The Top Ten Skaters of this Decade

[princess9]

Menz:

Plushenko _ not the best, but wonderful, unique, dominant and a 3 time Oly medalist despite 4 knee surgeries. I'm glad he came back despite the smack talk. I love a good quad jump.
Yagudin _the best skater technically and artistically I have ever seen. Exciting, memorable and a shame he could not do much as a pro given his injuries. And so masculine!
Lambiel- see shine's post #45
Lysacek-consistent, a champion, so many good skates. I love a tall man!
Goebel-because he was the quad king and his artistry improved so very much.
Takahashi-costumes aside, I am amazed at his blazing footwork and think he's the best in the world currently. I do hate his costumes, tho!
Abbott- end of the decade but when on, he's the best overall skater and he's going to get even better.
Buttle-he should actually be after Stephane-oops! I am sorry he did not continue. Absolutely a joy to watch. The total package.
Weir-he's like no one else skating in this decade and I don't factor placements as to who I think is great. Great final Olympics.

Womenz:

Kwan- what can I say that's not been said.
Asada - she's a true phenom and has everything. Incredible athlete who can float across the ice.
Slutskaya-she grew from an awkward skater with speed, jumps and spins into an amazing champion. Like Kwan, she'd make a 90's top list as well.
Kim-I can't argue with her hardware, she's really good and deserved the Oly gold. Very nice programs! She's still learning, too.
Hughes -it ended early but she was so good at 16, I wish she had stayed in and trained hard.
Cohen-the most exquisite skater I have seen. She'd be higher if she did not fall so much. Still. She is the one they all imitate and no one has her technique. Perfect positions.
Arakawa-because she won gold and is really a truly elegant skater despite her OGM being not her best performance.
Miki Ando-beautiful, great jumps and a lovely skater who needs a new coach, look etc.
Joannie Rochette-sophistication, beautiful choreograhy, she moves me more than anyone on this list except for Kwan. If she had the consistency, I'd rank her higher. Well, its not really a ranking except for first three, anyway.

Pairz"

Shen/Zhao-truly an exciting pair who dominated the decade-it's all been said.
Sale/Pelletier as amateurs and as pros. I enjoy this couple very much
Elena/Anton-so elegant but Elena was sometimes not a very facially expressive skater. The nerves were apparent.

I really don't enjoy many of the other pairs as I seem to measure everyone to G and G. It's kinda too bad they were so good. I like more pairs from the past.

Ice Dance

Wow, it is good again.

V/M
D/W
B/A
B/K
and I'd have to really think which Russians/Europeans I enjoyed.
Navka/Kostamarov were lovely but I'm not a fan of what happened in ice dance after Torvill/Dean's influence was lost from the sport.
I could not really discern who the really good ice dancers were as I was so put off by weird lifts, ugly costumes, and more that I did not take it very seriously.
I leave it to the ice dance faithful to talk about who was good and why.

[frodenofan30]

2000-2006 should have been the Irina era. Basically every event she was in was hers to lose during this span. If it werent for her nerves in big events and her health problems she would have completely dominated that time period. She lost 2000 and 2001 Worlds, 2002 and 2006 Olympics due to mistakes in the long programs. She missed 2003 and 2004 Worlds with health problems (well was at 2004 but a pale version of herself) and wanted to go to the 2006 Worlds but decided too late to make the entry list. She easily won the 2002 and 2005 Worlds.

[wonbinfan86]

You have a very interesting list. Could I ask that you elaborate on your criteria? I just don't understand how Michelle Kwan, Irina Slutskaya and Sasha Cohen are not on your top ten, while some very obscure names are. I have no ulterior motive in asking. You're entitled to your opinions, but I can't help but be curious.

I can't believe I didn't include Irina Slutskaya on my list... thanks for the observation here is my revised list:
Ladies:
1. Mao Asada
2. Shizuka Arakawa
3. Yuna Kim
4. Fumie Suguri
5. Miki Ando
6. Irina Slutskaya
7. Yukina Ota
8. Yukari Nakano
9. Yoshie Onda
T-10. Nana Takeda
T-10. Julia Sebestyen

[Layfan]

Excellent point... I totally agree...
It´s just that as the thread was about this last decade I tried my best hehe
About men, if we come back to 1995-2005 we will wnter in one of the most exciting eras of men fig. skating with names like Elvis Stojko, Yagudin, Todd Eldredge, Plushenko, Ilia Kulik, Timothy Goebel, Takeshi Honda, Joubert in his fresh days (he was better at that time) and even Urmanov ( I watched many wonderfull videos of him) Emanuel Shandu and Chengjang Li (for his jumps only, of course).

Well, it's fun to make lists. I can never resist.

So I guess if I were to continue it would be

Michelle Kwan
Kim Yuna
Irina Slutskaya
Mao Asada
Sasha Cohen
Shizuka Arakawa
Miki Ando
Sarah Hughes

I can't really bring myself to list more than eight ladies though. It would be between people like Kimmie Meissner, Fumie Suguri, Carolina Kostner, Joannie Rochette, etc and while they are all to be admired, their skating and accomplishments don't really give one and edge over the other... Not for my list, anyway.

Sasha and Shiz are kind of tied, really. But since it has to be a list, I put Sasha first even though Shiz won an OGM and a WC and Sasha did neither. Sahsa was for me just far more memorable skater than Shiz. I feel Sasha's imprint on figure skating is deeper.

Miki is on my list for her medal accomplishments and for pushing the jumping level of her sport at her peak. And Sarah gave us one of the biggest and most memorable upsets in Olympic history, never mind the decade, and her Olympic free skate was totally go-for-broke energetic and gutzy even if you don't like her skating or her UR jumps. I just don't see how anyone could leave her off the top 10. Maybe she should go above Miki. I dunno, these lists are impossible...

For the men, it's even harder to come up with 10

1. Yagudin
2. Plushenko

And the rest in no particular order:

Lambiel
Lycasek
Takahashi (is he really of the last decade or of this coming one though?)
Weir
Goebel (for his jumps of course)
Buttle

.... I dunno. I like a lot of the men. But this decade, I'd only call Yagudin and Plushenko Great, with Evan sort of on their tails with his back-to-back world championship and OGM.

Plushenko was the dominant skater for the whole decade. Yagudin retired early in the decade but I think he was a more complete skater than the Plush.
The Plushenko-Yagudin rivalry was really the "great" men's story of the decade with the Johnny-Evan rivalry sort of an amusing spinoff or something...