Pick 3: Best Pro Ladies (singles)

[Vash01]

I owe it to the ladies, since we had a poll about the Pro men. Just like in the mens case, it's not possible to include ALL the Pro ladies, since we have just 12 options. I had to leave out Jill Trenary, Chen Lu, Katia Gordeeva, Maria Butyrskaya, and Oksana Baiul.

Please pick what you consider the best 3 PRO ladies, regardless of their eligible career.

[lulu]

Midori Ito is my all time favorite female skater, and her Rose of Pain professional routine is brilliant.
My second favorite is Katia Gordeeva, although she obviously became a single skater not by design, I think she really grew as a professional skater, and expanded her repertoire with programs such as Stelle Errans, Ribbon, and Three Preludes.
I also enjoy Debi Thomas (especially) and Kat Witt-although to be honest, I'm less familiar with their professional work than their eligible work.
Surya Bonaly is another favorite of mine who I think has really grown as a professional skater as well as being an exciting performer and audience favorite. So, I guess what I am saying is there are so many skaters that I like that have had memorable professional careers, and/or programs.

I actually thought about this question when answering the best professional male skater thread, and there's one name that jumps out right away as being the best pro lady-Kristi Yamaguchi. IMO, by almost any standard: the longevity of her career, ability to maintain technical skills, memorable routines and skating to a variety of musical styles. She, IMO, is the gold standard of professional skating.

After Yamaguchi, I'm not sure how the rankings would go-I have my favorites as I listed above, but it's hard for me to pick the other two.

Skating to "Hat Full of Stars" for 3 years in a row not withstanding, , I also have to give props to Yuka Sato for not only making a name for herself as a professional single skater, but a pairs skater as well.

[essence_of_soy]

I love Hamill, Biellmann, and Sumners. Not only for their longevity as professionals, but also for the variety of work that they showcased.

Hamill in particular, had the best scratch blur spin on the planet.

[judgejudy27]

Kristi Yamaguchi is unquestionably and undisputably the best female professional skater ever. For the other two I picked Denise Biellmann who was simply amazing until she was almost 40, and Yuka Sato who was a wonderful competitor and tour skater for many years, and 1 of only 2 women who had the ability to beat Kristi in pro competitions (the other being Midori Ito, although amazingly a nearly 40 year old Biellmann pulled it off once). I would have picked Midori possibly as one of my three except her pro career was far too short, just 4 competitions, no tours that I know of, and then that was it. Hamill was a great pro skater but the level of pro skating, especialy the competitions, was really low back then.

[skateboy]

I voted Kristi Yamaguchi (best pro lady ever, IMO), Caryn Kadavy and "other" for Peggy Fleming. Both had far more memorable--and better--programs as pros than as amateurs (again, JMO).

[briancoogaert]

Kristi Yamaguchi, Yuka Sato and Denise Biellmann.
Honestly, I would have loved to vote for Katia Gordeeva, also. She had an amazing pro career, she appeared in so many shows as a solo skater, and had beautiful, wonderful and mesmorizing performances !

[aftershocks]

Definitely I voted for Yuka Sato, Denise Biellmann, and Kristi Yamaguchi -- in terms of the fact that as professionals they all three became even better skaters as well as entertainers. I also believe they all three routinely racked-up professional wins.

ITA that Dorothy, Caryn, Debi, Katarina, and Midori about in that order were also very good as professionals. Actually, Roslyn Sumners improved her skating too as a professional, but she was never one of my favorite skaters/ personalities.

[giselle23]

Other--Janet Lynn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsb4T...VXmoQ&index=93
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrR6n...VXmoQ&index=75
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvEll...VXmoQ&index=91

[blue_idealist]

Kristi Yamaguchi (most interesting programs), Denise Biellmann and Caryn Kadavy (longevity)

[ks777]

Yuka Sato, Drothy Hamil and Kristi.

[SkateBlades17]

I vote for Yamaguchi, Sato and other. For other, I'd say Tara Lipinski. Although her pro career was short and she had the unfortunate hip injury that limited her jumping, she was still great. Tara won every pro comp she was in and would have or did beat most of the poll options. Yamaguchi is the only one who could have gave her a run for her money, in my opinion.

[judgejudy27]

The only individual pro competitions Tara did were the Rock and Roll Challenge and the World Pros once (in a year Yamaguchi and Sato did not skate, and Kwan was ruled ineligible for afer winning the previous year). I have seen her do some team Pro Competitions, where she was often outscored by the likes of Maria Butyrskaya (who wasnt a good pro skater) and a washed up Baiul.