"

Two years later, Stojko returned to the Olympics and skated such a clean and athletic program that the judges were forced to give him a silver, if only because he was the only one of the major competitors who did not make any mistakes. It was certainly not because he had become more classical in his style: He skated to music from the sound track of the film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. A month later, skating the same program at the world championships, Stojko won the gold.