Skaters You Feel Left The Scene Too Soon | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Skaters You Feel Left The Scene Too Soon

Vash01

Medalist
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Add to the list-

Yukina Ota- I was so looking forward to her development as a skater, but it seems her injuries pretty much ended her career prematurely.

Anenko & Sretenski- I loved this ice dance team from USSR in the 1988 Olys. They placed 4th there, which means they could have medalled in the 1989 worlds, but they turned pro instead. They developed as pros and became one of my favorite ice dancers. However, they never won a medal at worlds.

AP McDonough

Ilia Kulik

M&D- They were great and they could have been even greater. What a pity that they split.

Sarah Hughes- She won the OGM too soon and there was no incentive for her to improve her skating.

Caryn Kadavy- She turned pro after the 1988 Olys. I wish she had stayed eligible a few more years and won some world medals.

Selezneva-Makarov: They won the 1984 Oly bronze at a very young age. I wish they have stayed eligible past 1989 (they missed 1989 worlds because she was sick).

Oksana Baiul- Had she not turned pro at age 17, we might have seen her develop as a skater.

Vash
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
ITA as well. I thought John & Kyoko, in their last eligible season, actually finally did start to gel as a pair and they skated some very good performances then, but up until then, I just never saw that partnership really taking off or gathering steam. I think part of it was their styles were so different and didn't especially mesh. And I think the other part of it was, Tamara Moskvina wasn't even really trying with those two. Certainly she would not want them outskating any of her Russian pairs.

jsteam4501s said:
When I watch Jamie Silverstein, she makes me think of Lisa!! Lisa had that same enthusiasm, the black hair, the flair for comic moves in skating, and the big smile! I hope Jamie will come back someday.

You know -- you're right. Lisa's been gone from the scene so long it never occured to me to draw parallels with Jamie, but yeah -- there is a certain similarity there.
 

Eeyora

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Denise- Her skating definitely could have beat out the top ladies in 1984. Her problem was she was ahead of her time.

John and Kyoko- It would have been interesting to see them come back after their suspension.

Krisiti- Interesting topic While her performance in 92 wasn't the best ever. She was consistently better than either Baiul or Kerrigan and beat them in the pro ranks.

Jenny Kirk- I wonder had she known if Michelle would be injured and another spot woulde end up being available Would she have stayed?
 

Fozzie Bear

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
Mathman said:
Michelle Kwan, LOL. Maybe she can get a hip replacement and give us 10 more years?
I know you're kidding, but if she were to retire now, I'd add her to this list. :frown2: It's too soon to retire! We want to see your Tarasova programs! :cry:

I fear Yukina Ota may end up on this list.
 

Vash01

Medalist
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
JonnyCoop said:
ITA as well. I thought John & Kyoko, in their last eligible season, actually finally did start to gel as a pair and they skated some very good performances then, but up until then, I just never saw that partnership really taking off or gathering steam. I think part of it was their styles were so different and didn't especially mesh. And I think the other part of it was, Tamara Moskvina wasn't even really trying with those two. Certainly she would not want them outskating any of her Russian pairs.

.

Are you kidding? If it were not for Moskvina's coaching, I doubt that John & Kyoko would have made it as far as they did. They were so completely different from each other and had so many deficiencies that they had to learn the basics first. That is why it took them so long to take off as a pair. It's not like Tamara held them back; John was never consistent with the sbs jumps. One thing that he had with his former partner (Stephanie Stiegler) was his artistry. I did not see much of that when he skated with Kyoko but they were more consistent, except when they were awarded a world bronze (2002) after a very poor performance. I am sure Moskvina's choreography had something to do with it.

Vash
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Vash01 said:
Are you kidding? If it were not for Moskvina's coaching, I doubt that John & Kyoko would have made it as far as they did. They were so completely different from each other and had so many deficiencies that they had to learn the basics first. That is why it took them so long to take off as a pair. It's not like Tamara held them back; John was never consistent with the sbs jumps. One thing that he had with his former partner (Stephanie Stiegler) was his artistry. I did not see much of that when he skated with Kyoko but they were more consistent, except when they were awarded a world bronze (2002) after a very poor performance. I am sure Moskvina's choreography had something to do with it.

Vash

Well -- when you put it like that.....:biggrin: I will concede you made a few valid points. Perhaps I just expected too much of Moskvina; certainly, in the past she was able to correct in a rather short amount of time compared to how long it took with Kyoko & Joyhn, style disparities between the two members of the pairs she had coached.

However, even if John had been able to consistently land his sbs jumps even right off the bat, I don't think they would have been much more succesful than they were, simply because their styles WERE so different. They just did not seem to have ANY chemistry between them whatsoever. Certainly, they're not the first pair to come along without any real chemistry (which they did more or less develop later), but IMO, with them, it was a VERY extreme case.
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
JonnyCoop said:
Lisa Spitz & Scott Gregory. It's a shame these two broke up; yes, Scott went on to greater success with Suzanne Semanick, but I liked the stuff he did with Lisa better.
Trivia: Scott Gregory is married to Kimmie Meissner's coach, Pamela Duane Gregory (both coach at UDel), and they have a young daughter.

Vash01 said:
Add to the list-

Yukina Ota- I was so looking forward to her development as a skater, but it seems her injuries pretty much ended her career prematurely.

Selezneva-Makarov: They won the 1984 Oly bronze at a very young age. I wish they have stayed eligible past 1989 (they missed 1989 worlds because she was sick).
I believe Yukina Ota may be trying to make a comeback in eligible skating *if* she can recover fully from her injury (fingers crossed!).

More trivia: Selezneva & Makarov are married, coach in N.Y., and have a talented skater daughter who's currently competing at the Novice level.
 
Last edited:

hockeyfan228

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I agree that Moskvina did about as much with Zimmerman and Ina, especially given how late in their career they came to her, as she could. According to them, they didn't even stop fighting each other until they sat down for lunch one day to actually discuss what they wanted from the partnership, which was after they started to train with Moskvina. If they had come to her as a pair rather than as a distant business partnership, they might have been able to take greater advantage of the opportunity to train with Moskvina in a short window. I think their skating skills improved a great deal under Moskvina's watch, and if Moskvina had dedicated herself to them day and night they wouldn't have come close to being the pair in eligible competition that Berezhnaia/Sikharulidze were. They had the privilege of having B/S as training partners.

As professionals, I think they've come into their own. I do think that their costuming, though, exaggerates even more the stylistic differences between them, with him in jeans and her in glossy skating dresses.
 

76olympics

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
No offense to Ina and Zimmerman fans, but he was so much more promising and artistic with Stephanie Stiegler, I really feel sad that the partnership ended without them realizing their full potential. Jason D -on the other hand- has really put together some beautiful programs with Yuka recently. I am still completely in awe that she could master pair skills to the extent she has so late in her career. It is really quite incredible.
 

shine

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Krylova & Ovsiannikov - one of my favorite dance teams ever. They could have gone so much further and produced so many more masterpieces.
Deanna Stellato - I loved her skating - the best skater among the "baby ballerinas" when she still competed.
Mikkeline Kiekgaard - so much talent, but so weak the jumps.
Kristina Czako - I miss her skating a lot. She was such a unique presence on the ice.

Vash: Yukina has not completely left the eligible competitions. People have said that she's still recovering and waiting for a come back.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
YeBin Mok -Her injuries apparently became too much for her to recover.

Rusty Fein & Tiffany Scott. I didn't care for the way she and Dulebohn performed, but Scott & Fein's nationals performance this year was very special, and very commendable for a first year pair.

Robert Wagenhoffer and Vicki Heasley as a pair, and then Robert as a single. Thank goodness he had such a brilliant career as a pro!!

ITA about Spitz and Gregory. They had such verve and energy.

As to Denise Beillman, I had heard that she went pro because she couldn't afford to keep training, especially as Worlds 1981 champion, she could get a good pro contract. And it was 3 years to Olympics...

Wachsman and Waggoner had lovely skating skills, but were incredibly inconsistent always. I believe they left skating because they had gone to Olympics and weren't that crazy about the competing part of competition
anyway.

You can get some clips of Brian Pockar at fsvids and/or rinkside. You can also hear him commentating on the Canadian coverage of the 1988 Olympics.

JonnyCoop said:
Mark Mitchell. Would have been interesting to see what would have happened on both National and World levels had he stayed around a couple of seasons longer. He did have some pretty good results at his brief time near the top.
Mark couldn't really get his 3A. He was a gorgeous looking skater, and quite a good skater, but it became clear he wasn't going anywhere.
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
DORISPULASKI said:
Wachsman and Waggoner had lovely skating skills, but were incredibly inconsistent always. I believe they left skating because they had gone to Olympics and weren't that crazy about the competing part of competition
anyway.

I believe Todd Waggoner went into the army afterwards as well. Sometime in the mid 90s (I think 95), I seem to remember seeing his wedding announcement in SKATING magazine, and he had a military designation before his name, like PFC Todd Waggoner, but it was a bit higher than PFC.
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
Generally speaking I would say that no skater leaves too early. They leave when they feel that it is the right time for them to leave. A wise person listens to one´s body...

If e.g. a skater is fortunate enough to win the Olympic gold medal during her/his first Olympiade, that is just wonderful. Why stay after one has won a gold medal that is the best of all gold medals? The jumps are so hard these days, that injuries do happen even during one Olympiade. E.g. Ilia Kulik started to suffer from back problems in season 1997-1998. It was a wise decision to turn pro, because as a pro his skating and jumping still continues being amazing. If he had stayed in eligible skating, things could be very different.
 

Vash01

Medalist
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
76olympics said:
No offense to Ina and Zimmerman fans, but he was so much more promising and artistic with Stephanie Stiegler, I really feel sad that the partnership ended without them realizing their full potential. Jason D -on the other hand- has really put together some beautiful programs with Yuka recently. I am still completely in awe that she could master pair skills to the extent she has so late in her career. It is really quite incredible.

ITA. Jason is actually a better pairs skater with Yuka (of course it helps that the technical difficulty is low in the pros). Yuka is truly amazing.

Ina & Zimmerman have come a long way as pro skaters, but it's a pity that Stephanie did not get the opportunity for a successful pairs career.

Vash
 

Vash01

Medalist
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Sylvia said:
Trivia: Scott Gregory is married to Kimmie Meissner's coach, Pamela Duane Gregory (both coach at UDel), and they have a young daughter.


I believe Yukina Ota may be trying to make a comeback in eligible skating *if* she can recover fully from her injury (fingers crossed!).

More trivia: Selezneva & Makarov are married, coach in N.Y., and have a talented skater daughter who's currently competing at the Novice level.

Thanks for the info. What is the name of S&M's daughter?

Glad to hear that Yukina may make a come back. She is the one I have missed the most.

Vash
 

dorancatlin

Spectator
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Vash01 said:
Add to the list-


M&D- They were great and they could have been even greater. What a pity that they split.


Vash

I (and I'm pretty sure Dick Button) agree! Natalia and Artur were at the top of their game when they retired. It was such a loss for the sport. Although Artur won the 98 OGM with another partner I never felt that M&D's magic was recreated.
 
Top