This is an interesting thread, but I would have loved to see a bit more of the methods of assigning the merit of best skater for each 4-year period. A lot of emphasis seems to be on the major competitions, but e.g. the Olympics is one competition (however defining) in 4 years – what if the skater/team who won just about everything else in those 4 years gets injured and cannot participate or cannot skate to his/her/their normal level? Sometimes the OG winner can also be a bit of a surprise compared to what has happened in the previous seasons. Also, how to evaluate a skater who has skated only a season or two of the quad for whatever reason and ends up winning a lot? Do their/her/his excellent performances in one season outdo 4 years of good results?
I decided to spend a couple of evenings looking at single skaters (don’t have any opinions on pairs or dance) and tried to figure out a way to evaluate the results.
First, the skaters included per quad were those who at the end were on the OG podium plus possible other winners of major competitions (WC, EC/4CC/GPF if they featured as medalists in more than one competition). Second, I counted their results for the 4 years based on their Wikipedia entries (not entirely unproblematic as a source, but particularly for the 1970s and 1980s and even 1990s not much else is easily available). Third, compared the major players with each other and to the suggestions by the OP and others. I counted simple percentages for medaled competitions, won competitions. Plus in the end looked at results in major competitions, if some skaters were very close otherwise.
1976-1980 Hoffman
Robin Cousins, OG, medaled in every competition, won 4/9 competitions; major wins OG, EC, 3 medals WC, 3 medals EC
Jan Hoffmann, OS, medaled in every competition, won 4/10 competitions; major wins WC, 3 EC, medals OG, 3 medals WC, 1 medal EC
Hoffmann wins (more wins, medals and won more mutual competitions).
1980-1984 Hamilton
Scott Hamilton, OG, medaled in every competition, won every competition.
Hamilton wins (there was no competition).
1984-1988 Orser
Brian Boitano, OG, medaled in every competition, won 6/11 competitions; major wins OG, 2 WC, 2 medals WC
Brian Orser, OS, medaled in every competition, won 5/11 competitions; major wins WC, medal OG, 2 medals WC
Boitano wins (more wins, won more mutual competitions).
1988-1992 Petrenko
Victor Petrenko, OG, medaled 14/15 competitions, won 7/15 competitions (47 %), major wins OG, WC, EC, 2 medals WC, 1 medal EC (EC not used here because there was no equal championship for Browning to participate at the time)
Kurt Browning, no OG medal, medaled 13/14 competitions, won 9/14 competitions (64 %), major wins 3 WC, 1 medal in WC
Browning wins (more wins, won more mutual competitions).
1992-1994 Stojko
Alexei Urmanov, OG, medaled 7/9 competitions, won 2/9 competitions; major wins OG, 1 medal WC, 1 medal EC
Elvis Stojko, OS, medaled in every competition, won 3/5 competitions; major wins WC, medal OG, 1 medal WC
Stojko wins.
1994-1998 Eldredge
Ilja Kulik, OG, medaled 13/19 competitions, won 6/19 competitions; major wins OG, GPF, EC, 1 medal WC, 1 medal EC (EC not included here because there was no comparable competition for Stojko/Eldgrede)
Elvis Stojko, OS, medaled 14/15 competitions, won 10/15 competitions; major wins 2 WC, GPF, 1 medal OG, 2 medals GPF
Todd Eldredge, no OG medal, medaled 15/18 competitions, won 8/18 competitions; major wins WC, 3 medals WC, 2 medals GPF
Stojko wins (again, and quite clearly).
1998-2002 Yagudin
Alexei Yagudin, OG, medaled in every competition, won 18/24 competitions; major wins OG, 3 WC, 2 GPF, 2 EC, 1 medal WC, 1 medal GPF, 2 medals EC
Evgeny Plushenko, OS, medaled in 24/25 competitions, won 17/25 competitions; major wins WC, 2 GPF, 2 EC, medal OG, 2 medals WC, 1 medal GPF, 1 medal EC
Yagudin wins (surprisingly clearly).
2002-2006 Plushenko
Evgeny Plushenko, OG, medaled in every competition, won 16/19 competitions; major wins OG, 2 WC, 2 GPF, 2 EC, 1 medal GPF, 1 medal EC
Stephane Lambiel, OS, medaled in 9/15 competitions, won 5/15 competitions; major wins 2 WC, GPF, medal OG, 1 medal EC
Plushenko wins (easily).
2006-2010 Joubert
Evan Lysacek, OG, medaled in 14/15 competitions (93 %), won 6/15 competitions (40 %); major wins OG, WC, GPF, 4CC, 3 medals GPF, 1 medal 4CC
Brian Joubert, no medal OG, medaled in 14/16 competitions (88 %), won 9/16 competitions (56 %); major wins WC, GPF, 2 EC, 1 medal WC, 2 medals EC
Lysacek wins. (Lambiel was also mentioned for this quad, but Takahashi is third and Lambiel only fourth.)
2010-2014 Hanyu
Yuzuru Hanyu, OG, medaled in 15/20 competitions, wins 8/20 competitions; major wins OG, WC, GPF, 1 medal WC, 2 medals 4CC
Patrick Chan, OS, medaled in every competition, wins 12/17 competitions; major wins 3 WC, 2 GPF, 4CC, medal OG, 2 medals GPF
Patrick Chan wins (and pretty clearly, too).
2014-2018 Hanyu
Yuzuru Hanyu, OG, medaled in 17/18 competitions, won 9/18 competitions; major wins OG, WC, 3 GPF, 2 medals WC, 1 medal 4CC
Shoma Uno, OS, medaled in 19/23 competitions, won 8/23 competitions; major wins none, 2 medals WC, 3 medals GPF, 2 medals 4CC
Javier Fernández, OB, medaled in 16/19 competitions, won 13/19 competitions; major wins 2 WC, 4 EC, 2 medals GPF
Hanyu wins (but not as overwhelmingly as some might like to think).
So, looking at the whole 4 years and all the results gives slightly different names from the OPs list. Some are tight, like Boitano/Orser, Petrenko/Browning, but very few have gotten such domination as Hamilton, Yagudin and Plushenko. Hamilton and Plushenko really did not have good competition, but that Yagudin managed what he did against Plushenko, is pretty formidable.
I still cannot understand how people can suggest that 2010-4 was Hanyu’s when it was all Chan’s – he basically lost 2 significant competitions in those 4 years (2013 GPF and 2014 OG). That Hanyu won those competitions and the 2014 WC does not really make him the best in those 4 years.
E
this is also how I would analyze this for men... thank you for typing it out... Patrick was so clearly the dominant skater from 2010-14 and that is exactly why Hanyu got so popular by being the underdog, the younger skater, unexpectedly winning the gold in Sochi... it made a lot of people happy... especially those who didn't like Patrick.. and there were many.... I also agree about 2014-18 not being that clear Hanyu's.... Javier was very impressive with back to back wins... but I will not argue Hanyu's win here because he was the top dog... the one most people thought would win... so he did lose some, but he did win some big ones, including his incredible NHK-GPF with clean programs... to me this is the highlight of Yuzu's career....