Figure skaters that drew you into Figure Skating?

Bourne & Kraatz, Oksana Baiul, Elvis Stojko/Kurt Browning, Usova & Zhulin, Klimova & Ponomarenko and Grishuk & Platov.

I watched it before, but these folks made me actually want to record skating and keep my tapes.
 
My love for figure skating blossomed through Virtue and Moir. I remember watching Vancouver 2010, feeling awe-struck of how amazing their connection was/is. They were truly my first favourites and if it were not for them, I wouldn't be in love with other ice dance and pair teams right now.
 
Peggy Fleming drew me in plus the many programs featuring classical music. Loved John Curry, Toller Cranston, Vladimir Kotin, Torvill & Dean, Blumberg & Seibert, Protopopovs, Dorothy Hamill, Caryn Kadavy,....the lists would be endless. Todd Eldredge.
 
For me, all startet with Tanja Szewczenko in 1993. It was the season when Katarina Witt had her comeback, but it was all Tanja for me :-) In 1993/94 I only watched ladies and pairs, but the following year I fall in love with Ilia Kulik. So many other skaters I love followed, some of them I love more than Tanja and Ilia, but they were my first favourite skaters and I´m so grateful, that they learned me how to love figure skating.
 
The Accordion said:
Another "Toller Cranston" here! My Mom loved him and we watched skating together and she was always furious on his behalf with the judging! He truly was a beautiful skater! His show was also the first I ever saw live. Since then - too many to count!
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I *still* hate those East German judges:angryfire of course they probably hated the Canadian ones.....
 
Elizabeth Manley's LP at the 1988 Calgary Olympics was the performance that made me a skating fan for life. I was barely old enough to have my own likes and dislikes at the time, but I will always remember that moment.

Kurt Browning, Brasseur & Eisler and Bourne & Kraatz were the ones who kept me hooked post-Liz and made sure I was in it for the long haul.
 
I loved to watch Toller, Brian and Kurt, but it was Bourne and Kraatz who drew me in emotionally. I think they were the first Canadian skaters whose placements I cared about.
Anyway, I was a casual fan until 2001 Worlds in Vancouver. Then I was hooked, and have been attending 2-3 events every years since. Next stop, Helsinki!
 
Vash01 said:
Gordeeva-Grinkov and Midori Ito in 1988
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Also Battle of the Brians and Battle of the Carmens. Add to that Klimova-Ponomarenko. So I would say Midori, G&G, K&P and seeing Boitano and others skate live in Sun Valley that summer (1989) made me an even bigger fan. I was so inspired that I started taking skating lessons at that point, and that continued until may be 2013 or 2014.

After the chatboards came into play my obsession with FS grew even more, and with skaters like Michelle, Irina, Elena-Anton, Yagudin-Plushenko rivalry, it just kept on going, but I also loved some of the less successful skaters.
 
I was watching a bit before her (followed the Tara-Michelle rivalry and liked both of them a lot, for instance), but I think Sasha Cohen really pulled me into full-on fandom. Though I'm a big fan now of Paul Wylie and Scott Hamilton and G/G and other skaters from those generations, I actually didn't get really into them until they hit the professional circuit. (Thank God we had a professional circuit in those days!)
 
In contrast to my other early sports memories, I am not definitively sure when I started watching skating. However, I think it may have been at 1991 Worlds. Perhaps due to American television really focusing on the ladies' division, I focused more on the ladies at first, and Midori Ito and Tonya Harding both impressed me with their huge jumps. Although there have been women since then who have nice jumps, none have possessed an overall arsenal that provides me with the excitement Midori and Tonya did. Give me a Midori triple axel or a Tonya triple lutz anytime! ;)

These days, I actually look more at how skaters use their music, but I suppose I was more jump-focused early on.
 
Hmmm... Janet Lynn and Karen Magnussen started me out when I could catch them on TV. It really took off in the Bourne/Kraatz era when I tried to follow what was going on; even joined a skating forum or two. Then Elvis Stojko showed up and I loved the way he skated regardless of how many always found fault with his skating. I went to Skate America in Detroit back in the 1990s just to see him. Since then I've attended a few other skating events.
Then came the next crop and I fell in love with Ice Dance again -- all due to Virtue and Moir. They were the reason I went to multiple comps that were held in Ontario. They were the reason I watched their skates on video multiple times. They became Olympic Champs in 2010 and I cried for joy. They were so young so it seemed. They were the reason I began to try to understand this "new" scoring system and the more I understood, the sadder I became after 2010 -- especially with their Carmen dance. I don't want to get into a war with anyone about the following four years of ID, but for me it was a dark time. Then began the waiting to see if they would return. They never said they had retired, only that they needed some time to do some thinking. I am so thrilled that they have decided to return. I have missed watching their amazing skating.
The men: Yagudin kept me breathless, Plushenko left me a bit bewildered, Eldridge kept me interested. Oh yeah, there was this young upstart by the name of Chen -- his skating blew me away in spite of the missed jumps.
Joannie Rochette drew me back into ladies and now I enjoy all top 3 of the Canadian ladies.
Pairs ... I enjoyed them off and on. I loved Brasseue/Eisler, thoroughly enjoyed Sale/Pelletier as well as Berezhnaya/ Sikharulidze when they competed and am enjoying Duhamel/Radford because they are like the antithesis of most teams -- she always looks athletically buff while he is smooth and seems to flow with the music. I also love that he has written music that has been used by his team and now Patrick Chan.
I think I should stop now cause it seems as though I've gone a bit OTT. Sorry bout that but dang it all, I have had many skaters bring me back to various skating disciplines over the years but the most influential for me are Virtue and Moir.
 
Sasha Cohen. :swoon: When watching the 2002 Olympics, everyone was crazy about Sarah or Michelle, but it was Sasha who stood out to me. Even with the fall in the LP, her performances had such a special quality, and they only continued to get better as time went on.
 
I remember the first time I saw Sasha -- it was at some competition in the '99-'00 season, and I remember she caught my eye right away. She brought a level of intensity and excitement that stood out to me.
 
First was Christopher Bowman, then I drifted away until I kept reading news stories about Johnny Weir prior to the Torino Olympics. Been back ever since.
 
I am surprised that no one mentioned skaters like Hanyu yet? There are no younger viewers here at all? :eek:
 
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