OK if I use a similar think path that I used in the bronze medal thread, it's a combination of whether the medal was rightfully won, plus the skater's overall skating package, consistency and accomplishments.
Harding had her issues, but her elements were wonderful when she hit them. Too bad she wasn't on peak form for more than 1 year really. And I feel she was too fixated on the 3axel that whenever she didn't hit it the rest of the program would suffer. Besides the 91 world medal, there's 91 Nationals and 91 Skate America - wonderful performances for the ages.
Sokolova drew me into watching skating when I saw her in Nagano. Her skating wasn't particularly solid then now that I know more about skating, but her smile lit up the arena. 2003 was her prime medal-wise but her skating was sluggish and her programs empty nearly throughout her competitive career. It wasn't until 2005 that she started to skate with more speed and fire, and sharpness. But after 2006 she became sluggish again. But overall, a few GP wins, plenty GP and Euro medals, and another 4th place at Worlds (arguably should have beaten Cohen for bronze?!) should have cleared her from being voted on. On her world medal, I could see a case for Suguri to be placed above her on skating quality, but she would still be on the podium. Cohen should have beaten her at QR but falling in both short and free made it hard to argue for her to place above Sokolova overall. She deserved her World medal.
Lenova, well, was the new Sokolova after Sokolova retired. Didn't really have what it took to be at the top but otherwise quite dependable for a GP medal or a top ten at Euros & Worlds. On her world medal, I feel she was way overscored in the short, mostly due to her minute-long step sequence. Her PCS was quite over the top in both portions of the competition. I actually would have both Suzuki and Wagner ahead of her overall. She gets my first vote in this poll.
I never liked Lipnitskaya's skating. Stunning positions yes, but her jumps and musicality were very weak. Schindler's List was only a perfect vehicle for her because it called for a scared and clueless girl with no facial expression. All her flaws became obvious once her jumps left her. On her World medal, I would have had Pogorilaya and Wagner ahead of her on the podium. She would get my third vote if we could have 3 votes.
Wagner had a few Worlds top 5, a 4CCs title, a few GP titles and GPF medals plus National titles to show her World medal was not a pure fluke / politiks. She had her weaknesses, but she was consistently at least GP-competitive spanning across 3 Olympic cycle even if she never really had a consistent 3/3.
Higuchi is still competing. As it stands, her Olympic showing which was 4 years after her world silver medal showed the kind of resilience that should not warrant a vote in this poll. Then again, let's see how she does in coming seasons.
Tursy gets my other vote.
I don't necessarily disagree that Schindler's list was perfect for her because of the reasons you stated, but I'm stunned at the weak musicality claim, and some of her jumps were not bad at all. She's one of the very few Eteri girls with correct technique on her +3T if not the only one, and her 3Lo when she did it was fine. She also had better basic skating skills than Wagner, lol, not that that's hard to achieve. The spin difficulty was probably the highest of the entire field, I think the choreography of that final combo spin is the hardest within CoP to date? Not going to verify, and too hard to do so, though.
