Top 10 skaters of all time per discipline

[lala]

Because such a list can't be explained as it seems to be just personal preferences ! Lol
But I love some of his/her picks. Especially John Curry

Yes. But we are all here because we want to know informations on skaters and we want to talk about them. Don't you?
When he/she wrote lists he could be confident that there would be a debate about it. We have different opinions, favorites, different point of views thus we will argue them. I like it!
Curry is awesome!

 

[butyrskafanatic]

Curry is hands down the most artistic skater ever. I am not familiar enough with the era to judge exactly how strong his technical abilities were for the time, but they seem solid enough when he skated well, although I know he was inconsistent for awhile. Good in figures too, unlike some of the other legendary free skaters of the time. Was probably unlucky and impacted by politics to not be winning before 76. I know any form of softness or femininity was not neccessarily approved in mens skating at the time, particularly by the European judges.

 

[joubertelegant]

I would rank Wilson & McCall ahead of B&K in terms of Canadian ice dancers. Unlike B&K, W&M could actually handle good content. I would also rank Blumberg & Seibert ahead of Belgin & Agosto.

I rate Bourne & Kraatz as the weakest team out of all of Wilson & McCall, Blumberg & Siebert, Belbin & Agosto. And by far the least robbed too. Blumberg & Seibert should have won the Olympic silver over both Bestiamanova & Bukin and Klimova & Ponomarenko in 1984. Worlds 83 they were even better, they should have been easily silver and closer to Torvill & Dean there. T&D even said B&S were the team they respected the most during their reign, but they were probably the sacrificial lambs since T&D were unbeatable and the Soviets had to be up there just for being Soviet so they got the natural dumpage.

Wilson & McCall were held back in 3rd no matter what they did. Sometimes merited maybe but the deck was not even.

Belbin & Agosto were both overmarked at times and undermarked others. They were perennialy held up in 2005-2007 IMO but then undermarked towards the end of their career.

Bourne & Kraatz were most times overmarked if anything. I would rate them only the 6th best NA dance team of the last 35 years behind all 3 of those plus the obvious two of Virtue & Moir and Davis & White. Maybe even behind Weaver & Poje or Dubreuil & Lauzon who achieved much less but whose world medal winning performances I enjoyed more than anything Bourne & Kraatz did and who were less politically in favor than B&K were.

 

[blue_idealist]

This is an interesting topic but I can't really weigh in because I'm unfamiliar with skaters before 1990, even some of the '80s skaters. I know almost nothing about skaters before 1980.

 

[gk_891]

I rate Bourne & Kraatz as the weakest team out of all of Wilson & McCall, Blumberg & Siebert, Belbin & Agosto. And by far the least robbed too. Blumberg & Seibert should have won the Olympic silver over both Bestiamanova & Bukin and Klimova & Ponomarenko in 1984. Worlds 83 they were even better, they should have been easily silver and closer to Torvill & Dean there. T&D even said B&S were the team they respected the most during their reign, but they were probably the sacrificial lambs since T&D were unbeatable and the Soviets had to be up there just for being Soviet so they got the natural dumpage.

Wilson & McCall were held back in 3rd no matter what they did. Sometimes merited maybe but the deck was not even.

Belbin & Agosto were both overmarked at times and undermarked others. They were perennialy held up in 2005-2007 IMO but then undermarked towards the end of their career.

Bourne & Kraatz were most times overmarked if anything. I would rate them only the 6th best NA dance team of the last 35 years behind all 3 of those plus the obvious two of Virtue & Moir and Davis & White. Maybe even behind Weaver & Poje or Dubreuil & Lauzon who achieved much less but whose world medal winning performances I enjoyed more than anything Bourne & Kraatz did and who were less politically in favor than B&K were.

B&K were def the weakest of those teams in spite of their rabid fans who say otherwise. For whatever reason, a lot of people lost their heads over them.

Wilson & McCall had some excellent free dances but their OSPs were not exceptionally good to my eyes and their compulsories were usually just competent. So I think 3rd was fine for them. But if they were to place second in the free dance behind K&P from 1986 to 1988 (as I would've ranked them), I'm not sure where that would've placed them overall.

 

[giselle23]

In terms of the whole of skating history that is relatively speaking undecorated. That wouldnt even make her amongst the top 50 most accomplished ladies singles skaters in history.

And half of the skaters I listed I dont like at all so a giant no to your last sentence.

Janet was also North American champion and there was no Grand Prix in her day. Her record compares with Midori Ito, for example. You say she is on the list because she changed the sport, which is true, but that is not the reason she belongs on a list of top all-time skaters. She won the free skate at the Olympics and 1971, 1972 and 1973 (long program) Worlds. She likely would have at least one World gold medal, and maybe an Olympic gold medal, if figures had been devalued or eliminated. She was the best free skater of her day and many think the best of all time. Medals alone are not what make skaters great.

And despite what you say, I suspect personal preference played a role in your list. Big gap for Virtue and Moir? According to who? You and your preference.

 

[ohashibiles]

Janet was also North American champion and there was no Grand Prix in her day. Her record compares with Midori Ito, for example. You say she is on the list because she changed the sport, which is true, but that is not the reason she belongs on a list of top all-time skaters. She won the free skate at the Olympics and 1971, 1972 and 1973 (long program) Worlds. She likely would have at least one World gold medal, and maybe an Olympic gold medal, if figures had been devalued or eliminated. She was the best free skater of her day and many think the best of all time. Medals alone are not what make skaters great.

And despite what you say, I suspect personal preference played a role in your list. Big gap for Virtue and Moir? According to who? You and your preference.

Virtue & Moir comeback has convinced me they are by far the best ever, whereas when they first retired in 2014 I probably would have had them roughly equal with Torvill & Dean and Klimova & Ponomarenko on top, and not even much ahead of Davis & White. Since they are returning as a very old team and dominating yet again, you can argue they have dominated over 3 quadrennials now (they lost the 2014 Olympics which was controversial, but were winning most of the events that quad, including 2 worlds and many other wins and medals after the 2010 Olympics) while Torvill & Dean in 94 returned as a very old team and couldnt keep up with the top 2 Russian teams anymore and were on top in only 1 quad (81-84) even if they set history during that quad, while Klimova & Ponomarenko had to wait for Bestiamanova & Bukin to retire to start winning at all and were also only ever on top in 1 quad. In fact even the best dance teams in all cases dominate over 1 quad, only Gritschuk & Platov you could argue 2, Virtue & Moir have over 3 different quads.

And I agree medals alone are not what makes a skater great, that is what I explained with why I included skaters like Cranston, Ito, and Lynn whose medals would have put them nowhere near. Or why I put Curry so high when his medals would have him nowhere near that high. And a moot point really but since you mentioned it, Ito is clearly more successful than Lynn, she has a world title,3 world and Olympic medals of silver or gold, and both a higher Olympic medal plus another top 5 finish at the Olympics. Their impacts meanwhile are polar opposite, Ito is unquestionably the best jumper and female skating athlete ever, and Lynn is unquestionably the most artistic female free skater ever; but equally noteworthy.

 

[lala]

I don't think any skater can be "unquestionably the most artistic female free skater ever" .....

 

[giselle23]

Here are mine: Ladies and Men. I am not familiar enough with Pairs and Dance to choose.

Ladies:
Michelle Kwan
Yuna Kim
Janet Lynn
Mao Asada
Kristi Yamaguchi
Midori Ito
Peggy Fleming
Sasha Cohen
Katarina Witt
Sonia Henie

Men:
Kurt Browning
Alexei Yagudin
Yuzuru Hanyu
Brian Boitano
John Curry
Dick Button
Daisuke Takahashi
Evgeny Plushenko
Scott Hamilton
Brian Orser

I'll admit that personal preference played some role but I think the lists are pretty solid, even if one could quibble with the order.

 

[ohashibiles]

Here are mine: Ladies and Men. I am not familiar enough with Pairs and Dance to choose.

Ladies:
Michelle Kwan
Yuna Kim
Janet Lynn
Mao Asada
Kristi Yamaguchi
Midori Ito
Peggy Fleming
Sasha Cohen
Katarina Witt
Sonia Henie

Men:
Kurt Browning
Alexei Yagudin
Yuzuru Hanyu
Brian Boitano
John Curry
Dick Button
Daisuke Takahashi
Evgeny Plushenko
Scott Hamilton
Brian Orser

I'll admit that personal preference played some role but I think the lists are pretty solid, even if one could quibble with the order.

Just two questions.

1. If you admit to not being knowledgable on pairs and dance (I am not familiar with you, I am just going by your own claim) why do you take issue with me ranking Virtue & Moir 1st and saying that is obviously biased and as evidence of my lists just being on personal preference and my favorites, especialy as they are somone who would get a considerable amount of support for being 1st (others like Torvill & Dean and Klimova & Ponomarenko and maybe Gritschuk & Platov would get decent numbers having them 1st too). It seems strange if you admit to not being knowledgable on dance to have that strong an opinion against Virtue & Moir being 1st on my list and how wrong and biased that is. I figured for you to have that strong an opinion it couldnt be V&M ,that you must be a strong dance fan, but now you ar I mean it is not like I put Weaver & Poje or Belbin & Agosto #1 all time, I put Virtue & Moir who most regard as one of the very best (top 3 for most) teams in history, even if not all put them 1st so I dont see how it is crazy. I didnt question you putting Kwan 1st even though she just missed my top 10 altogether, since I know she is a great skater still, just as Virtue & Moir are a great dance team.

2. Just curious what you believe Sasha Cohen has done to merit being top 10. She does not have even close to all time achievements, no world title, only 4 total Olympic and world medals, and only 1 U.S title and she needed Kwan to WD to even win that one. Plus it seems she didnt leave an intangible impact on the sport to nearly the extent of people like Lynn and Ito and Cranston and Curry. In her day she was considered one of the most beautiful, artistic, and flexibile but almost nobody talks about her today, even in the U.S.

 

[Vash01]

I dont really understand the objective of this thread. Are we supposed to discuss the list in the OP, or is this an invitation to add our own lists? I see that other posters have done both.

I am a bit reluctant to publish my lists fir two reasons.
1. I may change my mind many times after posting
2. There could be long drawn out 'fights' over the choices- why someone was or was not included.

 

[shady82]

^^ I think it's reasonable to do both. In fact, I was going to add my own list, not to start fights but just for discussion purposes.

I am only considering the past 25 years or so -- going farther back, it becomes less like comparing apples to oranges and more like comparing apples to dandelions.

Ladies: Kim, Kwan, Witt, Yamaguchi, Asada, Medvedeva, Ito, Slutskaya, Kostner, Lipinski

Men: Yagudin, Plushenko, Hanyu, Boitano, Hamilton, Chan, Stojko, Browning, Orser, Takahashi

Pairs: Gordeeva/Grinkov, Mishkutenok/Dmitriev, Shen/Zhao, Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze, Volosozhar/Trankov, Totmianina/Marinin, Savchenko/Szolkowy, Sui/Han, Pang/Tong, Kazakova/Dmitriev

Dance: Torvill/Dean, Grishuk/Platov, Klimova/Ponomarenko, Virtue/Moir, Davis/White, Anissina/Peizerat, Krylova/Ovsiannikov, Bestamianova/Bukin, Navka/Kostomarov, Papadakis/Cizeron OR Denkova/Staviski

 

[joubertelegant]

Pairs don't really care about that much

Men

1. Button
2. Yagudin
3. Curry
4. Browning
5. Hanyu
6. Chan
7. Orser and Boitano tied
8. Cousins
9. Plushenko- probably should be higher but I just don't like his skating
10. Jenkins brothers tied

Ladies

1. Kim
2. Asada
3. Medvedeva
4. Witt
5. Henjie- probably should be #1 on her record but her competition sucked
6. Kostner
7. Lynn
8. Ito
9. Yamaguchi
10. Kwan, Slutskaya, or Hamill

Dance

1. Papadakis & Cizeron
2. Virtue & Moir
3. Torvill & Dean
4. Klimova & Ponomarenko
5. Davis & White
6. Gritschuk & Platov
7. Anissina & Peizerat
8. Navka & Kostomarov
9. Blumberg & Seibert
10. Delobel & Schoenfelder and Belbin & Agosto tied

 

[giselle23]

Just two questions.

1. If you admit to not being knowledgable on pairs and dance (I am not familiar with you, I am just going by your own claim) why do you take issue with me ranking Virtue & Moir 1st and saying that is obviously biased and as evidence of my lists just being on personal preference and my favorites, especialy as they are somone who would get a considerable amount of support for being 1st (others like Torvill & Dean and Klimova & Ponomarenko and maybe Gritschuk & Platov would get decent numbers having them 1st too). It seems strange if you admit to not being knowledgable on dance to have that strong an opinion against Virtue & Moir being 1st on my list and how wrong and biased that is. I figured for you to have that strong an opinion it couldnt be V&M ,that you must be a strong dance fan, but now you ar I mean it is not like I put Weaver & Poje or Belbin & Agosto #1 all time, I put Virtue & Moir who most regard as one of the very best (top 3 for most) teams in history, even if not all put them 1st so I dont see how it is crazy. I didnt question you putting Kwan 1st even though she just missed my top 10 altogether, since I know she is a great skater still, just as Virtue & Moir are a great dance team.

2. Just curious what you believe Sasha Cohen has done to merit being top 10. She does not have even close to all time achievements, no world title, only 4 total Olympic and world medals, and only 1 U.S title and she needed Kwan to WD to even win that one. Plus it seems she didnt leave an intangible impact on the sport to nearly the extent of people like Lynn and Ito and Cranston and Curry. In her day she was considered one of the most beautiful, artistic, and flexibile but almost nobody talks about her today, even in the U.S.

How could anyone who watches skating not know about Virtue and Moir? I could do a short list on dance if you'd like, involving ice dancers from the last decade.
ETA: Also, I didn't say I wasn't knowdgeable about dance; only that I wasn't familiar enough with it.

 

[ohashibiles]

How could anyone who watches skating not know about Virtue and Moir? I could do a short list on dance if you'd like, involving ice dancers from the last decade.

Sure, I would like that thanks. I am only curious what was your strong objection to my having them 1st is, even if you dont have them 1st.

 

[giselle23]

Sure, I would like that thanks. I am only curious what was your strong objection to my having them 1st is, even if you dont have them 1st.

No objection. Everyone has their favorites and V&M are certainly a reasonable choice for #1.

 

[lala]

Everyone has favorites and the love leads to subjectivity. Everyone has own list. The FS is a sport that is the best who can win. Anything else is just subjectivity or bias for favorites. But I tried to collect some aspects:

-who has more medals, titles ( on different competitions, not only Oly title, medals)
-who had impact on FS
-who had innovations
-who is the most original
-who has own style
-who had diverse performances, who can skate different programs
-who inspires the other skaters
-who could be on the top of the sport for years,not just a comet but a standing star
-who is great in both side of skating

Did I forget something? Can you propose more aspects? We can write names to every points.... But that is a serious research....

 

[skatingguy]

I don't think any skater can be "unquestionably the most artistic female free skater ever" .....

Is there anything in figure skating that is really 'unquestionable'?

 

[aliceanne]

No Jackson Haines, the father of figure skating?

 

[Winnipeg]

Sale and Pelletier should be on the list for pairs.

 

[Winnipeg]

What about a top ten coaching list?

 

[ohashibiles]

Sale and Pelletier should be on the list for pairs.

Not really IMO. I mean feel free to make your own list and include him, which is what I want people to do, make their own lists. However for me they arent anywhere near the top 10 all time in achievements- only 1 world title, only 1 world medal in fact, and even with the Olympic Gold with that, they arent anywhere near the top 10 in achievements. In their own time Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze (2 world titles, Olympic Gold, Olympic silver, 5 combined World and Olympic medals), Shen & Zhao (3 world titles, Olympic Gold and 2 Olympic bronzes, 5 GPF victories), and Totmianina & Marinin (2 world titles, 2 world silvers, Olympic Gold, 2 GPF victories and 5 European titles) were much more successful. Outside of the Olympics even Petrova & Tikhonov did more. And overall impact on the sport they arent up there either, unless being part of a big judging controversy/controversy of some kind counts as impact, but that isnt exactly what I mean when I said impact on the sport, otherwise I would include Kerrigan.

 

[butyrskafanatic]

Sale and Pelletier should be on the list for pairs.

I guess if one is putting Totmianina & Marinin, Sale & Pelletier probably should be, as they probably beat them prime for prime. Totmianina & Marinin had more longevity and consistency though, more world titles and world medals, and their Olympic Gold was far more clear cut. Shen & Zhao regularly lost to S&P but the improved version of Shen & Zhao from 2003 onwards would have probably regularly beaten them, especialy under IJS which wouldnt suit S&P nearly as well as the 6.0 system.

 

[butyrskafanatic]

Here are mine: Ladies and Men. I am not familiar enough with Pairs and Dance to choose.

Ladies:
Michelle Kwan
Yuna Kim
Janet Lynn
Mao Asada
Kristi Yamaguchi
Midori Ito
Peggy Fleming
Sasha Cohen
Katarina Witt
Sonia Henie

Is that in order? If so it is pretty interesting you put the women with no Olympic Gold at #1 (and #4 and #6), and the 2 women who are the only ones in history with multiple Oly Golds (even if Yu Na clearly should be too) at the very bottom. I know there is more to greatness in the sport than the Olympics but still.

One thing about Witt too is it not like her competition was weak. Over a 6 year span she faced Zayak, Sumners, Chin, Vodorezova, Ivanova, Leistner, Kondrashova, Manley, Trenary, Kadavy, Lebedeva, young Ito, all in their primes for atleast a couple years minus Ito. Collectively that is a very strong group, particularly as she faced atleast half at those at every given point in time. Even more incredible is winning what she did with less talent than some of her peers. Amazing competitor.