Small and Mighty Club

[NanaPat]

Dai is an example of a skater I consider "small but mighty" as an ice dancer, but not as a singles skater.

 

[4everchan]

Dai is an example of a skater I consider "small but mighty" as an ice dancer, but not as a singles skater.

I totally agree.

 

[Ruthypegs]

I love this thread!

I think some of the pairs and ice dance skaters should be given extra points for being very close in height/size to their partners, and having the strength to lift them/throw them - so bonus points to Mighty Marco and Jean Luc.

 

[el henry]

I agree that pairs and dance should have a higher ceiling.

Jean-Luc is the primary example for me (my guess is he is 5'5"?) Normal size for men's singles, but major props for ice dance

 

[4everchan]

I agree that pairs and dance should have a higher ceiling.

Jean-Luc is the primary example for me (my guess is he is 5'5"?) Normal size for men's singles, but major props for ice dance

he is 5'7 or 170 cms... like Cong Han... not that short but for ice dance, rather short.

 

[s_parks]

he is 5'7 or 170 cms... like Cong Han... not that short but for ice dance, rather short.

I'm pretty sure Cong Han is definitely shorter than 5'7", despite what his bio may claim.

 

[elektra blue]

On calling small skaters mushrooms...

I think it started with Shoma Uno who was so tiny on the podium next to Yuzu. At times his hair was so thick it looked like a mushroom cap on his head. Unbelievably cute.

i just want to hug baby Shoma and feed him (because i'm italian, if something is cute i have to feed him )

Uh oh - There will have to be an open discussion about this to decide on this...
I was going by the comments when I searched for "small and mighty" in the discussion and included everyone mentioned and did not verify everyone's height. Thanks for pointing it out. Any suggestions on what should be the limit?

Paging @anonymoose_au @labgoat @moonvine @elektra blue

i believe the limit should be 170 cm. also i think Tomoki Hiwatashi qualifies

 

[Jeanie19]

i just want to hug baby Shoma and feed him (because i'm italian, if something is cute i have to feed him )

i believe the limit should be 170 cm. also i think Tomoki Hiwatashi qualifies

Wikipedia says Tomoki is 160 cm

 

[labgoat]

I am going let the discussion continue for a bit so others can still comment.

Key points so far:
- There should be different limits for pairs & dancers (the skaters who prompted this discussion were dancers at 5 ft 5 in and 5 ft 7 in who had competitors at 5 ft 11 in (Bukin & Katsalapov) and pairs (Cong Han @ 5 ft 7in). This is a case in point that @anonymoose_au suggested where there is a noticeable height difference.
- There are several emeritus that will be granted membership immediately Moskvina, Midori
- There are several active skaters who will also qualify immediately Tomoki
- Skaters should not qualify until after their growth spurt otherwise you have a Nam Nguyen situation
- How tiny should the girls be? Liza T, Kristi Yamaguchi should they qualify?

 

[Mathematician]

Petrosian is 4'7 (1.4m), I think she is clear for the women's list:

Valieva is only about 5'2 and looks like Shaq next to her.

- How tiny should the girls be? Liza T, Kristi Yamaguchi should they qualify?

Figure skating girls are really short. Tuktamysheva being 5'2 similar to Valieva (I think?) and looking very normal. Definitey not "tiny" by figuring skating standards. Muravieva at 5'3 sometimes almost looks sorta tall even.

I'd say under 5' should be the women's mark.

 

[moonvine]

I am going let the discussion continue for a bit so others can still comment.

Key points so far:
- There should be different limits for pairs & dancers (the skaters who prompted this discussion were dancers at 5 ft 5 in and 5 ft 7 in who had competitors at 5 ft 11 in (Bukin & Katsalapov) and pairs (Cong Han @ 5 ft 7in). This is a case in point that @anonymoose_au suggested where there is a noticeable height difference.
- There are several emeritus that will be granted membership immediately Moskvina, Midori
- There are several active skaters who will also qualify immediately Tomoki
- Skaters should not qualify until after their growth spurt otherwise you have a Nam Nguyen situation
- How tiny should the girls be? Liza T, Kristi Yamaguchi should they qualify?

The girls all look freaking tiny to me.

 

[anonymoose_au]

The girls all look freaking tiny to me.

They do...except a lot of them are actually around my height or indeed taller!

Whereas aside from Shoma and Kevin all the small but mighty men would be not so tiny to me where I to meet them in real life.

Ah the irony that I'm the perfect height for a figure skater but completely lack the flexibility to ever become one. (Yeah that was the only reason )

 

[icewhite]

Petrosian is 4'7 (1.4m), I think she is clear for the women's list:

Valieva is only about 5'2 and looks like Shaq next to her.


Figure skating girls are really short. Tuktamysheva being 5'2 similar to Valieva (I think?) and looking very normal. Definitey not "tiny" by figuring skating standards. Muravieva at 5'3 sometimes almost looks sorta tall even.

I'd say under 5' should be the women's mark.

Are you sure Petrosyan is still only 1,40? That would be incredibly small. Isn't she 16 now?

 

[synesthesia]

Way back in 2021, we had been discussing men, dance and pairs at Skate Canada and some of our awesome smaller male skaters and formed a club for them named the small and mighty club.

Small and Mighty Club
Founder @anonymoose_au
Co-founders - @labgoat @moonvine @elektra blue @yuumagical
Originating Threads (as best as I can tell):

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/2021-skate-canada-pairs-free-skate.89413/post-2831872

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/2021-skate-canada-free-dance.89411/post-2834001

Criteria : Awesome male skaters 5 feet 5 inches or 1.65m (under review*)

Prez - Cong Han
VPs - Marco Fabbri & Jean-Luc Baker
Treasurer - Shoma Uno (cause he's precious)
Emeritus (EM) - Paul Wylie, Scott Hamilton, Dan Hollander, Tamara Moskvina, Midori Ito

Other members:

Singles- Men
Keegan Messing
Kazuki Tomono
Tatsuki Machida
Kevin Aymoz
Nobunari Oda
Florent Amodio
Yuma Kagiyama
Jimmy Ma
Kao Miura
Shun Sato
Tomoki Hiwatashi

Singles - Women
height TBD

Dancers
Marco Fabbri
Jean Luc Baker*
Michael Parsons*
Daisuke Takahashi*


Fellow GSers, let me know if I have any details wrong or I missed acknowledging you in some way.
We are always accepting nominations for new members.

These are the heights in cm of the currently listed members (for the dancers and pair skaters I added the height of their partners to compare their height gaps).


Prez - Cong Han 170
VPs - Marco Fabbri 164 (165) & Jean-Luc Baker 170
Treasurer - Shoma Uno (cause he's precious) 158
Emeritus (EM) - Paul Wylie 163, Scott Hamilton 163, Dan Hollander 157, Tamara Moskvina 147 (Alexei Mishin ?), Midori Ito 145



Singles- Men
Keegan Messing 165
Kazuki Tomono 160
Tatsuki Machida 162
Kevin Aymoz 160
Nobunari Oda 164
Florent Amodio 164
Yuma Kagiyama 161
Jimmy Ma 164
Kao Miura 168
Shun Sato 162
Tomoki Hiwatashi 160


Singles - Women
height TBD


Dancers
Marco Fabbri 164 (Charlene Guignard 158 -> 6 cm / source: wikipedia; their ISU bios say 165 for Marco and 161 for Charlene -> 4 cm)
Jean Luc Baker 170 (Kaitlin Hawayek 160 -> 10 cm)
Michael Parsons 170 (Caroline Green 162 -> 8 cm)
Daisuke Takahashi 165 (Kana Muramoto 162 -> 3 cm)


Pairs
Cong Han 170 (Wenjing Sui 150 -> 20 cm)





It got a bit inconsistent now. Kao is very mighty, but too tall for the club (sorry, Kao ). With the current cut-off in place Dai belongs in both the singles and dance categories. If it’s under 165 cm for singles men, then Keegan would be out.


If the cut-off for the men is 165 cm (5' 5''), maybe it could be 155 cm (about 5' 1'') for the women? (Imo there doesn’t need to be a distinction between singles and pairs/dance women.)


Tiny, mighty women I’d like to nominate:

Riku Miura 145 (Ryūichi Kihara 175 -> 30 cm)
Meagan Duhamel 148 (Eric Radford 188 -> 40 cm)
Narumi Takahashi 148 (Mervin Tran 175 -> 27 cm)
Wenjing Sui 150 (Cong Han 170 -> 20 cm)
Kristi Yamaguchi 151 (Rudy Galindo 168 -> 17 cm)
Wakaba Higuchi 152
Aljona Savchenko 153 (Robin Szolkowy 174 -> 21 cm / Bruno Massot 184 -> 31 cm)

 

[TT_Fin]

Satoko Miyhara's bios says 152 cm. I thought she was smaller.

 

[el henry]

One note on Paul Wylie, at 5'4" just coming in as small but mighty for singles.

But did you know he skated pairs? And won US junior Nats as a pair skater? I didn't

Emeritus twice.

 

[elektra blue]

Wikipedia says Tomoki is 160 cm

he meets the requirements

How tiny should the girls be? Liza T, Kristi Yamaguchi should they qualify?

i'd say 155 max and be 18 or older (girls tend to have late growth spurts in figure skating)

 

[4everchan]

These are the heights in cm of the currently listed members (for the dancers and pair skaters I added the height of their partners to compare their height gaps).


Prez - Cong Han 170
VPs - Marco Fabbri 164 (165) & Jean-Luc Baker 170
Treasurer - Shoma Uno (cause he's precious) 158
Emeritus (EM) - Paul Wylie 163, Scott Hamilton 163, Dan Hollander 157, Tamara Moskvina 147 (Alexei Mishin ?), Midori Ito 145



Singles- Men
Keegan Messing 165
Kazuki Tomono 160
Tatsuki Machida 162
Kevin Aymoz 160
Nobunari Oda 164
Florent Amodio 164
Yuma Kagiyama 161
Jimmy Ma 164
Kao Miura 168
Shun Sato 162
Tomoki Hiwatashi 160


Singles - Women
height TBD


Dancers
Marco Fabbri 164 (Charlene Guignard 158 -> 6 cm / source: wikipedia; their ISU bios say 165 for Marco and 161 for Charlene -> 4 cm)
Jean Luc Baker 170 (Kaitlin Hawayek 160 -> 10 cm)
Michael Parsons 170 (Caroline Green 162 -> 8 cm)
Daisuke Takahashi 165 (Kana Muramoto 162 -> 3 cm)


Pairs
Cong Han 170 (Wenjing Sui 150 -> 20 cm)





It got a bit inconsistent now. Kao is very mighty, but too tall for the club (sorry, Kao ). With the current cut-off in place Dai belongs in both the singles and dance categories. If it’s under 165 cm for singles men, then Keegan would be out.


If the cut-off for the men is 165 cm (5' 5''), maybe it could be 155 cm (about 5' 1'') for the women? (Imo there doesn’t need to be a distinction between singles and pairs/dance women.)


Tiny, mighty women I’d like to nominate:

Riku Miura 145 (Ryūichi Kihara 175 -> 30 cm)
Meagan Duhamel 148 (Eric Radford 188 -> 40 cm)
Narumi Takahashi 148 (Mervin Tran 175 -> 27 cm)
Wenjing Sui 150 (Cong Han 170 -> 20 cm)
Kristi Yamaguchi 151 (Rudy Galindo 168 -> 17 cm)
Wakaba Higuchi 152
Aljona Savchenko 153 (Robin Szolkowy 174 -> 21 cm / Bruno Massot 184 -> 31 cm)

fabulous work

having seen keegan in person, he deserves to be on this list he is very tiny.

gabbie izzo is 156, thierry ferland is 172 a gap of only 16 cms which is very impressive. Lori-Ann Matte, Thierry's former partner is 152cm... they had a similar gap to sui-han. Lori-Ann's new partner is 177 cms. A more decent 25 cms gap for this new team.

Kirsten Moore-Towes 148cm.
Lubov 153cm

 

[moonvine]

They do...except a lot of them are actually around my height or indeed taller!

Whereas aside from Shoma and Kevin all the small but mighty men would be not so tiny to me where I to meet them in real life.

Ah the irony that I'm the perfect height for a figure skater but completely lack the flexibility to ever become one. (Yeah that was the only reason )

I believe Alexa is 5’1”

 

[moonvine]

fabulous work

having seen keegan in person, he deserves to be on this list he is very tiny.

gabbie izzo is 156, thierry ferland is 172 a gap of only 16 cms which is very impressive. Lori-Ann Matte, Thierry's former partner is 152cm... they had a similar gap to sui-han. Lori-Ann's new partner is 177 cms. A more decent 25 cms gap for this new team.

Kirsten Moore-Towes 148cm.
Lubov 153cm

I’m so jealous…