Promising skaters who never fulfilled expectations | Golden Skate

Promising skaters who never fulfilled expectations

passion

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
You probably know names of skaters who were considered the future of figure skating, yet failed to deliver for whatever reason. It makes you think, what happened?

My questions are: who? and why didn't they make it?

Keyla Ohs, Mira Leung (not sure yet). I think part of the problem was that there was too much media hype to begin with which put them in an unfavourable position. Superficially, the attention seems to be a nice thing, but I think it really sets the skater up for a lot of expectations and with so many other factors beyond their control, it becomes a let down when they don't become what fans expect.
 

fml99

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
From back in the '90s...

Christopher Bowman and Tonya Harding. Yes, they both became national champions (which is terrific of course), but they both had the ability to go even further but blew it.
 

ManyCairns

Medalist
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Country
United-States
Bowman (as already mentioned) and Nicole Bobek are the two names that instantly come to mind when I think of skaters with unfulfilled potential.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
Josee Chouinard
Viktoria Volchkova
Emanuel Sandhu
Jennifer Kirk
Matt Savoie
 

Wrlmy

Medalist
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Matt Savoie, Alexander Abt, NNN, Ann Patrice, Jeff Buttle (in a way), Yoshie Onda (as much as I dislike her), Elene Gedevanishvili.
 

feraina

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Thanks for the Tiffany Chin links, I enjoyed her programs. She was really sweet. :)

Funny to hear them talk about the stress of the SP, and how important it was to complete ALL 7 required elements, and how you received BIG deductions if you didn't (see other thread)....
 

cassieandcheetah

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Josee Chouinard
Naomi Nari Nam
Jenny Kirk

I always, always wondered why Jenny Kirk never got much farther than she did. She almost had the same qualities that Tara Lipinski had. Solid Jumps that didn't have much height but were consistently landed, a triple-triple, and an even better carriage, and artistic quality than Tara ever did. Her spirals, however, were nonexistent I remember...So why did she never make it higher than 15th at Worlds?
 

ManyCairns

Medalist
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Country
United-States
I hope others will give some thoughts to cassieandcheetah's question about Kirk. I always really, really enjoyed watching her skate.

Curious why a couple mentioned Savoie? I am a big fan of his, but I thought he pretty much did what he wanted in the sport, given that he had outside interests (graduate degree and then law school)? Or was there some other way his potential was neglected or unrealized? Please share your thoughts!
 

flying camel

Medalist
Joined
Nov 16, 2005
Angela Nikodinov is at the top of my list. She had everything going for her. She had great jumps and style, but she had the worst nerves in skating. She had some unfortunate personal problems that just made things even worse for her. But I feel she could have been great.
 
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Turtleberry

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
This list has the potential to be 200 pages long but I doubt that it will fulfill it's potential, just like the skaters listed here.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I don't think any of Jenny Kirk, Ann-Patrice McDonough, or Matt Savoie belong on the list. I think they all accomplished a lot in the sport, then moved on.
 

cassieandcheetah

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
I hope others will give some thoughts to cassieandcheetah's question about Kirk. I always really, really enjoyed watching her skate.

Curious why a couple mentioned Savoie? I am a big fan of his, but I thought he pretty much did what he wanted in the sport, given that he had outside interests (graduate degree and then law school)? Or was there some other way his potential was neglected or unrealized? Please share your thoughts!


I hope others share their thoughts on this too!!!!! I really really loved watching Jenny Kirk skate. She was a joy to behold.
 

Wrlmy

Medalist
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
I don't think any of Jenny Kirk, Ann-Patrice McDonough, or Matt Savoie belong on the list. I think they all accomplished a lot in the sport, then moved on.

Well, I interpreted the question as "promising skaters who never fulfilled MY expectations":biggrin: Although I didn't mention Jenny Kirk, all three skaters moved on way to soon IMO when they had more to accomplish ahead. OTOH, In NNN's case, her hip injury was the culprit.
 

cassieandcheetah

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
I don't think any of Jenny Kirk, Ann-Patrice McDonough, or Matt Savoie belong on the list. I think they all accomplished a lot in the sport, then moved on.

I disagree with you. I know these poeple probably wanted to achieve a lot mroe than they did....
 
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