Your favourite skaters of all-time? | Page 5 | Golden Skate

Your favourite skaters of all-time?

gossipcow

Rinkside
Joined
Mar 4, 2018
I am surprised at the relative shortage of people distinguishing Michelle Kwan. Even more so, considering that like 50% or more GS members are from the USA.

I'm an American who grew up during Michelle's heyday, but only recently got into watching the sport properly. I will say she's probably one of the few figure skaters that most Americans would be able to name (at least, until this past Olympics) and there's the general knowledge that she was a truly great figure skater. She's definitely an athlete who moved into "cultural icon" status in the late 90s/early 2000s.

With that kind of clout, there's a certain expectation that she must have been amazing and I wonder if that sense of expectation makes it harder for younger fans getting into the sport, perhaps, to truly enjoy her. Granted, I am generalizing, I can't be sure that most of the US fans here are in my age bracket and would share my sentiment.

Going back and watching her performances now, I think she has an amazing presence and has a lot of amazing qualities (hello spirals!) and deserves all her accolades. However, she's not a personal favorite and I sometimes still feel a little removed from her skating and I'm not sure if that's because I didn't follow her while she was active or due to the sense of expectation I had going in.
 

Danibellerika

Medalist
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
I am surprised at the relative shortage of people distinguishing Michelle Kwan. Even more so, considering that like 50% or more GS members are from the USA.

I'm American and I have never liked a US skater because of their nationality, or ANY skater for that matter. Either your skating speaks to me or it doesn't. I would say I appreciate Michelle more now than back then, but honestly and truly it was Sasha and Plushenko that got me to really follow the sport and become a fan to ubering levels. And yeah Sasha was American, but as a direct competitor to Michelle she might as well not have been. At least that was my feeling back then when it came to the forums.
 

CellarDweller

Ice Time
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Country
United-States
Ladies

Nancy Kerrigan
Sasha Cohen
Michelle Kwan

Men

Todd Eldrige
Rudy Galindo
Elvis Stojko

Pairs

Shen/Zhao
Meno/Sand
Brasseur/Eisler
Sale/Pelltier


Ice Dance

Torvill/Dean
Bourne/Kraatz
 

rinkside_user

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 5, 2016
Ladies:
Irina Slutskaya (She‘s the reason why I fell in love with figure skating. [...])

YESSSSS to Slutskaya! Love her so much.

Same here.

Ladies: Slutskaya
Men: Hanyu
Dance: Virtue/Moir

Of course, I also very much like a number of other skaters (Kim, Savchenko, a number of Russian teams in pairs and dance etc.), but the list would be too long, and the above mentioned 4 deserve special mention in my book.
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
I am surprised at the relative shortage of people distinguishing Michelle Kwan. Even more so, considering that like 50% or more GS members are from the USA.

I'm from the US and while I will admit Michelle Kwan is a very good skater however for me I really disliked her toothpaste grin spiral so it would be difficult for her to be a favorite of mine. :slink:
 

Jetta

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 13, 2018
First post here. Hi to all!

Been a figure skating fan for over four decades. Some skaters are just a joy to watch.

Ladies-
Michelle Kwan
Yuna Kim
Oksana Baiul
Sasha Cohen
Janet Lynn


Men:
Yuzuru Hanyu
Kurt Browning
Patrick Chan
Jason Brown
Alexei Yagudin
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Welcome, Jetta. Thanks for joining us. Anyone who likes Michelle Kwan and[/Janet Lynn is OK by me! :)
 

WineHerUp

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Ladies:
Mao Asada
Yuna Kim
Shizuka Arakawa
Julia Lipnitskaya
Michelle Kwan
Kaetlyn Osmond

Men:
Daisuke Takahashi
Yuzuru Hanyu
Shoma Uno
Patrick Chan
Han Yan
Stephane Lambiel
Tatsuki Machida
Adian Pitkeev
Javier Fernandez

Pairs:
Savchenko/Szolkowy
Savchenko/Massot
James/Cipres
Pang/Tong

Dance:
Virtue/Moir
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
What about the pro category?

Men: Rudy Galindo, Viktor Petrenko.
Ladies: Kristi Yamaguchi, Irina Grigorian
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
All time favorites:

Todd Eldredge
Shen and Zhao
Scott Hamilton - this is purely from his exhibition/attitude - competitive days were before my time
Sasha Cohen
Yulia Lipnitskaia
 

ladyjane

Medalist
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Country
Netherlands
I've been watching skating for so long that it's difficult for me to put down a short list, let alone just 1 or 2 skaters. I'll stick to my - far too long - lists of all the disciplines I posted earlier. Sorry all.
 

danse

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 17, 2017
All-Time Favourites: Bourne/Kraatz, Kurt Browning, Virtue/Moir. I could watch any of them skate to a robot voice reading the phone book.

That being said, I have a bunch of skaters who have a warm place in my heart like Elvis Stojko, Alexei Yagudin, etc (I could go on, but the list would be very long!)
 

StephenGfan

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Trusova (and the other juniors) on an all-time list already?

I find it a little odd to have half your list be Russian junior girls and zagitova when they haven't even reached their full potential yet (that's why i don't have stephen listed)but hey, to each is own. *shrugs*
 
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