I chose Kasakova and Dmetriev. I also really love Victor. He always seemed like he would be such a great person. But those are just my own personal picks.
Oh, I voted before I read the rest of the question. I thought it was for my own personal favorite, so I let my wife do the honors, and she voted for Viktor Petrenko.
But as for who was most popular with North American audiences, I think it's Gordeeva and Grinkov without a doubt.
Currently Irina Slutskaya and Alexei Yagudin are both very much appreciated. I look forward to seeing whether they will develop their skills as pro-style audience pleasers, in the manner of Ilia Kulik.
No questions in my mind.
The world basically stopped the day that Sergei Grinkov died.
Even people who didn't watch skating knew of Gordeeva/Grinkov, and now know of that love story.
I don't think any other even European skater has made that kind of impact in the world.
My personal favorite among the listed skaters would be Irina and Alexei.
However, in North American, without a doubt it would be G & G. Not for their skating (although they were spectacular) but because of their sad story. We just can't resist a sob story. I don't believe they would be nearly as popular without the death of Sergei. It's a "James Dean" thing----dead at a young age, before his time, etc. Nothing wrong with that, it's just the way it is!
I had to vote for Sergei and Katia... they're the most well known skaters in the US and Canada because of the story behind them... it's sad to think the reason they're most love is because of his death and not his skating
Alexei, however is fast approaching super stardom... he was scheduled to appear here last summer and had to pull out due to injury... and the city rebelled and said if HE wasn't going to be here then the show wouldn't go on... and I had VIP SEATS UGH!
With the number of Americans who have Russian/Ukrainian ancestry in North Amcerica, I believe this is a nice thread for them. I wonder if there are many Russians in Russia that have American ancestry?
NorthAmericans are a very diverse group ethnically.