All time & current favorite skaters

Hi,

I became a huge fan of figure skating in 2001 because of Evgeni Plushenko. I was like 7 and fell in love with him . From the get go, I became a die hard fan of Plush, Slutskaya and Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze and then developped in adoring a lot of other skaters.
I am wondering who are everybody's all time favourite and current favourite skaters by categories. If you have favourite programs as well, please share

Mine all time favourites :
MAO, Irina Slutskaya, Lu Chen, Fumie Suguri
DAISUKE, EVGENI, YUZURU, Brian Joubert
Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, Shen/Zhao, Volozozhar/Trankov, Mischkuteniok/Dmitriev
Ice dance probably Anissina/Peizerat. But I gotta say i am more program driven. I can love a team one year and then be underwelmed when i don't like a program the next year. Also I wasn't a fan of Virtue/Moir but their Carmen FD and their 2014 olympics SD are two of my favourite dance programs ever.

Current favs :
Liza, Lena, Anna, Zijun, Rika
Han Yan
Sui/Han, Marchei/Hotarek
Ruslena, Papadakis/Cizeron, Cappelini/Lanotte, Yanovskaya/Mozgov

Virtue/Moir (who will be on all-time favorites list, whether they return to competition or not)

Brian Boitano

Too many current favorites to list !

My favorites are far too many because I just like this sport and all of the personalities and tremendous stories that come with it. While I find myself pulling for just about everyone I have to admit that I do have one current favorite skater and one all time favorite skater.

Current: Yulia Lipnitskaya (brought me back to caring about the sport on the major competitive level and is exactly what I needed to see in the sport. Creative and sincere skating )

All Time (and the reason I got into the sport) Sasha Cohen. I think you can imagine why.

Hi !

I fell in love with skating by watching Brian Joubert a couple of years ago. He's one of my all time favourite, with Anissina/Peizerat, and Midori Ito (even if I wasn't watching skating during their carriers).
In the past years, I was (and I'm still) a big fan of Yuna Kim. I also have a crush on several japanese skaters, Daisuke, Mao, Akiko, I enjoyed Tatsuki Machida too ( all retired :'( ). I'm a huuuuge fan of Yuzuru since I saw him at Worlds in 2012.

Currently, my favs would be :
Liza, Elena, Kanako, Kiira, Ashley
Yuzuru, Javier, Joshua Farris, Adam Rippon
Duhamel/Radford, Sui/Han, James/Ciprès
Papadakis/Cizeron, Hurtado/Diaz, Nazarova/Nikitin

And I won't talk about the Juniors .... or I will never stop And I'm already forgetting too much people .. Péchalat/Bourzat, Jeremy Abbott..... This is too difficult :hopelessness:

Pika-Alva said:

Hi !

I fell in love with skating by watching Brian Joubert a couple of years ago. He's one of my all time favourite, with Anissina/Peizerat, and Midori Ito (even if I wasn't watching skating during their carriers).
In the past years, I was (and I'm still) a big fan of Yuna Kim. I also have a crush on several japanese skaters, Daisuke, Mao, Akiko, I enjoyed Tatsuki Machida too ( all retired :'( ). I'm a huuuuge fan of Yuzuru since I saw him at Worlds in 2012.

Currently, my favs would be :
Liza, Elena, Kanako, Kiira, Ashley
Yuzuru, Javier, Joshua Farris, Adam Rippon
Duhamel/Radford, Sui/Han, James/Ciprès
Papadakis/Cizeron, Hurtado/Diaz, Nazarova/Nikitin

And I won't talk about the Juniors .... or I will never stop And I'm already forgetting too much people .. Péchalat/Bourzat, Jeremy Abbott..... This is too difficult :hopelessness:

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Hello
Yes Brian was such a special skater :') that was really the end of an era when he retired. I miss him a lot. And I agree with you, Japanese figure skating is really something special. I love your picks! Love Nat&Fab and Nazarova/Nikitin ahah but making choices is so difficult and yeah so many juniors coming our way!

Sam-Skwantch said:

Current: Yulia Lipnitskaya (brought me back to caring about the sport on the major competitive level and is exactly what I needed to see in the sport. Creative and sincere skating )

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Yulia is fantastic, I hope she comes back strong next year!

daphenaxa said:

Hi,

I became a huge fan of figure skating in 2001 because of Evgeni Plushenko. I was like 7 and fell in love with him ;

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I no wonder https://twitter.com/MriaSzalai/status/501319887286206464/photo/1 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQo4mLyGsNE&t=4m47s as a porcelain doll

all time favorites: Plushenko, Lu Chen, Mao, Kwan, Krylova/Ov, Berezhnaya/Sikh, Oxana Baiul,

current: so many: Lena, Liza, Julia, Yuzuru, Evgenia, Papadakis/ Cizeron, etc.

daphenaxa said:

Hello
Yes Brian was such a special skater :') that was really the end of an era when he retired. I miss him a lot. And I agree with you, Japanese figure skating is really something special. I love your picks! Love Nat&Fab and Nazarova/Nikitin ahah but making choices is so difficult and yeah so many juniors coming our way!

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Indeed! Brian has an incredile charisma , and is moreover an adorable person.
Nazarova Nikitin have really pleased me this year with their FD, I like the teams bringing some creativity to ice dance, just as Nat&Fab
I can't wait next season to see the evolution of my junior crushes Wakaba Higuchi, Shoma Uno (Japan again! hahaha)

It's really hard to narrow down just a few favorites. Although not all skaters are my favorites I appreciate them all for their talents and each one/pair is special in their own ways.
My all time favorite favorites:
Mishkutenok & Dmitriev
Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze
Gordeeva/Grinkov
Klimova/Ponomarenko
Anissina/Peizerat
Krylova/Oksyannikov
Drobiazko/Vanagas
Sasha Cohen
Kurt Browning
Current favorites:
Mao, Yulia, Liza, P/C, I/Z. This list is constantly growing....

All Time:

Yuna Kim. In 2012, I was only searching for a reference photo/video to use in one of my design projects when I stumbled upon Yuna's Gershwin LP at Vancouver Olympics and it was the start of an addiction. I've watched every single video of her on Youtube and I get mesmerized every time. I hoped I got to know her earlier when she was still competing and rising to be one of the best ever. I wish I could have watched her journey. When she came back in 2013 for Worlds, I was too excited. Her performance of Les Mis at Worlds was a golden moment. I remember watching the 2014 Olympics at 3 in the morning and having mixed emotions about the result and also because it was the last time she'd perform on competitive ice. But beyond her athleticism, what really made me a big fan is Yuna's kind, compassionate, generous, classy character. And with that, I can proudly say she's one of my heroes.

Another one would be Mao. Her 2014 LP was just full of emotions. I admire her journey with the 3A and how she kept it alive for a looong time.

Current:

- Liza. Her hard work, more so than the 3A, is just an inspiration. I hope she'll have a good rest and come back strong again.
- Yulia. Sans the jumps, Yulia is my favorite Russian skater. I'm not a fan of her Schindler's List program, I still think the music carried her, but she has improved this season and her Megapolis is my favorite SP. Hope for her great come back. *and please skate to Spirited Away's theme
- Ashley. I like her personality. She doesn't sugarcoat anything. She admits she has flaws and works hard to improve. Love her LP at Nationals! I've watched it a lot of times.
- So Youn. I am a fan of So Youn's balletic arms.
- Zijun. Is the real princess on ice for me. She's just a beauty to watch.
- Satoko. She has the best blade work among the current competitors in my opinion. She reminds me of Caro a lot. She's like a tiny, younger version of Caro.

I wish all skaters to have great performances next season and that no one would suffer from nasty injuries.

All time:
Sasha Cohen-She is my number one. I saw her for the first time when I was 6(just on TV). I don't know and honestly I don't remember very well why but I fell in love to her skating. I just remeber I was amazed when I saw her spirals. I was so sad when she didn't get spot in 2010. Still she is my favorite. Even when she did a mistake the overall performance looked beautiful. She also had amazing musicality and interpetation.

After Sasha these are my favorites:
Daisuke Takahashi-for his amazing interpretation and musicality. I believe him every single look when he is skating. Artist.
Tomáš Verner-I love his gala programs. Every time I watched him in competition I thought my nerves won't survive . Now when his competitive career is over I don't care about his results so much. I watch his gala programs very much and his SP from Worlds 2014 is maybe my favorite SP of all.
G/G-classic and clean. I don't know exactly how to express my feelings so I will write the sentence some of the commentators said after their FP at 1988 Olympics: It was like they were skating in the air.
Meryl and Charlie in ice dance(but maybe they should be included into current?). I also loved S/S and Mao Asada.

Current
Ashley is the one I always cheer for. I am always so nervous I don't watch her jumps. I just watch the TES score. I love how she always fights. She was 6th after SP at GPF. She skated amazing FP. She had terrible programs last year at Nationals. This year she won her title back with two excellent programs. She was 11th at Worlds. She just fought for a better results and improved to overall 5th. All she needs is to put two great programs together not just at Nationals but also at the end of the season at Worlds.
Liza and Julia-both of them are very, very hard-working and dedicated to skating. They have very different styles but I love the both. For that comeback Liza showed us and because all she has been I just couldn't not cheer for her. I hope Julia will be back. She can do that.
Satoko Miyahara
Chinese pairs-I love their style
Papadakis/Cizeron
Weaver/Poje

Okay!

All-time:

Men: Ilia Kulik, Alexander Abt, Kurt Browning, Daisuke Takahashi, Patrick Chan....

Ladies: Yuna Kim, Mao Asada, Michelle Kwan, Midori Ito, Akiko Suzuki, Yuka Sato....

Pairs: S/Z, S/S, G/G....

Ice Dance: A/S, K/P, D/W, V/M, T/D....

Current:

Men: Abbott, Brown, Farris, D10, Hanyu, Fernandez, Yan, Ge.... I like a lot of the current men thought.

Ladies: Radionova, Tuktamisheva, Chen, Bell, Miyahara, HJ....

Pairs: S/H.... and that's it.

Ice Dance: W/P, P/C, S/S....

All time: Shizuka, Sasha, Mao
Current: Yulia, Rika

Michelle Kwan and Brian Boitano current Jason Brown

Wow, there are so many.

Let's see, all time favorites, in no particular order:
Men - Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Josef Sabovich, Evgeni Plushenko, Alexei Yagudin, Illia Kulik, Daisuke Takahashi, Kurt Browning, Tomas Verner, Jeremy Abbott
Ladies - Mao Asada, Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, Yuna Kim, Carolina Kostner
Pairs - Shen/Zhao, Sale/Pelletier, Volosozhar/Trankov, Pang/Tong
Dance - Meryl Davis/Charlie White, Annissina/Pierziat, Delobel/Schoenfelder, Domina/Shablin

And current favorites:
Men - Yuzuru Hanyu, Javier Fernandez, Adam Rippon, Jason Brown, Sergei Voronov
Ladies - Satoko Miyahara, Julia Lipnitskaia, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Elena Radionova, Ashley Wagner, Karen Chen, Kanako Murakami
Pairs - Sui/Han, Seguin/Bilodeau, Marchei/Hotarek, Yui/Jin and I'm really liked what I saw from Castelli/Tran, but we'll see how that goes next year.
Dance - Papadakis/Cizeron, Shibutani's

I never knew Verner and Abbott did ladies, Gia.

All-time (retired)
Sasha Cohen, Yuna Kim, Joannie Rochette, Stephan Lambiel, P/T, V/M

Current
Ashley Wagner, Kanako murakami for top 2 and Liza and Julia. I'm not into Men singles, but recently I became a huge fan of Jason Brown. For Ice dance, shibutanis and P/C.

Woops! Thanks! I forgot them, and meant to add them in the right row and obviously didn't. Thanks for the heads up!

All Time:
Ladies: Yu Na Kim!, Michele Kwan, Sasha Cohen
Men: Kurt Browning, Daisuke Takahashi, Robin Cousins
Pairs: Shen/Zhao, Sales/Pelleteier, Babilonia/Gardner
Dance: Torvill/Dean, Rahkamo/Kokko, Duchesnays

Current:
Ladies: Mao Asada (considering her still not retired), Elena Radianova, Li Zijun
Men: Dennis Ten, Jason Brown, Jeremy Abbott
Pairs: Volosozhar/Trankov, Pang/Tong
Dance: Shibutani's, Papadakis/Cizeron

All Time Favorite: Yuna Kim. I used to be a very casual FS viewer back in 2004-2006 and stuck to primarily watching WCs if they were on TV or the OG (exception being Michelle performing Tosca at Nationals!!!)

anyway, one fine day during the summer of 2009, I read about the upcoming OG in Vancouver and figured let's check out what's going on in FS. I checked Wikipedia and lo and behold, a Korean skater had won the 2009 WC. Back then, my love-fest for all things Korean had just started and I just had to check Yuna out. I first watched Danse Macabre at worlds and I was hooked! then I watched Scheherazade and I was totally in love
Eventually I got around to watching Tango de Roxanne at 2007 WC and that just cemented my love of her skating.

Through her I discovered many other wonderful skaters and this forum!

Other Favorite Skaters:
Mao Asada - multi-talented with amazing determination and such elegance and purity in her skating. You just can't help but love her.
Daisuke Takahashi - brings such passion to the ice. It's a joy to watch him skate.

Current Favorites:
no favorites yet but I enjoy watching Satoko's LPs, Liza for her confidence and Denis for the ease with which he skates.

All time:

Men: Plushenko, Alexander Abt, Stephane Lambiel, Daisuke Takahashi, Johnny Weir, Tomas Verner, Brian Joubert
Ladies: Sasha Cohen, Mao Asada, Miki Ando
Pairs: G/G, S/S
Ice Dance: I barely watch it, but Anissina/Peizerat were amazing (if more ice dance looked like that, I would be a fan)

Current:

Men: Javier Fernandez, Sergei Voronov, Yuzuru, Deniss Vasiljevs, Konstantin Menshov, Adian Pitkeev, Alexander Petrov (+ many others)
Ladies: I like all of the Russian ladies, but Liza deserves special mention of course
Pairs: V/T, S/K, K/S