ESPN Dominant 20 for 2018. Ranked #11 - Yuzuru Hanyu | Page 2 | Golden Skate

ESPN Dominant 20 for 2018. Ranked #11 - Yuzuru Hanyu

lichi

sui holding a deep edge
On the Ice
Joined
Apr 24, 2018
Impressed that I know (almost) half of the names! Fancy seeing Simona Haelp on the list, thought Naomi Osaka was a much bigger issue in the U.S.

And congrats Yuzu :clap:
 

sun110

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 24, 2018
The only race horse I know about is Zenyatta. Now gonna check some video about Justify..

Congrt Yuzu!
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I got curious enough that I looked him up on Wikipedia aand the first sence was "a retired racehorse" :eek: And we think figure skating is a sport with short careers...

Retired at three. With a pension fund of a hundred million $ or so. :)
 

frida80

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
sigh.. I guess the American triple crown isn’t as important outside of my neck of the woods. :(
 

anonymoose_au

Insert weird opinion here
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Country
Australia
Congrats to Yuzu! especially considering the way his injury hampered his season and the fierce competition last year.

And as an Australian, I approve of a horse being there (I mean, we are the nation stopped by the race that stops a nation :)

But I love it that #16 is a horse! :hap10:

Hooray for Yuzu too! :)

Although, we Aussies have a waaaay better horse to put on that list, Winx with her 29 wins in a row. Get with the program ESPN :p ;)
 

Sam L

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
I disagree.

She was taking ADHD medication as TUE that came out in that report. Also, Alina actually has competition in this sport. Simone has none. It's a weak era in gymnastics. Alina almost came off a season undefeated.
 
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Alina and Yuzuru are both nominated for the USSA Athlete of the Month. Save your breath here and go vote for them. But Simone Biles is also on that list and she's been phenomenal this year :yahoo:
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Alina Zagitova deserves to be on this list. She's better than Biles.

Oh my. Well you're entitled to your opinion but Simone Biles absolutely slays her competition. Her difficulty would be akin to Trusova. Biles in her comeback *added* to her difficulty. She won 6 medals at Worlds this year - in her comeback. She is considered arguably the greatest female gymnast of all time (and I might even go as far as saying greatest female athlete) - whereas Zagitova has a ways to go even with her amazing OGM win and other titles.
 

MissBeeFarm

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 22, 2018
Agreed. Simone took 2 bad falls and still won the AA by over a point over mostly clean competitors. I don’t think anyone in figure skating is that dominant.

Trusova came close at JGPF. However, it has to be noted that Biles has been this dominant for 4 seasons already. I'm not a huge fan of her style of gymnastics, but she's the definition of dominance, there's absolutely no denying that.

What I find funny about the list is how there are multiple NFL, NBA players. If this is suppsed to be the most dominant ones, shouldn't it be just one athlete per sport? :laugh:
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
She was taking ADHD medication as TUE that came out in that report. Also, Alina actually has competition in this sport. Simone has none. It's a weak era in gymnastics. Alina almost came off a season undefeated.

Oh come on, not the TUE thing again. She's worked super hard to achieve what she has. Calling her era weak? That's so inaccurate.

Alina won the OGM (by just a couple points) and came 5th at Worlds. She almost lost silver at this GPF (and arguably should have). Almost/arguably should have lost on the GP last season too (to Higuchi). She has also had not even 2 seasons as a senior.

Dominance means it's almost a foregone conclusion that she wins if she skates her best ... and now with the backloading rules gone, and her PCS coming back down to earth post-Olympics, and skaters like Kihira with much higher difficulty/base value, any dominance is questionable.

To bet on Zagitova winning against all others at this point in time is a good bet but not a sure bet. Whereas I would put all my money on Biles delivering and winning gold All-Around (and floor and vault, lol) - in this era of gymnastics or any prior.
 
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