Alina Zagitova, the Greatest? | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Alina Zagitova, the Greatest?

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iluvtodd

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Also, GOAT isn't just for Olympic medalists. Fabulous skaters like Kurt Browning, Janet Lynn and Michelle Kwan have won multiple titles - the only one to elude them was Olympic gold. However, you shouldn't dismiss multiple national and world titles.

:agree:
 

katymay

Medalist
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Mar 7, 2006
At 17, she already has the Grand Slam: Olympics, Worlds, Europeans and GPF. I have respect for past greats but the competition is much tougher these days and the skaters are pushing the boundaries with quads, so it's amazing that she's achieved all that with this level of competition. She still has many years left in her career including a possible second Olympic gold but even with what she has I'm ready to call it for now. What do you guys think?

I think she is definitely part of an elite group of 'greats'. Yuna, Kristy, etc. A possible second Olympic Gold? I dunno. Maybe. Ten years ago I would have said, yes, of course. Now though? Chances are slim. There are Quadsters from the four corners of the World and they are a comin'.
 

zanadude

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Feb 20, 2016
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She also has World Jr. and Jr. Grand Prix titles under her belt.

Definitive answer: she's not the GOAT now, but she's put herself in position to become the GOAT with another spectacular four years worth of results. Assuming she starts getting some quads in her arsenal.
 

Lechat

On the Ice
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Alina is great. I don’t like to say the greatest because many skaters are great and she has guts.

Alina won the olympic title and she skated like an olympic champion in Saitama because people said the wrong russian skater hold the olympic gold medal and she proved it wasn’t a fake win.

I admire her willpower because I can imagine how she felt after the olympic and this saison was tough but she fought until the end. No matter what for me she’s a champion and has nothing to prove. I want her to have fun and to polish her artistry, the quad and 3A are not important if she can top her jumps but I admit I would be excited if she can do a quad flip.
 

rlopen

On the Ice
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Jul 4, 2016
Well, i don't know a lady in modern era who won everything but an olympic medal. Kwan, Slutskaya, Asada, Kostner, they won all major titles, don't have oly gold but olympic medals.
A skater like Asada who won multiple times GPF (record holder with slutskaya), 4CC (record holder with Suguri), Worlds (just behind Kwan in modern era), all GPs (the only one, and record holder with 15 GPs), an oly silver, can pretend to be amond the GOATs .

Tuktamysheva. She has won Worlds, Euros, and GPF. Unfortunately not only has she never been able to win an Olympic medal, she hasn’t even been able to go to the Olympics. :(
 

yume

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Tuktamysheva. She has won Worlds, Euros, and GPF. Unfortunately not only has she never been able to win an Olympic medal, she hasn’t even been able to go to the Olympics. :(

Oh yes! I forgot her. A rare case.
 

Alex65

Final Flight
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Aug 11, 2018
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The GOAT for me is Madge Syers. The only one who competed with men and beat almost all of them:biggrin: And the one who made ISU create Women world championship.
......

OT
Wow! I want it back. You must give it to Sasha!
 

lariko

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Jan 31, 2019
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I have the same experience too in Australia haha... whenever I say I am going to a skating competition, people's first reaction is "oh you compete in skating?" :palmf: Now I have to say I am watching a skating competition.

Ha-ha, me too! I know, that Canadians are not doing so good in the discipline atm, but if it comes down to me, we are really in trouble. It also makes a complicated tech-assisted exchange to back up the ‘wow, Hanyu is going to be at SC!’ I honestly just need to look up a famous hokey player name to make that small talk with countrymen less cumbersome. “It’s like Gretzky in figure skating!”

Honestly, if Alina or Yuzuru, or anyone else can breakthrough the sport into the popular awareness I’ll be so happy!
 

gmyers

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Yes she is. The reasons are thus

3/3 of enormous difficultly
All backloaded
Wins worlds after Olympics - this is key!!! Because it has been win worlds win Olympics vanish
Her difficulty is greater than Kim yuna- her only rival for best ever
 

yume

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Honestly, if Alina or Yuzuru, or anyone else can breakthrough the sport into the popular awareness I’ll be so happy!

If Yuzu had social media and his mother the communication and maketing skills of Yuna Kim's mother, maybe he could do that. He already increased FS popularity and he's the only one who can sell tickets in 5min.
 

Scott512

Record Breaker
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Feb 27, 2014
Or in the near future for the ladies - the way things are going - 21.

For sure competing until age 30 is not doable for the Russian ladies. If Alina is still going strong at age 20 I will be very happy.

As for who are the greatest of all-time exchange through the decades because when Katarina Witt went back to back play the Olympic titles in 1984 and 1988 the competition was a lot weaker then. It will obviously be hard for any female skater to go back for back in the future. Almost impossible.
 

Jammers

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United-States
I judge by my eyes who is a better skater and watching Yuna and Alina both at 16 there is no comparison Yuna has the speed flow and stunning jumps that Alina just doesn't have and everything is so smooth watching Yuna skate while Alina's skating doesn't have the same quality.
 

Tere19

Rinkside
Joined
Jun 23, 2019
Not yet ....the true is that the older you win titles the more merit she has...remember medvedeva won absolutly all in her first two seniors years ...Alina was very lucky to have them so near her (the olympics )...but if she wins again a gold medal even if its the team gold she can be a goat ...Yuna was like 19 when she won the gold ?very difficult...
 

KwanIsALegend

Fly On
Medalist
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I find her frantic and jerky. No flow or grace on the ice.

GOAT is subjective. Medals don't determine it for me. If I go to TY and watch her videos over and over than there is something there. But do I do that? Never.
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
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Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
GOAT is subjective.

True. Thing is, are we talking about a greatest of all time or the greatest of all time, because the latter is never ever going to reach even reasonable consensus in any discipline. A greatest, she's well on the way, especially if she can stay on top at or after 18 and therefore mature artistically. But I very much doubt that the majority of serious skating fans, let alone casual, will be easily persuaded to place her higher than Yuna or Mao or Katarina.

Not yet, anyway.
 

[email protected]

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Mar 26, 2014
The notion of GOAT in figure skating is a travesty to me. We do not compare apples and apples. I watched a couple of times recently Rodnina/Zaitsev and Pahomova/Gorshkov, arguably GOAT in pairs and dance. I felt nothing. It was a different figure skating 40 years ago. It was a different figure skating 10 years ago. I have no idea if Katarina Witt with all her achievements back then could be competitive today - the last several seasons to win was about 7 triples, 3-3 combos, backloading, and consistency. Would Katarina be able to do it - I have no idea. But the negative answer is possible. There is progress in figure skating.

Saying that we had Evgeniya Medvedeva who was the undoubted leader for 2 seasons. And then Alina beat her when it mattered most. It was very close, sure. I and my wife were very sad because we wanted Medvedeva to win. But we admitted that Alina won fair and square. And I thought and still think that her DQ was a masterpiece with a tremendous replay value. Now the last seasons. When many people here already put the world's crown on Rika's head Alina won the worlds with a huge margin. She is the greatest skater of modern times. And if she has another season like that then she is worth nothing but awe. Because neither Yuna, nor any other contender for GOAT title ever faced the competition of the array of girls who jump quads and who very seldom make mistakes on triples.

It's the new era now much more advanced than what was before and whoever shows the supremacy for 2 and especially 3 seasons has the full right for the GOAT title...for the time being.
 

Tahuu

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 3, 2014
The notion of GOAT in figure skating is a travesty to me. We do not compare apples and apples. I watched a couple of times recently Rodnina/Zaitsev and Pahomova/Gorshkov, arguably GOAT in pairs and dance. I felt nothing. It was a different figure skating 40 years ago. It was a different figure skating 10 years ago. I have no idea if Katarina Witt with all her achievements back then could be competitive today - the last several seasons to win was about 7 triples, 3-3 combos, backloading, and consistency. Would Katarina be able to do it - I have no idea. But the negative answer is possible. There is progress in figure skating.

Agree. There's no GOAT in skating and most other fields. It's a fallacy to claim the greatest of all time. First, we don't know what future generations could achieve. And secondly, history has proven latter generations in general best earlier generations. There are only GOTTs (the greatest of their time. GOTT = God).
 

mrrice

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Give her some time to leave a lasting legacy.

^^^^ This...…...Remember that Katarina Witt has two OGM's and 4 World Titles. I think that following 97/98 some people thought Tara would take over skating for the next 5 years. She had hip problems and quickly retired after going pro following the Olympics. There is a lot of pressure at the top and it seems like there's always another young skater from Russia making a splash. That's a lot t deal with for a young lady.
 
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