Skaters Who Peaked Before The Olympics

Lamente Ariane · Feb 17, 2018

I was thinking about some of the skates this and other seasons that I wished had happened at the Olympics, but instead happened earlier or later in the season.

On the one hand, it's a real shame the world didn't get to see them at their best, but on the other hand they still happened, and that's something to be happy about. What are some of your favorite examples of this?

I'll get things started with a couple from this season

Han Yan, Cup of China Free Skate 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pra9Um3g98

Deniss Vasiljevs, Europeans Short Program 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bonTc7NdMTM

Warwick360 · Feb 17, 2018

Midori Ito. Bar none. If she had done what Midori Ito could do, she would have had the Gold. Alas, it wasn't the best two weeks for her, both pressure wise and technique wise. Still love her glorious/successful 2nd attempt at the triple axel though. :drama:

Weathergal · Feb 17, 2018

If you mean in any season, the first one that comes to mind is Michelle Kwan's 1998 Nationals performances, especially in the FP.

drivingmissdaisy · Feb 17, 2018

Every man in the Sochi men's event (except Denis Ten).

johnsmith72 · Feb 17, 2018

Honestly, Michelle peaked too early for both Olympic performances.... her national's performances both years were of better quality. Also Akiko Suzuki peaked too early at Japanese Nationals in 2014...

zanadude · Feb 21, 2018

Medvedeva?

chopinskate · Feb 21, 2018

Kostner and Sotskova.

zanadude said:
Medvedeva?

She's skating the exact same stuff she always does. I don't think it's a peak with her as much as it's a plateau.

AnalyticalMind · Feb 21, 2018

I can't think of anything that hasn't already been said, but I think in general, from the outside, it's hard to distinguish peaking too early versus underperforming due to the pressure of the Olympics getting to people's minds. Did Michelle under-perform in 1998 because she was under so much pressure, or was she actually in better shape at Nationals? Similarly, I think I would put Nathan Chen in this category: he was clearly physically able to deliver as evinced by his FS; I think he was just spooked by the Olympics.

Other things that I don't think are peaking:
- Skaters whose primes were in off-Olympic years: I think peaking is about managing the skater's conditioning such that they're at their best physical shape at the Olympics, rather than the overall trajectory of their career coinciding with the Olympics (i.e., peaking is about within-season performance rather than between-season performance).
- Incomplete recovery from an injury (i.e., Hanyu).

Blades of Passion · Feb 21, 2018

Warwick360 said:
Midori Ito. Bar none. If she had done what Midori Ito could do, she would have had the Gold. Alas, it wasn't the best two weeks for her, both pressure wise and technique wise. Still love her glorious/successful 2nd attempt at the triple axel though.

Midori Ito in 1988 did peak at the Olympics though, that was her best ever showing to date, and she probably deserved that Gold medal even with figures taken into account. Her SP + LP were both so clearly the best of the event and it could be said that Witt + Manley only deserved 5th + 6th in the SP, as well as lower figures rankings. Hard to tell since we don't have full figures footage (although the figures footage I've seen for Witt was not impressive), but we do know the placements in figures were often quite political, like everything else.

Warwick360 · Feb 21, 2018

Blades of Passion said:
Midori Ito in 1988 did peak at the Olympics though, that was her best ever showing to date, and she probably deserved that Gold medal even with figures taken into account. Her SP + LP were both so clearly the best of the event and it could be said that Witt + Manley only deserved 5th + 6th in the SP, as well as lower figures rankings. Hard to tell since we don't have full figures footage (although the figures footage I've seen for Witt was not impressive), but we do know the placements in figures were often quite political, like everything else.

Nah. For me the peak of Midori was Worlds 1990. That triple axel was probably one of the cleanest/gorgeous Axel from her that i've ever seen. Not to mention, it was my first intro to Scheherazade. Simply tremendous.

Blades of Passion · Feb 21, 2018

Midori landed her Triple Axel after 1988 Olympics though. I was speaking of her career up to that point in time. She did have a peak Olympic performance, the first time around.

Skaters Who Peaked Before The Olympics

Lamente Ariane

Skating Skills -5, Fashion +3, Camp +4

Warwick360

Weathergal

drivingmissdaisy

johnsmith72

zanadude

chopinskate

AnalyticalMind

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be

Warwick360

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be

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