Which skaters “changed the course of figure skating?”

[gkelly]

That is true.

Of course, Axel Paulsen was a speedskater too.

[pista04]

I agree with all the names mentioned, especially the inclusion of Yao Bin. While I don't believe that the following are "gods" of figure skating like Henie, I must say they taught us some valuable lessons (and, being pretty young they are modern skaters, haha)

Evan Lysacek - While personally not a huge Lysacek fan, he shook the cage that is modern figure skating. He showed that, after years of "Quad means win" skaters, one can even win an Olympic gold over 2 Quads without 1.

Michelle Kwan/Irina Slutskaya - You can become seen as figure skating's greatest without an olympic gold.

[Bijoux]

mm nailed them all with the exception of the aforementioned Zayak whose inredible limitless jumping if not restrained by rules would have made ladies an 8 triple/no other skating skills competition. Had skating thus progressed in that direction, MAO would be the greateast female ever and we'd be saying Kim who?

[chapis]

definitly Midori Ito, and I don´t know why nobody mentioned to Sasha Cohen when is obvious her influence in the actual ladies field, before her, the girls no put too much atenttion in the flexibility, and after her, I dont need to say anything just to watch to Caroline, Mao, Mirai, even Yuna looks more flexible than the 90´s fs girls.

[gmyers]

Ito and Browning and Stojko were all about jumping progression and now you have Lepisto and Lysacek all about jumping regression. Figure skating could be entering a real jumping regression period the leaders of that being Lepisto and Lysacek.

[aurora100]

Back in the early 70s Sonia Bianchetti was the ISU official who took took the Janet-Trixie thing by the horns and actually did dsomething about it.

Bianchetti was elected to the ISU Figure Skating Committee (the first woman elected to high position in the ISU) in 1967 and served until the ISU reorganized in 1988, rising to the powerful position of chairman. (Afterward, she served on the ISU Council from 1988-1992, and was poised to become President of the ISU, but lost out on a coup the the speed skating side led by Ottavio Cinquanta.)

In the early 1970s when Janet Lynn s was competing, it was Sonia Bianchetti who conceived of the short program, wrote the rules for scoring it (assisted by Tamara Moskvina), and then campaigned tirelessly for the rules changes that came into being for the 1973 world championship in which Janet Lynn competed the ladies short program for the first time.



I don;t think so. There were plenty of artistic skaters -- Sonia Henie, Celia Colledge, Barbara-Ann Scott, Jacquelune Du Bief, Peggy Fleming, not to mention pairs teams like Wagner and Paul and Belousova and Protopopoff -- long before the "modern era." Janet was the best, but I would say a long way from the first.

Jackson Haines really did come up with something that no one had ever imagined before. He was a ballet master who was forced to "take his show on the road" when he could not stir up any interest in "fancy skating" in New York. He settled in Austria and soon the "Austrian-style, or "continental style" of skating completely took over from the then dominant "British style."

Eventually the British style skating pretty much dropped out of the competition altogether. The British attitude was, how can this new style of skating possibly have any merit if we didn't invent it?

Interesting information about this lady Sonia Bianchetti. The only time I ever saw her name mentioned was a quote in one of Yuna Kim videos where she was speaking about what a special skater Yuna Kim was. I never knew who she was and why she was being quoted along with other names that I knew. You learn something new about the skating world in this forum every day. Thanks.

[Joesitz]

Tara Lipinski, after she won US and Worlds, the age limit was changed, they were afraid we would have twelve year olds trying to do very difficult jumps, and probably winning

Definitely. The powers that be were afraid that the stigma of a Little Girls Sport would linger on. But it doesn't really matter. Interests in Figure Skating is basically all about teenage girls, and it shows in attendance when more Ladies than Men show up for the girls events, and the Forums' discussions afterwards are all about Ladies as the principal members of these Forums.

Yagottabelieve it was a shocker when NBC showed the Ladies Event at the Olympics, at the end of the evening. That has to mean No More Prime Time. Keep prayers going for Universal Sport.

[mikiandorocks]

I think Midori Ito had a huge impact in ladies skating. I shall never forget this performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Pdqu7l2V0
Sonja Henie was, as mentioned, someone that became a superstar and brought a lot of attention to figure skating.
Maxi Herber and Ernest Beier were also very important to pairs skating since they were the first team to perform side by side jumps and nowdays that's mandatory.
In ice-dance, the Duchesnays were one of a kind. Their free dance at the 91 Worlds left a mark in the sport and in the idea of pushing the boundaries. Off course that Christopher Dean has to be mentioned as well, not only for his achievements as an ice-dancer, but also because of his impact as a choreographer. Just watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI5qruMhmpA

[let`s talk]

Yag and Plush duel was the best time in men`s skating. They put it on a very high level that we will not see soon again.

[Joesitz]

It was not the brightest of topics, but we got an entire list of figure skaters' names all of whom CHANGED THE COURSE OF FIGURE SKATING

I believe from the posts, that Figure Skating had no particular course except to zig zag after each skater mentioned. Mind blowing!

Not an important issue at this time.

[fairly4]

each skater who won a medal at worlds, olympics changed the course of figure skating in their own way,
some by simple doing triple jumps, double jumps, being the first, some behind the scenes, some by staying in, to me
each and every skater from since it started changed the course, that is why the younger skaters copy some of the older skaters through music, movement, jumps, style etc. so each one had impact whether very little or very big. each skater has
michelle, irina, kristi,yu-na, mao, axel paulsen, sonja henie, barbara ann scott, liz manley, tara, sarah,
shizuka, evgeny, alexie yagudin and alexie urmanov, kurt, elvis, todd, oksana, not to mention pairs and dance
once a skater wants to emulate a skater/team the course of figure skating has been changed for good and or bad.
biggest impact has been scandals in 2002 from 6 0's to cop, janet and trixie-introduction of short program,
lessen scores if figures from earlier era and addition of single to double to triple now to quad jumps, not to mention more aguments of artistry of jumping abilbity-been before but not like this where back then quality of edges which helped artistry shine versus just doing jumps ilncorrectly on ur, wrong edge, that is why under figures some was kept down.

[Olympia]

Mikiandorocks, thanks for pointing out that Christopher Dean has to be "counted" as a choreographer as well as a skater. I'm watching that gorgeous "Missing" program you linked us to right now. He sure revolutionized ice dancing, both in his own programs with Torvill and in his presentation of the Duchesnays. He was probably the first non-Russian influence in ice dancing since the start of the Olympic era in 1976, so one can literally say that he took ice dancing in a new direcction.

Since we're talking just about skaters, I can't count Lori Nichol in this grouping--though she began as a skater, actually. She wasn't that pathfinding as a skater, but she certainly is as a choreographer. Just think: many of Kwan's best routines, the "Love Story" program that made Sale and Pelletier so memorable, and two OGM-winning sets of programs this year alone: Shen and Zhao's and Lysacek's. She's a good example of a 6.0-era choreographer who has really mastered the CoP system and kept it beautiful and artistic while racking up points.

But back to the topic. Chapis, I think you have a valid point about Cohen. So many ladies now attempt the super-flexible yet graceful positions she pioneered, such as the one where the skater holds her straight-up leg to her ear while gliding slowly across the ice, and the final spin done in sort of a vertical split, with the free leg up against the skater's nose. So we could argue that Sasha brought an entirely new element into skating, even if she didn't stand atop the podium in any world competition.

Could we cite Browning for footwork? He seems so above everyone else in that regard.

[Joesitz]

Just for the record, when I was practicing school figures and an assorted amount for free style tricks, we had some old skaters, coaches some of whom already knew of Paulsen, Haines, Lutz, Salchow, and in some cases, personally.

Haines, for example, as only a dancer could, put Music to his show skating. He was not a competitive skater and Music was not part of competitive Free Style. But he also introduced the Sitz Spin!!!. Without him, the course of sitzspinning would never have come about. On Rollers, we do not call it a sitspin but a Jackson.

If anyone knows of a good book about the Origins of Figure Skating, let us know, otherwise, we must rely on the tidbits which Wikipedia has assembled but not verified.

BTW. Does anyone know when Music was incorporated into Competitive Skating?

[Bennett]

Whoever that invented COP. I guess a group of ppl. Now I see older programs, I pick a lot of weaknesses in jumps, spins, spirals, and steps. Spirals and spin positions were not held long enough, wrong edges, URs, and easy steps. Despite its own weaknesses, I think it has enhanced the quality of skating and cleaned up a lot of weak techniques. Skaters have to have correct techniques to be competitive. I wonder if they will come to include mule kick, leg wrap, and lack of turnout of the free leg etc on the list in the future.

[gkelly]

If anyone knows of a good book about the Origins of Figure Skating, let us know, otherwise, we must rely on the tidbits which Wikipedia has assembled but not verified.

I learned most from Ice-Skating: A History by Nigel Brown. I think it was published in 1959.
There are other useful books of skating history, or with relevant chapters, available, but now out of print. If you can get to the library at the museum in Colorado Springs, you'd find most there. Otherwise, check out large libraries and hope you get lucky.

BTW. Does anyone know when Music was incorporated into Competitive Skating?

According to Brown, Lily Kronenberger brought a live band to 1911 Worlds to accompany her performance.