Your favourite skaters of all-time?

I have many favorites but my ALL TIME favorites will always be

Ladies: YUNA, MAO & SASHA COHEN
Men: YUZURU HANYU
Ice Dance: V/M

Kurt Browning and G/G.

Of the more current crop: Javi (Shoma is my current favourite) and Yuzuru. Sui and Han. P/C and Evgenia.

Favorites;

Yuzuru Hanyu

Yulia Lipniskaya

If I had to choose an ultimate favorite it would be Yuzuru.

Skaters I really like;

Tonya Harding
Mao Asada
Evgenia Medvedeva
Alina Zagitova
Alena Kostornaia
Kaori Sakamoto
Carolina Kostner
Ashley Wagner
Shoma Uno
Jason Brown
JunHwan Cha
Javier Fernández

And of course my babies Andrea Montesinos and Donovan Carrillo

FAVORITES FROM CURRENT SKATERS
Ladies - Alina Zagitova
Men - Yuzuru Hanyu
Pairs - Sui & Han
Ice Dance - Virtue & Moir

OTHER CURRENT SKATERS I REALLY REALLY LIKE A LOT
Ladies - Kaetlyn Osmond, Satoko Miyahara, Kaori Sakamoto, Mirai Nagasu
Men - Javier Fernandez, Jason Brown, Shoma Uno, Patrick Chen
Pairs - Savchenko & Massot (Aliona - you made my list twice - way to go!)
Ice Dance - The Shibutanis, Chock & Bates

ALL TIME FAVORITES - MY LEGENDS
Ladies - Midori Ito
Men - Evgeny Plushenko
Pairs - Mishkutenok & Dmitriev
Ice Dance - Davis & White

FOR THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
FANTASTIC - BUT NOT MY ALL TIME FAVS
Ladies - Michelle Kwan (her record and her sportsmanship speaks for themselves)
Men - Patrick Chan (he is the founding father of the quad revolution and forced the others to "up their game")
Pairs - Savchenko & Bruno/Robin (Aliona is a goddess! 'nuf sed)
Ice Dance - Torvil & Dean (not a "fan" per se, but they are living legends)

Tessa Virtue :2thumbs:

Ladybug89 said:

Ladies:
Irina Slutskaya (She‘s the reason why I fell in love with figure skating. In 1996 I saw her in TV, I was 6 years old, she was 16 by the time and became european champion.. So I wanted to be sooo much like her Ever since I followed everything figure skating I could back then without Internet and as a very young child)

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YESSSSS to Slutskaya! Love her so much.

And I mean... Yuzuru Hanyu is just.... what else could you possibly want in a skater?

ermmm.... let me think. ... oh.. wait.. yah.. : Patrick Chan

Yuzuru Hanyu and Alexei Yagudin; I dream of a parallel world where they are at the same age and compete against each other

Favorite of All Time
Yuzuru Hanyu, first and foremost, and probably forever, for reminding this lapsed figure skating fan how much I love this sport.

Others I love to watch:
Javier Fernandez
Patrick Chan (what amazing skating skills)
Michelle Kwan (my first favorite, when I was just a kid)
Yuna Kim
Virtue/Moir
Savchenko/Massot
Alina Sagitova
Evgenia Medvedeva

Thanks for joining us, Phoinos, and welcome! Post often, post long!

All time favorite: Evgenia Medvedeva

Other favorites:
Mao Asada
Sasha Cohen

Hanyu
Jeremy Abbott
Plushenko
Vasilijevs

Sui/Ban
Zhang with any partner

Anissina/Piezerat
Hubbell/Donahue

Osmond4gold said:

She will never be a top tier skater, only skates to show tunes, has uncontrollable and wild jumps, needs to smile less, her injury is career ending, only scores well in Canada and never internationally, cannot skate a LP to save her soul, her Helsinki Silver was a fluke, she will never be a GP Finalist, an Olympic or a World podium contender ever again, so some on here have said.

And now as the singles most decorated woman in the sport the last 2 years, I say 'You Go Girl', and her FANS and even her naysayers will forever remember her as a World Champion and for her as an Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze medalist, ...so my choice is,

Kaetlyn Osmond!

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Who? Oh right because your name isn't a hint. LOL But I have to concur. I love this girl/lady. She is often forgotten but has spunk and power.

[I[/I]There are so many skaters deserving to be my faves but I would say in no particular order

PAIRS

Gordeeva and Grinkov - The romance, the unison, her smile, his strength,their story. The epitome of wonderful pairs skating.

M and D from Russia - they had wonderful tricks, flexibility and magic.

B and S from Russia - they had certain "it" factor.

MEN

.Alexei Yagudin Great combinaton of artistry and athleticism
Patrick Chan - Had the olympics been at a different time he would have had OGM - the purist of skaters artistically and technically - wonderful jumps, spins, footwork and a purenss of skating
Kurt Browning - wonderful feet and charisma
Stephan Lambiel - an artist on ice
Jeffrey Buttle - another artist on ice


DANCE

Virtue and Moir Just brilliant; able to take pieces to the next level
Klimova and Ponomarenko Wonderful artistry and emotion
Krylova and Oksianikov Drama on ice - they brought it all.
Usova and Zhulin (prior to the affair) They could melt ice; such fire and passion


LADIES

Michelle Kwan A wonderful blend of musicality, artistry and technical
Yulia Lipinskaya A delight, oozed likeability
Kaetlyn Osmond Power, fire and a touch of ice princess - wonderful
Maria Butryskaya - a real woman who skated with elegance and maturity.
Liz Manley - such a fireball - so powerful
Oksana Baiul- artistry from the heart
Sasha Cohen - a gorgeous lyrical skater

My current top 10 would look like this:

01. Sasha Cohen
02. Arakawa Shizuka
03. Yulia Lipnitskaya
04. Asada Mao
05. Evgenia Medvedeva
06. Hanyu Yuzuru
07. Alena Kostornaia
08. Kim Yuna
09. Mirai Nagasu
10. Gracie Gold

Mens: Patrick Chan without a doubt. I don’t expect to see a mens singles skater with his skating skills ever again, at least in my lifetime. I am so glad that he eventually got his OGM.

Ladies: Yuna Kim and Kaetlyn Osmond. The Queen and my favourite current day warrior princess. The two (healthy and consistent) should be in the running for everything they enter.

With Yuna, just everything was textbook, then on top of that she had amazing expression ahhh. Her Gershwin was a true true Olympic moment and one of my standout memories of any Olympics.

With Kaetlyn, I love her jumps so much; they have sooooo much height and are probably the highest of the current field or def. up there (which is incredibly underrated), her landings are gorgeous and just picture perfect and she just becomes whatever she is in her programs. Skating to Edith Piaf? She is Edith Piaf. Skating to Black Swan? She is the black swan. Her expression just makes her so enjoyable to watch over and over again. Kaetlyn is such an incredibly genuine performer that she just stands out even without showy programs or jumps because her expression is dead on and she fights for that expression and commitment to the program and music every single time. Nothing gets half-assed, if those jumps are there they’re high, if she spins it’s fast and with really underratedly awesome positions, if there’s a choreo sequence then she’s throwing herself into it. I remember Skate Canada 2015 she was coming back from injury and she had fallen on almost every single jumping pass and through it all she fought for the program and still didn’t back off, then in the kiss and cry she said “it can only get better from here.” She finished 11th. And it did, just barely two years later she had an OGM and OBM and was world champion. I love both her and Yuna so much.

Pairs: Gordeeva/Grinkov, Shen/Zhao (and of current skaters Sui/Han are on their way there). There is something so transcendant about watching all of these teams, they just take you away and captivate you from moment one. Different teams and different styles that’s for sure, but just with such undeniable qualites to them.

Dance: don’t even have to think about it. Virtue/Moir. The GOATs. Gorgeous speed, edgework and flow, everything has a purpose and meaning, it is pure skating and pure fundamental dance, the technicians and the artists and the perfect balance and blend of the two. The only team on the world podium whilst still being junior eligible in at least 40 years, youngest Olympic champions, most medals in the individual event... but most of all their skating really does speak for itself, even if you put all of this aside you can tell that they are the champions. For me, they are the quintessential meaning of ice dance.
(also as a side note with V/M Scott’s skating skills are the best I have ever seen in any discipline, he makes standing on one foot whilst holding a whole actual other person look effortless and never loses speed or flow or anything, the edges are just so so deep, the boot always ending up a infinitely tiny distance away from the ice... that’s one of the reason’s why they’re so so enjoyable to watch. And with Tessa, she is my standard for dance ability not just in ice dance but in all disciplines. So much of that is trained but so much of it is also just the way she innately feels the music and knows how to express movement. No-one quite moves like a dancer on the ice as she does, from the arms to the carriage to the expression.)

So those are my picks, if I kept going with my million honourable mentions then this would become a very very long post.

Favorite of all time: Mao Asada, Patrick Chan, Mirai Nagasu (sentimental favorite)

Favorite active seniors: Kaori Sakamoto, Mai Mihara, Dmitri Aliev, Yuzuru Hanyu, Shoma Uno, Nathan Chen

Secret favorite active seniors: Vincent Zhou, Rika Hongo

Favorite juniors: Alena Kostornaia, Andrew Torgashev, Camden Pulkinen, Tomoe Kawabata, Ting Cui

I follow the men pretty much exclusively...

Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandez, is you may have noticed, are my absolute favourites.

Stephane Lambiel, Takahito Mura, Sergei Voranov and Elladj Balde come close thereafter, Jason Brown and Boyang Jin (I'm fond of sunshine in human form) as well.

And yes, I know there's little rhyme or reason to it - we don't choose who we love, after all, we just do, and often find the reasons afterwards. But Yuzu and Javi.... surely it's obvious why folk love them, me and all.

Well, here's my list in order.

Men's:
1. Robin Cousins- great choreography, first person I loved at the Olympics
2. Scott Hamilton- quick steps, humorous,
3. Paul Wylie- smooth, musical, fleet footed, inspiring
4. Stephane Lambiel- artistic, fine spinner

Ladies:
1. Elaine Zayak- the one who got me hooked into skating, incredible triples, terrific layback, gutsy, known for coming from behind, fearless
2. Michelle Kwan- artistic, breathtaking, programs always reached me emotionally, great role model, always got a standing ovation
3. Midori Ito- most proficient in triples, beloved
4. Lu Chen- mesmerizing esp. 1996 Worlds

Pairs:
1. Tai and Randy- heartbreak kids, in synch with each other, fantastic line
2. Gordeeva and Grinkov- pure love, elegant, smooth
3. Peter and Kitty Carruthers- wonderful performance at the 1984 Olympics
4. Shen and Zhao- incredible athleticism and artistry, class act

Ice Dance:
1. Seibert and Blumberg- All American, nice choreography/costumes
2. Torvill and Dean- perfection
3 Belbin and Agosto- made the sport look fun and easy , always smiling

Mathman said:

Thanks for joining us, Phoinos, and welcome! Post often, post long!

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Thanks for the welcome!

Triple loop said:

Well, here's my list in order.

Men's:
1. Robin Cousins- great choreography, first person I loved at the Olympics
2. Scott Hamilton- quick steps, humorous,
3. Paul Wylie- smooth, musical, fleet footed, inspiring
4. Stephane Lambiel- artistic, fine spinner

Ladies:
1. Elaine Zayak- the one who got me hooked into skating, incredible triples, terrific layback, gutsy, known for coming from behind, fearless
2. Michelle Kwan- artistic, breathtaking, programs always reached me emotionally, great role model, always got a standing ovation
3. Midori Ito- most proficient in triples, beloved
4. Lu Chen- mesmerizing esp. 1996 Worlds

Pairs:
1. Tai and Randy- heartbreak kids, in synch with each other, fantastic line
2. Gordeeva and Grinkov- pure love, elegant, smooth
3. Peter and Kitty Carruthers- wonderful performance at the 1984 Olympics
4. Shen and Zhao- incredible athleticism and artistry, class act

Ice Dance:
1. Seibert and Blumberg- All American, nice choreography/costumes
2. Torvill and Dean- perfection
3 Belbin and Agosto- made the sport look fun and easy , always smiling

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i must have not been even born when they were competing since i have never heard of those teams/skaters until now. i might look them up.